Blindness

Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing; so they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. For three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank. Acts 9: 8-9

Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of Jesus, met his fate as he approached Damascus. “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”

You’ve heard the story: Suddenly Saul’s eyes were covered with scales and he was blinded for three days. During this time, he realized his utter dependence on others; realized his helplessness. It became a moment of conversion.

God calls to us in our faithlessness and in our blindness. Let us not assume it is not God calling. Let us, in faith, recognize the call so that the scales might fall from our eyes and that we might see where the Lord has need of us.

Breathe

March 30, 2016 The Reading: When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you."    John 20:19                   Denis Fremond

The Whispering: "And the doors were locked for fear of the Jews." Who can relate? How often are we tempted to flee and shut out the world? This is exactly whet the disciples felt that day. Fear, anxiety, nerves; what are we going to do now? Paradoxically, it is when we try to shut out the world that we often encounter the risen Lord. "Peace be with you,"  And in breathing on us, we are filled with that peace which passes all understanding. It was enough for the disciples; it is enough for us. Enough to return to the world to do the work God has given us to do. Breathe!

The Triduum

The Reading: This day shall be a day of remembrance for you. You shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord; throughout your generations you shall observe it as a perpetual ordinance. Exodus 12:14

The Whispering: Tomorrow, we enter into a three day long liturgy called the Triduum.  During these three days, we focus our attention on Jesus. The liturgy begins at the Passover meal. Jesus gives his followers those final instructions that will become the benchmark of the future Christian church: the primacy of a shared meal and the need to serve all people with humility and generosity. The next part to this three day liturgy finds us following Jesus to the Garden of Gethsemane, where he prays and where he is arrested by Roman soldiers. We watch, helplessly, as he is whipped and interrogated and mocked. A dreadful error. And then we cringe as he is led up a hill and nailed to a tree. And he dies. How can God die? Surely there must be a mistake. What is our role in this? On Saturday, we consider what a world without Jesus might look like; how we would feel if God's grace were irrevocably absent. We feel bereft. We wonder what our inaction accomplished.  We teeter on the lip of hopelessness. And then?  And then? The third day, we find ourselves drawn to the tomb once again. Where is he? The tomb is empty! Do you see him? Feel him? Experience him? Alleluia!

Need

The Reading: "Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it, you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, 'Why are you untying it?' just say this, 'The Lord needs it.'"     Luke 19: 30-31.

The Whispering: "The Lord needs it." As we enter Holy Week, these are good words to carry with us. Jesus sent his disciples ahead of him to fetch a donkey from the next village. When the owner of the beast confronted them, they responded as the Lord had instructed them:  The Lord needs it. The donkey became the conveyance that brought Jesus into the holy city later that day. What is it of yours that the Lord needs? What do you offer that is precious to you because the Lord needs it?  Your time? Your talent? Your treasure? We are the hands and feet of Jesus in our world today. What does the Lord need from you in order that we might transform this world into the Kingdom of God? You are the conveyance that brings Jesus into the world. Give generously.

Moving Forward

The Reading: ...but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.   Philippians 3:13-14

The Whispering: I took this picture five years ago, standing in a cold field in Indiana at dusk. At the time, I was facing some hefty decisions about my own life, my call, and where God was leading me.  Paul, in his letter to the Philippians, reminds us that we must always resist the human inclination to look longingly backwards and to cultivate a spirit of adventure that leads us forward. Lent accomplishes this by leading us into a liminal place of repentance. Lent invites us into a time where we consider, and then excise the sins and guilt that bind us. Ultimately, we must face this truth: that God will forgive all our sins when we "do earnestly repent." Lent pulls us into that place where we are made ready for absolution and, ultimately, for the triumph we will celebrate when we accept God's forgiveness. Every Lent is followed by an Easter morning. What do you need to leave behind?  What hurts? What guilts? What impediments must be cast off in order to discover the joy that is in Christ? Look forward. God forgives us our sins and leads us into Easter -- always.

Manna

The Reading: Gracious Father whose blessed son Jesus Christ came down from heaven to be the true bread which gives life to the world: evermore give us this bread, that he may live in us, and we in him.                         Book of Common Prayer, Collect for the 4th Sunday in Lent  "Manna"   The Whispering: The question of manna has intrigued me since I was a little girl. A child's imaginings that magical bread fell from heaven every morning and every evening. And the fact that it was always enough for everybody?!?   And I remember being utterly gobsmacked when my Sunday School teacher told us that if the Hebrews took more than their fair share, the excess would turn rancid by the next day. God's economy is like that. God's grace and love are always enough, abundantly enough; and God proffers enough grace for everyone. Why, then. do we spend time worrying that someone is getting more than their share? More manna, more love, more wealth, more attention? Meditate this week on God's economy. Do we covet that which our neighbors have received? Has God offered us enough? How do we speak to God about our cravings and our appetites?

Curiosity

"I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up."   Exodus 3:3

"Moses and the Burning Bush"   Marc Chagall

It was a normal day: Moses was at work, tending the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro. A day like any other, but a day when Moses noticed something off in the distance: a bush consumed by flames, yet the bush did not appear to be burning up. Curiosity got the best of him. "Hmm. That's strange. I'll go over there for a closer look." He changed his normal daily routine to turn aside, to look, to go over and to see why the bush was not burning up. An investigative fellow. 

Curiosity may have killed the cat, but curiosity is essential to a life of faith. For when we are open to the unimaginable, when we are curious about the unfathomable, when we stop to investigate the unthinkable?  It is in those places that we will meet God. As Christian people, we know all about responsibility and focused, hard work, but remember that God lives at the margins. When we are myopically focused on that which lies directly in front of us, we can miss God:  God at the periphery reaching out to us, beckoning, whispering, "Come over here. I have need of you."

Trust

The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom then shall I fear?   Psalm 27:1

"Theofania"   by Agostino Arrivabene

Consider the role fear plays in our lives. It seems to be hard wired into us, probably a survival instinct from when we were less socially developed creatures. And yet, biblical references about fear are legion. "Do not be afraid," said the Angel to Mary at the Annunciation. "Fear not," said the angel to the shepherds keeping watch over their flock by night.

When God has a message for us, it is often preceded by an admonition about fear. As we enter this season of prayer and self-examination, we would do well to examine how much we trust God. Do I trust God with my whole heart, mind, and soul?  Or do I trust God only so far?  

Because to trust God "only so far" is to deny the power of the Living God. 
We become what we believe. 

The Devil Made Me Do It

The Devil said, "If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours." Luke 4:7

Jesus, after being baptized by John in the Jordan River, was sent into the wilderness where he was tempted by the devil. In Lent, Christians are encouraged to think about those things (those habits) that cause us to take our eyes off God.  

What distracts you from God and from those you love? What takes priority in your life?  What prevents you from being Christ's hands and feet in the world?  Is it television? Gaming? Shopping? Alcohol? The Internet?

We all have distractions: pastimes that may subtly (or not so subtly) separate us from the love of God.  Lent is a time to consider where the devil may be creeping into our lives. Do all of our actions and all of our habits glorify and praise God?

What needs to change?

Transfigured?

And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white.  

                                                           Luke 9:29

"Transfiguration"   by Lewis Bowman

On Sunday, we will hear the fantastical story of Jesus being "transfigured" on the top of Mount Tabor in the region of Galilee. His friends, Peter, John, and James are with him, and they are stunned as Jesus' whole countenance changes right before their eyes, and he appears to be talking to Moses and Elijah. 

Of course those early disciples were terrified. 

I mean, what if you saw President Obama, just as plain as day, standing twenty feet away from you and chatting it up with Dr. Martin Luther King and JFK? Would you believe your eyes? Or would you think you were going crazy? 

How do we recognize the presence of God in our everyday lives? Dare we proclaim that which we have witnessed ourselves?

Gentleness

Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.  
                                                               Philippians 4: 4-7

Jean Francois Bausmayer

The Whispering

Gentleness. With gentleness, we open ourselves to the peace of the Lord. 

I wonder how many of us cultivate gentleness.  We reward self-starters, team players, dynamic managers, but in our culture, gentleness is not a resume line item. Scripture often contradicts culturally approved mores. 

Gentleness, Paul suggests, allows us to discern when the Lord is near; 

gentleness is the passport into that divine state some call Nirvana or Enlightenment, the divine stasste that Christians know as the peace of Christ.  Do you know it? Have you experienced it?

Today, cultivate gentleness. Close your eyes. Breathe in the breath of God, exhale regret, grudges, bitterness, and pain. The Lord is near.

Rough Ways

"Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God."  Luke 3: 4-6

Masada Snake Path - Israel

I remember taking a gondola to the Masada, a famous fortress near the Dead Sea in Israel. It was 110 outside. I recall dozens of pilgrims ascending to the fortress via the Snake Path rather than riding up in the gondola. Isaiah dwelt in this land, knew this topography. Isaiah knew the virtual impossibility of making such paths straight, knew the impractability of making the deserts rocky paths smooth.

And yet.  And yet. What Isaiah knew, what John knew, is that there is some travail involved in preparing our hearts for God. We are saved not from our own efforts, but through God's grace, to be sure, but the simple gift of grace propels us into the work of preparing ourselves and our lives for God's most lavish extravagance: salvation.

This Advent, we prepare the way; we contemplate the exorbitance of our salvation. How will you respond? How will you make your paths straight, your roads smoother? Your height a little lower?