Afternoon Rain

Suddenly my ears perked up telling me something was coming.  Out on the back porch midst the middle of a summer heat, the momentary cooling of the rain was most welcomed.  Tbe sun never ceased shining and the rain drops seemed like huge clear prisms as they pelted roofs, danced down rain gutters, and chased me to another chair. The main event of the afternoon lasted nearly fifteen minutes and reminded me that "they" used to say a rain during sunshine meant the devil was beating his wife.  While I cannot speak to the veracity of such a claim, I do know that when the rain stopped the green grass seemed covered with sparkling diamonds.  

God has a way of bringing unexpected moments of wonder creating surprising things in our life.  Today is was a sudden and short mini storm of hard falling rain.  Yesterday it was the blessing of a conversation with two folks coming out of a Baptist Church in the middle of nowhere.  A few evenings ago there was a sunset so majestic I wondered if I had ever seen one, or would ever see another.  All of us can count these moments which come like epiphanies in our life.  Suddenly they appear and even quicker they are gone, but always with a breath of gratitude going after them.   

As surely as God brings such blessed moments to refresh our physical senses, so does He come with moments that to others are invisible, but for us are like living water.  We are those who have walked in great darkness and seen the inextinguishable light.  We are those who find themselves being reminded again and again of undeserved forgiveness filled with mysterious grace.  We are those who live touched by the soft but unmistakable love of someone who is committed to stand alongside us for the duration.  We are those who are loved by God, not just for a moment such as comes the afternoon rain, but forever and even beyond into eternity.

Blessings and Gratitude

There are times when I cannot help myself.  Some book read so many times it begs to be left alone in its retirement on the shelf catches my eye and gets pulled out for still another read.  Such happened recently with a book I first read back around 2013 and have since recommended to any number of folks.  Written by a woman named Ann Voskamp it has provided spiritual fodder for many women's groups.  Though it may be popular for such groups, it is a good read for men or women.  The title of the book is "1000 Gifts."   

The focus of the book is about living with a spirit of gratitude for the many blessings of God.  The author shares her year long journey with a Gratitude Journal in which she list 1000 blessings she counted as received from God.  The blessings are not things like a new car, or a bigger house, but things like the sound of birds singing, or being able to offer help to another person, or listening to children play.  What is true is that even in the most difficult of times and in the darkest of days, there are blessings which she calls gifts from God to be counted.  When I started my own Gratitude Journal long ago, I soon learned that no darkness can keep God from blessing us.  We may have to grow eyes to see more clearly in the darkness, but the blessings are there and they are there in abundance.  

Trust me on this one.  I am one, like many others, who has been in the darkness and counted the blessings.  Anyone who thinks about reading the book should be warned.  It might create a need for keeping a Gratitude Journal, or even a daily journal as it did with me.  However, the biggest thing to be received from Voskamp's book is a deepened awareness of how God is blessing us all the time in any and every circumstance of life.

Prayer Warriors

Charles Finney, a 19th century preacher, is a prominent name in the history of what is called The Second Great Awakening.  Though he had no seminary degree, he became an evangelist, college President, and a pastor of a large New York City church.  It is his revival preaching that is most remembered when his name appears.  There was a little known partner in the ministry of Finney.  He never preached any sermons at the revival meetings and was not really known to many who came to hear Finney preach.   

His name was Daniel Nash.  He started out as a pastor, but ended his ministry as one of the great prayer warriors in church history.  When a revival was planned in a particular community, Nash would go long before the beginning of the meeting, find two or three like minded spirits, and start praying.  For seven years he prayed for Finney and the revival meetings he held.  When Nash died, it was only a few months until Finney ceased preaching revivals and took a church in New York City.  Finney may have been the preacher every one heard and saw, but it was Nash who stayed in the shadows and prayed.    

Would that our churches and their preachers had some prayer warriors like Daniel Nash asking God for the power of the Spirit to come alive again in the life of the church.  Would that there were people like Nash, who when he died, departed this life on his knees praying for the world by holding a map in his hands.  Would that the spirit of Daniel Nash could fall upon folks like you and me.  What a difference one man's prayers had for the Kingdom of God.  What a difference our praying could make if we but prayed.

The Pervasive Silence

I must confess to being so accustomed to the silence here at the farm that I often am guilty of not hearing it.  The silence is pervasive.  If is something which settles over the place like morning dew upon the grass.  Even as the dew makes the grass glisten, so does the silence bring a kind of glisten to the farm that wraps it in wonder.  I love standing out on the porch at the beginning of the day with nothing to do but listen.  When there is nothing to hear but the silence, it can be overwhelming for those whose ears are accustomed to hearing the noise which envelopes most people most of the time.  

The real blessing of the silence is the way it holds a sense of holy presence and the way the holy presence makes Himself known through it.  The Creation speaks a silent language.  Perhaps, it could be said that it is a language as old as the Garden of Eden.  The Garden of Eden couple knew God was coming not because His voice was echoing through the place, but because "they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze." (Genesis 3:8)  Those who have learned to listen for the sounds within the silence may suddenly become aware of birds calling to each other, the sounds of rain splattering across the open field, or the gentle stirring of wind which hardly moves the branches of trees and know that is not just physical sounds being heard, but also the sounds of the Lord God moving silently through His Creation and into our midst.  

One of the things learned as we learn to listen in the silence is that life is lived with the expectancy of surprise. Each step we take into the silence of Creation brings us to a place where we might look up and know the presence of the One who is suddenly seen and then suddenly not seen, suddenly heard and then suddenly not heard.  As the poem tells us, every common bush is afire with God.  Sometimes we are able to see the bush that burns that is not consumed, but when we do not see, it is not the fault of of the bush, but our own for God is ever present in the Creation He has made.

 

A Hard Word

The Sermon on the Mount which begins in chapter five of the gospel according to Matthew is such a hard word that it is largely dismissed.  Today's would be followers declare it to be impractical, or too idealistic for real people to use in their day to day living.  It is easy to understand why some folks come to such a conclusion.  From the perspective of the world, it makes no sense to turn your cheek when slapped, it makes no sense to say that holding anger in the heart is the same as murdering someone, and it only seems careless to love our enemies and end up looking like a wimp.  A doormat.   

Even if these kind of concerns are laid aside, the Sermon which Jesus preached that day makes for a world that is too simple to be real.  In the world of the Sermon people are to be guided by trust and faith in God instead of worry about things, they are to live embracing a one thing mentality, and they are to treat others as they would choose to be treated instead of according to what is deserved.  It is a simple world of hearing truth and then doing the right thing.  The Word Jesus preached that day may be a hard Word, but it is also a simple one.   It does not take a college degree to understand it.  A child can figure it out.  

There is a right way to live and a wrong way.  There is a way that is according to the divine plan and another that bears no resemblance to it.  Even as it seems strange and out of step with cultural practices and even as it slaps in the face many of the pathways that lead to the top of the ladder, it is the only way which points us in the direction we were created to live.  We were not created to live with disregard for others, or to see others as stepping stones, or servants, but as brothers and sisters who bear the same holy image we had imprinted on us in the moment of our conception.

Sanctifying Grace

This guy was standing in front of me in one of the many lines we all stand.  He had the big bulky look of a guy who had just left the work out room.  I had no choice but to read the back of his T-shirt.  It was staring me in the face.  In big bold letters which stood out in a commanding way on the black shirt were the words, "Hands trained for war, fingers for battle."  I figured the guy to be a second amendment advocate, or a veteran, or a member of a motorcycle gang.  Even now I am ashamed of my first conclusions for there on the side of the words I read about war and battle was Psalms 144:1.    

So, now I had to do what my daughters tell me not to do.  Here was a stranger to whom I had to talk.  I got his attention and said, "You have an interesting shirt.  Can you tell me about it."  As it turns out he was a first responder who had been attending a Christian Conference that day.  He told me about the Conference and then about his personal faith in Jesus Christ.  What a blessing I received from this guy's shirt and his witness!  And I thought all I was going to get in that line was a sub sandwich!   Once again I was reminded that God shows up to speak in the unexpected places through surprising people and once again I heard a word about judging people by how they look and what they wear.  

It seems like an old guy like myself would have that one down by now, but the truth is, I am still, as they say, a work in progress.  To use the language of the church, sanctifying grace is not about arriving at some spiritual destination, but about shaping us each day so that we manifest the heart of Jesus in our living.  Looks like I can use some more of than sanctifying grace because I obviously still have a ways to go.

Loving Self

Jesus said that we are to love our neighbor as ourself (Mark 12:31), but who is this self that we are to love?  It seems rather important in this commandment about love.  Is it not true that the first step toward loving ourself is knowing ourself?  If we do not know ourself, how will we know who to love?  Is this commandment of Jesus taking us back to the primal question, "Who am I?"  It does seem that such an awareness is important if we are to embrace this all important word of Jesus.  

The problem is that we know ourselves in so many different ways. We are often unsure about who we really are and if the person we think we are is really the person we were created to be.  Do we live thinking we know who we are only to find out at some point that we are actually living in a far country instead of the land which embraces our authentic and true being?  There are untold voices which speak to us about who we are.  We are the person defined by our occupation, by our family, by our politics and religion, and by the perception that people have of us.  Do these answers to the question, "Who am I?" enable us to know the person we are to love so that we can rightly love those around us?   The difficult answer for so many of us is found in understanding that who we are has nothing to do with what we do, how we present ourselves, or what others think of us.  We cannot really know our authentic self without going back to our beginning.  

While we all bear the biological DNA of our parents, we also bear the spiritual imprint of a holy creator God.  As we move away from conception and birth, who we are becomes blurred by the definitions of self which do not take into account our holy beginnings.  It is only as we see the nature with which we were created in Christ Jesus and understand that He has come to make it possible for us to re-claim our identity as sons and daughters of a holy God that we can truly know ourself as the unique being we were created to be.  As we know that person and see the worth of the person whom God has created, we are really able to see others and love them as those who are sons and daughters of God even as we are.

A Word for Serious Followers

Long ago Jesus said that the first commandment was to love God.  There is no commandment more important.  Even though the question which prompted Him to offer this word was, "Which commandment is first of all?"  (Mark 12:28), Jesus went on to add what no one was asking. "The second is this, You shall love your neighbor as yourself." (Mark 12:31).  These two words have forever been linked together in such a way that we have come to think of the two words as being inseparable.  Ignoring part of it is to show disregard tor the whole.  

What is often missed is that Jesus tied these commandments with the most important prayer of Judaism.  He actually was quoting what is found in Deuteronomy 6:4:  "Hear O Israel:  The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord you God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might."  The importance of this Word is underscored by what follows this Hebrew prayer known as the Shema.  It says, "Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart.  Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down, and when you rise.  Bind them as a sign on your hand, fiex them as an emblem on your forehead, and write them on your doorposts of your house and on your gates."  (Deuteronomy 6:6-9).  

This commandment of Jesus to love remains the foundation of our life with God and with one another.  It is a word which we need to embrace and give flesh in our own life.  It is a word which we  called to pass to the generations which come behind us. It is a Word meant to guide in us in everything we undertake as well as in all the personal encounters of the day.  There is no alternative, or lesser way for those who are serious about being a disciple of Jesus.  

The Contribution of Silence

To choose to throw away what history can teach us is such a loss.  It is not only a loss because of the old and oft stated truth that those those who ignore history, relive it, but it is even more a loss because of the way it diminishes our life.  No matter how old a truth, if it was truly truth, it will still bring truth to the present.  Back in the fourth century there were saints who lived hermit like lives in the deserts of Egypt and the middle east.  Strangely enough, they went to the desert when the Emperor declared himself a Christian and the world officially became Christian.  They were a breed of men bent on living with heart purity and love for God.   

In his book, "The Wisdom of the Desert," Thomas Merton wrote, "Society was regarded...as a shipwreck from which each single individual man or woman had to swim for his life...These were men (the Desert Fathers) who believed that to let oneself drift along, passively accepting the tenets and values of what they knew as society, was purely and simply a disaster."  What makes these men of the desert so unusual is that despite their view of the society around them, their contribution was not a loud voice, or judgment against those entrenched in power, or participation in political debate, but the silence of the desert.  

Merton wrote, "In all this noise, the desert had no contribution to offer but a discreet and detached silence."  In such a place and with such a spirit these Desert Fathers lived.  In this day of acrimonious political debate and religious differences that make no difference in swinging the pendulum one way or the other; perhaps, the contribution of a silence filled with thoughtful prayers and respect for all people would make a difference.  It does sound far fetched, but then, maybe, we have never really tried it.  

A Strange Awakening

By the time I finished for the second time the nearly five hundred pages of "The Seven Storey Mountain," the spiritual autobiography of Thomas Merton, I felt like I might have climbed a few mountains.  There were times when it seemed he was plodding, and I along with him, in Bunyan's Slough of Despond and then there were times when the gates of of heaven's glory were opened for those traveling with him to see.  

When I closed the book and put it back in its place on the shelf, I wondered what I might write if I were to write such a story of my spiritual journey.  A second thought caused me to wonder who would be interested in reading it.  Perhaps, those who love me the most might undertake such a daunting task, but certainly, it would be no best seller that passed the time test such as was the case with Merton.  While I can remember some of the significant dates and some of the places where the bush burned, most of my remembrance are lost in the obscurity of the mundane and ordinary things which fill the lives of most of us.  

What I do remember as the first awareness of God came in what has to be defined as one of the worst moments of my life.  When my father was killed in a military training exercise over the Florida panhandle, I was marked forever by an experience I would not choose for anyone, but what the seven year old boy that I was back then knew was that if my father was gone, he had to be in heaven.  If he had to be in heaven, there had to be a God.  Maybe it was not the theological logic of my seminary professors, but it made sense to me then and, in fact, still does.  It was a strange awakening to a life of faith.  I was on a journey then to now though I did not know that the journey would bring me here where I am today and on beyond to whatever the God who loves and cares for us has planned.  

Always Grace

It has always seemed true that God works in people's lives in different ways and at different ages.  Along the journey of ministry there have been many children too young to understand the meaning of Holy Communion; yet, there they were kneeling alongside Mom and Dad receiving this powerful means of grace.  There have also been some very young children who have come to me wanting to be baptized.  Some would have said for them to wait until they were old enough for confirmation, or at least until a little older.  After talking with them, I did their baptisms.  

Perhaps, this is in part because as a nine year old I knelt down at an altar of a Methodist Church and felt the waters of baptism touching me.  Was I too young to understand?  Have I gotten old enough yet to understand completely that mysterious moment?  While I do not remember being immersed with a lot of theological words back at age nine, I knew that God was stirring in my life and I wanted to do something to acknowledge it.  Maybe my motives were not exactly in line with the position of the church, but in retrospect, I certainly believe it was in line with God wanted me to do in response to my awareness of His presence in my life.  Is it not true that sometimes our public response to what God is doing may not exactly be the kosher response prescribed by the church? 

The church is a Christ centered spiritual community in the world which makes it at its core a dispenser of grace instead of a dispenser of judgment.  Jesus had a way of welcoming children and making room for them in the circle of love He was creating.  He did the same with those whom society told Him to ignore because it was obvious that they were sinners.  When we kneel before the cross, it is never about age, complete understanding, or status in life, but grace.  God's grace.  From beginning to end, life is about grace.   

The Unfolding Way

In these days I am more apt to use the word "unfolding" to speak of the way life presents itself and "becoming" as a word which describes how I go forward to meet whatever is unfolding.  I have decided what I should have known all along and that is that nothing is certain and that everything is changing.  The status quo has always seemed like a firm place to stand, but the truth is that the status quo always has some cracks in it and is actually caught up in the rest of the constantly changing creation as it unfolds in its forward movement.   

In the midst of all this which is present, but not yet seen God moves and works through His Holy Spirit to lead us toward Himself.  He draws us to Himself not through coercion because to do such would be inconsistent with the love which is His nature, but by a leading that is both persuasive and akin to the wooing of a lover who longs for the one loved.  The sacred Word teaches us again and again that we are the ones who are the object of the holy wooing.  God longs for intimacy in His relationship with us.  His actions toward us speak of love that is unconditional and unending.  He is always seen as the Father at the gate looking down a deserted road for the return of a child who spurned the spiritual heritage which underscores the essence of being.  

Like that son who has forgotten where He belongs and to whom He belongs, we have wandered into a dark place fit more devils than the saints God is calling us to become.  This becoming is what we resist as we cling to where we are and who we see ourselves as being.  We have our eyes fixed on the status quo underneath our feet while God's eternal light is shining on the cross of Golgotha as a single sign which points toward the not yet seen, but unfolding road which will eventually take us through the open gate, into the Father's open arms, and to the Home being prepared just beyond the veil.  

A Spiritual Conundrum

"The Seven Storey Mountain" by Thomas Merton is just under five hundred pages long.  It is also a slow read.  I am reading it for the second time which is not unusual for the relationship I have with a good book.  Second reads are also normally slower journeys for me so it should be no surprise that I am still plodding along toward the page numbered four hundred.  On page 390 Merton raised a question which caused me to slow down even more.  The autobiography places him at a point after he has been greatly affected by being with a woman in ministry in Harlem and just before he enters the monastery.  He wrote, "I no longer needed to get something.  I needed to give something.  But here I was, day after day, feeling more and more like the man with great possessions who came to Christ, asking for eternal life..."   

The words caused me to stop and consider prayers I have heard and prayers I have prayed.  It is easy to remember so many prayers offered in gathered moments of worship that seem to be from beginning to end asking God for something.  The truth is I have prayed many such prayers during worship as well as in those moments when there is no one to hear the words coming from my heart.  So many times are prayers really are about getting.   

How do we pray the prayers of giving?  Even if we pray, "Lord, help me give more love to You," we are asking for His help which is much the same as getting something.  Maybe part of what we can give in our prayers are expressions of love for Him even as we might speak the words of love to someone we hold dear.  Or, maybe the prayers of giving might simply be offering words of praise and adoration such as we see modeled in the Psalms.  It can be quite a spiritual conundrum.  How do we pray the prayers which speak of our giving to God instead of the prayers which speak of our wanting to get something from Him?

The Found Ones

When I was my younger self a bumper sticker seen often said, "I found Jesus."  I have not seen that bumper sticker in years.  I guess they must have found Him.  Of course, it is not just a phrase seen on bumper stickers, but an expression often heard as a new convert speaks of the beginning of a relationship with Jesus.  If we hear it, nothing is really gained by offering a word which might put a damper on their enthusiasm; however, the truth is no one finds Jesus.  He has found us.  

He chooses to reveal Himself, or we would not know Him at all.  He chose to come into the world long centuries ago by way of Bethlehem on a love mission so that the abundant life and the eternal life would be an option for each one of us.  We were born with the essence of our holy Creator in each one of us.  Who we are and who we were created to be is all to quickly blurred and made impossible to see by choices we make which take us further and further from knowing ourself as one first touched by the loving hands of God.  

Born with the eternal light of creation within us, we choose the darkness which seeks to overcome that light of life.  Jesus came and spoke of Himself and His mission with words we find recorded in the 8th chapter of John, "I am the Light of the World.  Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."  (John 8:12).  We may have chosen to live in the darkness; we may have chosen to live in the land of choices which are at their core sinful in that they drive a wedge between ourself and the Holy One who brought us into being; we may have chosen what separates, but Christ is always seeking to join us once again to Himself.  He came to Bethlehem and suffered the cross as a way of finding us and calling us to come back Home.

The Necessary Balance

The part of our life to which we give the least attention is the spiritual.  The physical part of our life does not suffer from attention and care.  We may indulge at the buffet table from time to time, but we are also committed to the gym,  taking a thousand or more vaccines, and visiting the doctor on schedule.  We are also aware of those things which are supposed to insure mental health.  Since we are living longer than folks used to live, we want to do what we can do to end our life knowing who we are and where we are.  So, we  buy supplements, gym memberships, and eat food that does not taste like food.   

What gets very little care in the lives of so many is the spiritual dimension.  There are those who might deny the existence of such a dimension of our life, but like it or not, we are creatures who function in three core dimensions: physical, mental, and spiritual.  What is important in living is balance.  Our whole life is stronger when all three aspects of our life are receiving needed attention.  The preacher for yesterday's sermon used a text from Ecclesiastes which said, "A threefold cord is not quickly broken." (4:12).  It is true.  We are stronger as we care for our bodies, minds, and spirits.  

It was Jesus who said that the first commandment is "...you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength." (Mark 12:30). Here is a Word which speaks of presenting and offering not a part of us, but all of us.  We relate best to God and to one another out of our wholeness.  The time we spend in caring for our spirits may get the least amount of attention, but attention it must receive if we are to have the necessary balance in our life to live our life as it was intended for us to live.

An Intimate Love

Those ancient prophets of Israel should have put the fear of God into the rebellious people who listened, but such was not necessarily the case.  It is interesting how they could often speak doom and destruction while at the same time speak about the love of God.  An example of this is found in that eighth century prophet, Hosea, whose broken marriage to an unfaithful woman pointed toward the way the people had lived in relationship to God.  As Gomer was unfaithful to Hosea, so were the people of Israel unfaithful to God.  As Hosea loved Gomer despite her unfaithfulness, so did God love the people despite their unfaithfulness.   

In fact, there is; perhaps, no more intimate expression of God's love than is found in the eleventh chapter of Hosea.  Through the prophet God speaks, "When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son...I taught (him) to walk...I took them up in My arms...I led them with cords of human kindness, with bands of love...I was to them like those who lift infants to their cheeks...I bent down and fed them..." (Hosea 11:1-4). Here is a Word which speaks of the heart of God.  It is a Word which enables us to see how He loves us.  

What most of us confess about ourselves is that we have lived too much like those ancient people to whom the prophet spoke.  We have depended on other people to save us.  We have put other gods like success, getting ahead, and meeting the needs of ego on the altar as objects of our worship.  It has not been the God who loves us whom we have placed at the center of our lives, but lesser things.   Most of us know ourselves as rebellious prodigals intent on our own way; yet, despite everything God does not give up on us.  He continues to love us.  As disappointed and angry as He may be at the choices we make that separate us from Him,  His love is steadfast and like the father who looks for his prodigal son to return home, He never ceases looking for us with an unending love filled with mercy and forgiveness. 

The New is Unfolding

I remember when it started.  It was in May of 1966 when God called me to preach.  I remember when it ended.  It was in August of 2015.  My preaching career spanned those 49 years.  Once I started preaching, I could not imagine a life without the Sunday sermon.  All this changed that hot August day as I stood on a dirt road telling a layman of the church I was serving that I had to step back from preaching at his church.  What is surprising is that I could walk away so easily from something I could not live without.  What happened that August day was that God lifted from me the urgency of preaching.   

Some changes in our spiritual life are hard to imagine.  When we have committed ourselves to some ministry for a long time, it is hard to imagine that God might be leading us away from it.  It could be short term mission work, or teaching a Sunday School class, or ushering on Sunday, or visiting in a nursing home. It may be that God has to lead us away from one thing in order for us to step into what He is planning for us.  We do not always go willingly because we are such fans of the status quo, or perhaps, we think that stepping back may mean the end of what we have come to know as an important ministry.  

Toward the end of my ministry I became convinced that one of the problems with planning a program for the church was with the planners.  We were often tempted to think that if the old was working, there was no need for the new which resulted in rubber stamping stuff which probably should be packed in moth balls.  Surely, it is true that God's plan for the work of His Kingdom is constantly unfolding into the new.  If the plan is unfolding into something that has never before existed, it only makes sense that He would call some of us who are busy with other stuff to turn loose of what is behind and press forward to what is ahead.  (Philippians 3:13-14)

The Longest Journey

"The longest journey is the journey inwards,"  wrote Dag Hammarskjold in "Markings."  Indeed, it is the longest journey and for many of us, it is the last journey we want to take.  As we seek to find whatever we are seeking to find in our life, we go in so many different directions.  Some run toward monetary success in business.  Some get involved in the pursuit of an exemplary religious life.  Some put all their eggs in the basket of family and raising children.  Others actually take physical journeys to see the wonders of the world, or some single religious shrine that promises what cannot be delivered.   

It is the journey to the seat of the will that is the hardest for each of us.  We can through discipline shape our outward behavior so that it speaks of correctness, decency, and being socially acceptable, but no amount of discipline can truly change the heart from which all outward expressions of who we are come.  We may as did the Apostle Paul "will to do what is right," but then in the end, we also come to place to which he came as we acknowledge, "I cannot do it."  (Romans 7:18).  We can appear through discipline and determination to be who we are not, but who we are is seen not in the moments of being watched by others, but in the unguarded moments of life when spontaneously we respond and react to whatever it is that is happening around us.  Who we are is never really measured by what we outwardly do, but by what we hear being spoken in the silent chambers of our being.  

As we take this long and arduous journey inwards, we come to the place of crying out with the Apostle, "Wretched man that I am!"  (Romans 7:24).  Hopefully, too, we come to place of surrender to Christ and know as he knew that the Spirit of God dwells in us.  (Romans 8:9).  The longest journey is the one which enables us to finally live with the eternal light of God shaping us from within so that we might present to Him and the world a life divinely enabled to live as it was created to live.

Reverence for the Creation

When I came to the farm I never realized how much my life would be changed by being immersed in the Creation.  To be honest is to admit that I never thought much about it.  I guess I thought of Creation as a  benign factor in the equation that holds the universe together.  I never really thought much about a rock, a tree, or dirt being brought into being by the same Creator who brought me into being.  I never considered that such things were holy simply because they passed through the creative hands of the Creator.  It never crossed my mind that God might speak, or reveal Himself through the Creation.   

What I have been discovering in these fifteen years on the farm is a growing reverence and respect for the Creation which surrounds me and all of us.  This is not to say that we should hug every tree and save every animal by becoming vegetarians, but that we are called to live with a spirit that is caring instead of exploitative.  There is in the Native American culture a reverence for the Creation.  They did not see themselves as owners of the land, but those who lived on it.  When they killed an animal for clothing and food, it was not some wanton slaughter, but a taking of life that was accompanied by words of reverence for the life being given to sustain their own.  

In today's culture it seems that little thought is given to the rippling effects some overuse of natural resources is going to have.  In today's culture people who make land usage decisions do not usually make them with reverence for the land.  Instead, the land's value is not seen to be intrinsic, but according to the amount of money it can put in someone's pocket.  It is often said around these parts, "They are not making anymore land," and whoever they are is  right.  The Creation is not some inexhaustible resource for us to exploit, but a means of bringing glory to the Creator.  

Life Within the Creation

One of the things slowly revealed here in the days on the farm is that the Creation cares for and sustains me.  I have also realized that even though I might live to be a hundred years old, I am still the short timer here.  Some of the pecan trees here have been providing pecans for several generations of folks like me who have walked and worked the land we have all known as home.  The land, its power to provide life, the trees which tower over me to provide food, beauty, and shade, and the flowing creeks and rivers all have blessed me and will be here long after I am gone.  

The least we owe the Creation is to return the blessing in some measure.  In the book of Genesis when the story of Creation is mostly done, the writer reveals to us the Voice of God saying to the newly created humankind,  "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over it..." (Genesis 1:28).  We do the fruitful and multiply part of that word very well!  However, we have not done so well in providing responsible care for the Creation.  We have taken the part about taking dominion toward exploitation instead of caring for the Creation in such a way that it become an act of blessing upon it instead of an act of violence against it.  

What is lost in our present attitudes toward the Creation is that every part of it bears the imprint of the holy upon it as surely as such an imprint of the holy rests upon each one of us.  Our culture has forgotten how to handle the holy.  Even more unfortunate is our culture's ability to see the holy in the ordinary taken for granted things around us. We have lost that sense of being connected to the whole of Creation which results in our life and the life of the Creation being diminished.  As we offer rituals of corporate repentance, it is surely true that we have much to confess for we have wandered far away from the intentions of the Creator God.

The Central Core

A recent reading introduced me to a perspective of life which spoke of it as being an existence filled with restlessness, dissatisfaction, and darkness.  Since the words were written by a Christian writer, I found myself filled with surprise and a a sense of wondering where this read might be going.  No one needs to make a convincing argument that the world around us is filled with darkness, despair, and the unleashed presence of evil.  Yet, even though such is true, there is something within us which holds us to this earth and longing for more breaths than we deserve.   

More and more am I aware of how my own theological core has changed and is changing in these days here on the farm.  Nothing seems to be seen as it was and nothing that is being seen seems to be only what it appears to be.  The first words of Genesis keep finding me in moments of quiet solitude to speak to me about the goodness of what God has created.  As each act of creation comes to its moment of completion, there is that simple word, "...it was good."  (Genesis 1:4). The phrase repeats itself again and again until there is that moment when everything including humankind had been brought into being and then the three word phrase is changed to one of six words, "...and indeed, it was very good."  (Genesis 1:31).  

There is no denying the horror that we can inflict upon one another with our harmful actions and our spite filled words.  Neither is there any denying that the Creation contains within it the possibility of unleashed forces which bring destruction of property and life.  Despite the reality of the darkness which truly does invade our sense of well being, the words of Genesis still ring true.  What God has made is indeed very good.  It is not a creation which begins with the darkness, but one which begins with an eternal light (Genesis 1:3) that touches every part of the creation, holds it together, and gives life to it.  The eternal light of the creation story is the central core around which everything exists, and thus, it has the power to overcome any darkness, destroy any evil, and restore any broken soul.

In Retrospect

When I retired, I spoke of myself as a third generation Methodist preacher.  When my father died and my mother re-married some five years later, she married a Methodist preacher.  I grew in my adolescent years under his influence.  When his father, who was also a Methodist preacher died, I was blessed by being able to add some of his books to my fledgling library.  One of those books sorta jumped off the shelf the other day to be held and read again.  It was a book entitled, "Markings," by Dag Hammarskjold.  Hammarskjold was the Secretary General of the United Nations when his airplane crashed in 1961 as he was going to Rhodesia to negotiate a cease fire. 

It is not a book like a novel, nor does it follow the format of a personal diary though it could  be characterized as such, but it comes across more as spiritual reflection as he moves toward that moment some months before his death when he wrote on Whitdsunday, "I don't know Who--or what--put the question.  I don't know when it was put.  I don't even remember answering.  But at some moment I did answer Yes to Someone--or Something--and from that hour I was certain that existence is meaningful  and that, therefore, my life, in self surrender had a goal.  From that moment I have known what it means "not to look back," and "to take no thought for the morrow."   

In retrospect I cannot imagine my very young self being able to grasp what "Markings" had to say for even now as one who has had the benefit of more years than are deserved, I find myself still reading with wonder and amazement.  What I do know is that this man's writing which is surely a part of his legacy, had an impact on my journey of faith.  What I also know is that he is only one of many who pushed me toward the road that leads Home.  Today I am grateful for each of them.

God With Us

God is with us.  John, the Apostle and gospel writer said it simply when he wrote, "The Word became flesh and lived among us..."  (John 1:14). There are many verses of Scripture which proclaim the intimate nearness of God, but none does it more majestically with such few words.  During the Christmas season we celebrate the coming of Jesus into the world.  While the gospel writer, Mark, makes no mention of the event which amazed shepherds and sent Herod into a frenzy, both Matthew and Luke and John tell of this event known as the Incarnation.    

It may seem that a serious Biblical blunder is being made as it is said that all three of these writers speak of the coming of Jesus into our midst. We know the story of Matthew and its emphasis on Joseph and the one told by Luke which is Mary's story, but saying there is one in John's gospel might send us to scratching our heads until we realize that John told us about Jesus being with us with a most economical use of words.  What took the others verse after verse to tell, John does with eight words.  Amazing!  The greatest event in history is set forth in eight simple words!   Remembering the story of Jesus coming to live among us is not reminder to get the Christmas tree up in the family room, but is, instead, a reminder that God is with us.  God is not with some of us.  He is with all of us.  

Jesus did not come into the world for a few, but for everyone.  His death on the cross does not just have significance for those who declare faith, but was a work of grace offered for all of us.  Jesus did not just die on the cross for those who would love Him, but even for those who would have nothing to do with Him.  Romans 3:24 says it plainly enough.  "...since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, they are now justified by grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement, by His blood...."  It is an incredible gift, but not one of us is forced to receiveit for as Paul goes on to write, it become ours and is "effective through faith."  (Romans 3:24-25)

The Sunday Question

The sermon heard today did not exactly pose the question I wrote down on the back of an offering envelope pulled from the back of the pew in front of me.  What I also know is that sometimes God has a way of posing questions the preacher does not really ask.  So it was today.  The question I brought home for pondering is, "What if I have not yet come to the moment for which God has been preparing me all of my life?"  Of course, this is not the question of a young seminarian back in the days of beginning, but of a seventy-seven old worn out Methodist preacher sent to the pasture of retirement.   

My first thought took me into the future wondering if there was something waiting out there which has yet to be revealed.  And while such is always a possibility, if also occurred to me that God has more likely been preparing me all my life to live today.  Today has seemed rather ordinary.  I went to worship, ate some lunch, and took a nap before sitting down to think again about the question raised by the sermon.  There has been nothing grandiose about the living of this day, but then, what I also know is that this is a description of most of my days.  In the midst of what I have come to know as ordinary living, I have also become aware that God is likely to break into the minutia of my life at any moment and that He has often brought me to moments which I could only describe as extraordinary moments of grace.  

Instead of the grandiose, maybe God has been preparing me all my life for a moment of affirming a preacher in his preaching today, or holding a door open for a stranger as an act of kindness, or maybe even the silent prayers offered this morning in the midst of a quiet moment this morning with Him.  Maybe it was not the preacher who asked the question today, but the Spirit who was working through the preacher.  Or, maybe it was both.  

The Baby and the Bathwater

A trend that has become full blown in the church today is to make a presentation to the community that is totally devoid of any denominational connection. Church signs that once prominently proclaimed a denominational heritage now intentionally hide it on the back of the sign where no one can find it.  Of course, while such is an exaggeration, it is true that denominational affiliation, if it even exists, is hard to find.  I remember reading early in my years of ministry the church researchers who were predicting the rise of autonomous church groups and the demise of denominational churches.  Those predictions have certainly been proven true.    

Perhaps, there is hidden in some alcove of these churches with names that could just as well serve a coffee shop a notebook filled with a strong theological core of beliefs, but I would venture it likely borders on being more culture based than one based on the rich theological positions which have served the church for centuries.  It seems that churches want to be identified as independent and capable of creating their own core theological values.  Where as, I grew up in a culture where people expressed with pride a heritage as old as the Reformation and maybe even older, the church on the corner today wants no part of it.  

Perhaps, it speaks in part to a generation of people who are choosing to live unattached to traditions, institutions, and one another.  The Internet propagates a lie that people are more connected and they may be more connected to information, but not to people.  I grew up with a saying, "Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater."  I wonder sometimes if we are not doing this very thing in the church today.  

A Conversational Relationship

What we never know is when God is going to speak.  Those who listen for that Voice only on Sunday morning in worship gatherings are limiting their ability to hear a Voice that is never silent.  Maybe the Voice that is always speaking is not like the thundering and overpowering Voice which Moses heard when he went up the holy mountain and maybe it is not a Voice which throws us to the ground such as the one Saul of Tarsus heard on the Damascus Road, but this in no way says that God is not speaking to each one of us.  One of the problems we face as we seek to hear the voice of God in our life is that we are listening for a Voice which sounds like our own and one that we hear with the ears with which we are born.  

The truth is we are also born with invisible ears to hear this Voice which speaks out of the silence to our heart and spirit.  When He speaks it may be a thundering voice, but more likely it is going to be a voice we hear somewhere within our spirit that comes more like an awareness than a sound.  It is mysterious how this Voice that makes no sounds can be heard by those like us who are created to hear what cannot be heard.  We often forget that it is in His image that we are created and while we are not like Him, we have been created by the eternal light set forth in the creation from the very beginning and with a spirit designed to interact with the Spirit of the One who made us.  

From the very beginning the plan of God was to have a relationship of speaking and hearing with the created man and woman of the Garden.  It was conversational relationship.  The Voice of the Creator was heard by them and even when they forgot who they were, He still continued to speak and they did not lose their ability to hear.  We are made for that kind of relationship.  It is something so many have forgotten and something desperately needed to know the abundant and full life for which we were created.  

Never Underestimate the Word

It is a mistake to underestimate the power of the written Word of God.  Too many times the Word is read in a hurried or lackadaisical manner during our worship gatherings.  We sometimes forget what we are holding in our hands as well as what we are reading.  What we are reading is not just words from a book.  Reading it is about more than just satisfying the requirements of the liturgy.  It is like a burning fire.  It is like a wind that touches and stirs everything in its path.  It is the energy of a waterfall cascading into the stream waiting below. It is a power that revolutionizes everything and everyone in its path.   

The Apostle Paul declared it to be the inspired Word of God (II Timothy 3:16) which means it has within it the very breath of God.  The writer of Hebrews wrote, "the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two edged sword...(Hebrews 4:12).  Here is a reminder that the Word of God is not some passive word that puts people to sleep, but a Word which is both piercing and cutting.  Finally, there is that Word in Romans which should cause any who read it to tremble in fear at the thought of reading it casually.  "For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith..."  (Romans 1:16.  

Let anyone who dares to read the Word to others consider what it means to read and ponder such words of power.  Let anyone who reads hold the Book of all Books up high before the gathered people that they might behold this book of fire.  Let anyone who reads its holy words know that it is a a Word which speak of authority.  Let anyone who reads the Word remember the words of the prophet Isaiah, "The grass withers, the flower fades; but the Word of God will stand forever."  (Isaiah 40:8).

The Child Who Leads

There was almost a skip in his step as he walked up to the front.  If it was not actually a skip, it was a walk that showed eagerness to get where he was going.  He led his Mom and Dad as they made their way to the altar rail for the service of Holy Communion.  When he arrived he did not follow protocol and fall on his knees, but instead, stepped on the altar rail as its only standing recipient.  Like old Zacchaeus, he apparently wanted to be in a position to see and he was not about to let his seven year old frame be a hindrance.  When he left and walked by me on his way to the pew, he still had that skip in his step along with a smile on his face.   

I was glad in that moment that our Methodist tradition provides for an open table.  To speak of an open table is to say that everyone is welcome.  There are no rules or restrictions and if someone cannot make it to the altar, the Sacrament is brought to them in the pew.  There are places in our religious traditions where Holy Communion is a members only event.  There are others which put up requirements based on age, or confirmation, or baptism, or even church membership.   

None of those who sat at the original table with Jesus were there because they had been to a qualifying class and who knows if they all made it down to the Jordan River for baptism?  They were all welcome.  It was good to see so many different looking people at the Table today and to know that everyone knelt as an equal.  There is room for everyone to kneel at the cross and so should it be at the Table.  

Table Reflections

 With knees bent and hands open

     beggars gathered to receive

       holy bread and blessed cup.

         Not a single one worthy

            of the body and the blood

              sacrificed so long ago

for all sinners such as me.

 

Young and old they find a place.

    Slowly and eagerly come

      those whose hope has been shattered,

        those whose bodies bear the scars

          of being lost and undone, 

            even forgotten by all

except the Servant who waits.

 

Today a child leads the crowd,

   him hurrying to the Table

    the rest following closely,

      him standing on the rail,

       the others on bended knee,

        all with open hands, waiting

to be filled with God's grace. 

Sunday Morning Musings

Sunday morning has dawned and church is just over the horizon.  I have been up a bit and have put on my Sunday duds.  There was a time when Sunday duds were defined by white shirt, tie, a suit, and a pair of Saturday night shined shoes.  Anyone who attends church these days knows that such a person so dressed would stand out among the more casually dressed pew people.  Even most of the preachers have forgotten how to tie a tie and white shirts and suits are, perhaps, in the closet waiting on the next funeral.  Obviously, things have changed.   

 

Attire is not the only thing which has changed about Sunday in my life time.  The holy hour of eleven o'clock no longer exists as worship services are almost held on any hour come Sunday morning.  Maybe multiple services put more people to church services on Sunday.  I will leave that one to the church statisticians, but an observation is that church no longer has such an influence that it is the center of the community's life.  Long years ago the Sunday morning "hooky" players went to the river with their fishing boats, or to the golf club with a bag of sticks; nowadays, the place of choice seems to be some big box store that has its own unique way of taking up the offering.    

 

Actually, more significant changes have been in the works for a long time.  It never occurred to me growing up that the church was irrelevant.  I might have thought it was boring, but not irrelevant.  To be irrelevant means something does not make any difference.  It means it is peripheral instead of central.  It means you can take it, or leave it, and, unfortunately, so many today are choosing to leave it.  

Doing and Being

Before I retired, my reading list was full of what I have come to call "To Do" books.  Those were the books that gave me instructions on how to do ministry, how to preach, or how to pray.  To some degree those days were filled with active books which created some kind of movement or change in my lifestyle.  After retirement, I discovered a different life unfolding.  It was a slower one.  It was more deliberate.  I found myself moving from the "how to" books to the" being" books.  

The being books did not give me instructions about how to be, but instead called me to understand that I did not have to try pushing the river in the direction I wanted it to go.  All I need to do is to be in the river and let its movement and flow give direction to my life.  Retirement has brought me to a new understanding of that word of Jesus about letting go.  It is not the things of our life that we must forsake, but the lifestyle which gives our life direction.  We try to push the river and to control its flow with our lifestyle, with our need for accumulation and power, and with our attempts to care for our ego.  

This is the issue the rich young man faced in his conversation with Jesus.  When Jesus told him to "go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor...then come, follow me..." (Matthew 19:21),  Jesus was talking about turning loose of more than just his things, but making a radical change in his lifestyle.  To heed the words of Jesus would have required him to give up the business of doing all the things he was doing to control his life so that the life God intended for him could unfold before him.  For a moment Jesus enabled him to see how such a life looked and when he saw it, he walked away because what he thought he held had to great a hold on him. 

Unheard Sermons

"There is not a flower that opens, not a seed that falls into the ground, and not an ear of wheat that nods on the end of its stalk in the wind that does not preach and proclaim the greatness and the mercy of God in the world."  So wrote Thomas Merton in his autobiography of faith entitled, "The Seven Storey Mountain."  Such is the world in which we live, but do not see.  We see something different. We see something to serve us.  We see something put in place to use, exploit, and sustain us.  Its value is determined not by the Creator's purpose, but our need. It is no wonder that our ecological systems are under such stress.  

Part of the problem has to do with the distance we have moved from the creation.  We have moved far enough away not to see it.  Today folks are more likely to marvel at the beauty of the nighttime skyline of sprawling cities than they are to look in wonder at the opened bud of a flower, or the bee that pollinates it. We see, but then sometimes what we see is not what is really there to see and hear.  The creation is alive as a manifestation of the presence of the Creator God.  We are content to see a lesser thing.

As each part of creation does what it was created to do and in doing so fulfill its purpose for being, it brings glory to God.  As each part of the creation lives in a relationship of dependency with every other part of the creation, it has within it the potential to reflect God's glory and to be His voice in the world around us.  When we fail to see this divine reality we end up thinking that the creation revolves around us and our needs.  With those eyes that do not really see, we walk farther and farther away from the Garden where we able to not only live in the presence of the Creator, but to live with Him in a holy partnership.