Through Stained Glass: A Mid-Week Reflection-Stained Glass

Stained Glass

I’ve heard it said once that each of us is like a stained glass window—beautiful, colorful, and translucent. All of us are beautiful exactly as we are but we are made even more beautiful by the light of God that shines through us revealing an inner translucent that is breathtaking.

Part of the splendor of stained glass is that it is exactly that – the colors are not painted on but are deliberately created in the manufacture of the glass by the addition of metallic salts. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.

You believe this, right? You know that you are wonderfully and beautifully made, inside and out? And you also know that God created you in the image of God?

Take a few moments and sit with this truth.

Read Psalm 139: 13-18. Look at yourself in a mirror. Look at the beauty God has created in the uniqueness of your features:  the amazing complexity of each part of your body that was formed in your mother’s womb.

Read Psalm 139: 13-18 a second time. Visualize the “colors” that God has created in who you are that give you a unique luminescence when light shines through. Thank God for the beauty of who you are created to be.

Now, before the nasty freezing rain and sleet get here, go outside and take a walk in the sun. Where do you see the glory of God shining through with that inner luminescence? Take some photos of your favorite “translucent” scenes. Write about them in your journal. Thank God for the glory that shines through all creation.

Even in creation light shines through the pollution and the de-afforestation. It isn’t just the pristine landscapes where God’s light shines, but also in that stunning sunset which is full of oranges and reds, purples and lavenders, yellow and gold.

Now, look in the mirror again. Take a good look. Perhaps you notice the crow’s feet or the bags around your eyes. Maybe you see the broken areas within, the parts no one can see. Often it is our wounded areas that glow most brightly with the inner translucence of God. What are the wounded places in your life that glow with God’s presence? Write them down and thank God for divine light that shines in and through you.

Now listen to the song below and read through these lyrics of the refrain. What else is God saying to you today? How might you respond?

Let your light shine.
Let your love show
It’s a short ride
Down the long road.
When the rains come
And the winds blow
Let your light shine
Wherever you go.

Through Stained Glass: A Mid-Week Reflection-Shall

Shall

It was cold to say the least.

But for over and hour and a half we stood out on the corner of Broadway and Kickapoo handing out ashes.

If I’m honest, I’m still cold. Though the coffee was great, it couldn’t penetrate as deep as the cold did.

So this week I’m “cheating.”

Below is a video that articulates not only what Ash Wednesday is about but why taking ashes to the street is so important.

May you all be warm and well.

May you all never forget God’s claim on you.

May you remember that from dust you were created and to dust you shall return, resting peacefully in the grace of God.

Prayers rising for you on this the start of our Lenten journey.

Through Stained Glass: A Mid-Week Reflection-Second

Second

“Every second, two people die…What if this is your second?”

…

..

.

That thought you just had. You know, the “Wait, did he really just say that?” one?

It might have even made you feel a bit uncomfortable.

Those are the exact feelings I had when I read that line Monday night. These words are from a religious tract that was placed on the windshield of my truck. In under 400 words this tract asks the reader 24 different “What if?” questions.

They ranged from “What if you won a million dollars?” to “What if hating without cause was considered murder?”

If I’m honest, for some reason I have not been able to let go of this tract. In fact, I’ve kept it in my pocket and have found myself on a couple different occasions staring at it. Perhaps, subconsciously, I am trying to make sense of these ‘what if?’ questions.

Maybe it was because all the “what if?” questions that were asked were all self-centered.

What if the world needs more of what is on the right than on the left?

Maybe it was because all the “what if?” questions made God out to be an angry parent who is quick to hate and slow to love.

Maybe it was because all the “what if?” questions made humanity, specifically the person reading the card, out to be anything but good.

All this “what if-ing?” has lead me to ask some of my own “what if?” questions.

Like, what if we started with questions that weren’t so negative or made us out to be helpless puppets of an angry God?

What if God really is love?

What if faith isn’t about a rugged individualistic relationship with Jesus but a life lived in community?

What if we begin God’s story in Genesis 1 and not Genesis 3?

What if we talked less about Jesus and more about what Jesus talked about?

What if we quit focusing on the afterlife and started living it right now?

What if we helped the person who is currently living in hell—someone who lost a child to suicide; someone who has had a miscarriage; someone who has just lost their job; someone who is in an abusive relationship—what if we helped these people now rather than inquiring about where they’ll be after it is all said and done?

What if we actually believed Jesus when he told us to “be perfect as I am perfect”? Or is that taking things too literally?

What if heaven is real and every time we protect the image of God in someone, or care for God’s creation and not worry about them pearly gates up yonder, it is made manifest right in front of us?

What if we didn’t hate at all?

What if we actually loved our neighbors—especially those who we disagree with or who may not believe as we do?

What if violence isn’t the answer?

What if instead of seeing labels like “handicapped,” or “reject,” or “liberal,” or “transgendered,” or “conservative,” or “gay,” or “straight,” or “Baptist,” or “Christian,” or “other,” or “Cubs fan,” we see each other as God see us:  beloved human beings?

What if instead of worrying about what happens when we die we choose to live

here

and

now?

What if we quit playing the “what if” game and use our life, our time, our energy making a prayer shawl for someone in the hospital, or buy the coffee for the person behind you, or we planted seeds at a community garden, or we bought Gatorade for those teenagers who “are always up to no good”?

What if we believed Paul when he said that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female? Too literal again?

What if we told our children they possess an inherent goodness, and that life is about discovering this goodness, and that we call this journey towards discovering the divine spark we all possess…salvation?

What if,

in all of this,

what if

we

                                    are

all

wrong?

What if LOVE is all we need?

After all, if God is who we say God is, then Love is not only the answer, but it is our identity—for we are created in the image of Love.

Last thing, what if we approached life with this thought from Thomas Merton:

“It seems to me the most absurd thing in the world is to be upset because I am weak and distracted and blind and constantly make mistakes! What else do I expect? Does God love me any less because I can’t make myself a saint by my own power and in my own way? God loves me more because I am so clumsy and helpless without God and underneath what I am God sees me as I will one day be by God’s pure gift and that pleases God. Therefore, it pleases me and I attend to God’s great love which is my joy.”

Every second somebody is wondering, “what if I am not loved?”

What if this is your second to tell them they, in fact, are?

Through Stained Glass: A Mid-Week Reflection-stronger

stronger

It was a simple statement.

Because of its simplicity, I stop sipping my coffee and read it again.

Here’s the statement:

Gospel: The crowd tries to stop Jesus from healing the girl then mocks him. Don't let anyone prevent you from loving.

February is culturally known as the month of love. Amidst those tasty, staled, delightfully colored candy hearts and Hallmark cards, there we don’t want to forget:

Love—isn’t only a feeling.

Then what else is it?

Love—is a verb.

God is love.

Out of God’s love God created. That is the good news. God didn’t have to but God did. And thus, we are.

7 Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God... ⁸Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love… ¹¹Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. ¹²No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.

It really isn’t that easy? Or is it?

Jesus loved radically. Radical love, is a love so extreme that it dissolves our existing boundaries, whether they are boundaries that separate us from other people, that separate us from preconceived notions we my have about each other, or that separate us from God.

 ⁹Whoever says, ‘I am in the light’, while hating

a brother or sister, is still in the darkness.

¹⁰Whoever loves a brother or sister lives in the

light, and in such a person there is no cause for

stumbling. ¹¹But whoever hates another believer 

is in the darkness, walks in the darkness, and does

not know the way to go, because the darkness

has brought on blindness. ~1 John 2

Despite the warnings and threats from the community, Jesus compassionately cared for those on the margins in his community. But also, Jesus cared selflessly for those he called disciples.

Here in lies a potential problem:  it is easy to spot the outsider but do we know who is an outsider on the inside?

Not sure what this means?

Here is an example our own denomination faced and still faces at times:

To be an outsider on the inside looks like a woman pastor not being treated in the same way as the stereotypical male pastor.

Essentially, in God’s sight, no one is a misfit. There is no set protocol for God’s community. It is our call as God’s people not to cast judgment or the first stones but to join God in love the world and everything in it.

Often the crowed tried to stop Jesus from loving. But he didn’t listen. Selflessly he gave of himself until there was nothing else to give.

In turn, those he loved, well, they lived.

Love, friends.

Will you prevent it or perpetuate it?

“Love your neighbor; she/he is like you.”

Martin Buber’s translation of the biblical command is rhythmically stronger than what we are used to. The pause in the middle of the sentence makes us think.

How so?

Love of self and love of others are not compared in this translation. Working on a deeper level, this translation points to their common root, which is equality.

Our love assumes likeness in others, even if we cannot see the likeness.

Love is perhaps the deepest need that people have; learning to give and to receive, their our greatest task.

Don’t let anyone prevent you from loving.