Prayers for people on the Creek.

Thursday, June 28, 2012

And not only that, but we* also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.      Romans 5. 1 – 11

            Yesterday two of my boys took the boat down Black Creek to survey the damage that has been done by the recent deluge of Tropical Storm Debby. The Creek (as we call it) is the highest it has been since 1919, and the boys said they saw sofas and refrigerators and tables floating by. Homes on the creek are flooded up to the eaves, families are homeless, and though the rains are over, now the damage has to be determined and the terrible job of clean up in the sultry Florida heat must begin.

            The passage below from Parker Palmer reminded me of what lies ahead for the people who have been so displaced and hurt by this storm. As the gospel of Matthew says, suffering produces endurance which produces character which produces hope…and as Palmer says, nature will use devastation to stimulate new growth slowly and persistently. However, these words are probably not very comforting to those whose homes are underwater right now. I will hold these thoughts in my heart, praying that soon nature’s restoration will begin, but in the mean time I will pray for the good people on the Creek who are struggling to survive…prayers that in the midst of their pain and confusion, God’s grace will bring them snippets of relief and peace. Please join me in prayer for them.

Every summer, I go to the Boundary Waters, a million acres of pristine wilderness along the Minnesota-Ontario border. My first trip, years ago was a vacation, pure and simple. But as I returned time and again to that elemental world of water, rock, woods, and sky, my vacation began to feel more like a pilgrimage to me--an annual trek to holy ground driven by spiritual need. . .  But on July 4, 1999, a twenty-minute maelstrom of hurricane-force winds took down twenty million trees across the Boundary Waters. A month later, when I made my annual pilgrimage up north, I was heartbroken by the ruin and wondered whether I wanted to return. And yet on each visit since, I have been astonished to see how nature uses devastation to stimulate new growth, slowly but persistently healing her own wounds.

(A Hidden Wholeness by Parker Palmer)

(Couldn’t resist including this section from the gospel appointed for today…the ultimate in helicopter parenting!!!!

“Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to him with her sons, and kneeling before him, she asked a favour of him. And he said to her, ‘What do you want?’ She said to him, ‘Declare that these two sons of mine will sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom.’ “Matthew 20. 17 – 28)

Enviable Generosity

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received the usual daily wage.^* And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, saying, “These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.” Matthew 20. 1 – 16

            Once again Jesus uses a parable to reveal the disruptive and transforming nature of God’s kingdom. Poor day laborers are hired at different times throughout the day, their pay is not specified, and then payment takes place at the end of the day in reverse order of the hiring. Worst of all, the last-hired are paid the same as the first-hired.  And the first-hired are furious! (I would be/have been, too.) The landowner’s response “Are you envious because I am generous?” is one of those catch you up short questions… “Well, uh, yeah, maybe!” we might say. But such is the kingdom of God. We are not loved conditionally, and it’s very hard for us to accept. Unconditional love can make us jealous!

            For years, I have subscribed to an online meditation series by Tom Ehrich, a retired Episcopal priest and writer. In his meditation yesterday, entitled “Illness and Death,” Ehrich addresses the confusion humans struggle with regarding the unconditionality of God and God’s love.

“People pray for miracles, as if only those who asked had any right to expect God's healing touch. People rejoice at cures they consider miracles, as if God had chosen to smile on them while frowning on others. Many wonder what punishment is at hand when disease persists.

Is yielding to disease a sign of faithful submission, or is it "giving up" and doubting God?

If God caused the cure, does that mean God caused the illness? What kind of God strikes down in order to heal, so that others will believe? The pious logic quickly gets demonic…

I think faith points another way. Life's measure doesn't lie in how long we can keep our hearts beating, but in how we pour out our lives for others. Life is a gift, not a possession we earned. Life is a piece of God that we are privileged to share, and then that piece returns to God.

Death isn't the bitter denial of all we held true; death is where life was always headed and not to be feared.” (On a Journey: Meditations on God in Daily Life by Tom Ehrich)

Ehrich points out that in order to accept God’s love fully we must realize that every moment of life is a gift, whether we discover God’s grace early in the day or late in the day! And since “the strife is o’er, the battle won” death is not to be feared because it brings the ultimate gift, the ultimate payment: eternal life… “in the end all will be well!”

Gloriously Impossible Us

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

But Jesus looked at them and said, ‘For mortals it is impossible, but for God all things are possible.’ Matthew 19. 23 – 30

            My very favorite Christmas book is Madeleine L’Engle’s The Glorious Impossible.With illustrations from 14^th century Italian artist Giotto’s frescoes from the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, L’Engle tells the story of Jesus’ birth and life with the premise that, like love, Jesus’ life on earth cannot be explained but only rejoiced in. In her first chapter entitled "The Annunciation," L’Engle tells of the Angel Gabriel’s visit to Mary, of Mary’s excitement and serenity and then she continues:

                        “And so the life of Jesus began as it would end, with the impossible. When he was a grown man he would say to his disciples, ‘For human beings it is impossible, but for God nothing is impossible.’  Possible things are easy to believe. The Glorious Impossibles are what bring joy to our hearts, hope to our lives, songs to our lips.” 

In the chapter entitled “The Nativity,” L’Engle says, “And so he was born, this gloriously impossible baby…God, come to be one of us.”

How often do we have to remind ourselves that without God, we are impossible. Riddled with reality, hubris, temptation, fear, and whatever else seems to have power over us, we are doomed to failure without God. However, we do not have to look far to see indications of the wonderfully impossible miracles that happen daily in our lives and our world. God is working his purpose out in his time, not ours, and it is always for our good. That which happens that is not good is not of God and as Madeleine L’Engle concludes,

            “Jesus came to us for love, and he died for us for love, and he rose from the grave for love, and he ascended into Heaven for love, and the Comforter came to teach us love. So, beloveds, let us love one another as Jesus has called us to do. Amen. Alleluia! Amen.”

Sure does sound simple…but it isn’t. Almost seems impossible sometimes! 

Grace Before Anything!

Monday, June 25, 2012

O Lord God of hosts,

   who is as mighty as you, O Lord?

   Your faithfulness surrounds you.

9 You rule the raging of the sea;

   when its waves rise, you still them. Psalm 89

            Yesterday the gospel told the story of Jesus stilling the waters as the disciples were tossed and turned in the sea. Today the psalm refers to God who “rules the raging sea” and stills the waves when they rise. As I write, I watch the force of tropical storm Debby roar through our neighborhood with fury one moment and then just as quickly the winds stop and the rain subsides. I can see the bands of rain on the horizon and in minutes we will be plummeted by them. Nature is such a wonderful metaphor for life in the kingdom of God.

            In this week’s Christian Century magazine, editor John Buchanan’s introductory comments are entitled “Grace before anything” and in them he discusses the controversial topic of universal salvation. Several of the articles in this issue look at universal salvation, critiquing books on it and presenting the varied positions on it which exist in the institutional church. However, Buchanan spends most of his comments discussing his personal experience of the topic.

“As soon as I was old enough to think about it, I was uncomfortable with the idea that accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior is an automatic ticket to heaven, and with the reverse idea – that failing to confess belief in Christ results in an eternity in hell, even in the case of unbaptized infants and all the people who have never heard of Jesus.”

           

Buchanan goes on to say that this issue troubled him for a long time until he bumped into

“the notion of prevenient grace, grace that comes before anything else, in spite of anything we have done or not done.” He continues “I understood then that whatever relationship existed with God had a lot more to do with God than with me. My whole idea of Christianity turned from a method of guaranteeing salvation to the acknowledgement and proclamation of astonishingly good news. My response is gratitude.”

The storms of life are inevitable; they will come and go regardless of what we do or how we live our lives. They come in waves…death, despair, heartbreak, catastrophe. Those who have “accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior” will not be freed from them anymore than anyone else. But the secret we know as Christians is that the battle has already been won for all of us, the strife is over! Jesus will still the waters, God will quiet the sea…prevenient grace reminds us of that truth.

As the power of nature roars outside this morning, I am assured that the still small voice which quiets my soul, will also quiet the winds…the winds of discord and dismay, the winds of hatred and abuse…and my only response, like John Buchanan’s, must be gratitude. My call to evangelism is not to keep the secret to myself…as that beautiful hymn says:

            Tell out, my soul, the greatness of the Lord!

Unnumbered blessings give my spirit voice;

tender to me the promise of his word;

in God my Savior shall my heart rejoice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6ji4y9Q-K0

            

Good old Peter

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

“Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.’” (Matthew 16.13 – 19

            And to Peter’s epiphany, Jesus responded, “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church.” Today is the day we remember Peter and this famous confession of faith that he made. This rough fisherman, often stumbling, impetuous, intense, and uncouth, was one of the first disciples (along with his brother Andrew) to be called by Jesus (Holy Women, Holy Men).

            Peter figures prominently in the Gospels as the Rock of the Church, speaking boldly of his faith and then in Acts, helping the young church to spread beyond the Jewish community. And yet so often he struggled with himself, often stumbling, trying with all his might to love his Lord, and yet denying him (just before the crucifixion), acting rashly and impetuously (when he jumped out of the boat to walk on the water). The author of Holy Women, Holy Men suggests that Peter’s life

“reminds us that our Lord did not come to save the godly and strong but to save the weak and the sinful.  Simon, an ordinary human being, was transformed by the Holy Spirit into the ‘Rock’ and became the leader of the Church.” (174)

            In Peter’s footsteps, (as the collect appointed for today says), we too must “keep the Church steadfast upon the rock of this faith, so that in unity and peace we may proclaim the one truth and follow the one Lord, our Savior Jesus Christ” (175).

            If we are feeling unqualified for this duty, this charge, then we need only remember Peter and his frailty and fumbling, and pray for the presence of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, to be our transformer just as it was for Peter. Thinking we can walk on water is taking it a little far, however!

John 3. 16

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life” (John 3. 16 – 21).

            In the verse above, Jesus’s mention of eternal life does not only speak of immortality or a future life in heaven, but it is also a metaphor for living now in the unending presence of God. By offering his life to be lifted up on the cross, Jesus makes eternal life possible for us. However, in this conversation with Nicodemus, Jesus continues to explain that because the light has come into the world,

“people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed” (John 3. 19 – 20).

            Once we are bathed in the Light and the Love of Christ, we are aware of our mis-behaviors and “when we stray like lost sheep,” we make every effort to shield our actions from the Light, from God. But the Light dispels the darkness, and God knows and sees what we do

.

            The big name in the news right now is Florida’s very own Tim Tebow…a what a ruckus he is causing by letting his actions be bathed in the Light of Christ. He evangelizes with his actions, reinforcing his belief that the incarnation of Christ has given him new life and the unending presence of God. He even wears the words “John 3.16” on his cheeks for football games. He offends people mightily, and daily the media and others try to cast him into darkness in an effort to disguise his deeds.

 “But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God”(John 3. 21),

 and the Light shining on Tebow just seems to get brighter and brighter.  In fact, in the most recent game against the Patriots which the Broncos lost, Tebow scored a significant136 yards…not significant because it was a lot of yards, but because the numbers match the same ones that were on his cheek. Wow…

Making All Things New

Monday, January 16, 2012

“…for the first things have passed away…See I am making all things new” (Revelation 21.4 – 5).

            Today we remember the birth of Martin Luther King Jr and honor him as a national hero; on April 4^th we remember his death and honor him as a prophet and martyr. Four days before he was killed, King preached a sermon at the National Cathedral in Washington D.C. and the passage above was the text he used. The title of the sermon was “Remaining Awake through a Great Revolution”; in it he warned of the dangers of sleeping through a revolution and failing

“ to develop the new attitudes, the new mental responses, that the new situation demands” (King). In 1968, as King preached this sermon, he suggested there were three revolutions taking place:” triple revolution:

“a technological revolution, with the impact of automation and cybernation; then there is a revolution in weaponry, with the emergence of atomic and nuclear weapons of warfare; then there is a human rights revolution, with the freedom explosion that is taking place all over the world.”(King)

            Those revolutions continue, I would suggest, and we certainly could add to that list on

this day in 2012…a technological revolution that threatens to make us a paperless world, a

religious revolution in which more and more people are turning away from the institutional

church, an economic revolution in which the bottom has dropped out of what many, many people

considered the major financial indicator, and the list could go on and on.

            But as Christians, aren’t we always in a revolution…aren’t we always “putting on the armor of God” to be able to “stand against the wiles of the devil”? and as Paul goes on in Ephesians, “For our struggle is  not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6. 10 – 12).

            Today, perhaps we should take Dr. King’s warning personally and be careful of not sleeping through the revolution in which the former things will pass away and all things will be made new.  The tables have been flipped in the temple, the Crucified has been made whole…we must keep alert, “pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication and make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel” (Ephesians 6. 18 – 19).  

            I leave you with Dr. King’s concluding words and with the hope and prayer that we will all join hands in the struggle against the “present darkness,” staying awake and alert in this world of revolution, loving our enemies, doing good to those who hate us, blessing those who curse us…now those are revolutionary behaviors!

“Thank God for John, who centuries ago out on a lonely, obscure island called Patmos caught vision of a new Jerusalem descending out of heaven from God, who heard a voice saying, ‘Behold, I make all things new; former things are passed away.’

God grant that we will be participants in this newness and this magnificent development. If we will but do it, we will bring about a new day of justice and brotherhood and peace. And that day the morning stars will sing together and the sons of God will shout for joy. God bless you. (King)

ps. According to one source, Dr. King’s last words were to a musician who was to play at the event where King was to speak that night. King said, “Make sure you play ‘Precious Lord Take me Home’ in the meeting tonight. Play it real pretty.” Here is a recording of it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1d4Rp8SXF8&feature=related

The Runaway Bunny

Sunday, January 15, 2012
Second Sunday after Epiphany
 
“Lord you have searched me out and known me; you know my sitting down and my rising up” (Psalm 139).
            The readings for today include the story of Samuel being called by God and his “here I am Lord…Speak for your servant is listening” response, Paul’s warning to the Corinthians to beware of sins of the flesh, and the story we discussed earlier in the week about Nathanael’s confession of faith upon Jesus’ recognition of him. However, I want to share some thoughts about the psalm appointed for today because it is one of my very favorites. It is Psalm 139 which begins with the words above. Today’s lectionary only includes verses 1 – 5 and 12 – 17, but the ones I want to share with you are 6 – 11 which make it very clear that the psalmist believed that there was nowhere he could go that God would not find him. What great comfort there is in that knowledge!
Where can I go from your spirit?
   Or where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there;
   if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.
9 If I take the wings of the morning
   and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
10 even there your hand shall lead me,
   and your right hand shall hold me fast.
11 If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall cover me,
   and the light around me become night’,
12 even the darkness is not dark to you;
   the night is as bright as the day,
   for darkness is as light to you.
            Many of you might remember the children’s classic, The Runaway Bunny, in which author Margaret Wise Brown tells the story of these verses of psalm 139 from the perspective of a bunny and his mother…we are the bunny and God is the mother. In this story, Brown suggests that no matter what disguise we try to use, nor how far we run, God will find us.  I have attached a link to the telling of the story, and I hope you will hear it in a new and different way today, being warmed and comforted by the knowledge that ultimately, like the bunny, we must just stop running and rest in the arms of our loving God.
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0tfX9shBbc