A New Perspective

On the way to now things changed.  Actually, the change started back some nine years ago when retirement moved me from the pulpit to the tractor.  As I began to meander around the farm doing its chores, things starting changing inside of me in a way I could never have imagined back in the working days.  I became aware of a new way of thinking theology.  Being out midst the creation day after day began to cause me to think about God and my relationship with Him in a way that was different from a theology based completely on the Word and the teachings of the Church.

 

While this process started back in those early days of being on the farm, it moved from a strange inner awareness to a more conscious practice as I started reading book after book on Celtic spirituality.  Certainly, this stream of spirituality has not replaced everything about my view of God, but it is has opened up new windows which have enabled me to experience His presence in the ordinary things around me.  The Celtic tradition holds that the Creation is a book which needs to be read as one reads the written Word.  As the year prepares to drop off the calendar, there is within me a greater understanding of what seems to be a word bordering on heresy.

 

But, of course, the Celtic tradition is not heresy.  It is simply a stream of spirituality which calls us to pay attention to everything and everyone around us.  It calls us to embrace the possibility that God chooses to reveal Himself through the creation around us in addition to the ministry and teachings of the church.  This tradition declares that the interior of church buildings are not the only holy places, but instead, the whole world is holy because it has been touched by the creative power of God.  So, I have come to see the creation that is so very much around me as a great cathedral in which God is constantly being worshiped.  It is a different view of the Holy.  It is one which is transforming my perspective of all that is around me. 

An Ever Rolling Stream

As the days race toward the end of the year, I have found myself singing softly so that no one will be disturbed a great old hymn written by Isaac Watts.  Written in 1719, it still stands as one of the oft sung hymns of the gathered church.  It is filled with words about time.  "O God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come,..." it begins.  The fourth verse refers to "a thousand years"  and the fifth one has us singing, "Time, like an ever rolling streams, bears all who breathe away; they fly forgotten, as a dream dies at the opening day."  While it may seem like a rather morbid song to some, how important it is that there remains a place which calls us to be in touch with our mortality as well as eternity which is what the last verse does as it speaks of "our eternal home."

 

Living with an awareness of numbered days is not a morbid thing, but a thing which can enable us to live wisely.  Some of the great spiritual writers call us to live mindful of our death.  To live knowing that we are only here for a brief season will bring us to a different place in our living than to live thinking that we will be here forever.  The Word of God is written in the context of time.  People's lives are numbered by the years and events are described in terms of the passing time. 

 

And, it is also true that the creation sounds the same message as we watch the sun moving across the sky, or count the rings in a fallen tree, or  observe the way everything changes with such order.  Nothing happens outside the context of time.  Time is eternal.  It was brought into being by the Creator and will continue even when the earthly clocks are replaced by the unfolding of an eternal and unending eternity.  God has put us here on this earth to experience everything between the time of our birth and the time of our death.  And, through the death of the Bethlehem child on the cross, He has provided a way for us to know the unbounded life which can only be known as eternity. 

Holy Mystery

All summer there was no rain.  Everything that needed rain suffered.  Some of it died.  The nearby river was so low that in places people were walking across in knee deep water.  More recently, rain has come in flooding measures.  The ground has gone beyond the saturation point.  The nearby branch which has been without water for so long is now like a mountain stream as the backed up water races to get from where it is to where it needs to go.  And, the river down the road is out of its banks.  Actually, out of its bank is a poor way to speak of the now broad and deep flowing waters.

 

The creation has modeled extremes this year.  It has modeled the power of the drought and the power of the flood.  Creation is not the keeper of moderation.  It is a power that is beyond human control.  It is a power that is apart from us and not dependent upon us.  It is ongoing.  It has always been since the divine Words brought it into being.  And, it shall always be wild and unpredictable, and likely as not, to overwhelm the boundaries that mark what is safe and secure. 

 

To watch and contemplate the flooded river as it runs it's course from trickling stream to the wide ocean is to be brought to an awareness that as powerful as it appears to be, it is only a mere stream when compared to the unleashed power of the Almighty Creating God of the universe who brought it and everything else into being.  Certainly, it is not easy to understand the Creator God who allows rivers to dry up when the land is thirsty and to flood when bottom land is ready for harvest.  Despite all our scientific technology and our human understanding, there remains great mystery in the way the creation is always unfolding, uprooting, and giving birth.  And, so it is with God the Creator and the Mystery which always envelopes Him. 

Thin Places

Thin places,
  between
    here and there,
      seen and unseen.
Visible, invisible,
   now you see it,
     now you don't,
        the thin veil.

Thin places,
   in the field
    shepherds
      saw angels.
A glimpse of glory?
  An earthy coming?
    Holy mingling,
     heaven and earth.

Thin places,
   around Paul
    on the road,
      blinded.
Too much glory
   for eyes to see,
    heaven came,
     upon the dirt. 

Thin places,
  angels hovering
    saints praying,
     over there.
Just beyond,
  out of sight,
   still there,
    behind the veil. 

Afterwards

Pain swept away,
  joy remains,
   hope growing,
and, wonder, too,
  for the baby child
   crying in the manger.

Anxiety gone,
  now a memory,
   ahead in view,
and, amazement, too,
   as coming shepherds,
    speak of angels.

A heart warmed,
  flooded with love,
   overcome by Him,
and, gratitude, too,
  for God's goodness,
   the gift of His Son. 

While Watching Rocky Ford Road

Rocky Ford Road is the paved road about a half mile from the house.  A dirt road between here and there is the connecting link.  As Christmas Eve darkened I stood for a moment on the front porch looking across the field toward this stretch of asphalt.  The winter's work on tree foliage heightened both visibility and the unusual sound of cars and trucks on their journey.  To stand for a moment was to see the sight of headlights racing and to hear the roar of tires and engines on the road.  On Christmas Eve even the normally quiet Rocky Ford Road is busy with people on their way.

 

Perhaps, it was the same on the road leading to Bethlehem that night Joseph and Mary traveled.  Surely, they were not alone out there in the darkness.   Others were no doubt hurrying to get where they wanted to be before the night hours got too deep.  And, likely as not the journey seemed like a journey that would never end for the two who traveled.  Mary knew the time for birthing was near and Joseph was anxious to find a safe place.  Constantly they must have looked at one another with eyes which wondered, "How much farther can it be?"

In the darkness filled with uncertainty it must have been hard for them to know that they were not traveling alone.  In a way impossible for them to comprehend, God was with them.  It is no less true as we travel through the darkness which feels heavy upon our own life.  God is with us.  He is with us in ways impossible for us to comprehend.  There is a sense that He is the One who set us out on this journey we travel.  We are sometimes in such a hurry to get to some place like the lighted streets of Bethlehem that we forget the One who sent us out is with us not only in the lighted places where we feel safe, but also in the dark places where danger and uncertainty seem present at every step. 

Trough to Tomb

The Word became flesh,
   but not just any flesh,
    the flesh and face
     of a newborn boy,
born now in Bethlehem,
of the woman, Mary.

In the face of the child,
 comes the face of God,
   the heart of God,
    the hands and feet,
set loose on the earth's dirt,
the Creator still at work.

Wonder of wonder,
  what God has done,
    sent the divine Son,
     One most beloved,
to walk the hard way,
from trough to tomb. 

Born of the Virgin Mary

From Shekinah glory,
 to deepest darkness,
  to manger candlelight,
   came the Holy One,
born of the virgin Mary.

Where no pain prevailed,
  but the pain of broken heart,
   the agony of watching sin,
    came the child of Bethlehem,
born of the virgin Mary.

Heaven's joy forsaken,
  for a trough of smelly hay,
   a painful wooden cross,
    came the child to suffer,
born of the virgin Mary.

From darkness to glory,
  the saving work done,
   now there and here,
    came the One to Rise,
born of the virgin Mary.

The Traveled Road

The long road,
  the hard road,
   jolting holes,
The one taken,
   by three souls
    on their way
to Bethlehem.

A longer road,
  though shorter,
   hard as death,
The one taken
  by the child,
   grown a man
to Golgotha.

The quickest road,
  most glorious,
   on day three,
The one taken,
  by the Risen One,
   on His way
to whence He came. 

Long Time Coming

Nothing haphazardous,
   everything planned,
     according to schedule,
      every "t" crossed,
a time completely come,
Christ in Bethlehem.

A time long time coming
   more than nine months,
    longer than a journey,
     a plan beyond planning,
from back in the beginning,
God's plan to send His Son.

As prophets foretold,
   as hopeful souls waited,
     as Mary wondered when,
      as hearts filled with longing,
every single detail finally done,
Jesus became flesh as a baby.

(Galatians 4:4)

Invisible Ones

Ever present,
  mostly unseen,
    just beyond,
invisible.

Shepherds
  watching,
    all the while
being watched.

From the night,
  starlit darkness
   invisible ones
now visible.

Announcing,
  the Invisible One
   now Visible
in Bethlehem.

The Light

Light of all light,
Light before any light,
Light unending,
   destroying darkness,
   making shadows,
Light of the "I Am,"
Light of the world.

Light of Bethlehem,
Light of joy,
Light of hope,
    illuminating,
    enlightening ,
Light of now,
Light of then.

Light of brilliance,
Light of softness,
Light incomparable,
    Visible like fire,
     Invisible like wind,
Light that is coming.
Light that has come.

In Those Days

In those days
  a decree went out
    to all creation
     that everyone
      and everything
        should look
to an obscure village
belonging to Judea.

All and everything,
   heavenly host,
    Gabriel and company,
      grandstand witnesses,
        stars and moon,
          rocks and trees,
all one great chorus
ready to sing praises.

Throughout the ages,
  praise from them,
   praise from us,
     every one of us,
       saints and sinners,
         even me, even you,
waiting to loudly shout,
"Glory to God in the highest!"

The Journey

Swollen and stretched
  she rode silently
   midst the darkness
     on the dusty road.
Every step below
  took her up and down
    till no part of her
     was not shaken.
Watching for lights
   signaling the end
    of a hard journey
     the jarring pain.
The child within her
   stirring and moving
     ready and pushing
      but still waiting.
Waiting for the time
   of divine choosing
     in a small place
      long ago decided.     

The Dweller

Full of Majesty
  Shining with Glory
    Divine and Holy,
In form of God,
  None like Him,
    Heaven Dweller.

A mere speck
  In a womb,
   nearly nothing.
Waiting,
   Slowly changing,
     Darkness Dweller. 

Now among us,
  Within us,
    Alongside us.
God become flesh,
   Ever present,
    Human Dweller.

A strange journey,
  From glory
   to birth water.
From heaven,
   to Calvary,
    Cross Dweller. 

Evening Praise

Stretched out bare,
  in a bright night sky,
   silhouetted and still.
Arms and hands
   waving in praise
     to the Creator.

Listening hard
  for the sounds
   of limbs speaking.
Surely, sounds
  unheard here,
   are rising upward.

All around us
  waits with joy
    for the cry,
the soft sound
  from the stable,
   a child, a Savior.

The Water

One by one 
  from the edge
    they slowly came,
Into the water,
   muddy water,
     but not as dark
as the staining sin
to be washed away. 

In the water,
   first knee deep, 
     now waist deep,
then taken under,
   immersed in mystery.
     Dreadful sin
now a memory,
washed down river.

In the Son,
   now walking,
     washed clean.
Something new,
   born once more,
     not like before.
Forgiven and free,
by the water. 

Fish to Fry

I think of a seminary prof often when I come to the  word "but" in Scripture.  He always said it was a stop sign.  And if not a stop sign, it was at least one that said to slow down.   Over the years I have learned the value of what he taught us.  In that third chapter of Matthew, the gospel writer tells the story of John the Baptist when suddenly the word "but" appears in the text.  "Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him...and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins..."  (Matthew 3:5-6) 

 

The next verse throws out the stop sign.  "But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, "You brood of vipers!' "  What the Baptizer saw were people of power and pretense who were coming to the Jordan River for all the wrong reasons.  They were not coming to the place made holy by the work of God as seekers, but as power brokers who were concerned about someone else gaining the ear and heart of the people.  These pillars of Judaism were out there for the wrong reasons.  There was no spirit of repentance and confession in them.  They were there to insure they did not lose control. 

It was not the first time folks showed up in a place made holy by the work of God for the wrong reasons.  It still happens today.  But, instead of hunting them out and exposing them which might be the work of the self-righteous, our call is to sit alongside without a fault finding and judgmental spirit.  As soon as we start looking around, we cease looking at ourselves and the sins of our own heart.  At that point we become like those Pharisees and Sadducees.  Leave it to John the Baptist to call them, "brood of vipers."  We have our own fish to fry!

The New Kingdom

Unlike the prophets of Israel's past,  John the Baptist had no carved images of Baal cluttering his view.  His message about repentance had nothing to do with turning from idol worship to the worship of the one true and only God of their tradition.  The repentance he preached was related not so much to a particular sin of the people as it was to their need to ready themselves for the new spiritual order which was about to break upon them through Jesus and His Kingdom message.

By the time John the Baptist made himself known in the wilderness areas around the Jordan River, the people of Israel were immersed in a religious system based on doing.  Righteousness had to do with keeping the commandments of God and the man made laws which had grown around them.  While Jesus did not come to abolish the law, He did seek to create a spiritual climate where doing was replaced by being.  What one did was not more important than what was in the heart.  Having defined themselves and their life with God for so long by the external visible things, turning to this new and different way represented a significant change.

 

It remains a challenge for those of us who walk the road of faith in these days.  We like the external markers which measure our faithfulness.  The external stuff enables us to experience what seems like a measure of control.  It feels comfortable for us when we know what to expect of ourselves and everyone else as well.  But, then there is this new Kingdom which has come.  It is a Kingdom where spirituality is determined by the invisible things of the heart.  It is a Kingdom where what we do has no saving power.  It is a Kingdom where the cross looms large. It is a Kingdom that defies being able to figure it out, but one where holy mystery prevails and the way forward is always taking us into unknown territory. 

Pray for Mercy

It is puzzling that people found John the Baptist in the wilderness.  It is not puzzling that the Baptizer was in the wilderness.  What is puzzling is that people found him in a place not normally frequented and so inaccessible.  There was no prototype of today's evening news team which had a "Wilderness Reporter."  No newspapers carried a word about him in its religious section on the day before Sabbath.  It is puzzling that someone found him and that after the one found him, others came. 

 

It is even more puzzling that a crowd would gather.  Surely, the first reports which found their way back to the more civilized places filled with the sophisticated folks were reports of a crude man who preached a hard to swallow message.  Yet, the Record tells us that folks went out not only to hear this man of the wilderness, but to do a very un-Jewish like thing which was baptism.  Jews needed no baptism in muddy river waters.  They knew they were already the people of God.  Still, they went.  What is no puzzle is the  presence of the pillars of the religious status quo, the Pharisees and Sadducees.  They came to check on things and to do whatever had to be done to restore order to the religious insanity that had broken out on the banks of the Jordan.

The church of our day could use a good strong dose of religious insanity.  Theology has gotten so sanitized that God can only wear the mantle of love.  He has become a one dimensional Deity who is eager to give a wink of approval to human craziness.  The church has come to be more like the Pharisees and Sadducees assuming the role of chief defender and protector of the institutional status quo.  And, believe it or not, there are even preachers and pew sitters out there who declare there is no need for the kind of repentance preached by that wild man of the wilderness.  If we cannot bring ourselves to pray for a repenting spirit, maybe, just maybe, we should pray for the mercy of God. 

A Changed Heart

Although John the Baptist appears on the church's liturgical stage in the weeks before Christmas, we never hear him saying, "Merry Christmas!"  Instead he stands out there knee deep in the waters of the Jordan hollering, "Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven has come near."  (Matthew 3:2)  He and Jesus were on the same page in those days.  As Matthew writes about the beginning of Jesus' ministry, he remembers the Savior's first recorded sermon, "Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven has come near."  (Matthew 4:17)   

 

Repentance has gotten watered down through the centuries.  There was a time when some kind of monetary sacrifice accompanied it, but these days, it comes as cheap as saying, "I'm sorry."  When we look for the meaning of the word, we find that it speaks of a turning from one thing and going in a different direction.  Zachaeus modeled that definition.  But, the truth about repentance is that it is more than an external visible act, but something which points to some serious heart work. 

 

Most of us can figure out how to change some of the externals of our life.  The difficult thing for us is changing the heart.  The heart is the source of our actions and motivations.  It is one thing to turn from speaking dishonestly, but another thing for the heart to be so radically changed that it is no longer an option.  Both John the Baptist and Jesus were calling for a radical change of the heart when they announced the nearness of the Kingdom of heaven.  A new reign requires a new loyalty.  A Kingdom with love as its foundation is now upon us and if there is anything within us that motives us to act other than love, then we do indeed have some radical work of the heart to do. 

The Uncomfortable Word

Long centuries before Zechariah and Elizabeth were fretting over not having a son, God was inspiring one of Israel's prophet to speak of him.  "A voice cries out:  'In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for God...' "  (Isaiah 40:3)  Zechariah and Elizabeth would call him John.  As John became a man and assumed this mantle of "the voice," he would be known as John the Baptist.  The Baptizer would be a kinsman of the Messiah, one also spoken of by the prophet Isaiah.

To be known simply as "the voice" which is how Matthew spoke of him in his gospel is an interesting thing.  Certainly, all the Biblical descriptions of John the Baptist do not point us to a preacher who was pleasing to the eye.  And being a man of the wilderness who dressed in clothing of camel's hair, it is likely some might hold their nose in his presence.  What drew people to him was not anything physical, but the longing in the heart of the people for someone to come as their deliverer.  Most likely they were more concerned about one coming to deliver them from Rome, from economic oppression, and a controlling religious system than they were concerned about one coming to call them to repent of their sins as a way of making ready for what God was about to do.

It remains much the same today.  It is not popular to preach about sin.  If a preacher  becomes a voice which proclaims the urgency of acknowledging that there is something wrong within  the heart which can only be cured by the shed blood of Jesus on the cross, it is likely that he will be regarded as one whose preaching is incompatible with reality.  It is no easy thing being a preacher in the mold of John the Baptist and an even harder thing to be one of those who intentionally goes to the preaching places where the hard and uncomfortable word about the human condition is faithfully preached. 

The Unwanted Message

The second Sunday of Advent always brings John the Baptist on stage.   Center stage.  Those who have already brought out their manger scenes and started singing the songs of Christmas consider him out of place.  In the minds of those who are trying to hurry up Christmas, it is time for Jesus to show up in the manger.  No one has time for John the Baptist.  He just seems like a displaced person in the world going festive and bright. 

But, it is not just the Christmas revelers who have no place for John.  In so many of the holy places where people gather in these days, he is the person who is never mentioned.  As the days of December start gathering steam, the church  hurries to get on with the story of shepherds and angels and the extraordinary birth in Bethlehem.  While the contemporary church has surely come to a place of thinking that it knows best and centuries of tradition have no bearing on what is happening in the present, it is also true that such thinking leaves off an important part of what is involved in this holy season.

The real preparation and getting ready is not found in the stuff of secular culture.  It is not found in the meaningless gift giving and the bright decorations.  It is really found in the place where quietness and silence should prevail.  What needs to be prepared is not outside, but inside.  What needs to be prepared is the heart, the inner part of us that provides the dwelling place for the Holy One.  The message of John the Baptist is one that announces that there is something fundamentally wrong about the way we live.  It is a message that declares the necessity of radical movement away from where we are to where God is leading us.  John's message is the message of repentance which is exactly what no one wants to hear today.

Wherever

The last leaf
  midway up,
   resisting,
    turning loose
     and falling
      to wherever.

Moving wind, 
  unrelenting,
    persistent,
      persuasive,
       taking now
        to wherever.

Blowing Breath,
 Holy Breath.
   Like the leaf
    those who wait,
     move them now,
      to wherever.   

Waiting In Silence

Across the years I have run into a person or two who were so determined to get an answer from God that they said they were going to get on their knees and pray until it came.  They were the kind of folks who would set out to pray all night to get their prayer answered.  And, while I have never done such an all nighter, there have been times when I have prayed with such an attitude.  Looking back I suspect God must have shook His head and muttered something like, "Just who does he think he is....God?"  

To pray with such a mindset puts us in a different category than the one who comes before God with a waiting spirit.  Even as waiting anywhere is difficult for most of us, to wait on God to do whatever it is that is about to do is all but an impossible task.  The problem often has to do with our expectations when we pray.  Those who pray with a waiting spirit are not seeking the things God gives, but God.  Those who pray with a waiting spirit are not after some blessing, but simply seeking the presence of God.  What He does or does not give is irrelevant.  All that matters is that He is present. 

And, of course, there are also those moments when waiting takes us to a place where it seems that God has suddenly become silent.  We seek a Word and there is none.  We seek a sense of holy presence that never comes.  These are the real moments that measure the spirit which dwells in us.  To wait in such moments is a discipline that is not practiced by the spiritually faint of heart, but is more likely to come only after prayers that bear the scars of disappointment, struggle, and hardship for it is our journey through such difficult hours that bring us to a confidence that God never forsakes even though every thing around us seems to say otherwise. 

Ready for Whatever

Waiting takes the "take charge card' out of the deck.  To wait on God with a right spirit means that being in charge of whatever is now and is to come is no longer an option.  Instead of forcing our way into the future with our well made plans, waiting on God means that we let God's future unfold and come to us in His time.  Such an attitude goes against the grain of everything to which we have held so tightly for so long.  Such an attitude takes us to a place where life is no longer determined by what others think of how well we are doing and where we are no longer caught up in cultural games of trivial pursuit.

As Advent beckons us to embrace this spirit of waiting, it is reminding us that whatever it is that God is about in our future will not come a moment sooner or later than He plans for it come.  The plans He has made for the creation and those of us who walk within it are His and not ours.  His invitation is to be a part of those plans, to step into the stream of what He is about in the world and in our lives, and to do so with a faith that seeks no guarantees.  As the early days of Advent remind us that the One who has come is coming to restore an order fit for eternity, we know that such is exactly what He is about in our lives.  He is making us fit for eternity.

We cannot manipulate the when, the what, or the where of the Heavenly Hand.  To live rightly is to live knowing that He is at work in the days which are a part of the present as well as those which stretch out there in the era of the unknown and un-seeable.  To trust Him with whatever is ahead is to live with the spirit of readiness.  And, such is the call of the days we know as Advent.  God is out there.  He is on His way.  He is here.  Be ready.  Be ready now for whatever. 

Waiting in Darkness

There are times when we wait on God to act in places where the shadows are long, so long they become a great darkness all around us.  Not all of our waiting on God is done in the moments when our spiritual life seems in order and there is no battle to be waged.  Instead, when the long shadows turn into deep darkness and the battle for making it turns desperate, the waiting seems unfair and unbearable.  Yet, even in such moments, God still persists in coming and acting and making Himself known according to His time and not our own.

 

Surely, there has been no greater moment of darkness on the face of the earth than that moment when the cross was raised on Golgotha.  For hours Jesus hung between heaven and earth, life and death, hope and despair.  As He hung midst the darkness of those hours, it was surely for Him a moment of waiting for God to act.  Finally, there came that moment for Him of casting His voice into that darkness.  But, even when He cried out the words of one who seemed forsaken, the silence remained and even then He waited on God to act. 

As we consider this old story again, we know that there always comes a moment when God chooses to do what is according to His plans and purposes for those who love Him.  There is a sense in which that darkness was shattered and the silence broken on that Sunday morning when the mourners came to find the tomb empty.  God can be depended on to come.  He can be depended on to speak.  He can be depended on to deliver.  He can be depended on to open the gates of eternity.  He can be depended on by those who wait and ask nothing more than to be remembered. 

Waiting and Trusting

Waiting on God to act may seem like a spiritual discipline which requires a great deal of human determination.  After all, God has shown Himself to be One who is sometimes swayed by our crying out.  While human persistence is a Biblical virtue, it does not always result in causing a desired action from God.  What is obvious is that waiting on God to act is a spiritual act expressed more by trust than determination. 

 

Waiting on God is about trusting God.  Trusting in God is a spiritual response which is independent of any response God might make to our crying out for Him to be at work in our lives.  Trusting in God does not require a specific action.  It does not require any action.  When we wait on God, we are trusting in God to be God, to be faithful to His nature, and to do for us whatever it is that He chooses to do.  Waiting on God speaks of a trust that accepts and desires nothing more than for Him to do with us whatever it is that is pleasing to Him, or a part of His plan for us. 

 

When we think about His plan for us, we usually think about some blessing that is clearly visible, but His plan for us may be more present in the invisible realm of life than the one that is visible to our eyes.  When we cannot see any reason for what is taking place in our life, God can.  When the way forward is impossible to know, God knows.  When our soul and body needs mending, God is at work to bring that healing to bear in our lives.  He is always about more than we can see.  Waiting on God does not require Him to get around to making any of the invisible stuff of the heavenly dimension visible at any specific moment.  Waiting on God simply means that we trust God to do whatever it is that God chooses to do to bring the invisible spiritual blessings to bear in the flawed physical realm in which we live.

Waiting on Time

We sometimes give out on waiting for God to act.  Anyone who doubts it should ask Abraham and Sarah.  Or, maybe ask Noah as he sat for all those long days and nights in a boat filled with animals.  Certainly the Hebrew people learned about waiting while they were in Egypt and then again while in the wilderness.  And, of course, sometimes the waiting ends in ways not considered desirable.  Ask some of the ones who have been martyred for their faith.  What seems more obvious than we would like for it to be is the reality that God never really seems to be in a hurry.

 

Knowing this truth about God has not kept us from doing our own version of trying to speed up God.  Our prayers are filled with petitions that speak more of timeliness than patient waiting.   What we want and seem to need is not something that is pressing our future, but pressing into the present moment of our life.  It is always the present moment of our life where we want God to act and to act now.  The Word may teach us over and over again that God is not one to be hurried because we want our future now, but it is a truth we have always been slow to embrace. 

 

It is not only the Word which teaches us to wait on God, but all of creation.  Nothing about the creation God has put in place around us seems in a hurry.  While the slowness imbedded in creation may seem irrelevant, it is for others a means by which we catch a glimpse of how God is at work in the world, and, therefore, in our lives.  As the cold settles over the ground and all that was once green has turned to deep shades of brown and as the foliage which was once so full in the air is now waiting on the ground to become part of the dirt again, so it is with God being at work in the things that touch us.  His plan continues without any awareness of the human clock.  Instead, it works according to how it is that He can bring about the  best possible good in our lives.  And, sometimes it just takes time. 

The Ever Flowing River

Long years ago when I was a young seminary student, I took courses which were called Systematic Theology.   The course was designed to insure that preachers being turned lose on the church had a correct understanding of theology.  As one professor often said, "You are going to be the resident theologian in your community."  Of course, every community wants one of those!  The Systematic Theology classes presented correct, proper, and precise teachings about all matters pertaining to God.  It was, well, systematic.  It was teaching geared to the mind, head understanding, and articulate communication.

 

While there is nothing wrong with correct teaching, I have thought often about the way such teaching may have been too precise.  It may have been so precise and systematic that there was no room for the heart to be involved.  In these latter years, I have come to a new appreciation for the teaching power of spiritual images.  In his book, "Everything Belongs,"  Richard Rohr writes, "...the Spirit is described as 'flowing water' and 'as a spring of life inside you' (John 4:10-14) or at the end of the Bible as a "river of life' (Rev. 22:1-2).  Strangely, your life is not about 'you.' It is a part of a much larger stream called God."  And then he goes on to add, "I  believe that faith might be precisely that ability to trust the river..."

 

My systematic theology classroom defined God, told me what He would and would not do, and enabled me to understand many different tried and true interpretations of all things theological.  All of it was good stuff, but images give room for us to sit and ponder.  They give us permission not to know everything, but to understand that there is always something more to see and know.  They are not always precise.  Sometimes they leave us in messy theological quandaries.  But, they inevitably bring us to a place of experiencing God with our hearts.  They open up the world of the Spirit and enable us to walk in the ever flowing River. 

The Face of Creation

As I walked, suddenly I was seeing what I had not seen.  The sun was losing its grip on the sky, the shadows were stretched to the point of breaking, and the darkness was settling down hard under the canopy of trees. In the moment of seeing it came with startling clarity that the face of creation is always changing.  It is never the same.  We may see a thousand moments when the light gives way to the darkness, but never is the present moment like yesterday, the day before tomorrow, or even the day still to come. 

Could it not be that the ever changing face of creation speaks to us about the way God reveals Himself to us?  Could it not be that divine revelation is ever changing as well?  We grow accustomed to looking for God's presence in certain places, in certain moments, and in certain rituals to the point that it may take a Damascus Road kind of moment for us to know that God is truly beyond even the holiest of our expectations.  What the changing face of creation tells us is that everything around us is potentially a means of holy revelation. 

To live with expectation and awareness puts us in a place where we are going to experience the holy presence of the Creator in the ongoing unfolding moments of our life.  His presence is not limited to the places our religious culture has deemed to be holy and neither is His presence limited to the holy rituals of the church.  Wherever we are, God is.  The Word speaks of our being created in His image.  But, we are not the only part of the creation which has passed through His hands.  Every part of the creation bears the imprint of His creative energy.  It is not surprising to see the ever changing, never to be seen again, face of creation and know that so it is with seeing God. 

Counting Blessings

When I was growing up, the story of the Pilgrims and the Native American Indians gathering in 1621 was inevitably remembered and told.  Maybe it is still told in some places.  Maybe being evicted from the elementary school scene by old age keeps me from hearing the story again and again.   I wonder, too, if maybe it is no longer remembered because someone saw it as a story of exploitation instead of one about two very diverse peoples coming together for a feast. 

 

What seems to have taken  the place of the old story of the first Thanksgiving is a huge turkey and Black Friday.  It would appear that Thanksgiving is more about getting stuffed and getting stuff than it is about gratitude.  The truth is gratitude is in short supply these days.  A grateful heart requires an awareness of blessings.  Being aware of blessings requires time to see what is all around us.  Not all blessings are as obvious as someone walking up to us with a large handful of cash, or watching the evening ball of fire sitting down in an ocean of water, or having someone unexpectedly offering some act of overwhelming kindness.  Some blessings come on the edge of the dark clouds of our life and can only be seen through quiet discernment. 

 

The Word of God calls us time and time again to live with a grateful heart.  It calls us to live with a grateful heart in the good times and in the bad times.  What is true is that we are blessed even in the midst of the dark things that overwhelm and confuse us.  The hand of God's blessing is never really lifted.  Blessings are always spilling out between those divine fingers.  Sometimes we allow our busy life style, the noisy world around us, or the bitterness of our own heart to clutter up our lives to the point that we no longer have any awareness of blessings.  If we find it hard to live with a thankful heart, maybe the place to begin is to do what the old gospel song calls us to do and that is "Count your blessings." 

Barefoot Praying

Silence is in short supply these days.   Finding it usually requires some effort.  It must have been much the same with Jesus.  As we read the gospels we read about his journeys into the wilderness, or up some mountain, or to some place not frequented by the clamoring demanding crowds.  In the middle of the 1st chapter of the book of Mark we hear the Word of God describing one such moment.  "In the morning, while it was very dark, He got up and went out to a deserted place and there He prayed."  (Mark 1:35)  His time into the silence was interrupted by Simon Peter and the others who went hunting for Him.

 

Walking into the silence is difficult for most of us and when we do find ourselves overwhelmed by it, there is always someone to call us back to what they would speak of as a more sensible way to live.  It does not require a serious moment of paying attention to know that silence is not really tolerated or desired by the vast majority of those who walk through this life with us.  If we follow the dictates of our culture, silence is something which must be filled.  To be in a place empty of some kind of noise is to be in a frightening place.  We might hear a Voice that is normally drowned out by the clutter of noise around us.

 

Interestingly enough, Jesus sought silence.  He sought the silence because He surely must have known that it was the place inhabited by the Father's presence and the place where the Father's Voice could be heard.  Those who say that God does not speak in these days probably do not inhabit the silence.  They likely avoid it.  Even in our praying, we shy away from the silence.  We fill our praying with our words.  If we prayed in such a way as to experience nothing but the silence, we might be overwhelmed by such a certain sense of holy presence that we would be praying without shoes.    

The Problem with Hurrying

In our town there is one traffic light.  It is not one of these fancy ones that gives instructions to different lanes of traffic, but one that flashes red on one side and yellow on the other.   There are two traffic jams each day at this intersection with the flashing light.  One comes in the morning as hordes of teenagers descend on the nearby high school and the other comes in mid afternoon when the school day comes to an end.  However, even then it is not a major traffic event.  In fifteen or twenty minutes traffic settles back into its normal slow unhurried pace.

 

Life is different in this small rural town of 900 than it is in the larger metropolitan areas not so far away.  Every time I drive into the city on its multi lane roads that move thousands of cars rather than a dozen or so, I am grateful for life in the country.  Of course, I remember the large portions of my working years which were spent inside the beltway of larger cities.  I remember the years when I was a part of the hurrying to get somewhere a little faster than the previous day.  But, even in a caution light rural town, folks can create their own fast lane as they get caught up in their hurrying.

 

When I read the gospels, the one thing I never really catch Jesus doing is hurrying.  Certainly, He did not just aimlessly meander around the countryside.  Wherever He went, there was a sense of intentionality and urgency.  Getting wherever it was He was going never seemed to keep Him from paying attention to the people who were sharing the way with Him.  On His way to wherever He was going, He was always seeing the blind man, the lepers, and people who did outrageous things like climbing a tree to see Him.  He had time for the grieving widows and the children who were often pushed aside as bothersome.  His pace was fast enough to get Him to wherever; yet, slow enough to see what was right in front of Him.  The problem with hurrying is that we lose sight of where we are and Who is going with us. 

A Holy Gift

It would never be my intent to take away from the special nature of observing Sabbath.  It is a practice commanded in the Word and has gifted with blessings the generations since the day Moses went up Mt. Sinai.  It is indeed meant to be a holy moment in our life, a moment that is set apart from other days, and a moment which offers an important perspective about who we are in relationship to the Creator and the creation. 

 

However, as I have moved along through these last years, I find myself coming to a place of believing that every day is a sacred day.  In every day God is present and working in our lives.  In every day there are moments which call us to pause and offer mini expressions of worship.  It may be as simple as breathing "Thank You, Lord" for an awareness of some blessing which is falling upon us, or it may be something which brings forth a spirit of praise from our heart.  Sunday may be the day we enter into the sacred space of a church, but everyday is a day we walk and live within the cathedral of creation which is all around us.

If holy is defined by something which passes through, or is touched by the hands of the Creator God, then everything around us is holy for everything experienced as a part of life around us is but what God has put into place.  As surely as He created the stars and beautiful sunsets, so has He created the time in which our lives move.  We define time by seconds, minutes, hours, days, and years, but God needs none of this to keep track of what is unfolding.  What is unfolding around us is the time He has created and given to us.  It is a precious gift.  It is also a holy gift.  All of it.

Brown Dried Leaves

With no day planner filled with a schedule of upcoming meetings and appointments, these retirement days sometimes seem to run together.  I have been heard to say that every day seems like Saturday.  But, the truth is there is usually no more to do on Saturday than Monday or Wednesday or any other day of the week!   A week that once was once far too scheduled has become one with no schedule at all to guide me through the day or week.

On a late afternoon walk across the farm the other day, I found myself feeling more confused than usual when it seemed like I was hearing the words of Ash Wednesday.  "You are dust and to dust you shall return."  The words came not from the voice of a preacher, but from the brown dried leaves that crunched underfoot as each step was taken.   Those leaves were far from the moment they hung heavy and green on the trees above.  Soon the dried leaves would be seen no more and each would become a part of the dirt which was waiting to receive them. 

As these sights and sounds filled my eyes and ears, it seemed as if I was hearing the intoning words of the Ash Wednesday ritual.  Actually, it seemed more like a Word from God reminding me again that this life is no more than a fragile thing which has an end as surely as it had a beginning.   As the years slip on toward that unknown ending point, this message comes with a greater sense of urgency.  It not a morbid reminder, but one which speaks to me about the importance of paying attention to everything that is around me.  What is around me is filled with the presence of God and from all that is around me comes His Word as surely as brown dried leaves crunch beneath my walking steps.   

The View From the Window

It has been said that our house on the farm is in the middle of a hayfield.  To some degree, it is true.  Out windows on three sides of the house can be seen hayfields and the fourth side gives a view of the pasture where the cows roam.  So, regardless of the perspective taken, the hayfield is always in view.  One thing which struck me as a new thought the other day is that the hayfield is always changing.  It may seem the same for a span of time, but it is always changing. 

In these days the view out the window shows a field which has all but turned brown.  Soon it will be completely brown as the grass settles into a dormant time of waiting for Spring.  Sometime before winter turns lose of its hold, flowering winter weeds will begin to spread across the brown landscape.  As the days warm the weeds wither and the green grass begins to appear.  By midsummer the grass is lush green, full of life, knee deep, and waiting for the cutting and the baling.  When the bales are rolled, the ground is once again brown and all seems dead, but life is still lurking in the ground. The green will come again with another crop of grass to be turned into hay.  And, so it goes.  Always changing. 

 

So, it goes with our life as well.  The changing hayfields speak a word about this dimension of life that is a part of the life of everyone of us.  As a younger man with what seemed to be a hundred years ahead, life could easily be compartmentalized into the four seasons of the calendar.  As an older man I have come to understand that life is full of seasons, some of them show up once, and some seem to come again and again in the years allotted to us.  The green years are not just the younger years.  Sometimes even the gray haired ones are blessed with a greening season of productivity.  The seasons that God gives to us are not always measured as we measure them on the calendar.  Like the hayfields, we are always changing and as He does with the grass which grows, God is always faithful.

The New "We"

Diversity as it is present in our society has more faces than the sky has stars.  In the Apostle Paul's day, diversity was a part of culture as well.  However, in the first century world which Paul knew as a Jewish man, diversity only had two faces.  His upbringing taught him that there were only two kinds of people in the world.  Jews were one kind.  Everyone else made up the other kind.  The other than Jewish face in the world was the Gentile face.  It might be Ethiopian, or Greek, or Egyptian, but they were still lumped together in the category of Gentile.

 

One of the early struggles of the Christian community had to do with taking the message about Jesus which came out of the Jewish culture into the Gentile world.  In the beginning there was a danger that the Jesus movement would simply be a Jewish sect instead of a faith that had world wide impact.  Paul saw himself as one called to carry the gospel into the second community, the Gentile community.  In the 11th verse of the 2nd chapter of his letter to the church at Ephesus, we hear him saying, "...remember that at one time you Gentiles by birth called the 'uncircumcision' by those who are called 'the circumcision'...

To read the larger section which begins at this point and continues to the 3rd chapter is to hear how Christ has come to bridge the gap between those who allow differences to separate them from those unlike them.  In those verses the Word of God speaks of  "one new humanity in place of the two" and how Christ "might reconcile both groups to God in one body, through the cross..." (Ephesians 2:15-16)  As the Spirit is given freedom to work out what it means for us to be new creations in Christ Jesus, we come to the place of knowing that "us and them" no longer exists.  Through the blood of Christ on the cross we have been made into a "we."

The Way to Salvation

How do we repay grace that is immeasurable and has no end?  How do we repay grace that is of greater value than a life time of accumulation of the world's gold and silver?  How do we repay a grace so sufficient and far reaching that it covers all the sin we could possibly commit with a covering of mercy and forgiveness?  There was a time when the foolishness of youthful years and beginning faith caused me to think that with enough service and good deeds I could balance the scales with the Christ's sacrifice on the cross on one side and my good life on the other.

 

And while greater men than I have walked that dead end road, including the likes of the Apostle Paul, Martin Luther, and John Wesley, my foolishness in those years surely places me in the category of history's greatest all time fool.  What God has done for us through Christ on the cross cannot be repaid.  It is a gift greater than all my sins, and yours, and all the rest of humanity.  It is a precious gift of divine grace that saves me and you and nothing else.  The Apostle Paul declared this truth powerfully when he wrote, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God--not the result of works, so that no one may boast."  (Ephesians 2:8-9)

 

In the letter to the Galatians the Apostle spoke against the heresy that something is needed for salvation in addition to faith in Jesus and here he proclaims the bankruptcy of any system of righteousness based on what we do instead of what God has done and is doing.  There is no salvation by right and decent living.  If there was such a salvation, Jesus would not have willingly walked to the cross.  He went out of love, but He always went because He knew what we are slow to learn.  There is no other way to once again be at one with God except through this saving act of shedding blood on a cross. 

Saving Grace

It is one of those verses which demands to be remembered.  Memorized and stored in the deep recesses of the soul.  It is the hallmark of verses.  There is none which has been quoted more than this one and there is likely no truth which has done more to change the face of the Christian faith than that single verse the Apostle Paul wrote to the Christians at Ephesus so long ago.  Such an introduction to a single verse of the Word of God brings it to mind for most who have held the Scripture in their hand for a spell.  "For by grace you have been saved through faith..."  (Ephesians 2:8)

 

Already Paul has written powerful words about the spiritual blessings available to those who live in Christ (Ephesians 1:3-14).  And after writing about his heart's prayer for these believers, (Ephesians 1:15-23) he reminded them of their lost condition without Christ (Ephesians 2:1-3) and then with those powerful words, "But God..." (Ephesians 2:4) he takes them into the heart of God where abundant grace is unending. (Ephesians 2:4-7)  Then comes that verse of the Word which introduces the faith response into the salvation equation. 

 

Saving grace is offered.  Delivering grace is offered.  Eternal life grace is offered.  This rich and immeasurable grace is freely given, but never forced on anyone.  It is put on the cross for all the world to see and it is the human response of faith which enables us to pick it up and begin to live a transformed and never the same life.  Salvation is never about what we have done, but about what God has done for us through Christ.  Salvation begins not with faith, but with grace.  Without grace there is nothing in which we could believe that would have saving power.  Because of grace we can choose to trust in Christ and live now, and on into and through eternity. 

God Everywhere

Where you were,
   Where you are,
      Where you go,
Three with you.
    Overflowing,
      All around.
Mystery,
    Light of Lights,
      Blowing Wind.
Come, stay, go,
    Blessing now.
      And always. 

The Unacceptable Cure

Early on in his letter to the church at Ephesus the Apostle described those who live without faith in Jesus Christ.  What was true then is true now.   What is also true is that most of today's culture would disagree with his assessment of the human condition.  At the beginning of the 2nd chapter there is this word which is surely an unpopular one in our day.   "You were dead through the trespasses and sins in which you once lived, following the course of this world...All of us...were by nature children of wrath..." (Ephesians 2:1-3)  Many find this word about a fundamental problem peculiar to each one of us to be unacceptable.

 

Actually, this Word about human sin has a divine solution.  The solution to the human predicament created by our sinfulness is never ours to fix.  Fixing it is outside the realm of human possibilities.  The fix is set forth in the next few verses, "But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great with love with which He loves us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved..."  (Ephesians 2:4-5)  The fix for our sins does not belong to us, but to God and what He has done through Christ. 

 

The real problem with dealing with our sin is not that there is no cure, but that it is an unacceptable cure.  The Jesus fix ordained by God requires depending on Another to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves.  Most of us have to go to deep degrees of being broken before we will come to the reality that God does for us out of His love what we cannot do for ourselves.  The human fix in whatever form it might take is bankrupt.  It cannot deliver deliverance.  It only delivers an illusion of deliverance.  What is harder than acknowledging our sin is acknowledging that we must have help in dealing with it.  The way has been made, but it is a hard and narrow way and not everyone wants to find it. 

A Definition of the Church

The church buildings which share space in my memory are mostly traditional looking.  Some were large in size and one or two others could have vied for the smallest church in the county award.  Despite the size they all are remembered as rectangle shaped buildings with a steeple and windows of one sort or another running down the sides.  Inside were rows of wooden pews that led to a pulpit behind a altar.  One thing each held in common was the way they breathed quietness. 

 

Of course, the way a church looks has nothing to do with its spirit and ministry.  Today the church seems architecturally so contemporary it is easy to mistake it for a large fitness center.  Perhaps, the building communicates something about the way the builders of the building view the church, but there is no word which sets forth the correct view like a Word from God found in Ephesians 1:23.  "And He (God) has put all things under His feet and made Him the head over all things for the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all."  To ponder this Word is to come to the place of understanding that the church is the expression of Christ in the world. 

 

What we do not find here is a Word which physically describes the church, but a Word which sets forth the nature of the Church as it is present in the world.  As we seek to know what it is that the church should be about, there is no better place to start figuring than the way Jesus expressed the nature of God in the world.  There is no better place to start figuring how the church should position itself in the world than to ponder how Jesus positioned Himself in the culture of His day.  As Jesus expressed the nature of God in His flesh, so does His Spirit and ministry express the true nature of the Church in any day. 

Praying for Spiritual Blessings

In all these years that have gone under the bridge, there have been many seasons of praying for the church.  More than likely those prayers have been too much about the work which was in front of me.  Like other preachers I have sought prayers for the agendas which seemed pressing, needful, and important.  Perhaps, some of them were, but more than likely too many of them were more about what I thought the church should be doing rather than what God was leading it to do.  One thing is certain.  There was too much praying about the church doing instead of being.

The Apostle Paul prayed for the church.  One of his prayers is set forth in the early part of the letter to the church at Ephesus.  He wrote, "I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers.  I pray that....you may know what is the hope to which He has called you, what are the riches of His glorious inheritance,...and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power..."  (Ephesians 1:16-19)  His prayer for them to be blessed with hope, His glorious inheritance, and immeasurable power makes so many of my remembered prayers for the church seem paltry indeed.

It seems we do too little praying for the church to be blessed with spiritual blessings.  We pray that people will be generous so we can build our buildings and meet our budget.  We pray for bigger crowds.  We pray for a host of things which keep the institutional part of the church healthy and strong.  Too little of our praying time is spent praying for spiritual blessings to abound in the church and upon the hearts of those who are a part of it.  Knowing the divine hope, and knowing the inheritance which is ours, and knowing the greatness of His power would have been a far better prayer to offer to the Father.  It is not too late to pray such prayers.   

Self Control

There is a sense in which the self control listed in the fruit of the Spirit section of Galatians is like the last of the ten commandments listed in the book of Exodus.  (Galatians 5:23)   How is it that the "do not covet"  commandment and the last listed fruit of the Spirit are kin?  The answer is obvious.  If the tenth commandment is the guideline for life, then the first nine commandments will fall in place.  And, so it is with the last listed fruit of the Spirit.  If self control is growing in us, the other things listed as fruit of the Spirit will be present as well.

 

If it sounds like a tall and impossible order for the human will, it is.  If human will or human determination is the source of our self control, we will surely fail.  Self control is not attained from within the human spirit, but from the Spirit of God.  The ego or self within us cannot do this work.  Only the Holy Spirit dwelling in us can create in us this thing called self control which will, in turn, manifest itself through things like being loving instead of hateful, being patient instead of intolerable, being kind instead of being mean spirited, being generous instead of selfish, being faithful instead of unfaithful, and being gentle instead of overbearing. 

 

Without self control being produced in us through the work of the Holy Spirit, there can be no real self control.  Anything called self control that depends on the human will to create and maintain it is really nothing more than an illusion.  If we are to truly know what it means to live with self control, it will be because we have turned lose the control of life so that the Holy Spirit can control our inner being and do works within us which we cannot do for ourselves. 

The "Jesus plus" Heresy

The New Testament letters were not randomly written just to be keeping in touch.  Each one was written with a purpose.  To read the letters carefully is to see that the writers were aware of something happening in the church of the letter's destination.  A reading of the letter to the churches in the region of Galatia reveals two primary issues.  First, there were those present in the church who were bent on undermining the work and influence of the Apostle Paul as they claimed he was no real Apostle.  But, a more serious issue was "Jesus plus" theology being preached in Paul's absence.

 

The "Jesus plus" theology did not refute the importance of Jesus, it simply declared that something more was needed for salvation than just Jesus.  Some of the Jewish leaders in the Galatian church were declaring that what was needed was Jesus plus the Jewish law.  The Apostle Paul would have none of it.  "You foolish Galatians!  Who has bewitched you?...Did you receive the Spirit by doing the works of the law or by believing what you heard?"  (Galatians 3:1-2)  The gospel that Paul preached was a gospel which declared the adequacy of Jesus for salvation.  Nothing else was needed. 

This "Jesus plus" theology was actually a heresy.  It was a false teaching clothed in sheep skin.  It is a heresy which still afflicts the faithful today.  From time to time we hear that in addition to faith in Jesus, we need membership in a particular brand of church.  Or, in addition to faith in Jesus, we need to tithe and go to church every Sunday.  Some might even declare that baptism is a necessary plus along with faith.  It can be most anything that we would impose upon another or ourselves in addition to  faith in Christ as a litmus test for true spirituality.  The more I ponder the Word, the more it seems that the only question is the question about believing in Jesus.  We do not need Jesus plus anything, or anyone.  Jesus alone is enough. 

Led and Guided

Years ago when I was the pastor of the Vidalia Church, I went numerous times to nearby Green Bough House of Prayer for spiritual retreats.  The director of this place was one of our United Methodist pastors who sensed God's call to this ministry instead of the parish setting.  Green Bough was near a town so small it was nothing more than a black dot on the map and tucked away on the edge of everything without any billboards of flashing signs to point to its presence. 

I learned new spiritual disciplines on my visits.  It provided me my first experience of being silent while still a part of a group.  But, the one thing I remember most often is the moment Steve invited us to get up from our chairs and follow him around the room.  He led and we followed in a line, one behind the other.  At first I was uncomfortable.  It seemed ridiculous.  And, then I wanted the guy ahead of me to walk faster since I was all but stepping on his heels.  But, he could walk no faster than the one in front of him whose slow and deliberate pace was being set by our leader.  Finally, after a number of hurried missteps I got in step with the one before me and everyone else as well.

This long ago memory came back as I was reading the latter part of the 5th chapter of Galatians.  It is a section in which the Word of God speaks of living by the Spirit.  To live by the Spirit, as Paul described it, means being led and guided by the Spirit.  To be led and guided by the Spirit is not as easy for most of us as getting up out of the chair and following His lead.  We keep wanting to hurry Him up.  We keep wanting Him to walk at a pace that suits us.  We keep wanting Him to take us to what we have decided are meaningful places instead of what seems to be a walk without a clear destination.   Sometimes we go, but not as naturally and easily as we should.  Only when we get our ego out of the way can we relax and breathe and go where He is leading and guiding us. 

The Prime Directive

The Apostle Paul did not mind repeating himself.  In the 16th verse of the 5th chapter of what we know as his letter to the Galatian Christians, he wrote, "Live by the Spirit..."  No more than just a few sentences further, he sounds the same theme, "If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit."  (Galatians 5:25)  Everyone has some primary directive which drives the way life is lived.  That prime directive may have to do with accumulation, or adoration, or some other thing driven by the ego.  The alternative the Word of God offers is to be driven by the Holy Spirit.

 

If we are going to live by the Spirit, if we are going to be guided by the Spirit, if such a life is going to describe the prime directive of our all the living we do, it is going to be necessary for us see the importance of abandoning a life based on ego gratification.  Ego gratification creates a very small world.  It is a world where we place ourselves at the center.  When we place ourselves at the center of our life, we have given self the only place where the Holy Spirit can abide in us and do its life changing work in us.    

When the Word of God presents the contrast between a life filled with works of the flesh and one filled with fruit of the Spirit, it is illuminating the choice that has to be made in the core of our being.  We cannot live according to the demands of our own ego and live by the Spirit at the same time.  It is a situation of incompatibility.  Surely, this is one of the reasons the word "abandonment" is such an appropriate description of the basic choice which must be made if we are truly serious about a Spirit guided life. 

The Road Wisely Taken

The Biblical way is the way of contentment.  In the last verse of the 5th chapter of Galatians, we hear the Word of God saying, "Let us not become conceited, competing against one another, envying one another."   In another place at another time we hear the Apostle Paul sounding this same theme, even more explicitly, as he writes to the Christians at Philippi, "I have learned to be content with whatever I have..."  (Philippians 4:11)   Envy and competition and not being content has been the downfall of many a preacher.  It has also been the downfall of many a believer who is on the road toward home.

It is an easy thing to let the spirit of discontentment drive us to a place where we lose sight of who we are and the fact that God has put us where He wants us to be.  Usually, discontentment takes root as we start looking around coveting..  When God gave Moses those Ten Words on the mountain, the last one etched in stone was, "You shall not covet ...anything that belongs to your neighbor."  (Exodus 20:17)  While some might say that money is the root of all evil, I have a hunch that it could easily be replaced by coveting, or desiring what is not ours, but belongs to another.

When we want what belongs to another, we are not only breaking the 10th Commandment, but we are also expressing a basic distrust of God.   It is as if we are saying to God that He could do better by us, or that we are special, or that we deserve more blessings than we seem to be receiving from Him.  The Apostle Paul understood about contentment.  He could have looked at the apparently favored position of the disciples such as Peter and John, but instead he went about what God had put before him with thanksgiving and joy.  This road of contentment is a road wisely taken. 

No Looking Back

How do we know if a person is truly Spirit filled?  Is there some marker which can be used for them and even for us?  The answer is simple.  There is no visible marker.  Oh, certainly our lifestyle might show signs of the Spirit's influence in our lives.  The preacher might preach with more power and unction.  Those in the marketplace might conduct business and deal with people differently than most of their peers.  Still, if seeing and knowing is our goal, it is not something that is going to be as visible as we might like for it to be. 

The truth is the real measure of the Spirit filled life is what happens when no one is looking.  The real evidence of such a life choice and commitment happens in the places unseen by human eyes, but seen by the empowering and ever present Holy Spirit.  How we live and act and think when no one is looking to see us is the real measure.  And, the fact that we live according to the dictates of the Holy Spirit with only the purpose of pleasing God is still another.  As soon as we want someone else to know what we do and how we live, the real test has been failed.  In such a moment we are in the game of pleasing ego instead of pleasing God. 

 

One of my favorite writers, Oswald Chambers, uses the word "abandonment" often.  In fact if there is any theme which flows through the things I read of his, it is this word.  In a recent biography which I read, this spirit and attitude kept surfacing in a way that spoke of an inner decision to live his live abandoned to God and His will in a way that stirs me and others to strive for the ground higher than the one being walked.  To be abandoned to God seems to be a way of describing the ones who truly live as the Spirit filled among us.  To be abandoned to God means that His plans are not only sought but become the mandate for going forward in a "no looking back" lifestyle. 

Spiritual Predictability

One thing I have never seen is a peach growing on the grape vine.  Neither have I tasted a plum that was produced on a blueberry bush.  There is a predictability about where the fruit grows.  It grows according to the root to which it is connected.  The grapes depend on the root of the grape vine and not the root of the nearby plum tree.  To expect anything else is simply ridiculous.  There is an order to everything including the growth of the fruit that grows on trees and vines and bushes. 

 

There is a passage in the book of Galatians which speak of a spiritual predictability.  In the 22nd verse of the 5th chapter the Word says, "...the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control."  This fruit is not the product of some ecstatic and emotional minute at the altar.  It is not the result of giving ourselves a daily dose of discipline for ten or twelve years.  It comes not because we decide to get up and make those choices one morning for the rest of our life.  The root upon which this fruit depends has nothing to do with us and everything to do with the Holy Spirit.   

Unlike the fruit of human determination, this fruit does not depend on a moment of decision making.  It does not show itself in our life because we have looked at a situation, weighed the possibilities, and made the choice to be patient or kind or loving.  Instead, the fruit born of the Holy Spirit is one born in a spontaneous manner.  It does not require thoughtful deliberation, only intentional abandonment to the Holy Spirit.  When the Holy Spirit is allowed control of our inner being these things of which the Word of God speaks begin to show themselves on the vine of our life in a natural spontaneous manner because we are depending on a connection to the root known as Spirit. 

Being Grateful

Long years ago while serving as pastor at my first appointment, I came to a moment which gave me the privilege of going to the home of one of the folks of the church for his baptism.  He was late in years and bound to the home by physical circumstances and wanted to profess his faith in Christ and be baptized.  He said, "Most people just assumed I had been baptized, but I wasn't and the older I got, the harder it was to own up to it.  Now is the time."  The moment of gathering in his room with the men of his Sunday School class left a lasting impression on this preacher.

 

Some years later I was reminded of this moment in a powerful way.    Actually, it was more like thirty rather than some.  I got a note from the old man's daughter thanking me for that blessed moment shared with her father.  Even though the note came out of the mail box, it was more like it came out of the blue.  It was good to know I was not the only one who remembered that baptism and it has always been a reminder to me to thank those who have touched our lives in the part which is behind us. 

 

Living with gratitude takes some practice for most of us.  We live in such a rush we fail to see all the people around us who are blessing  us.  To see is to live with gratitude.  And, such is also true of the past.  Some of those who have blessed our lives are gone.  Some of them we surely remembered in recent days as All Saints Day came and went once again.  While we can call their names and thank them even as they dwell in the heavenly place, we can also take a moment and remember some who still walk around us and with us.  These are the ones we can take a moment to express gratitude.  Receiving such a word of thanksgiving from us will surely warm their hearts and, in the process, it may warm ours a bit as well. 

A Word From God

During a recent morning read of the Word, I stumbled into a verse which had never slowed me down much on previous readings.  Mostly, I just breezed through the section to get on to what was next which is something most readers of the Word have done from time to time.  Why it grabbed my attention this time is just part of the mystery which goes with reading the Scripture.  It is a simple phrase which creates a militaristic image, something some readers would shun or want to put in another context. 

In a description of himself as a servant of God, he wrote, "...with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left..."  (II Corinthians 6:7)  Several thing are obvious.  Both hands are full.  The right hand would surely hold the offensive weapon and the left would hold the defensive one.  Paul surely had the Greek soldier with his sword and shield in mind.  The one making the weapons necessary is not of flesh and blood, but the very power of evil which constantly seeks to undermine and destroy the work of God in the world.

In another place in another letter, the matter is made even more clear.  "Put on the whole armor of God so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil...Stand therefore...take the shield of faith...Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God." (Ephesians 6:10-17)  To put the Christian journey in such an adversarial context is not the most popular of views and many find it an outdated one and unacceptable as well.  But, there is one important thing which must always be remembered about the written Word. What it says is not what we want it to say, but what God wanted it to say. 

Saintly Stories

While it is certainly true that the Scripture has some deep theological sections which can even cause the scholars to scratch their heads as they try to understand what cannot be understood, it is also true that it is one great big story book.  From the Garden of Eden to the Isle of Patmos great stories abound.   Long before I had any inclination to delve into Job or Jeremiah, Romans or Ephesians, I became enthralled and captivated by the stories of the men and women who walked the pages of the Holy Word. 

 

It is interesting that there are so many stories of so many different kinds of people.  Some were deemed good and righteous and some were deemed unfaithful and evil.  There are stories which center on Abraham and all his clan, Moses and the Hebrew people, calling stories of prophets, birth announcement stories, stories filled with tragedy, and stories filled with people who dared to do the impossible.  The people of the Scripture are remembered in stories of their lives.  Even today their stories are told.

 

As we moved through a season of All Saints celebrations, it is good to remember the stories of those we remember.  We called their names on Sunday in a moment of scared remembrance.  It is also important to remember their stories.  Their stories include the way our lives were made different by their sacrifice, their love, and their hand upon our lives.  Their stories have changed our lives.  We are blessed because we knew them well enough to know their stories.  As we write the final words about this season of celebration and remembrance, may we take a moment to tell their stories, even if there is no one to hear, and to thank them and God for the stories they shared with us. 

Going to the Roost

Chickens on the farm provide fresh eggs.  Nothing like picking up eggs from the nest one day and eating them for breakfast the next morning.  Those birds also range across the place making a pass each day in the garden where they do a little bug control work.  The ones around here seem to enjoy following us around clucking and making chicken noises as they go.  In order to be good company, I have learned to mimic them which, perhaps, means I have learned a few chicken words. 

 

These chickens of ours do more than provide breakfast and entertainment.  They also teach lessons about living.  One of the lessons is taught each evening as they go back into the chicken house for the night.  They have no clocks in the chicken pen, but every evening as the darkness gets ready to settle over the farm, they head for the roost.  They work all day.  They are constantly scratching in the dirt and eating stuff I cannot see,  but as evening comes they go into rest mode as they settle on the roost.

As I reflect  back over the years, I see too many times when I lived out of sync with what was happening in the creation.  So often the creation was gearing down, darkness was settling in announcing the work day was done, and I kept going.  Getting ahead and the opinion of others was more important than self care which is what the coming darkness invites us to do.  The chickens know when it is time to call it a day and go to the roost.  Our Creator God brought a creation into being which includes the same signals for creatures like you and me so we would know when it was time to go to the roost.  Too many times I just paid no attention to the clock of creation.  Maybe one day I will be able to live more like a chicken.   

Seeing and Hearing

There are more words to hear through God's creation than a person has ears to hear.  And, there is more to see of God than anyone who walks the earth has eyes to see.  The creation speaks to us of God and reveals more of His presence than a life time of listening or seeing would allow us to know.  As it is, we might catch sight of some of it, but it is always going to be like the tip of the iceberg.  There will always be more out there in the unfolding Mystery than can be heard or seen.

As surely as the sun rises and makes its daily journey across the sky, God is present, God is evident, and God is revealing in our lives.  Our inability to fully experience this ever present divine reality in each moment and in any given hour is not the Creator's fault, but the created ones whose eyes are dimmed by the sight of lofty personal ambitions and whose ears are closed by the sound of accumulating silver coins.  This generation is not the first to deprive the soul of the revealing presence of the Holy One  and it will not be the last. 

In the Word of God there is a Word written by the Apostle Paul which speaks of the power of the creation to point those who see and hear toward the Creator.  In Romans 1:19-20 the Words speaks saying, "For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.  Ever since the creation of the world His eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things He has made."   The creation and the order which is a part of it is full of the Holy.  Some see.  Some do not.  But, whether we see or not, the unfolding plans of God for making Himself known to us is always before us, behind us, around us, and even within us. 

Heart Warmings

I am not sure when I first shared in an All Saints Sunday worship service, but what I do not know is that after one, I was hooked on making sure I gave leadership to it for all the years which followed.   Perhaps, it had to do with the way it enabled me to connect with a deep loss of my own within the context of a moment in the presence of the God who knows the day of our coming before we come and the day of our going before we go.  And at another level, it gave life to something so often ignored in our contemporary worship:  the expression of emotions that sometimes range out of control.

 

How we got to such a place has not always been easy to figure.  The early days of the history of spiritual life in this country has stories of powerful spiritual awakenings, protracted meetings, and camp meetings.  The preaching did not seek to educate, or to enlighten, but to persuade those who gathered to believe in Jesus.  While there may have been more fire and fear than love and mercy in that early preaching, the purpose was to bring people into a life changing encounter with the Christ.

 

It often seems that we have not only suppressed the expression of raw emotion in worship, but that we have also come to a place where we preach about Jesus as a nice guy who wants us to do better.  At best such preaching is a perversion of the gospel.  The gospel is about how Christ makes us new, not better.  It is about the blood of Jesus being shed on a cross as a divine means of making it possible for us to be at one with God again.  It is about a love that makes every love pale in comparison.  It is a gospel not just meant for the brain, but for the heart.  I have always liked the Wesleyan expression, "a heart strangely warmed" and wish that there were more heart warmings in worship than we seem to be seeing.

A Special Moment

The Christian calendar gives a preacher some great preaching Sundays.  Of course, at the top of the heap is Easter.  Any preacher who gives up the opportunity to preach on Easter Sunday should find other work.  Some of my other special preaching moments came on Baptism of the Lord Sunday.  I loved preaching on baptism and then standing back to watch people come for baptism who did not come to worship expecting to be baptized.  If there is a Sunday for watching the Spirit at work, it is surely this Sunday early in January.

 

Another very special preaching Sunday comes this Sunday as the church gathers on All Saints Sunday.  When I was preaching that Sunday, there was always a moment in the ritual for calling out the names of the remembered dead.  What a rich blessing it was to stand in a moment of such powerful remembrances.  It was also a Sunday when the visible community gathered around the Table with the invisible community of faithful witnesses for the holy meal hosted by the Lord.  An image which was ever before me on that Sunday was a long table.  On one end we gathered and on the other end just beyond the veil they gathered.  We were here and they were there. 

 

Gathered around such a Table on All Saints Day is what I came to understand as the communion of the saints.  Some of the saints are in heaven and some are here.  But, this particular Table gathering is one of those rare moments when the church has an opportunity to celebrate the One Community that is not separated by the veil of death.  I am grateful to the church for giving me a place to preach all these years and for the Christ who dared to call a most unqualified and inadequate boy to preach the gospel Sunday after Sunday after Sunday for a life time.