From: your-daily-tripod+noreply@googlegroups.com
Date: Tue, 24 Aug 2010 04:34:17 +0000
Subject: [Your Daily Tripod] Digest for
your-daily-tripod@googlegroups.com - 1 Message in 1 Topic
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Today's Topic Summary
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- Come and See (August 24) [1 Update]
http://groups.google.com/group/your-daily-tripod/t/f46c3c00201473de
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Topic: Come and See (August 24)
Url: http://groups.google.com/group/your-daily-tripod/t/f46c3c00201473de
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From: The Lighthouse Keeper <dxfaro@cox.net>
Date: Aug 23 04:56PM -0700
Url: http://groups.google.com/group/your-daily-tripod/msg/332c11679b70fce8
Feast of St. Bartholomew, Apostle
By Beth DeCristofaro
Your friends make known, O Lord, the glorious splendor of your
Kingdom. Let all your works give you thanks, O LORD, and let your
faithful ones bless you. (Psalm 145: 10,12)
Philip found Nathanael and told him, "We have found the one about whom
Moses wrote in the law, and also the prophets, Jesus son of Joseph,
from Nazareth." But Nathanael said to him, "Can anything good come
from Nazareth?" Philip said to him, "Come and see." (John 1: 45-46)
Piety
O Lord, I seek to be your friend. I am joyful and humbled that you
have already chosen to be my friend. Help me be free of racism,
intolerance, and impatience with those who are different or who do not
live up to my expectations. Help me refrain from snap judgments and
condemnation of what I do not fully understand. Help me instead to
open myself to your presence and your mercy and recognize your
friendship with those who are different from me. You alone are King
over the glorious splendor of your Kingdom.
Study
"Can anything good come from Nazareth?" Not exactly the kind of
thought we might expect from a future apostle! But, truth be told,
certainly something you might hear from the guy who lives down the
street…or from your own lips. Just this morning while talking with my
family about a person who did something rather demeaning to a friend,
I heard myself saying "Well, I sure hope he gets what's coming to
him!" Oops, as if I know the entire situation and the truth of it,
"Come and see," Philip says. Hold your judgment and your small
mindedness, he declares. Come and see what God has in store. God alone
knows the fullness of truth.
Today the question in the U.S. seems to be "Can anything good come
from a Muslim community center and mosque?" It is as if what we hold
as a primary truth in our identity as loyal Americans and Christians –
that fanatic men who claimed to be good Muslims deliberately and
cruelly destroyed and killed thousands of lives – is more important
than the faith in action of this group of Americans who want to
worship God and bring recreation to the neighborhood. This mosque is
not being built on the twin towers' footprint.
Bartholomew and Nathaniel are thought to be one and the same person.
Even though Nathaniel had just dismissed and ridiculed him, Jesus
called Nathaniel an Israelite without duplicity. Are we without
duplicity? Can we "come and see" where God is within those who are
different? Can we withhold our preconceived, self-centeredness and
give space for the actions of God in our lives, our country, our
world? Remember, just on Friday, the reading from Ezekiel showed God
restoring life to dry, brittle bones. God can bring good even from
Nazareth, from another religion, from death, from those who are mean,
thoughtless, faithless, or even someone of another political/ethnic
persuasion.
Action
Jesus was born in that dumpy town of Nazareth. Wonder if he was born
on the wrong side of the tracks?
God gave me life. The fact that I am an American citizen is a
wonderful, serendipitous gift. My life as a God-beloved being trumps
my citizenship as it should for all my fellow Americans. How can I
extend welcome to other God-created beings instead of putting up the
walls of identity as a citizen which is a human created state?
--
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