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