Letting Go, New Land, Babylon Not

Posted on January 2, 2013 by Trinity Seasons

Lectionary Readings:  AM Psalm 34; PM Psalm 33
Gen. 12:1-7; Heb. 11:1-12; John 6:35-42, 48-51

New LandI find myself in a new land, lead here by His hand but for what purpose I am yet unclear. New to me.  Foreign to me.  A road not less traveled, but as yet, untaken.

Through the years one of my prayer partner’s has held up to me the story of Abram and the verses found in today’s readings specifically, as the  penultimate illustration of how our abba Father wills us out of comfort zones – out of lives we have faithfully lead – in order to serve Him, glorify Him, know His will, and at least a piece of His purpose.

Such paradox.  Here’s Abram – by all indications a happy camper – having lived life by the world’s standards quite nicely.  Settled in the land of his father and family but not yet in the “broad place.”  The boundary lines were larger than Abram had ever imagined – or probably even cared to imagine.  And to get to the broad place, he had to be called, the boundary lines transcended by His voice.

I find all the journeys of the faithful revealed in Scripture so encouraging as they provide some kind of benchmark for trusting I am trusting the Lord and His way.

Last March this passage from Genesis appeared in the Lectionary readings during the Lenten season.  In my personal scriptural journal, I had recorded thoughts similar to what I have written here, today, noting that both a prayer partner and a therapist/counselor were yet holding up to me Abram’s story, as I pushed back against the pull I was feeling to move onward and out of my comfort zone.  Those two people were reminding me and showing me how uprooted Abram had to be to do the work God had called him to do.

So today, when I went to record some thoughts on the reading, I found not only that reminder but also, this reflection from Forward Day by Day for March 11, 2011:

Genesis 12:1-4a.Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.”

Having heard the Lord tell him to leave everything familiar and go to an unknown country, Abram picked up his things and went. Centuries later, Saint Paul (in today’s epistle) recalled this as a great act of faith. You get right with God, Paul said, by “the righteousness of faith,” not by following all the rules of prescribed and acceptable behavior. Paul seems to have thought of faith as trusting that God is in charge and following God into the unknown, risky, and challenging regions where God dwells.

Many think of faith as providing security, and it does, but not until we show our trust in God by taking the risks that faithful living entails. Playing it safe, refusing to make waves, always doing what is expected, betting on the sure thing—these are not the marks of a faithful Christian life. Sometimes faithful living leads us into neighborhoods we’d rather avoid (God is there, too) and to people who offend us (God is with them, too). The opposite of faith is fear of the new and unknown

The above was a divine compliment to all the Spirit has been whispering over the past few years and through this morning, where He finds me in a new land.

Letting go.  Letting God.

Praise Him.

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Your God is Too Small, Javert…way bigger than just the Stars you see

Posted on December 28, 2012 by Trinity Seasons

Lectionary Readings:  AM Psalm 2, 26; Isaiah 49:13-23; Matthew 18:1-14 ; PM Psalm 19, 126; Isaiah 54:1-13; Mark 10:13-16

dream bigThe story of Jean Valjean has not left me since yesterday’s pauses in the readings that recalled Les Miserables.

Amongst all the things Valjean wrestles with, it is his internal angst over the secrets he holds – thinks he holds – about himself, his past, about who he really is and what he has done in opposition to who he is now and how he is known to others.  Well, all others but Javert – the Law.  The relationship between secrets, the law and God’s grace all intersect in Valjean.

Today’s readings from Scripture speak to such a relationship.  Our past.  Secrets.  How we understand God.  Law and Grace.  It erupts in the gospel passage wherein Jesus is teaching the disciples, all of whom were born into the Law, that God’s realm is way bigger than they have begun to imagine.  Their God is just too small, I hear him saying.

The disciples had a ‘goodly heritage’ as steadfast believers in the one and only God.  The psalms today testify to the self-confidence (arrogance?) each must have had relative to the question they pose to Jesus,

Matthew 18:1  At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, ‘Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?’

Presuming their presence in the kingdom of heaven, all they really want to know is where in the lineup?  Their heritage had taught them about their God in black and white, God was known to them – revealed to them – as an either-or God, a good-bad God, an angry or loving God, an ignoring or forgiving God,  an us-them God.  The believers in the one-and-only God were righteous.  Everyone else was ‘the other’ as described here in Psalm 26:

4 I do not sit with the worthless,
nor do I consort with hypocrites;
5 I hate the company of evildoers,
and will not sit with the wicked.

God is way way bigger than this.  And in order to teach the disciples, to help them move into the broad place, to break through the barrier to entry that each of them appears to have had because of their attachment to the Law, Jesus uses metaphors and examples that seem to insult their intelligence:

 Matthew  18:8 ‘If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to enter life maimed or lame than to have two hands or two feet and to be thrown into the eternal fire. 9And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out and throw it away; it is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into the hell* of fire.

Really?  Jesus uses such absolutes in other teachings.  Recall the ‘hate your family’, ‘leave the dead to the dead’, and others.  When Jesus uses this method to teach I like to remember to whom he is targeting the message at that time.  And in most instances wherein he uses such abrupt, absolute, seemingly unachievable commands, he is speaking to the believer, to the disciples and often, to the leaders of the church, the Pharisees.

And by using such extreme examples (and not just words, but actions, too) Jesus is able to break through the law-abiding mind and heart – to help that steadfast believer see and know that the realm of God is open to all believers – to them, and to the other.

So back to Valjean.  And his secret.  And Javert’s apparent hold on him because the he knew the secret of who he was – a criminal, not a man of God.

Javert’s (the Law) God was so small that he, like the arrogant Pharisees and the humble but often blind, disciples, could not begin to imagine that Valjean the criminal, the ‘other’, the evildoer, the unrighteous, would reside anywhere but prison and hell (separated from God).  The song Javert sings, entitled Stars, from the Les Miserables musical captures the essence of such a view of God.

A stumbling block.  That is what Javert holds before Valjean.  A stumbling block the Law intentionally put before Valjean to keep him out of the realm of God, the world of the righteous.  Jesus says no – never put something intentionally before a child of God.

And as long as Valjean kept his secret and took steps to avoid capture by the Law, he would struggle internally, living inauthentically, not in the light, not in God’s light, encumbered and unable to fully embrace joy and love and life.

Once Valjean held up his secret to the light and not the Law, he was released to live as God willed from the start.

If we are believers and we hold within secrets of our selves that we hold up to the Law and not to Grace, are we not keeping before ourselves the biggest of all stumbling blocks?

Matthew  18:7 Woe to the world because of stumbling-blocks! Occasions for stumbling are bound to come, but woe to the one by whom the stumbling-block comes!

Secrets.  Law.  Grace.  Boundaries.  Too small of a God.  Us-Them.  Stumbling blocks.  Accountability.  Authentic living as believers.  The Moon.  The Stars.

The Spirit has my head spinning this morning.

I guess I end up with the thought that Valjean dared to dream big with the encouragement and love and forgiveness offered him by a priest – a man of God, a proclaimer.  Valjean dared to dream big.  And in doing so, met and came to know a very, very BIG God.

Praise Him.

 

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Who am I?

Posted on December 27, 2012 by Trinity Seasons

Lectionary Readings:  AM Psalm 97, 98; Proverbs 8:22-30; John 13:20-35
PM: Psalm 145; Isaiah 44:1-8; 1 John 5:1-12

to-love-another-person-is-to-see-the-face-of-godVictor Hugo’s epic novel, Les Miserables first published in 1862 quickly and deservedly became a must-read for any student of literature and life and meaning.  In the book’s setting, characters and context, Hugo surfaces and illuminates God’s presence, hand, and will in all;  Love, redemption, the consequences of both lying and truth-telling, Grace, Law, suffering, joy, obedience, injustice, journeys, governments, liberties, choices, forgiveness and love above all else.  And  to contemporary readers who had been moved beyond tears by the novel, Les Miz reached perfect and fever pitch when in the 1990’s a musical interpretation of Hugo’s novel came to the stage.

In my little corner of the world, which at that time included children all under the age of seven years, Les Miz the musical was read, seen, and heard as a Spirit-infused story, weaving deeply and permanently into my young childrens’ open and inviting hearts a beginning knowledge of God.   The music so beautiful a young ear couldn’t help but want to listen over and over again thus unwittingly memorizing the lyrics as they would any Raffi song or Mr. Rogers ditty.  And with the memorization they were learning about their Abba Father, as in this one,

“…to love another person is to see the face of God“

Les Miz the musical took the information of the novel and transformed it into personal revelation.  Watching and listening to Les Miz was transformative.  It proclaimed the gospel.  It revealed truth.  And for my children it was that music, those lyrics, that story which pierced their hearts, and spoke to them – testified to them –

1 John 5:10 Those who believe in the Son of God have the testimony in their hearts.

– in ways personal testimonies they had heard either from me or other believers, had not.

Interestingly, one of those children grew up to be a film and television writer.  S/he identifies Les Miz and another mid-nineteenth century novel The Brothers Karamazov, as foundational to their writing.  That is, these two stories inform from the beginning how they begin to think about story telling and creating a new one.  To them Les Miz and The Brothers provide a framework, if not the big idea, from which they can begin to conjure their story.  A starting point.  A source.  A muse.

Its how I think about story, too, though my foundation, structure, and big idea comes from Scripture.  My starting point is His Word.

Both And.  The Spirit testifies in both.  In works of great fiction, music, art, and explicitly in Scripture.  In life experience.  In context.  Both And.

The Spirit had me thinking about Les Miserables today and its profound impact on my family in small part because of the new feature film that opened on Christmas, of all days.  Interesting.

But the specific bunny trail that connected Les Miz with today’s reading was at the intersection of the Gospel and the Epistle.  I’m sure many or most read them in the order in which they are listed on the lectionary page – Epistle first, then Gospel.  I always read Jesus’ words first before the letters in order to ground the letters in His actual words.  And in that sequential reading this morning, three things, along with some music, intersect:

  • We are commanded to Love God and Love neighbor.  Those are the simple two commandments of Grace.
  • Those of us who believe and follow those two commandments are disciples.  That’s who we are.
  • Grace – Jesus – trumped the law, though to those all around at the time, it was the Law that seemed to have taken Jesus.

And here I thought of Hugo’s two characters – Jean Vealjean and Javert – and the tortured wailing of Javert who sees that the Law will not get the day.  And then of the loving ‘criminal’ Valjean who wonders all throughout, Who am I?

John 13:  31 When he had gone out, Jesus said, ‘Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him…34 I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.’

I John 5:  3 For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome…

Who am I?  A disciple, Jean Vealjan.  A disciple.

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We prepare for the Messiah

Posted on December 22, 2012 by Trinity Seasons

 

Audio Files available   O come Emmanuel, come, by Stanton Lanier

and by Jeremy Camp, Audio Files available  God with Us

and from Fr. Richard Rohr, a prayer.

We Prepare for the Messiah

a prayer from Fr. Richard Rohr

O Wisdom,
O holy Word of God,
you govern all creation with your strong yet tender care:
Come.

 O Sacred Lord of ancient Israel,
you showed yourself to Moses in the burning bush
and you gave the holy law on Mount Sinai:
Come.

 O Flower of Jesse’s stem,
you have been raised up as a sign for all people;
kings stand silent in your presence;
the nations bow down in worship before you:
Come.

 O Key of David, O royal Power of Israel,
you [not the systems of this world] control

at your will the gate of heaven:
Come break down the prison walls of death.

 O Radiant Dawn,
splendor of eternal light, sun of justice:
Come shine on those who dwell in darkness

and the shadow of death.

 O, King of all the nations,
the only joy of every human heart;
O Keystone of the mighty arch of humankind:
Come and save these creatures you fashioned from the dust.

 O, Emmanuel,
God-With-Us, king and lawgiver,
desire of the nations, Savior of all people:
Come and set us free.
The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.”

 Amen.

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Here

Posted on December 12, 2012 by Trinity Seasons

Audio Files available

 

Lectionary Readings:  AM Psalm 38; PM Psalm 119:25-48
Isa. 6:1-13; 2 Thess. 1:1-12; John 7:53-8:11h

Here I am Lord

Isaiah 6:  8Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I; send me!’ 9And he said, ‘Go and say to this people:
“Keep listening, but do not comprehend;
keep looking, but do not understand.”

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Preparation and Prayer

Posted on December 11, 2012 by Trinity Seasons

to-do-list1

Lectionary Readings: Psalm 26, 28; PM Psalm 36, 39
Isa. 5:13-17, 24-25; 1 Thess. 5:12-28; Luke 21:29-38

The readings for the past few days have been much about preparation, no?  And not just the practical, are you prepared for the coming of the Lord, is your house in order preparation, but the preparation of your heart and mind, once again, to live as you believe.  And at the top of that to-do list, I see prayer.

Pray without ceasing is what the Holy Spirit has been whispering to me the past few days, first lovingly by a dear friend who marveled with me at the power of prayer if we truly believed Jesus when he said, ask of me anything.   Then today I hear the words again from Paul in his letter to the church in Thessalonica.  And as I ended my time with the Word this morning, I lifted my eyes and and began, once again, to pray without ceasing.

1 Thessolnians 5: 16Rejoice always, 17pray without ceasing, 18give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

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God’s time

Posted on December 10, 2012 by Trinity Seasons

o-holy-night

Lectionary Readings: AM Psalm 25; PM Psalm 9, 15
Isa. 5:8-12,18-23; 1 Thess. 5:1-11; Luke 21:20-28

The readings this morning had me thinking about God’s time – and all the paradoxes of His time;  Eternal but specific and now; personal (I) but corporate (we, you, them); day but also night – as in the Holy Night we now are preparing to celebrate.

The Holy Spirit records baby Jesus’ birth during the night under the stars; not in the daylight and under the sun.

His light is 24/7/365.  His time – beginning and completion – the same; 24/7/365 and then some.  Both-and.

Psalm 25:  21 …for I wait for you.

Isaiah 5:  19 who say, ‘Let him make haste,
let him speed his work
that we may see it;
let the plan of the Holy One of Israel hasten to fulfilment,
that we may know it!’

Luke 21: 26People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 27Then they will see “the Son of Man coming in a cloud”…

1 Thessolians 5:  2For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come..5for you are all children of light and children of the day; we are not of the night

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Godly heritage; thank-you mom and dad

Posted on December 7, 2012 by Trinity Seasons

Audio Files available

Lectionary Readings:

Old Testament:  Psalm 16, 17; PM Psalm 22 Isa. 3:8-15;
New Testament:  1 Thess. 4:1-12; Luke 20:41-21:4

The readings fell into two contemplations for me this morning; the first a moment of gratitude for the wellspring (an original and bountiful source of something) of faith my dear mother and father bestowed on me from birth.  My childhood home was a pleasant place, my heritage god-ly, its necessary and temporary boundaries transcended by the Spirit so that as I moved on through life away from that pleasant place I found myself well-grounded and forever on His path.

Psalm 16:  6 The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
I have a goodly heritage.

Psalm 17:  5 My steps have held fast to your paths;
my feet have not slipped.

The New Testament readings jarred me with what to me read like a bad joke; a most ironic contrast between Jesus’ teaching in Luke and Paul’s lengthy (for the sake of appearance?) exhortation on how you should live.  Both yet written by the Holy Spirit so I know there is something here for me to hear and know  But with the lovely sentiment I was blessed with in the earlier readings, I choose to not conclude anything from the New Testament readings for application and instead let the mystery hover over me for the rest of the day.

Luke 20:  46‘Beware of the scribes… for the sake of appearance say long prayers.

1 Thessalonians 4:  1 Finally, brothers and sisters,* we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus that, as you learned from us how you ought to live and to please God (as, in fact, you are doing), you should do so more and more. 2For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus.

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God’s place held (bound?) by the Holy Spirit only

Posted on December 6, 2012 by Trinity Seasons

piano pic take 3

_______________________________________________________________

holy spirit boundary of broad placeLectionary Readings:

AM Psalm 18:1-20; PM Psalm 18:21-50

Isa. 2:12-22;

1 Thess. 3:1-13;

Luke 20:27-40

Paused at those verses listed below from today’s advent scripture readings – most of which were familiar and in isolation breathe one thought into me and woven together, suggest another.

Psalm 18:  19 He brought me out into a broad place;
he delivered me, because he delighted in me.

Isaiah 2: 17 The haughtiness of people shall be humbled,
and the pride of everyone shall be brought low;

Luke 20: 38Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive.’

Praise Him for bringing me – all of us – into the broad place where any boundaries we encounter we know not to be of our abba Father, but of the haughtiness and pride of our own selves.

The broad place is God’s  living, breathing place for us and it is here.

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The way of God is truth…

Posted on December 5, 2012 by Trinity Seasons

truth grey mist

…and it covers like a mist, hovering over all times, each person, every situation, every possible variation on a theme, on the law,….the way of God in accordance with truth is a way as if ‘taken by a cloud,’ infinitely, eternally encompassing, diaphanous, not opaque, not black and white, not law, not head.

Hmm.  That’s a reflection isn’t it?

Truth is I was prompted by the Spirit to not just pause this morning at verses, but also to wonder out loud –  to come out of my hibernation for a minute or two and reflect with you.

It was the wording used by the Pharisees to trick Jesus by asking what was to them a yes-no, black-white question which triggered this personal reflection on Truth.  For Jesus’ answer was anything but yes-no, black or white.

Instead, Jesus beautifully illustrates the mistiness, the cloud, the all encompassing, diaphanous grayness of God’s way and truth.

The scene triggered internally so many thoughts and prayers, making me aware that I have never really put Jesus to such a test – tried to trick him into answering questions about my life that seem discordant with God’s will, way, truth, and expecting a definitive law-based answer from Him.  And with that thought, I landed here reflecting out-loud and praying a prayer of thanksgiving;  thanksgiving for the well-with-my-soul-heart-head peace for all the times God’s way has been made known to me and I’ve traveled by His hand, His truth, into deserts, valleys, green pastures, mountain tops and bogs.

Lectionary Readings:  AM Psalm 119:1-24; PM Psalm 12, 13, 14
Isa. 2:1-11; 1 Thess. 2:13-20; Luke 20:19-26

Psalm 119:  2 Happy are those…who seek him with their whole heart

Luke 20:  1 So they asked him, ‘Teacher, we know that you are right in what you say and teach, and you show deference to no one, but teach the way of God in accordance with truth.

Praise Him.

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