Whimsy

There move the ships,and there is that Leviathan,
 which you have made for the sport of it.   Psalm 104:26

There is that great Leviathan - the great sea creature - perhaps a whale? 

What, exactly, the Psalmist meant by Leviathan is secondary, really. 

What is important is that God made it, created it, for the sport of it. Whimsy.

As Spring erupts, it's impossible not to marvel at the beauty that surrounds us:  

daffodils erupt into tulips, lilacs replace viburnum, and puppies morph into loyal companions. And the Lord God made them all, as the children's hymn reminds us.

We are taught much about sin, but not as much about redemption. We contemplate the horrors of the crucifixion, and often take a pass on the miracle that is Resurrection.  We remember when God rained down fire and brimstone, yet we are dismissive of the whimsy revealed in the first chapter of Genesis where we experience God as Creator. 

God created llamas, for heaven's sake. Who cannot smile? Where do you experience God as whimsical? God as creating things for our enjoyment, for the sheer sport of it? Look into the faces of those you love. 

Look into the relationships you most enjoy. 

God creates those too - for God's own enjoyment -- and for ours

Lord, You Know My Heart

The Text: 

                  Lord, you know everyone's heart.....     Acts 1:24

                     

                                                        Cristomo                         by Agostino Arrivabene, 2013 

 

The Whispering:

Lord, you know everyone's heart..... Wow. 

God knows. Knows the stuff we do with good intentions, and knows that which we may do with carefully crafted malevolent intent. God knows..

We all keep secrets:  feelings we harbor yet never express; desires for which we may yearn yet never chase, actions we've taken but have never admitted.  And, yet, God knows. 

How much energy do we spend keeping our secrets hidden? What effort, what psycho-social spiritual strength do we expend in order to create acceptable social masks that are congruent with society's norms - or the church's expectations? 

Because God already knows our hearts.

This is the place from which our prayers must commence.                                                 

This is the conversation God yearns to have with us every day. 

Because God knows.  

Choices

The Text:

You did not choose me, but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.               John 15:16

                                       The Fruit Bearers                                  by Raymond Cody, c. 1992

                  

We often think of ourselves as choosing God: choosing to become active (or not) in our faith communities. Choosing our careers, choosing our spouses, choosing whether or not we will come to church on a Sunday morning.  We like to have choices. 

How might our lives change if we really understood and believed that God chose us first? Would we put more effort into our endeavors? Might we be more joy-filled?                   Could we live more fully into the idea that we are on a mission from God?

When we make choices on our own that are not "of God" it often feels as though we are pushing water uphill. Certainly we have "free will" and can, at any time, reject God's choices for us, but those choices that are not God borne often feel unsustainable and unwieldy.

What choices have you made that may not be God authored? Do they weigh you down? Are they preventing you from bearing fruit?  The first step into reconciliation is to take stock of those things we have chosen and to examine them for signs of God's authorship. It is only then wherein we can begin to cast away those things that are not of God and become spiritually able to be re-filled with that which is truly life-giving and  fruit-bearing.

Philip and the Ethiopian

"Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?" Acts 8:37

The story of "Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch" is a passage full of surprises. The Eunuch is an important man: Treasurer to Candace, Queen of Ethiopia. He is approached by a lowly fisherman from Galilee named Philip.

The court official, rather than looking with disdain upon the stranger who rushed up to his chariot, is open to Philip's teaching of the Good News. After hearing all Philip had to say, the Courtesan was convinced.
"Look! Here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?"

That enthusiasm, that running forward into the Good News, no matter who calls us to it is what makes excellent disciples. A willingness to learn from unlikely characters. A willingness to come down literally from our high horses and to open our minds and hearts to Truth.

Indeed, "What is to prevent me?"
What prevents us from running forward into the arms of God in humility and with genuine openness to what God might be planning for us?
Who do you listen to?
Who do you reject?

Laying Down Our Lives

For this reason the Father loves me, 
because I lay down my life in order to take it up again.

Laying down our lives.

Laying down our busy-ness, our egos, our priorities. When we do this for the sake of the Gospel, the potential for transformation is birthed in us. We may think we do not have the time, the talent, or the treasure to drop our lives for the sake of the Gospel; there are mortgages to pay, kids to educate, and retirements to be planned. Yet Christ assures us that in laying down our lives for His sake, we open ourselves to a new life potential that is beyond anything we can ask for or imagine.

Jesus says, "I have the power to lay it down (my life) and the power to take it up again." So have we.
Is this a risk worth taking?
Is this a risk we can afford NOT to take?

Peace

Peace be with you.  Luke 24: 36

Jesus utters these words frequently during this season of Eastertide.     He has died, he has been resurrected. In the days after the miasma of his gut wrenching crucifixion, in the shock and grief after his death, Jesus appears time and again to offer peace: peace of mind, peace of heart  and freedom from angst, anger, and fretfulness.

Peace is the essence of the Easter message, and the hallmark of those who follow The Way. In Jesus, we are called to look deeply into our lives and called to ferret out those resentments we hold, those complaints we keep re-voicing, and those fears that threaten to strangle us and those around us. We are called to follow Jesus as he breathes "Peace be with you" into our hearts and minds.  

This is how we proclaim the Kingdom of God; not through worry or back room gossip, or through anger and resentment. We usher in the Kingdom of God by whispering "Peace be with you," to those among whom we live and move and have our being.  Try it. 

Liz+                                   

 

Me 'N Thomas

Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt, but believe.    John 20:27

The Apostle Thomas, the one we often refer to as "Doubting Thomas," wasn't around the first time Jesus appeared to the others in the Upper Room. After the fact, his buddies tell him this fantastical story: "Oh, darn, old boy, bad luck; you missed him! Jesus was here. He's not dead after all; he's alive! He was right here with us!"

It's easy to jump on Thomas, cluck-clucking and tsk-tsking because he's the one who had trouble accepting this preposterously inconceivable feat of Resurrection as truth. (But was he the only one?) Thomas' authentic questioning, his heartfelt need to "trust, but verify" resonates with me.

I get Thomas; I get his doubt. Isn't Thomas every one of us from time to time?  The Good News is this:  our Lord knows this about us. "Reach out and put your hand in my side." Take whatever time you need. It's okay. If touching me is what you need, then touch. I'll be here. Always.

Thanks be to God.

Living Through Good Friday

I am Resurrection and Life, says the Lord, Whoever has faith in me shall have life, even though he die. And everyone who has life, and has committed himself to me in faith, shall not die for ever.                                              The Book of Common Prayer, p. 491.

Easter approaches.
And Easter cannot arrive without Good Friday.
Yes, it's sad. Yes it's bleak, but Good Friday struggles are what prepare us for the unimaginable, eternal joys that come with Resurrection.

As many of you know, Gary, my husband of 34 years died Monday morning after a brave fight with liver cancer. And I confess, I am having kind of a "Good Friday" week, but I believe Easter comes! Intermittent crises of faith may cause some of us us to struggle from time to time, but we KNOW that Easter does come. I stake my life on that, and so did Gary. Yes, Lord, I believe!

As for Holy Week and Easter, I have decided I need to be here with you at CHN rather than resting at home. I need to be surrounded by people I love and trust, and I need the ancient and familiar rhythm of the Triduum to lead me into Easter.

Thank you for the many ways you have shown me your love and concern this week. We are an Easter people, and together, we will see Jesus more clearly and know his love more dearly this weekend.

With love and in hope,
Liz+                              

Hosanna! Hosanna! Crucify Him! Crucify Him!

Hosanna!  Hosanna! 

Crucify him!  Crucify him!

Palm Sunday always makes me wonder:                                                   

How the crowds could be shouting, 

‘Hosanna!  Hosanna!’ one minute,

and, ‘Crucify him! Crucify him!’  five days later?  

How is it that a politician who attends mass every day (Hosanna!)                                        

gets caught embezzling from the city coffers? (Crucify him!) 

How is it that parents present a baby to be baptized one month (Hosanna!)

and drive home drunk the next? (Crucify him!)

This week invites us to examine our consciences. 

As Holy Week approaches, we walk with Jesus as he heads toward Calvary.

How many nails have we pounded into the cross?

Every time we neglected to respect the dignity of every human being.

Every time we have closed our eyes to injustice.

Every time we have borne false witness.

Every time. Another nail.

 Crucify him! 

One Grain. One Seed.

Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies,

 it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.      John 12: 24

 One grain of wheat. One seed.

This is an easy analogy for disciples in an agrarian age, but less so for those of us who forage for our food on gleaming supermarket shelves. Bet even if you failed botany, you know this: that one sunflower seed will produce one sunflower plant containing hundreds of seeds and one pumpkin seed will produce one pumpkin containing hundreds more pumpkin seeds. A seed must be buried (die) in order to bear fruit. 

So it is with us. In this analogy, Jesus us speaking not only about his own upcoming death and resurrection, he is speaking directly to you and to me,  In it, our Lord urges us to die to our own self-interests and to live into God intends for us to become. 

Dying and birthing are equally holy endeavors. In dying, Jesus gave himself up for us, and gave us new life. In dying to self, we choose to say "yes" to a new way of being.  Our first steps may be trepid, cautious, and yet with each tremulous step, GOd allows us to glimpse the world as it could be.  Each step deepens out rootedness in a world in dire need of sustenance and nourishment.  Each step draws us more deeply into the heart of Christ. 

This week, as we continue our journey int he wilderness, let us encourage one another to take yet another step as we journey toward wholeness and holiness. 

Traveling Time

The Text:

The Hebrews spoke against God and against Moses, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?  For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food."
                                                                                               Numbers 21:5

                                               

                                                              The Hebrew Wilderness                         by Liz Meade c. 2011

The Whispering:

We can be so fickle sometimes. In this passage, the Hebrews complain about the conditions during their wilderness wanderings. They had been enslaved by Pharoah for generations, cruelly oppressed, but God heard their cries and freed them. Yahweh promised them a land flowing with milk and honey; promised them freedom, hope and new life. God was escorting them to the Promised Land.

Desert time is time deliberately carved out for us to realize and to remember our utter dependence on God. In desert times we come to reclaim our identities as children of the Living God. In their desert times, however, the Hebrews murmured, complained, and even worshiped a golden calf. "We detest this miserable food."
And yet, through it all, God accompanied them.

The Church of the Holy Nativity now finds itself in its wilderness time,, and through it all, God will accompany us. It is not a maintenance time; it is a traveling time. Let us walk with courage as we faithfully seek God in the wilderness, and discover what God has in store for us in this fragile mystery that is Interim Time. God will be with us through the opacity of it all.

God's Gifts to A Freed People

The Text: 

Then the Lord God spoke these words: I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt and up out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods but me.                                                                                                                                                  Exodus 20:1

Israel, 2012

The Whispering: 

Greetings from sunny Florida where I am at a working conference with other Interim ministers. My take-away is that CHN is a very healthy place!

You may or may not agree with the Ten Commandments taking up space on the walls of  public buildings, but there they are. And while we  may have  memorized all of them and think they are a good idea (or not), I wonder if we ever really consider this first verse.

These are words of a people freed!!  

The  Commandments are God's gift to a newly liberated people!

They could have been called, "Ways to Live a Life."

Two questions to ponder this week:

     1.  What and where are your "Egypts?"

     2.  How has God liberated you??