A Word From James

The letter James wrote to the church is regarded by some as not spiritual enough.  Some might say it is filled with too much talk about nitty gritty practical living and not enough talk about prayer and worship. James is the preacher of the "faith without works is a dead thing" theology.  He will not let us off the hook when it comes to seeing those in need and doing something about it.  It is not enough to point to the number of hours we spend praying, or the number of times we worship each week.  As far as he is concerned if our hands our not getting dirty in serving, we are missing the mark.   

There is no mistaking where he stands.  When we want to rationalize our short temper, we hear him saying, "let everyone be quick to listen and slow to speak, slow to anger, for your anger does not produce God's righteousness." (James 1:19).  If we want to pat ourselves on the back because we know so much Scripture, he says to us, "be doers of the Word, and not merely hearers."  (James 1:22)  His letter speaks to the church about bridling the tongue, feeding the hungry, and not speaking evil against one another.  It is clear to James that the gospel is just a bunch of words if it does not come forth from the heart to make a difference in the world.  

Some folks want to live with a "Jesus and me" way of life, but the Apostle would call them out for heresy.  If the love and grace we have received from God is not making a difference in the way we respond to human need and human suffering as well as the soul needs of those around us, then according to James we are deceiving ourselves and the righteousness we claim is merely our sin.

Wanderers

It has come to me in these last years that I have been a wanderer.  Like Abraham who wandered long ago to a land which God chose not to reveal to him, so has it been for me.  Abraham modeled faithfulness because of the way he was willing to wander to "know not where."  "Come, go with me to the land that I will show you," is a rough but fairly accurate rendering of how it was for the first wanderer.  (Genesis 12:1)  There were six different schools which helped me on the way to my high school diploma, three  places of higher education, and stops in ten different Georgia towns before finally arriving home at the farm.  

I have come to understand that home is not always easy to define.  For an inability to find a better word, I think of home as belonging, a place where you know you were meant to be though never clearly seen during the wandering.  I have been a lifetime traveling to what I now know as home, but what I also know is that home may still be up some other road I have not yet traveled.  Of course, there is more to traveling the road to a home not yet seen.  Abraham models this truth for us.  Throughout his physical wandering, he was a man wandering always closer to the God who beckoned him to begin the journey.  

To see Abraham as a spiritual wanderer seems appropriate since his journey with and to God was a lot like ours.  It was not a straight journey with no meanderings, no distractions, and no side roads which complicated his spiritual movement toward and with God.  Like Abraham we will one day shake the dust from our spiritual feet and arrive at what we will know as the Home meant for us since the holy hand touched us at conception.  Whether the gates will be pearly, or the streets made of gold, it will be a moment for seeing clearly what is now only a glimmering light which leads us to where we will know belonging.

Sowers of Kindness

There is a lot of ugliness in this world.  There is the careless use of road sides as trash receptacles.  There are inner city neighborhoods which should have been abandoned a long time ago.  There are angry people who have promised to love one another shouting obscenities at each other over the heads of their children behind closed doors.  There are horrible wars, hungry people, and the aftermath of catastrophic disasters.  As beautiful as this world can be, there are also those things to be seen which are filled with such ugliness all we want to do is turn our head.   

The other day I witnessed two acts of ugliness which I have not been able to get out of my mind.  They seem to show up as constant re-runs whenever my mind pauses.  The first was an older man whose care for his slow moving walker dependent wife seemed framed by the attitude of do the best you can.  The second unforgettable ugliness was a father who verbally humiliated his ten year old son until the child finally crumpled in a mass of jerking tears on the sidewalk.  While being a parent is sometimes hard and being a full time caregiver is always hard, it is still impossible to justify the ugliness in plain view the other day.  

Just as the ugliness of evil seemed to be holding sway, the goodness of kindness and love came into view.  Kindness came into view as the eatery staff tended to the older woman as if she was their mother and it came into view again when the crumpled child was sought out and brought back to the game by another child who cared for him like a brother.  Kindness, gentleness, care, and love are in too short a supply these days.  We may not be able to do something about all the ugliness we see spread across our world, but we can offer the fruits of goodness to those who are neglected and crying in our midst.  To paraphrase a teaching of Jesus, the world is in need of more sowers of goodness and each one of us can be one today.     

Our Unique Walk

It is always good to hear about the life others are having with God.  If we are struggling with our own, the possibility exists that someone else's story may discourage us, but the greater possibility is that we will be inspired by it.  Our faith journey is not experienced as steady movement upward and forward.  It often is more like a road that has twists and turns, but also plenty of movement from moments of transcendent glory to moments of enduring long dark nights of holy absence.  

What we always need to remember as we are listening to others is that everyone has a different kind of relationship with God.  Even as we relate differently to our children who are different, so should we give God the freedom to relate to each one of us according to the unique personality and spirit that is ours.  It is also important to remember that even in those moments when God seems to be visiting more with our neighbor, or perhaps, not with us at all, there is a reason.  The silence can be every bit as full of purpose as the glorious moments of divine epiphany.  There may be soul work which we need to do in preparation for some trial of tomorrow and silence is the tool of preparation.   

When the day is done it is surely true that God is seeking to bring us into a deeper relationship with Him so that we will be enabled to live faithfully, sacrificially, and abundantly.  If our experience has taken us to the top of the mountain, we should not be surprised that there is a path leading us down.  If we are plodding in our faith, we can also know that there will be a day of running like we were young and flying like eagles.  We can be inspired or discouraged by the experience of others, but never should we measure our own by it.  God takes us all up and down different roads at different times, but it is always according to a plan that is unfolding before us even though we may not see clearly all that is ahead.    

Wanting More

As I have grown older, I want to see more.  It is not that I want to travel the planet to behold wonders like pyramids, or land that served as the stage for important historical events, or some magnificent mountains that soar toward the sun.  What I want to see is more of what is around me.  Wherever I may be, I want to see what it there to see.  To be content with the things I have always seen and, perhaps, taken for granted is no longer enough.  I want to see what the poets see.  I want to see all the shades of color.  I want to see all the intricacies of the creation God has put around me.  

At an even different level, I want to see every evidence of God present in my present moment.  I want to hear every word He speaks no matter how softly He speaks it.  I want to see Him and know Him in every twist in the road and in every turn of my life.  Long ago shortly after leaving the pulpit for the farm, I heard that divine voice speak in the innermost place of my heart telling me, "Pay Attention."  It has become an important word in my life. It has become a word that takes me forward expectantly into each day.  More recently still another word from God came in the second chapter of Hebrews. It seemed as if it were a word on the page for me.  "Therefore we must pay greater attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it."  (Hebrews 2:1)  

When I heard "Pay Attention" in the okra patch, I received a Word to direct me forward.  As more years have slipped by, I hear this word about paying even greater attention. There are still more manifestations of His presence, there are still more Words being spoken softly, there is more and I want all of it.  My soul longs for Him and as I live the shorter part of my life, I do not want to miss a thing.

Help for a Blighted World

Some pieces of literature have never left me since my first reading long years ago.  I remember Tess and her brother Abraham taking the beehives to market in Thomas Hardy's story, "Tess of the D'Urbevilles." The young boy started star gazing and as they talked Tess talked about the stars looking like apples, "Most of them splendid and sound--a few blighted."  Young Abraham asked, "Which do we live on--a splendid one, or a blighted one?  Tess's answer has always stuck with me.  "A blighted one," she said.  

Most people would agree with the words Thomas Hardy put into the mouth of Tess.  There are many things which point to the blighted nature of our world.  There is starvation fueled by crop failures, politics, and greed.  Wars are being fought not against combatants, but against innocent people running for safe places which do not exist.  The creation itself seems to be so stressed by exploitation that its resiliency can no longer be assumed.  Most of all, we have forgotten how to live with one another and to care for one another.   On and on goes this list which speaks of the blight upon our world.   

Where is our hope?  From whence cometh our help?  The question has been with us a long time. The Psalmist of long ago wrote, "I lift up my eyes to the hills--from where will my help come?  My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth."  (Psalm 121:1-2)  While some will say such a word points to being naive and simplistic, it is the only one which makes any sense.  Politicians and the wars they impose on the earth cannot fix the blighted nature of our world.  Neither can the church so zealous for self preservation. Jesus came to cure the blight that has infected this Creation of ours which in the beginning was described as being very good.  (Genesis 1:31).  Jesus came to plant within broken systems and broken hearts a seed He spoke of as the Kingdom of God.  It is a Kingdom of a new order, one that exists in heaven and that we pray will spill over unto the earth.  Only this Kingdom has the power to heal brokenness and restore wholeness.

The Times Have Changed

We can no longer, not that we ever could, count on culture to carry us forward in our faith.  There was a time when it might have seemed that way to many of us.  Many of us remember a time when the life of the community in which we lived as well as our own was centered around the community of the church.  We were shaped by its presence, by its teachings, and the people who were within it.  The church community was where we were baptized, indoctrinated with the values of decency, moral living, and most importantly, the teachings of Jesus.   

As Bob Dylan sings in one of his older songs, "...the times are a'changing..."  Actually, they are not just changing, they have changed.  Today's culture is not the culture of our memory.  It is one where culture itself has become more the center of influence than that small church on the corner.  There are many who count themselves among believers today who believe not so much in the personal Jesus we talked about, but who see Christianity as a good choice among many other choices.  A recent read entitled "The Holy Longing," by Ronald Rolheiser says, "...it is easier to have faith in Christianity, in a code of ethics, in Jesus' moral teaching, in God's call for justice, and in the human value of gathering in community, than it is to have personal faith in a living God."  

Though Rolheiser is a Roman Catholic, he sounds a bit Wesleyan in what he has to say.  A personal experience with Christ and the living God He enabled us to see through the Incarnation is not something which can be discarded if a sustainable faith is what we seek.  We will inevitably grow weary in our well doing and we will finally become discouraged and disheartened unless the faith we profess has as its core a personal relationship with the living risen Jesus Christ.

The Journey of Purpose

Everyone has a different journey of faith.  Some are surprised to wake up one day and see that Jesus has been walking along with them for some time as seemed to have happened to Cleopas and his friend on the Emmaus Road.  Others are shaken to the core of their being and dropped to the ground on their knees by some powerful moment of divine revelation.  Some experience God like thunder on the mountain and some encounter him in moments filled with silence.  To some the journey of faith seems like the result of spiritual pursuit and then those are those who stumble unawares into the arms of a receiving and loving God.   

Even as the journey of faith begins on different roads and unexpected intersections, so does the way unfold differently.  The journey of faith is always preceded by the work of the Holy Spirit in the human heart and it, therefore, naturally follows that the road forward is prepared by Him.  Even as there is purpose in the calling, so is there purpose in the walking.  Nothing about the journey of faith points to it being a copy of another's journey.  It is, instead, always about the plan of God for each one of us.  It is hard for many of us to get our minds around the reality that part of the mystery of the cross event is the way it makes possible a journey that could never be possible without it.  

The cross is that means of grace made available to those who see it and see it as the way to the home where we belong as well as those who do not see it as life changing power.  The love offered from the cross is as John 3:16 tells us.  It is for everyone, not just some.  Acceptance or rejection is never the issue.  God has a plan which provides a unique way of calling everyone home to Him.  Those who walk that way may begin the journey differently and may walk the way differently, but those on the journey know, too, there is nothing about it which points toward coincidence.

Sulking in the Barn

In the midst of the feast celebrating the return of his youngest son, the father realized his other son, the oldest, was not at the table.  It was surely a moment when his joy was dampened and as we read the parable, we see the father leaving the festivities to find this son whom he also loved. (Luke 15:28)  He found him sulking just inside of the sound of the music and loud voices.  He pleaded with this oldest son who had planted himself outside the gate and in a distant country as surely as had the younger one who had physically made such a journey. The father pleaded, but the parable does not reveal to us if the sulking son joined the party or stayed outside to nurse a storehouse of resentment toward his brother.    

One of things Jesus points out as a most important issue is the issue of broken relationships.  What He never did was to encourage disciples to nurture victim mentalities.  The nature of the offense which caused the brokenness, or the one who was at fault was not something more important than restoring what was broken no matter what the cost.  "So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift." (Matthew 5:23-24)    

It is not an easy word for us.  Many have been the times when ego has made the journey to reconciliation take a much longer time than it should.  One memory which is personally remembered is taking so long reconciliation was no longer possible.  The one thing we all know are the relationships in our life which need mending.  Our choice is sulking in the barn, or joining the party.

The Great Exchange

Rembrandt's painting, "The Return of the Prodigal" gives us a glimpse of that moment when the returning prodigal son collapses on the ground before his father.  All those in the painting are dressed in extravagance while the young son is dressed in the rags of poverty.  Luke 15:22 tells of the physical transformation as the father calls to the servant to bring a robe, a ring, and sandals. Suddenly the appearance of the son is transformed.   

What Luke enables us to visualize happens spiritually when we decide to come to the Father.  The Apostle Paul spoke of that moment visualized for us by the gospel writer as a moment for taking off and putting on. (Ephesians 4:22-24)  When we come to the Father through Jesus a remarkable inner transformation takes place.  In that moment of taking off the way of life which has taken us away from our Creator and choosing to once again claim the reality that we bear His image, someone new is brought into being.  It is no wonder that John, the gospel writer, described it as a new birth and the Apostle Paul referred to it being a moment when a new creation comes into being.  

When we come to Christ, the person we were no longer exists.  Before coming to Christ we were all wrapped up in ourselves and the pursuits of our own ego.  The life we lived was a very small life as any life must be when its center is self.  As we come to Christ we discover that it is not ego which is the prime directive of our life, but the Holy Spirit.  Coming to Christ is coming home.  It is choosing to live where we belong and to be who we were created to be.  It is indeed a moment of  exchanging the rags of brokenness for the robe of wholeness.   

Utter Amazement

When the prodigal son returned home it was only after a hard and difficult journey.  It is impossible for us to know the miles between home and the distant country.  Maybe it was a hundred miles, or maybe it was just across town.  The difficulty of the journey was not in the way it put blisters on his feet, but the load he carried.  Few things are harder to bear than the unknown response of someone who is either going to send you down the road, or tell you your room in the house is just as you left it.  

The steps we take toward asking someone to forgive us are some of the hardest steps we take.   The prodigal had practiced his speech to his father.  He knew what he would say and it said it only after his father had taken him in his arms and kissed him.  Such a spontaneous and unconditional response of compassion no doubt made the words he had prepared to speak harder than he could have ever imagined.  No doubt the father and the son wet each other's faces with those homecoming tears. What a surprise it must have been for the prodigal to hear his father calling to the servants to kill the fatted calf that they might have a celebration.  

It is a moment shared by many of  us and a moment which will be shared by many more.  No matter how far we wake up away from the Father who loves us, we find that He is looking for us.  No matter how undeserving we know we are, He is there to receive us, to forgive us, and to love us.  He is not one to chase us, or shame us, or tell us we should have known better, but One who is always eager to see that moment when we turn to look His way once again.  It is the kind of story which fits that moment when we first turned to Jesus.  Imagine for a moment, if possible, the utter amazement we will know in the final moment when He stands just inside the last darkness to take us in His arms, not for a moment, but for all of eternity.

Thoughts of a Prodigal

When the prodigal son left his father and the place of his belonging, the Word says he ended up "in a distant country."  (Luke 15:13)  It was not necessarily a country that speaks of another nation; instead, it could have been a country as far away as very near to the place of his roots.  He actually went from a land of care to a land of carelessness, a land of respect to one of disrespect, a land of being accountable to a land of squandering.  When he walked out of the gate of his father's household, he left his core and his life started spinning out of control.  

The journey away from is the story of all of us.  Conceived and created by the holy hands of a Creator who in those beginning moments declared us to be His, we started making choices which edged us closer to the gate until we finally decided that life might be better in some distant country.  And so we left, exchanging the clothes of our beginning for clothes that kept us from seeing the holy imprint on our soul which spoke of who we really are and to whom we really belong.  In our journey outside the gate to the distant country we forgot all this stuff that connected us to the One who created us.  

Even as the father of the prodigal never forgot his son, so is it true that our Father God never forgets about us.  He, too, waits at the gate with arms of compassion waiting for us to once again step inside His embrace.  Inside His embrace is where we belong.  When we have traveled and squandered our life in the distant country, we no longer feel worthy to live at home again, but how we feel is never going to keep us out of those arms of grace we do not deserve and love which is unconditional.  No matter how distant the country, when we choose to start the journey home, He is going to receive us.

Time to Break Camp

One of the divisive issues facing the Christian community is the divide being created by the differences between a Biblically based spirituality and one culturally shaped.  The divide has created a tension which has been percolating beneath the surface for decades, but has in more recent years exploded to bring about an "us and them" mentality that may be impossible to overcome.  There seems to be no middle ground for compromise and both groups look at the other as less than authentic Christians.  

Those within the Biblically based community are driven by a strong sense that the Bible is the authoritative Word of God.  Its words shape our understanding of God, ourselves and our reason for being, and the way we are to live in relationship with others.  It is a prime directive of the lives of those who inhabit this spiritual community.  On the other side are those who maintain the importance of the Bible, but also maintain that it is not to be taken as an authority.  Instead, it is to be understood through the lens of culture.  Culture has the defining word or vote on how traditional Scripture is to be read and understood.  Theological beliefs and life within the community are shaped not by ancient words, but by cultural mores.

One of the most unfortunate problems created by this divisive tension is the way it has caused us to live with attitudes of self righteousness and a cancerous growth of attitudes and actions which make a mockery of the "Christ within us" theology.  Christ never treated others as we do and neither did He speak to others as we do one another today.  Too many of us within the church have our tent set up on the ground broken by Satan.  It is time for us to set up camp once again within the boundaries which are established by the loving and forgiving spirit of Christ. 

The Inner Time Clock

I read the other day about a very popular and prolific writer who shuns the computer and the technology that makes writing easier.  Whatever he has written, he has done in longhand and someone else comes along to set it into type.  I remember a time when I wrote all my sermons on a yellow legal pad.  I finally made the journey to an old Royal typewriter and then when word processor technology became available, I hemmed and hawed for a very long time before making the transition.  Of course, now I have bought into laptops and desk tops and cannot imagine another way.  

I wonder about the writing habits of this very successful author.  Does his old fashioned laboring with words slow him down to consider what each word is saying and feeling?  Is he like a lot of others, including myself, who just dig in their heels at the thought of any more change?  I also know someone who has copied the Bible from cover to cover not once, but a half a dozen times or more using only a pen and pad of paper.  I would imagine that words take on a different meaning for her as she writes one word after another of the holy words.  

Maybe we have all gotten into too big a hurry.  Maybe getting done is more important than the doing.  Maybe this writer and Bible copier are committed to a slower pace of life and their old fashioned way is a way of reminding us to live with more appreciation for the moment that is before us.  I suppose God could have done the creation work with the snap of a finger, but instead chose to slow down and spread it out over a larger span of time.  Maybe part of our brokenness within ourselves speaks to the way we are living out of sync with the time clock installed within us at conception.

A Prayer for the Church

On my way there I saw the church sign which pointed toward a church off the main road and down a neighborhood street.  On the way back from there, I pulled into the parking lot with intentions of going in the sanctuary to sit a spell.  The door was unlocked, the office was empty, and the voices heard carried me to a side room where a small group of ladies gathered.  I introduced myself, asked if I could sit in the sanctuary, and then made my way to the space where those women and folks like them worshiped each Sunday.  

I noticed from markers on the outside of the door that Methodists had met there since 1947.  The sanctuary was small and not a pretentious place by any standards, but it was a place filled with memories of spiritual moments I could not know, but only imagine.  From the looks of things its more vibrant years had passed and it was one of those too often seen places which was hanging on and hoping for a better day.  An old church bulletin, a discarded newsletter on the pews, and the order within a sanctuary often tell stories not every one is hearing.  

No one will ever take note that I was there for a time of just sitting and praying.  I prayed about the things on my heart and some of the people whose paths have crossed mine.  I prayed, too, for this church I will likely never enter again.  It is like many I have known over the years. It is a place where folks have memories and even present experiences of God being at work in their lives. Like the folks who have the memories and the present fresh encounters, I prayed that the church's past will not overshadow its future.

420,863

Some time ago I noticed the page view counter on my blog was approaching 400,000.  A few days ago I was blown out of the water to see the number 420,863.  When I wrote the first blog back in 2008, I had no idea it would have such a life.  The first year I wrote 35 posts.  It was 2017 before I reached the place where I was writing over 300 a year.  It was not a ministry I saw coming when I retired in 2010.  I figured on doing some preaching until someone pulled off my preaching boots.  Looking back at the last fifteen years, it appears to me now that God did just that back in 2015 and left me with a ministry of writing JourneyNotes.   

I cannot count the times I have woke up to consider bringing this writing ministry to an end and neither can I count the number of times some reader left such a word of encouragement that quitting was no longer an option.  I am grateful to God for giving me a ministry I did not expect and I am grateful to the many who have become faithful readers over the years.  Those who read, both those who have identified themselves and those who prefer to stay invisible, have become for me like an unseen congregation who show up again and again to see what word God has given me to share.  

I can only say "Thank you." and that I am humbled by your support of what I have come to know as a ministry to which God has called me as surely as I know He called me to  preach a lifetime ago.   For those who read the blog on Facebook, each post is also available at http://billjourneynotes.blogspot.com/ and if you wish it can be emailed to you daily from that place.  Your comments are always appreciated.  Over the years of writing I have come to appreciate the opportunity for dialogue many of you have provided.  Also, I always appreciate you sharing the blog with others as a way of extending the ministry into the lives of others.  Thanks again.  Your support blesses me.  I pray you are blessed by JourneyNotes.

Feeding the Soul

Feeding our soul is important business.  Actually, it is beyond important.  It is about valuing our life.  There are more definitions of soul than there is space to list them.  There are books that seek to delve deeply into the meaning of this word which is cast about so carelessly in many dimensions of life.  Basically and fundamentally, our soul points to the essence of who we are.  If we look only at all the messages being sent from our culture, it would seem that the most important part of who we are is the physical part of us with which we present ourselves to the world around us, but unless what is seen is driven by what is not seen within us, there will always be a confusion which robs us of inner peace.  

Our soul speaks about our core values, the reason for our living, and our connection to the Creator who brought us into being.  Unlike our physical body, it has no expiration date.  It is that part of us into which the eternal light of the Creator first shined in the moment of our conception and it is also that part of us created to live into a life that is eternal.  We often hear it said that we are not a body with a soul, but a soul with a body.  To miss the distinction of the difference is to walk a road that leads to internal chaos.  

As we begin to understand the significance of this soul planted within each one of us, feeding and nurturing the soul becomes our most important function.  Unfortunately, the soul is not fed on some kind of schedule or routine, but in those moments of letting go of the control functions by which we order our lives.  Most of us live so fast and so furious that there is no time for considering a passage of Scripture, or reading some poetry, or becoming a part of something around us which has soul soothing and life giving powers.  Certainly, these three things are not the only means of feeding the soul.  Whatever it is that takes us away from the control mode and into the silence of the heart feeds our soul which is going to enhance our living.

Threads

The history of Christianity is full of spiritual threads.  One of the most well known spiritual threads started in 1874 when a Sunday School teacher named Edward Kimball went to the shoe store where one of the 17 year old boys in his class worked.  It is because of this Sunday School teacher that Dwight L. Moody was converted.  As we know, Moody became one of the greatest evangelists in American history.  It is said that millions heard him preach and he established The Moody Bible Institute. 

The thread continued as J. Wilbur Chapman was converted at one of Moody's meetings.  Chapman became an evangelist and a professional baseball player was converted at a Chapman meeting. When Chapman went to another ministry, the ball player named Billy Sunday picked up the evangelist's mantle.  At one of Billy Sunday's meetings a man named Mordecai Ham was converted and became an evangelist.  The next person in this spiritual thread is known to most of us.  It was at a Mordecai Ham meeting that Billy Graham was converted.  Graham often spoke of Moody as the model for his great crusades at which so many people came to Christ. 

Each one of us is a part of some spiritual thread which has spun its way through the ages to us.  Some of us may know the names of the saints who stretch behind us and whose faithfulness has reached through the generations to include us.  As amazing as this is to consider, what is even more amazing is that you and I are a part of a thread which is spinning its way forward to touch the lives of those unseen and, perhaps, even unborn.  God is truly amazing!  Who would have thought we could be a part of a plan as big as His?

The Reason Beyond the Reason

There are times when we come to some place, or choose to enter into a set of circumstances for one reason only to find out that God had another reason.  At the beginning of my adult years I chose Young Harris College as a place to begin my college education, but as I look back at those years, I know that one of the reasons God led me to that place was to begin laying a spiritual foundation.  Most of the times those moments of revelation come through hindsight, but there are also those times when we know we stand in the midst of such a moment.  

When we sense within us that there is a reason beyond the reason that has brought us to a certain place or moment in our life, it is time for us to focus on being attentive to the present moment and to ask the Holy Spirit to help us know and see what is for the moment not known and not seen, but unfolding in the realm of the invisible.  When Saul of Tarsus watched the stoning of Stephen and held the coats of the stone throwers, he no doubt saw it as a moment of driving another nail in the coffin of Christianity, but God had another reason Saul could not yet see for putting him inside that moment.   

It is important to remember that things are not always what they might seem to be.  What we see as something which makes no sense may indeed be a part of the greater plan of what God is moving toward accomplishing. Our trip to the grocery store may be to buy food, but God may have someone standing in the produce section who needs a word of kindness.  Being in worship every Sunday may be so predictable we wonder if going is worth it and the Sunday of our doubt may be the Sunday when some life changing word is going to be spoken.  As believers in Jesus we know that there is more to our life than what is apparent for God dwells within us and has things He wants us to be about for His Kingdom.  Our reasons for being somewhere may be mundane.  His reasons for our being there may be eternal.

Table Blessings

One of the first prayers my mother taught me was a table blessing most likely learned by most of us.  "God is great, God is good, let us thank Him for our food. Amen."  My children learned it as they came to the table prepared for them by their parents.  It is a simple prayer with profound truths.  God is great and there is no one like Him.  There is none to whom He can be compared.  God is good.  He is always good.  Even in the worst of times, God is still good.  His nature does not change according to what we experience.    

It is also a good thing for us to learn the importance of gratitude.  To thank God for food is to thank Him for a specific gift in a specific moment, but it is also a prayer which points us toward a wider view of our life and His world.  We are gifted with food not because we are affluent and can buy it at the grocery store, but because the created order has been created and ordained to provide what is needed to sustain life.  There is nothing which comes to our table, or into our life which has not passed through His hands.  

As the years have added up, my table blessing has changed.  When I bow my head around the table to give thanks to God, I also see those who are His instruments in bringing food to our table.  I grew up hearing table blessings which included a prayer of thanks for those hands which have prepared the food that in a narrow sense meant those who worked in the kitchen next to the dining room.  What we know is that it is bigger than just those few.  I now often include in table blessings a prayer of gratitude for all those hands which have brought the food to table which casts a wide net meant to include such people as the farm laborers, the truck drivers, and the people who work at the local grocery store. Mom taught my sister and me early to be grateful and I hope, as you do, that I have continued to value that teaching and have passed it on to those who are following after me. 

Gone Too Quickly

He showed up and was gone too quickly.  I was standing at the counter next to him getting those things we have to take every day from the drug store.  Without any intention of listening to his conversation while I was hitting the computer responses on the screen in front of me, I heard someone say $180 and him saying, "I can't pay that.  This cancer is going to, kill me anyway in five years," he said loud enough that it was no longer a strain on the ears to hear.  I looked up from the screen prompting and he was gone, almost out the door.  My mind was reeling from at what I heard.  I then I realized what I could do. I could help. I went after him, but it was too late.  He was gone.   

While the incident raises all kinds of thought about access and availability of medicine to people who need it but cannot afford it, it also raises personal regret about my slow response as well as a need to be more aware of the moments of opportunity to help which confront me.  The truth is there are always people around all of us who have some needs and they are often such needs that we could respond.  Folks may not see us like the folks who cried out, "Jesus, have mercy," long ago, but they are still out there asking Him for mercy and, perhaps, even us.  

We need to pray for those who suffer and struggle, but we cannot be content with prayer alone.  We may be the answer to the prayer we are praying.  We need to pray for more sensitive antennas so that we are able to hear their cries for mercy and help.  Jesus has equipped us to help and serve both with resources and opportunities and it is imperative that we be prepared to respond in the moment which speaks of now instead of the moment filled with "I should have done something."  When we find ourselves in a moment filled with the opportunity to serve another and Him, we need not wonder what to do for He will have answered our prayer and given us the resources to do so.

Walk Into Mystery

The faith journey with Jesus is an invitation to walk into mystery.  Those who start expecting things to fall into place and for everything to make sense will soon fall to the wayside with their disappointment.  How can the journey with Jesus not be a journey into mystery?  How can it not be a journey into what cannot be fully known?  To behold the Incarnation is to behold mystery.  In many ways we have watered down the mystery of Incarnation to be little more than a sweet story about a baby being born in hard times.  We shape the story to mimic our own stories of birthing children.  

The Incarnation event is not a photo event, but a history shattering moment when God Himself steps across the portal of what cannot be comprehended into all that is mortal and finite. If we were to write a thousand books on the Incarnation of Jesus into our world, the mystery would still exist.  No matter how complete the explanation, it would still be in the land of the incomplete.  How can what cannot be explained be explained?  The answer is that faith reveals only partially the mystery.    

The invitation of Jesus is not to dissect the mystery, but to experience it.  It is (if I may borrow the name of a famous writing) an invitation to walk into the cloud of not knowing.  It is not an invitation for the dabblers of life, but for those who want to be sure at the end that they have experienced the all the abundance and purpose that life can offer.  Such is what Jesus promises to those who choose the journey.  When it is all said and done, it will be worth journeying forward with Christ into the mystery and the land of not knowing.

The Rest Area

Life is not to be hurried.  A recent read spoke of a hurried life as one lived by amateurs.  We should all know by now the truth of what my mother always told me when the milk was spilled, "Haste makes waste!" How many time now has she been proven right?  How many tasks have I found the need to start over?  How many times has my spirit smoldered in the smoke of the short cut?   Too many times is the only honest answer.  Why we are in such a hurry to get to a small plot of ground is a mystery no one seems able to solve.  

So, we hurry on with a life meant to be lived more slowly, not in big chunks, but in increments.  The Biblical story is about a God who could have done six days of work in one single day, or even less; yet, was content to get Creation put together a little bit at a time.  The story may highlight the activity of God, but implied within all the space between the days is a time of resting and taking a holy breath that spoke of a job well done.  We live so fast we hardly have time to reach around and pat ourselves on the back.  One thing I enjoy about my bush hog work on the farm is the moment of being finished.  Bush hog work is a lot like cutting the grass around the house which many of us do.  It is nice to finish and look back at what has been done with a sense of accomplishment for a job done well and finished.  

It is something we seldom take the time to do in our ordinary moments of life.  We simply hurry from one job to another without a pause.  Life is not meant to be lived in such a way.  Life is a gift.  It is the most precious gift we receive.  It is never something we take, but can only receive.  Living with purpose and living productively is a good thing, but not if it is done in such a way that there is no time for gratitude.  Life is best lived in the slow lane.  Hopefully, we will figure it out before the hurried road exits to the final rest area.

A Different Perspective

I would like for the church to be perfect, but it is not.  While a part of me wants to say that it should be, it never will.  I know this even as I often lament its imperfections in a way that might suggest the flaw could be fixed so that imperfection would become perfection. Some have often said in my presence that the church can never be perfect because it is filled with imperfect people.  I suppose such is true enough, but at a more personal level I know that it can never be perfect because I am a part of it.  I must accept my own flaws, my own imperfections, and my own misguided attempts to bring about a change that cannot happen.  

Part of the problem is Pentecost.  I see Pentecost and see a church overwhelmed by the Holy Spirit, centered on Jesus, and engaging in a powerful way a hostile world around it.  What I easily overlook are those folks like Ananias and Sapphira as well as the initial reluctance to reach out into the world of the Gentile community.  Only a season of persecution pushed the Jerusalem centered church out into the world.  From the beginning the church has been imperfect.  Perhaps, a better view of the church then and now is to say that it was and is both. The church is both perfect and imperfect. 

How can anything established upon the blood of Christ be imperfect and how can a church with folks like me be perfect?  Even as Christ does not demand perfection from me, why should I demand perfection from His church?  It is an imperfect and perfect church that Christ used to invite me to the cross and though I may moan in amazement that it sometimes misses the mark, I am still grateful for it.

Awaken

I rise seeking the silence.  It is as if the Holy One who has set the sun loose for another day has awaken me.  I rise with a spirit that seeks Him and I know that the silence of the day's beginning is where He is known.  As surely as He was expected by the Garden couple "at the time of the evening breeze," (Genesis 3:8), so have I learned to expect Him in the silence of the morning.  I seek now for my spirit to be immersed for a moment in the warmth of His immeasurable love, His soul stirring grace, and most of all, the sense of Him being present in the moment and in my life.   

Like the ancient prophet, I, too, have come to know that there is no one to whom He may be compared.  He has no equal.  These eyes which were closed in deep sleep only moments ago long now for the lifting up which will enable me to know the One who calls all by their names. (Isaiah 40:26)   Indeed, He is the Holy One, the Creator, the One who gives every breath and blessing which is to come in this day. Over and over through the years, He has given me wing like strength and the heart that runs without weariness.  In the silence of this morning filled with His presence, I bow in adoration and thanksgiving.  

I know as well that His voice beckoned me from my sleep to pray for those of His whom He has placed on my heart.  I rise remembering my friend who fell and went through leg surgery yesterday, a classmate from high school who is beginning treatment for cancer, and the man who asked for help yesterday at the gas pump.  I pray this morning in the silence for the lost children whose lives have ended in tragedy and for parents who can only see empty beds, and for leaders to be healed of their pettiness, and for a church that is more fractured than whole.  Most of all I pray that the spirit of Jesus would find hearts open to being vessels of receiving His love and mercy and instruments for passing it on.  Grateful, too, am I that He has called me into the silence of His presence before I enter the noise of the day. 

The Garden Core

As the earth spins around its core with its drawing and life giving power, so do we spin around our core.  The problem is that we have spun so far away from the core that we are living our lives out on the edge of the circumference where the spin is influenced by other forces which draw and which promise life.  The real core is not what many regard as the core of life.  We think of our core as something like a ladder which leads to success, or a relationship guaranteed to make us happy, or maybe arriving at some spiritual place in our life which will enable us to know peace despite circumstances.  The suggestion that our core is best described as a garden is likely to cause some to think that such an idea comes from one deficient in logic and common sense.   

The truth is that the Garden described in the first story of Genesis is the prototype for the core around which our life is to spin.  An additional truth is that the closer we stay to the core, the less likely we are to see our lives spin out of control.  This is all true because the Garden of Genesis speaks of where we belong.  It speaks of a unique and intimate relationship with the Creator of the Garden as well as each one of us.  The Garden speaks of presence, not just any presence, but His presence, a holy presence.  The Garden story does not necessarily call us all to become farmers and vineyard keepers, but to live in sync with the purpose for our being.  When we spin too far out on the edge, we are likely to lose sight of our real core and go off looking for substitutions which only take us further out there into a land not meant for us to live.  The Garden Core is where we live mindful of the imprint of the holy in our own life as well as in the lives of every other one who is out there around us.  

When we spin close to the core, we treat ourselves with more grace, we live in a kinder world where respect and forgiveness are the norm, and we know the contentment that comes from belonging.  The Garden is where God is.  Where God is is where we are created to be.  It is a core that draws us and has life giving powers.  The closer we spin around this core, the straighter our walk will be and  the truer we will be to ourselves.

The Final Purpose

I can remember what is called the High Priestly Prayer of John 17 from my earliest days of Scripture reading.  We know that Jesus taught about prayer and we know that He went to deserted places to pray, but this section of the Word opens up a window which enables us to hear the heart of Jesus in a powerful way.  Last night while reading once again this prayer, I found myself getting stopped in my mental tracks as I read the fourth verse which says, "I glorified You on earth by finishing the work that You gave me to do."  There was no need to read any farther.  I knew I needed to sit and let my soul soak in this Word of Jesus.  

One of the things we want in our spiritual life is to be useful to God.  The Apostle Paul spoke of pressing on which is what those of us who are retired clergy like to think we are doing in these bonus years when ministry begins to take on shapes not previously seen.  Here though is a word for each of us which gives us assurance that as long as we are breathing this earth's air, we can still live in such a way as to bring glory to God. No follower of Jesus could ask for anything more than to know at the end that every ounce of living and serving has brought glory to God.  I have lived with the belief that we are here until God's purpose for us is completely accomplished.  At the same time I have seen some struggle so at the end that I wondered what purpose God could possibly be accomplishing by continuing the earthly life of the one suffering.  

It is a question I have asked in the darkness of watching someone suffer in their slow movement toward eternity.  I cannot say that an answer came that was totally understood.  I cannot say with honesty that there was even an answer given.  What I do know is that I have trusted God all my days and that is not going to change in these days when past is longer than future.  Like you, I am grateful that all my days can bring glory to the God who has been so gracious to us all. 

Grateful and Generous

I am about to come to the end of another reading of "1000 Gifts" by Ann Voskamp.  Off and on today I have picked up the book, read a few pages, marked my progress, and went on to something else before coming back once again.  While I cannot say that I have received a thousand blessings today as I read, I can say with all honesty that I have been blessed by the way she puts her thoughts into words.  Today in a section based on the word which tells us it is better to give than to receive, she wrote, "The whole of Creation chooses this.  The leaves of the maple tree freely unfurl oxygen, clouds overhead grow pregnant with rain, the soil of our fields offer up yield."   

The Word of God we hear speaking from her reflections about Creation remind us that we are not here to hold, but to turn loose.  We are not here to live with hands clenched tightly around what we call mine, but with hands open to give what we know to be His.  Voskamp tells us as one of the many voices of God that we are to live in sync with the rest of Creation.  How else can we live when we come to realize that all gifts and blessings come from God?  How else can we live when we realize that we are not set apart from Creation, but we are a part of it which means that life is best when we are present in it as is the rest of creation?  We fulfill our purpose by being who we are and by allowing our lives to become expressions of giving that is both generous and life giving.  

It is not an easy Word for us to hear.  We are told by our society that our value is related to what we have and not what we give.  The poor person who gives little may in the end be giving more proportionally than the one who is rich.  The rich may give generous looking gifts, but the poor ones among us may be the ones giving the more generous gifts.  The important thing for all of us is to live as all the rest of Creation was created to be in existence which means that we need ask God to help us change the values which control our life so that we can be making a life giving difference in the place where He has put us.

The Praise-a-thon

 "The stones will speak," He said.

     "Impossible!" they argued,

     "This man Jesus talks nonsense." 

     "Good for throwing," said young Saul,

     but rocks don't talk, they never have." 

     Even those who loved Him most,

shook their heads at what he said.

 

"If stones could talk, good Teacher,

    would we be able to hear   

    clearly the words spoken,

    or would it sound like Babel 

    crashing to the ground again?

    Or, a tall tree falling to ground

with no one with ears to hear?"

    

"You say they would speak with praise,

     and I am not one to doubt, 

     but will the angels join them,

     and the saints with you as well?

     One thing I would like to ask.

     Could my voice be one of those

in that joyful praise-a-thon?"

   

 

 

 

     

Traveling in Disguise

Every now and again something is read which opens up a new window to see an old and often read story in a new way.  Such happened recently with Luke's story about the walk to Emmaus.  Cleopas and a friend were walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus on Resurrection Sunday afternoon.  The Scripture says they were "talking with each other about all these things that happened.  While they were talking and discussing, Jesus Himself came near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing Him."  (Luke 24:14-16).    

The usual take on the story is that it was only in the moment when Jesus broke bread and shared the cup with them that He became known to them.  A recent read suggested that the reason they did not recognize Jesus was that they were not paying attention to the present.  They were too busy talking about what had happened, what might have been, and speculation about what was going to happen in the days to come.  What we have learned through our living a life of faith is that God does not reveal Himself except in the present moment.  If we are not paying attention to the present and the ones who He has put in our present, we are likely to miss Him revealing Himself to us.  

Perhaps, those Emmaus Road walkers were like us in that they were in too big a hurry to get where they were going.   It seemed like interesting enough insight to cause this guy who had read the story too many times to count to go read it again.  It also caused me to shake my head in acknowledgment that not paying attention was the reason they missed Jesus.  Always it had seemed that there was something about Jesus which kept them from seeing Him, but maybe it was not about Jesus, but about the walkers who were in such a hurry and so caught up in what was behind them.  It surely sounds feasible for many of us have walked that road of being in such a hurry that we missed out on Who was present with us had we but slowed down enough to see.  The problem for not seeing then and now is surely more about us not seeing than Him traveling in disguise.