Happy Mother’s Day

 

 

But filled with the Holy Spirit, he gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. "Look," he said, "I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!" But they covered their ears, and with a loud shout all rushed together against him. Then they dragged him out of the city and began to stone him; and the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. While they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Then he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." When he had said this, he died.

Acts 7:55-60

 

The Stoning of Stephen

19th century

Stained glass

Kölner Dom

Cologne

Germany

 

"'The perfect martyr' is the epithet given to Stephen in the conclusion to the early Christian narrative of the martyrs of Vienne and Lyons (Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 5.2.5). This essay argues that the narrative of the stoning of Stephen in Acts 6:8-8:1 does indeed depict a perfect martyr -- one perfectly suited, that is, to Luke's rhetorical purposes in the two-volume work now known as the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles. In this work Luke constructs for followers of "the Way" a genealogy reaching back into Israelite traditions, and a sociology that drives a wedge between them and their Jewish contemporaries. One means by which Acts constructs a divide between "the Way" and "The Jews" is to portray the former as compatible, and the latter as imcompatible, with Roman juridical ideas. While ecclesial traditions of Jesus' death under Pontius Pilate and Paul's death in Rome posed a potential fault line in this construction, the killing of Stephen is an episode that is free from Roman juridical involvement. In Luke's telling, the death of Stephen through a stoning carried out by an unruly mob underscores Jewish barbarity, creates a breach between the church and the Jews, and brackets Romans out of the originary violence that produced the church's first martyred follower of Jesus and marked its first great expansion." (Gibson/Matthews, 124)

 

http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/diglib-fulldisplay.pl?SID=20200509196240395&code=ACT&RC=54257&Row=1

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whatever you’re feeling in your heart,

[notice] how the body feels as you consider

the possibility that grief can be a profoundly

humanizing experience

and bring greater depth into our lives.

~ Joan Halifax

 

 

 

 

Whatever you are,

be a good one.

~ Abraham Lincoln*

 

 

 

 



More Zooming

Johanna Morrell showed us what she is working on during our Painted Toe virtual lunch.





She transfers some of it to plexiglass. 

I’m eager to see the finished product.



The painting below was done this week by a former Painted Toe Art Society (PTS)

member who now lives in Crested Butte.

'Corvid Warns of Covid'

by Peggy Morgan Stenmark

Peggy wrote on Facebook, "The pandemic has caused no small amount of anxiety for me, and painting is a good way to release some of that.  I loosely modeled this after the World War II posters that were produced to encourage the public to support the war effort. An interesting exercise to do this painting, and, like most of my projects, I learned a lot."



 

Sharifa Moore, the new curator of art and education at the

Center for the Arts Evergreen, is teaching a Zoom class

on photography.



Perhaps I can learn how to take pictures without always using the automatic setting?





Rich Levine, an Evergreen attorney, spoke to Rotary about Special Olympics and how

this community organization makes a difference.

 

Special Olympics Colorado serves more than 15,000 athletes with intellectual disabilities throughout the state.

 

Mother’s Day in Tokyo!

Niece Robin Sakamoto, now a grandmother!

 

Ray Yoshioka, Robin’s grandson #1.

Born January 15, 2020

 

Grandmother Robin Sakamoto with Meishi Sakakibara

Grandson #2.

Born February 6, 2020

 

 

 

The only time we ever know what’s really going on

is when the rug’s been pulled out and we can’t find anywhere to land.

We use these situations either to wake ourselves up

or to put ourselves to sleep.

Right now — in the very instant of groundlessness —

is the seed of taking care of those who need our care

and of discovering our goodness.

~ Pema Chödrön

 

 

 

 

May 10, 2020   Fifth Sunday of Easter Year A

 

Previous OPQs may be found at: 

     http://www.dotjack.com/opq.htm

 

* Sometimes attributed to William Makepeace Thackeray

 

[Jesus said:] "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house there are many dwelling-places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going." Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?" Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him."

Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied." Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it."

John 14:1-14

Agnus Day, by James Wetzstein

Agnus Day appears with the permission of www.agnusday.org

 

 

 

Listen here:

https://www.andiesisle.com/mothersday.html

 

 

 

 

Acts 7:55-60
Psalm 31:1-5,15-16
1 Peter 2:2-10
John 14:1-14

 

Acts 7:55-60

But filled with the Holy Spirit, he gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. "Look," he said, "I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!" But they covered their ears, and with a loud shout all rushed together against him. Then they dragged him out of the city and began to stone him; and the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. While they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Then he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." When he had said this, he died.

Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16

In you, O God,
   I seek refuge;
do not let me ever be 
   put to shame;
in your righteousness 
   deliver me.

Incline your ear to me;
   rescue me speedily.
Be a rock of refuge for me,
   a strong fortress to save me.

You are indeed my rock
   and my fortress;
for your name's sake
   lead me and guide me,

take me out of the net
   that is hidden for me,
for you are my refuge.

Into your hand I commit 
   my spirit;
you have redeemed me, O God, 
   O faithful God.

My times are in your hand;
   deliver me from the hand
of my enemies and persecutors.

Let your face shine 
   upon your servant;
save me in your steadfast love.

1 Peter 2:2-10

Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation — if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God's sight, and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in scripture:
   "See, I am laying in Zion a stone,
      a cornerstone chosen and precious;
      and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame."

To you then who believe, he is precious; but for those who do not believe,
   "The stone that the builders rejected
      has become the very head of the corner,"

and

   "A stone that makes them stumble,
      and a rock that makes them fall."

They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

   Once you were not a people,
      but now you are God's people;
   once you had not received mercy,
      but now you have received mercy.

John 14:1-14

[Jesus said:] "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house there are many dwelling-places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going." Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?" Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him."

Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied." Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it."