God taught loving

One of the texts of today is 1 Thessalonians 4: 1-12.  I was caught by the these verses and they were most easily understood when I read how Eugene Peterson translated them in the message.

 Regarding life together and getting along with each other, you don’t need me to tell you what to do. You’re God-taught in these matters. 
Just love one another! You’re already good at it; your friends all over the province of Macedonia are the evidence. Keep it up; get better and better at it.
¹Stay calm; mind your own business; do your own job. You’ve heard all this from us before, but a reminder never hurts. We want you living in a way that will command the respect of outsiders, not lying around sponging off your friends.

Just love one another - he writes and the truth is that we have so much trouble just loving each other.  This morning for some reason I started thinking about a sermon I heard in seminary that I never forgot.  The message was that we live in a "If - then" world and God is calling us to a "Since - therefore" faith.

Let me translate that!  The if then world is all about cause and effect, and often control and manipulation.  We say - if you study and do well on tests - you will get good grades.  If you work hard, you will get rewarded.  The problem is that we attach that to our relationship with God and with each other. which means that we love each other - but conditionally with an IF attached.  This God taught loving is loving with NO IF's - in other words - unconditional.

What I know for sure is that we cannot practice this unconditional love of others until we know - in the very deepest core of ourselves - the unconditional love of God.  God who knows us better than we know ourselves and always is loving us.  THEN we can move into "Since - therefore" - which is: Since God loves me just as I am. therefore, I will love you just as you are. 

What I also know for sure is that this is only possible for mature, healthy people .  I have been reading - slowly - a book by Bill Plotkiin called Wild Mind and he refers to the "nurturing generative adult."   Here is a quote from the book explaining:

"To nurture is to care for the well-being of other humans, our fellow creatures, earthly inhabitants and ourselves. To be generative is to design and implement innovative cultural practices that imaginatively and effectively restore, solve, or shelter, that truly serve the whole person and the web of life.  To be an adult in this sense, is to enthusiastically and competently embrace opportunities to enhance the vitality of beings, places, and communities, present and future - and where you don't find such opportunities, to creatively generate them."

So, we easily read words - "Just love one another!" and nod our heads like it is easy.  But my experience still is that I know how easy it is to fall into unconscious, reactive, transactional behavior with people instead of just loving and accepting everyone just as they are in this moment.

As I write this tonight I see Anderson Cooper interviewing two parents who lost their daughter in the fire in Oakland.  And all they want is to share the beauty of this soul that they lost in that tragic event.  May we all love in such a way that we look for the beauty of each soul.  just as we are.

Peace Sunday

Here us part of what we heard in church today - From Isaiah 11: 1-10


A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse,
and a branch shall grow out of his roots.
The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him,
the spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the spirit of counsel and might,
the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.

The wolf shall live with the lamb,
the leopard shall lie down with the kid,
the calf and the lion and the fatling together,
and a little child shall lead them.

These images are profound and powerful.  The shoot  - the new life - that comes from a stump.  Seems improbable.  And the peaceful life of predator and prey seems impossible.

I heard a sermon that spoke to me this morning as the preacher shared that she had been present in 1989 at the fall of the Berlin wall and she had also been in South Africa  at the end of Apartheid in 1994.  She spoke of the prayers that preceded these events and how long it took for them to transpire. She spoke of lighting a candle of peace because we have a vision - as Christians - of the reign of God where there is peace.  And we believe in the power of prayer and our peaceful and compassion works in this world.

My Sunday practice of reading the New York Times makes me believe that peace is impossible - whether we are talking about peace in the middle east or peace between republicans and democrats or peace in some of our families.  Sometimes I get a glimpse into the silent warfare or the constant conflict within some relationships and I wonder if they will ever come to a peaceful acceptance of each other.

I am grateful to begin this second Sunday of Advent with these hope filled images - of life where you think there can be no life and enemies who find a way to live together peacefully.  I know that peace does not just "happen" but requires our attention, our humility, our courage, our faith. So I light a candle today and pray that I may work to understand, forgive, and build bridges in my world so that I may - in some small way -  be a peacemaker.

Another prayer of blessing

May you be blessed by the God of PEACE who stills the heart that quakes with fear or doubt or confusion.
May your discover your peace in the "God seed" of your own being and in the flowering of your inner goodness.
May the warmth of your peace bring calm to those who tremble in fear and uncertainty.
May the blessing of PEACE be on you.

Comfort, O Comfort

Isaiah 40:1-11

40Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. ²Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.

³A voice cries out: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

⁴Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.

⁵Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

 ⁶A voice says, “Cry out!” And I said, “What shall I cry?” All people are grass, their constancy is like the flower of the field. ⁷The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it; surely the people are grass

. ⁸The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever.

⁹Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good tidings; with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings, lift it up, do lift up your voice not fear; say to the cities of Judah, “Here is your God!”

¹⁰See, the Lord God comes with might, and his arm rules for him; his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.

 ¹¹He will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep.

        I look at this familiar text and it brings up so many memories.  In the King James version it is “ Comfort ye, comfort ye” and that takes me to Handel’s Messiah .  And the memories come rushing back of listening to the record played on the hi fi that was a piece of furniture in our living room in West Chester Pennsylvania when I was growing up.  We played it every Christmas. And I have memories of going to church and hearing the community concert – the 49er’s  - and watching my dad sing bass.  Comfort ye!  Just hearing these words bring comfort of good memories from 50+ years go.  

       Now in Advent 2016 much has changed.  My Dad has been gone for over 20 years and my Mom for 15.  I may hear the music of the Messiah still – from my Iphone – not a record on the stereo. I do not have a church to go to where I will hear these words of Comfort sung.  It is all a reminder that  “The grass withers, the flowers fade”  or life is transient.

     These words were written for people who were in exile from home and it give a promise of returning home.  Not quite “I’ll be home for Christmas” but this image of the gentle care of God who : “ will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep.”

     And so the voice read about in Isaiah  brings comfort as it speaks about the grace and care of God   This is in contrast to another voice that I often hear – it is  harsher and it tells me that I need to shape up, get my act together, and get over it. Whatever it is.  I wonder if others hear that voice during their wilderness times.

     I find a large measure of comfort on this Saturday morning of hearing a word that is saying “LISTEN” for that gentle voice in your wilderness.  It wants to bring you comfort and love as you wait for the new life to be born.  

Here is a blessing for today from Maxine Shonk that says it all much better than me.

May the God of COMFORT bless you.

May God's care for you ease all that is troubling to you and reassure you in times of adversity.

May you be encouraged by the whisper of God;s love for you in the center of your being

and may you rest securely in the arms of the One who will never let got of you.

may you extend the hand of comfort to those around you who are in need of that same reassurance.

may the God of COMFORT be with you.

The Grace in Living

That is the title of one of the books I am currently reading.  It is by Kathleen Dowling Singh and the rest of the title is:  Recognize it, trust it, abide in it.

That really says it all.  She writes about how important "Spiritual Biography" is.  She starts her chapter on it like this:
"Anyone who has ever taken a long and arduous hike through a woods or a city or a hillside knows how welcome the sigh of a bench can be.  Spiritual biography offers such a bench, a chance to sit and rest in the midst of our journey and take stock of what our life has been about.  it's an opportunity to look backdown the path, noting how far we've come and the conducive and the challenging conditions that we've met along the way."   In a way, this is what spiritual direction is - a chance to sit with another on that bench and look back and bear witness to what we have seen and experienced.

I write this as I look at the scriptures for today which are all a look back at the history - the spiritual history - of God's people. Act 16: 16-25 is Paul recounting the history

So Paul stood up and with a gesture began to speak:
“You Israelites, and others who fear God, listen. The God of this people Israel chose our ancestors and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt, and with uplifted arm he led them out of it. For about forty years he put up with them in the wilderness.
 After he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance for about four hundred fifty years.
 After that he gave them judges until the time of the prophet Samuel. Then they asked for a king; and God gave them Saul son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, who reigned for forty years.
When he had removed him, he made David their king. In his testimony about him he said, ”I have found David, son of Jesse, to be a man after my heart, who will carry out all my wishes.”
Of this man's posterity God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, as he promised; before his coming John had already proclaimed a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. And as John was finishing his work, he said, “What do you suppose that I am? I am not he. No, but one is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of the sandals on his feet

In essence, he is tracing it from Egypt, through the wilderness (40 years) to Canaan (450 years) to Judges, Kings, David and Jesus.  It is a broad brush  view which is saying to people - God is doing something in history.  You have to step back and look and see the movement of the spirit as you are being called, protected, guided and ultimately saved.

So, it seems to me that these text during this season of Advent is saying that God is here for God's people - plural and singular. At the same time - God is hidden, subversive and mysterious.  The reminder for us is that we need to  stop and reflect back in order to have clarity and strength to keep going.  This once again the call to scripture and prayer.

Kathleen Singh writes this about spiritual biography:

• "We come to feel respect and appreciation for the grace that has called to us and led us and shaped the unique path we are following into our own essential nature."
• We begin to recognize ourselves as ordinary human beings - a profoundly liberating recognition.  We accept ourselves just as we are in each moment.  We are awakening."
• Exploring our own story of awakening, we see that our tense grasping to the survival operating system can be released. 
• our confidence and willingness to simply allow our own unfolding will grow

 So, my understanding is that God leads us forward to trust what we cannot see and invites us to times of looking back so that - in wonder and awe - we can begin to understand that God was ALWAYS with us.

Final quote:
"Each of us, no matter how new or old our commitment to the journey, is on a trajectory of spiritual maturation, carried along by grace.  As we mature spiritually we finally begin to open to and experience more of the 99,99999 percent of reality that we've been over looking for a long time"

May it be so..

Needing Each other

The scripture for today is from 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13

⁹How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy that we feel before our God because of you? ¹⁰Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you face to face and restore whatever is lacking in your faith.

¹¹Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you. ¹²And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we abound in love for you. ¹³And may he so strengthen your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints

Paul and Timothy had each been to Thessalonica and Paul wrote this letter of encouragement.  In these  verses he is expressing his prayers for the people as well as his love and desire to be with them.

I spent 45 minutes in physical therapy this afternoon and thought about how it reminds me of the spiritual journey.  I have a shoulder that has been hurting for a while and it causes limited use of my arm and pain in my arm.  In physical therapy I am learning exercises from Lisa which are slowly helping me with my posture as well as strengthening my muscles.  At least I think that is what is supposed to be happening. It sure seems like slow going.  I have exercises that I am supposed to do daily as well as ice my arm.  Honestly, I am erratic in doing what I am supposed to do when I am at home.

So, it is a good thing that twice I week I join my physical therapist and practice these and learn new exercises.  I am in a room with others with their physical therapists.  Some have balance issues, or walking.  We are each wounded and clearly in need of different kinds of help.  I find it interesting that we don't have private rooms but share a space as we mutually learn and practice our own exercises.

There is something about coming together with others who share my physical condition that I find somehow encouraging. I'm not the only one.   And there is something about coming together with others who share my faith that similarly is helpful.  I am not alone on this journey..  I spent this morning with fellow clergy and listened to their stories about their work in their congregation.  Even though I am no longer pastoring, I appreciate being able to be an encourager of others who are doing ministry. I feel connected to them and to God when we are together.

It is easy to go it alone and forget the blessing of community.  I am grateful for the prayers of others and for those who walk with me in ministry.  I miss the weekly worshiping community that is easy to take for granted when you are part of it.  Just by our presence, we encourage each other to do the ministry and the healing work we are called to  when we are apart.

Here is a blessing for today by Maxine Shonk that expresses it better than I can:

May the God who forms COMMUNITY be with you.
May you engage this God in mutual attention to what is holy and fulfilling for the others,
to what brings joy and delight and depth of understanding.
May your communion with this God move you to growth in your inner spirit
and to warm and compassion for a world that awaits connection with its Creator.
May the God of COMMUNITY bless you all your days.
Amen