3 Advent Thursday

3 Advent Thursday

I have two words for you all to contemplate today. The first is kindness. I had reason today to deal with someone while my son was with me who was very kind and very accepting of Danny, so much so that Danny held his hand and had him walk him out to the car. Which the person did willingly and joyfully. Later today Danny decided he was done grocery shopping and sat himself down on the floor while I was trying to get our cart loaded onto the belt. He of course spotted a shelf full of ceramic OSU mugs (Go Pokes! ), and was starting to mess with them in a way that could have resulted in many of them being broken. The two people in line behind me came up and helped; one guarding the cups and the other getting Danny to his feet because he could tell that I couldn't do it. So my second word for contemplation today is gratitude. I am so grateful today for strangers who have reached out their hands to be kind and to help without judgement and with total joy in the process.  This Advent may we all be kind and may we all be grateful.

Mondat 3 advent 2016

Monday 3 Advent

"...But Jesus said, 'No more of this!' And he touched his ear and healed him."  Luke 22. Gospel for evening prayer

What a dark and frightening gospel... the story of Gethsemane has always moved me.   This passage shows us that even in the midst of his own terror and anger and sadness over the betrayal of his friend and the consequences that it had unleashed, Jesus is still caring for another; in the midst of great violence he is still, in his words and actions preaching the way of peace.  How are we messengers oof peace today?

3 Advent 2016

Advent 3 Year A
December 11, 2016

    When my family drove out to California this past summer, I was, as I always am, fascinated with the desert landscape.  There is something so incredibly beautiful about it to me… the barren landscape can go on for miles, and then suddenly there is a burst of life in the form of a flowering cactus, or some other desert flower that has managed to survive the harsh environment.  While gazing out the car window one afternoon, a saw some young people riding horses with such freedom and abandon, that I wanted to ask them what they felt  like as they rode these magnificent animals… and then as the sun set, and temperatures dropped, it seemed yet again, that the desert became a different place full of new and different mysteries….

    Maybe one of the reasons I like the desert so much is because scripture uses the image of the desert to talk about the life lived with God.  The desert is a powerful and even dangerous place.  I would not want to have my car break down, and I was aware that I kept checking to make sure my cell phone had coverage… it would be really scary to think about not having a way to tell someone where we were if we needed help; fortunately, the car was in good shape and phone signals were relatively strong…

    But, still… what a beautiful place and for me a much loved image of the spiritual life… Advent reminds us that our lives sometimes are dark places where there doesn’t seem to be much light or even perhaps life… cold and darkness sometimes feel like they might actually take over… it is easy to lose hope, easy to let the cold and the darkness take over… our prayer life might seem dry and brittle; it might feel as though God hasn’t spoken in a while…

    I posted a meditation on facebook the other day, written by my favorite Jesuit author, Fr. James Martin, SJ.  In the meditation, he speaks of the angel’s visit to Mary to tell her of the child that she will give birth to…. He wonders what it was like for Mary after the Angel left her… did she have other experiences of God’s grace and love between that time and Jesus/ first miracle at the wedding in Cana?  We don’t know… for many of us, there might be one incredible experience where we feel close to God, and then what feels like nothing for years.   The punch line of the meditation is:  “And then the angel left her” is where we live… Isn’t that the truth?  We have to trust that somehow in the barren landscape of our spiritual lives that somehow God is present and acting in our lives…

    But like the desert, if we open our eyes and watch, we can see signs of God even in the darkest and driest of places.  If we let the culture we live in dictate our spiritual lives, we are going to find ourselves in a dangerous place where God is absent… but if we let ourselves be guided by God, if we let ourselves actually be disciples, then signs of life will come; we will find ourselves sustained in the in between times…

    What might that look like practically?  I think our favorite camel hair wearing prophet can be of help here…. John the baptist was in prison, which must have been a horrible experience for him… and yet, he hears stories of about Jesus, and so he sends his disciples, to ask…. Are you the one?  Are you the one in whom we are to hope?  What does Jesus answer?  “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. “  These are the signs of life in the desert we sometimes find ourselves in… these are the signs of hope… signs that God is still God, and is acting in the world we live in… it is up to us to listen to the Spirit which is in us and help make these things happen… we are the ones whom God has chosen to do God’s work.  You and I are the ones who provide life in another’s desert.  By being disciples of Christ, by feeding the hungry, helping the poor, bringing sight to the blind… all of this, work that we have been given to do, work that runs counter to much of what is around us… work that means God’s kingdom is here on earth…

    What might you do to help live in those in between times?  Prayer, study and worship are necessary for us to live in desert times; they are the ways we keep ourselves spiritually alive… they are what we use to keep ourselves fed and how we receive guidance…. They are how we learn how to be disciples and how we are given what we need to be life giving for others…

    God’s kingdom has both come and is yet coming… Jesus has both come and is yet coming.  It is hard to live in a time of yes and not quite yet… there are still poor among us; the world sometimes acts as if God is of no consequence… But as disciples we know that we are still working every day to make the kingdom of God visible in a vast desert… and we know there are signs… and we know that there is so much more to be done.  We must allow ourselves to be open to the possibility that God still speaks to us.  Our challenge today is to look past the things that aren’t real, the things that are placed in our way to inhibit our truly working for the good of others, and enter those sometimes empty and dangerous places… it is there that we will encounter Christ; It is there while we are acting as Christ that we might even find our own deepest needs and longings are answered.  What will others see when they speak of us?  WIll they see dry dangerous place with no hope?  Or will they see that we are heralds of a kingdom where the poor have good news given to them?  How might we help others know Jesus today?

Tuesday in 2 Advent

Tuesday in 2 Advent

And now, what is my hope? *
O Lord, my hope is in you.  -- evening prayer psalm 39

Advent is a time for hope, hoping beyond all human hope.  That longing that we feel can only be answered by Jesus, whose coming is the source of our hope and our longing.  Hope is a gift that helps us to know that God is near.. it helps us to know that death is not the end...it helps us to know that God's kingdom will come on earth as it is in heaven.  Hope propels us into bringing hope to other here and now in all that we do...

Monday in 2 Advent

Monday in 2 Advent.

I had some music on in the background today while i was rushing around.   It was a new album by Sting, and i didn't hear anything else except "how will I deal with a broken world?"  It too me a couple of hours to finally sit down and let that simple verse work through me.  I was feeling rather scattered and like I still had so much to do before kids got home... and as i sat down to journal a prayer, I said to myself and whatever cat was in the kitchen, "I am just going to squeeze a little Holy into this space".  And then, I felt suddenly at ease.  And I realized that even if if feels like I am squeezing in the Holy, the Holy will expand to fill all the tense, crazy, broken space.  Let the Holy in even if it needs to squeeze in.  It will make room.

Saturday in Advent 1

Saturday in 1 Advent

I have often asked that people try something new in Advent... we are celebrating a new church year, and we move from darkness into the light of Christ... all things are made new... what are you doing that is new this season?  Maybe read a book of the bible?   maybe take on a new (or forgotten) prayer discipline?  I am learning how to crochet... sort of.  Which given the fact that I am not artistic and my hands don't always work very well is kind of funny... but I love the scarves and afghans and shawls that people have made for me over the years, and I decided I wanted to try and spread warmth to others.... stay tuned.  It's going to be hilarious... but I also hope as I get better I can pray into what I make so others will feel warm and perhaps a little bit of love... how are you spreading love and light this season?

Second Sunday in Advent

2 Advent Year A
December 4, 2016

    Sometimes, when I read our lessons for the week, I think… there is nothing I can say here… the scripture says it all… and that’s how I feel whenever I read something from Isaiah.  If you’re still looking for a Advent devotional, I recommend reading a chapter or more of Isaiah a day.  You won’t regret it.  Some of the most beautiful language in the bible is in that book and it’s a wonderful way to prepare our hearts and minds for the coming of Jesus….

    This wonderful prophesy of the kingdom where there is no fear and where even lion’s graze with their prey… a beautiful image of peace for God’s people and God’s creation.  It is certainly something for us to meditate on and something for us to hope for…

    Here’s something else from our readings that I want to highlight… first that God’s Spirit will rest on his anointed… a Spirit of wisdom and understanding and knowledge… we know that this prophecy is fulfilled for us in the life of Jesus… when we read our gospel for today, John the baptist, brings that prophecy to the present by speaking about Jesus and the baptism he shall bring; a baptism in this same Spirit….

    Can we take that in for a minute… I know I am guilty of not really thinking about it too much, but when you and I are baptized… God’s Spirit of wisdom, understanding and knowledge is given to us… As Paul talks about in his letters, our bodies literally become temples of God’s holy and life giving spirit….

    You have heard me say before that for me, the most powerful moment in the liturgy of baptism is when the priest takes holy oil and says to the one being baptised… “You are sealed by the Holy Spirit in Baptism and marked as Christ’s own forever…”

    Again, that’s one of those places in our worship that defies words… the questions that form for me are… what does it mean for the Spirit of Jesus, the Spirit of God to rest in us… how might our lives be lived differently if we really thought about that?
    When I was in seminary, one of my professors said something that has always stuck with me… he spoke of prayer and how when we pray, when we really pray, it is God’s Holy Spirit deep within us that prays through us… That makes us active agents of the Spirit… mind boggling, don’t you think?  One of the things all of this means I think… is Jesus has given us everything we need to be people of the kingdom… over and over again he tells us not to be afraid; all of the fear mongering that goes on in our world does not and should not have an effect on us; in fact, as agents, as temples of the Spirit what you and I do is supposed to help alleviate the fear around us; the prophets knew this… over and over again they spoke against the manipulation and fear that the empire spread… even when God’s people were in exile… God’s Spirit spoke words of comfort and hope…

    Even in the darkest moments on the cross, Jesus spoke words of light and comfort to the criminals who were executed with him; John’s gospel tells us that he comforted his mother… all of this in the darkest, most painful moments for him, he reached beyond his own fear and suffering to offer wisdom, understanding and comfort to others…
    That’s a pretty tall order friends; but that too is that call that you and I have been baptized into.  Baptism is certainly a gift… but it is a difficult gift; one that brings us into the community of faith; but as members of that community, we are always working on the transformation of that same community… as I always say, the problem with the church is that it is full of people… frail, broken, self centered people… people who get it wrong a lot of the time… but we also get it right a lot of the time.  You and I are anointed with the very Spirit of God… the Spirit that moved over the earth in creation; the Spirit that still moves over the earth to help bring about the kingdom of God… we are temples, keepers, caregivers for that same Spirit that moves within us prompting us to act as agents of God in God’s world…

    We speak of hope being one of the themes of Advent… light that is brought into the darkness… a hope that is holy, God given… a hope that casts away all fear… God’s Holy Spirit is the wisdom and understanding tha casts away fear… the implication then…. Is that you and I are a few of the agents that cast away fear not just for ourselves… but for others as well.  It’s a hard thing to move beyond fear.. Fear has a way of paralyzing us so that we cannot move into action, or by moving us into the wrong action.  Being bearers of the Spirit, being bearers of light and hope… we must let the Spirit lead us into the light, even when it seems like it’s dark; we must be hope to others… not just those whom we would choose, but those whom Jesus has chosen..,  and who has he chosen?  Well… since God so loved the world… it seems to me that those he has chosen are all… even those whom we might not choose…

    This advent we are called to bring God’s kingdom to earth… lions grazing with lambs isn’t just an image for our Christmas cards; it’s a goal; it’s something that we believe is possible… it’s a radical vision of peace in a world that always seems to act against peace…  being temples of the Spirit means that we are revolutionaries who believe that peace and a world without fear is possible… that my friends is Advent hope… you are sealed by the Holy Spirit in baptism… you are called to bring about a revolution that is guided by wisdom and peace… perhaps a different revolution than society would have us believe in… but that’s kind of the point.  I pray that in this holy season, we might let the Spirit pray and work through us and help us to see where we it is we might act to bring about the kingdom… when we ask God to come and be with us, we might be asked to go into some very dark places… but God is with us… light and hope will always be with us…. Come O come… Emmanuel.