Sunday, February 22, 2009

Tired Of Cold Weather!

I have stayed home all day and have not left my house except for a brief moment when I walked to the end of my driveway to pick up my morning newspaper. It is cold outside. The temperature has been in the 20's all day and light snow flurries waft through the air. Even though I love snow and even enjoy cold weather, I am tired of winter. I long for a spring day full of sunshine and the fresh smell of clean air and blossoming flowers and budding trees. My mind drifts to the picture above. This is the small village in France where I stayed a few years ago. I don't expect to be in France again anytime soon so I would be just as happy to see spring in Kentucky.
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It's been a quiet day of reading and doing the laundry. After the long day I had yesterday it was good to get a full night's sleep. I still got up early, made a pot of my beloved coffee and read the morning news. Tomorrow it is back to work for another week. I don't mind working and I even enjoy what I do. However, I enjoy not working and what I do at home even more. If I could just convince my employer to keep depositing money into my bank account even if I stop coming to the office!
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In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says there are three basic obstacles to the coming of the Kingdom. These are the three P’s: power, prestige and possessions. Nine-tenths of his teaching can be aligned under one of those three categories. I’m all for sexual morality, but Jesus does not say that’s the issue. In fact, he says the prostitutes are getting into the Kingdom of God before some of us who have made bedfellows with power, prestige and possessions (see Matthew 21:31-32). Those three numb the heart and deaden the spirit, says Jesus. Read Luke’s Gospel. Read the Sermon on the Mount. Read Matthew’s Gospel and tell me if Jesus is not saying that power, prestige and possessions are the barriers to truth and are the barriers to the Kingdom. I’m not pointing to Church leadership, I’m pointing to us as the Church. The Church has been comfortable with power, prestige and possessions for centuries and has not called that heresy. You can’t see your own sin.
-from Radical Grace: Daily Meditations by Richard Rohr

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