A Joyous Advent? Luke 21:25-36

Luke 21:25-36

25 “There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. 26 People will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken. 27 At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. 28 When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

29 He told them this parable: “Look at the fig tree and all the trees. 30 When they sprout leaves, you can see for yourselves and know that summer is near. 31 Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that the kingdom of God is near.

32 “Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. 33 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

34 “Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you suddenly like a trap. 35 For it will come on all those who live on the face of the whole earth. 36 Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man.”

One would think that in the midst of advent, all things would be joyful. If Advent is leading us to the joy of Christmas, why aren’t our readings positive and joyful?  Our reading today seems anything but. As many times as I have had to preach on this text, I have never liked it nor become comfortable with it. 

One of the things preachers do, especially with difficult texts, is pull up commentaries to see what others have to say about it. But this year God gave me a commentary that hit home. And I am not alone.

The truth is, that in real life, Advent and Christmas are not always delightful. Sometimes life brings us things that shake our very being. Instead of sending us forth into the season with certainty and purpose, these times leave us distressed and confused, as our reading says.

A couple of weeks ago we received a call that Bruce’s brother, Dan, was found unconscious and was rushed to the hospital. He had had a catastrophic brain bleed. They gave him hours to live. We took off for Kansas City but arrived an hour too late to say goodbye. The next days were taken up with the funeral and helping his daughter clean out the house. 

I know that this congregation has also experienced such loss. In fact, if we consider the events in our schools, our country, our world, we begin to understand exactly what Jesus is talking about here. “People will faint from fear and foreboding for what is coming upon the world.” 

No, holidays do not always promise laughter and joy. All the advertisements neglect to tell us anything about this side of the Holidays. 

So perhaps we can find something in our reading that can speak to us in the midst of our own angst. Something that causes us to look up and find hope.

It is important to remember that, despite the beauty of our manger scenes, Jesus is not born into a time of peace. Jesus is born into a country that is ruled by a conquering nation. Its rulers are selfish and cruel. They lack morals. The Roman empire is known for its immorality, war, crucifixions and lust for power.  

We declare Jesus as the Prince of Peace, but the world around him did not know or receive that peace. 

So what is the peace then of Christmas? What is the peace that Advent is meant to point us towards? Where is this peace in the midst of our Gospel reading? 

Read again verse 28 and hold it with you no matter what life brings your way. 

“When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” (NIV)

Life is hard. Just ask the disciples. None of them found peace, love, and joy in this world. They were jailed, beaten, tortured, and murdered. So where is this Christmas promise? 

Jesus tells us the kingdom of God is in us, in our midst. It is within us that we find that peace. And it is from there that Christmas becomes the beauty and hope that we have been promised.

Our consumer culture tells us that the more we buy the better Christmas will be. Those of us who have lost someone, who are in financial distress, who are weeping over the events of our world, know better. We can’t buy our way out of those places. We can, however, lift our heads to trust in the kingdom that is unseen yet waits to flourish within us.

This is the promise of Christmas. This is what Advent points us toward. This is why Advent begins with the truth of this world. This is why Jesus warns us about the melee that life brings, so that we will know not to give up or be trapped by its ways. For the Kingdom of God is here within us.

In the midst of all this gloom and doom, I want to end with the hope of Love. Ann Weems writes in her poem ANGEL-FILLED ADVENT:

Wouldn’t it be wonderful

if Advent came filled with angels and alleluias?

Wouldn’t it be perfect

if we were greeted on these December mornings

with a hovering of heavenly hosts

tuning their harps and brushing up on their fa-la-las?

Wouldn’t it be incredible

if their music filled our waking hours

with the promise of peace on earth

and if each Advent night we dreamed of

nothing but goodwill?

Wouldn’t we be ecstatic

if we could take those angels shopping

or trim the tree or have them hold our hands

and dance through our houses decorating?

And, oh, how glorious it would be

to sit in church next to an angel

and sing our hark-the-heralds!

What an Advent that would be!

What Christmas spirit we could have!

An angel-filled Advent has so many possibilities!

But in lieu of that

perhaps we can give thanks

for the good earthly joys we have been given

and for the earthly “angels” that we know

who do such a good job of filling

our Advent with alleluias!

Ann Weems

If you believe you will see the glory of God no matter what. John 11

John 11

32 Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” 33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved[e] in his spirit and greatly troubled. 34 And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Jesus wept. 36 So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” 37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?”

38 Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. 39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.” 40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” 41 So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.” 43 When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” 44 The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”

Lazarus is dead. And Jesus knows it. 

He is walking along the road to go to see his dearest friends when he first gets the word that Lazarus is not well and about to die. His disciples encourage him to hurry so that Jesus can get there in time to heal Lazarus. And Jesus stays the course without quickening his pace. He tells them Lazarus has fallen asleep. And the disciples, taking Jesus’ words literally, say that this is good. If he sleeps he will get better.

Realizing that they did not get the point Jesus tells them, “Lazarus has died, and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe.”

Lazarus is dead and Jesus knows it. And he is in no apparent hurry nor does he seem to be terribly upset while on the road to Mary and Martha.

But when he gets there the scripture tells us Jesus was deeply moved and greatly troubled. You know this feeling. This is about the emotional turmoil that makes the stomach, the gut, the abdomen groan and churn. 

In Jesus’ day the seat of emotions is not the heart but the bowels. And I get it. When I am deeply upset, fearful, stressed, it is my gut that hurts. Jesus feels the movement, the troubling of his spirit so deeply his stomach churns. It isn’t just in his head where sad thoughts sit. It isn’t just a sadness that makes him mournful. It is so deep he feels it in his gut. His digestive system groans.

Why the sudden change? Finding Lazarus dead was not a surprise. 

We read: When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. 

Oh Mary, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?”

Jesus has come to bring a glimpse of the kingdom of God. A Kingdom that he tells them does not exist somewhere out there but here, in their midst, within themselves. A kingdom that changes everything. One that does not see death as the end but rather as a step into another part of this same life.

And he groans, he weeps because they still cannot see. They still have not let these words become part of who they are. And without that full realization, without the unity to the truth, they live in the midst of despair. And he wants so much more for them. So much more. And he weeps for them.

Jesus in the manifestation of God. Jesus shows us who God is. The very essence of love and hope and faith. Jesus comes to us to show us what it is like if we see God in this world. Death, where is your sting?

This message is a beautiful message for any of us who have lost someone dear to us. We must not despair. The world is not as we think it is. There is more, so much more. And if we are united with God and Jesus then we know this. Deep down, where emotions move us, we know this.

But this is not just a message for death of the body. This is a message for the death of hope. This is a message for those in despair.

On Wednesday morning some will walk in this place of despair. Some will weep. Some will be deeply moved and greatly troubled in their gut. This is a message for us on that day as well.

Despair brings shock, anger, denial, depression. It does not come from the God of Love.

“Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?”

God is with us. God has not left us. Not now in the midst of all the foolishness being said on tv, facebook, twitter, in the streets, not later when some will be celebrating and others will be weeping. Even then we are called to believe and to watch for the glory of God.

Jesus wept. It was not a tear running down his cheek. He wept from the deepest source of sadness. 

God weeps too when we do not , will not, can not believe that his kingdom is in our midst. His glory is revealed daily around us. When we succumb to despair and blame. Remember Mary blamed Jesus for not being there and saving her brother.  

And a warning to you, this weeping will be for either group, no matter how they voted. Remember that if you are celebrating, God is weeping for them.

“I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

If you believe this then even when all that you have loved and hoped in seems to have died, you will know that there is life. There is the kingdom. There is love.

If you believe you will see the glory of God no matter what.

What is Sin? Why Even Worry About it? (Mark 9:38-50)

Mark 9:38-50
Some years ago I encountered a series called “How Lutherans Interpret the Bible” by Dr Mark Allan Powell. As a matter of fact it was long enough ago that I originally watched it on VHS. If you don’t know what that is I suggest you google it. 

It was good to hear that we don’t interpret all of the Bible literally. I grew up hearing the text as God’s infallible word, to be understood literally. (When it suited us.)  I have changed much of my stance since then. And I believe today’s gospel reading is an excellent example of why literal reading of the Biblical text can be down right dangerous.

If we took this passage literally we would all go through life maimed and blind. Jesus tells us in the sermon on the mount “whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” And of course this refers to women lusting after men as well. Let’s take this a step further. How many times have I looked at something someone else has and coveted it? I would be blind for sure.

And have my feet not taken me places I should not have gone? Or my hands done things they should not have done?

So yes I am glad we do not take the Biblical text literally. But what exactly is Jesus telling us? That sin is bad? Well, yes. But what is sin? And why such extreme warnings?

What is sin? Well the word sin comes from the Greek and Hebrew words for missing the mark. It was actually an archery term. One can hit the target and miss the bullseye, thus miss the mark. And as we all know, we all miss the bullseye at some point in life. Paul defines sin in Romans 14 as whatever is not of faith is sin. (So far I’m in real trouble.)

Luther refers to sin as turning in on oneself. This definition speaks to me. Yes we have the ten commandments as guides to living but Jesus summarizes those ten into two. We read in Matthew 22:
‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”  

Let’s hang the two commandments on the wall instead of the ten. 

Both of these commandments require us to turn outward, not inward. Although there is also a bit of a paradox here. For how else do we find God but to turn in and find God within?

Perhaps the answer is simply another question. What are we seeking when we turn within? It is always a surprise to me that when I turn to my inner being, my soul or spirit, I find the image of God. I find love. I find light. Here, in the place of my heart. 

But if I turn inward in self pity, fear, or self adulation, well I find darkness. I find anger and greed. And it is there I find the sin that hurts my neighbor and myself.

And it is there that we can find the answer to my second question. Why such extreme warnings against sin?

First it hurts me. I become enamored with myself, my failures, my inadequacies which lead me to hide behind  pride and anger and lust for power or pleasure. And these things hurt others. My anger and pride hurt the ones I love. My lust hurts all  of creation. Climate change is an obvious example. It hurts those who must work for unsustainable wages because I want more stuff for less. 

My sin and 6 degrees of separation or quantum physics’ theory of entanglement could destroy the world. 
And this is why Jesus cries out for us to pay attention to our sin. To our turning inward on ourselves and not turning outward to love our neighbor and creation.

Or to love our God. And again, I return to the paradox. To find God one must take time to look within. Until we find the God of Love, the one in whose image we are made, we cannot turn outward with that love. And love is what God has created us to be. Love for ourselves. (Ironic?) Love for our neighbor. Love for creation. Love for God. And without love, we destroy.

In fact, we can do the right things, we can hit the target and never hit the bullseye! Perhaps this sounds familiar:
If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

We do so much out of pride and self promotion. When those things get in the way, we become blind to the harm we do. 

We mustn’t take Jesus’ sayings of maiming ourselves literally, But we MUST take the seriousness of his warnings to heart. God made us co-creators. If we do not create love we will create hate. Actually someone said the opposite of love is not hate but indifference. And we will destroy, or should I say continue to destroy our world and each other.

(Parting words to Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Freeport, Il.)
I want to thank you for all that you do in the name of love. You have shown love to your pastor by allowing her this time of sabbatical. You have shown love to me by your welcome and your forgiveness of my foibles and your words of encouragement. You show love to one another in your fellowship. And you show love to your community in working for its benefit. 

I encourage you to not allow these things to simply be things you do because you should. Instead look within and find God, and then look without and shine that love on the world. In all that you do.

Finally, Throughout my time with you I have often spoken of looking inside ourselves. I learned how this changes us and potentially the world in my three year course for spiritual direction. I wish to end with this. I am a Spiritual Director, or what I prefer to call a Soul Listener. If this is something you might find of interest I would love to talk with you. It is a worthwhile course or simply a worthwhile discipline.

Even though I have had to get up much too early on Sunday Mornings, I have absolutely loved our time together. Embrace Pastor Shelly as she returns with the same love and forbearance with which you have embraced me.
amen

I Want to Be the Child. Mark 9: 30-37

It has been a couple of years since I have had to work on sermons on a weekly basis. This last week brought with it some challenges so while I attempted to create a meaningful sermon I kept deleting them and trying again. I think this one was my third or fourth attempt.  

Even when I was doing this full time this was not a totally unusual event. Sometimes I would like to say something new and inspiring. I know, wouldn’t we all. And so the Holy Spirit patiently lets me type all of these things in my head until finally I listen. I am so thankful for word processing programs! And a patient Holy Spirit.

Anyway, while something new and inspiring seems like a good idea, sometimes the old tried and true is better.

Today’s reading, for any of us who have been around the church for a while, is not new. Jesus is walking and talking with disciples. He is pouring his heart out to them. Maybe to give himself some relief and find some support from his closest friends or maybe to just pre warn them.

What the Messiah is, is not what they thought it would be. It is going to be very different. And Jesus hopes that in the warning of what is about to occur they will not lose faith when it does. It will be hard for all of them, Jesus and the disciples. 

And of course, as we know, Jesus overhears their argument. They, instead of hearing what Jesus is saying, are arguing who is going to be the greatest. Because of their own upbringing, they just can’t see or understand that Jesus has come to turn everything upside down. The Messiah was not going to take over the Roman seat and rule. He was going to be crucified and take up a seat in the greatest kingdom of all. God’s kingdom, the universe, all of creation. 

Now, I confess, I find in myself the self satisfaction that I know this and the disciples didn’t. It is easy to be smug on this side of the story.

And then I wonder how Jesus would see my life. My comfort. My desire to come up with new and better ideas to preach. My desire to be considered profound. Not that I shouldn’t strive to do my best, but for whose glory?

And I wonder what Jesus would say about the church. Our comfort. Our desire to become the best and newest thing in Christendom. And for whose glory?

I guess it’s no wonder I didn’t want to write this sermon. Ah well, here it is.

St Francis of Assisi had a different point of view. He didn’t look to belong or to build some great monastery. His followers were called to be poor. To rely on the generosity of others. They were called to live in poverty with the poor, not live in comfort and feel holy for walking down the hill occasionally to care for the poor. 

I will not tell you that I have been called to such a life. At least not for today. But I think it is important for us to stop and realize what Jesus has called us to be. Pomp and circumstance are not it. Being the greatest and best is not it. 

We are to be like children. There was a young man, maybe 3 or 4, at the church in the Sabula I loved to play with. He loved hiding under the pews. So one day, his mother was there preparing something for Sunday School that week, I followed him under the pews. We had such fun! We were both laughing and screaming. His mother told him he shouldn’t be screaming in church. Well that sure dampened that afternoon’s delight.

I wonder what that child was doing just before Jesus picked him or her up. I love that Mark doesn’t specify.  Was the child sitting listening to Jesus? (Probably not.) Was the child playing with toys? Was the child hiding under the table? Whatever it was, the child was near Jesus and Jesus was pleased.

I want to be that child. I want to be the one Jesus picks up and holds on his lap. Maybe it is more about living life, enjoying the moment, and accepting things as they come. What else can a child do?

Is it possible that we are worried about the wrong things? Is it possible we take things too seriously? They say Francis died young because of his rigorous spiritual practices.  Luther was a generous man, too generous sometimes, but he also knew how to laugh and enjoy his children. And Katy made a good beer. It was when Luther began taking things too seriously, perhaps himself too seriously, that he wrote some terrible words against our Jewish brothers and sisters. 

Jesus knew that things were going to get tough. But he also knew that unless the disciples took love more seriously than themselves they would never make it. When I made my first visit to family in what was once East Germany, they told me how the churches of different denominations worked together to help one another rebuild their buildings. We could learn a lot.

Permit me to end with a lengthy poem from Ann Weems.

I took to church one morning a happy four-year-old boy
Holding a bright blue string to which was attached
his much loved orange balloon with pink stripes...
Certainly a thing of beauty
And if not forever, at least a joy for a very important now.
When later he met me at the door
Clutching blue string, orange and pink bobbing behind him,
He didn't have to tell me something had gone wrong.
"What's the matter?"
He wouldn't tell me.
"I bet they loved your balloon..."

Out it came, then -- mocking the teacher's voice, "We don't bring balloons to church."
Then that little four-year old, his lip a little trembly, asked:
"Why aren't balloons allowed in church? I thought God would like balloons."
I celebrate balloons, parades and chocolate chip cookies.
I celebrate seashells and elephants and lions that roar.
I celebrate roasted marshmallows and chocolate cake and fresh fish.
I celebrate aromas: bread baking, mincemeat, lemons...
I celebrate seeing: bright colors, wheat in a field, tiny wild flowers...
I celebrate hearing: waves pounding, the rain's rhythm, soft voices...
I celebrate touching: toes in the sand, a kitten's soft fur, another person...
I celebrate the sun that shines slab dab in our faces...
I celebrate the crashing thunder and the brazen lightning...
And I celebrate the green of the world...the life-giving green...the hope-giving green...
I celebrate birth: the wonder...the miracle...of that tiny life already asserting its selfhood.
I celebrate children
who laugh out loud
who walk in the mud and dawdle in the puddles
who put chocolate fingers anywhere

who like to be tickled
who scribble in church
who whisper in loud voices
who sing in louder voices
who run...and laugh when they fall
who cry at the top of their lungs
who cover themselves with bandaids
who squeeze the toothpaste all over the bathroom
who slurp their soup
who chew coughdrops
who ask questions
who give us sticky, paste-covered creations
who want their picture taken
who won't use their napkins
who bury goldfish, sleep with the dog, scream at their best friend

who hug us in a hurry and rush outside without their hats.
I celebrate children
who are so busy living they don't have time for our hang-ups.
And I celebrate adults who are as little children.
I celebrate the man who breaks up the meaningless routines of his life.
The man who stops to reflect, to question, to doubt.
-- The man who isn't afraid to feel....
The man who refuses to play the game.
I celebrate anger at injustice
I celebrate tears for the mistreated, the hurt, the lonely...
I celebrate the community that cares... the church...
I celebrate the church.
I celebrate the times when we in the church made it...
When we answered a cry
When we held to our warm and well-fed bodies a lonely world.
I celebrate the times when we let God get through to our hiding places

Through our maze of meetings
Our pleasant facade...deep down to our selfhood
Deep down to where we really are.
Call it heart, soul, naked self
It's where we hide
Deep down away from God
And away from each other.

I celebrate the times when the church is the Church
When we are Christians
When we are living, loving, contributing God's children...
I celebrate that He calls us His children even when we are in hiding.
I celebrate love...the moments when the You is more important than the I
I celebrate the perfect love...the cross...the Christ
loving in spite of...
giving without reward

I celebrate the music within a man that must be heard
I celebrate life...that we may live more abundantly...
Where did we get the idea that balloons don't belong in the church?
Where did we get the idea that God loves gray and Sh-h-h-h-h
And drab and anything will do?
I think it's blasphemy not to appreciate the joy in God's world.
I think it's blasphemy not to bring our joy into His church.
For God so loved the world
That He hung there

Loving the unlovable
What beautiful gift cannot be offered unto the Lord?
Whether it's a balloon or a song or some joy that sits within you waiting to
have the lid taken off.
The Scriptures say there's a time to laugh and a time to weep.
It's not hard to see the reasons for crying in a world where man's hatred for
man is so manifest.
So celebrate!

Bring your balloons and your butterflies, your bouquets of flowers...
Bring the torches and hold them high!
Dance your dances, paint your feelings, sing your songs, whistle, laugh.
Life is a celebration, an affirmation of God's love.
Life is distributing more balloons.
For God so loved the world...
Surely that's a cause for Joy.
Surely we should celebrate!

Good News! That He should love us that much.
Where did we ever get the idea that balloons don't belong in the church?

I so want to be the child Jesus picks up and holds.

Let’s take a moment of silence to sense the Spirit around us, within us, amongst us.

Psalm 116 “A man can’t be always defending the truth; there must be a time to feed on it.”

Psalm 116

It seems like a good day to hear the psalm and take it into our hearts. C.S. Lewis, in his Reflections on the Psalms writes: “The most valuable thing the Psalms do for me is to express the same delight in God which made David dance.”

It seemed like a  good time to breathe in the joy of worshiping God and dancing like David. So much goes on in our lives that feels tiresome. Let’s take time to be like David and worship anyway!

Of course, anyone who has read more than one of the Psalms knows that not all of them sound like dancing. Some of them are down right harsh. David, and the other psalmists, did not seem to have any problem telling God exactly how life felt to them. They were pretty blunt.  But in the honor of joy and praise, I will skip quoting any of their complaints.

Still, I also believe that when one can be so open and honest with one's complaints without fear, that too is worship. To know God’s grace so well and to be so certain in it, is to worship.

And today's Psalm touches my heart. 

Who has not felt the pain of life to the point that one wished for death? Or perhaps did in fact come near to death? Even in the moments when it is not physical death, most of us have known the emotional pains that feel as if ones heart is being torn apart.

I too have called out to God for help. Have you? And sometimes with a whisper, a gentle breeze, sometimes with a quick rescue, I have felt the hand of God Save. 

God listens. God listens deeply. God listens with compassion. And because God lived the human experience through Jesus, God’s empathy is complete. For God too has had to take up a cross.

God is indeed gracious and merciful. And the psalmist also calls God righteous. That is a great word. Often the word righteous has connotations of living according to the law, not sinning. But it is really so much more than that. Righteousness is right relationship with one another. God’s actions toward us are about a relationship built on love. Mercy is to love deeply. 

When I was brought low he saved me. Those moments of humiliation, God is there. Those moments of utter weakness and despair, God is there. Those moments when we think nothing can ever save us, perhaps our sin is too great, God is there.

Return o my soul to your rest. Like a child in the arms of its mother, our souls find rest in the presence of God.

In my silent prayer, centering prayer, I find God, here in my chest. I feel the warmth of utter love, acceptance and peace. I find salvation. Did you know that the word we translate as to be saved means to be made whole? I find, in the silence of God, wholeness.  Trappist Monk Thomas Keating writes that “silence is God’s first language.” The quote is also attributed to St John of the Cross.

Return o my soul to your rest in the place of God’s presence (silence)!

And each day I walk with God , here on this earth. It is such a joy, such an honor to know that we don’t need to wait until we go to some far away place at some far away time. But rather today we walk with God, here on planet earth.

It is election time. If you are on Facebook or any social media, if you are around others with different political views than you, if you watch the news or read the paper, you may need to remember that the peace, the wholeness, the deep love of God is with you. 

The beautiful thing about letting your soul rest in God during these times is his love shines through you. You will bring peace to the moment in which you are living. We need this. Not just for our souls but also for the souls of the world who share this moment with us.

If the concept of 6 degrees of separation is true, and I believe with technology it is even less, then touching the soul next to you can indeed be the pebble tossed in the water. Waves of hope and peace going ever outward.

Is quiet time with God a waste of time? Never! I am convinced it is the only hope our world has.  Again C.S Lewis in Reflections of the Psalms writes: “A man can’t be always defending the truth; there must be a time to feed on it.”―

So I would like to leave you with an alternative reading of today’s psalm.  There is a lovely book called “Psalms for Praying; an Invitation to Wholeness.”  Nan Merrill has rewritten the psalms into prayers of love. Here is Psalm 116:

(Perhaps close your eyes or simply quiet your mind as I read it.)

Receive my love, O Beloved, You who

hear my voice and my supplication.

You incline your ear to me, and

I call upon You with trust both day and night.

When the snares of fear encompass me,

when the pangs of loneliness envelop me,

I suffer distress and anguish.

Then I call upon You, my Rock:

You come to my aid,

Your strength upholds me.

Gracious are You, just and true;

Heart of all hearts, You are merciful and forgiving.

You preserve the simple; when

I am humbled, You lift me up.

Return, O my soul, to your rest;

For You, O Loving Friend,

bestow grace upon grace, a balm for my soul.

You raise me up to new life;

You dry my tears, and guide my feet on straight paths.

Now, I walk hand in hand with Love

in the land of the Awakened ones.

I keep my faith, even in times of great turmoil;

I invite others to Awaken to the joy of your Presence.

Ephphatha! Mark 7:24-37

I swear, the more I learn the less I know. Especially when it comes to the Bible.  Anybody else notice that?

Seriously, Whenever I sit down to write a sermon I pull up a chair next to my good friend Google, and we begin to search out commentaries and historic facts that might shed some light on the gospel reading of the day.

I learn a lot in that process. Although in all honesty I forget a lot too.

But it’s crazy. The more I learn about stuff the less sure I am about what Jesus intended for us to see.  I mean I try to step back and get some sense of what Mark wants us to understand based on the details that he gives or the things he doesn’t tell us. 

For instance, why does Jesus sigh, or in other translations groan, when he heals the deaf man and why did Mark find that important enough to record?  I don’t know.

Why did Jesus put his fingers in the man’s ears? I don’t know. Or the big question, why did Jesus spit and touch the man’s tongue? I don’t know! It doesn’t really say that he put his spit on the man’s tongue but neither does it say he didn’t . I don’t know!  (By the way, I learned a lot of interesting things about the spirituality of spit with Google’s guidance.)

Or how about the woman, why was Jesus so gruff with her? I don’t know! And what exactly was it in what she said that changed Jesus’ mind? Yup…you got it! I don’t know!

So instead of a sermon based on any certainty of what Mark wanted us to get from this, all I can do is tell you where my heart and mind ended up. Are you okay with that? 

Mark tells us that Jesus has gone into Gentile territory and found a house where he hoped he could hide away for a while. (I wonder who’s house. I don’t  know!) Maybe he hoped that the people he had fed and the Pharisees who were questioning him wouldn’t follow him there and he might get some rest.

Let’s look back in chapter 6 to get a feel for what Jesus has faced. Jesus’ home town tries to throw him off a cliff. Then Jesus sends out the disciples to minister to others and preach the gospel.I wonder if that was as emotional as sending your kids to their first day of school? And then He receives news that John the Baptist has been beheaded. 

So when the disciples return, he just wants some down time with his friends. Mark writes: “So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place.” 

But the crowds follow and find them. Mark writes: “When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.” And of course this is where he feeds the 5 thousand. 
And then in chapter 7, his disciples are trying to eat and the Pharisees give him a hard time for not washing their hands.

Phew, no wonder he slipped away to Gentile territory. His countrymen will not follow him there. No self respecting Jew would cross that border. He needs a break!

Before we go on and I get myself in trouble, let’s remember that Jesus is human. His body is just like ours. My guess is, he is whooped. So when this woman, this gentile woman finds him, who blames him if he gets a wee bit snarky? Many find this suggestion offensive. But remembering his humanness, at least for me, makes his words from the cross even more holy, sacred, and incredible! 

God, in Jesus, is living the human experience. All of it!

Okay maybe he wasn’t snarky as much as he was simply speaking from the teachings of his faith…Judaism…in which he had been raised. His comment to her about being one of the dogs was exactly the way of his culture. In his weariness maybe it was simply a knee jerk reaction. 

As I said, I don’t know why Jesus said this. But here is what I heard Mark telling me.
It is easy to make assumptions about people based on our cultural upbringing, our religious teaching, media propaganda, or our friends’ comments and jokes. But maybe, just maybe there is more to the person.

Jesus listens to the woman’s response. He doesn’t just walk away. He doesn’t tell her to be quiet and go away. He listens. And when he listens, there is a healing. When he listens her daughter is healed, and maybe even something in the mother is touched. He listens. And it changes his mind.

Our church in Binghamton NY was in crime central. We had so many felons in the area that we started an evening service for adults only. 

Guess what I discovered about these individuals. They were human beings with a story. They had names, families, traumas. That didn’t make their crimes suddenly ok. But it made them human beings God loved as much as he loved me. I changed my mind about them.

When we stop and listen, healing happens. To the one we listen to and maybe to the one who listens.  And it's a healing that continues through families and generations. This is what I heard Mark (and hopefully the Holy Spirit) telling me in this story.

And maybe, just maybe, we can then see that we cannot speak love, speak words that are not defiled, until our ears are opened and we can listen. And thus, the truth, the teaching in this second healing.

One of the things Google helped me find is that the word “Ephphatha!” in Aramaic not only means be opened but also could mean be connected. In Aramaic words are often understood by their pronunciation and context. Not unlike our own language. 

So, perhaps, when we listen, when we connect to the other, the words we speak will no longer be distorted or defiled by prejudice, but clear and loving and truthful and healing. The man’s ears were opened and perhaps his heart was connected to the God of love so that he could speak well.

Okay, so I don’t know if this is what Jesus and or Mark had in mind. But I believe what I have spoken is true. And I also wonder, if Jesus groaned because he felt the pain of the disconnect that we experience when we refuse or cannot be connected. I don’t know!

May our ears and hearts be opened and connected to the other, even the one we despise, so that our words might bring healing.

Join me in a moment of silence to hear the whisper of the Spirit.
Ephphatha!

Today is 988 day. 988 is the number a person can call if they are struggling with their own demons (so to speak). It is the mental health life line.

If you are struggling, if you know someone who is, please remember this number. It doesn’t have to be suicidal thoughts. Whatever mental health issue, depression, anxiety, hopelessness, there is someone on the other end of that line that will listen.
And perhaps that will bring healing.

Look! My Beloved! (Song of Solomon 2: 8-13 Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23)

I want to share with you the alternative lectionary reading for today. I’m never quite certain why we have alternative readings that we never seem to use. But no matter, one of the alternative readings comes from a book that we never seem to read. Go figure.

It is from the Song of Songs, or also known as Song of Solomon. Chapter2, verses 8-13
Listen! My beloved!
    Look! Here he comes,
leaping across the mountains,
    bounding over the hills.
9 My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag.
    Look! There he stands behind our wall,
gazing through the windows,
    peering through the lattice.
10 My beloved spoke and said to me,
    “Arise, my darling,
    my beautiful one, come with me.
11 See! The winter is past;
    the rains are over and gone.
12 Flowers appear on the earth;
    the season of singing has come,
the cooing of doves
    is heard in our land.
13 The fig tree forms its early fruit;
    the blossoming vines spread their fragrance.
Arise, come, my darling;
    my beautiful one, come with me.”

The Song of Songs is a lengthy love poem included in scripture not because of its sensuality, or at least that is my guess, but because it is a wonderful way of understanding the passionate love of God for each of us. I would say for his creation.

God chases after us, woos us, and passionately offers to us everything we need to find our way to his embrace. This is the God I have come to know.

So why do I want to offer this alternative reading today? Because I see in it a way of thinking about our gospel that maybe we haven’t considered. Or if we have, then a way that bears remembrance.

In our poem we read that the Beloved has come to his loved one. He has come a distance to call her to him. And we also read:
There he stands behind our wall,
gazing through the windows,
    peering through the lattice.
I have to wonder why he is left behind the wall, gazing through windows and lattice. Why is he not received or why does she not go to him? 

If this is indeed a poem of God chasing after us, then Jesus is the Beloved that has come a great distance to woo his people  into his embrace. What is the wall that keeps the Pharisees from receiving this love? Or as Isaiah prophesied “'This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me;”  What distances their hearts from the Beloved of God? 

The Pharisees, by the way, were the church people of Jesus’ day. 

In the case of our gospel it seems to be the doctrines and traditions that keep them from embracing the one who has come to embrace them. It is the carrying on with the way things have always been. It is the heart that has been hardened by need for control, consistency, and certainty.

Isn’t that what the human precepts bring? Control over others and disorder, consistency in how things will be done, and certainty in what is expected? And do we not also have these things, these precepts, these traditions firmly in place?

We have our liturgy, our rules, our buildings, our pews all firmly in place. So much so that when the Beloved calls:
Arise, come, my darling;
    my beautiful one, come with me.”
we watch him from our side of the wall.

We can see the Beloved through the window. We can see him through the lattice. Why do we not run to him? Why do we stand firmly where we have always been?

All of the rules and doctrines and teachings play an important part in who we are. They have helped to know what the Beloved will look like when he comes. They have given us the strength to look and wait.  They have built a foundation for what is right and wrong.

But there comes a time when we must look within and learn who it is we worship? Do we merely worship the Beloved, Jesus, God with our lips but give our hearts to rules, traditions, expectations? What do we rely on for our daily bread?

Friends, God has sent his very own Spirit to us. Jesus tells us that Spirit is alive and well and moves and breathes and is as free as the wind. How do we prepare ourselves to go when we are called?

I believe there is a time to wait and persist and there is a time to move forward. But how can we know if we are waiting or moving because of God’s call or because of our own stubborn hearts? 

First of all I believe while another may help us listen, we are the only ones that can truly know. And it is in knowing ourselves that we find the truth. What is in our hearts? Do we act in love? Do we cling in fear? Are we willing to listen? Or do we shut our ears?

There was a moment during my ordination that I will never forget. It had absolutely nothing to do with me. 
We had processed and sung and declared and confessed. All was going as planned. A dear friend stood to read scripture and speak. As he began a man from the streets walked in the door (not in proper attire), down the aisle, and knelt at the altar. After a moment of prayer he rose, sat in a pew for a few minutes and then walked back out the door. I was in awe.

No one demanded he play by the rules. No one stopped the service, the message, and tried to remove him. I will never know what happened to him or who he was. But his entrance left a deep impression.
Not only did I see a man who was willing to go beyond the walls of proper etiquette to chase after the Beloved, I saw a speaker, a bishop, a congregation that was willing to let the Spirit blow in, even without proper attire. The Spirit blows where it may.

We went on with the formalities but each person that was there was in some way changed. I continue to watch for the moment the Spirit blows in to interrupt my life in some new, unexpected form. And I pray I continue to leave the door unlocked so she or he may.

Open your hearts my friends and be ready, be willing to let your way, your tradition be disturbed. May we not merely worship with our lips but rather when the Beloved comes and calls may we have the courage to arise and follow the one who loves us more. Watch for him in the flowers, the change of seasons, the fruits, and the poorly attired that blow through your day like the wind.

EAT ME! John 6:56-69

It’s funny because when I retired I thought I would be able to avoid some of these rather uncomfortable readings. Including the weeks of all the bread gospels. But God in his sense of humor has placed in my lap this passage of Jesus eloquently saying to the people “eat me” for I am the bread of life.

Of course the thought that comes to mind, I am sure you have heard this said before, maybe too many times, is the old cliche “you are what you eat.”

 Since this is not a conversation on cannibalism, how do we eat Jesus and become like him? And what was he thinking making such an obscene declaration?

I actually grew to love this passage as I considered what Jesus was asking of us.  I am rereading a book by one of my favorite authors, Brian McLaren, “Finding our way again.”  It’s about ancient spiritual practices. He begins the book with a story that I have often retold.

At a conference of pastors, McLaren is tasked with the opportunity of interviewing Dr. Peter Senge, well known for his work in systems thinking. McLaren begins by asking what Senge would like to say to that group of five hundred Christian Ministers.

Senge begins with telling how he had asked a bookstore manager what the most popular books were. First was how to get rich in the new information economy. (BTW McLaren’s book was written in 2008).  And second were books on spirituality, particularly Buddhism. He then asks the pastors why this might be. Senge’s reasoning has never left me.

Senge said “I think it’s because Buddhism presents itself as a way of life, and Christianity presents itself as a system of belief.”

We are good at studying the words that have been attributed to Jesus via the gospels. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing. We build creeds around the gospel stories. We create liturgies. It is all good stuff for the head to ponder. But Jesus doesn’t say think about me, Jesus says consume me…everything that I am.
Take all of me! All that I am.  Not just the words. Why? Because words change meanings throughout centuries and cultures. Their connotations evolve with societies. Words are often misunderstood or repeated and remembered incorrectly. Words can only be the beginning of our journey with Jesus.

Jesus tells us he is “the way, the truth, the life.” Consume, make who he is, his life, his way of being a part of your life, your heartbeat, your digestive system. 

McLaren writes, :Jesus didn’t merely describe this way or path, nor did he merely point to it, nor did he reduce it to a list of rules; he actually embodied it: I am the path, he said.” Don’t just talk about the path, embody it!

Consume everything about Jesus and become the way/the path for another. Yes, you become the way to another. Does that sound sacrilegious? Think about this: you have the very same Spirit Jesus had. The very same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is within you. Jesus is telling us, no, showing us how to bring that spirit alive. How to feed that spirit. How to exercise that spirit. How to manifest that Spirit for another to see.

How do we eat Jesus? How do we consume all that he is? One way is here at the communion table. We take, in that little piece of bread or wafer, all that Jesus embodied and we consume it. His love, his grace, his peace. It becomes part of us. If our spirits are open to receiving it as such.

We do this as a continuous reminder that we not only want to know about Jesus but we want Jesus to become part of who we are. We want to become what it is we eat. We want our spirit to be nourished by His Spirit.

Another way of consuming or receiving Jesus (I'm not talking about coming to the altar and praying the salvation prayer). Is to open your spirit to be united with his in an intentional manner. 
There are several spiritual practices that help us do this on a daily basis, in our own living room, at our own kitchen table etc. 

Centering Prayer is my favorite. It is the practice of going into your private room, prayer closet, inner space to be open to God. In that time you put away all words and just be present with the one who created you and woos you. 

Jesus often went away for one on one time with God. It is a beautiful way of what some refer to as “oneing” with God, with Jesus, with the Spirit. Jesus prayed we too would become one with God just as he is one with God.

Centering Prayer feeds and forms my spirit. 

Christianity is too often just learning about Jesus and memorizing his words. (Again, a necessary first step for sure.) But that can be like buying a brand new car, leaving it at the dealership and taking home the manual to read and perhaps memorize. Then once a week going back to the dealership to be reminded what the car is like, touch it,get in it and breathe that new car smell, rev up the engine a bit.  But never taking it home and making it a part of everyday life. Never driving it around the neighborhood, to work, or on vacation.

Jesus declares: consumer me. Take all of who I am. Unite with the Spirit within me. It is only from that place that the words, the miracles, the death on the cross makes sense. It is from that place that Paul tells the Corinthians: “you should imitate me, just as I imitate Christ.” 
It is from that place that Christianity becomes the Way of Following Jesus, the Way of being Jesus to others, the way of a life that is eternal.

Join me in a moment of silence as we let the Spirit of God become one with ours.

Where authority is found. Mark 6:1-13

I found myself wondering about all the people in our gospel reading today.Not just Jesus and the disciples, but all the other people. Those in Nazareth who couldn’t let their human perception and jealousy down. The few that Jesus healed. Those who met up with the disciples as they were sent out on their field trip by their teacher.

People in Jesus’ day lived in very different circumstances than we do .

They did not have an independence day to celebrate because they were a conquered people. The rulers of their land were foreigners. The Romans, as we know, were not compassionate rulers.

The people were poor, hungry, destitute. They depended on the rich to give them jobs. They paid high taxes. Medicine, even antiquated, was unaffordable or unavailable. 

They feared for their lives. Not only because the ruling regime was ruthless in its power but because many of their own were,out of desperation and anger and a false hope, brought violence into their own communities. 

Young girls and boys faced slavery and sexual abuse from the Romans. And of course, girls were married off at young ages for the sake of their families.  All of this was lived out in a place where Roman cruelty was on display all around the city.

While we are certainly more fortunate, I do not believe it is unfair to see ourselves in many of the situations the people in our story were facing.

And it is these people, the broken, the hungry, the afraid, that Jesus comes to reach. It is these people that he sends the disciples out to minister to. In fact, please make note, Jesus and his disciples live in this same world. They were not rich or powerful people. They were people just like us. It is easy to forget this truth. And they proclaimed God’s love to those around them.

So what lessons can we find in the stories Mark gives us? Is there something here that Jesus is teaching not only his disciples but also us? Obviously I think so or I wouldn’t  have headed down this path.

The first thing I see is vulnerability. I do not like being vulnerable. In fact, I believe none of us do! Jesus makes himself vulnerable when he goes home to proclaim the good news. He knew how prophets were treated in their hometowns. He read the scriptures!  And still he went. 

Human nature does not like to see someone who has been their equal rise up and become well known.  Jealousy is a factor. But it also makes us feel like failures in comparison. Mark tells us they saw Jesus’ wisdom and knew of his miracles. To them, Jesus is truly human. His truth shines a very bright light on their falsehoods. And it hurts. Jesus knew this. He became vulnerable to their hurt. 

Jesus also tells his disciples to go out without a lot of stuff, without a lot of things that might make them look important. He sends them out vulnerable to the hospitality of the people they come to serve. And he shows them that not everyone will receive them well.

Number two, Jesus shows them how to respond to those who will not receive them or their message– with humility. He does not get angry, he does not belittle, he does not demand honor. He simply acknowledges their lack of faith and moves on. In fact, he even heals the few who will receive. He is humble and compassionate.

And he tells his disciples the same thing. Receive what is given to you, and walk away from those who will not receive your message. Shake the dust off your feet, don’t carry the burden of their lack of faith or hospitality with you. No anger, no belittling, no demanding honor. Forcing one's faith on another does not bring healing or freedom from spiritual ills. 

Reminds me of words from the cross: "Forgive them, they don’t know what they are doing.”

Number three, they were sent in pairs. We are not meant to be the lone wolf. It is lonely, scary, and we get some weird ideas in our heads when we go it alone. Jesus does take time by himself in prayer. But it is interesting how often he takes Peter, James and John with him. 

Find a pastor, a spiritual director, a spiritual friend. Someone who will speak truth to you and remind you what the mission is. This spiritual journey God sends us on can not be walked alone.

Finally, I notice that Jesus gives them authority. In their vulnerability, in their apparent weakness, in their appearance of being without, they have authority. Not the kind of authority that the ones who rule their country wield. Rather, Authority to bring health and wholeness and the presence of God. 

Paul’s words to the Corinthians explains this well. Let’s revisit 2 Corinthians 12 using the New Living Translation:

This boasting will do no good, but I must go on. I will reluctantly tell about visions and revelations from the Lord. 2 I was caught up to the third heaven fourteen years ago. Whether I was in my body or out of my body, I don’t know—only God knows. 3 Yes, only God knows whether I was in my body or outside my body. But I do know 4 that I was caught up to paradise and heard things so astounding that they cannot be expressed in words, things no human is allowed to tell.

5 That experience is worth boasting about, but I’m not going to do it. I will boast only about my weaknesses. 6 If I wanted to boast, I would be no fool in doing so, because I would be telling the truth. But I won’t do it, because I don’t want anyone to give me credit beyond what they can see in my life or hear in my message, 7 even though I have received such wonderful revelations from God. So to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud.

8 Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. 9 Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. 10 That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Paul knew God in a very real way. And Paul knew his own weakness. He knew humility. This is how we are to bring the proclamation of the good news of God. It is in our humility God’s authority is manifested.

The disciples knew Jesus in person. But Jesus showed them, it was in their vulnerability, humility, and compassion they would find the authority to bring wholeness to those around them. 

Being forceful and arrogant is not the authority our Lord gives. 

We have a lot to learn, don’t we? May we follow their lead. 

Planting seeds Romans 8: 25-57, Mark 4:26-34

Bruce and I have the privilege of sitting in our sunroom and watching the neighbor come out with his tractor and planter and plant little seeds into the ground. And then to watch as somehow, like magic, little green plants, this year it’s corn, come growing up out of the dirt. The farmer, for the most part, just waits and watches too. 

It is the miracle of the season. Everywhere we drive we see fields that just a month or so ago were barren, now green with corn and beans. Yards are filled with colors from flowers–trees are covered in leaves–and lawns, well they need mowing.

And although it is true that we might help the process along with some watering, none of it really occurs by the power of our own hands.  It is all so miraculous.

And this is how Jesus speaks of the Kingdom of God. The kingdom to which Jesus refers is not a geographical realm but rather in Aramaic it refers to the power of God, the presence of God, the heartbeat of God, within us.

For me, this is something I yearn for. I long to feel the breath and heartbeat and lifeforce of God. And honestly, I have tried to find God in many ways. Knowledge is a wonderful thing. I love to read and learn more and more about that which we call scripture as well as other inspired writings. Studying scripture is like planting seeds. But it takes something more than head knowledge, than planting a seed in the ground, to make it grow.

I do a short Facebook video of lectio divina or Holy Reading. By the way, I have been told my pronunciation is a bit off. Nonetheless, in lectio one reads a short passage, scripture or some other inspired reading, and then in silence allows some word or phrase to simmer,take root within. There is then a second and third reading of the same passage and time for silent meditation for each reading. 

Lectio is a powerful way of planting a seed and letting it take root. By God’s grace, it grows on. By the way, I have been trying to do these videos on Friday morning around 9, but they can be viewed anytime after as they remain in cyberspace throughout eternity I suppose. Or at least until Facebook dies.

And then there is Centering Prayer. Another powerful spiritual practice. I am involved with a once a week, online centering prayer group. I can’t tell you I get to participate every week, life is like that. But at least twice a month I sit with several others in 20 minutes of silence. Sounds kind of odd. But let me explain.

Centering Prayer is a practice that has been around for ages.  Monk and priest, Thomas Keating developed the modern form out of a desire for more Christian contemplative practices. 

The Contemplative Outreach Center writes this:

The method of Centering Prayer is drawn from the ancient practices of the Christian contemplative heritage, notably the traditional monastic practice of Lectio Divina and the practices described in the anonymous fourteenth century classic The Cloud of Unknowing and in the writings of Christian mystics such as John Cassian, Francis de Sales, Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Therese of Lisieux, and Thomas Merton. Most importantly, Centering Prayer is based on the wisdom saying of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount:

“…when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father, who sees in secret, will repay you.”      

https://www.contemplativeoutreach.org/history-of-centering-prayer/

Have you ever wondered what Jesus prayed about all night? I can't see him seeing with a laundry list of requests.

Anyway,I Love their definition:  Centering Prayer is a receptive method of Christian silent prayer which deepens our relationship with God, the Indwelling Presence …  a prayer in which we can experience God’s presence within us, closer than breathing, closer than thinking, closer than consciousness itself.

I can picture the man Jesus doing this. Even needing this.

The practice is simple, but often challenging. To keep from reinventing the wheel (so to speak) I will simply use the instructions from the Contemplative Outreach website. https://www.contemplativeoutreach.org/centering-prayer-method/

1 Choose a sacred word as the symbol of your intention to consent to God’s presence and action within. (Over time mine has gone from “shhhh” to “Lord” to “Ruha”, amongst others. It shouldn’t change in the midst of the practice however.)

2 Sitting comfortably and with eyes closed (or not), settle briefly and silently introduce the sacred word as the symbol of your consent to God’s presence and action within.

(The goal is to quiet your mind, no lists, no to-do’s, just a quiet peaceful mind ready to listen to God, to receive God. Without fail, thoughts will enter your mind. That’s ok. Let them glide through or float away.)

3 When engaged with your thoughts, return ever-so-gently to the sacred word.

4 At the end of the prayer period, remain in silence with eyes closed for a couple of minutes.  (Our online group ends by praying the Lord’s Prayer together.)

For those of us always busy, this can feel like a waste of time at first. But I promise, sitting quietly with our Lord is never a waste of time.

What happens as one continues in this practice is much like the seed the farmer plants. Slowly, without effort on the farmers' part, the seed grows. And it produces the fruit it is genetically predisposed to produce. 

What fruit does such prayer produce? The seed is the Holy Spirit. And as Paul writes to the Galatians: the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

This is what grows and ripens. This is the heartbeat of God, the kingdom of God.

I would love to start a local centering prayer group. One that meets every couple of weeks or once a month. But in order to do that I would need to begin to talk about it and teach about it. When I saw the gospel reading for today I knew that I knew God was giving me the opportunity to do that.

I encourage you to consider this practice on your own, and I also offer the thought of gathering a group together. Please let me know if  you would find this practice helpful and would like to talk about it more. Either for personal practice or in a group.

It seems only right to end this with a time of silence. To give space for a seed to begin to take root. I'll set my timer.

And so…as the scripture declares…be still and know I am God. Be still and know God. Be still.

The Sabbath Rules Mark 2:23-3:6

Mark 2:23-3:6

When I first started this gig of preaching I knew exactly what to preach. I knew what the theological declaration was supposed to be. I knew exactly what Jesus was saying and exactly who Jesus was and why he came to earth. 

Now I have a lot more room in my theology to wonder and listen and learn. I have a lot more questions but I am also much more at peace with God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit. 

I was raised with all the rules and all the way church was supposed to be and look. I knew what prayers were to be said and when. I knew exactly what communion and baptism meant. I knew what was required.

Somewhere along the line I learned that things are not always how we have been taught. I learned that more people were acceptable in the eyes of God than I had originally been told. I learned that the Holy Spirit shows up in places I had not expected. Like the surprised disciples who found the Spirit working in the Gentiles, I have seen the Spirit alive and well and working in gays and trans folks. I have seen the Spirit working in Catholics, Unitarian Universalists, and non church goers. I believe Jesus equated the Spirit to one who blows like the wind and goes where she will. How silly of us to try to confine or define her.

I believe that baptism is a beautiful expression of our God but not a requirement to live as a Child of God. I have learned that communion is a wonderful beckoning of the Spirit to touch God but not the only way. 

I have learned that God is much much bigger than I ever imagined and the Spirit a whole lot more free than I was once told.

I truly believe that this is what Jesus is trying to make known to those around him in our gospel reading.

The Sabbath is a gift from God, reminding us that we don’t need to work 24/7 to make the world go round. We are created to work but to also rest and enjoy the fruits of our labors.  The preacher writes in Ecclesiastes:

So I commend the enjoyment of life, because there is nothing better for a person under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany them in their toil all the days of the life God has given them under the sun.

The Sabbath is offered as the opportunity to do so. An opportunity to bring joy to rest and to work.

But what happens when humans get ahold of these gifts and add all their rules to them? Suddenly they become hardships. Suddenly they become obligations. Suddenly they become limited in who they might bless. Suddenly they lose all their blessedness.

I am convinced this is what Jesus wants us to see. A gift, a blessing, an act of love becomes a burden under the shortsightedness of humans, out of the need to control. Perhaps out of a need to know what they know or do or say is THE right way.

Jesus shows us that God is so much bigger than the religious boxes we have built. 

If Sabbath is a gift of love from Love itself, remember we understand that God is love, given for humanity to enjoy, then how can we layer it with all the restrictions and chains that make it burdensome? Is that anyway to treat a gift?

If communion is a gift of love from Love itself then why do we layer it with restrictions? Perhaps when Paul speaks of taking communion in an unworthy manner in 1 Corinthians, he is reminding us it is a gift of love. A gift! One that offers a means of touching God. Layering it with rules and laws is then the unworthy manner of accepting the gift of Christ’s body and blood.  

I suggest that when we require ourselves to be other than who we are created to be, we become unworthy. 

God is bigger than we can imagine. God acts in ways that are outside of our rules and understandings. God is not limited by our shortsightedness and prejudices. This, I sincerely believe, is what Jesus wants us to see. 

AW Tozer writes:

We tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God. This is true not only of the individual Christian, but of the company of Christians that composes the Church.

How can one know how we view God? Watch what we do and say and then you will know what we believe about God. 

Of course we need something as human beings, as sheep in the pasture, to direct us and keep us from going off the cliff. Structures make a foundation. But when we make these gifts of guidance for our lives our absolutes, instead of the God that gave them in love, then we have created false gods.

When I approach a message,I try to remember that I do not know much for certain. That it is the Spirit, always moving as the wind, that must lead. Sometimes It seemed easier to preach when I thought I knew the answers. But so much less alive!

What a joy it is to seek out God in the midst of life, in the midst of a growing relationship, in the midst of Love, in the midst of the breath–the wind of the Spirit.

That is how Jesus lived. Always looking to, seeking out, moving with God, Abba, Father.

I would like to offer you this song by Peter Mayer. I am learning that God is so big, so immense, so all encompassing that Everything is Holy Now.

https://youtu.be/KiypaURysz4?si=TKNnBVe3yvZNavTU