The Obscure Years II

Jesus, who was conceived in Nazareth by the Holy Spirit, had impact on those around Him even before He became visible to the human eye.  When Mary made the visit to Elizabeth to see if she indeed was pregnant, the Word says, "When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the child leaped in her womb."  (Luke 1:41)  The child was Elizabeth's unborn child who was to be called John and would become known as John the Baptist.  In a moment of unbelievable mystery an unborn child responds to the presence of the Holy One who was still without any form in the womb of Mary.  

And then an even greater mystery unfolds as we contemplate the story of the angel coming to Mary and Joseph telling them that the child about to be born would not be a child of human passion, but a child of the Holy Spirit.  The child would be holy and would be known as Son of God.  When the moment of birth came, these two young parents no doubt looked at their newborn son to see if they could see the extraordinary in Him, but alas, He only seemed as ordinary as any child.    When they began to live out their lives in Nazareth with this son sent from God, they surely must have felt such a tremendous responsibility for this boy who seemed very much like any boy.  

The presence of this holy child in the womb of Mary and then around the hearth of their home impacted their lives in ways none of us can imagine.  After the visit of the angel, they were never the same.  And, surely, this was even more true after they returned to Nazareth from Bethlehem and began to teach their son the ways of growing up.  From conception to birth and beyond, this holy One sent from God had life changing power there in the village of Nazareth.  

The Obscure Years

Most of what we know about Jesus centers on the last three years of His life.  The biggest part of the story begins with His baptism and ends with the cross and the empty tomb.  The other part which is documented in the gospels is His birth, a trip to the Temple when He was twelve years old, and the fact that He grew up in Nazareth.  In between age twelve and age thirty, nothing is really known.  What is often spoken of as fact about those years is really conjecture based on likelihood.  Nazareth speaks of the obscure years of Jesus.     

The first time we see a record of Jesus being in Nazareth is shortly after the visit of Gabriel to His mother and His miraculous conception.  Historical records tell us that Nazareth was not much of a town.  No more than 400 people called it home.  Its most famous visitor was Gabriel, the angel of the Lord, and then Jesus, the Son of God.  After Mary receives the Word of Gabriel she goes to a nearby town to see her kinswoman, Elizabeth, whom she has been told is pregnant also.  The trip had a practical purpose.  It provided external validation of what Gabriel has said to her to be true.  If Elizabeth who was very old was pregnant as Gabriel had said, then all the rest he said could be true as well.   

It is on this visit to Elizabeth that we see the first evidence that the Son of God has become flesh to dwell among us.  The gospel writer Luke speaks of that moment midway through the first chapter, "In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.  When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the child leaped in her womb.  And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and exclaimed with a loud voice, 'Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb.' "  (Luke 1:39-42)  This is Luke's announcement that Jesus had come.  The obscure years had begun.  

Make Hay

I grew up hearing it said, "Make hay while the sun shines."  I suppose I had some idea of what I was being told, but only after I got to the farm and started growing hay did I really understand.  Everyone around here who has hay to harvest has been busy this week.  For the past month it has rained nearly every day.  A few days of dry weather sent everyone with hay to cut into the field. There are many moments when those who grow stuff on farms are reminded of the creation and these days have been such a time.   

For those who do not know, when the green hay is cut it lays in the field for a day or two so the sun can dry it out.  Baling wet green hay makes for spontaneous combustion which is not a good thing.  The sun and the heat does the work of drying out the green grass before the baler is taken into the field.  And the other side of the process is that when hay is cut and the rain comes before baling, the quality of the hay is diminished and moldy hay can become the end result which is not a good thing for the farmer or the cows.    

Yesterday we finished baling the hay fields and now 37 bales stand ready for winter feeding.  The small herd of cows which share the farm will be as grateful as cows can be.  And, if the cows are not capable of gratitude, this novice to the farming community is more than grateful.  Seeing the hay fields bare except for the bales waiting for winter is a reminder of the blessing of a partnership with the Creator.  It is His dirt which nurtures the grass.  It is His seasons which create conditions for harvest.  It is His rain which feeds it with needed water.  It is His sunshine which drys it and makes it ready.  And it is His grace to sustain His human partners with strength for the tasks that are a part of being a responsible partner.  Today I am grateful for the hay.   Today I am more grateful for the life giving power of the Creator.  

Every Moment

Every day is special.  Every day is unique.  Every day is something which has never before been a part of our lives.  It is also true that every day is a day in which God reveals Himself to us.  It is a day in which He will speak to those who have ears to hear and a spirit that is open to holy expectations.  In the gospel we hear Jesus promising to always be with us.  It is a promise which is not good for some days, but all days.  Yet, we often go around as if He must be sought, or is only going to be present with us in the set aside moments of our day.   

Again, every day is a day in which He reveals Himself to us and in which His voice can be heard.  And to carry the truth a little farther is to realize that it is not just every day, but any moment within any day that has within it the possibility of such holy presence and revelation.  Too many of us live with such low expectations when it comes to experiencing the holy.  The holy is not just experienced on Sunday in worship, or in the moments we set aside for daily devotions, or when we are involved in some spiritual act of devotion or service.       

Imagine for a moment how different our lives would be if we actually were not surprised when God suddenly showed up in the midst of our circumstances.  Imagine for a moment a day in which we hear ourselves conversing with the Holy One who is present with us even as we might converse with the person who is physically present with us throughout most of the day.  Is it possible for us to accept by faith the promise of the One who promised always to be with us and then to give that faith life by actually living as one who abides in an intimate relationship with the Holy One who first breathed life int us?     

Shimmering Moments

I remember the first time I came across a reference to shimmering moments in our daily life.  What the author was writing about was the fact that if we are paying attention to all the things and everyone around us, we will see things, or people which grab our attention.   A shimmering moment can happen as we take a walk down a familiar path and suddenly see what we have seen a thousand times, but never really noticed.  Or, it may happen as we are reading the Scripture and find ourselves captivated by a few words, or maybe even a single word.     

The world is shimmering all around us, but we so often fail to see.  Like the rain droplets which stand out on leaves or the hood of our car, so are there things which show up fresh and new and never before seen.  Some folks might walk out of the house and mutter something about the fact that it has been raining and others see  the mysterious way things are made clean and shimmer in the bright sunlight.    

God has created a marvelous world all around us.  He has put us in the  presence of some ordinary people who bring along with them extraordinary experiences and insights.  When we really pay attention to all that He has put out there on the path He has called us to walk, we are likely to see those things which shimmer.  And when we do, we can know that it is His gift to us.  All may seem ordinary around us, but there is nothing ordinary about the moments God has laid out for us.  They are all extraordinary.  Some of them are shimmering, calling for our attention, and point to the presence and revelation of the Almighty Creator.  

Going Home

One of my favorite moments in the movie, "Shawshank Redemption," comes as the old con meets with his parole board and tells them what he would tell the younger version of himself.  Those of us who have ben  blessed with a longer life than some could give an ear full to the younger version of ourselves if such a thing were possible.  Of course, life is not about do-overs, it is not about looking over our shoulders, or trying to see if we missed something in the rear view mirror.   

Life is about going forward.  It is that way since the moment of conception.  At that single moment everything starts changing and everything starts moving toward the end.  This is not a pessimistic or fatalistic view of our life.  It simply speaks to how it is as we walk the road from our beginning to what some might declare to be our end.  The truth is we do not walk toward our end.  We walk toward what God has planned for us which means that at some point on the journey it is His intention for us to join Him in a way that we cannot be joined with Him while we are in this physical life.  

The clearest Word we have about this reality comes from the Words of Jesus as He said to His disciples, "In my Father's house are many dwelling places.  If it were not so, would I have told  you that I go to prepare a place for you?"  (John 14:2)  I cannot begin to count the number of times I have read these words of truth and assurance to those who mourned at graveyards.  The graveyard never has the last word.  It did not on that Sabbath morning after the crucifixion of Jesus and that great victory still has and always will have prevailing power.  One day we are going Home.  

Shore Pondering

The shore is not a place for being in a hurry.  It is instead a place for sitting, watching, and looking.  Of course, such are the things of an old man and not the young boy who used to run up and down the beach and dive without caution into the roaring surf.  The old man can hardly remember the young boy and the young boy could never have envisioned the old man; yet, both are a part of the same creation.  Life is constantly changing.  It is a steady movement from one state to another, or from one season to another.    

When we move through the pages of the Scripture, we see an unfolding story of God declaring the younger version of the old man and the older version of the young boy as being of value in the plan of the Kingdom.  Abraham and Sarah who were mostly wrinkles and worn out were called to give birth to a nation which would be known as God's people.   And David who was a shepherd boy was called to be a giant killer and a builder of a great nation.  

The list is endless of the old and the young who were instrumental in moving forward the plan of God.  All of this reminds us to look at one another as people who bear the essence of God instead of to look as our throwaway culture might cause us to look at one another.  Whether we are close to the beginning of life on this earth or nearing the end of it, God still looks at us and sees us as creations of His who are of great value.  As He looks at us, may we look at one another.  And as He finds worth and value in us, may we do so with one another.  

Lightning Bugs

There is about a half mile of dirt road which stretches from the place called home here on the farm to the paved road.  It is not much of a road, but more like a two rut dirt lane which leaves the openness of the hay fields and enters an area shadowed by the canopies of tall trees which stand tall and strong.  The other evening just after sunset I set out for an evening walk to the paved road and back.  By the time I got back to the place where the branch runs under the road through cement culverts, it was mostly dark and I suddenly found myself surrounded by lightning bugs.     

I had not seen any of these glowing insects in years and suddenly it was like I was a boy again chasing after them with a jar in hand.  Of course, old men do not run through the woods in the dark chasing lightning bugs, so I just remembered the boy I used to know who did it long before he could envision becoming an old man,  The memory brought a good time back into the present for a moment in such a way as to make an old man grateful for the gift of memory.    

Memory is an important part of who we are.  As we read the Word of God, we constantly are hearing God telling the Hebrews to remember how He had delivered them from Egypt.  And an important part of the Jesus story is the part where He commanded the disciples to share a simple meal of bread and wine in remembrance of Him.  We all have our memories of being a child and doing childish things and we also are all blessed with memories of important spiritual moments which have directed the course of our journey toward our eternal home. To remember is to use a gift from our Creator.  To remember is the prelude toward thanksgiving.  To remember helps us to stay grounded on the road we first started walking long years ago.  It helps us get where we are going.   

The Pulpit Bible

The Pulpit Bible is mostly something which belongs to the past.  It is that huge oversize Bible which was often given as a memorial gift to the church.  Its place was on the pulpit where it collected dust on the two pages to which it was opened when it was first put in its place.  No one ever turned a page, no one ever read from it, no one paid it any attention.  Of course, if any preacher came along and dared to move it and get it out of the way, it was risky business for the memorial committee would surely quickly pounce.    

All my years of preaching, there was one sitting there on the pulpit.  And while I never picked it up to read it, I was glad to have it as a reminder each Sunday that what was preached needed to have as its basis the written Word of God.  It was such an important symbol that I made room for it.  I carried a much smaller Bible to the pulpit from which to read and often some notes on one thing or another, but nothing that ever displaced the Holy Book from its important place.    

As the years turned into decades I placed I did move it to place it in the acolytes hands so that it could be carried into worship at the very front of the procession.  Including it in the procession was a reminder to the preacher and the congregation that the Word of God should go before us and that we were gathering to hear not just any word, but the Holy Word.  Maybe the Pulpit Bible was never read, but it was and continues to be where it is allowed to be used, a visible symbol which points to the authority for preaching as well as a source of guidance for the spiritual life of the church.  

The Pulpit

While some of today's preachers seem to have an aversion to preaching from a pulpit, it always seemed like a centering place for my preaching.  There were times when I wandered away from it, but it was also a place to which I returned.  It seems that part of the contemporary aversion to its use has to do with wanting to create a more personal and intimate moment for preaching.  However, what is often lost is some of the sense of authority that good preaching must have to be faithful preaching.    

Preaching is not about pleasing the people who hear.  Nor is it about an ego trip for the preacher.  Preaching is about speaking the Word of the Lord in the tradition of those prophets of the Old Testament who thundered forth saying, "Thus says the Lord...."   To speak in the prophetic tradition is to speak with authority.  What the preacher often forgets is that the authority comes not from the preacher, but from the sacred Word which should always anchor the sermon.  A strong sturdy pulpit is a reminder to the preacher and to those who hear that the sermon is not like some inspirational speech given at a civic club gathering, but a word which comes from the Lord who has spoken first in the Word and then again in the heart of the preacher.    

As I think back over the many pulpits from which I have preached over a life time of preaching, I am caused to remember the way each one kept me grounded and anchored to the truth of the living Word.  To be anchored to the pulpit does not keep the preacher from moving around as the sermon unfolds, but instead it serves as a reminder that the place from which the sermon is proclaimed is unlike any other speaking platform in our society.  It is a holy place where the Word of the Lord is proclaimed by those who dare to hear it and speak it.  

Prayer and Preaching

When I was a young preacher, I was blessed by being able to listen to some good preachers.  They encouraged and inspired me to be a good preacher, too.  To the degree that the word good is appropriate, I will leave for others to decide.  I just know I was always intent on moving in that direction.  One thing I have come to understand over the years is that good preaching requires praying.  No preacher can expect too much to come from the preaching being done if it is not immersed in prayer.  This does not negate the importance of study and preparation, but is simply to say that there must come a moment when the sermon is laid on the altar with prayers that the Holy Spirit will bless both the work of preparing as well as the work of preaching.     

Another thing which makes for good preaching is praying people in the pews.  One of the churches I served on the Stapleton Charge, my first appointment, was Zoar.  Mrs. Zeevie and Mrs. Estelle were members of that church.  I learned early on that they prayed for me.  They did not just call my name on Sunday, but were throughout the week asking for the blessings of God to fall upon their preacher.  When I think of praying churches, I see these two spirit filled women on the front row.   

And, finally, good preaching comes out of the awareness that the Holy Spirit Himself is interceding for the preaching and working to bring about good through the preaching.  Good preaching comes through the acknowledgement that it is a partnership held together through the praying that goes on through the church.  The Spirit knows what needs are sitting out in the pews far better than the preacher, or any lay person, and He is One who will bring the unleashed power of God into an intersection created by the human need.  When the Spirit blesses the preaching of the preacher, it is blessed indeed!

Thoughts about Preaching

After not having preached for several years, this morning's preaching experience brought some important things to mind.  One is a good text.  Now some might say that no verse or chapter in the Bible is a bad text for preaching, but there are some which are so powerful it is hard to mess up the process of letting the text speak.  I preached this morning on the text which told the story of Martha and Mary hosting Jesus in their home.  It was a good text.     

Another thing of which I was reminded is the value of an attentive congregation.  People who are paying attention and whose faces responds to what is being preached make for better preaching.  It stirs the soul and spirit of the preacher.  There is always interaction between preacher and congregation.  When the pulpit area gets lit up with stage lights, the preacher loses the ability to make eye contact with those who are listening.  No chance of this where I was preaching this morning to a small congregation of less than ten.   

And finally, I was reminded of the need for the presence of the Spirit in preaching.  If preaching is to serve as a blessing to the church, it will not be because the preacher has a seminary degree, is a great communicator, or knows how to entertain folks.  Instead, it will be because the Holy Spirit chooses to be present to give life and power to the act of preaching as well as the act of hearing the preaching.  

Yawns and Preaching

In a few hours I will be preaching again.  It has been a long time since I have stood in the pulpit to preach a sermon.  The church that gave me the invitation should know there is some risk.  It could possibly be a long sermon since I have not preached a sermon in several years.  I may have forgotten how to stop when I am finished.  Sometimes the two moments are far apart.  And, it could also be that my preaching will suffer from a lot of rust.  When preaching is not practiced Sunday after Sunday, the preacher can be rusty and inappropriately as loud as a old door hinge squeaking as it opens and closes.    

Regardless of all these concerns, I am ready.  Unless the folks get wind of the risk, I will be preaching in a few hours.  When the invitation came, I thought about my sermon barrel.  While no preacher actually has a sermon barrel, it is the mythological place where old sermons are stored.  I dug down though its musty smells and decided there was nothing there fresh enough to preach.  So, I did the unthinkable.  I wrote a new sermon.  It may not be any good since it has been so long since I have written one, but it will at least be fresh bread instead of something so stale it reeks of being stale and out of date.    

The problem with preaching old sermons is that they can often end up being very unexciting.  It is hard for the preacher to get excited about preaching old stuff and if the preacher is short in the excitement department, it is a certain thing that the congregation will find nothing exciting in the sermon being preached.  I still have memories of a sermon preached one Sunday night some fifty years ago.  In the middle of the sermon, I yawned.  I also remember that I recognized the yawn as a sign that it was time to quit which is a requirement for any good sermon.  Here is hoping that neither the preacher, nor the congregation suffers from yawns that are too obvious tomorrow. 

A Saintly Model

While I am not at a point in my life of embracing Roman Catholicism instead of my Methodist heritage, I have recently found myself doing a good bit of reading about St. Francis.  Francis did not live a long life by today's standards and neither was his appearance so striking that people would be caused to take a second look.  However, after all these centuries, people still are pulled under the shadow of his spiritual influence.  He was a radical disciple of Jesus who lived simply. embraced poverty as a way of life,  and who desired for his life to be shaped by the power of the gospel of Christ.    

Toward the end of his life it saddened him to see the monastic order that bore his name to lose its distinctiveness.  Those who came after him sought a less austere life and allowed their lives to be shaped by accumulation in a way that Francis never embraced.  This trouble the church of our day has with the accumulation of more of what can be held in the hands is apparently an old affliction.  Throughout the history of the church it has struggled to embrace the simple life for the one which makes for heftier volumes of rules, bigger offering plates, and buildings that become monuments to the people who gather instead of simple shrines in which to worship.  Affluence in the church is surely a deadly sin.    

We can surely justify the obscene amounts of money we spend on our buildings and our comfort, but at some point in the face of the human need all around us, the justification wears a bit thin.  St. Francis would be appalled at the love affair the church has with wealth.  Jesus was the one who inspired Francis to live as he did and He is after all these centuries still calling us to live a simple life where accumulation never gets in the way of compassion.

Hundred Year Storms

Some years ago, or maybe it was decades ago by now, I remember reading some book about the church which declared that it would be a good thing if a great storm could come every hundred years or so and destroy all the churches.  It sounds rather radical, but the author was offering a solution for churches that have fallen so in love with the status quo that they no longer have any real meaning in the world.  Of course, the great storm would mean starting over with buildings, but would not do too much for the invisible spiritual dimension of the church.    

But, then again, the kind of adversity he prescribed might give birth to a different kind of spirituality than seems to under gird too many churches of our day.  The church set forth in the book of Acts actually was birthed in a hostile climate which is something often overlooked in our reading of the beginning days of the church.  It was not all roses and sunshine.  There were people of power who wanted the Jesus movement to die a quick death and even as it managed to spread across the land, it often faced the kind of opposition which resulted in the death of its leaders.    

The author from the past whose name I have forgotten may have been thinking that the church has it too easy to flourish, or maybe he was suggesting that something pushing against it is necessary for it to grow.  Perhaps, it would be a good thing if the church was pressed into starting over every hundred years or so.  Maybe it needs a time when it is forced into a kind of reflection and renewal it does not want to do.  Maybe some of this is happening even as we behold the once nailed down status quo being pulled loose by forces that are either of culture, or the Spirit.

Dreams and Visions

It would be a wonderful thing if rebuilding the church of today was as simple as putting one stone upon another as was the case centuries ago when a voice came from a crucifix watching over the ruins told St. Francis to rebuild the church.  The average church member or preacher would quickly declare the church is in good order.  Its buildings are not in ruins, but in pristine condition.  There seems to be nothing to rebuild.  What needs rebuilding or restoring is not seen so clearly.    

At its core the church is a spiritual community centered on Jesus.  This is the truth to which we give lip service, but the practical reality is that the core has shifted from one that is spiritual to one that is physical, from one that is invisible to one that is visible, from a mustard seed mentality of ministry to one that applauds bigger, and from the Biblical source of authority to one that speaks to the common sense values of the secular culture.    

It will be difficult to rebuild what too many think needs no rebuilding.  The great danger in any rebuild of the church is that the builders will simply pick up the old stones, clean them up, and set them in place once again which will only result in something of which Jesus spoke when He talked about new wine being put in old wine skins.  Thinking and planning inside the shadows of the past will likely only take us to what is behind us.  Perhaps, it is truly a time for the young men to step forward with their visions and the old men to share their dreams.  (Acts 2:17)         

In Shambles and Ruins

Before St. Francis became a saint and was simply Francis, he set out to become a knight who would do glorious battle.  On the eve of the battle, he heard a voice say, "Return to Assisi, and what you are to do next will be revealed to you."  He went and ended up in the chapel at San Damiano which was in shambles.  As he meditated on the Crucifix which watched over the ruins, he heard a voice saying three times, "Francis, go and repair my house.  You see it is falling down."  ("Chasing Francis"  by Ian Morgan Cron).  Francis on his way to becoming St. Francis rebuilt the church, a few others, and is even credited with re-building or restoring the Roman Catholic Church which was in spiritual shambles.    

As I read through this book a second time, I could not help but think about the way the church which nurtured me toward faith, baptized me, and ordained me lies in shambles.  I wonder if there is anyone like Francis out there who has has heard a call to rebuild it.  There are plenty of people out there with ideas about how to reshape the larger church known now as the United Methodist Church into something better than it is in the present moment.   Regardless of how the ecclesiastical pie is divided, it remains a sad and troubling time for a church filled with the rancor of us and them.    

While it seems inevitable that the church as it is will soon no longer exist, it gives cause to wonder how it could be rebuilt.  Unlike the church which was in ruins around Francis, the one we know in our day as United Methodist will require something more than one skilled in laying stone, but someone skilled through the power of the Holy Spirit to rebuild and restore its soul.  

Reflection

So much changes as the years begin to add up.  There are the obvious things like dark thick hair becoming thin and gray, an awareness that memory is getting longer than projected future, and opening the gate to the pasture fence instead of climbing over it.  But, a not so obvious change is the move from planning to reflection.  In those days which are called the working days, there was too much hurrying for any serious reflection to take place, but now as the pace has slowed, there seems to be much time to reflect on what is past and what is happening in the present moment as well.    

If I could remake myself and do over some of the past, it would include more quiet time, more empty space on the calendar, and less doing and more thinking.  Jesus seems to have figured this one out.  He was not adverse to leaving what most would say simply could not be left and going off somewhere to be where He could hear the Father's voice and the voice of His own spirit.  When we no longer have time to hear the Voice that belongs to our Creator, we wander away from out roots and when we are no longer able to hear the voice within us, we are allowing other voices to direct our way.    

It would probably be a good thing for each one of us to include moments for reflection within each day we are given.  Where is it we hear the voice of God and where is it that we experience His presence?  What ordinary moments were the burning bushes we missed seeing?  And, how is that we listened to our true self in the day which has run its course?   Of course, no one can tell us the questions our living raises for reflection.  But, if we listen with an expectant heart, we will find the ones which will take us to important moments of knowing what exists just beyond the realm of the visible in our life.

Contentment

Like a traveler with his mind on arriving at some destination, so I have journeyed through these years of my life.  There was always something to be seen in the front window as I rushed along my way.  It never occurred to me that I had arrived simply by being on the journey.  I could not be content with where I was because of my obsession with where I was going.  Contentment was something which always seemed to be as illusive as the mother lode which kept the California gold miners panning one more stream.   

Too many of us have never learned the secret shared by the Apostle Paul when he wrote, "...I have learned to be content with whatever I have."  (Philippians 4:11)  The subject of our discontentment is usually other centered.  Our colleague has the better job.  Our friend has more friends.  Other people are happier and live lives that our obviously better.  It is not that we do not have some of what others have in our hands, we just do not seem to have as much, or what we have seems to somehow be an inferior product compared to what others hold.  

Discontentment seems to come from looking at others instead of looking toward God.  It comes from a heart where forced gratitude abides instead of the kind of gratitude which pours forth from a spontaneous fountain.  As the Apostle elaborates on his contentment, he declares it to be a spirit or attitude not based on any external factor, but one which came from a life of knowing with confidence that what is needed will be provided in a way that will strengthen both body and soul.  As the Apostle said, "I can do all things through Him  who strengthens me."  (Philippians 4:14)

The Chase

We spend our lives chasing.  As children we learn the came of tag.  We learned to chase another until someone was tagged and became "It" and then in an instant the one chasing became the one being chased.  This childhood game we carry into our adult years.  We no longer chase one another except as we chase one another up the status ladder, or the getting ahead stairs, but we do chase what so often proves to be illusive.  We chase success, happiness, health, security, and wealth, but no matter how much we manage to catch, it never seems as if it is enough.  For too many of us the chase is a life long chase.    

It may also be said that the real thing we are chasing in life is not something which belongs to the external world, but instead can only be found within us.  The chase is not so much about the physical as it is about the spiritual.  As we chase after what we can hold in our hands, we are really chasing after what we have lost and cannot seem to find.  A paradigm of this can be found in the Garden story found in the early pages of Genesis.  We have lost our connection to God, our Creator, and we are through the different seasons of our life chasing after the true self with which we were created and which belongs to us as a part of our spiritual heritage.    

We end up chasing what cannot be tagged, or caught.  We cannot run fast enough.  We do not know where to go.  When it comes to this chase, we are impotent and helpless.  When we come to the end of our energy for the chase, we are finally able to know that we are not the one doing the chasing, but the Creator is in the chase behind us.  Francis Thompson wrote a marvelous poem ("The Hound of Heaven") which has the lines, "From those strong Feet that followed, followed after; But with unhurrying chase, and unperturbed pace, Deliberate speed, Majestic instancy."   Those of us who are weary of the chase can stop and let ourselves be caught by the One who is only a step behind us. 

The Slower Lane

I checked the calendar yesterday to see when the hens in the chicken yard came to the farm as tiny chicks.  It was March 4.  So, according to my finger calculator, they have been here a few more days than four months.  They have changed from a fluffy critter which could be held in one hand to a full grown chicken capable of eating a lot of chicken feed.  But, the biggest change came yesterday when the first three brown eggs showed up in the chicken house.  It has taken four months of feeding those birds to get the first egg for the frying pan.    

Things do not happen in a hurry around here.  As one who used to live in a hurry, it has taken some time to get used to the reality that the creation is like its Creator.  It is empty of hurry.  God is empty of hurry.  The only thing I know which seems bent on hurry is the two legged creature He brought into existence back in the beginning to look after the things of creation.  Most likely back then the two legged creature was like the rest of the creation and the Creator.  There was no hurry.   

Could it be that our hurried lifestyle speaks to what traditional Biblical folks refer to us as "The Fall?"  Could it be that it speaks of our choosing to live out of sync with everything that has been made as well as the Spirit of the Creator God?  Could it be that our hurrying lifestyle points to the root of sin in our life?  It may be a different way of looking at an old theological concept, but it is also true that we hurry for a reason.  Maybe the primary reason is that we cannot trust God, the Creator, the get things done in His time instead of our own.

Psalm 42:1

Down deep in the earth, 

   where abides the unseen

     the thirsty dry earth

       longs for the waters

         which have always come

from the high places above.

Towering trees send sprawling roots, 

     down, and then down some more, 

       even though hope is not below

         but above in the abode of clouds

            where the water gathers and waits

for the Hand holding it to let it loose.

Deep down in this soul of mine

     where abides the unseen,

       "my soul thirsts for God,   

           for the living God..."

             as doth the deer for flowing streams,

"so my soul longs for You, O God."

God Bless America

Back in December of 1955 not too far from Panama City, Florida there was a mid air collision between two Air Force planes.  Ten men died.  One of them was my father.  It left a seven year old boy with a hole which could never be filled, a book full of questions that had no answers, and a few things that passed from his hands to mine.  One of those things which I came to treasure over the years and still have in my possession is a small pocket size copy of the New Testament and Psalms.  It was given to him during the war which sent a country boy from Ware County, Georgia to Guam and places beyond.    

In the back of that New Testament were the lyrics to patriotic songs.  "My Country 'Tis of Thee" and "America the Beautiful" are a couple of examples.  I do not know if my Father read the words and sang them, but I did.  Many times.  One of the other things I took away from those days was a patriotism that still prevails in my spirit.  Some of those songs still put a lump in my throat when I try singing them.  I am grateful for men like my father and many of yours who served our country and in some cases gave their lives in that service.     

The 4th of July is a day to remember the blessings which are ours.  The blessings we count and often take for granted come to us at great cost.  In a day in which it seems politically correct to demean America, I declare myself one who values life in this place and is thankful beyond measure that I was born in this land.  I love to sing "God Bless America."  I will be singing it today, not just as a song, but also as a prayer for a troubled land.   

Trying to Sing

When I was pushing through those adolescent years, I enjoyed singing.  The only problem was that I was not much of a singer.  When I sang, I wandered around from one octave to another trying to find a singing voice.  Not much has changed in these years of singing.  My love for singing stemmed from being in church Sunday after Sunday.  Maybe church is where everyone, well, not everyone, learns to sing.  And, of course, in my case, the word "try" is more operative than the word "learn."  I reckon my singing is still more about trying.    

While the church has been the training ground for a lot of good singers, it was a place where I was exposed to songs and hymns which just got stuck in my mind and heart to be sung for a life time.  A few days ago as I was reading, I came across a reference to one of those songs which is titled, "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms."   I have sung it hundreds of times, but never knew it was based on Deuteronomy 33:27 which says, "The eternal God is thy refuge; and underneath are the everlasting arms...."  So many of these old songs are based on some scriptural reference, or a life experience in someone's journey of faith which may be why they resonate in the heart after such long stretches of time.  

I often wonder about the music of today's church.  Most of the old hymns that I learned have been replaced by a more modern style of singing which seems based on the religious hit parade of the week.  The songs are sung today and the church moves on to the newer tomorrow.  It seems that there is no time for the years to plant them in the heart.  Somehow this seems to be a loss.  I cannot help but wonder sometimes what the young of today will be singing when they get old and run into those knock-you-off-your-feet moments.  I hope they will have some music lingering in their hearts as does this old guy who spent a lot of time trying to sing in church.

The Unseen

One of Rembrandt's painting known as "The Storm in the Sea of Galilee"  is noteworthy for several reasons.  One is that it was stolen from an art gallery and to this day has not been found.  It is also Rembrandt's only seascape.  And, thirdly, in the boat are fourteen men.  Jesus and the twelve disciples make thirteen, but the fourteenth is Rembrandt who painted himself into the painting.  And, of course, he gave himself a place of prominence as he sits next to Jesus.     

Rembrandt is not the only artist who has painted himself in the picture, nor  the first writer who has written himself into the plot.  And, as we consider such happening, it is surely not a far stretch to begin thinking about the Creator somehow putting Himself into the Creation which He put in place way back in the beginning.  There have always been those who speak of the Creation revealing the presence of God.  There have always been those who speak of hearing the voice of God midst the Creation.  Who is to say that God, the Creator, has not put Himself into the picture of creation for those who have eyes to see and ears to hear?   

It is likely that many who see Rembrandt's painting look, but do not notice the extra man in the boat.  Every day we look at the Creation which surrounds us and see it, but fail to notice the way God is revealing Himself to us through the things which seem so ordinary that they cease being seen.  The Creation is about more than animals, and plants, and rocks, and sunsets, and mountains, and seas.  It is about holy mystery.  Not to see holy mystery simply speaks to our being too busy to pay attention.  

Pondering the Invisible

Out of what could not be seen has come everything that is visible.  "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 creation not only bears the imprint of the holy, but also serves the Creator as a manifestation of His glory and His presence in the world.  Through the creation so much of the invisible is made visible.  Of course, we miss so much of what could be seen because we live without any expectation that the holy is indeed in every common bush.    

A little over twelve years ago, there was nothing here where the house which has become a home stands.  And while I say nothing, such is not true for what God had put on that small piece of land that would be our home was there.  Over the course of six months I watched as men dug a rectangular shaped trench, put in blocks and concrete, and then up from the ground came a wooden frame and roof that would become the place to which we would always return as home.  Back then it seemed that there was nothing to be seen on this hill and now what visibly stands is the center of the life lived on the farm.    

What is now visible was first seen as a dream, then as an architectural sketch, and finally as a visible structure called home.  I have often taken those first words from Genesis and pondered how everything that has come to be first existed in the mind of God.  It was invisible.  And though so much of what was in His mind has become visible to us, it is beyond our ability to imagine how much still remains in the invisible realm waiting on the divine directive which will make it seen as all the creation is seen.  And, perhaps, there are those among who catch glimpses of what is invisible all around us simply because their spirit's eyes have learned to see what most of us are too busy to see.