DOCSLIB.ORG

January 31, 2021 IV Epiphany

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
January 31, 2021 IV Epiphany 4 Epiphany, Year B 2021 Mark 1:21-28 The Rev. Mary Caucutt Dear Friends. What a year it has been. Can you think for a minute where you were this time last year? I know, it was eons ago! I was near the end of a 30 day silent retreat- thank you all. I was hearing about some virus from China and wondering if and how it might impact us. I was discerning a call to the diocese of Oregon as if the spirit’s inner movings were the only thing that needed heeding before unfurling future plans. Many, if not all, things seemed possible. Then COVID, then the shut down, plans moved from being mapped in years to being mapped in days. Then the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Breonna Taylor in Louisville, and my home state erupted in flames, for weeks the only law and governance for friends were hastily gathered neighborhood groups formed in the local city park. Neighbors looting neighbors, other neighbors tear-gassing neighbors. And still trapped in isolation due to the pandemic. Then the lead-up to the election and divisive rhetoric growing ever more demonizing. Creative debate over ideas replaced by loyalty tests to leaders and pre-fabricated ideologies. Gaslightling propaganda laid to rest in this country 70 years ago. And fear and anger erupting. And violent sedition violates our nation’s sanctuary. And still, COVID. Unimaginable death toll, more than the Americans who died in WWII, hovers just beyond reach for those of us who live in Cody. Loss of expectations, loss of trust in leaders, loss of health, loss of embodied love, loss of community, loss of dreams, loss of ideals, loss of jobs, loss of a beloved. Though we practice the yearly cycle of life, death, resurrection in Holy Week; when the cycle comes knocking in new attire, we forget what we knew. Each wave that hits us, we are initially numb. When I broke my leg in 2014, I experienced the blessed physical numbness of shock, wiggling so my head was down hill, remaining conscious to cry for help my only goal. Crunching bones were nauseating, but it was not until later that the pain was unbearable. The first grief gift God gives is shock. Shock allows us to make dinner and change diapers until we are strong enough to feel the pain. Each wave that hits us, we are drenched in pain anew. Pain reminds us we are alive, leads us to experience the depth of the loss, points us to the truth of our situation. Feeling emotional pain, accompanied by the release of tears, or even of dry-eyed cries, does two miraculous things that lead to resurrection. Pain moors us in the present, the reality of now; and pain activates our imagination for new life. The second grief gift God gives is pain. Pain invites us to both experience and to release our loss. Each wave that hits us, anger stirs. Loss and death are like losing a limb or an eye. Part of our identity is gone, we are confused, we are fearful, we feel under threat. We get anxious and we get angry. Anger is a gift that supplies energy to rebuild our identity. But anger misplaced can shift our loss and impose its burden on others. Anger inwardly directed can cause us to harm rather than heal ourselves. Expressing anxiety and anger in truth channeled ways allows them to be the gifts of life re-creating energy that God desires for us. Each wave that hits us stirs memories. While sharing stories about the loss do not bring back the past, the provide a foundation on which to build new life. Replaying our memories and sharing them repeatedly help humanize the size of our loss – all the pain and ragged emotions are a tsunami, remembering absorbs the flood waters. Our memories of life’s losses are God’s gift to moderate the pain and boost us toward new life. Loss inevitably produces guilt. Guilt is the natural result of an unfulfilled task. Each wave of loss carries snips the connection between desires and commitments and our now inability to fulfill them. We name the unfulfilled tasks, grieve even the guilt, accept our finite nature anew and are gifted with forgiveness. God gives us grace to forgive ourselves for things left undone. As we grow in inner forgiveness, our heart expands to share that forgiveness with others. It is here that we begin to look back on what we lost with gratitude for the past, and perhaps even gratitude for the gifts of the grief journey. Each wave that hits us invites us to playfully surf. Religion often feels heavy, spirituality the stuff of serious business. A vital step in moving through death to resurrection is play. Loss takes a bite out of who we are, to move into new life God promises we must try on new roles and new habits, to play with a different way of being in the world. We cannot force the spirit of play to return, as with every turn in our journey, resurrection is a gift from God. In this pattern, do find yourself? Christ Church? Cody? Our Country? We cannot be constant, good, and faithful companions to our neighbors through shock, pain, anxiety, anger, remembering, guilt-forgiveness, gratitude, and play. We are also swimming in loss. The journey we are on is windy and complex. The good news is that most of us can be good and faithful companions to ourselves and our neighbors for at least one stop along the way. Where does God call you this day to rest with someone in grief on their resurrection journey? .
Load more

Recommended publications
  • 1 01/13/2013
    1 01/13/2013 - First Sunday after the Epiphany - The Baptism of Our Lord Pastor Andrés Albertsen at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Northfield, MN. SERMON ON LUKE 3:15-17, 21-22. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. As soon as President Barack Obama heard about the awful school massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, not yet one month ago, he reacted like I can imagine any president would have reacted: he spoke with the governor and promised him every single resource that he would need to investigate the crime, care for the victims, and counsel their families. But the president also did something else. He made a public statement at the White House where he didn’t speak as a president, but as a parent. He said: I know there’s not a parent in America who doesn’t feel the same overwhelming grief that I do. The majority of those who died today were children. They had their entire lives ahead of them — birthdays, graduations, weddings, kids of their own. Among the fallen were also teachers — men and women who devoted their lives to helping our children fulfill their dreams. So our hearts are broken today — for the parents and grandparents, sisters and brothers of these little children, and for the families of the adults who were lost. Our hearts are broken for the parents of the survivors as well, for as blessed as they are to have their children home tonight, they know that their children’s innocence has been torn away from them too early, and there are no words that will ease their pain.
    [Show full text]
  • Lust in Order to Organize the Way That We Go Through the 7 Deadly Sins, We Will Follow the Pattern That Dante
    7 Deadly Sins: Lust In order to organize the way that we go through the 7 deadly sins, we will follow the pattern that Dante gave us in the Purgatory. In the poem, he is being led in a vision through purgatory and he sees it as a vast mountain, near the bottom are the worst sins and near the top the lesser sins. The penitents climb the mountain, leaving sins behind and eventually attaining heaven. We are actually going to go backwards, down the mountain, starting with the lesser sins and working our way to the more grave ones. The sin that, while still deadly, is considered the least, is Lust. Is Lust even a sin? (Obviously we know it is because it is one of the 7 deadly sins, but suspend belief with me for a moment.) It seems as though perhaps it is not a sin. After all, lust is not an action, it is not hurting anybody else, but it is a feeling. Typically, a sin is an action that we willfully carry out. We cannot be judged by what tempts us, after all, Our Lord was tempted in the desert for 40 days and we know that he never sinned. However, Our Lord also says this, “27 You have heard that it was said to them of old: Thou shalt not commit adultery. 28 But I say to you, that whosoever shall look on a woman to lust after her, hath already committed adultery with her in his heart.” This is a part of the Sermon on the Mount, in which Jesus teaches us how to take the law, the rules and precepts of the moral life, and inscribe those rules on our hearts.
    [Show full text]
  • Ekman, Emotional Expression, and the Art of Empirical Epiphany
    JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN PERSONALITY Journal of Research in Personality 38 (2004) 37–44 www.elsevier.com/locate/jrp Ekman, emotional expression, and the art of empirical epiphany Dacher Keltner* Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, 3319 Tolman, 94720 Berkeley, CA, USA Introduction In the mid and late 1960s, Paul Ekman offered a variety of bold assertions, some seemingly more radical today than others (Ekman, 1984, 1992, 1993). Emotions are expressed in a limited number of particular facial expressions. These expressions are universal and evolved. Facial expressions of emotion are remarkably brief, typically lasting 1 to 5 s. And germane to the interests of the present article, these brief facial expressions of emotion reveal a great deal about peopleÕs lives. In the present article I will present evidence that supports this last notion ad- vanced by Ekman, that brief expressions of emotion reveal important things about the individualÕs life course. To do so I first theorize about how individual differences in emotion shape the life context. With this reasoning as backdrop, I then review four kinds of evidence that indicate that facial expression is revealing of the life that the individual has led and is likely to continue leading. Individual differences in emotion and the shaping of the life context People, as a function of their personality or psychological disorder, create the sit- uations in which they act (e.g., Buss, 1987). Individuals selectively attend to certain features of complex situations, thus endowing contexts with idiosyncratic meaning. Individuals evoke responses in others, thus shaping the shared, social meaning of the situation.
    [Show full text]
  • Litany of Grief and Healing
    Litany of Grief and Healing Recognition of Loss Holy God, we gather today as a people, grieving and broken, seeking your loving embrace. We set aside this time to name our grief, to raise it to you in prayer and supplication, and to seek your ever- healing embrace. A reading from Lamentations 3:1-9 I’m the man who has seen trouble, trouble coming from the lash of God’s anger. He took me by the hand and walked me into pitch-black darkness. Yes, he’s given me the back of his hand over and over and over again. He turned me into a skeleton of skin and bones, then broke the bones. He hemmed me in, ganged up on me, poured on the trouble and hard times. He locked me up in deep darkness, like a corpse nailed inside a coffin. He shuts me in so I’ll never get out, handcuffs my wrists, shackles my feet. Even when I cry out and plead for help, he locks up my prayers and throws away the key. He sets up blockades with quarried limestone. He’s got me cornered. The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God We grieve the impact of Covid in our world, the deaths brought on by this virus, those we knew and those known to you alone; We grieve Lord. We grieve for those who contracted the virus, for the suffering they endured, for the pain and worry to those who love them. We grieve Lord. We grieve the suffering inflicted upon so many, the caregivers, the first responders, the essential people who risked exposure and worked to keep our world in motion; We grieve Lord.
    [Show full text]
  • Integrative Treatment of Complex Trauma for Adolescents (ITCT-A)
    Integrative Treatment of Complex Trauma for Adolescents (ITCT-A) University of Wisconsin-Madison Conference on Child Sexual Abuse October 28, 2015 Cheryl Lanktree, Ph.D. USC-Adolescent Trauma Training Center Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Keck School of Medicine University of Southern California National Child Traumatic Stress Network attc.usc.edu Complex trauma exposure • Multiple exposures to multiple types of traumatic events, simultaneous and/or sequential – emotional abuse and neglect – child sexual abuse and exploitation – physical abuse – witnessing domestic violence – Peer or gang assault, “drive bys” – traumatic loss – trauma associated with immigration – serious medical illness or injury • Insecure attachment with primary caretakers Contextual aspects of complex trauma exposure • Trauma intensifiers – Early onset – Extended and frequent exposure; ubiquity – Relational context • Social marginalization – Poverty – Social discrimination • Race/ethnicity • Sexual orientation – Inadequate education – Reduced access to services • , Complex trauma outcomes and attachment effects • Anxiety, depression, anger • Posttraumatic stress • Affect dysregulation • Negative relational and self schema • Identity/self-reference issues • Medical issues, physical neglect of self Complex trauma outcomes and attachment effects (continued) • Avoidance responses – Dissociation – Tension reduction behaviors • Self-injurious behavior • Dysfunctional sexual behavior, • Bulimia • Aggression – Substance abuse – Suicidality “Borderline” or
    [Show full text]
  • 3 January 2015 Epiphany It Is with Continued Joy That the Church
    3 January 2015 Epiphany It is with continued joy that the Church celebrates the Christmas Season. Within this season, we celebrate the feast of the epiphany. On this day, we remember the arrival of the wise men, or magi, at the manger. The magi were able to find the Child Jesus because of one important factor: guidance. It was the guidance of the star, which brought them to the manger. As we imagine the journey of the wise men, we become aware of the importance guidance in our own lives. Each one of us is dependent on it. Each time we travel to a new place, we need guidance. We need direction. We can see how important our guidance systems are to us. We use our computers or cellular phones constantly for direction and guidance. However, the guidance given to the wise men was from God. He used the star to bring the wise men to the infant king. It was the star that they saw which sent them searching. The wise men found the infant king because they allowed themselves to be guided. Are we searching for Jesus? Do we seek Him through prayer and the reading of Scripture? It can be very easy to stop seeking God. Many people in our world may tell us that it is useless to look for God. We may be told that he does not exist, or that he does not care to have a relationship with us. But we would benefit to take Herod’s word seriously, as the wise men did.
    [Show full text]
  • Christmas and Epiphany G E N E R a L E D I T O R Robert B
    Christmas and Epiphany G E N E R A L E D I T O R Robert B. Kruschwitz A rt E di TOR Heidi J. Hornik R E V ie W E D I T O R Norman Wirzba PROCLAMATION EDITOR William D. Shiell A S S I S tant E ditor Heather Hughes PRODUCTION ASSISTANT Elizabeth Sands Wise D E S igner Eric Yarbrough P UB li SH E R The Center for Christian Ethics Baylor University One Bear Place #97361 Waco, TX 76798-7361 P H one (254) 710-3774 T oll -F ree ( US A ) (866) 298-2325 We B S ite www.ChristianEthics.ws E - M ail [email protected] All Scripture is used by permission, all rights reserved, and unless otherwise indicated is from New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. ISSN 1535-8585 Christian Reflection is the ideal resource for discipleship training in the church. Multiple copies are obtainable for group study at $3.00 per copy. Worship aids and lesson materials that enrich personal or group study are available free on the Web site. Christian Reflection is published quarterly by The Center for Christian Ethics at Baylor University. Contributors express their considered opinions in a responsible manner. The views expressed are not official views of The Center for Christian Ethics or of Baylor University. The Center expresses its thanks to individuals, churches, and organizations, including the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, who provided financial support for this publication.
    [Show full text]
  • 160709 Radio Epiphany E1 T
    Gangaji Radio Epiphany Series Host Hillary Larson Episode 1 TEACHINGS FROM GRIEF Released on July 9, 2016 [00:02] MUSIC [00:10] HILLARY LARSON, HOST: I’m Hillary Larson, and I am the producer and host of A Conversation With Gangaji. And we have a new episode coming up for you in about three weeks, it’s called ‘The Courage to Give Up Hope’. But before then, I wanted to share a new show we would like to launch in the next few weeks, with your help and support. It’s called Epiphany. And epiphany is one of my very favorite words. Epiphanies, these ‘aha moments’ that we have, change our lives for sure. But when we hear other people’s awakenings, it connects us in unexpected ways, but it also can lead to our own epiphanies. Hence the idea that epiphanies are contagious – and we would like to be part of spreading that. So, we’re very excited about this new show, but before I play it here for you in just about a minute, in order to launch Epiphany, and keep bringing you A Conversation With Gangaji, I’d like to ask you right now for your help. For the first time in our almost four years of Gangaji Radio, we’re gonna be doing our first fundraising campaign. So, if these radio shows have been helpful to you, if you’ve shared them with someone you love, if you listen to them over and over, and if you feel inclined, you don’t have to donate, but if you’d like to, if you’d like to support us in this way, all you have to do is go to the Gangaji website – that’s gangaji.org – and there will be a ‘donate’ button specifically for Gangaji Radio.
    [Show full text]
  • Writing Emotions
    Ingeborg Jandl, Susanne Knaller, Sabine Schönfellner, Gudrun Tockner (eds.) Writing Emotions Lettre 2017-05-15 15-01-57 --- Projekt: transcript.titeleien / Dokument: FAX ID 0247461218271772|(S. 1- 4) TIT3793_KU.p 461218271780 2017-05-15 15-01-57 --- Projekt: transcript.titeleien / Dokument: FAX ID 0247461218271772|(S. 1- 4) TIT3793_KU.p 461218271780 Ingeborg Jandl, Susanne Knaller, Sabine Schönfellner, Gudrun Tockner (eds.) Writing Emotions Theoretical Concepts and Selected Case Studies in Literature 2017-05-15 15-01-57 --- Projekt: transcript.titeleien / Dokument: FAX ID 0247461218271772|(S. 1- 4) TIT3793_KU.p 461218271780 Printed with the support of the State of Styria (Department for Health, Care and Science/Department Science and Research), the University of Graz, and the Faculty of Arts and Humanities University of Graz. An electronic version of this book is freely available, thanks to the support of libraries working with Knowledge Unlatched. KU is a collaborative initiative designed to make high quality books Open Access for the public good. The Open Access ISBN for this book is 978-3-8394-3793-3. More information about the initiative and links to the Open Access version can be found at www.knowledgeunlatched.org. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No- Derivs 4.0 (BY-NC-ND) which means that the text may be used for non-commercial purposes, provided credit is given to the author. For details go to http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. To create an adaptation, translation, or derivative
    [Show full text]
  • Epiphany Parish Pastoral Plan
    Parish Pastoral Plan PURPOSE STATEMENT In response to God’s unconditional love for us, our parish purpose is to love God and neighbor. We welcome all to enrich their relationship with Jesus, experience a spiritual Epiphany, and be inspired by the Holy Spirit to become joyful disciples. VISION STATEMENT - Epiphany—Where God’s Love is Alive! Guided by the Holy Spirit, we will build a vibrant faith community inspiring all to grow and live as active disciples who love, witness, worship, and serve. VALUES AND BELIEFS 1. Love – We love because He first loved us. His love poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit as we give witness to Christ’s abiding, sacrificial love for us. We go forward to reflect it in our community and beyond in all that we do. • We will welcome and respect each individual within our church community. • We will be a Christ-centered, basing all on God’s call for service, community, and fellowship. • We will engage in formation, in order to be adequately prepared to share God’s love with others. • We will promote and share our faith in the places where we work, socialize, and live. • We will work together with clergy, staff, and lay leaders to ensure a safe environment for all, especially the most vulnerable in our community. 2. Witness – We give evidence in our daily lives and personal experiences through acts of Christian charity, faith, hope and love as inspired by the Holy Spirit to testify and believe in the Good News. • We will share our spiritual journey and personal testimony with others seeking spiritual growth and reinforcement toward their faith.
    [Show full text]
  • How to Use the Epiphany Review
    EPIPHANY WEEKLY REVIEW (Can also be used as Daily Review) Date: __________________________________________ How I have practiced and experienced over the last week: LISTENING: _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ BELIEF (in myself, someone else and/or something): _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ ACTION: _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ SERENDIPITY: (record any instance if you can’t think of one from the week) _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ GRATITUDE: _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________
    [Show full text]
  • An Epiphany Through the Eyes of Grief
    An Epiphany through the Eyes of Grief Robert E. Dahl And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth .... From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace (John 1: 14, 16). In a scene from the movie, Sleepless in Seattle, a recent widower suffering from the typical grief reaction of insomnia tries to rest on the couch. We don't know if the widower, played by Tom Hanks, is actually asleep and dreaming or just trying to sleep, but his late wife appears with him on the couch, and they carry on a conversation as if she were alive and well. Only she is not talking from the perspective of this life. She's communing with him "from the other side," so to speak. One thing we know for sure; he is aware of her presence. Then, as instantaneously as she appears, she disappears. The scene is not unlike an experience I had about a year after my wife died. In my case, I was awake. I was aware of my late wife Doris's presence in the room, although I was not completely sure of her identity until she spoke. She but called my name and disappeared-an ever so brief moment that has affected my life profoundly. It has proven to be an epiphany for me in my bereavement, for with it the light of God's mercy began to shine in the darkness of my grief.
    [Show full text]