rick morley | a garden path

Book Review: A Good and Perfect Gift, by Amy Julia Becker

January 2, 2012

by rick

It’s a story as old as ministry itself.

You begin a ministry to someone, to a group of people, to a certain place and population—fully expecting that YOU are going to serve THEM.

Bless their little pea-pickin’ hearts. Won’t they be lucky.

And then, before you even know what hit you, you end up realizing that it’s YOU that has been blessed, and served, and ministered to. Whenever that happens I’m always caught off guard.

And then I can’t believe that I’ve been caught off-guard AGAIN.

I think Jesus knew this about ministry. I think it may have been why, when on the night before he died he told his disciples to wash each others feet. It wasn’t just so the washER would be able to serve the washEE – but that both would be blessed by the experience.

I recently downloaded A Good and Perfect Gift to my Kindle, and, even between all the busy-ness of the holidays and traveling with the family over-the-river-and-through-the-woods, I could barely put it down. I found myself talking about it with most every one who I sidled up to. I kept reading passages aloud to my wife.

More than once I had to covertly wipe my eyes, because I could no longer read the words in front of me.

My eyes were too full. Read More

handling sin: a reflection on Mark 1:4-11

December 30, 2011

by rick

comments 3

My youngest daughter, Mattie, at Starbucks.

The following is a reflection on Mark 1:4-11, the Gospel Lesson for January 8, 2011 – the Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord.

Also on this site is a Prayers of the People for All Epiphany.

John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

They had ways of dealing with sin. Explicit ways. Biblical ways.

The exact treatment for sin differed by who did the sinning, what the sinning was, and whether or not the sin was intentional.

But, the basics were the same: you went to the Temple and made a sacrifice. You just followed the laws as written in Leviticus, and that was that. Read More

the feast of the Holy Name

December 26, 2011

by rick

comments 5

Christology / Exodus / Gospels / Lectionary / New Testament

After eight days had passed, it was time to circumcise the child; and he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

And he was called Jesus.

It’s a peculiarity that Christianity as we know it came through the furnace of the Latin speaking Roman Empire that we call the Son of God “Jesus.”

Unless the Angel Gabriel spoke in Latin to the Virgin Mother, he told her to name him “Yeshua,” or “Joshua.”

Recovering the Savior’s Hebrew name we can find riches previously unavailable to us.

For “Joshua” is both a harkening back, and a glance down the road, all at once.

“Joshua” should immediately recall the great patriarch, who picked up Moses’ mantle. It was Joshua who finished Moses’ job. It was Joshua who finished the journey of the Exodus.

It was Joshua who brought the Children of Israel into the Promised Land.

Let that sink in for a moment.

And, “Joshua,” or “Yeshua,” has meaning to. It means “God saves.”

In a name, “Joshua,” and it’s Latin cousin “Jesus,” both points back to the saving acts of God in ages past AND points forward to the saving acts which will in years to come (after his circumcision and naming) occur on Golgotha and in an empty tomb.

A rose by any other name would still be a rose. But, this rose (e’re blooming?) has a name which is meant to signal to us all who He is, Who sent Him, Who acts, and who will save us all.

The Eve of the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ

December 12, 2011

by rick

comments 2

Gospels / Lectionary / New Testament / Soteriology

The moment of Incarnation – when once again the morning stars sing together with all the heavenly host. Acrylic on canvas. Rick Morley.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

God created every form of life that swims in the deep, which flies in the sky, and which walks on the land.

God created us, molding us out of the dust of the ground, and breathing God’s holy breath into us. And, God created us in God’s image—that we might bear the Holy Image in all the world.

God spoke to individuals, and God blessed families. God flooded the earth, made a promise never to do that again, and then God made a promise to Abraham and his descendents. God promised to be our God, and to claim us as His own people.

When we were enslaved, God liberated us. When we we without a home, God gave us a land. When our homeland was devastated, he built it up again.

God sent us patriarchs, and matriarchs, and judges, and sages, and prophets, and kings…

Over and over again God inserted Himself into our history, and made His story our story, and our story His story.

But, even with all of those over-and-over-agains, it is hard to shake the in-and-out nature of God’s relationship. God would come—for sure!—but, then He’d seem to go for a while again.

He was always there, but his Presence seemed to come and go with fits-and-starts.

I think that awkward fits-and-starts thing is part of the awkwardness of living on this side of Eden. Read More

prayers of the people for advent 4b

December 11, 2011

by rick

comments 3

Prayers of the People

Celebrant
In the hushed anticipation of your coming, O Lord, let your will be done with us according to your word, that we might be vessels of your Presence, and eager to pray:

Intercessor
O God, in days to come the mountain of your house will be established, and your joy shall reign. We pray for the church (especially…), that you might teach us your ways and that we might walk in your paths.