A Smoking Pot

The Scripture: 

When the sun had gone down, and it was dark, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. On that day, the LORD made a covenant with Abram.  (Genesis 15:17-18)

The Whisperings: 

On Sunday, we will hear the passage from Genesis chapter 15 where God promises Abram many descendants and also the Promised Land. It is a story filled with mystery and ritual. First God walks outside with Abram and promises this childless man that his descendants with outnumber the stars in the sky. After this, a strange ritual which involves cutting animals in half occurs, followed by Abram falling into a "deep and terrifying darkness." Finally, a smoking firepot and a flaming torch mysteriously appear and pass between the sections of the divided (now dead) animals while Abram is sleeping.

God works in strange ways. As liturgically focused Anglicans, perhaps we are most comfortable with predictable patterns of worship, and many of us have grown to expect God to appear while we are devoutly on our knees praying or receiving Eucharist at the rail. Yet the story in Genesis suggests that God is at work in the loneliest of outposts and in the most un-ecclesiastical of venues.

This week, look for God in the strange places. Review any "weird things" that you have witnessed. Have you seen any dancing firepots? Was God in that place?

A Holy Lent

I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent.

Almighty and merciful God, you hate nothing you have made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent. Create in us new and contrite hearts, so that when we turn to you and confess our sins and acknowledge our need, we may receive your full and perfect forgiveness, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
                                     
                                         (adapted from the Book of Common Prayer)

Resurrection

I am Resurrection and I am life, says the Lord. John 11:26

Resurrection is one of those "religious-y" words that we tend to put on a shelf, right there next to words like atonement, righteousness, and incarnation. It's not one of those words that you hear in line at the post office, for example. And yet, the Greek word for resurrection, anastasis, simply means "getting up again; awakening." It is an ordinary word and an ordinary occurrence; it means, in Greek parlance, that we literally resurrect ourselves when some power within us wakens us every morning.  

How might our lives change if we considered every morning's awakening as an anastasis: a grace-filled opportunity to wake up and be a new creation.  A new day to be wholly changed and transformed -- even when our lives, up to that one moment of awakening, have been spent simply wandering int he dark?  

Anastasis: its the opposite of stasis -- the opposite of staying the same.