Reading from the Gospels, Year B, Proper 19/Ordinary 24/Pentecost + 15: Mark 8.27-38
I am blissfully holed up in an island house with a group of my seminary girlfriends, where we’ve been been spending the holiday weekend, as planned, talking and eating and walking and resting and reading and talking and eating some more. Today has offered gorgeous weather. Seafood pasta will be on the table in a few minutes. I’m at the computer—briefly—and writing to the sound of lively conversation between the women at this table and the women in the kitchen and to the wondrous sound and smell of garlic and butter sizzling in the skillet. These friends, who have known me nearly half my life, are some of the folks who help me remember who I am and what I hold most important.
Next Sunday’s gospel lection beckons us to ponder what we hold important, what we give our attention to, and what we’re doing with, as Mary Oliver puts it, our “one wild and precious life” (from “The Summer Day”). As the garlic sizzles, I invite you to visit a couple of reflections I’ve written on Jesus’ words to Peter about divine things and human things, and losing one’s life and saving it. A slightly shorter portion of Sunday’s gospel turned up during Lent of this year (Mark 8.31-38); you can click on “Lent 2: In Which We Set Our Minds Somewhere” below to visit my reflection on this passage. Below that, “To Have without Holding” offers a reflection on Matthew’s version of this story (Matthew 16.21-28), which appeared as a gospel lection last year.
Time for that seafood dinner and savoring the pleasures of the table with good friends. May the coming week offer you much sustenance and many delights.
September 8, 2009 at 5:52 PM |
From “To Have without Holding:”
It can be hard, after all, to wrap our brains around the idea that self-denial doesn’t mean giving up who we are at our core, the self that God created us to be.
This is the third time in the last few days that I have come across this idea. Obviously there is a message for me here! I will certainly be looking at it more closely this week. Thank you for sharing this.
December 1, 2009 at 8:00 PM |
Thanks so much, Amy! I’m grateful to you for visiting and for your words. Yes…I try to pay attention when an idea—or quote or book or whatever—keeps crossing my path. I wish you many blessings.
September 9, 2009 at 12:36 AM |
while i am certain your lectionary offerings are wonderful, i am basking in the glorious picture of God represented in the humanity of your women friendships and all they encompass. sounds like a well-deserved retreat for all. blessings.
December 1, 2009 at 8:02 PM |
Many kind thanks, Lucy! Yes—I definitely find the presence of God revealed in the friendship of these women. It was a wondrous retreat! Thank you for visiting and for your words are for your wondrous blog! Blessings to you.