The Rev. Christy Laborda Harris

I love the LORD, because he has heard the voice of my supplication, *
because he has inclined his ear to me whenever I called upon him. (Psalm 116:1)

So begins today’s psalm. The psalmist rejoices because God has heard his prayers… really his cries for help. The “cords of death entangled” him. But God heard the psalmist’s prayers and his life was rescued from death.

For most of us, our primary mode of communication with God is much like that of the psalmist. When we pray, we talk to God. We tell God what’s up in our lives. We ask for help. We scream for help. We thank God. Perhaps we demand to know where God is as something bad befalls us or someone we love.

Our first reading today, from the Prophet Isaiah, reminds us of another form of prayer, another way of being in relationship with God. The author declares,

Morning by morning [God] wakens–
wakens my ear
to listen as those who are taught.
The Lord GOD has opened my ear… (Isaiah 50:4-5)

Much harder than speaking, for most of us, is listening.

The context of the fiftieth chapter… Continue reading →

The Rev. Harry Allagree

The Rev. Christy Laborda Harris

The Rev. Christy Laborda Harris

The Rev. Christy Laborda Harris

The Rev. Christy Laborda Harris

The Rev. Kate Sefton

The Rev. Christy Laborda Harris

The Rev. Christy Laborda Harris

The Rev. Kate Sefton

I want to repeat a part of today’s second reading:
4:6 For it is the God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
4:7 But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us.
4:8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair;
4:9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;
4:10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies.

Afflicted but not crushed.
Perplexed but not driven to despair.
Persecuted but not forsaken.
Struck down but not destroyed.
….so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies.

In this reading, at the same time that he is stressing the importance of our mission to make visible the life of Jesus, Paul acknowledges the frailty of our human existence. Our physical bodies are compared… Continue reading →