Biblical Unicorns?!

http://maggietalksbacktotheologybooks.tumblr.com/post/133782664821/from-st-justin-martyrs-dialogue-with-trypho

"... And when he smiles the sun comes out"

Happy Birthday, Larry!

The founder and "baby" of U2 turned 54 today
(Though he clearly hasn't aged a day since 18)

I have been very interested in the interactions and relationships of the members of U2. By the end of September 2016 they will have been together for 40 years. Most interesting to me is the way these men talk about one another. They joke and tease one another and no relationship seems more abrasive than that between Bono and Larry.  Truth be told, when you get them to be serious and speak from the heart the reality seems that they may be the closest two in the band.

We all know, particularly with this most recent album and the song 'Iris', that Bono lost his mother at the age of 14.  Perhaps less known is that two years later in that first year these four young men are together as a band, Larry's mother died in a car crash. The way Larry speaks of how Bono helped him through shows the strength of their friendship:

"He came around to my house and just said, "Look, I understand what's going on, because it happened to me, and maybe I can help you. And that was --you know, and he, he basically forced me to be in the band. When I say that, I mean, he, he wouldn't let me go.

DO YOU HAVE A FLAG? - Sermon on Mark 7

Following the scripture reading I read a parable called Finding Faith out of Peter Rollins' book The Orthodox Heretic. The central point for the congregation to consider dealt with what needed to happen in order for someone to receive the gospel.

After the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp was liberated in 1945, shortly after the arrival of the British Red Cross to the camp, a particular supply arrived that Lt Colonel Gonin in his diary said did more for the internees who were liberated than anything else they had received.

Does anyone know or have a guess as to what that supply might have been?
"I can give no adequate description of the Horror Camp in which my men and myself were to spend the next month of our lives. It was just a barren wilderness, as bare as a chicken run. Corpses lay everywhere, some in huge piles, sometimes they lay singly or in pairs where they had fallen. It took a little time to get used to seeing men women and children collapse as you walked by them and to restrain oneself from going to their assistance. One had to get used early to the idea that the individual just did not count. One knew that five hundred a day were dying and that five hundred a day were going on dying for weeks before anything we could do would have the slightest effect."

Imitate Christ - Sermon Philippians 2:1-18

Typically when this passage from Philippians is read we stop at verse 11. For a congregation grieving the departure of a pastor I think it may appropriate to read through probably verse 13. However most pertinently, for members of the body of Christ needing to stand in solidarity with brothers and sisters in Christ who, for the second Sunday in a row met this morning also without a pastor, without many of their pastors, because of them I think we need to read through verse 18.

            This is what struck me very keenly last Sunday as the names of the 9 killed were read aloud. We were able to say goodbye to our pastor with thanksgiving and a celebration that we were able to share with him.  Mother Emanuel AME Church gathered last Sunday and this morning following incidents of murder and hate that stole their pastors and loved ones from them. We should, and must grieve. Change IS hard and much love has been shared in this place.  While we hold our own grief, let us not do so in isolation from those suffering immensely in our world. We are still needed to be the church in this place and Jesus Christ continues to call us into reconciliation with God and one another.

            In these verses we hear the apostle Paul pleading with the congregation at Philippi to imitate Christ. Paul is asking for Christ’s sake, that the gospel may be shared and God’s love may be known.  Paul is also asking for their sake, that they will care for, look after, and love one another. Finally He is asking this for his own sake as he, who has been a pastor to them, is apart from them and knows he may never see them again.

And so we, the portion of the people of God present here today, who call ourselves Maplewood Presbyterian Church hear now -from Philippians Chapter 2 verses 1-18-  the word of God for ALL the People of God:

If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, ²make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. ³Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. ⁴Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. ⁵Let the same mind be in you that was^* in Christ Jesus,