Ek hou van die NNT se vertaling van 2 Korintiërs 13. Eerstens omdat dit vir my ‘n regtige mooi vertaling is. Maar ek lees die vertaling (spesifiek weens ander vertalings se gebruik van die woord “vermaning”, wat nie ‘n goeie vertaling is nie. Die woord is eerder “bemoediging” – en daar is tog ‘n radikale verskil tussen vermaan en bemoedig. Daarom dié vertaling:
11Laastens my liewe familie in die Here: Wees vol vreugde. Mag julle heeltemal toegerus wees vir julle werk. Mag julle getroos wees deur die Here. Mag julle eensgesind wees. Mag julle in vrede leef. God, wat die oorsprong van liefde en vrede is, sal met julle wees. 12 Groet mekaar met daardie heilige soen waarmee gelowiges mekaar groet. Al die heiliges wat aan God behoort, groet julle. 13Die oorstromende genade van ons Here, Jesus Christus, en die nimmereindigende liefde van God, en die spesiale geloofsgemeenskap van die Gees is met julle almal.
is a heartache and difficult to achieve because strangely, it not only refuses to eliminate the original wound, but actually draws us closer to its source. To approach forgiveness is to close in on the nature of the hurt itself, the only remedy being, as we approach its raw center, to reimagine our relation to it.
Stranger still, it is that wounded, branded, un-forgetting part of us that eventually makes forgiveness an act of compassion rather than one of simple forgetting.To forgive is to assume a larger identity than the person who was first hurt, to mature and bring to fruition an identity that can put its arm, not only around the afflicted one within but also around the memories seared within us by the original blow and through a kind of psychological virtuosity, extend our understanding to one who first delivered it.
Forgiveness is a heartache and difficult to achieve because strangely, it not only refuses to eliminate the original wound, but actually draws us closer to its source.
– David Whyte
Forgiveness is a skill, a way of preserving clarity, sanity and generosity in an individual life, a beautiful way of shaping the mind to a future we want for ourselves; an admittance that if forgiveness comes through understanding, and if understanding is just a matter of time and application then we might as well begin forgiving right at the beginning of any drama rather than put ourselves through the full cycle of festering, incapacitation, reluctant healing and eventual blessing.
To forgive is to put oneself in a larger gravitational field of experience than the one that first seemed to hurt us. We reimagine ourselves in the light of our maturity and we reimagine the past in the light of our new identity, we allow ourselves to be gifted by a story larger than the tory that first hurt us and left us bereft.
At the end of life, the wish to be forgiven is ultimately the chief desire of almost every human being. In refusing to wait; in extending forgiveness to others now, we begin the long journey of becoming the person who will be large enough, able enough and generous enough to receive, at the very end, that absolution ourselves.
From: Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words by David J. Whyte
“Some people are looking for a fight, because they aren’t in one.”
Hierdie aanhaling – oor woede, maar uiteindelik oor roeping – bly my by. Elkeen van ons is geskape met ‘n godgegewe roeping. “Sealed orders”, soos sommige tradisies dit noem. Iets waaroor ons profeties woedend moet raak, waaraan ons iets moet doen.
Wanneer ons egter nie daardie godgegewe roeping in die oog het nie, dan is ons woede soos ‘n los draad wat in die wind rondwaai en heen en weer gepluk word. Dit tref alles, want dis nie geanker waar dit hoort nie.
Nou wonder ek, kan dit dalk wees hoekom almal deesdae so maklik kwaad raak oor enige ding? Hoekom “onse mense” so sóék na ‘n onreg waaroor hulle voicenotes kan aanstuur en mekaar kan opsweep?
Oral om my sien ek ego-gedrewe woede. Die uitdaging, dink ek, is om dit te vervang met roeping-gedrewe woede.
‘n Volledige erediens, met eksegesie, liturgie en preekvoorstel, vir 6 Desember 2020, met die oog op die 16 Dae van Aktivisme teen Geweld teen Vroue en Kinders
Ek wil jou vra om bietjie te dink aan jou lewe op die oomblik. Wat lê agter jou – dalk as jy oor die jaar terugkyk? Is daar dinge wat jy agterlaat, wat jy vanjaar verloor het, bekende maniere van lewe wat nou nie meer bestaan nie?
As jy kyk na die toekoms, wat is die onsekerheid, onrustigheid, vrae, opgewondenheid, beloftes – waarna kyk jy as jy na die toekoms kyk?
Julle weet mos hoe kluisenaarskrappe werk. Die krappie het nie sy eie dop nie, so hy vind ‘n leë skulp en woon daarin. Totdat hy daardie skulp ontgroei. Dan beweeg hy uit die leë skulpie uit en soek ‘n nuwe, groter leë skulp.
Maar daardie tussen-in fase, tussen skulpies… dis ‘n baie gevaarlike fase vir die krappie. Want nou het hy nie ‘n harde skulpie wat hom beskerm nie. Hy is broos, kaal, uitgelewer, skulp-loos.
I was asked to talk about loss. So I want to invite you to think of that first Easter morning. Try to imagine how the people felt: the expectations they had of Jesus, having lived with him every day, all day, for years. Then they saw him being tortured. Saw him die.
We read in John 20:1
Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb.
Then Mary ran, told two of the male disciples, they came back with her, only saw linen wrappings in the tomb, and left. Mary stayed behind.
The theologian Sandra Schneiders describes the movement in the rest of the story as weeping, turning and announcing. I want to look at Mary’s experience at the tomb – and our experiences of loss – according to these three movements: weeping, turning and going.
Ek en die geliefde is nog nie klaar met die Psalms-stiltetydmateriaal nie. Dis toe baie harder werk as wat ek gedink het, so ons vorder maar stadig. Tog besef ek daar is mense wat meer pligstegrou is en dalk nou nuwe materiaal soek.
Ek wou graag fokus op die werk van die Gees, hier tussen Paasfees en Pinkster. Daarom dat ek besluit het om ietsie te doen oor Handelinge.
Handelinge is nie een van my gunsteling boeke in die Bybel nie. Dit het ook baie minder van ‘n persoonlike fokus as die Psalms. Meer as meeste van die boeke in die Bybel, fokus dit op die kerk, eerder as die individu se lewe saam met God. Die uitdaging om daarvoor materiaal te skryf, is heelwat groter. As jy die Psalms-materiaal gedoen het, sal jy sien dat hier heelwat meer inhoud is. Ek gee heelwat meer insette.
Dit beteken ongelukkig ook dat ek nog nie klaar is nie. Maar nou besef ek dat sommige mense dalk al klaar is met Psalms. So, hier is solank ‘n gedeelte van Handelinge, vir 2 weke.
As jy wil, is jy welkom om ‘n donasie te maak. Maar jy is welkom om die materiaal te gebruik, ook sonder ‘n donasie. Ek sou dit in elke geval (mettertyd) geskryf het.
Greetings friends. From my home to your home, we gather for this year’s Holy Thursday celebrations. My prayer is that the Spirit will touch us and move as we reflect together.
This year’s celebration may look different, but the Scripture stays the same:
Before we consider this Holy Thursday in 2020, I want to point to three things in the text:
When John says in verse 4 that Jesus “got up from the table” – Greek ἐγείρω – he is using the same word that Luke uses in 24:5 He is not here, but has risen. As William F Browsend says,
This getting up from table, taking basin and towel, was not an act of weakness, but an act of powerful and empowering service, … nothing less than a foretaste of the resurrection.
Bartlett, David L.. Feasting on the Word: Year A, Volume 2: Lent through Eastertide (Feasting on the Word: Year A volume) . Presbyterian Publishing Corporation. Kindle Edition.
The second thing is a reminder that God is love. Today’s story reminds is that “[t]o love is to serve. Love demands that we stretch beyond the boundaries of comfort to attend to the needs of others.”
[Johnathan L Walton in Joel B. Green, Thomas G. Long, Luke A. Powery, Cynthia L. Rigby, Carolyn J. Sharp. Connections: A Lectionary Commentary for Preaching and Worship (Kindle Locations 5183-5184). Presbyterian Publishing Corporation. Kindle Edition.]
Ek en my geliefde wil graag saam Bybel lees, maar ons sukkel om materiaal te kry wat vir ons werk. Plus, ons is geneig om aspris halstarrig te wees. As die materiaal bv. vra: “Hoe laat dit jou voel?” is ek geneig om te antwoord: “Lekker”. Ek lei af ander egpare sukkel ook (hoewel dalk nie op dieselfde manier nie).
Daarom het ek besluit om vir ons materiaal saam te stel. Die idee is gewoon om saam ‘n stukkie te lees en dan daaroor te gesels. Die doel is om geloofservaring te deel, nie om diepe studies te doen en inligting te versamel nie.
Die verwagting is nie dat dit vir almal sal werk nie, maar mense is welkom om dit te gebruik. As dit werk, wonderlik. As dit nie vir julle werk nie, you do you.
Daar is ook ‘n weergawe van dieselfde ding, maar vir individue. Ek sal mettertyd ‘n Engelse ene vir paartjies maak.
Die materiaal kan dalk ook werk vir gesinne met ouer kinders, of vir kleingroepe wat bereid is om dieper te deel.
Jy sal sien daar is ‘n opsie om ‘n donasie te maak. As jy wil. Daar is regtig geen verwagting nie. Gebruik dit, deel dit, hopelik geniet julle dit.
Parkeerplek 