Monthly Archives: May 2010

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I watched the final episode of "Lost" last night.  I've watched every episode, beginning to end.  This one was hard - not only because a series that I've enjoyed ALL of it is over...but also the hodgepodge of emotions that I felt as I watched this final segment.

The struggle of "good" against "evil" (although both of the characters representing these things were a mixture of good and evil) was only a minor part (at least for me.)

In the struggle against "evil", the characters marched forward, feeling obligation, but also seemed to have a feeling of inevitability - this was their calling and they were going to fill it.

Throughout this episode (the hardest part for me) was the memories and reunions.  The "back and forth" from the island to "real life" - which was real?

Where somebody died on the island...they were reunited with their lover.

Where somebody left, they were returned to the arms of the one they loved.

Somebody forgotten...remembered.

In the end...all were brought back to where they were supposed to be.  It was all an illusion.  "Everybody dies."

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There's errands I need to run - bike store, groceries, post office, Meijer Garden (sans students)

I want to spend time on my blog - get back into it, organize themes and delete a few that I don't like.  Expect change.

I guess that's the way life is...expect change.  Then change won't blind side you...or maybe it will anyway.

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Three years ago I wrote about "Ancient History" and Mother's Day.

Last week, a well known man (Ernie Harwell) died of the same cancer that killed my husband - a rare and aggressive sort that the oncologist called "pancreatic cancer's evil cousin."

This Mother's Day I'm going to a great brunch with my husband's sisters and my son and daughter.  Yesterday we had a "board game" time with the young man who may very well become my son-in-law.

Time goes on.  Moving on with life brings healing.

I learn that there is an urgency to the Gospel.

In the words of Harwell,

"And also, I think that when I heard the news, that I had this cancer, that I had a feeling of security and serenity ... but I had a feeling of acceptance because of my belief in Jesus and the Lord."

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From "Puritan Paperbacks"

I've been working through a study on the Lord's Supper - leaving one church, looking for another - I find kinship in those congregations with a rich liturgy, could find a place in a Lutheran church (LCMS), but I cannot and will not be in a church with closed communion.

What does the "Lord's Supper" mean and what is it supposed to represent?

I've just finished reading the "Epistle to the Reader" (the message in the beginning of the book from Watson).

When I contemplate the holiness and solemnity of the blessed sacrament, I cannot but have some ache upon my spirit, and think myself bound to hold this mystery in the highest veneration.  The elements of bread and wine are in themselves common but, under these symbolical representations, lie hid divine excellencies.  Behold here the best of dainties, God is in his cheer.  Here is the apple of the Tree of Life; here is the "banqueting house" where the banner of free grace is gloriously displayed, "He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me is love" (Song of Sol. 2:4)

Watson strove for the "correct middle" - between two extremes that he thought should be avoided - transubstantiation (which he believed was contrary to reason and Scripture and that - he thought - profaned Christ's institution of the supper; and mere symbolism, which aimed short of the mystery and fell short of the comfort.

According to the forward, Watson built on the teachings of Calvin, who believed that this sacrament was a means of grace, through faith - in which Christ works effectually within the believer.