Ordinary 19B (August 12, 2012) Ephesians 4:25-5:2
     My apologies for being 'AWOL' the last 2 Sundays -- I was on vacation!

                 26 Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger,  
                 27and do not make room for the devil....29 Let no evil talk come out 
                 of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is 
                 need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear. 30 And 
                 do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked 
                 with a seal for the day of redemption.         Ephesians 4:26-27, 29-30

Paul (or one of his students) gives us a pretty fair blueprint of how to live the Christian life in this passage, ending with the call to be imitators of God and live in love as did Christ. And it's not anything new or ridiculous, like if he told us to purify our hearts by holding our breath for 5 minutes, or to eat and sleep with pigs as penance for lying to your neighbor!

No, we are simply instructed to tell the truth, told it's alright to get angry (just not to let it fester so as to create an opening for the evil one), stop stealing, no more evil talk, only speak what is edifying and grace-filled (and take care not to cause the Holy Spirit of God any grief!), Don't be bitter, wrathful, don't even think about malice or slander.  No, just be kind, tenderhearted, and forgiving of one another. Simple things, right?  

HAH!

     + is there any real hope that a family can exist with little or no 
       gossiping, back-biting, complaining? what about a company?
       a church?
    + can we ever hope to see a positive political campaign again?
    + why are we humans so good at remembering when it comes to
       having been wronged ..... and find it just about impossible to
       truly forgive?

The book that started a whole series of events into motion....

One little psalter and we have both the basis of copyright law that still stands today AND (to my knowledge) the cause of the very first HYMNAL WAR!!!      (A.D. 6th Century)

Watchtower on the wall built to separate the Catholic neighborhood of Boggtown from Protestant Derry. It was here that Columba (Colm Cille) was serving when he  self-imposed  banishment from his beloved Ireland as penance for the lives of those who died in battle over 'his' psalter.

Empty police barracks in Belfast once used for British troops

The River Coe flowing down a few kilometers to what was, in 1692, the highland community of Glencoe, of the clan MacDonald. A surprise attack in the night by lowland soldiers enjoying the clan's hospitality forced the men to attempt escape up along the river. In 'The Massacre of Glencoe' as it is still called, 38 men were murdered, and 40 women and children were left to die of exposure when their homes were burned in the mid-February winter..

 

A colleague touches the marker of paving stones laid out in a W over a G next to a parked car in St. Andrew's, Scotland. At that place George Wishart was burnt at the stake as one of the first Protestant martyrs in Scotland.

The infamous Field of Flodden, where the fairest of Scotland's future were all killed in 1513.

  

Seen in the first half hour after we landed in Dublin, Ireland. Perhaps one day we will listen  just a bit better to Paul or Jesus or at least God! and put a stop to senseless killing -- and just learn to 'get along'.