Visible Traces

The Scripture:                                                                                       Deuteronomy 6:4-9

Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

The Whisperings:

"Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone.  You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might."

This prayer is called the Shema, and it is prayed at the beginning and end of every day by observant Jews. (It is traditionally prayed while covering or closing one’s eyes.) The Shema reveals God’s commandment to us in two distinct parts. First, it begs us to hear the proclamation that the Lord is our God, the Lord alone. It exhorts us to remember that we must worship only one God, not many.  It reminds us that God must be the first priority in our lives. The second part is just as important: God demands that we love the Lord our God with all our hearts, souls and might.  This indicates a need for an ongoing relationship with God, not just a “once in a while” drive thru visit.

So, in this short prayer, there are actually two powerful imperatives: a command to hear and a command to love. How do we do that?  In verses 6-9, Moses outlines three specific ways to accomplish the tasks of hearing and loving God: 

1. First, we must commit these words to our hearts.  How different would our lives be if we recommitted ourselves to God each and every morning upon awakening and every evening before going to bed? 
2. Second, scripture tells us to recite these words to our children and talk about them both at home and in the world. How are we doing with that? Are we passing down the vital message of God’s love to our children and to our neighbors?
3. And third, we are told to make God known to the world with visual reminders.  “Wearing it” on our shirtsleeves may not be feasible for us, but the intent here is to place the very fact of God, to place the Shema itself, in the midst of our lives as a reminder for all people. It’s not about how many crosses you tie around your neck, or how many fish decals you stick on your car. Instead, this part of the passage asks us to place the idea of the Shema “out there” –  in our actions and way of life. How do we leave visible traces of God in the marketplace?
4. 
   
   How goes it for you?

Prayer for Times of Conflict: O God, you have bound us together in a common life. Help us, in the midst of our struggles for justice and truth, to confront one another without hatred or bitterness, and to work together with mutual forbearance and respect; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.                                                    Book of Common Prayer, pg. 824

It has been a divisive election year. The television ads have been particularly unsettling, not because they were simply derogatory, but because they took statements and actions utterly out of context, and named them "truth." Pilate was right when he asked, "What is truth?" (John 18:38).

Whether your candidate won or lost, whether today you are feeling jubilant or depressed, we must not lose sight of the fact that we are bound together in a common life. We are called by our Lord God to bind up the broken hearted, to strive for justice and peace, and to respect the dignity of every human being. We are called to be Christ's hands and hearts in the world: to seek out and serve all people, but particularly those who are poor, weak, sick, or lonely.

· Who, this week, needs an encouraging word?
· Who, this week, needs food or shelter?
· Who, this week, needs your time or your attention.

Let's get on with the business of our common life. God has a world in need of your heart and hands. 

For Bob...

This week, one of my dearest friends was killed; accidentially, tragically. He was watching his wife and her team row crew in Portland, Oregon.  He was standing on a bridge. He waved to her as her boat went under the bridge. Then, he turned to cross the bridge to watch her boat emerge from the other side, but he never made it. Crossing the bridge, he was struck by a car and killed instantly.  

Grief is a funny thing. I somehow cannot bear to put up a picture of Bob on this page, but I can put up an example of how love helps us through the darkest of days. It is proof positive that God is there with us in our triumphs and in our tragedies. The picture above is of Cynthia's crew team. You, see, they didn't wallow in the tragedy that occurred, they acted. Someone decided that their very next race would have every team member wearing shirts remembering Bob.  It was a way to show solidarity with one of their teammates. It was a way to keep moving forward, even when the world seems to have stopped.  

They raced. They won. They held up Bob's wife in her grief by doing what only they could do. By proclaiming that Bob was there, that Bob lived, that Bob would not be forgotten. Not only would he not be forgotten, he would be celebrated. 

I love you Bob. Still. 

How Healthy is blame?

"Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died"

Is Martha's tone one of accusation? Or is it one of faith? 

Jesus' friend Lazarus lay dying, and his sisters, Martha and Mary, sent word to Jesus; but Jesus did not come immediately to his friend's bedside. . The text for All Saints' Day tells us that Jesus remained where he was for two more days. By the time he arrived, Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Neither Martha nor Mary could have anticipated what Jesus was about to to (to bring Lazarus out from the grave), but were they being accusatory -- or were they expressing deep faith in Jesus' ability as a healer? 
The question for us becomes:  How do we call out for God in times of deep distress? Do we accuse God of being absent or too late? When we cry out, "Oh God," is i from a place of deep faith that acknowledges our utter reliance on God or is it from a place of skepticism? 

Our scriptures tell us time and again that God is there with us; able to do all thins if only we had enough faith, and yet, is that not the stumbling place for most of us? Have we enough faith to utterly rely on God when torment swirls around us or when we are bone weary from grief, or when the Tempter lures us into the excesses that the world offers?  

However we respond to God, let it be our prayer that our faith must never be allowed to stagnate, but that it become a stronger and stronger part of who we are each time trials assault us. 

God is with us -- always. Do we notice? 

Scripture suggestion: John 11: 17-22

Pray!

In whatever language or style you choose. God understands.

What DO you want?

“What do you want me to do for you?”               Mark 10: 51

Jesus asks this question of Bartimaeus, a blind beggar in Jericho. This sentence is striking because it notes a radical shift in the perception people had of God. The early Greeks, Egyptians, and other cultures of the time all paid strict obeisance to the gods they worshiped; they made sacrifices, they put up totems, built altars, and strived to please their gods lest they incur the wrath of the gods.

What a radical departure from the norm Jesus offers! Our God, the Incarnate One, who, instead of being a threatening abstraction, is right in front of our faces asking us, “What do you want me to do for you?” This is the God we worship. The Divine Presence who yearns for relationship with us, who loves us, who sacrificed His only begotten Son so that we might have eternal life.

 God wants into your life! 

As you consider how passionate God is for you and for me and for all of creation, try to identify some times where God has begged you for your attention. Some instances where God was trying to tell you something, yearning for you to notice. Did you notice? How did you respond?

 Now, close your eyes, and imagine that God is right in front of you, and God whispers into your ear,
“What do you want me to do for you?”

 How will you answer?

The Scripture:                                                                                                        Mark 10:46-52

Jesus and his disciples came to Jericho. As he and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" Many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly, "Son of David, have mercy on me!" Jesus stood still and said, "Call him here." And they called the blind man, saying to him, "Take heart; get up, he is calling you." So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. Then Jesus said to him, "What do you want me to do for you?" The blind man said to him, "My teacher, let me see again." Jesus said to him, "Go; your faith has made you well." Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way.

On God as Genie

"Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you." 
                                                                                                                   Mark 10:35

Are they serious? Do James and John think that Jesus is some a magic genie who will grant their wishes? "We want you to do for us whatever we ask of you." How incredibly presumptuous of them!  We are quick to chuckle about how slow the disciples are to "get it" whenever Jesus tried to teach them about the Kingdom of God. An yet, as disciples ourselves, I wonder how often we don;t :get it" either,  James and John knew they were "in good" with Jesus -- why not ask him for plum spots? How often have we sidled up to our bosses in order to position ourselves for that big promotion?

And in our prayers.... Have we ever treated God like a magic genie?

• Please, God, let me pass this exam.
• Please, God, let this Lotto ticket be the big winner.
• Please, God, let me get this promotion. 
• Please, God, don't let Nana die.  

In this passage, Jesus turns our human expectations of what God "is" upside down. To be associated with and aligned with Christ, our Lord reminds us: "Whoever wishes to be first among you must be the salve and servant of all." In other words, to align ourselves as Christians means to serve the world, not to get an inside track on God so we can get more "stuff." 

How will you, this week, bring God's love into the world? 

How will you, this week, be an example of God's grace in a world in desperate need of it? 

For meditation, please read Matthew 10: 35-45.

Wage Peace

Wage peace with your breath.
Breathe in firemen and rubble, 
breathe out whole buildings and flocks of 
red wing blackbirds. 

Breathe in terrorists
and breathe out sleeping children and freshly mown fields. 
Breathe in confusion
and breathe out maple trees. 
Breathe in the fallen
and breathe out lifelong friendships in tact.

Wage peace with your listening;
hear sirens, pray loud. 
Remember your tools: 
flower seeds, clothespins, clean rivers. 

Make soup. 
Play music, 
learn the word thank you in three languages. 
Learn to knit, and make a hat. 

Think of chaos as dancing raspberries, 
imagine grief as the out breath of beauty
or the gesture of fish. 
Swim for the other side.
Wage peace. 

Never has the world seemed so fresh and precious. 
Have a cup of tea and rejoice.
Act as if armistice has already arrived. 
Don't wait another minute. 

                                             - Mary Oliver


   

The Blind Man

Many of us have trouble with our eyes. I decided to get my eyes checked 15 years ago, and after a battery of tests, the eye doctor told me to go to a drug store and get a pair of "readers" -- and to come back and see him in 5 years. I've gone back three times, once every five years, but each time he tells me to keep getting the "readers" at the drug store. Of course, a dysfunction or disease of the eye is nothing I aspire to, but I do confess to wondering why I don't qualify for prescription eye wear.
Thankfully, most of us never will be rendered blind. We can imagine it by blind-folding ourselves and stumbling around our own houses for a short period of time, or we can think about it as we try to find light switches when the power suddenly goes out, but few of us will ever experience the reality of blindness. Or will we?
I don't have to tell you that physical blindness is an apt metaphor for being spiritually blind. Scripture tells us several stories of blindness and limited sight. There's the one about the man Nicodemus who was blind to the basic teachings of the kingdom. There's Paul -- or was it still Saul(?) -- who experienced his sight being restored as scales fell from his eyes. And of course, the blind man, who called out to Jesus and who Jesus healed.

The disciples saw that man, and were curious about why such a thing would happen. They assumed that his blindness was a punishment for a particular sin. But they weren't sure whether he himself, or his parents were to blame. When Jesus says, “it was not this man who sinned or his parents” he doesn't mean to suggest that the blind man or his parents were perfect and holy. Jesus is trying to correct their reasoning that bad things happen to bad people (and therefore since I am relatively healthy, I must be relatively good). Baloney. My good eyesight has little to do with how "good" I am, and much to do with my genes. Throughout the New Testament Jesus repudiates this kind of “you must have deserved that” gloating from pride-filled observers.
Perhaps the disciples were blind to their own blindness. Perhaps they were so focused on this man and wondering what his sin was that they couldn't recall their own. Indeed, Jesus tells us to watch out for logs in our eyes. Time and again, Jesus points to the Pharisees, urging us to notice our own shortcomings.

What is it we might be missing as we complain about what others aren't doing for us? What do we NOT SEE when we wallow in self-pity or react to the imperfections we see in our neighbors?

Help me, Lord, to see you more clearly in the faces of those who I find irritating, insensitive, inept, and idiotic! Make me aware of your presence in them and in myself so that I will not be blind to their needs, anxieties, and hopes. Amen.

Water Miracles

I picked my friend up at O’Hare International Airport and brought her back to my house. She came for a month, taking respite from her mission work in the south of Sudan. When we got to my house, I filled the tea kettle with water and put it on the stove to boil. She looked at me with a look of shock and joyful surprise, and ran to the sink and exclaimed, “Running water!”

One billion people in the world lack access to safe drinking water. In Sudan, young girls must walk an average of 4 miles a day to collect water for their families’ daily needs, thus making school attendance nearly impossible. Water scarcity affects 60% of the world’s people. Yet, here we sit, water taps at the ready to wash our cars, water our lawns, flush our toilets, and take our daily showers.

Imagine, for just a moment. Imagine no running water in your home: no kitchen faucet, no shower, no flush toilet. And now imagine being thirsty – very thirsty – and having to walk 3 or 4 miles in the noonday heat to collect a pan of water.

So it was for our Lord as he arrived in the heat of the midday sun at Jacob’s well. “Give me a drink,” he said to the Samaritan woman who happened by. The well was far from the village. She had walked a long distance, and the water was difficult to draw. She sounded almost affronted by his request, until Jesus spoke to her of “Living Water.”

Lent invites us to consider the gift of the Living Waters of our baptism and to be grateful for the abundance of water that we have for our daily living. Lent challenges us to ask what we might do, with God’s help -- as individuals, as Christians, and as citizens of the world – to ensure that all of God's children have access to clean water, without which there is no life.

This year, Bishop Lee challenged the people of the Diocese of Chicago to dig 50 wells in villages that have no access to safe drinking water. If we meet his challenge, we will transform the lives of countless people in fifty villages around the world; we will offer them water for living in the name of the Living Water who sends us from the font into the world.

Please accept the Bishop’s Challenge by getting your entire community involved and by raising funds to dig fifty wells. Remember: water is necessary for life, and water scarcity affects 60% of the world’s people.

ASHES TO GO

It was Ash Wednesday in Chicagoland. It fell this year on March 9th, so it came as no surprise that it was rainy and cold that morning. We arrived at the Geneva Metra train station at 6:15 AM dressed in black cassocks, white surplices, and rubber boots. We carried sandwich board signs which read "Ash Wednesday Ashes Here."

We didn't know what the response would be. A colleague had cautioned us about "delivering empty symbols" to a disinterested world, but we felt strongly, my colleague and I. Where better to meet people than where they live and work and play? Why wait for them to come into church? A few people walked past, looking vaguely uncomfortable. Most people smiled. Some people stopped and asked for ashes, and so we imposed ashes on their foreheads, and said a short prayer with them, and offered them a small meditation card to take on the train with them. They climbed onto their trains, and some waved as their trains pulled out. Many smiled. There was no contempt that showed. People seemed to like the idea of "church in the marketplace."

The best surprise of all? People on trains called home on their cell phones. They told them to come to the Metra station so their kids could see church people giving out Ash Wednesday ashes. So they came. Curious. Interested. Smiling.
On their way to something else, but they came. Because word got out.

The Word has a way of getting out.

Caeden Grows!

Create a free slideshow design