Fifth Sunday of Easter, May 18, 2025
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
From May 15 through May 21, I’ll be traveling, to a wedding in Evansville, then to see friends in Murray, Kentucky and finally back to Urbana to spend ten weeks or so in Illinois. The devotions I chose from 2022 and 2023 use the same lectionary cycles (Year I weekdays and Year A Sunday). The dates are different, but the texts for each of the various days of Easter are the same.
Fifth Sunday of Easter, May 15, 2022
Like talking till midnight in our college dorm
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. The former heaven and the former earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. I saw the holy city, a new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
Rather than using our limited energy on one overnight road trip in the 95 degree sun, to Kerrville, the Hill Country, and the Sculpture Prayer Garden of the Coming King, Margaret and I took time for two dates this weekend, and two meals of outstanding Texas barbeque.
We put together a puzzle, watched PBS shows on historic homes, women and Rte 66, and Gruene, Texas, courtesy of the Daytripper. We read devotions and listened to a cogent summary of Franciscan theology from Richard Rohr.
Behold, God’s dwelling is with the human race. He will dwell with them and they will be his people and God himself will always be with them as their God.
Saturday morning we made it to Miles’ last soccer class this year, and fulfilling Jasper’s desire for a “family” outing with all of us. We kicked our own ball around while Miles played soccer with his nine classmates. Then the Tomitas went off to host a lemonade stand, and we drove south, to the Barton Creek Farmers’ Market, where we found wonderful and exotic foods and skin creams and even some brand new young carrots, complete with their green tops.
After kind of getting lost out by the airport and the Meanwhile Brewing Company, where hundreds of people were getting ready for a free concert, we gave up on finding our favorite food truck from 2021, called “Distant Relatives,” and headed toward not-quite-downtown to a new place, called, “Rollin Smoke:”
The best thing about this place: if you cannot decide what you want, just get a playboy and you get a piece of everything from their delicious menu. – from a patron’s review
And that’s what I did, got the Playboy sandwich, among a few other things. Margaret got another half pound of moist brisket (last night from Rudy’s and today from Rollin Smoke), and we headed home. The better part of valor. Food and naps.
But then, after reading today’s devotion, we settled into a long conversation about life and our marriage and God and “alternative orthodoxies” regarding Jesus and the church. Such a highlight of two good days together.
I felt like we were sitting in a college dorm, exploring ideas too deep for our minds but too enticing to ignore. It was a wonderful hour or so, just like it would have been at Valpo, or Murray State, or Lincoln Christian Seminary many years ago, when we would have had much more energy, but much less experience with life.
And yes, there is another Appendix that came to mind. This one is Appendix Nine from Richard Rohr’s The Naked Now, which he titles The Shining Word ‘And’:
And teaches us to say yes
And allows us to be both-and
And keeps us from either-or
And teaches us to be patient and long-suffering
And is willing to wait for insight and integration
And keeps us from dualistic thinking
And does not divide the field of the moment
And helps us to live in the always imperfect now
And keeps us inclusive and compassionate toward everything
And demands that our contemplation become action
And insists that our action is also contemplative
And heals our racism, sexism, heterosexism, and classism
And keeps us from the false choice of liberal or conservative
And allows us to critique both sides of things
And allows us to enjoy both sides of things
And is far beyond any one nation or political party
And helps us face and accept our own dark side
And allows us to ask for forgiveness and to apologize
And is the mystery of paradox in all things
And is the way of mercy
And make daily, practical love possible
And does not trust love if it is not also justice
And does not trust justice if it is not also love
And is far beyond my religion versus your religion
And allows us to be both distinct and yet united
And is the very Mystery of Trinity
The One who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.”
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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