I am considering a change of approach for the lectionary. One that will (a) speed things up a bit (b) use less bandwidth (c) require more thought and prayer, and less links.

Over the last couple of months I have been using a lot of rhetoric. It has been fairly easy to find twitter posts that give negative examples. It is also very clear that the elite and their minions are against us.

But I want to stop talking with cunning. I have another blog for rants, where I can carefully write essays. Using rhetoric is useful in public discourse, but is not useful when talking about the things of God.

For the things of God must be the things of truth. To look at our lives, clearly, is to see fault and flaw. It is bleak: it would lead to despair if God did not give us hope.

Isaiah 30:18-21
Therefore the LORD waits to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to show mercy to you. For the LORD is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him. Truly, O people in Zion, inhabitants of Jerusalem, you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when he hears it, he will answer you. Though the Lord may give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself any more, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. And when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left, your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”

2 Corinthians 4:1-6
Therefore, since it is by God’s mercy that we are engaged in this ministry, we do not lose heart. We have renounced the shameful things that one hides; we refuse to practice cunning or to falsify God’s word; but by the open statement of the truth we commend ourselves to the conscience of everyone in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake. For it is the God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

One of the truths of this life is that there will be times of illness and affliction. We will all die: we will all have periods when we are ill. I have a prayer list that I do not spend enough time with — that currently is full of people who are ill or dying. Some have ongoing disabilities. And some have walked away from a false faith of a converged church.

I pray that God will restore them all: for I know that in the life to come in our flesh we sill see God. All of us. And it will terrify many, for they denied the Christ in this life and their error has damned them.

But the faithful are not spared suffering: that is left to the damned. We are the ones who are told to fear the changing fashions of this current year and that we must change lest we offend, lest we call evil a sin, and state that your greed, gluttony or lusts will blind you, make you a fool, then destroy you.

But the gospel must be preached. The lectionary will go up. There will be less sarcasm in the lectionary posts. I will probably double post most mornings. I will have to break some bad habits, such as being cunning, using the tricks of the lawyer and poet, and use these posts to merely preach the gospel.