The Only Mystery

The cows figured out a new way to escape the friendly grass filled pasture this afternoon.  Why any single one of them would prefer to wander through the rough terrain of the wooded branch on the other side of the fence is a mystery to everyone but the cows.  Maybe it is just the attraction of something on the other side of the fence.  Maybe the other side of the fence speaks of the proverbial apple in the garden which the Word simply identifies as a piece of fruit.  While the transgression of the cows is not going to get them thrown out of the pasture, it certainly does raise concern for their safety until they are finally back where they belong.   

I suppose it is no different than our ventures over the fence.  Sometimes greener grass appears in strange and surprising ways.  Instead of living in a place where the words of Christ guide us in our relationship with one another, we often choose to climb over into the rough terrain of anger, resentment, and brokenness.  We know it is not where we have been put to live, but we choose to walk into that way, nonetheless.  Like a lot of folks before us we do not always do the good we want to do.  (Romans 7:19)    

It is a good thing we have a loving, merciful, and forgiving Heavenly Father, or we would be thrown out of the pastures where we have been placed to graze and live.  There may be many things we cannot know and understand about God, but the fact that He is forgiving beyond measure is no mystery.  The only mystery is why He continues to forgive and love us and enable us to return to the place where we belong when we seem so persistent in making other choices.  No matter how many times we choose to wander away from where we have been created to live, He works to restore us and get us back home.

The Journey to Now

While the journey of faith is never static and always progressing, it is also true that where we are going is where we are.  We may have grandiose plans about accomplishing some goal, arriving at some spiritual state of maturity, or getting to a particular destination, but the truth is there is no guarantee of the journey taking us anywhere except where we are in the moment.  Kingdom of God seekers need go no farther ahead in time than now and to no place more distant than the heart in which Christ chooses to dwell thought the presence of the Holy Spirit.    

The Apostle Paul spoke to this reality as he wrote, "I have learned to be content with whatever I have..."  (Philippians 4:11)    The Apostle is declaring that he needs nothing more than what is in the present moment.  This truth is a hard word for status seekers, power grabbers, and spiritual junkies.  Where God has taken us matters more than where we want Him to take us.  Our inability to live with such a reality reflects the degree to which we are willing to allow Christ to control our life.   

So much is missed by our desire for a speedy journey that gets us to tomorrow, or the thing next on our agenda.  The God who desires for us to know where are and with whom we are walking takes no delight in our hurrying to get somewhere else lifestyle.  Where we are going is where He has put us today.  Faithfulness to Christ means paying attention to that place on the journey and being grateful for it. 

The Invisible One

The pecans are starting to drop on the ground here at the farm.  Most folks only know pecans as a brown oblong nut, but the first evidence of the pecan on the tree is way back in the Spring when the leaves start showing up and tiny pods begin to grow.  No bigger than a pea, each one contains the genesis of one of those brown pecans.  All year the pecan is hidden from sight, slowly getting bigger, and offering a promise of a harvest.  Before they begin their journey to the ground each pecan is tightly enclosed in a thick green hull which by the middle of August becomes hard enough that a pocket knife will no longer cut through it.   As the right time, the green hull begins to open allowing the pecan to escape to the ground.    

What has been present but invisible has been out there for most of this year and now as its time has come, what has been invisible is now becoming visible.  Making the invisible visible is simply a normal part of God's creation.  He does it with pecans.  He does it with calves in the pasture waiting to be made visible in December.  He does it with cooler winds lurking somewhere in the northern regions.  He even does it with people like you and me who are now visible, but once lived invisible within the darkness of the womb.    

The Word of God speaks a Word about all this as it says, "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."  (Romans 1:20)   The Word of God does not just come to us through the visible written Word that we know as Holy Scripture, but also through the things which are visible around us and which speak silently of the One who lingers invisibly within the realm of the creation.  All we need are eyes to see what cannot be seen and ears to hear the Words not spoken with a voice.

The Panoramic View

God uses most anyone to accomplish His purposes.  He pays no attention to our personal dislikes, our prejudices, religious affiliation, national origin, or our preferences for people who look like us, think like us, and act like us.  He has yet to check with us about His choices.  What He does is done solely on the basis of sovereign will.  In a book entitled, Holy Envy,"  Barbara Brown Taylor writes, "...examples of redemptive religious strangers...include Bithiah, the Pharaoh's daughter who plucked the baby Moses from the rush basket...Jethro, the Midianite priest who was Moses's father-in-law and teacher, the Moabite who became the ancestor of King David; and Cyrus, the Persian king...the only non-Jew in the Bible who is ever identified as God's anointed one."     

As hard as it is for to accept, God does not care what we think about His choices.  Most of us should have figured that one out when Jesus sounded the call of discipleship to us.  The problem is we are willing to apply this divine logic to ourselves, but we are often too slow to give some of the unlikable ones in our life the same measure of grace.  The Word tells us in many places and in many ways to watch where we point our finger of judgment, but it goes ahead of us, nonetheless.    

The divine plan is bigger than anyone of us, or any particular group of us.  As we read the Word we see that God chooses individuals whose name would never appear in any history book, kings and political leaders, and even nations.  We may be able to catch a glimpse of what God is doing in our little corner of the world where so much of what happens is about "me", but we can never catch the panoramic view of what God is about as He moves His plan from where it is now to the place where "Thy kingdom comes, Thy will be done" takes place.

The Unpredictable Life

Walking with Christ is full of the unpredictable.  To read the gospels record which tells us the stories of those who heeded the Words, "Come and see,"   (John 1:39) is to see men who learned to live with holy surprises.  So many of their inhibitions were overcome as they became travelling apostles, so many of their prejudices were challenged as they encountered Samaritans and the sick, and  so many of their religious notions about God were pulled out from under them so they could see a bigger, more loving, and more forgiving God.  If they expected a trip like they were experiencing with John the Baptist as their spiritual guide, they were surely disappointed.  

Life with Christ is always an unpredictable walk.  So many of the things we thought were nailed down as the tried and true things about God often end up being pulled out from under us.  But, perhaps, the most surprising thing for us is the way following Him takes us not into places filled with quiet peace, but into those places where turmoil and darkness come with overcoming power.  Many a soul has wandered off the way set forth by Christ because it did not look like the expected and anticipated spiritual landscape.  

What we often forget is that the promise is for presence on the journey.  Jesus did not fail to remind those who set out after Him that it was a hard way, a way that would tempt folks to find another one that was easier and more predictable.  To follow Jesus as a disciple is to turn lose control and to put the power of control in the hands of Christ.  When we choose to follow, we go not to a determined destination or goal, but wherever whenever.  To embrace such a life with Christ can be nothing but unpredictable.

The Unknowable

Long years ago when I was a student at Candler School of Theology, it was not uncommon to hear a professor speak of us as those who were going out into the world to be the resident theologians in the community.  It all sounded good to green ears.  One of the first things I learned when I reached the parish was that there were a host of folks who knew a great deal about theology.  They just did not talk about it as something learned from a book, or a professor, but from the school of long years of walking the road of faith in Christ.  I realized rather quickly that my education did not put me at the head of the class.  

And even after I have come to the age at which some of those folks had arrived back then, I still sense that I have gotten no closer to knowing enough to merit the title of resident theologian.  Actually, the years have brought me to a place of knowing that there is more to be learned than is going to be learned in this lifetime.  While once it seemed that I knew a lot about God, more recently I have come to the realization that there is more unknowable about Him than knowable.  

Considering the unknowable opens up the realm of holy mystery.  All my life I have heard folks say something like, "You just have to take it on faith,"  and I have come to the conclusion that there is more truth in this viewpoint than ever I wanted to admit.  What I do now fully embrace about my understanding of God is that there is more that is unknowable about Him than what I know as the knowable.  Every day's walk holds the possibility of something new being revealed which helps keep the eyes and ears open to see and hear those things that cannot be seen nor heard. 

Goodbye to Yesterday

Nothing is what it was yesterday.  The tree out the front door may look the same, but miniscule changes are constantly taking place.  The same can be said about every living thing, and surprisingly enough, it can also be said about the non-living things as well.  Wind and water can bring about change to the most resistant parts of creation.  And, so when we look back over the years and see that we are very different from the person we see in the rear view mirror, we are simply reminded that we are not an exception to creation's rule about change.  Of course, no one needs to point out the physical changes which take place on the journey from very young to very old, but what is also apparent are the inner changes which have taken place along the way. 

Nothing about who we are today is like who were yesterday.  Instead of wind and rain working to bring about change, our experiences, our formal and informal learning sessions, and the influence of others have a way of working in our life to bring about significant changes in the way we view life and respond to it.  Actually, change is the constant in our living.  It may be miniscule and impossible to see except by those who watch us most closely, but it happens, nonetheless. 

One other force which is working in our life to bring about change is the Holy Spirit.  The Word tells us that He abides within us to shape our inner life so we are made into something new.  The Apostle Paul spoke of this as he wrote, "So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation,; everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new."  (II Corinthians 5:17)  It is not a once and done thing, but something which is constantly taking place within us as we walk with Christ.  We may not be who we are becoming, but we are also not who we were yesterday. 

The Holy Wind

Sometime during the night the wind swept in and over this place and filled it with the sounds of rambunctious noises.  Watching out the window things looked rather peaceful with the pecan tree branches doing a slow dance in the wind, but once outside it was obvious what appeared to be was not exactly what was happening.  The trees in the branch down below the hayfield were filled with such a force of wind that it brought to mind the words in Acts which spoke of "...a sound like the rush of a violent wind..."   (Acts 2:1) 

The imagery of the wind being the Spirit of God has always been one which stirs our imagination, reveals to us something of God's holy work, and inspires "young men to see visions and the old men to dream dreams."  On windy days like this one there is a sense of something new in the air.  It is not just that the oppressive heat has been replaced by breezes that cool, but the hope which is stirring in the air as well.  Hope is life giving.  It rejuvenates a weary body and causes eyes to be cast forward into the future which is opening up out there just beyond the stirring wind. 

The wind in the air is like the Wind of the Spirit.  It comes with baptizing power.  To stand in the wind is to feel its power, it is to feel its newness, and it is to feel its energy.  It is no different with the coming and arriving Spirit.  To walk mindful of His presence is like an immersion that baptizes us and fills us with new life.  It is a marvelous gift that He bestows upon us.  Come,  Holy Spirit, and bless us that we might know what it is to walk in the moving part of the creation that You are sending into and over our lives.

Something New in the Wind

The church has a lot invested in the return of its people.  It is a time for much reflection on the part of those who stand in places of leadership.  The institutional church has a lot to lose if it ends up losing a goodly portion of it once-upon-a-time congregation.  Million dollar buildings stand on the property and the bank still wants its monthly payment.  There is also the matter of salaries, staffing, and building maintenance.  All of this plus other expenses necessary to keep the church afloat start adding up in a hurry.  Projections and plans made years ago may be creating disaster in some places.

The question for leadership has to do with its reason for the return of its people.  It is easy to talk one thing while sweating about another.  Is the church inviting and encouraging its people to return to feed the institutional needs of the church, or are there other reasons which are more in keeping with the spirit which birthed the church?  If the primary reason has to do with the survival of the institutional church and the preservation of what used to be, the church is in a greater dilemma than the one caused by a virus. 

Four reasons for inviting the return of the people stand out above the others.  Inviting people to experience worship once again with a community of the faithful is one.  Fellowship is another.  Creating a place for the community to offer its prayers and Word centered preaching is one more.  Are these the reasons for all the church's effort to re-invent itself, or is it really concerned about some lesser thing?  In the beginning it was all about,"...the Apostle's teaching and fellowship,...the breaking of bread and the prayers."  (Acts 2:42)   Being sure the same motives are driving the church forward is an imperative if the something new in the Wind is to be embraced.

The Coming One

The liturgical calendar of the church has one season that is all about waiting. expectation, and hoping.  It is, of course, the season of Advent.  Beginning four Sundays before Christmas, it is a season that lends itself to preparing for the celebration of the Christ-event in Bethlehem.  While the secular culture rushes through December, a faithful observance of this particular season creates an atmosphere filled with anticipating what is to come.  Around here on the farm, nothing is really guided by the liturgical calendar of the church, but there are numerous seasons filled with anticipation, nonetheless.

I thought of this today as I noticed that the pecans are starting to fall to the ground.  This early they are green and hardly fit to eat, but they are falling.  Their falling heightens the anticipation of the time of harvest when the ground is covered with brown pecans ready for market.  There are numerous seasons filled with waiting, expectation, and hope here on the farm.  It happens as the hay becomes ready for the baling.  It happens as the garden begins to produce summer vegetables.  It happens as dark clouds are watched during a dry spell. 

And, there are also seasons of expectation in our spiritual life.  Unlike the season of expectation on the church calendar and like the seasons of expectations on the farm, they come often in our spiritual life.  It is never just a one time a year experience.  In the book of Psalms David wrote, "As a deer longs flowing streams, so my longs for You, O God.  My soul thirst for God, for the living God."  (Psalm 42:1)  Numerous are the times when we find ourselves longing for that intimacy with our Father God.  Many are the times when we find ourselves in a season of waiting for a Word from Him, or some expression of His care and presence.  There is within us a spirit that cannot be satisfied until there is a sense of connection with the One who brought us into being and whenever we wonder away, we find ourselves looking and hoping with expectation that He will surely be seen again as the Coming One.

A New Place

After four years of not preaching on a Sunday to Sunday basis, I sometimes find myself wondering about that fellow I used to know.  As the Sundays have been adding up, it has become harder to see myself in the pulpit again.  What causes the recurring question is not a loss of a sense of calling, but the changes which have occurred within through these years.  When the center of spiritual life and understanding loses its center which was the church and the cathedral known as creation takes its place, change is running rampant and new ways of thinking are taking hold.  

With this new center of spiritual life, it is not hard to see myself preaching.  It is not the act of preaching which is difficult to see, but the way the message being preached would surely have a different sound, a different context, and a different language.  Had I heard ten years ago what has taken root in my spiritual life in these retirement days, I am not sure I would have listened and even now I find myself wondering if anyone else would be a listener. 

My spiritual journey has come to be more about being than doing which has not always been the case.  It seems I have always been a seeker of a better way.  In a sense my spiritual motto has been "In spiritual disciplines do I trust."  And while spiritual disciplines are still important and are practiced, the practice of being still and paying attention to anything and everything around me has changed the daily part of this spiritual journey I have been walking for so very long.  Honestly, I am surprised that such a place has unfolded before me on my journey, but I know, too, that I have been greatly blessed by where the Guiding One has brought me.

 

Walking in Darkness

Darkness found me up the road at a neighbor's house who lives a little less than a half a mile away from the house.  Getting home meant walking down the two rut dirt lane as it meandered through the woods, across the branch, and up the hill to the house.  It was far past the time the chickens go to roost which meant is was past twilight and pitch dark.  As I started my walk I turned on the flashlight to light up the way through the darkness.  After a few minutes of walking, I turned off the light to see the darkness.  And it was darkness.  Nothing could be seen, but had I stood there for a short spell my eyes would have adapted to the darkness and some thing unseen would become seen things.

 

It is always that way when we walk in the darkness which sometimes becomes a part of our life.  Of course, the darkness we fear is not the one empty of light but the one empty of hope, or joy, or purpose.  It is the one where the way forward seems impossible to see. But, what we have learned through our walks through the different types of darkness which have overcome is the reality that eventually things unseen become things that are seen.  Even in the darkest of our dark walks we have come to the place where we have been enabled to see others walking with us.  Or, maybe we have been able to see an act of kindness, or an expression of concern, or the power of another's prayer. 

 

There are things to be seen in the darkness which comes into our lives.  Surely, one of those things is the One who said of Himself, "I am the light of the world.  Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."  (John 8:12)  It may be for us at first that even this divine and eternal light is impossible to see, but as we look into the darkness around us, we will see shadows of that holy presence as surely as we see the morning shadows of light before the sun breaks the morning horizon. 

Beyond and Here

Beyond here
The Invisible,
The Not Yet Seen
Lingers and waits.
Hidden there
As bright fire
beneath the edge.
From glory,
now present
in  earth's
dark manger.

Out there,
In here,
Still beyond
All around.
Not yet,
Ever present.
Blinded eyes,
deaf ears,
See and hear
the Unknowable
Unknown by most.

The Storefront Window

When I was growing up long years ago in a place like Waycross, Georgia, there were no shopping malls.  Instead, all the stores were located downtown on Main Street.  Clothing stores, drug stores, hardware stores, and the five and dime stores were all lined up.  Though different they were all alike in that each had a storefront window on the sidewalk.  The storefront window told those who passed by what was inside, it served as a silent and visible invitation to enter, and it let folks know what to expect if they chose to come through the doors.

 

It has always seemed that worship on Sunday morning was the storefront window of the church.  To make such a characterization is to declare the importance of that particular moment in the ministry of the church.  When people show up for worship, they have an opportunity to experience something of what is being offered.  And while it is a moment of worshiping God, it also becomes a silent and visible invitation to return.  It is also a time when the most people are gathered for one participatory and shared purpose which communicates a word to those who pass by that cannot be communicated in a welcome brochure.      

But, more than anything else, it is that moment when a gathered group senses its connection to God and seeks to respond to Him.  There is perhaps no simpler definition of worship than an act which speaks of our response to what God has done and such is what should be visibly expressed in the storefront window of the church.  When the gathered worship experience is lost, something vital and life giving disappears.  It may be the one thing without which the church cannot survive. 

Chewing Your Cud

Throughout my life it has always seemed that the contemplative lifestyle belonged to the ones who lived within the walls of monastery, or perhaps, to the mystics who manage to see things invisible to the rest of us.  I always lived with something more to do and was in a hurry to get it done so I could get on to whatever was next.  When retirement came some ten years ago, it brought me to a moment which invited me to a different approach to living.  And while I would not label myself a contemplative, it is a lifestyle that certainly has its beckoning call.

The cows that share the farm and graze in the pasture have been my primary source of hearing this call to consider the contemplative life.  All day the cow do what cows are created to do.  They do cow stuff.  They eat grass, drink water, and over the long haul, they make calves.  Along the way as they graze they tear the grass with their tongue, swallow it with little chewing, and then later they lay down, regurgitate what has been eaten, and chew on it until it is ready for the digesting that provides nurture.  They are quite a sight as they all sit there chewing their cud which is cow language for what they do. 

While there are many ways to describe the contemplative lifestyle, surely it involves chewing your cud.   We move through the day receiving all sorts of inspiration from the Holy One and encounter His presence in the ordinary things around us.  We listen to both the sacred Word and the Word being sounded through the silent voice of the creation.  At some point what is taken into the inner part of our being is brought back to the front part of our mind and heart that we might live with it, or chew on it for a spell before it is digested within our spirit in a way that provides nurture for our spiritual life.  It may be a bit too simple for some, but it works for the cows and it seems to work well for those who are willing to sit a spell and just chew their cud. 
 

Holy Communion

Bronze balls of juice,
now mostly gone.
Left still a few
and many memories
    of tasting,
    chewing,
    spitting,
    seeds flying,
    and the talking
with others gathered
by the fiery vine
    burning brightly,
    but not burned,
stretched out now,
hanging silently
there in the Son.

A Surprising Blessing

Today I received an unusual and surprising blessing.  I was looking at one of those family tree books about my family and saw a school picture from 1908.   The children were all lined up and a closer look revealed my grandmother on my mother's side of the family about two years before she married.  And at the other end of the row was a picture of my grandmother on my father's side when she was a young woman not yet married.  They obviously knew each other in the country schoolroom and neither could have imagined that her last child would marry the other's last child.  And, certainly they could not see me over a hundred years later being amazed at their picture.

 

We are all connected to others.  While it is true that for some the connection is hard to find because of the circumstances of life, it is also true that none of us got here alone and none us were created to live alone.  As Norman Wirzba wrote in "Food and Faith," we only have to look at the scar we all wear on our stomach.  We are an other oriented creature within this holy creation.  Not only are we related to some by blood and DNA, but we also bear the essence of the Creator deep within our inner being.

Some refer to this place of divine connection as the spirit and others speak of it as the soul.  Whatever words we choose to use, the reality is the same.  The very beginning of the Word reminds us we all, everyone of us, bear the image of the Creator God.  In John's gospel it is written about Jesus, "All things came into being through Him, and without Him not one thing came into being."  (John 1:3)   It is a Word inclusive enough to include everyone one of us.    As surely as we bear the resemblance of those who have birthed us, so is there something within us which speaks of the essence of the God who created us. 

Sin in the Room

When the gospel writer John tells a story, he does so with deliberation and detail.  The other writers tell their stories quickly and with such fewer words.  But, when the Apostle John sets out to tell a story, he spares no words and no details.  Big chunks of space gets eaten up with his story telling.  Examples are the Nicodemus narrative, the account of the Samaritan woman at the well, the story of the raising of Lazarus from the dead, and in the 5th chapter, the lengthy rendering of the healing of the man born blind. 

 

Actually, it a story with many subtitles.  One might be the man born blind, another could be a healing on the Sabbath, and still another would be a reluctant but bold witness.  Preachers have a lush field for preaching when this story comes to the pulpit.  A recent reading of Richard Rohr's book entitled  "Everything Belongs" contains a section about this story.  As he reflects on the way the keepers of the Sabbath pointed their fingers at Jesus and then the man who was healed of blindness, he makes a simple but profound comment, "They see sin everywhere but in themselves."

 

Rohr was exactly right as he wrote about the keepers of the Sabbath.  And, those first century sinners were not the last ones to point their finger away from their own hearts.  We do this very well.  There is something about us which is quick to point toward others and hammer home the label "sinner" even as we fail to see the first sinner who needs to be labeled in the mirror.  The truth is there is more than enough sin in the room and each one is responsible for a share of it.  Jesus spoke clearly enough about the problem as He asked the question, "Why do you see the speck in your neighbor's eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye?"  (Matthew 7:3)  A bit of exaggeration drives the point home.  As is always with the case of Jesus, it would do us well to heed His words. 

Being There

Back in the days framed by my childhood are memories of road trips from Waycross to Savannah or Brunswick where aunts and uncles and cousins lived.  And while I knew how many miles had to be traveled and how long it took, I remember, too, that the favorite question of me and my sister was, "How much longer is it going to be?"  It must be a question of the ages since our children were prone to ask the same question not once, but many times during any road trip to any destination.

 

This question of the ages is still often asked by so many of us who have outgrown the back seat and now sit behind the steering wheel.  We also want to know how long before we get where we are going.  Of course, as we get older, it is not just about destination anymore, but about reaching certain goals in our life, or seeing our plans come to fruition, or getting somewhere which seemed more attractive or better than the place we are at the present moment. 

 

When we live thinking only of the arrival, we miss out on the biggest part of the journey.  The journey itself is sacrificed by always looking forward to the end.  I was reminded of this the other day as I ventured out in the morning air and it felt like a hint of fall was in the air and I wondered how much longer it would be before the heat of summer was history.  It seems like every journey, no matter how ordinary, gets tainted by the ageless question first spoken in our childhood.  The truth is that the most important part of any journey, any transition to another moment, is the simple two letter word, "be."  God has put us here to be in the place and time He has put us.  Being there being as attentive to the present moment as possible is really the most important thing.   

The Dry Seasons

The pecan trees on the farm have seen a lot of years come and go.  Some are likely a hundred or more years old.  I first laid eyes on them fifty years ago and they were huge back then.  If the older ones which stand round the old farmhouse could tell stories, there would be some great ones to hear.  This year seems to be a year for a bumper crop of pecans.  The trees are loaded with a crop of pecans.  And in addition to the nuts, there is heavy green foliage on the trees which makes for a large crop of broken limbs on the ground to clean up.

 

After several years of dry weather and poor production, it is good to see the trees doing what they were put in the ground to do.  Whether the market is strong or weak, and it will likely be weak with so many pecans, it is simply good to see these trees living according to their created purpose.  Looking back over the years of my own life is to know that there have been those times when the purpose for which God put me here has suffered because of the dry seasons in my spiritual life.  The thing about the dry seasons of the soul is that they are not climate related, but determined by some degree of willfulness in our own spirit.  

Most of us will confess to recurring dry seasons in our spiritual journey.  Even as the earth needs the nourishing power of the waters from the heavens, so does our spiritual life need the nourishing power of the Spirit.  When the dry seasons come, it is likely we have put up some dam like obstacle which has hindered the Spirit's work in our life.   What was intended to flow naturally from the heart of God is hindered by our desire to do things our way instead of allowing His way to prevail in our spirit.  God does not send the dry seasons of the soul so much as we create the spiritual climate that produces them. 

Life Unfolds

While I am not a big movie fan, there are a few that stand out as memorable and an even a fewer number that have unforgettable lines.  One of those unforgettable lines comes from Tom Hank's character in "Castaway."  Often have been the times when I have repeated the remembered words, "Who knows what the tide will bring?"  It was a word which kept the castaway going to the next day and so has it served me as well.  It is a word of hope for those overwhelming and impossible to handle days. 

 

It also brings to mind something from Celtic spirituality.  One of the images created within its teachings is the idea that life is constantly unfolding before us.  Instead of aggressively seeking what is to come, or instead of forcing our plans on the future, Celtic spirituality calls us to live with trust in the One who is bringing life to us.  The image of life as something which is unfolding before us has  become a powerful image that enables life to be lived with both hope and confidence. 

 

Of course, the image of life unfolding is not so different from our more traditional and orthodox belief that God leads us into the future of our life.  This more traditional image also involves trusting in God to carry us forward into the future even as does the word about life unfolding.  If we live with the assurance that life unfolds before us, we are enabled to live with expectancy and hope.  It is also a word that calls us to live with a patience that trusts God to be the provider and sustainer the Word declares Him to be. 

The Faithfulness of God

When I went to Asbury College long days ago as a very young man, I was introduced to a lot of Christian music which did not make it to the Methodist Hymnal.  So many of those songs which became a part of my life during those years have stayed with me during the course of my life.  One of those songs was written by Thomas O. Chisholm from Franklin, Kentucky and carries with it the refrain, "Great is Thy faithfulness.  Morning by morning new mercies I see.  All I have needed Thy hands have provided, great is Thy faithfulness, Lord unto me."   

 

As I was walking through the evening as it was drawing near, this refrain came from somewhere within and soon I was humming and whistling and then singing the words as I moved toward the house.  A little research revealed an interesting tidbit of information about the hymn.  When Chisholm wrote it, he wanted to express the reality that God's faithfulness was not just experienced in the extraordinary life changing moments of life, but in the every day circumstances that make up its ordinariness. 

 

Such is indeed true about the faithfulness of God.  It comes every day as surely as the sun rises in the morning and with the same certainty as the air that we breathe.  God's faithfulness is unquestionable and ever present.  While it is true that we sometimes become so pre-occupied with the difficulties of life that we wonder about the faithfulness of God, it is still poured out from the heart of God into our lives.  Every day and in every circumstance God is faithful.  Nothing changes this gift with which He gifts us every day.  All that is left for us to do is to pay attention to it coming and respond with the deepest gratitude. 

The Inexhaustibe God

The realization came like lightning in the sky as I walked and watched the afternoon fade into evening.  It was a panoramic show of color, clouds, and shadows.  Watching brought the word inexhaustible to mind.  There has never been an evening filled with colors and clouds and sky like the one I stood beneath on this day.  How many times since the beginning of creation has the sky been filled with such a display and never a repeat performance.  Amazing!  What was on display today has never been seen and will never be seen again. 

 

In that moment of walking and watching, the creation spoke a word about its inexhaustibility.  The word came in a moment when I was pondering my word weariness.  To write something each day often brings me to a point of not being able to create a new word, or even say an old word in a different way.  Word weary.  There is nothing inexhaustible about my putting words together to create pictures and images. 

 

In moments of being reminded of my finite and limited abilities, I am grateful for the inexhaustible nature of both the creation and the Creator.  Even as the Creator is inexhaustible, so is the creation He has put it in place to reveal Himself to us.  Remember that Word of the prophet Isaiah, "Have you not known? Have you not heard?  The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.  He does not faint or grow weary; His understanding is unsearchable."  (Isaiah 40:28)  Both the creation and the Word of God speak ever so clearly about the inexhaustible nature of God.  When the Word of God and the creation reveal the same Word about the Holy One, it seems like it is a moment of putting clapping hands together in praise to God.

The Great Opportunity

These months of church doors being shut are likely to have a profound and long lasting effect on what we have come to define as church.  It is doubtful that absence has made the heart grow fonder.  If anything, absence has made the heart more fearful.  Those entrusted with leadership in the church surely struggle with the tension created by the needs of the institutional structure of the church and the spiritual needs of the people who populate its membership rolls.   And, of course, both these concerns are complicated by health and safety issues.   There is little wiggle room.

 

It would seem that the important questions for the leadership of the church are the questions of those who are uncertain about returning.  Those who are struggling to re-enter the life of the church are not really concerned about what is necessary for the survival of the institutional church.  Getting things back to the way they were may be the goal of leadership, but it is hardly the goal of a membership accustomed to living without the weekly influence of Sunday ministries.  What seems to be lacking in many strategies for re-opening is the kind of eyes which bring into view a church not dependent on things like finances, staffing, and buildings. 

 

The great opportunity being presented to the church is the opportunity to care for spiritual needs with fresh eyes.  Within this great opportunity is also the greatest danger.  If leadership can only work to return the church to its former status quo, it will simply be re-instating the things which domesticate spiritual life into a form of decent moral behavior and lock away once again the life changing power of the cross.   But, for those who have the courage, the faith, and the vision to forsake what was for what might be if the Spirit is given freedom to lead may indeed be one of the breed of church leaders who takes the church into a new land. 

Be Remembered

Before my father died just before my seventh Christmas, an encyclopedia salesman showed up at our door and before he left the family had three different sets of books.  One was a general subject set, another based on geography, and the third dealt with science.  They were books I devoured.  When I think of my life long interest in learning, I know I am indebted to him.  Five years after his death my mother re-married a man who brought music into our home.  Albums of the great hymns of the church and the classical sounds of great composers filled our home.  And, so I am indebted to still another man for putting appreciation for music in my life. 

It is always interesting to remember how we remember those who have significantly touched our lives.  So often the things remembered would be surprising to the one who lived among us and blessed us by their gift of influence.  Most of us will not be remembered for great things which will be recorded in books, but by the things which are done naturally and without any real expectation of any kind of visible reward. 

What ends up making the most difference is the way we live our lives.  What ends up making a difference is the way we plant seeds in the world and in the lives of those we love.  Most of the time we never even know what we have done, or what we are doing, will result in changing the life of another.  Maybe living so that others around us are pointed forward is what the Word means when it says, "Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people, but as wise, making the most of the time..."
(Ephesians 5:15-16).

Unwanted Suprises

In any given day not everything goes as planned.  The old poet who wrote about the "best laid plans..." must have been acquainted with a few of those days.  Some days the surprises start when the feet hit the floor.  Other days we end up getting broadsided by some unexpected and unwanted happening.  The truth is that every day contains more than one surprise and some of them may be so far from our plan, it makes the day look like a disaster.

 

The Apostle James surely had experienced this truth as well for he wrote in his epistle to the early church, "Come now, you who say,  'Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there, doing business and making money.'  Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will bring.  What is your life?...Indeed you ought to say, 'If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that."  (James 4:13-15)   Certainly this is not a Word from God which forbids making plans, but a Word which reminds us that there are times when the plans of God for us will take precedence.

 

What we seldom call the plan of God for our life are our interrupted plans.  We talk well about how we believe our life is in the hands of God until suddenly it seems to be taken out of our hands.  At that point we begin to question the wisdom of God instead of offering thanksgiving for the way the unwanted happening, or interruption may speak more of His care for us than we normally take time to consider.  We can only wonder what disasters have been lurking out there ahead of us which have been averted simply because God threw something in our path to slow us down, speed us up, or send us another way. 

Two Shoes

The creation that is out there and all around us never shows any sign of getting in a hurry.  It simply moves purposefully forward into the unfolding future, but always in its own time and according to it own schedule.  The pecans which set as tiny pods in the trees during the early Spring will come to a season of maturity and harvest, but only when the appointed time has passed.  The cows in the pasture walking around and getting heavy with calves will drop a new crop on the ground but only after the appointed days and months have  been counted.  What happens,  happens slowly.  Everywhere it is the same.  

Of course, there is one exception  Folks like us live in a hurry.  We seem to have no understanding that things are to happen in due time instead of our time.  We can learn much about how to live by watching the creation and we can learn something about the right pace for living as seek to live in sync with the created order put out there before us by our common Creator.  A ninth century theologian known as John Scotus Eriugena "taught Christ moves among us in two shoes, as it were, one shoe being that of creation, the other that of the Scriptures, and stressed the need to be as alert to Christ moving among us in creation as we are to the voice of Christ in the Scripture."  ("Listening to the Heartbeat of God" by J. Philip Newell)

 

It sounds like a heresy to speak of the creation being an expression of God's presence and Word in the world in a way which would equate it with the Scripture.  And while learning to pay attention to the manifestations of God in the creation can be a life changing journey, it is not an excuse or a reason to lay down the Word.  Celtic spirituality invites us to read from the book constantly being written all around us in the creation as well as the written book inspired by the Spirit that we have been gifted to hold in our hands and our heart. 

Standing In Glory

Beaten down by the scorching sun of the day and worn out from the work, the moment of evening chores found me dragging my feet toward the house for the final time when I raised my head from the ground in front of my feet and saw a glimpse of glory rising out of the foliage of the tall pecan trees on the eastern side of the farm.  The calendar says the full harvest moon is not full until tomorrow night, but how it could be any more compelling than it is the night before is mystifying. 

 

Every now and again those who lift their eyes catch a glimpse of God's glory peeking out of the creation.  It was a moment so full of magnificent splendor that it demanded telling another so that it might not just be a moment of solitude but a moment of sharing.  The truth is there is more glory in the creation daily than we might ever dare to think possible to see.  The glimpses we catch of it simply point us toward what is obvious to the ones paying attention and to those sights which remind us there is even more to see of the God of creation than just a big orange moon coming up over the evening horizon. 

 

God is truly One full of glory.  Everything and everyone He has created has within the potential to reflect the glory of the Holy One.  Everything and everyone includes you and me.  As unlikely as it might seem when the glory of God is allowed to fill our hearts and spirits, there exists the possibility that the inner presence within us might be reflected in our face, in the work of our hands, and in the words of our mouth.  In Exodus 34:29 the Word of God says of Moses as he came down from Mount Sinai with the tablets, ""Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God."  Ah, that such glory might shine forth from our spirit because we have stood in the presence of the glory of the Almighty.