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?