Monday, August 13, 2012

Mystical Mondays ~ Hope sermon: The Alpha and Omega

an amazing commission
by Wayne Stratz
I started...


THE HOPE OF LOVING
by: Meister Eckhart 
Transl. Daniel Ladinksky
What keeps us alive, what allows us to endure?
I think it is the hope of loving,
 or being loved.
I am inside our booth and I tell a stranger that Hope is my favorite word.  He asks why.  My answer was because it is the opposite of despair, maybe my true answer is… I know despair.


Meister Eckhart 
continues

I heard a fable once about the sun going on a journey 
to find its source, and how the moon wept
 without her lover’s 
warm gaze.
We weep when light does not reach our hearts. We wither 
like fields if someone close
 does not rain their 
kindness 
upon 
us.
I ended...
I don’t know how I unfolded into a man of hope, but it sure did help to stop believing in a God who keeps lists of sins and waits to throw it into my face.  Seeking out positive people sure does help.  Reading Frederick Buechner may have been key.  I will end with his words, from his sermon about hope: 

"I think it is hope that lies at our hearts and hope that finally brings us all here [into the church].  Hope that in spite of all the devastating evidence to the contrary, the ground we stand on is holy ground because Christ walked here and walks here still.  Hope that we are known, each one of us, by name, and that out of the burning moments of our lives he will call us by our names to the lives he would have us live and the selves he would have us become.  Hope that into the secret grief and pain and bewilderment of each of us and of our world he will come at last to heal and to save." (81)

12 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Valerie ~ Thanks. Word on the street is that the sermon went well

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  2. Replies
    1. Nancy ~ thanks for taking the time to welcome me

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  3. thanks for the sharing...

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    1. Nance ~ thanks for being one to whom I shared it

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  4. Replies
    1. Robin ~ at the rate I am going I may get a dozen or two sermons in during my lifetime ;')

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  5. Welcome to RevGals! I love your blog, and your art.
    This post is especially meaningful as my word right now is Hope.
    Thank you!

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    Replies
    1. Revkjarla ~ thanks for the welcome. Hope can insist upon being one's word. May it linger with you

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  6. I was wondering if you would share some of your sermon. That last quote is especially meaningful, but all of it hits me in the right place. Hope truly is such a beautiful word, concept and goal.

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    Replies
    1. Snowcatcher ~ thanks, the post before this one also had some post sermon thoughts. Do check out the books by Buechner. They are marvelous

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