Thoughts About Readings

Not too long ago I walked into a college library and stood there for a moment in amazement at all the books.  I could not help but think that there were so many books I have never read and will never read.  To some degree I run into those feelings when I look at the shelves which surround me here at the writing desk. I have bought books because I wanted to read them, other books because I thought I should read them, and some books because they just sorta shimmered and cried out, "Buy me!"   

One thing I know is that life will likely not be long enough to read them all.  Maybe those who pack them up will think about me and my books like an old peach farmer from Talbotton was about his peach orchards.  Even though in his mid seventies, he planted new trees every year knowing that some would one day be planted he would not be around to see in production.  But, as he told me, "I want folks to know I was pointed in the right direction."  I hope some of my books that may end up being unread at the end will speak such a word to those left behind.   

And even more so, I hope that my Bible shows enough wear and tear for them to know I was a student of its pages.  I hope some of the underlining and the notes will let them know something of the direction I was walking.  And when they turn to some of the pages and find that they show little evidence of much reading, I hope they will be reminded that there is always something more to read, to hear, and to know about God's Word.  

Prayers for Others

There are times when it seems that a tsunami of souls struggling to survive washes against the front door of your heart.  Midst all the sunshine, the warm breezes, and the illusion that Spring is near the phone rings with news of friends dying, of another hearing a frightening diagnosis which is upending life, and of another who continues to fight the daily battles of giving care to a family member who hangs on near the end of life.  There is so much which has come this way that praying becomes an exercise in remembering all the ones for whom prayers have been promised.   

Having been one who knows what it is to hang on to a thread of hope because others are praying the prayers impossible to pray, I know it is important to stand in the gap for those who are in such a place today.  None of us should feel that there is something missing in our faith in God when we cannot find the words to pray.  Sometimes the storm is so dark, we cannot even see enough ahead to call out the name of God.  Most all of us have been there.  In such moments the community does our praying and we are somehow lifted up because of it.    

As one who has been lifted up time and time again by the prayers of others, I can do naught else but pray for those who are now overcome by the uncertainty which stretches before them.  It is no trivial matter to tell someone we will pray for them.  If we say we will do so, it becomes a sacred and binding responsiblity on our life.  Being careless is letting down those who are counting on us.  The one thing which might be the difference in a sufferer being able to make it tomorrow is our praying.  We must not let them down.

Sunday's Word

On more than one occasion I have written and preached a sermon and knew when it was done that it was for me. This it not an effort to toot my own preaching horn, but is instead, an acknowledgment that sometimes the preacher is most in need of the Word God is giving for the day.  I can remember a few times when I finished practicing my sermon delivery in the empty sanctuary on Saturday night that I was compelled to kneel at the altar in prayer.  It may sound strange that a preacher could experience conviction under his or her own preaching, but the Holy Spirit has been known to use some unusual means of getting the attention of those in need.     

This morning's sermon had that kind of feel when it was all said and done.  "Jesus does not promise a life empty of trouble.  What He does promise is that we will not be alone.  Wherever He leads us, He will have arrived ahead of us.  Whatever darkness we walk into in our journey of faith, He has already entered.  And He has not only entered it, but He has gone through it to the light which is out there beyond the darkness and which will once again lighten up the path so we can see."  

There is certainly nothing profound in these words I preached.  They have surely been said a thousand times before by far better preachers than the one who preached where I was this morning.  But, it came for me like a fresh word that I did not know I needed to hear.  Such is how the Spirit works through preaching.  He uses words strung together by frail and struggling preachers to say a Word that is needed by someone who shows up on Sunday morning.  I am convinced that the preacher who does not rise to the pulpit with this conviction needs to retire to the rocker on the front porch.

Warmed Over Grits

A late afternoon phone call gave me an invitation to preach tomorrow at a nearby church.  I did what most preachers do at such moments.  I went to what we call the barrel for an old sermon.  But, old sermons are simply old sermons.  No matter how excited I tried to get over one and then another, it still felt like warmed over grits.  If it seemed that way to me, there is no telling what the people in the pew would be saying as they left tomorrow.  

So, the only option was to sit down at the desk, take a few minutes to ask for the Lord to guide my thoughts, and jump into a discipline which shows evidence of a lot of rust.  One thing any preacher needs to feel whenever it is time for preaching is some nervous excitement.  Old sermons can be handy to have laying around, but they are not usually something which stirs the preacher or the congregation.  I must confess to not spending as much time on the sermon for tomorrow as my preaching professor in seminary said was necessary, but it is fresh.  It is new.  It is something for which I have prayed.  And, when 11 AM comes in the morning, I will do my best to get it preached.  Preaching is an important part of the worship service.  

There are places I have been in these retirement years which make me think that some preachers of today see it as more of an appendage to worship than one of the principal parts of it.  Maybe I have valued it too much over the years as I preached from the perspective that preaching is proclaiming the Word of the Lord for the people who are gathered.  I never regarded it as a time  for personal opinions, but a time for saying, "Thus saith the Lord."  Preaching never seemed to be a time for being "Wishy washy," but a time for speaking the Word of God with authoritiy.  I pray the moment of preaching tomorrow still meets that personal criteria.

The Essence of God

The "Who am I?" question is one that has been around a long time.  Long centuries ago the Biblical writer asked the question with the words, "What is man that Thou art mindful of him?" (Psalm 8:4)  I can remember pondering it as a teenager and as an old man who lives amazed that God continues to make use of him.  As the years have piled up into decades, I find myself returning again and again to the ancient book which speaks of you and me being made in the image and likeness of God. (Genesis 1:26)   

Of course, none of us reads these ancient words and thinks that God looks like us.  The Word does not say He looks like us, or that He cloned us to look like Him.  Instead, it points us to His invisible nature. There is something about who we are that is just as invisible to the eye as He is to us.  What is integral to our being and what is invisible to the human eye is the essence of God.  To say we bear the image or likeness of God is to say that the essence of His invisible being is in us.  

When I first started pondering this possibility, I remember seeing someone and saying to myself, "The essence of God is in that one" in the same mysterious way I used to hold the holy bread and say, "The body of Christ."  Some would say we are born in sin and while I understand the truth of what is being said, it also seems true that we are born in the essence of God.  We may have allowed that holy essence to be distorted to the point of not being seen, but it does not change the fact that it is, at the core of our being, who we are.

Thinking and Longing

The stream of spirituality set forth by the Celtic tradition largely went underground, or to the fringe of organized religion in the late seventh century.  The organized church was afraid of it.  It was out of step with ecclesiastical conformity so it was treated like a step child no one wanted.  All the powers that be could see were druid practices that included fairies and mystical powers.  Even today the mention of the Celtic tradition evokes thoughts of Irish music and some kind of cosmic oneness with nature.    

Actually, the stream of Celtic spirituality has much to offer to a worn out organized religion which is not quite sure what to do with the creation in its theology.  Celtic spirituality is Trinitarian to the core.  It values the Creation and sees it as a larger sacred book which reveals God's presence in the world as surely as does the Holy Book known as the Bible.  It affirms the sacredness of life and declares that every breathing creature and every physical particle bears the imprint of the creative hand of God.   

I think of this stream of spirituality when I see the landscape so filled with the holiness of the Lord being turned into something which resembles a landfill.  I think of it often when I see crowds of people collecting themselves for the living of their days in a place which does too much to disconnect their innate connection with the creation, the created, and the Creator.  I think of these ancient Celtic saints who lived so attune to the creation that "every common bush was afire with God." 

Lost in the World

I remember as a boy back in the '50's when car windows were rolled down to take the place of air conditioning, it was an easy thing to toss trash out the window.  I am not justifying bad actions.  Envioronmental concerns were simply not on the radar as they are today.  Somewhere along the way trash started being collected in the car instead of being tossed out of the window.  However, to look at the roadside today is to see that it still remains a problem for many folks who make their way from wherever they are to where they are going.    

A recent stop at a beautiful mountain overlook that had been turned into something which resembled a land fill once again took me back to those years.  It is a shame we have such trouble learning.  The Creation bears the imprint of the hands of God.  It is as holy, and perhaps even more so, than the churches adorned with statues, icons, crosses, candles and dedicated to God by our prayers.  Of course, too many people have lost their connection with the Creation and, therefore, have also lost a vital means of being connected with who they are in the divine scheme of things as well as losing sight of the holy being all around them.  

Environmentalists preach about the way the world is being trashed by the human lifestyle, but it really seems to make little difference.  A dose of reality tells us caring for the creation is not just a scientific issue, but a spiritual one.  When we trash the world, we trash God.  We show disrespect for the good He has made.  We ignore the fact that He expects us to be partners in the caretaking part of the Creation.  The fact that we do not view care for the Creation as a spiritual issue is a sign that we have lost our way. 

Midst the Creation

It was a beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon and the mountains in which the road twisted had a stark simple beauty all its own.  Masses of icicles hung on dark frigid rocks beside the asphalt trail.  Only the evergreens bore any foliage and everything else stood bare in the blue sky.  Temperature had risen out of the single digits up as far as just past freezing which along with the bright sun created such an illusion of warmth that folks were tempted to get out of warm cars to stand on mountain overlooks to behold the beauty.     

The distant view which filled my sight was indeed majestic and beautiful, but then as I turned to leave, I looked just over the protective wall down the mountain into what looked like a landfill.  So many had stood where I stood and threw cups and paper and other forms of trash over the edge.  And, then as I looked even close I saw a thousand cigarette butts on the walk back to the car.  I could only shake my head at the careless spirit of some who stood at the edge of such glory in God's creation.   

I remember high school debate teams back in the '60's doing verbal battle about forms of pollution.  I remember an annual rural life Sunday in our denomination in which preachers spoke about caring for the  Creation.  And, I remember the opening words of Genesis which ended each act of creation with the Words, "And it was good."  (Genesis 1).  A heart that had soared toward glory at the unfolding beauty of Creation turned to one full of sorrow that so many had failed to remember where they were standing.

Pat from Illinois

I have learned to call them God moments.  I have learned not to be surprised by them.  Still, when they come, it is a surprise of sorts.  Often I am in the midst of one before I become aware of exactly what is happening and how God is once doing something according to His plans.  I am one of those who does not believe in coincidence and even less in chance.  I am much more about trusting that God is seeking to work out good in all our lives and that He gives us opportunities to share in that work which is what was happening this afternoon in the middle of the Belk store.    

I was about standing in line to make a purchase when the woman ahead in line turned and started talking.  Suddenly the conversation turned away from the trivial as she started talking about a husband of 53 years who was dying in Hospice.  It was as if the clock stopped, started spinning backwards, and we were on a journey I knew and she was walking.  As her eyes filled with tears, I took her arm and said, "Pat, I will pray for you," and she "No one would ever offer to do such back in Illinois."    

I was grateful she was in Georgia and that God had brought our paths together.  While I am sure it was a special moment for Pat from Illinois, it was just another moment when God wanted a word of care to be offered to someone hurting and He, on this occasion, enabled me to share in His work.  What we experience every now and again, He is surely doing all the time.  Sometimes He makes use of me and sometimes He makes use of you.

Leaping for Joy

It was a moment of sheer serendipity and it came and went so quick, I almost missed it.  It was one of those busy traffic moments when most of my attention was being directed to what was happening in moving vehicles.  It was so frigid people on the street looked overweight in their layers of shirts, and sweaters, and coats. As they walked, pockets of frozen breath hung in the air.  It seemed like a normal morning in a place where everyone was hurrying to wherever it was they were going.     

And, then it happened.  Out of the corner of my eye, this man who must have weighed an additional fifty pounds with his layering leaped like the Michael Jordan of my memories, clicked his heels in the air, and landed with a great grin on his face.   As I drove on laughing, I felt like going back and applauding for an encore leap. It was a moment which brought to mind a verse from the Psalms.  King David never intended for his words to be applied to something like my moment of serendipity, but it popped up out of my memory; nonetheless:  "...joy comes with the morning."  (Psalm 30:5)  The man on the corner who leaped for joy certainly brought joy to my morning.    

It seems like a good matter for our morning prayers.  We could ask God to bring joy into our morning and into our day.  We could ask God to use us to bring serendipitous moments of joy into the lives of others.  And, we could ask God to help us live so that our lives would bring joy to His heart.  Thanks to my street corner leaper, I see a new way to be joyful.

The Spirit in the Pulpit

Over the forty plus years of preaching there have been a few times when I arrived in the pulpit knowing the carefully crafted and prepared sermon I carried with me was not the sermon I should preach.  The problem was there was not another one in my back pocket or folded up in my Bible.  When it happened, it did not usually come as a complete surprise.  The moment of decision on Sunday morning at 11:00 AM was most often predicated by a gnawing sense of discomfort with preaching what had been prepared.  And, it was a moment of decision.  I had to decide in those final steps to the preaching moment if I would preach what I prepared, or dare to lay it down and see what the Holy Spirit had in mind for the sermon that morning.    

It was always a difficult moment for me to lay down something labored over for hours and days and to stand there with nothing. It did not happen often, but often enough for me to understand that the Spirit had something He wanted to do to which I was not privy. For the preacher it is a moment of trust in God.  Who knows what God might purpose in such a moment?  His purpose could be to make the preacher look like a fool! It could be to speak to someone who needed a Word which would not be heard in the prepared sermon.   I long ago ceased trying to figure out what God was doing.  I just knew it was better to go along with Him and see what was going to be preached.  

I have heard many a testimony from a preacher and a listener about such divine interaction.  A good friend was called to preach by a preacher who had no intention of giving such an invitation when he preached.  Others have confessed how an unplanned sermon fit their need at the moment like a glove.  Preaching often seems mundane to the preacher and the pew sitter, but every now and again the Holy Spirit steps in to change the plan and do something no one figured would happen.  No preacher should make a practice of showing up in the pulpit empty handed and neither should fear of the unknown prevail when faith is required for Spirit led preaching.

Teachings of the Saints

I grew up in a church climate which nurtured Bible Study on Wednesday night instead of potluck.  Potluck was mostly offered annually on Homecoming Sunday and Bible Study was regular Wednesday night fare.  By the time I started in ministry not much had changed.  Wednesday night was for Bible Study.  In those days the resources were much more limited than today.  The last one I attended a few months ago consisted of a computer generated video progam which the presenter read off the big screen for those who had not yet learned to read.  Wiithout going into much detail, it was boring and most of the people who came to eat left before the video started.    

I remember Bible Study as being hard work.  There were Scripture lessons to be studied and studied again.  Commentaries and other Biblical resources were searched and lessons to be taught were written out in the beginning days by hand and later by computer.  The group that showed up on Wednesday night was not quite as large as the Sunday night crowd.  Some used to tell me the ones who showed up on Sunday night and Wednesday night were the ones who would find heaven's door opened wide.  I am not sure if the comment about heaven is true.  I have certainly met some folks who seemed so saintly on this side of the river that they would be naturals for the other side.  

I remember the names of some of those saints even now.  I never doubted them when they said they prayed for me and certainly never argued too much with them about what the Word was really saying when we read it on Wednesday night.  I might have had a few years of seminary, but it did not take me long to meet some folks who knew more about the Bible than I could teach them on a Wednesday night.  Actually, there were many gatherings when they became my teachers.  I remember many of them to this day with gratitude.

The Open Window

It was a moment of confrontation that spun out of control.  Leaving the restaurant a large bill was placed on the dashboard for use at an ice cream place up the road.  However, before getting out of the parking lot, there appeared in the headlights a homeless person sorting through a shopping cart.  It was freezing.  No one was asking for anything, but apparently getting ready for another night on the street.  "I wish there was something we could do to help," spoke the voice of compassion beside me.  I picked up our ice cream money, held it up, and turned into the adjacent parking lot.

It was only when the headlight illuminated the homeless soul there in the cold night that she turned and came toward the lowered passenger window.  She took the money from the outstreched hand and looked at us in the warmth of the car.  She had on a hoodie which called attention to her worn and weathered face and eyes that penetrated not only the distance between us but our hearts.  She looked at me.  I looked at her.  I wish our eyes had not met.  I cannot forget her.  It has been several days and nights now, but I still remember the look in her eyes as she said  in that cold January night, "Thank you and Merry Christmas."   

One of the things I learned about myself in that brief encounter is that I would rather see the homeless through a rolled up window of a car that is moving.  It was terribly uncomfortable seeing her eyes and knowing she was seeing mine.  Seeing her changed the way I see those who are camped around me under bridges. I still do not know what to do, but she took away my choice of doing nothing.  It was as if God spoke through that open window and I am still tryng to listen.  

Good, Loving, and Limited

It has always seemed that Genesis was not just a book of beginnings, but a book about family relationships.  More specifically, it has seemed like a book to fathers about how not to do it.  The Genesis fathers are not exactly the best role models.  But, it is ok.  Few of us had perfect parents and even fewer of us go around bragging about how perfect we were as parents.  When Henri Nouwen wrote "The Return of the Prodigal Son"  he shared in a painfully transparent way the emotional baggage he carried out of his home into adulthood.     

In the section on the Elder Son, he writes about a near fatal accident which caused him to honest up about his relationship with his father. As the eldest child he always felt that his younger siblings were loved more by his father and he carried a suitcase full of resentment through his days. When his father arrived at the hospital, he told him of his life long struggle.  And then he wrote such an important word for parents and children. "The return to the 'Father from whom all fatherhood takes its name,' allows me to let my Dad be no less than the good, loving, but limited human being he is..."  

As I read those confessional word of Nouwen, I thought they conveyed an important word for all who remember our upbringing.  Like the Genesis characters who are bared to the bone for us to see in that book of beginnings, so are we all as parents.  We were imperfect at best, but hopefully our love and goodness shines on the scars we may have inadvertently left on our children.

Divine Speaking

Sometimes the Word of God comes to us from unexpected and surprising sources.  I remember a preacher one time who said that God might speak to us through our wife or husband.  Most married folks will look everywhere else for God's Word to be spoken!  I remember, too, a pastoral visit in a home while at the St. John Church in Columbus. After getting in the house, I discovered that the woman of the house was more than slightly inebriated.  Our conversation took a turn I never could have anticipated.  Somehow the conversation turned to disciplining children in the home.  

I grew up with parents who spanked me more than once for some growing up infraction and so when asked if I spanked my children, I acknowledged that I did as was done to me.  She then asked me, "Rev. Strickland, do you hit people other than your children?"  When I said, "No," she asked, "Why then do you hit your children?"  I had no answer and my children never got another spanking.   It was a Word that seemed to me as one which came from God.  

I would not have thought a woman who had too much to drink would be for me the voice of God, but such is exactly what she became.  We can never rule out a way God might speak to us.  Moses heard the divine voice in a burning bush, Samuel heard it in the still of the night, and Joseph heard it in a dream.  The reality is that God speaks to us and there is no limiting how He might choose to do it.

Outside in the Cold

It is extremely cold out there tonight.  And, there are also people out there sleeping in tents and under bridges.  It is not a common sight in places like the small town which is called home, but in the larger gatherings of people, it is such an ordinary sight that those inside lose their ability to see those outside.  They stand at busy traffic intersections with cardboard signs and alongside full-to-the-top shopping carts.  In some ways they have become the invisible ones.  We turn our eyes away and if we cannot, we look as if we do not see them.  

Jesus had a way of seeing those around Him those whom people did not want to see.  He saw the lepers, the blind ones, the disadvantaged and exploited women, and others not really seen by the righteous of His day.  To some He gave healing.  To some He gave food.  To some He gave compassion.  To some He gave dignity.  But, one of the most important things He gave them was seeing them.  He did not live as One who did not see the invisible ones of His day.  He found ways to meet their needs and to affirm their worth.   Jesus' response to the suffering ones around Him was not a "one size fits all" approach.  

Because we do not know what to do, or because we fear having our generosity being exploited, or because we figure whatever we might do is just a drop in the bucket, we do nothing.  While I must confess to not knowing what to do when the homeless and invisible show up, I do know that doing nothing is not the right answer.  I will sleep warm tonight while they are out there in the cold and it bothers me.  It troubles me.  I pray it always will.

Revisiting Jabez

It was a little more than twenty years ago that Bruce Wilkinson delivered Jabez from the obscurity of I Chronicles and put him and his prayer on the center stage of American spiritual life.  "Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, 'Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!' So God granted him what he requested."  (I Chronicles 4:10, NKJV)  Back then it was the prayer that so many were praying.  

A few days ago while cleaning out a drawer, I found a gray round medallion about the size of a half dollar with the Jabez prayer inscribed on one side of it.  As I held the coin looking prayer reminder in my hand, I remembered that I carried it in my pocket for a long time.  After a moment I laid it on a bookshelf and basically forgot about it until just yesterday when I was browsing another collection of books and I found a small almost like new book entitled, "The Prayer of Jabez"  by Bruce Wilkinson.   

Do I need to say that at that point God had my attention?  "Is there something here I am not hearing?" I thought.  I figured the least I should do was to read the book again which I have done.  I am thinking, too, that I should include this prayer once again in my prayer life.  One thing I do know for sure.  I am going to get that prayer coin off the shelf and put it in my pocket again.

The Mystery

One of the things noticed as I have been making my current journey through Genesis is that it does not argue anywhere to prove the existence of God.  In all those verses about the Creation of everything that is and will be, there is never any mention about the origin of God.  Nor, is there anything which would suggest any questions about His existence.  

Everything written assumes that the reader is one who accepts a belief in God as the bedrock of life.  Such a belief is the experience of most of us.  We do not approach the Scripture looking for proof of God's existence anymore than we go out into the world seeking proof of love and goodness and kindness.  There are times when it seems that these virtues are in short supply, but what we know is that they are a part of what holds the fabric of our relationships together.  

The Hebrews may have gathered around campfires and told stories of what God had done, but they never thought to tell some story that proved that He existed, or that it made sense to believe in Him.  It seems that they had no need to solve or explain the Mystery of God.  They were immersed in it.  In a sense it is unfortunate that we live in an age of information where everything can be defined or explained as easy as the movement of a hand.  Early on in my spiritual journey I had the idea that if I would read the Scripture slowly and carefully enough, everything would fall into some logical space.  Getting older with decades of walking the road of faith has convinced me that there will always be more I do not know about God than I can know.  The Word is about Mystery.  So, is our journey of faith.

Bibles in Worship

Today I worshipped in a very small church just up the road a piece from here.  It takes about ten minutes to leave the farm, crosss the river, and get in the door.  At one time I preached there for a little more than four years.  I was asked to fill in for a pastor who was having surgery and it ended up being several years before my time was done.  I go back now and again, as I did today, not to be recongized as a former pastor, but to share in the life of a community of people who blessed me far more than I could ever have blessed them.  

I like going because they make me feel that they regard me as one of them.  The worship is simple since there are usually less than ten folks in the pews.  The young preacher leads the music with his guitar.  There is no glitz and lights and sound effects, but it is as real as worship can be.  I know there are bigger churches where things are done with more precision and planning, but this place up the road feels more like church than the places I have been along the journey of my own ministry.    

The small church cannot do things like the larger megachurch, but the small church is where we can connect with a caring community that will stand with us through the rough places in life as well as share with us in the moments of celebration.  I noticed today the preacher had people opening their Bibles and using them througout the sermon in such a way that it seemed the natural thing to do.  I used a pew Bible since I did not bring one, but next time I will take my own.  It used to be the thing for folks to take their Bibles to church, but we have gotten out of the habit of doing so.  I think on my next trip across the river I will take mine.

Divine Heartbreak

When we launch out into a reading of Genesis, we quickly run into words that speak of divine sorrow.  And while there may be more, there are two places which reveal a broken hearted God.  The first is set forth in the Garden of Eden story.  Genesis 3:8 describes that moment of the "Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze."  When the Lord God finds the Garden of Eden couple hiding, there is a conversation, a reluctant confession, and then we hear the heartbreak of God in those words, "What is this that you have done?"  (Genesis 3:13)   

The second incident of divine heartbreak has as its setting the story of Noah.  As the Lord God ponders the wickedness present everywhere on the earth, the Word says, "And the Lord was sorry that He had made humankind on the earth, and it grieved Him to His heart."  (Genesis 6:6)  Fortunately, He took a second look and saw a righteous and blameless man named Noah.  (Genesis 6:9).  In both stories, it is more than a pointing out of human sin, but a carefully made plan gone awry.  The sorrow was not just for Adam, Eve, and Noah, but for a plan of love than was shattered before it was hardly in place.     

Thinking about God responding to our sin with grief and sorrow is not something we often consider.  It is easier for us to consider God's anger or disappointment when we sin.  We seldom  think about God being heartbroken over the way we choose to live, but as surely as He loves us, so is He heartbroken when He sees the way we regard Him and His plan for us.  We know how much sorrow and grief we feel when our children choose wrong paths from which we cannot deliver them.  How much greater must be the sorrow and grief of God when we choose a way other than the way He has planned for us.  

Always Connected

None of us live alone although there may be days when is seems that there is no one in our life.  The truth is that it is touched by many seen and unseen folks.  Some are as obvious as the clerk who says, "Have a good day!" as we leave with a purchase and others are as invisible as those who pray for us without our seeing them on their knees.   One way to be reminded is to remember during our table blessings the host of unseen folks who worked to get our food to the table.  Few morsels of food go into our mouths that have not somehow been in the hands of another.    

God did not put us here to be alone.  He did not put us here to live thinking that we have no connection to the rest of the world and its people.  The book of Genesis is the story of families.  It is the story of nations.  It is the story of how we live in community with one another.  Sometimes we do it well and sometimes we wish for a "do-over."  Jesus reminded us of the way we live with one another when we inaugurated the holy meal with His disciples.  

The Sacrament of Holy Communion is unlike prayer, or worship, or Bible study, or other spiritual disciplines in that it was set in place as an act for the community.  We do not share the Sacrament alone, but with others.  It is a moment which joins us not only to the Christ, but to others in the community around us.  The Creator made us to share life with one another and to know that we are always connected to one another by the order He ordained from the very beginning.

"Lord, Do It Again!"

In his book, "The Promise of the Spirit," William Barclay remembers the early church as a group of one hundred and twenty poor, uneducated, simple people who were told their mission was to go out and change the world.  "Ye shall be witnesses unto me (Jesus)..."(Acts 1:8).  "Go ye and teach all nations."  (Matthew 28:19).  Before they went, they were told to wait for the Holy Spirit to come and when He did, those one hundred and twenty became hundreds of thousands who changed the world for the crucified and risen Christ.   

It was after this section that Barclay wrote such a hopeful word, "And when the Holy Spirit came, tasks which seemed impossible somehow became possible."  Back in the middle of the last century, Barclay spoke both to the problem of the church and the answer to its failure.  Those of us who have given leadership to the church have paid too little attention to the Holy Spirit and the church under our watch has suffered because of it.  

I remember years ago someone writing that the Holy Spirit could leave my highly organized denomination and it would run on for a very long time before anyone ever noticed.   Before we lost our way as a church, it would have been a good thing to have remembered the Root that is our origin, but then, we were too busy hurrying about to change the world with the tools we thought were needed.  Those tools are not working, have not worked, and will not work.  Maybe it is simply time to be on our knees looking toward Pentecost and praying, "Lord, do it again!"

Mystery for Pondering

Anyone who doubts that the Scripture is about mystery only needs to pause for a bit at the place where the first few words are imprinted upon the page.   After those first few words about the beginning, the Word says in verse 3, "Then God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light."  But, this light of which the Scripture speaks is no ordinary light.  It is an easy thing to run by a written word which is interpreted through the lens of assumption.    

A Biblical commentator takes us away from the truth we claim by assumption as he writes, "...the author affirms the existence of light...without the existence of the sun, which is still three 'days' away...God caused the light to shine from a source other than the sun for the first three days."  Herein is the holy mystery.  The light set forth in the first verses has nothing to do with anything physical, but instead, points to a light that is eternal.  Once again the Word draws us to the first chapter of John where the Word speaks of Jesus by saying, "In Him was life, and the life was the light of all people.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it."  (John 1:4-5).    

What the Word of God points us toward is a light that emanates not from a physical source, but a spiritual one.  And what is also a part of the holy mystery is that this eternal light becomes powerfully evident and visible through the Incarnate 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)   Mystery for pondering.

Beginning Words

My slow reading journey which will take me from Genesis to Revelation began as the new year began.  In the beginning moments I found myself reading those Words, "In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth." (Genesis 1:1).  It is not only a Word which begins the sacred Word of God, but it is also a Word that speaks about the Source of all things.  While there are many opinions about how things got started, the Scripture does not enter into any debate or discussion, but simply states that everything owes its origin to God.    

For some it is a huge leap of faith to stand on such a simple premise.  Most of us have heard or read a theory or two about the way things began.  And many of those theories point to an explanation far more complicated than the one offered in Genesis.  As we read the rest of the Creation account in the first chapter of Genesis, we see an unfolding process which brings order out of chaos, light out of darkness, and life out of the divine reflection.   It is a Creation which is not only given life by the Creator, but one which has been continually sustained by Him since its inception.  

The gospel writer, John, would much later pick up on this same theme as he wrote in what we know as the Prologue to his gospel, "In the beginning was the Word...All things came into being through Him, and without Him not one thing came into being." (John 1:1, 3).  The more I read the Word, the more I am convinced that there is not just some passing reference to the Hebrew Scripture being made by the gospel writer, but the declaration of an underlying truth that runs like a connecting thread throughout all of history.  As far as John was concerned, there was no way to understand what has happened in the creation and throughout history without affirming that God is the basis for any understanding.

The Reading Journey

With a good head of steam, I launched out on my reading journey which will take me from Genesis to Revelation.  It has been a few years since I made the trip and I am wondering what I will see this time that I have missed on other such ventures.  I expect that there will be many moments of thinking, "Now how in the world have I missed this over the years."  The Word is always the same, but the lens through which we read it is always different.  What makes it different are the new set of experiences stored away in our memory storehouse and the different way the Holy Spirit is working in our life.    

Every relationship is always changing.  The relationship with our spouse changes as the years add up, the relationship with our children changes as they become adults and we become grandparents, and our relationship with God also changes for we are creations of His constantly being made new by the power of the Holy Spirit.   So, I may be surprised that I see and hear things from the Spirit that I failed to see and hear on earlier readings, but the surprises will be expected.   

The Word tells us "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever" (Hebrews 13:8), but I have changed.  I have learned a few things.  I bear some scars not seen years ago.  And, I have come to a place of knowing that there is more I do not know about God than ever I could know.  My lens is different for this reading.  New things will be seen.  I look forward to the journey.