www.HopeandHelpCenter.org
Weekly Meditation
by Valerie Jackson
Ezekiel 37:1-14
The Valley of Dry Bones
The hand of the Lord came upon me, and brought me out by the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. And God led me all round them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. So God said to me, 'Mortal, can these bones live?' I answered, 'O Lord God, you know.' Then God said to me, 'Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord.'
So I prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them. Then God said to me, 'Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath: Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.' I prophesied as God commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude.
Then God said to me, 'Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, "Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely." Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you back to the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people. I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken and will act, says the Lord.'
At one time, humans believed that God did not speak directly to individuals, but revealed herself (himself) through a prophet, one chosen by God to tell the people what God wanted them to see or understand. Ezekiel was a prophet of God and in this scripture, God gives Ezekiel a vision and asks him to pass it on to the Israelites.
Sometimes we miss the power of a scripture because we get caught up in the unfamiliar language and cultural differences. Let's make this scripture real to us through the guided meditation below. Meditate and pray in this way to help yourself hear God speaking to us as he/she spoke to Ezekiel.
Close your eyes. Quiet your mind. Slowly, breathe in and then slowly, exhale several times. As you breathe, think about yourself as a child of God, your essence. Concentrate on the ways you feel whole, at peace, connected with God. Stay with those thoughts for a moment as you continue to breathe and exhale slowly. Now think about the parts of you that feel distant from God, like your fears, your unwanted thoughts, your mistakes and your unhealthy behaviors. Relax, don't beat yourself up about them, simply be aware of their presence and bring them along. Feel God's spirit moving in the air around you. As you inhale deeply, breathe in the spirit of God. When you exhale say the word "Renew". You need not say it out loud. Let your breath say it. "Renew". Imagine all parts of you (whether you see them as good or bad) rising up and coming together. Feel the spirit of God connecting it all and breathing new life into you. Inhale....Exhale...Renew.
Now move your thoughts from you as an individual to the congregation called Metropolitan Community Church of Greater St Louis. Continue to inhale deeply and exhale slowly. Imagine all of the diverse parts of MCCGSL, all the faces and all the groups. They are like bones lying on the floor before you. Imagine those individual bones rising up and coming together. Initially, they are bones forming a lifeless skeleton. Continue to breathe in the spirit of God from the air around you. Each breath you take breathes more life into that skeletal shell. See muscles and tendons develop on the bones. Feel the spirit of God washing over it, invigorating it. Feel God breathing life into Metropolitan Community Church of Greater St. Louis. Hear God saying, 'Renew'. Continue to breathe in slowly and let your exhale hold the word 'Renew'. Let it flow out as a quiet prayer.....'Renew'. Yield to 'Renew'.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Weekly Meditation for May 23
www.HopeandHelpCenter.org
Weekly Meditation
by Ron White
Psalm 1
Happy are those
who do not follow the advice of the wicked,
or take the path that sinners tread,
or sit in the seat of scoffers;
but their delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on God's law they meditate day and night.
They are like trees
planted by streams of water,
which yield their fruit in its season,
and their leaves do not wither.
In all that they do, they prosper.
But the wicked are not so,
but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgement,
nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
for the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.
The concept which is taught in Psalm 1 is so very simple: "follow the law of the Lord with "delight." Don't follow the law of the Lord and our negative choices will result in misery, bitterness and long term unhappiness. The trouble is, nothing is ever that simple. To forge a positive path through life, we must survive all of the cuts and scrapes...and even deep wounds...administered by the thorns that surround our path. If we don't take the positive path as we travel through life...the longer we walk a crooked path...the deeper the root of bitterness is driven into our character. Knowing where to walk, day by day, moment by moment, can be difficult to discern. But, discern it we must. How do we walk that path with "delight?"
Psalm 1's devastatingly simple answer to knowing how and where to find the positive path is made more complex by a quick glance at the word "law" in Strong's Comprehensive Concordance which reveals that the Hebrew word for law is "Torah," a name given to the Pentateuch or the first five books of the Bible which contain what is traditionally referred to as the Mosaic law. A quick journey through Leviticus alone reveals that, in addition to the well known if not so well understood Ten Commandments, these books attribute to Moses myriad laws that were written for the culture of that time, practices which have little or no application to the world we live in today. How can we "delight in" that law? How then shall we live? Where is this "right" path that we can seek and delight in? Of course, the answer is neither as cut and dried as we might hope, nor is it simple and painless. Is that good or bad? To borrow a phrase, we shall see...
As my faith and knowledge have grown, I have come to a new understanding of the meaning of both "the law of the Lord" and how to delight in it In dealing with her daughter, Jessi, Christine has always believed in the importance of Jessi learning to make healthy decisions for herself. In the same way that God's people, Israel, were given a set of laws/rules to guide their choices, Jessi received from Christine, her Daddy, and others a set of "rules" which she could use as a guide to learn how to make healthy decisions. The other alternative, of course, has been for her to learn by making mistakes and living with the painful consequences. Christine reports - and I'll give my witness - that Jessica has learned a lot more from experiencing the pain of her mistakes than by following rules. You know the rule: we learn our greatest lessons in pain; the deeper the pain, the greater the lesson.
As she has walked this thorny path, Jessi's learning process has been enhanced by knowing in the deepest parts of her that nothing she has ever done or could ever do would take her outside of her Mom's, or her Dad's while he was still alive, or my love for her. For Jessi to know with complete certainty that she is loved even when she is less than she could be gives her the freedom to forgive herself and to do better next time...to learn God's "rules" for life and how to live joyously - "delightedly" - within them.
In the Torah, God gave Israel an ever expanding set of laws to live by... rules to help them figure out how to make life work. One Christian to another: I don't think God was finished when the last old scroll was written. What God has given us since that time is ongoing and continuous unconditional love so that we can walk life's path, learn the lessons here to be learned, make mistakes, forgive ourselves, pick ourselves up and dust ourselves off (sometimes wiping a little blood off?), and move forward even when we don't live up to what we could be. God gives us relationship...with God and with each other. That is a Torah we can delight in.
Weekly Meditation
by Ron White
Psalm 1
Happy are those
who do not follow the advice of the wicked,
or take the path that sinners tread,
or sit in the seat of scoffers;
but their delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on God's law they meditate day and night.
They are like trees
planted by streams of water,
which yield their fruit in its season,
and their leaves do not wither.
In all that they do, they prosper.
But the wicked are not so,
but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgement,
nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
for the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.
The concept which is taught in Psalm 1 is so very simple: "follow the law of the Lord with "delight." Don't follow the law of the Lord and our negative choices will result in misery, bitterness and long term unhappiness. The trouble is, nothing is ever that simple. To forge a positive path through life, we must survive all of the cuts and scrapes...and even deep wounds...administered by the thorns that surround our path. If we don't take the positive path as we travel through life...the longer we walk a crooked path...the deeper the root of bitterness is driven into our character. Knowing where to walk, day by day, moment by moment, can be difficult to discern. But, discern it we must. How do we walk that path with "delight?"
Psalm 1's devastatingly simple answer to knowing how and where to find the positive path is made more complex by a quick glance at the word "law" in Strong's Comprehensive Concordance which reveals that the Hebrew word for law is "Torah," a name given to the Pentateuch or the first five books of the Bible which contain what is traditionally referred to as the Mosaic law. A quick journey through Leviticus alone reveals that, in addition to the well known if not so well understood Ten Commandments, these books attribute to Moses myriad laws that were written for the culture of that time, practices which have little or no application to the world we live in today. How can we "delight in" that law? How then shall we live? Where is this "right" path that we can seek and delight in? Of course, the answer is neither as cut and dried as we might hope, nor is it simple and painless. Is that good or bad? To borrow a phrase, we shall see...
As my faith and knowledge have grown, I have come to a new understanding of the meaning of both "the law of the Lord" and how to delight in it In dealing with her daughter, Jessi, Christine has always believed in the importance of Jessi learning to make healthy decisions for herself. In the same way that God's people, Israel, were given a set of laws/rules to guide their choices, Jessi received from Christine, her Daddy, and others a set of "rules" which she could use as a guide to learn how to make healthy decisions. The other alternative, of course, has been for her to learn by making mistakes and living with the painful consequences. Christine reports - and I'll give my witness - that Jessica has learned a lot more from experiencing the pain of her mistakes than by following rules. You know the rule: we learn our greatest lessons in pain; the deeper the pain, the greater the lesson.
As she has walked this thorny path, Jessi's learning process has been enhanced by knowing in the deepest parts of her that nothing she has ever done or could ever do would take her outside of her Mom's, or her Dad's while he was still alive, or my love for her. For Jessi to know with complete certainty that she is loved even when she is less than she could be gives her the freedom to forgive herself and to do better next time...to learn God's "rules" for life and how to live joyously - "delightedly" - within them.
In the Torah, God gave Israel an ever expanding set of laws to live by... rules to help them figure out how to make life work. One Christian to another: I don't think God was finished when the last old scroll was written. What God has given us since that time is ongoing and continuous unconditional love so that we can walk life's path, learn the lessons here to be learned, make mistakes, forgive ourselves, pick ourselves up and dust ourselves off (sometimes wiping a little blood off?), and move forward even when we don't live up to what we could be. God gives us relationship...with God and with each other. That is a Torah we can delight in.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Weekly Meditation 5-17-09
www.HopeandHelpCenter.org
Weekly Meditation
by Christine White
Mark 5:24-34
And a large crowd followed Jesus and pressed in on him. Now there was a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years. She had endured much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had; and she was no better, but rather grew worse. She had heard about Jesus, and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, for she said, "If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well." Immediately her hemorrhage stopped; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. Immediately aware that power had gone forth from him, Jesus turned about in the crowd and said, "Who touched my clothes?" And his disciples said to him, "You see the crowd pressing in on you; how can you say, 'Who touched me?'" He looked all around to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling, fell down before him, and told him the whole truth. He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease."
In Jesus' day a woman was considered impure during her monthly menstrual
cycle. Not only was she considered impure, but anyone who came into contact
with her ran the risk of "ritual impurity." Ritual impurity, according to
Jewish law, isolated them from social and religious events. This woman had
endured social isolation for 12 years. She had spent all of her money
searching for a cure. But, nothing had helped. She was desperate!
In her book Adventures in Prayer, Catherine Marshall devotes one chapter
to "The Prayer of Helplessness." Offering several examples of people who
prayed out of a deep feeling of helplessness, she suggests why those prayers
may bring results which praying the same words without that same deep
feeling of helplessness may not. Obviously, the deepest experience of
prayer's impact on us is not about the words, but rather about coming to God
with total honesty and recognition of what we cannot do on our own. Jesus
acknowledges that without God, even he could do nothing (John 5:30).
Why is that true? Why do we need to acknowledge our own helplessness for
prayer to bring results in our lives? Does God need for us to do that? Or
does acknowledging our own helplessness fulfill a need deep within us so
that we can "let go" of our trouble and "let God," heal us? I believe that
God wants us to be whole, wants us to be physically and emotionally
healthy. I don't believe God puts obstacles in our path to prevent our
having an honest and fulfilling relationship with God. Rather, I believe
that something within me requires me to acknowledge my insufficiency so that
I can truly and totally allow myself to receive God's blessing.
Even though I don't completely understand why helplessness (or acknowledging
that I am not in control) is necessary, I know that it is. After the death
of my husband, Michael, I was left alone with total responsibility for our
daughter Jessica. I felt helpless and totally insufficient to protect Jessi
in the same way that I believed Michael had protected her. Not long after
his death, she was in a difficult situation with a select volleyball team
where I felt another adult was being emotionally abusive to her. If I
removed Jessi from that situation, it wasn't certain that she would be able
to continue to play select volleyball, something very important to her. In
desperation, I turned to God, praying out of my deep feeling of
helplessness, explaining that I didn't know what to do or where to turn.
Within days, we received a blessing that I can't explain. I can only give
God the credit. A different select volleyball team's coach called me,
inviting Jessi to try out for his team. For the next two years, she played
on a team where she was loved and cared for in ways that mattered far more
than playing volleyball. I touched the robe of Jesus and received far more
blessings than I ever hoped for.
I went to God emotionally naked and was blessed beyond measure. The
companion Psalm for Sunday's gospel expresses it better than I ever could:
"God, you have turned my mourning into dancing; you have taken off my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, so that my soul may praise you and not be silent. O my God, I will give thanks to you forever." Psalm 30:11-12
Weekly Meditation
by Christine White
Mark 5:24-34
And a large crowd followed Jesus and pressed in on him. Now there was a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years. She had endured much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had; and she was no better, but rather grew worse. She had heard about Jesus, and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, for she said, "If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well." Immediately her hemorrhage stopped; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. Immediately aware that power had gone forth from him, Jesus turned about in the crowd and said, "Who touched my clothes?" And his disciples said to him, "You see the crowd pressing in on you; how can you say, 'Who touched me?'" He looked all around to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling, fell down before him, and told him the whole truth. He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease."
In Jesus' day a woman was considered impure during her monthly menstrual
cycle. Not only was she considered impure, but anyone who came into contact
with her ran the risk of "ritual impurity." Ritual impurity, according to
Jewish law, isolated them from social and religious events. This woman had
endured social isolation for 12 years. She had spent all of her money
searching for a cure. But, nothing had helped. She was desperate!
In her book Adventures in Prayer, Catherine Marshall devotes one chapter
to "The Prayer of Helplessness." Offering several examples of people who
prayed out of a deep feeling of helplessness, she suggests why those prayers
may bring results which praying the same words without that same deep
feeling of helplessness may not. Obviously, the deepest experience of
prayer's impact on us is not about the words, but rather about coming to God
with total honesty and recognition of what we cannot do on our own. Jesus
acknowledges that without God, even he could do nothing (John 5:30).
Why is that true? Why do we need to acknowledge our own helplessness for
prayer to bring results in our lives? Does God need for us to do that? Or
does acknowledging our own helplessness fulfill a need deep within us so
that we can "let go" of our trouble and "let God," heal us? I believe that
God wants us to be whole, wants us to be physically and emotionally
healthy. I don't believe God puts obstacles in our path to prevent our
having an honest and fulfilling relationship with God. Rather, I believe
that something within me requires me to acknowledge my insufficiency so that
I can truly and totally allow myself to receive God's blessing.
Even though I don't completely understand why helplessness (or acknowledging
that I am not in control) is necessary, I know that it is. After the death
of my husband, Michael, I was left alone with total responsibility for our
daughter Jessica. I felt helpless and totally insufficient to protect Jessi
in the same way that I believed Michael had protected her. Not long after
his death, she was in a difficult situation with a select volleyball team
where I felt another adult was being emotionally abusive to her. If I
removed Jessi from that situation, it wasn't certain that she would be able
to continue to play select volleyball, something very important to her. In
desperation, I turned to God, praying out of my deep feeling of
helplessness, explaining that I didn't know what to do or where to turn.
Within days, we received a blessing that I can't explain. I can only give
God the credit. A different select volleyball team's coach called me,
inviting Jessi to try out for his team. For the next two years, she played
on a team where she was loved and cared for in ways that mattered far more
than playing volleyball. I touched the robe of Jesus and received far more
blessings than I ever hoped for.
I went to God emotionally naked and was blessed beyond measure. The
companion Psalm for Sunday's gospel expresses it better than I ever could:
"God, you have turned my mourning into dancing; you have taken off my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, so that my soul may praise you and not be silent. O my God, I will give thanks to you forever." Psalm 30:11-12
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Weekly Meditation for May 10th
www.HopeandHelpCenter.org
Weekly Meditation
by Michael Desmond
John 15:1-8
'I am the true vine, and my Parent is the vine-grower. God removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit God prunes to make it bear more fruit. You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Parent is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and becomemy disciples.
"Bear fruit." That is, do works of love. These are the tangible signs of discipleship.
For, almost unbelievably, we have been grafted into the vine of Jesus and become part of a great and everlasting community. Never alone. We are linked in relationship to the abiding and same love that flows between Jesus and God.
Feel it! The true life force.
So then, may we constantly search for ways to love so that we may bear fruit. Confidently we join with unnumbered other branches to continue to work for the glorification of God. Just as Jesus' own works did.
Also, we have been told that what we ask in prayer will be answered. May we always try to be open to and prayerfully conscious of the many ways that love flows into each of us through the one eternal vine of Jesus.
Weekly Meditation
by Michael Desmond
John 15:1-8
'I am the true vine, and my Parent is the vine-grower. God removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit God prunes to make it bear more fruit. You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Parent is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and becomemy disciples.
"Bear fruit." That is, do works of love. These are the tangible signs of discipleship.
For, almost unbelievably, we have been grafted into the vine of Jesus and become part of a great and everlasting community. Never alone. We are linked in relationship to the abiding and same love that flows between Jesus and God.
Feel it! The true life force.
So then, may we constantly search for ways to love so that we may bear fruit. Confidently we join with unnumbered other branches to continue to work for the glorification of God. Just as Jesus' own works did.
Also, we have been told that what we ask in prayer will be answered. May we always try to be open to and prayerfully conscious of the many ways that love flows into each of us through the one eternal vine of Jesus.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Weekly Meditation May 3rd
www.HopeandHelpCenter.org
Weekly Meditation
by Tom Robertsen
Psalm 23: 1-6 [King James Version]
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
God maketh me to lie down in green pastures: God leadeth me beside the still waters.
God restoreth my soul: God leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for God's name's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
There is hardly any other biblical psalm which sings to us more sweetly or with more comforting assurance than these brief six verses! In fact, some scholars and critics have considered this to be one of the great masterpieces in literary history.
What can say more to us in any tough circumstance than "I shall not want"? And then the psalm writer portrays in one image after another our heavenly Parent as being the inexhaustible, divine Love, which is forever operative on our behalf -- guarding, cherishing, sustaining and protecting us.
While the psalm seems to find its way into nearly every funeral service, it is really not so much about the after-life as about our now-life. In fact, the early Jewish culture gave very little thought to any immortal life to come.
And so, beyond the beautiful imagery of green pastures and still waters, the writer arrives at the point which touches us all so deeply -
"...Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil..."
Not the valley of death, but the shadow of death -- those dark forebodings and fears which come to stand in our way.
I have seen members of my own family -- my parents -- in their declining years often have to face that shadow of death in debilitating illnesses and despair. Yet, in so many ways they seem to see that table of abundance and grace in the wilderness which God provides right out there in the face of all obstacles or enemies.
Perhaps then our truest lesson is in knowing that we dwell forever in the house -- or consciousness -- of the infinite Love, where we can be at one with our heavenly Parent and where we are constantly and continuously lifted up, regenerated and empowered in the divine, eternal workmanship of God.
Yes, goodness and mercy shall follow me. "I shall not want."
Weekly Meditation
by Tom Robertsen
Psalm 23: 1-6 [King James Version]
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
God maketh me to lie down in green pastures: God leadeth me beside the still waters.
God restoreth my soul: God leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for God's name's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
There is hardly any other biblical psalm which sings to us more sweetly or with more comforting assurance than these brief six verses! In fact, some scholars and critics have considered this to be one of the great masterpieces in literary history.
What can say more to us in any tough circumstance than "I shall not want"? And then the psalm writer portrays in one image after another our heavenly Parent as being the inexhaustible, divine Love, which is forever operative on our behalf -- guarding, cherishing, sustaining and protecting us.
While the psalm seems to find its way into nearly every funeral service, it is really not so much about the after-life as about our now-life. In fact, the early Jewish culture gave very little thought to any immortal life to come.
And so, beyond the beautiful imagery of green pastures and still waters, the writer arrives at the point which touches us all so deeply -
"...Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil..."
Not the valley of death, but the shadow of death -- those dark forebodings and fears which come to stand in our way.
I have seen members of my own family -- my parents -- in their declining years often have to face that shadow of death in debilitating illnesses and despair. Yet, in so many ways they seem to see that table of abundance and grace in the wilderness which God provides right out there in the face of all obstacles or enemies.
Perhaps then our truest lesson is in knowing that we dwell forever in the house -- or consciousness -- of the infinite Love, where we can be at one with our heavenly Parent and where we are constantly and continuously lifted up, regenerated and empowered in the divine, eternal workmanship of God.
Yes, goodness and mercy shall follow me. "I shall not want."
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Weekly Meditation April 26, 2009
www.HopeandHelpCenter.org
Weekly Meditation
by Sandra English
Luke 24:36-48
As they were talking about all this, there he was, standing among them. Startled and terrified, they thought they were seeing a ghost. But he said "Why are you so perturbed? Why do questionings arise in your minds? Look at my hands and feet? It is I myself. Touch me and see; no ghost has flesh and bones as you can see that I have. They were still unconvinced, still wondering, for it seemed too good to be true. So he asked them, "Have you anything here to eat?" They offered him piece of fish they had cooked which he took and ate before their eyes.
And he said to them, "This is what I meant by saying, while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and in the prophets and psalms was bound to be fulfilled." Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures. "This," he said, "is what is written: that the Messiah is to suffer death and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that in his name repentance bringing the forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed to all nations. Begin from Jerusalem; it is you who are the witnesses to it all" (The New English Bible/Oxford Study Edition)
Resurrection - rise again (1) a rising from the dead (2) a coming back into notice...revival...the rising of Jesus from the dead...(Webster's New World Dictionary).
Resurrection - return to life, transformation, rebirth; see renewal. (Webster's New World Thesaurus).
Hallelujah! We are in the Resurrection. This is the time when we, as Christians, recognize the coming back to life of Christ.
It's also Spring where we are surrounded by new life in the greenery of trees and shrubs. We see the many magnificent colors of flowers and the birth of many different animals. Once dormant, Nature reminds us of the tremendous renewal that has taken place from the sorrow of Lent to the joy of the risen Christ.
The Joy of this Resurrection is that God is doing a new work in us. We are coming to a new understanding of our relationship with God perhaps through your reading of the Lenten devotions, or during Lent putting away or stopping something that was hindering you or your relationship with God, or following the church's pilgrimage to the cross by attending church during Lent, observing the Maundy Thursday and Good Friday meditations.
Hopefully, these spiritual exercises have made you more contemplative and brought you closer to God. Perhaps you're just beginning with these meditations. Know that through this process you will come to a new understanding of your relationship with God just as Jesus opened the disciples minds - bringing peace to quell their fears and an edict to bear witness to all that they had seen.
The Psalmist realizes that through his fears God has been and continues to be an active presence in his life as reflected in Nan Merril's version of Psalm 4:
Commune with the Heart of your heart
as you rest,
and be in silence.
Make peace with your fears,
and trust in Love...
In peace will I spend my days and
sleep at night;
For You alone, my Beloved
take away my fears.
(Psalms for Praying:
An Invitation to Wholeness
By Nan C. Merrill)
We have a new understanding: as we nurture our relationship with God and allow God to nurture us, we will grow. Inspite of the struggles, fears, and disappointments of our everyday life we have the presence of God with us. God's presence gives us a new understanding: that in the midst of difficult things, God ever present gives us peace, love, joy, hope, and courage.
Weekly Meditation
by Sandra English
Luke 24:36-48
As they were talking about all this, there he was, standing among them. Startled and terrified, they thought they were seeing a ghost. But he said "Why are you so perturbed? Why do questionings arise in your minds? Look at my hands and feet? It is I myself. Touch me and see; no ghost has flesh and bones as you can see that I have. They were still unconvinced, still wondering, for it seemed too good to be true. So he asked them, "Have you anything here to eat?" They offered him piece of fish they had cooked which he took and ate before their eyes.
And he said to them, "This is what I meant by saying, while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and in the prophets and psalms was bound to be fulfilled." Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures. "This," he said, "is what is written: that the Messiah is to suffer death and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that in his name repentance bringing the forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed to all nations. Begin from Jerusalem; it is you who are the witnesses to it all" (The New English Bible/Oxford Study Edition)
Resurrection - rise again (1) a rising from the dead (2) a coming back into notice...revival...the rising of Jesus from the dead...(Webster's New World Dictionary).
Resurrection - return to life, transformation, rebirth; see renewal. (Webster's New World Thesaurus).
Hallelujah! We are in the Resurrection. This is the time when we, as Christians, recognize the coming back to life of Christ.
It's also Spring where we are surrounded by new life in the greenery of trees and shrubs. We see the many magnificent colors of flowers and the birth of many different animals. Once dormant, Nature reminds us of the tremendous renewal that has taken place from the sorrow of Lent to the joy of the risen Christ.
The Joy of this Resurrection is that God is doing a new work in us. We are coming to a new understanding of our relationship with God perhaps through your reading of the Lenten devotions, or during Lent putting away or stopping something that was hindering you or your relationship with God, or following the church's pilgrimage to the cross by attending church during Lent, observing the Maundy Thursday and Good Friday meditations.
Hopefully, these spiritual exercises have made you more contemplative and brought you closer to God. Perhaps you're just beginning with these meditations. Know that through this process you will come to a new understanding of your relationship with God just as Jesus opened the disciples minds - bringing peace to quell their fears and an edict to bear witness to all that they had seen.
The Psalmist realizes that through his fears God has been and continues to be an active presence in his life as reflected in Nan Merril's version of Psalm 4:
Commune with the Heart of your heart
as you rest,
and be in silence.
Make peace with your fears,
and trust in Love...
In peace will I spend my days and
sleep at night;
For You alone, my Beloved
take away my fears.
(Psalms for Praying:
An Invitation to Wholeness
By Nan C. Merrill)
We have a new understanding: as we nurture our relationship with God and allow God to nurture us, we will grow. Inspite of the struggles, fears, and disappointments of our everyday life we have the presence of God with us. God's presence gives us a new understanding: that in the midst of difficult things, God ever present gives us peace, love, joy, hope, and courage.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Remembering Lisa Wagaman 1943-2009
http://www.hopeandhelpcenter.org/
OTHER REFRENCES~ http://stlgayhistory.livejournal.com/29491.html
http://thevitalvoice.com/node/3231
http://spirithelpcenter.blogspot.com/2009/01/lisa-wagman-mccgsl-cornerstones.html
http://www.umsl.edu/~whmc/guides/whm0542.htm
Lisa Wagaman, Longtime St. Louis GLBT Community Activist and Pride St. Louis Board Member Dies At 65
By Colin Murphy - Senior Writer - Posted on April 16th, 2009
Blog Category: News
BY: COLIN MURPHY - SENIOR WRITER
The Vital VOICE has learned of the death of longtime St. Louis GLBT activist and Pride St. Louis Board Member, Lisa Wagaman. She was 65.
"It is with a heavy heart that I share with you that our dear sister Lisa Wagaman has died of natural causes," announced Danny Gladden, Communications and Volunteer Ministries Director for Metropolitan Community Church of Greater St. Louis in an email to the LGBTA ListServe. "Lisa was very active both in our greater community and in the MCC congregation for over 35 years."
According to Gladden, arrangements are pending while the St. Louis Medical Examiner tries to locate next of kin for Wagaman.
"As Lisa's family of choice, we remember the life of a wonderful person who has given so much to the LGBTQA community," Gladden concluded.
In additon to a grateful GLBT community, Wagaman leaves behind her beloved cats who for just recently she was trying to find a new home before moving into senior housing.
Lisa Wagaman was born May 2, 1943 in New Jersey. She grew up in the Garden State, then moved to several large cities including Toledo and Indianapolis before settling in St. Louis in 1972.
Wagaman's activism in the St. Louis GLBT community began in 1974 with her activities in the Metropolitan Community Church of Greater St. Louis. In addition to her work with MCC, she had been a member of Pride St. Louis since it's inception in 1979, serving both as member in good standing and Board Member. She was most recently the Director of Public Safety.
Over the years, Wagaman was associated with an impressive list of organizations including the former Metropolitan Life Service Center, an early GLBT organization which started the Gay and Lesbian Hotiline; as a delagate to the Regional Planning Committee for the 1987 March on Washington; and the St. Louis and Missouri chapters of NOW.
Wagaman, a transwoman, was equally active around transgender issues and organizations over the years.
Known online as MO DYKE, Wagaman also held the distinction of being Missouri's only officially recognized "Dyke" given her uniqe vanity plate which was granted to her after a brief fight with the state.
In 1992, a large collection of Wagaman's papers were donated to the St. Louis GLBT Archives housed at UMSL.
Funeral or memorial arrangements for Wagaman will be reported as they are announced.
In October 2002, in honor of Gay and Lesbian History Month, this reporter profiled Wagaman in the Vital VOICE as part of a story around St. Louis GLBT leaders recalling the early days of activism in the Gateway City. Below is a portion of that story:
GAY HISTORY MONTH
Movers and Shakers Recall St. Louis' GLBT Lore
BY COLIN MURPHY - SENIOR WRITER
Not all that long ago, most of Gay history was passed from one person to another orally. We were too afraid to put the proverbial pen to paper and write it down for fear of being found out. In honor of Gay History Month this October, I spoke with three community activists who together have a combined 80-years in the trenches for the advancement and betterment of our community. Individually, and in their own unique way, they tell a tale of where we have been, where we are and most importantly, where we are going.
LISA WAGAMAN
Born and raised in New Jersy, Lisa Wagaman moved to St. Louis as an adult in 1972 when the St. Louis GLBT community as we know it was in its infancy. She had previously lived in several large cities such as Toledo and Indianapolis, but has called the Gateway City home ever since.
Wagaman is a shy, if not reluctant activist and balks when you suggest that she's been "in the trenches." This, dispite having been active in the St. Louis GLBT community since her arrival. Wagaman has been an active member of the Metropolitan Community Church of Greater St. Louis (MCC) since its founding in 1974. She was also involved with the former Metropolitan Life Service Center (MLSC), a GLBT community organization that started the Gay and Lesbian Hotline in the mid 1970s.
Wagaman served on the Hotline for many years, assisted with training of Hotline volunteers , and served on the MLSC Board of Directors. She also spoke to several college classes on behalf of the organization, in addition to being interviewed on TV and radio talk shows on the subject of GLBT rights. (The hotline was later taken over by The Gay Academic Union, a national organization, and most recently by Challange Metro.)
"The MLSC was the first gay and lesbian community center, if you will, and the brainchild of the late Gailen Moone," said Wagaman. "His thoughts were that there were many community members who were gay but extremely closeted [and needed a place to go.] It was set up at the MCC on Watermen, then moved to McPherson and Euclid; then to a house that was burned but remodeled."
Wagaman has seen many changes come to the St. Louis GLBT community since her arrival three years after Stonewall.
"Today it is amazingly different," Wagaman explained. "MCC was the first organization in the state to own property. We had been renting space from a Presbyterian Church on Olive and then moved to the property on Waterman. The community was basically centered around the bars; which to some degree, it still is. But now, we are far more politically engaged."
Wagaman recalls when the St. Louis GLBT community started its polital engagement when Rick Garcia from the Metro East began mobilizing against Anita Bryant speaking in Kansas City as part of her 1977, "Save the Children" anti-gay campaign. She went on to explain that the political engagement grew from there, and when the AIDS crisis hit, it pushed if further.
In 1979 Wagaman became involved with the Magnolia Committee, which helped to plan the first celebration of Gay and Lesbian Pride in St. Louis at the Washington University campus in 1980. This organization later became what is known as Pride St. Louis of which she is a member in good standing and recently was elected Secretery.
Wagaman still remembers that first Pride celebration, which was called "Lesbians, Gays and Friends Walk for Charity" very well. She described a young woman who had dressed like a clown to disguise herself and the Pride Committee passing out masks to the marchers so they could hide their identity from the media.
"It's been an interesting and rewarding experience seeing the changes I've seen over the years," Wagaman stated. "Now people think nothing of marching in Pride. [And that is due to] the basic recognition of gays as something other than an abnormality or a disease."
"I also think a lot of young people are engaged," Wagaman continued. "There are exceptions to the rule; but look at the organizations here in the schools. We couldn't have done that back in the 1970s and 1980s."
Wagaman has served as an area representative to several conferences of the International Association of Lesbian/Gay Pride Coordinatiors and been an active member of the Metro St. Louis Chapter of the National Organization of Women.
Wagaman's "claim to fame" is that she is the only "officially recognized" Dyke in the state of Missouri by virtue of her unique license plates, "DYKE" which were given to her after a brief fight with the state.
Your can email Colin Murphy at colin_murphy@sbcglobal.net
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