Proper 9
Preaching
Lectionary Preaching Workbook
Series VI, Cycle C
Object:
COMMENTARY ON THE LESSONS
Lesson 1: 2 Kings 5:1-14 (C)
When you read this passage, read through to verse 27. Quite a story. As for the portion of the story we have here, there are a number of possible sermon themes. For one thing, had it not been for the servant girl, Namaan would never have known of the possibility of a healing for his leprosy. How important it is to listen to the wisdom of those who may not, at first, impress us. Or we might focus on the imperious attitude of this man Namaan, who was so full of himself that despite the possibility of healing, he couldn't lower himself to be guided by someone else's wisdom. Elisha, an Israelite, was beneath Namaan, as the general saw things. How easily we allow our prejudices and our self-importance to blind us to so many things in life.
There is the healing itself, of course. Now we're back to the issue of literal healing, as over against the role of our own attitudes in regard to our health. Every time I have decided that faith and prayer can heal an injury or an illness, I see people of gallant faith die in misery. On the other hand, every time I decide I had it wrong, there is no such healing, I learn of a marvelous recovery from, say, cancer, when the victim was surely expected soon to die, apparently because of the power of faith and prayer. What is one to think? I recently debated this with a group of ministers and found differing opinions. How can we expect our parishioners to know what to think if we don't? Good basis for a sermon.
Lesson 1: Isaiah 66:10-14 (RC); Isaiah 66:10-16 (E)
Of Jerusalem, Isaiah writes: (quoting the Lord) "I will extend prosperity to her like a river, and the wealth of nations like an overflowing stream." Then he writes: "and his indignation is against his enemies." Here we see the hope being held out to a suffering people, and the implication of a lingering ambivalence about monotheism versus a proprietary attitude toward God. History reveals the sad reality that this, like most optimistic prophecies, has not yet been fulfilled. Here, I think, is the difference between Old and New Testament promises. Those of the Old Testament, understandable in their often plaintive cries for help and the resultant promises, are nevertheless vain hopes. Those of the New Testament, because they are the promises of God given through Jesus, are fulfilled daily in those who accept his Lordship.
Lesson 2: Galatians 6:(1-6) 7-16 (C); Galatians 6:14-18 (RC); Galatians 6:(1-10) 14-18 (E)
Two themes call out to us from this passage. The first: We reap what we sow. Paul assures us that while there may be a wait, eventually those who do good works will receive recompense of a pleasing kind. Those who do unworthy works, who sow seeds of the flesh, will suffer for it. If not now, then eventually.
The other theme turns my mind to the church. Paul argues that it is wrong to expect the Gentiles to dance to the Jewish tune. Or, to be more sedate, it is wrong to expect Gentiles to submit to what was a specifically Jewish cultural practice. Circumcision was simply a means of identifying a man as a faithful Jew. There's nothing wrong with that. But neither does it have anything at all to do with the practice of the faith which Jesus revealed. What matters is the kind of person I am becoming. Becoming "new creatures."
I like the second theme best at the moment. It's a call for acceptance of the other person's religious beliefs if that person exhibits the characteristics of a Jesus life. Not where do I go to church? Not how slavishly do I adhere to the religious prescriptions of someone else? What kind of man or woman am I? Do I demonstrate love for other people? For God? Do I have character; am I honest; am I kind; do I forgive those who injure me? I was amused to read that many years ago a London, England, newspaper asked readers to list the forces which work against the Christian faith in this life. The response featured this reply: "Number 1, whiskey. Number 2, Methodists." We note that this book is designed to be of some service to Protestants, Catholics, and Episcopalians (those last sometimes thinking of themselves as Protestant, sometimes not, I am told). We're all in this life together, and it behooves us all to live together in love.
Gospel: Luke 10:1-11, 16-20 (C); Luke 10:1-2, 17-20 (RC); Luke 10:1-12, 16-20 (E)
I have always had certain principles of Christianity in my head and I have difficulty with those passages in the Bible which seem to dispute my understanding. I see Jesus as always loving, understanding the foibles of human nature, not approving them, but understanding that some of us are what we might call slow learners. I myself was in my late twenties before I paid any attention to the Christian message. I must have heard it in my earlier years. I went to church with my wife who was devout. But back then, if I had been in one of those towns referred to in this text, I probably would have turned away from the evangelists. Even now I find myself turned off by preachy people. It was seeing people who lived out what I later learned to be the gospel's teachings about love which opened me up to the Holy Spirit. Frankly, I find myself more comfortable with salty Christians, people who can be relied upon to do or say the right things when the chips are down, but who at the same time might embarrass some of my more pious, straight laced acquaintances in the routine interchanges of life.
So what am I saying? I doubt that this is a very accurate recollection of Jesus' words. I have to think that someone has misunderstood Jesus. He surely had a good sense of humor and there may have been some tongue-in-cheek element here that Luke missed. Or perhaps Jesus also added that they could get around to those rejecting towns later when there's more time. Then those people also could be included. Also, I can't believe a whole town would be rejected by God. What about the minority of good, decent people who would have responded?
I don't believe Jesus would have been as high handed as this passage suggests. The only point I can make from it is that there isn't a lot of time. We must be about our business of spreading the word promptly. As preachers, we must be careful not to let the occasional opponent divert us from our primary task. There's a man who attended my old church, and he loves to attend every study group, every seminar, every meeting of any kind. He's a real pain in the neck. He is so opinionated that everyone wishes he'd go away. The pastor of the church recently asked him to consider another church, but when he did, that pastor urged him to return where he came from. If allowed to hold sway in any gathering, he totally disrupts the dynamics. Several study groups have disbanded because this man has no interest in learning. He only wants constant attention. It is this kind of person who may not be savable (not up to me). We all decided to go around him for the sake of everyone else. Maybe that is what Jesus had in mind.
SERMON SUGGESTIONS
Title: "The Quiet Word "
Text: 2 Kings 5:1-14
Theme: Interesting, isn't it, that God seems to work through the simple things, the unimpressive? Jesus was a baby, later a carpenter of lowly birth. Back in the Old Testament, a good example is Joseph, the youngest brother who would eventually bring a sort of redemption to his older brothers who at one time thought themselves superior to Joseph. Or there are the apostles, all men of lowly station in the community. On it goes, and in the person of the slave girl in this text we have the solution to the problem facing a famous general.
1. God approaches us through the simple things -- even such things as failures. Martin Luther once wrote that "God speaks to us in baby talk."
2. People who are constantly straining for some distant goal and in the process are too busy for the little facets of life generally succumb at last to stress and happiness eludes them.
3. Striving for success is fine if done in the right way. If our values lead us to want other people to succeed as well, we tend to be aware of people and their needs. God usually comes to us through other people, so if we seek only success for ourselves, we'll never know the presence of God.
4. How wise we are when we rearrange our lives to make room for periods of reflection and contemplation. One wise man spoke of the curse of the unexamined life. When old Elijah realized that the voice of God was not to be heard in the wind, or the fire, or the whirlwind, but in a still small voice, he struck a note for all humanity to hear.
Title: "Living Together"
Text: Galatians 6:7-16
Theme: People are different. No two of us are exactly alike. My wife's family has two sets of identical twins, but neither are quite alike in personality. This means we had better learn early in life to accept people different from ourselves. We may love the comic song in My Fair Lady -- "Why Can't A Woman Be Like A Man?" -- but in truth, as the French used to say, "Viva la difference." Because we differ in personality, in childhood experiences, in genetic makeup as well as in the happenstance of day by day experience, each of us is unique. We won't respond to the gospel like the next person. We used to have a men's study group in which one member was a fundamentalist. We loved him as a friend. But he couldn't get off subjects like his insistence that Mary was really a virgin, and Jesus really is coming back on a cloud. We finally, lovingly, asked him to consider starting another group of his own. We couldn't understand how anyone with any education could think like he did (he had a law degree). But to my amazement, one young man in our group decided he was right and the two of them left our church and went to a fundamentalist church. The young man, unlike the rest of us, was persuaded. So it goes. We are still good friends.
This is true in other matters in addition to religion. I have friends who love attending basketball games, one who would rather play chess. Two of my frequent luncheon companions read only high-flown magazines and love to discuss the latest subjects which seem utterly unrelated to the real world to me. But we have fun together. Actually, we need each other. Then there are racial differences. Economic differences. Intellectual differences. Educational differences. Vocational differences. Physical differences. Paul has argued here that the true measure of the man or woman is none of these things. It is this: Am I a new creature in Jesus? If I am, then I am a peer of everyone else regardless of my qualifications as the world measures things. And if I am a new Being, then that means, by definition, that I meet everyone in love. I make no such distinctions. I accept people as they are, just as God accepts me "Just As I Am."
1. Jesus changes us into lovers. New creatures.
2. As lovers, we accept people with their differences.
3. It is from people who are different that we can learn.
4. Jesus offers peace and mercy to those who have become new creatures.
Title: "Wherever You Go, Whatever You Do"
Text: Luke 10:1-11, 16-20
Theme: I have struggled with this passage and simply cannot come up with a sermon for my congregation which is faithful to this text, yet says what I would say to my congregation based on the total context of the New Testament. However, this would be an excellent text if you should be asked to preach at a major gathering of clergy. Maybe a bishop could make good use of this text. Its word is to those who are chosen to go out as preachers and evangelists. It warns that the messenger is to seek no luxuries, not be concerned for personal comfort, waste no time, keep moving, be loyal to Jesus. Maybe we preachers should use this text as the basis for a sermon addressed to ourselves. If addressing it to others, one would have to be sure to speak as one of the brothers and sisters who need to hear this word.
ADDITIONAL ILLUSTRATIONS
One of this city's finest clergymen died in 1994. Father Bosler was a fiery advocate of ecumenism, a splendid preacher, a dear man -- and a man held in extremely high regard by everyone in the Indianapolis religious community. This past week, a special memorial service was held for Father Bosler because after five years he is still missed. It took my mind back many years, to the time when he was pastor of a large Catholic congregation here in this city. He had recently received recognition as a Monsignor. It was time for the Notre Dame-Southern Methodist football game. That week, Father Bosler invited me and another Protestant clergyman to come to the Little Flower rectory and to join him and two other priests in a libation and to watch the game together. Three priests, two Methodist ministers. One can imagine the banter, the claims to superior prayer power, the comparative merits of the church's blessings. We had such a good laugh, so much fun. How wonderful to build that kind of brother/sisterhood between people of differing faith traditions. Our hearts were right, and that's what the five of us held as important. Surely Jesus rejoiced at this innocent joining of hearts across what some people would view as a chasm.
____________
I read something the other day which, at first glance seems trivial. But as I reflected, it may touch a very great truth. It's in an amusing book about gardening written by a celebrated British author and world traveler named Beverly Nichols. He wrote during a simpler time, the late forties, in England. In his book Merry Hall, a book about gardening, about quaint English life, and about nature, he wrote this:
I have been so busy in the garden that ever since we stepped into it the outside world seems to have drifted away; when you are concerned with really important things, such as the dew on a spider's web, or the first fragrance of freesia on a shelf -- when you are dealing with such matters, which are infinite and everlasting, it is difficult to look over one's shoulder, as it were, and remind yourself of such shadowy and transient details as the Red Army. In the scale of eternal values, a hundred military divisions are outweighed by a single pinch of thistledown.
The author went on to describe some of his adventures, traveling the world over, meeting with senators, generals, and ambassadors, reporting on urgent world events. Then he concluded that description with these words:
Such pastimes can be exhilarating, and I expect to pursue them for some years to come, but you cannot persuade me that they are important in the sense that the first bud of a daphne is important.
____________
"Yet all the while my Lord I meet in every London lane and street."
-- Richard LeGallienne
____________
Some time ago, a psychologist named Arthur Mandell observed that defensive and offensive football players often don't relate well to each other off the field because of their very different personalities. He said that offensive players are very orderly, conservative people generally. They like the status quo, and the repetitive, well-planned way of doing things. Defensive players, on the other hand, abhor such orderliness, preferring the unpredictable, a lack of structure. Coaches usually have a lot more trouble with defensive players than with offensive players.
____________
Cartoon: Old Devil preparing young Devil for journey to earth: "Be sure to quote the Bible a lot."
Also, quote in C. S. Lewis' Great Divorce when man supposedly arrives in Hell: "Hell's a flop. They lead you to expect red fires and devils and all sorts of interesting people sizzling on grids ... but when you get there, it's just like any town."
____________
A bell's not a bell 'til you ring it.
A song's not a song 'til you sing it.
And love in the heart wasn't put there to stay.
Love isn't love 'til you give it away.
-- Oscar Hammerstein, in Sound Of Music
____________
Psalm Of The Day
Psalm 30 -- "I will extol thee, O Lord."
Prayer Of The Day
Open our eyes, we pray, to the simple beauties which surround us. Lift our minds from the mundane problems which beset us always. Help us to withdraw long enough and often enough to find that inner tranquility which can later equip us for the rigors of a demanding life. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.
Lesson 1: 2 Kings 5:1-14 (C)
When you read this passage, read through to verse 27. Quite a story. As for the portion of the story we have here, there are a number of possible sermon themes. For one thing, had it not been for the servant girl, Namaan would never have known of the possibility of a healing for his leprosy. How important it is to listen to the wisdom of those who may not, at first, impress us. Or we might focus on the imperious attitude of this man Namaan, who was so full of himself that despite the possibility of healing, he couldn't lower himself to be guided by someone else's wisdom. Elisha, an Israelite, was beneath Namaan, as the general saw things. How easily we allow our prejudices and our self-importance to blind us to so many things in life.
There is the healing itself, of course. Now we're back to the issue of literal healing, as over against the role of our own attitudes in regard to our health. Every time I have decided that faith and prayer can heal an injury or an illness, I see people of gallant faith die in misery. On the other hand, every time I decide I had it wrong, there is no such healing, I learn of a marvelous recovery from, say, cancer, when the victim was surely expected soon to die, apparently because of the power of faith and prayer. What is one to think? I recently debated this with a group of ministers and found differing opinions. How can we expect our parishioners to know what to think if we don't? Good basis for a sermon.
Lesson 1: Isaiah 66:10-14 (RC); Isaiah 66:10-16 (E)
Of Jerusalem, Isaiah writes: (quoting the Lord) "I will extend prosperity to her like a river, and the wealth of nations like an overflowing stream." Then he writes: "and his indignation is against his enemies." Here we see the hope being held out to a suffering people, and the implication of a lingering ambivalence about monotheism versus a proprietary attitude toward God. History reveals the sad reality that this, like most optimistic prophecies, has not yet been fulfilled. Here, I think, is the difference between Old and New Testament promises. Those of the Old Testament, understandable in their often plaintive cries for help and the resultant promises, are nevertheless vain hopes. Those of the New Testament, because they are the promises of God given through Jesus, are fulfilled daily in those who accept his Lordship.
Lesson 2: Galatians 6:(1-6) 7-16 (C); Galatians 6:14-18 (RC); Galatians 6:(1-10) 14-18 (E)
Two themes call out to us from this passage. The first: We reap what we sow. Paul assures us that while there may be a wait, eventually those who do good works will receive recompense of a pleasing kind. Those who do unworthy works, who sow seeds of the flesh, will suffer for it. If not now, then eventually.
The other theme turns my mind to the church. Paul argues that it is wrong to expect the Gentiles to dance to the Jewish tune. Or, to be more sedate, it is wrong to expect Gentiles to submit to what was a specifically Jewish cultural practice. Circumcision was simply a means of identifying a man as a faithful Jew. There's nothing wrong with that. But neither does it have anything at all to do with the practice of the faith which Jesus revealed. What matters is the kind of person I am becoming. Becoming "new creatures."
I like the second theme best at the moment. It's a call for acceptance of the other person's religious beliefs if that person exhibits the characteristics of a Jesus life. Not where do I go to church? Not how slavishly do I adhere to the religious prescriptions of someone else? What kind of man or woman am I? Do I demonstrate love for other people? For God? Do I have character; am I honest; am I kind; do I forgive those who injure me? I was amused to read that many years ago a London, England, newspaper asked readers to list the forces which work against the Christian faith in this life. The response featured this reply: "Number 1, whiskey. Number 2, Methodists." We note that this book is designed to be of some service to Protestants, Catholics, and Episcopalians (those last sometimes thinking of themselves as Protestant, sometimes not, I am told). We're all in this life together, and it behooves us all to live together in love.
Gospel: Luke 10:1-11, 16-20 (C); Luke 10:1-2, 17-20 (RC); Luke 10:1-12, 16-20 (E)
I have always had certain principles of Christianity in my head and I have difficulty with those passages in the Bible which seem to dispute my understanding. I see Jesus as always loving, understanding the foibles of human nature, not approving them, but understanding that some of us are what we might call slow learners. I myself was in my late twenties before I paid any attention to the Christian message. I must have heard it in my earlier years. I went to church with my wife who was devout. But back then, if I had been in one of those towns referred to in this text, I probably would have turned away from the evangelists. Even now I find myself turned off by preachy people. It was seeing people who lived out what I later learned to be the gospel's teachings about love which opened me up to the Holy Spirit. Frankly, I find myself more comfortable with salty Christians, people who can be relied upon to do or say the right things when the chips are down, but who at the same time might embarrass some of my more pious, straight laced acquaintances in the routine interchanges of life.
So what am I saying? I doubt that this is a very accurate recollection of Jesus' words. I have to think that someone has misunderstood Jesus. He surely had a good sense of humor and there may have been some tongue-in-cheek element here that Luke missed. Or perhaps Jesus also added that they could get around to those rejecting towns later when there's more time. Then those people also could be included. Also, I can't believe a whole town would be rejected by God. What about the minority of good, decent people who would have responded?
I don't believe Jesus would have been as high handed as this passage suggests. The only point I can make from it is that there isn't a lot of time. We must be about our business of spreading the word promptly. As preachers, we must be careful not to let the occasional opponent divert us from our primary task. There's a man who attended my old church, and he loves to attend every study group, every seminar, every meeting of any kind. He's a real pain in the neck. He is so opinionated that everyone wishes he'd go away. The pastor of the church recently asked him to consider another church, but when he did, that pastor urged him to return where he came from. If allowed to hold sway in any gathering, he totally disrupts the dynamics. Several study groups have disbanded because this man has no interest in learning. He only wants constant attention. It is this kind of person who may not be savable (not up to me). We all decided to go around him for the sake of everyone else. Maybe that is what Jesus had in mind.
SERMON SUGGESTIONS
Title: "The Quiet Word "
Text: 2 Kings 5:1-14
Theme: Interesting, isn't it, that God seems to work through the simple things, the unimpressive? Jesus was a baby, later a carpenter of lowly birth. Back in the Old Testament, a good example is Joseph, the youngest brother who would eventually bring a sort of redemption to his older brothers who at one time thought themselves superior to Joseph. Or there are the apostles, all men of lowly station in the community. On it goes, and in the person of the slave girl in this text we have the solution to the problem facing a famous general.
1. God approaches us through the simple things -- even such things as failures. Martin Luther once wrote that "God speaks to us in baby talk."
2. People who are constantly straining for some distant goal and in the process are too busy for the little facets of life generally succumb at last to stress and happiness eludes them.
3. Striving for success is fine if done in the right way. If our values lead us to want other people to succeed as well, we tend to be aware of people and their needs. God usually comes to us through other people, so if we seek only success for ourselves, we'll never know the presence of God.
4. How wise we are when we rearrange our lives to make room for periods of reflection and contemplation. One wise man spoke of the curse of the unexamined life. When old Elijah realized that the voice of God was not to be heard in the wind, or the fire, or the whirlwind, but in a still small voice, he struck a note for all humanity to hear.
Title: "Living Together"
Text: Galatians 6:7-16
Theme: People are different. No two of us are exactly alike. My wife's family has two sets of identical twins, but neither are quite alike in personality. This means we had better learn early in life to accept people different from ourselves. We may love the comic song in My Fair Lady -- "Why Can't A Woman Be Like A Man?" -- but in truth, as the French used to say, "Viva la difference." Because we differ in personality, in childhood experiences, in genetic makeup as well as in the happenstance of day by day experience, each of us is unique. We won't respond to the gospel like the next person. We used to have a men's study group in which one member was a fundamentalist. We loved him as a friend. But he couldn't get off subjects like his insistence that Mary was really a virgin, and Jesus really is coming back on a cloud. We finally, lovingly, asked him to consider starting another group of his own. We couldn't understand how anyone with any education could think like he did (he had a law degree). But to my amazement, one young man in our group decided he was right and the two of them left our church and went to a fundamentalist church. The young man, unlike the rest of us, was persuaded. So it goes. We are still good friends.
This is true in other matters in addition to religion. I have friends who love attending basketball games, one who would rather play chess. Two of my frequent luncheon companions read only high-flown magazines and love to discuss the latest subjects which seem utterly unrelated to the real world to me. But we have fun together. Actually, we need each other. Then there are racial differences. Economic differences. Intellectual differences. Educational differences. Vocational differences. Physical differences. Paul has argued here that the true measure of the man or woman is none of these things. It is this: Am I a new creature in Jesus? If I am, then I am a peer of everyone else regardless of my qualifications as the world measures things. And if I am a new Being, then that means, by definition, that I meet everyone in love. I make no such distinctions. I accept people as they are, just as God accepts me "Just As I Am."
1. Jesus changes us into lovers. New creatures.
2. As lovers, we accept people with their differences.
3. It is from people who are different that we can learn.
4. Jesus offers peace and mercy to those who have become new creatures.
Title: "Wherever You Go, Whatever You Do"
Text: Luke 10:1-11, 16-20
Theme: I have struggled with this passage and simply cannot come up with a sermon for my congregation which is faithful to this text, yet says what I would say to my congregation based on the total context of the New Testament. However, this would be an excellent text if you should be asked to preach at a major gathering of clergy. Maybe a bishop could make good use of this text. Its word is to those who are chosen to go out as preachers and evangelists. It warns that the messenger is to seek no luxuries, not be concerned for personal comfort, waste no time, keep moving, be loyal to Jesus. Maybe we preachers should use this text as the basis for a sermon addressed to ourselves. If addressing it to others, one would have to be sure to speak as one of the brothers and sisters who need to hear this word.
ADDITIONAL ILLUSTRATIONS
One of this city's finest clergymen died in 1994. Father Bosler was a fiery advocate of ecumenism, a splendid preacher, a dear man -- and a man held in extremely high regard by everyone in the Indianapolis religious community. This past week, a special memorial service was held for Father Bosler because after five years he is still missed. It took my mind back many years, to the time when he was pastor of a large Catholic congregation here in this city. He had recently received recognition as a Monsignor. It was time for the Notre Dame-Southern Methodist football game. That week, Father Bosler invited me and another Protestant clergyman to come to the Little Flower rectory and to join him and two other priests in a libation and to watch the game together. Three priests, two Methodist ministers. One can imagine the banter, the claims to superior prayer power, the comparative merits of the church's blessings. We had such a good laugh, so much fun. How wonderful to build that kind of brother/sisterhood between people of differing faith traditions. Our hearts were right, and that's what the five of us held as important. Surely Jesus rejoiced at this innocent joining of hearts across what some people would view as a chasm.
____________
I read something the other day which, at first glance seems trivial. But as I reflected, it may touch a very great truth. It's in an amusing book about gardening written by a celebrated British author and world traveler named Beverly Nichols. He wrote during a simpler time, the late forties, in England. In his book Merry Hall, a book about gardening, about quaint English life, and about nature, he wrote this:
I have been so busy in the garden that ever since we stepped into it the outside world seems to have drifted away; when you are concerned with really important things, such as the dew on a spider's web, or the first fragrance of freesia on a shelf -- when you are dealing with such matters, which are infinite and everlasting, it is difficult to look over one's shoulder, as it were, and remind yourself of such shadowy and transient details as the Red Army. In the scale of eternal values, a hundred military divisions are outweighed by a single pinch of thistledown.
The author went on to describe some of his adventures, traveling the world over, meeting with senators, generals, and ambassadors, reporting on urgent world events. Then he concluded that description with these words:
Such pastimes can be exhilarating, and I expect to pursue them for some years to come, but you cannot persuade me that they are important in the sense that the first bud of a daphne is important.
____________
"Yet all the while my Lord I meet in every London lane and street."
-- Richard LeGallienne
____________
Some time ago, a psychologist named Arthur Mandell observed that defensive and offensive football players often don't relate well to each other off the field because of their very different personalities. He said that offensive players are very orderly, conservative people generally. They like the status quo, and the repetitive, well-planned way of doing things. Defensive players, on the other hand, abhor such orderliness, preferring the unpredictable, a lack of structure. Coaches usually have a lot more trouble with defensive players than with offensive players.
____________
Cartoon: Old Devil preparing young Devil for journey to earth: "Be sure to quote the Bible a lot."
Also, quote in C. S. Lewis' Great Divorce when man supposedly arrives in Hell: "Hell's a flop. They lead you to expect red fires and devils and all sorts of interesting people sizzling on grids ... but when you get there, it's just like any town."
____________
A bell's not a bell 'til you ring it.
A song's not a song 'til you sing it.
And love in the heart wasn't put there to stay.
Love isn't love 'til you give it away.
-- Oscar Hammerstein, in Sound Of Music
____________
Psalm Of The Day
Psalm 30 -- "I will extol thee, O Lord."
Prayer Of The Day
Open our eyes, we pray, to the simple beauties which surround us. Lift our minds from the mundane problems which beset us always. Help us to withdraw long enough and often enough to find that inner tranquility which can later equip us for the rigors of a demanding life. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.
