Through Stained Glass: Advent--glory, light, & love

Hebrews 1.1-3

Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, 2but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds. 3He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word.

Thought:  The fog of fear consumes the imagination of many. Our creativity is the remedy—the spark needed to burn away the hate so we may see Love’s mercy, light, and glory.

When you hear ‘the glory of God’ or ‘give glory to God’ what comes to mind?

How are you reflecting God’s glory—Christ?

John 1:4-5The Message (MSG)

^3-5 Everything was created through him;
    nothing—not one thing!—
    came into being without him.
What came into existence was Life,
    and the Life was Light to live by.
The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness;
    the darkness couldn’t put it out.

Thought:  As much as we celebrate light we need not be afraid of the dark. Darkness is beautiful. Darkness is where dreams are born.

When was the last time you went into the darkness? Did you appreciate the light more when you returned from the dark? Why are we afraid of the dark when it is the light where we are often exposed to the harshness of life?

Poem:

Sweet Darkness

When your eyes are tired

the world is tired also.

When your vision has gone

no part of the world can find you.

Time to go into the dark

where the night has eyes

to recognize its own.

There you can be sure

you are not beyond love.

The dark will be your womb

tonight.

The night will give you a horizon

further than you can see.

You must learn one thing.

The world was made to be free in.

Give up all the other worlds

except the one to which you belong.

Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet

confinement of your aloneness

to learn

anything or anyone

that does not bring you alive

is too small for you.

 -- David Whyte

     from The House of Belonging

     ©1996 Many Rivers Press

Zephaniah 3.14-17

14 Sing aloud, O daughter Zion;

   shout, O Israel!

Rejoice and exult with all your heart,

   O daughter Jerusalem!

15 The Holy One has taken away the judgements against you,

   God has turned away your enemies.

The king of Israel, the Holy One, is in your midst;

   you shall fear disaster no more.

16 On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem:

Do not fear, O Zion;

   do not let your hands grow weak.

17 The Holy One, your God, is in your midst,

   a warrior who gives victory;

God will rejoice over you with gladness,

   God will renew you in God’s love;

God will exult over you with loud singing…

I love our church. Plain and simple. I love the people. I love the building. I love our awareness for ministry. I love the energy we have for mission. I love the energy we have for our children and youth.

Again I say, I love this church.

Some thoughts on Love:

We are created in the image of God. If God is love our image is Love. Our identity and destiny is love.

Thomas Merton once said, Love is our true destiny. We do not find the meaning of life by ourselves alone - we find it with another.

         What do you think he meant by this?

 Love is our true name. 

I challenge you today let someone know, someone outside of your circle of friends & family, that you love them. Or, better yet, that they God loves them. Show kindness. Show gentleness. Buy the person in line behind you their coffee. Leave $10 at Jimmy John's and tell them the next college kid to walk in, use that $ to buy their lunch. Go visit someone in the prisons. 

Love is the way...

Through Stained Glass: A Mid-Week Reflection-statement

statement

Prayer.

What is it?

How do we pray?

Are there right words to use when praying?

Today, is today a day for adoration, confession, thanksgiving, or supplication?

Who do I pray for?

Does it matter how long I pray?

Prayer.

Actually, in scripture and in the lives of the faithful, we see that prayer isn’t just one style.

Prayer of the heart may use few words or none.

All that is required needed is an attentive heart.

A heart that is attentive to the world, yes the world, around you:  locally, globally, nationally, and/or personally.

Don’t think too so much and pray.

Where do we begin? How do I begin?

How about this piece of advice:

One of my favorite writers and theologians, Thomas Merton, taught that simply walking with God is one of the surest ways of developing a life of prayer. Prayer such as this unveils the presence of God everywhere; God in the everydayness of life, in the body, in nature, and in the people we encounter.

Pray.

All occasions are opportunities for prayer:  preparing a meal, working in the garden, reading a book, taking a walk in the woods, playing with children or with your pets. Prayer is not about words or postures, though these aspects are important. Prayer is about living with a sense of God’s presence in all our lives.

Here comes a bold statement.

The real purpose of prayer…is the deepening of personal realization in love, the awareness of God (even if sometimes this awareness may among to a negative factor, a seeming ‘absence’).

Prayer then not just a formula of words, or a series of desires springing up in the heart—it is the orientation of our whole body, mind, and spirit to God in silence, attention, and adoration.

So pray.

However you need to or want to. But you need to.

We all do.

Need help?

Think about this poem by Mary Oliver titled, “Praying.”

“Praying

It doesn’t have to be

the blue iris, it could be

weeds in a vacant lot, or a few

small stones; just

pay attention, then patch

a few words together and don’t try

to make them elaborate, this isn’t

a contest but the doorway

into thanks, and a silence in which

another voice may speak.”

Prayer.

By reading this, you’ve already done it.

Be well.

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

Sunny Celebration

It was a glorious day.

No one could have picked a more perfect Sunday to celebrate the joy of Easter.

I remember hearing the birds sing during the Sunrise service.

The sun made her way over the horizon (read:  the jr. high) just as we said our final ‘Amen’ and greeted one another once more, “Christ has risen indeed!”

Our 40 days in the wilderness and our slow march during Holy Week turned into a bright hour of song and celebration as we celebrated the gift of resurrection during worship at 10am.

Sunday, was, well, pretty perfect.

Easter has come and gone now….

Or has it?

As many of you know, Easter isn’t but 1 Sunday. No, it is actually 50 days! Thus, for the next 6 or 7 weeks we will hear stories of the post-resurrected Jesus.

We do this to remind ourselves that we are in fact an Easter people!

The work isn’t done. Rather, now is the season and time for us to celebrate the life we receive from God’s grace. Now is the time to celebrate the sunny days and the joy of laughter. Now is the time to thank God for life—for today—for our friends and family—thank God for

YOU!

Creation isn’t done with ‘resurrection’ either. Trees are blooming; daffodils are opening; and grass is growing. Before you know it, the slow process of re-creation will have completely consumed our neighborhoods.

This work, this re-creation, is also happening in you.

Everyday God is shaping you into the person who God wants you to become. Believe it. Trust it. Embrace it. As an Easter people we are reminded that God has never given up on us and that not even death could keep God’s love for us down.

So friends, I encourage you to practice resurrection in the coming days. Celebrate the gift of a new day…this new season.

Easter has not passed us. Rather, it is just beginning.

Also, in honor of national poetry week, I want to share a poem by my favorite writer, Thomas Merton that has set my course for this Easter season.

Take thought, man, tonight. Take thought, man tonight when it is dark, when it is raining. Take thought of the game you have forgotten. You are the child of a great and peaceful race. You are the son of an unutterable fable. You were discovered on a mild mountain. You have come up out of the godlike ocean. You are holy, disarmed, signed with a chaste emblem. You are also marked with forgetfulness. Deep inside your breast you were the number of loss. Take thought, man, tonight. Do this. Do this. Recover your original name. This is the early legend that returns. This is the legend that begins again. Remember the ancient dances. (He has remembered the whole world at peace. He has remembered the world of villages, of maize, of emeralds, of quiet mothers. He has lifted up the world.)

May you during this Easter season, discover your original name.

Through Stained Glass: Advent Word of the Day-Keeper

Day 3:  keeper

“Am I my sister’s/brother’s keeper?” [Genesis 4.9]

To answer it directly,

yes.

This text comes right after creation, the moment when out of selfless love, God created. That is the truth I continue to come back to:  however the ball of creation got rolling, when there was nothing—there became something.

I find comfort in that something, despite the mystery surrounding it, being God.

We are meant for each other. Together, as a collective community of creatures, we make up the beautiful quilt of God’s imaginative love—humanity.

How are we to keep each other?

At the risk of sounding too simplistic, I can’t help but say—turn to Scripture.

The Bible in its entirety speaks about God and God’s concern for the creation and all creatures, including human creatures; it speaks of God’s involvement with the creation for the benefit and the healing of it. The premise of all Scripture is that without this involvement on God’s part, creation would perish in an abyss of violence.

God asks Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” in the same way God asked the humans in Genesis 3.9. God is asking more than about location. Cain’s flippant answer offends against the Torah’s ethic of responsibility for one’s kinsman and neighbor.

Advent is the season where God extends the promise of healing in the person of Jesus Christ. As Christians we enter into Advent as a people of God, studying the stories of Torah because we have come to believe in the same God who called ancient Israel, who still calls our Jewish neighbors, who also calls gentiles into relationship with this God for the healing of creation. We trust and believe, hope and know, that in life and in death we are kept by God.

So friends, during this season of hope and expectation, what is God asking you? We wait and we listen…but with God, it is never a passive activity.

I leave you with a paraphrase from one of my favorite scholars, Thomas Merton. I think it speaks perfectly to today’s word:

“Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. That is not our business and, in fact, it is nobody's business. What we are asked to do is to love, and this love itself will render both ourselves and our neighbors worthy.” 

God keeps you close to God’s heart. May we do so with those we share life with. After all, there is but one Love. And yes, that is what keeps us as brothers and sisters.