Archbishop Mor Severius Jamil Hawa of Baghdad & Basra was elected as Locum Tenens (Kaimakham) as per Article 29 of the Constitution of the Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch by the Holy Synod held on Wednesday, March 26, 2014 at St. Aphrem Cathedral, Beirut under the Presidentship of His Beatitude, the Catholicose Aboon Mor Baselios Thomas I.

The Locum Tenens means "the place holder" (in Arabic Qa'im Maqam, in colloquial Qaymaqam or Kaimakham).

According to the Constitution of the Universal Syriac Othodox Church, the election of the Locum tenens (Kaimakham) must take place within seven (7) days by a majority vote of the bishops attending. The power of the Locum Tenens is very limited. Kaimakham is not permitted to leave the Patriarchate. He is not permitted to make any changes to the Patriarchate. He cannot ordain or take part in financial transactions (Article 32 of the Constitution). The main function of Kaimakham is to act as a 'place holder' to maintain the status quo and to convene a Holy Synod to elect the new Patriarch.

Bible Readings For Fifth Sunday of Great Lent

by EVP

Word of God

by Dr. Ray Pritchard

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1).

Nothing is more invisible than a thought.

You don’t know what I am thinking nor can I tell what you are thinking. But let a man speak and his words reveal his thoughts. Take the deepest thought and clothe it in words, and it will be visible to millions. Consider the plays of Shakespeare. They are but the thoughts of Shakespeare made visible through his words.

Jesus reveals God to us.

How fitting that Jesus should be called "the Word" for he communicates the very nature of God to us. John 1:18 reminds us that no one has seen the essence of God the Father, but the Son has "declared him" or "made him known" or "explained him" or "revealed him." The underlying idea in Greek has the idea of unfolding a truth step by step.

Jesus makes known what we would never discover on our own.

Without Jesus we would never know the fullness of God. We would know him as Creator and Designer of all things (Romans 1:19-20), but we would never know the depth of his compassion toward sinners.

Jesus is the key to the universe for "all things have been created through him" (Colossians 1:16).

He left his fingerprints everywhere. The galaxies shout out, "He is there." The wildflowers sing together, "He is there." The rippling brooks join in, "He is there." The birds sing it, the lions roar it, the fish write it in the oceans—"He is there." All creation joins to sing his praise. The heavens declare it, the earth repeats it, and the wind whispers it—"He is there." Deep cries out to deep, the mighty sequoia tells it to the eagle who soars overhead, the lamb and the wolf agree on this one thing—"He is there."

Jesus is "the radiance of God’s glory" (Hebrews 1:3).

If you want to know what God is like, look at Jesus. He is not some grimy, blurry image of the Almighty. He isn’t the sun peeking through the clouds. Jesus radiates the glory of God. Theologians have a word for this. They say the Son is "co-essential" with the Father. That means the Father and the Son share the same essence. The Father is God and the Son is God. Jesus is the blazing, magnificent revelation of God himself.

When Jesus speaks, God speaks. While we see his fingerprints everywhere, the best way to hear from him is to spend time daily reading his Word.

Christ speaks to us through the Word of God. Are we listening?

by Rev. Dr. Meg Illman-White

Gospel: Luke 13:10-17

Jesus was right in the middle of a really amazing sermon when the woman walked in - all bent over, like that.

People in the temple were listening to Jesus. They wanted to hear what he had to say. I bet that no one else in the crowd even noticed her.

Mind you, the woman was probably used to that! When you're all bent over, I bet no one talks to you much. It's hard to make eye contact. Only when sitting would the woman appear to be just like everyone else. Imagine the effort it takes to begin a communication with someone whose face you can't see, and who can't see yours.

The world looks different when you're bent over. I wondered what it might be like, so I did it for a while. I noticed things in that position. I rejoiced in the up-close beauty of dandelions and tiny flowers I'd never seen before. I watched ants with wonder. I imagine that the woman in our story saw things that others did not -- foot scuffs on dusty roads, insects, mice, rats maybe. She saw sandals passing by: I wonder if she could identify people by their sandals, warts and bunions? When you're bent over, you see things that others never notice.

It didn't take long, however, before my back muscles and hip muscles started to rebel! The longer I stayed bent over, the more effort it took to push back against the invisible force that kept pressing down on my back, bending me ever nearer to the ground. It felt as if the easiest thing would be to "give in" to the pressure and topple over. As I felt that desire to give in, I began to think of people I have known, met or read about -- people whose spirits or bodies have bent under the weight of life. Who is this bent-over woman in our day? Perhaps you know her? Perhaps you are that bent-over woman, with a spiritual ailment these many long years? Perhaps others know -- or maybe they do not? What are the faces of that kind of isolation in our lives? Who here is bent over with emotional or physical or spiritual pain? Is it you?

In the fall of 2005, I was part of a team in charge of making the local arrangements for hosting a national assembly. Two weeks before the Assembly would start, my life took an unexpected turn. Running from one church building to the other (at top speed), I tripped, flew through the air for several feet, and landed with both arms outstretched on pavement. As I tried to get up, I realized that both arms were aching below the elbow. It was later diagnosed as a double radial head fracture.

In a few short seconds, in a moment of "hurry" everything changed. Suddenly I went from a woman always on the go to somewhere, always "making things happen", always independent and strong -- to someone who could not brush my own teeth or take a shower or change into pajamas. I was dependent.

This journey began for me a time of seeing the world with different eyes. The hardest place to be was in worship. I wept because I couldn't hold my own hymn book. I wept because I couldn't lead worship. I wept for a moment that changed my life, and I wept in fear that nothing would ever be the same again. I wept through hymns and prayers and the moving parts of sermons. I tried to find a place at the back because I was embarrassed.

Embarrassed to be such a wreck when I could see people with greater, longer, more permanent struggles all around me. I felt isolated, alone, helpless. I began also to see others differently. I saw with new insight the courage in the woman widowed after 54 years. I began to marvel at the determination of the 65- year-old with heart disease and macular degeneration who worshipped week after week.

How isolated the bent-over woman must have felt. To push back against that awful weight for 18 years! But, unlike my situation, it wasn't just a temporary physical ailment that she faced. It was exclusion, poverty and isolation. It was judgment of the religious elite. Serious illnesses were seen in Jesus' time as punishments for sin. Her ailment meant that no one (except her family if she was fortunate) would want to be near her, for perhaps God would punish them too. Others would be afraid. As a woman in those times, without the social protection of marriage she would have been dependent on hand-outs. She would have been vulnerable to exploitation. Almost certainly that meant poverty in her day. What courage it must have taken to get up each morning, to go about her day, to venture out in public - where she must have felt OH so invisible and if not invisible then judged. To walk in the streets where people turned the other way, and pretended not to notice her. To even faithfully go to the synagogue to worship.

The woman appears in the synagogue and Jesus SEES her. He notices HER. He calls her over. He tells her that she is set free. Nothing he has to say in his sermon is as important as this moment. This moment IS Jesus' sermon, the moment that the realm of God is opened up for all who are looking on. She has asked for nothing, expects nothing, yet she has been noticed and healed. And everyone -- everyone but the Pharisees and the religious elite that is --

REJOICES in the good news!

By healing her Jesus restores her -- not only to health, but to a place in the community, to the possibility of a productive, self-sufficient life -- but EVEN MORE IMPORTANT, he heals her in the synagogue on the Sabbath. No longer can the claim be made that she is a sinner! She is restored to the community on the holy day. Jesus challenges the idea that ailment is connected to sin. He treats the woman as already a beloved "child of Abraham" -- one of the inner circle, a beloved child of God.

The leader of the synagogue is outraged! Jesus could have done this on any other day.

Exactly. That was Jesus' point! God's desire for our healing is NOW. It is not when society decides it's time! How often do you talk yourself out of an act of kindness or solidarity? Maybe tomorrow. Maybe later. God's time is NOW. Should we wait?

Jesus had the ability to touch and to heal. Those kinds of healings are seen more in medical science today. As we pray for millions in our world bent over under the weight of tragedy -- flooding in Pakistan, the earthquake in Haiti -- we know that healing can only come in the form of humanitarian aid and aid workers, as well as our own desire to change and live differently. As the body of Christ in this time and place, we CAN do what he did that morning.

1. We can really "see" the beauty in another life -- young or old, "bent" in the eyes of the world.

2. We can welcome one another into community and become involved in one another's lives. We can look into one another's eyes and see the "lost" and lonely -- see the reality of living in other shoes.

3. We can touch and bless and hold one another in our hearts and prayers, trusting that prayer makes a difference.

Jesus teaches God's shalom (peace) by being it, for the woman and for the entire crowd who sees it! Years of shame begin to fall away as she realizes what has happened and praises God at the top of her lungs! Never will she see the world the same again. For she has seen and lived and walked as one who has been ostracized. But now she can experience the joy of shalom, the joy of being restored to community. By naming her a daughter of Abraham, Jesus places her back where she has always belonged -- back in the family of God's anointed ones. Who knows what this redeemed woman will go on to do and become?

God desires healing and health for this world. Right here, right now. And we are God's hands and feet in that work.

Healing came for me, moment by moment, person by person. It came in compassion. It came when people made room for me by seeing what I couldn't do and making it happen. It came when they saw what I COULD still do and created space for that. It came in their patience. It came in cards, flowers, home-cooked meals. One 88-year-old couple arrived one day with a full course meal -- AND a bottle of wine. I began to experience such overwhelming gratitude for the blessing bestowed on us that night. I began to see the world -- my world, God's world, my life -- differently, with more compassion.

Jesus calls us, the people of God at Southminster, indeed all of God's people, to a ministry of healing and welcome.

No, we cannot make the bent-over woman stand tall. But we can open up the doors of God's shalom to her. We can do the simple acts of love and random acts of kindness. We can look at one another with eyes of love -- we can look deep and respond.

God's realm is a place where the doors are open and where the people of God take time to SEE the needs, the longings, the desire for faith of those come in our door - and the agony of those who live a world away. It's a place where God welcomes EVERYONE -- because each one is beloved of God. This is the place where God's shalom -- Jesus' vision of the realm of God -- is practised and shared.

by Daniel Schipani

Gospel: Luke 13:10-17

"Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our rock and our salvation"

I. (Hearing an old and strange story from the Gospel of Luke)

• Jesus is teaching in a synagogue (place of prayer and worshipful study of scripture) on a Sabbath (day of rest)

• A crippled woman is among the people present (even though she is a woman and a handicapped person she is allowed to be present but not to participate actively…To say the least: she is expected not to become an eye-sore, a distraction)

• The "bent woman" has been disabled for 18 years…by "a spirit" (lit. "spirit of weakness", which can refer to various kinds of diseases and ailments): bone degeneration?, muscular paralysis…? The story suggests that somehow a spiritual dimension is involved in her condition of oppression and bondage with its physical, emotional, social, and religious dimensions.

• Jesus notices the woman and focuses his attention on her! He calls her over and says "woman, you are set free from your ailment"

This is a critical, extraordinary move: a person at the margins of society - disfigured, dysfunctional, disliked, disposable… - is invited to the center!

• Not to be taken for granted is the fact that the woman actually approaches Jesus; she does not hide or go away. Jesus lays his hands on her (another risky move) and immediately she can stand up straight and begins praising God (a fitting response of gratitude).

• The leader of the synagogue is indignant because the healing has happened on the Sabbath day. And he addresses the crowd (not Jesus!):

"there are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the Sabbath day".

Interestingly, the man does not seem to object to the healing as such but to the fact that it happened on the Sabbath.

• Jesus then confronts the synagogue leader:

"You hypocrites (plural: implying a common condition among good religious people, leaders especially)…Does not each of you untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the Sabbath day?"

• Jesus compares the untying of labor animals that was allowed on the Sabbath with the "untying" or unbinding of this particular human being who happens to be Jewish (daughter of Abraham). Therefore, she also must benefit from the promise that God would bless and care for God's people (so that they can in turn become a blessing to others - Gen 12:3).

• Often those of us who are ok (or believe that we're ok), or those who enjoy a privileged position tell people who seek to improve their situation that they should wait until a more opportune time… "Why can't she wait just one more day…?" Interestingly Jesus alludes to the woman having been bound by Satan for 18 looong years!

• Jesus might have added:

"Precisely the Sabbath is an ideal day for healings that evoke the availability of Grace, God's mercy and compassion."

He might have quoted from the psalm we heard a bit earlier in this service (103:1-8)):

"Bless the Lord, O my soul…and do not forget all his benefits…"

• A stunning reversal takes place!: "all his opponents were put to shame".

The marginal woman is no longer ashamed because of her condition…the good religious leaders are put to shame…And the common folks rejoice "at all the wonderful things that Jesus was doing".

II. (Welcoming good news: the gospel story illumines our story)

• This is a story of transforming Grace. Compassion is the key.

The leader of the synagogue represents the voice of tradition, prudence and conventional wisdom. It's about law and order… which Jesus does not reject actually (after all, he attended synagogue services regularly)! It's also the voice of blindness regarding one's own oppressive conditions (e.g. legalism, moralism…or the incapacity to be in solidarity with those who are different from us and hurt). It's the voice of religious pride that leads to rejection and discrimination.

• Conventional wisdom is ok but it is not enough.

In fact it often needs to be cancelled or superseded by a higher wisdom…wisdom in the light of God that orients us towards love, compassion, mercy, justice, peace, and true freedom. This is the wisdom that's open to be surprised, with joy by new manifestations of grace!

• The "untying" or loosening that Jesus refers to in the story is not only a form of deliverance or freedom from a debilitating condition, from evil itself

We pray to God in Lord's prayer: "deliver us from evil…"). Deliverance is indispensable. But the untying that Grace makes possible is also freedom for life-giving relationships and community, freedom to care and to create, to enjoy the blessings of wholeness, of forgiveness, healing, worshipping the living God in community.

• On a personal level, let's consider making this story our own in terms of the unique circumstances of our lives today:

o Maybe some of us are somehow "bent over" and carry for long years unresolved conflicts, resentments, unfulfilled dreams, or some other burden…

In our better days we recognize that diverse kinds of debilitating hurts and woundedness do oppress us in some measure whether we are directly responsible for that condition or the victim of someone else's wrong… The good news is that healing Grace is available!

o Maybe some of us, good religious people, need to experience a kind of deliverance from narrow-mindedness or pride.

Maybe we need to be freed to enjoy and to share the fruits of authentic faith, joyful communion with God and generous service to others… The good news is that forgiving, reconciling Grace is available!

o Whatever our personal situation, the word of good news this morning is also that all of us can be inspired by the way of Jesus. Indeed, the empowering Grace is available:

…to grow in vision, to see the world around us more clearly, with the eyes of God; to become more aware, to notice and truly acknowledge each other, especially those in need… Vision to say no to oppression and injustice and to imagine a better community, a better world…

…to grow in virtue and develop character strengths such as hospitality, compassion, respect, humility and courage… Habits of the heart filled with love of God and neighbor as the very heart of Christ.

…to grow in vocation so that we can invest talents, time and energy actively participating in the holy business of making life more wholesome in the family, the workplace, the neighborhood, the church…We are invited to collaborate with the creative, restoring, empowering Spirit of God so that we become the face of Grace to those whole lives we daily touch.

by Adelle Gabrielson

It wasn't easy to be a woman in ancient Israel. Unable to hold property or give testimony in a court of law, a woman's place was in the home, caring for family. Strict guidelines governed every aspect of life, from cooking to cleaning and everything in between. Stricter still the laws that dictated the course of her monthly bleeding. Rules of separateness. A label, unclean. She could not be with her family; she could not care for or feed her own children. Her husband was forbidden to touch her. She could not live in her own house.

Ever since a girl coming of age, she followed the rules. Until one day when the bleeding did not stop at the end of the week. Days turned into weeks and weeks into months, and she spent all she had seeking wellness. Seeking wholeness. Seeking redemption from her suffering, from the label she wore—unclean!

A large crowd followed and pressed around him. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better, she grew worse.

The Talmud has no less than nine cures for chronic bleeding. Among them tonics and tinctures, mystical cures involving strange acts and stranger ingredients.

Carry the ashes of an ostrich egg in a cotton sack worn about the neck.

It did nothing.

Fetch a barley corn from the dung of white female donkey.

There was nothing she was unwilling to try. Nothing she would not do. No price too high, no potential cure too strange. She had done them all, spending all she had. She was left with shame, a pariah in her own community.

What she did that day on the streets of Capernaum was nothing short of heretical. In her unclean state, touching a rabbi was criminal. A cause for disgrace, banishment, and perhaps even death.

He knew what she had done the moment she wriggled through the crushing crowd, grasping at the hem of his tunic. Turning immediately to the startled faces of disciples pressed around him, he sought her.

"Who touched me?" Jesus asked. When they all denied it, Peter said, "Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you."

But Jesus said, "Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me."

Then the woman, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at his feet.

As she fell at his feet, terrified by her own actions, the Rabbi did not scold her. He did not criticize or remind her of the laws she had so heedlessly broken. He smiled and spoke gently.

"Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace."

Greek is a language of many layers and subtleties. It was not just peace and healing He gave … the peace that surpasses all we could possibly imagine. It was so much more. The word He used was more than just "peace."

Go in peace. Be healed. Be … whole.

No longer broken and bleeding, but whole.

Here we are, thousands of years later, reading His words, astonished at her courage. Her brokenness, a foil for His kindness. Her suffering, manifesting His grace.

Maybe your brokenness is on the outside, or maybe it's in the form of silent bruises on your soul. This world is not our home, and no matter who you are or where you're from, know this: we're all broken, we'll all incomplete.

But there is a God who sees you and He hears you. El Shaddai, the All Sufficient God, is sufficient to bind your wounds. El Roi, the God Who Sees, sees you — your brokenness, your suffering, your pain. Daughter, He offers you not just peace, but wholeness.

"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."
John 16:33 NIV

About The Author:

by Al Sears, MD

The constant stream of media stories about the power of vitamin B12 for heart and brain health is great, but it's not really news. We've known the benefits of B12 for years.

To me, the real importance of the stories is that they deal another body blow to modern diet recommendations, which tell us that protein from meat is the enemy of good health.

The story the media should be telling is that protein is where nature meant us to get our B12 from. Not from processed grains with added vitamins.

That's because the only natural food sources of vitamin B12 is meat from animals, including fish.

And make no mistake, B12 is important. In clinical studies, vitamin B12 has been shown to protect and even rescue brain cells. (1) It also improves nerve conduction, which means it enhances the speed of the messages your brain is sending.

The worst part is that if you don't have enough B12, doctors typically misdiagnose the deficiency and then prescribe drugs that do nothing to address the problem, but instead have plenty of side effects that only serve to make you feel worse!

But you can avoid falling into that trap by remembering that the message is about what's missing from the foods you're offered.

Like always, I recommend replacing missing nutrients with food first. Supplements come in if you can't get enough of the nutrient from food.

With that in mind, here are my favorite food sources of vitamin B12: (2)
 

Type of Food	Micrograms (mcg) per serving	Percent of RDA
Liver, beef, braised, 1 slice	48.0	800
Clams, 3 ounces	42.0	700
Crab, raw, 3 ounces	7.6	130
Trout, rainbow, wild, cooked, 3 ounces	5.4	90
Salmon, sockeye, cooked, 3 ounces	4.9	80
Beef, top sirloin, broiled, 3 ounces	2.4	40
Yogurt, plain, 1 cup	1.4	25
Haddock, cooked, 3 ounces	1.2	20

A couple of tips on vitamin B12:

One thing you might notice is that although it definitely has protein, chicken is not on the list. You'd have to eat almost half a chicken to get the same amount of B12 as you can get in just one egg. And eggs don't have that much vitamin B12.

Also, reflux and ulcer drugs like Pepcid, Prilosec and Zantac, plus some diabetes drugs, can stop absorption of B12.

Which means that in today's world of processed foods and synthetic medicine, it can be difficult to get enough vitamin B12 from food alone.

If that's the case, it's a good idea to take a B12 supplement.

You can get it in a good B vitamin complex that gives you at least 500 mcg (half a milligram) of B12, which you'll find as cyanocobalamin or methylcobalamin. The latter is a more active form.

There are also B12 sprays, which is a good way to get your B12 as it gets absorbed quickly.

Another way to take B12 is from a lozenge. They dissolve fast and absorb quickly. A good one I've seen is from my colleagues at Stop Aging Now. Each of these lozenges gives you 1,000 mcg of the methylcobalamin form to give you more energy, normal cognitive function, and maintain your overall health. Click here if you'd like to try it for yourself.

This effective nutrient is crucial if you want to maintain a strong heart and keep all your memories.

References:

1. Hemendinger A., Armstrong J., Brooks R. "Methyl Vitamin B12 but not methylfolate rescues a motor neuron-like cell line from homocysteine-mediated cell death." Toxicol Appl Pharmacol. 2011 Mar 15;251(3):217-25.

2. "Nutrition Facts." Self Nutrition Data. nutritiondata.self.com. Retrieved Sept 23, 2013.

by Dr. James & Shirley Dobson

"If anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things."
- Philippians 4:8

Have you ever been to a party and watched someone play "Assassinate the Spouse?" The objective is simple: A contestant attempts to punish his mate by ridiculing her in front of their friends. If he wants to be especially vicious, he lets the guests know he thinks she is dumb and ugly. It's a brutal game with no winners. The contest ends when his wife is totally divested of self-respect and dignity; he gets bonus points if he can reduce her to tears.

Sound cruel? It is, even when it's carried out under the guise of joking or teasing. It's never enjoyable to watch someone take out anger against his (or her) mate in this way. In contrast, what a pleasure it is to spend time with couples who continually build each other up in front of others. When a husband tells his guests about his wife's incredible cooking, patience with the kids, or promotion at work - or the wife boasts about her husband's talent on the job or his ability to speak in public or fix broken pipes - you'll see the other spouse smile a bit more brightly and stand a little taller. We're always most sensitive to the comments of our mate in the presence of our peers.

The next time you're out with friends, remember to look for opportunities to honor your mate. Leave the game playing to others.

Just between us…

Have I embarrassed or hurt you in public? If so, can we talk about it?
How do you feel when I praise you in front of our friends?
In what ways could we build each other up in public?

Father, we want to show each other love, honor, and consideration always - but especially in front of others. Forgive us for our failures. Give us grace to learn and change, we pray. Amen.

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