(I am sorry I have not posted for so long but life has indeed been a bit hectic and challenging lately and every time I thought I'd be able to sit down and write the time had to be used for something else. I will try to be more consistent about writing at least weekly ongoing. Thanks for your patience.)
Is 2:1-5
This is what Isaiah, son of Amos,
saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
In days to come,
the mountain of the LORD’s house
shall be established as the highest mountain
and raised above the hills.
All nations shall stream toward it;
many peoples shall come and say:
“Come, let us climb the LORD’s mountain,
to the house of the God of Jacob,
that he may instruct us in his ways,
and we may walk in his paths.”
For from Zion shall go forth instruction,
and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between the nations,
and impose terms on many peoples.
They shall beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks;
one nation shall not raise the sword against another,
nor shall they train for war again.
O house of Jacob, come,let us walk in the light of the Lord!
I love Advent! The scripture readings are all so full of hope and wonder. We need hope and wonder. We need true awe before the wonderful love of God. We live in such a world of neon lights, fast moving games, instant everything, that we have to go a distance to have a WOW factor all too often. When everything is in caps, or everything is in hyperbole, nothing stands out. In our high speed, high tech glitzy world, the power of awe before God can get lost so easily if we are not awake to it. We have seen all kinds of light shows and special effects so we aren't as likely to stand before a sunset with silent and reverent awe; yet in this "stillness is the dancing," the dancing that is our soul's breath. It is in the quiet that the still soft Voice speaks truth to our hearts and wins us over. In the noisy world of distractions we need to find a quiet corner in which to wait with hope, trusting to be awed by the God Who Comes like a Lover leaping mountains to reach us.
The verses above from Isaiah are familiar passages but let us hear them anew, with fresh ears and with a deep awe before the God who reveals himself in them.
In days to come,
the mountain of the LORD’s house
shall be established as the highest mountain
and raised above the hills.
A time will come when the house of the Lord, the place where God dwells, will be the pinnacle of all. A time will come when nonsense won't reign supreme. Yes, a time will come when the sacred and the holy will be revered by all or at least most. A time will come when we will come to our senses and recognize God as God and the house of God as the tabernacle of our souls. There are those who would and do say that such a hope is frivolous and itself nonsensical. The words of scripture take a different view.
All nations shall stream toward it;
many peoples shall come and say:
“Come, let us climb the LORD’s mountain,
to the house of the God of Jacob,
that he may instruct us in his ways,
and we may walk in his paths.”
The word of the Lord reveals hope for all hearts to come home to the instruction of God. Can we imagine a world in which all nations stream toward the mountain of God? A world in which the guidance of God is gleefully and nearly universally sought? Deep sigh, won't it be wonderful! We need to walk in the path of God because it is only on this path that we will find our true self. We were made by God and we will never be fully home until we are joined to God fully, and it isn't necessary that we die to be fully united with God. We were made for union with not separation from God. Hear what I just said: we were created to be united fully to God. God is at our core our true "soul mate." May this Advent our desire for God mirror a fraction of God's desire for us and we will be overwhelmed with spiritual ecstasy.
For from Zion shall go forth instruction,
and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between the nations,
and impose terms on many peoples.
They shall beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks;
one nation shall not raise the sword against another,
nor shall they train for war again.
O house of Jacob, come,let us walk in the light of the Lord!
A day will come when we will finally "get it" and stopping thinking there are reasons we need to kill each other. God's word goes forth and changes us, but really heals us to be who we have always been created to be, true children of God. As we open ourselves to grace, we won't need to wield any swords. We stop needing to be right and have a greater need to be kind and forgiving. We move from the stiffness of self-righteousness to the fluidity of compassion.
Think about it. Think how much blood has been spent on the need to be right, on the presumption that my truth is truer than your truth. Think about how much blood has been spilled "defending God," or more correctly our current image of God. How prideful of us to think that God needs our protection. How patiently God waits for us to "come around" to what our souls have always known. These deeper truths that are essential are not known so much with the head as they are savored and celebrated with the heart.
If we stop tearing down, we have the energy to build each other up. If we stop wielding swords and cutting each other to pieces, we can plow the land and yield a harvest of peace. We can use the gifts within us to fertilize the land with hope and to bless with joy. If we can ever get past our fears and our "justified" anger, we can work the land rather than destroy it. Having been at the front lines of medicine for so many years now, I keep seeing folks who not only refuse to be healed but who are forever rubbing salt in their own wounds and then complaining about the depth of their suffering.
The way of hope is a way of yielding to grace. Advent reminds us to wait with hope and to yield with confidence. Somehow we are forever thinking that justice is about making sure everyone gets the same size slice of the pie which is obviously silly when we are at a banquet table that is overflowing with food. So very little of what we obsess and fight about means anything at all in terms of Real Life. We seems to be more comfortable with the wound with which we are familiar than the healing that is mystery to us, even at the same time as we pray to be lifted from our suffering.
Advent begins a new year of hope, we can choose new paths, we can let go of old wounds. We don't need to be right all the time or at all really. We just need to be healed by the Love already given to us. We just need to be open to the Light that has already come to lead us out of darkness. We aren't even asked to throw out our swords or spears but to "repurpose" them. All that energy that we wasted in fighting with each other is now to be redirected to planting blessings rather than curses, to honing each other's gifts rather than tearing each other down.
Let us allow grace to infiltrate us and infect us with holy hope and sacred joy. Let us embrace the season that prepares for the celebration of Christmas as a gift in itself rather than as a chore to be endured. Christmas has become big business, but before it was a season, it was a miracle that changed the world. Advent with all its wonderful readings reminds us how we waited for and received such a miracle as the Son of God who is the Son of Man. Advent reminds us of the possibilities that lie before our yielding hearts, possibilities of endless miracles of union with the divine. Imagine and rejoice in awe and wonder. Amen.
God bless.
Monday, November 29, 2010
Friday, October 29, 2010
The Lord hears the cry of the poor
Psalm 34: 2-3, 17-18, 19, 23
Refrain: The Lord hears the cry of the poor.
I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall ever be in my mouth.
Let me soul glory in the Lord; the lowly will hear me and be glad.
The Lord confronts the evil doers, to destroy remembrance of them from the earth.
When the just cry out, the Lord hears them, and from all their distress he rescues them.
The Lord is close to the brokenhearted; and those who are crushed in spirit he saves.
The Lord redeems the lives of his servants; no one incurs guilt who takes refuge in him.
The pilgrimage that is our journey through this life is a challenging one but also full of much gift. Pilgrimages are always more challenging than mere trips. Pilgrims are on a mission and their mission involves drawing near to God. Drawing near to God means estranging ourselves to all the lies and deceptions that are not of God. Unfortunately so much of modern society is founded on established lies and deceptions that have just become accepted over time. So many in the first world have been wounded in ways that believing we should look out for "number one" first at all costs seems like a truth. We believe we are "entitled" to have everything we want, and that there are no negative consequences to our appetites for more and more "stuff." We believe it is some constitutional right to "have it our way."
Now, please, I am not suggesting that we should not take care of ourselves, nor that we shouldn't enjoy nice things. It is all in how we approach things and how we are attached. We need to remember that "our ways" are not always "God's ways" and that God's ways are really what we should be seeking because the only desire of the heart of God is for the good for all of us. God desires union with us in a unfurled passionate way. Have you ever stepped out into a beautiful day and looked up at the sky and looked around at the beauty of nature and just felt one with everything? Didn't you feel as though you were intimately part of all that is in some wonder-ful way? Didn't breathing feel different? Those moments of deep awakening when we feel "connected" are wonderful, but the truth is, we are no less joined to all creation (and hence to the Creator) when we are unaware of the gift, like on a gray winter day when the windchill is minus ten.
I am again not diminishing the challenge of the bumps on the road; for my road hasn't exactly been smooth lately either. However, what we need is truly an awakened heart, for with an awakened heart we can and will bless the Lord at all times. We will breathe with the same depth of oneness on the autumn day of sunny brightness and wonderfully colored foliage as on the sparse winter day of haziness and cool challenging breezes. We will do this literally and figuratively. When "all is right with the world" (translate when things seem to be going our way), we have no trouble "feeling" connected and happy. Joy however is a deeper gift and isn't based on our immediate surroundings or our internal challenges. Joy is a choice just like love is. Joy doesn't depend on whether my stomach is full or whether or not I am lonely. Joy comes simply from knowing that we are loved unconditionally.
I am not talking about the knowledge that is the understanding or the comprehension of the mind. I am rather referring to the knowing that comes from an experience of presence. When we are close to someone, when we have touched soul to soul, we say we "know them." Or perhaps we say to them: you know me better than anyone. This is knowledge of the soul's heart. This is the land of the mystics and it is here in this knowing that is not of the mind that we come to know God and more importantly to receive an awareness of being known by God. It is here in this mystical realm, where words are so pale before the reality, that we experience Presence and are changed.
This Presence changes us in some ways but actually it awakens us to who we have always been as children of a Loving God. It is here that we learn to celebrate joy and to be a people who can bless the Lord and give thanks at all times. Folks who keep a joyful outlook and celebrate presence and thanksgiving in their hearts are not naive. They are often the most suffered of persons; for a vision of the divine clashes with the lies of the world rather violently at times (on the part of the world not the part of the joyful heart). They are however a folk confident in the truth within them; for again it is a knowing of truth not an understanding of truth; it is a celebration of Mystery without a need to dissect the experience.
We are called to awaken fully to the Presence of God within us and to celebrate with all creation the Love that is God. That is the "mission" of our pilgrimage. We are called to be a folk who bless the Lord at all times, the times that the grace is easy to receive, and the times we struggle to let go. The praise of God should always be in our hearts and color our demeanor. Our presence should infect others with goodness, kindness, and mercy. We should be the presence of the Living God for each other in all circumstances. That is what it means to glory in the Lord; to celebrate, no matter the challenge, that we are loved eternally and more passionately than we can conceive.
Of course this doesn't mean that we won't be angry or down or exhausted. Emotions are a part of our human makeup as much as is our corporal physiology. We are more than our corpuscles though, we are a mystery that is of God. In the mystery, tired, discouraged and hanging on by a thread, yet we can be light bearers, we can be a people who choose joy and who live in hope confidently because we know in all circumstances we are unconditionally loved. Then even our lowly selves battered along the way will be glad and others will "hear" the good news in our presence even on our "winter" days.
I believe this is part of the way that the justice of God cries out in us and part of the way that God confronts evil and banishes the darkness, by this simple choice for love, this simple living in the presence that makes the heart joyful. Far from the popular lies of our culture, the soul so disposed gets there not by "looking out for number one at all costs" but by letting go more and more in the simple daily turnings of life that are transformational. God does not want us to be self-effacing that is the polar lie of being egotistical. Both are estranging from the truth. Having journeyed my 57 years though I will tell you, that most of the pilgrimage especially the older we get, is about letting go, about getting out of our own way and letting God be God in our hearts, so we can actually be our true selves.
In this challenge God is very close to us in our brokenheartedness, and he saves us from being crushed time and time again. By freeing us to be a people who know they are loved because of our being drawn into God's Living Presence in some level of wakefulness, we are redeemed to live as the true servants of God. We are liberated to be the creatures we were created to be: our true selves unburdened by all the lies we have bought about who we should or should not be. When our refuge is the Truth of God we don't need shame or guilt, there is only love, holy love for in the embrace of this Love that is Being is all healing and forgiveness.
Let us then always remember that our Lord hears the cries of our poorest most broken selves and loves us into wholeness. So we in response should be a people of joy who bless and praise the Lord at all times and in all the ways of our lives.
God bless.
Refrain: The Lord hears the cry of the poor.
I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall ever be in my mouth.
Let me soul glory in the Lord; the lowly will hear me and be glad.
The Lord confronts the evil doers, to destroy remembrance of them from the earth.
When the just cry out, the Lord hears them, and from all their distress he rescues them.
The Lord is close to the brokenhearted; and those who are crushed in spirit he saves.
The Lord redeems the lives of his servants; no one incurs guilt who takes refuge in him.
The pilgrimage that is our journey through this life is a challenging one but also full of much gift. Pilgrimages are always more challenging than mere trips. Pilgrims are on a mission and their mission involves drawing near to God. Drawing near to God means estranging ourselves to all the lies and deceptions that are not of God. Unfortunately so much of modern society is founded on established lies and deceptions that have just become accepted over time. So many in the first world have been wounded in ways that believing we should look out for "number one" first at all costs seems like a truth. We believe we are "entitled" to have everything we want, and that there are no negative consequences to our appetites for more and more "stuff." We believe it is some constitutional right to "have it our way."
Now, please, I am not suggesting that we should not take care of ourselves, nor that we shouldn't enjoy nice things. It is all in how we approach things and how we are attached. We need to remember that "our ways" are not always "God's ways" and that God's ways are really what we should be seeking because the only desire of the heart of God is for the good for all of us. God desires union with us in a unfurled passionate way. Have you ever stepped out into a beautiful day and looked up at the sky and looked around at the beauty of nature and just felt one with everything? Didn't you feel as though you were intimately part of all that is in some wonder-ful way? Didn't breathing feel different? Those moments of deep awakening when we feel "connected" are wonderful, but the truth is, we are no less joined to all creation (and hence to the Creator) when we are unaware of the gift, like on a gray winter day when the windchill is minus ten.
I am again not diminishing the challenge of the bumps on the road; for my road hasn't exactly been smooth lately either. However, what we need is truly an awakened heart, for with an awakened heart we can and will bless the Lord at all times. We will breathe with the same depth of oneness on the autumn day of sunny brightness and wonderfully colored foliage as on the sparse winter day of haziness and cool challenging breezes. We will do this literally and figuratively. When "all is right with the world" (translate when things seem to be going our way), we have no trouble "feeling" connected and happy. Joy however is a deeper gift and isn't based on our immediate surroundings or our internal challenges. Joy is a choice just like love is. Joy doesn't depend on whether my stomach is full or whether or not I am lonely. Joy comes simply from knowing that we are loved unconditionally.
I am not talking about the knowledge that is the understanding or the comprehension of the mind. I am rather referring to the knowing that comes from an experience of presence. When we are close to someone, when we have touched soul to soul, we say we "know them." Or perhaps we say to them: you know me better than anyone. This is knowledge of the soul's heart. This is the land of the mystics and it is here in this knowing that is not of the mind that we come to know God and more importantly to receive an awareness of being known by God. It is here in this mystical realm, where words are so pale before the reality, that we experience Presence and are changed.
This Presence changes us in some ways but actually it awakens us to who we have always been as children of a Loving God. It is here that we learn to celebrate joy and to be a people who can bless the Lord and give thanks at all times. Folks who keep a joyful outlook and celebrate presence and thanksgiving in their hearts are not naive. They are often the most suffered of persons; for a vision of the divine clashes with the lies of the world rather violently at times (on the part of the world not the part of the joyful heart). They are however a folk confident in the truth within them; for again it is a knowing of truth not an understanding of truth; it is a celebration of Mystery without a need to dissect the experience.
We are called to awaken fully to the Presence of God within us and to celebrate with all creation the Love that is God. That is the "mission" of our pilgrimage. We are called to be a folk who bless the Lord at all times, the times that the grace is easy to receive, and the times we struggle to let go. The praise of God should always be in our hearts and color our demeanor. Our presence should infect others with goodness, kindness, and mercy. We should be the presence of the Living God for each other in all circumstances. That is what it means to glory in the Lord; to celebrate, no matter the challenge, that we are loved eternally and more passionately than we can conceive.
Of course this doesn't mean that we won't be angry or down or exhausted. Emotions are a part of our human makeup as much as is our corporal physiology. We are more than our corpuscles though, we are a mystery that is of God. In the mystery, tired, discouraged and hanging on by a thread, yet we can be light bearers, we can be a people who choose joy and who live in hope confidently because we know in all circumstances we are unconditionally loved. Then even our lowly selves battered along the way will be glad and others will "hear" the good news in our presence even on our "winter" days.
I believe this is part of the way that the justice of God cries out in us and part of the way that God confronts evil and banishes the darkness, by this simple choice for love, this simple living in the presence that makes the heart joyful. Far from the popular lies of our culture, the soul so disposed gets there not by "looking out for number one at all costs" but by letting go more and more in the simple daily turnings of life that are transformational. God does not want us to be self-effacing that is the polar lie of being egotistical. Both are estranging from the truth. Having journeyed my 57 years though I will tell you, that most of the pilgrimage especially the older we get, is about letting go, about getting out of our own way and letting God be God in our hearts, so we can actually be our true selves.
In this challenge God is very close to us in our brokenheartedness, and he saves us from being crushed time and time again. By freeing us to be a people who know they are loved because of our being drawn into God's Living Presence in some level of wakefulness, we are redeemed to live as the true servants of God. We are liberated to be the creatures we were created to be: our true selves unburdened by all the lies we have bought about who we should or should not be. When our refuge is the Truth of God we don't need shame or guilt, there is only love, holy love for in the embrace of this Love that is Being is all healing and forgiveness.
Let us then always remember that our Lord hears the cries of our poorest most broken selves and loves us into wholeness. So we in response should be a people of joy who bless and praise the Lord at all times and in all the ways of our lives.
God bless.
Saturday, October 23, 2010
He hears the cry of the oppressed
First reading for 30th Sunday of the year Cycle C
Sirach 35,12-14,16-18
The Lord is a God of justice, who knows no favorites.
Though not unduly partial toward the weak, yet he hears the cry of the oppressed.
He is not deaf to the wail of the orphan, nor to the widow when she pours out her complaint.
He who serves God willingly is heard; his petition reaches the heavens.
The prayer of the lowly pierces the clouds; it does not rest till it reaches its goal,
Nor will it withdraw till the Most High responds, judges justly and affirms the right.
The world seems blatantly unfair and unjust. The innocent it seems are always the ones getting caught in the crossfire. We believe that God is a God of justice and that especially God is attuned to the cry of the oppressed. Why doesn't this seem more obvious to us? We all know good folks with terrible suffering and it always begs the question: why? Why if God is just is there childhood cancer and so many other debilitating diseases? The measure of a spirituality of any flavor is what do you do with your pain? Those of us in the first world are used to power or at least the illusion of power, so we are particularly toppled when things are beyond our control. "Anawim is a Hebrew word that means 'the poor seeking God for deliverance.' Anawim (pronounced ann-a-weem) is a Hebrew word from the Old Testament which describes the “poor ones” who remained faithful to God in times of difficulty,translated as meaning poor, afflicted, humble or meek. They are the “faithful remnants” who, even in the worst of times find their security in the Creator."
The anawim are the ones who know they have no power themselves to remove their suffering other than to rely on God for healing and help. Their spirituality is one of trust and hope in a setting that seems hopeless and in which trust is certainly not intuitively obvious. I remember talking to a living saint, a little woman in el Salvador who appeared much older than I am sure she was. She lived in a one room shack and cooked over an open flame stone oven. Immediately outside her refugee home was a stream of raw sewage running down the hill on which she lived. She proudly pulled out a warm coke from her old refrigerator used as a storage unit as she had no electricity and offered us a drink, we, the charmed visitors from another world. She was honored that the priest and I came to visit her. I was so humble by her holiness,
I could barely speak. She had eyes that were so alive and yet a face that was weathered with grief and deep suffering. Her husband had been pulled out of their home and killed in front of her. One son was killed by the guerrillas and another by the army. Her only living son was travelling with the guerrillas and she had not seen him in 3 years. Her daughters too were far away presumed to be living in another refugee camp. Only one remained with her and her 3 year old grandson who played in the corner seemingly unaware of the burden of sorrow that their family had carried.
She stood a little under 5 feet tall and yet stood humbly with the quiet largesse of a queen. She told us that she trusted God because God had told us he could be trusted and that we were loved. Jesus after all loved us so much as to live, die and rise for us. She knew with certainty that although things were difficult now; one day her little family would have a piece of land so they could farm and feed themselves and maybe even sell a little of their crops to buy the things they couldn't grow, and if not in her lifetime, then in the next generation or the one that followed but God's word and promise to her would be fulfilled. She spoke with the confidence of a mystic who has known God not as a concept but as a Holy Presence. She spoke Truth and Wisdom with a gentle and holy confidence. It was a very memorable moment of grace.
We can learn much wisdom from this little anawim, we can learn the truth of the wisdom conveyed in this passage in Sirach. Our prayers and our sharing of our heart with God is never in vain. Just as God's word does not go out from God without fulfilling its mission (Isaiah 55:10-11), so our words of the heart do not go out from us and not find a home in God's loving heart.
If there is not more justice in the world; it is because too many of our human family are not in tune with the heart of God and do not move for the communal good. The power of God lies within us to free others from oppression, to be the hands and feet, the vessels of the mission of God to his people especially the anawim. We do have the power to change the world, one little gift, and one person at a time.
God has not promised that we would understand all the mysteries of life, instead God has promised to be with us and to understand us in all our struggles. It is with the heart not the head that we most fully enter in to the Living Mystery of the Presence who is God. Let us trust then when we feel oppressed or even just deeply discouraged that God does hear our hearts' every sigh even before we are finishing exhaling. In our poorest moments when we do not have the means to change our situation ourselves, we are indeed strangely in the moment of grace when we are most open to what was true all along: we need God, we need to be connected to the Creator to be fully ourselves his creation. We need the mercy of God and fortunately we don't have to prequalify, the Mercy of God is already ours just waiting for an open heart to receive what God has already so generously given.
Like the anawim may we be a people of trust and hope even in the most challenging of times, trusting the mercy and justice of God will always affirm the right.
God bless.
Sirach 35,12-14,16-18
The Lord is a God of justice, who knows no favorites.
Though not unduly partial toward the weak, yet he hears the cry of the oppressed.
He is not deaf to the wail of the orphan, nor to the widow when she pours out her complaint.
He who serves God willingly is heard; his petition reaches the heavens.
The prayer of the lowly pierces the clouds; it does not rest till it reaches its goal,
Nor will it withdraw till the Most High responds, judges justly and affirms the right.
The world seems blatantly unfair and unjust. The innocent it seems are always the ones getting caught in the crossfire. We believe that God is a God of justice and that especially God is attuned to the cry of the oppressed. Why doesn't this seem more obvious to us? We all know good folks with terrible suffering and it always begs the question: why? Why if God is just is there childhood cancer and so many other debilitating diseases? The measure of a spirituality of any flavor is what do you do with your pain? Those of us in the first world are used to power or at least the illusion of power, so we are particularly toppled when things are beyond our control. "Anawim is a Hebrew word that means 'the poor seeking God for deliverance.' Anawim (pronounced ann-a-weem) is a Hebrew word from the Old Testament which describes the “poor ones” who remained faithful to God in times of difficulty,translated as meaning poor, afflicted, humble or meek. They are the “faithful remnants” who, even in the worst of times find their security in the Creator."
The anawim are the ones who know they have no power themselves to remove their suffering other than to rely on God for healing and help. Their spirituality is one of trust and hope in a setting that seems hopeless and in which trust is certainly not intuitively obvious. I remember talking to a living saint, a little woman in el Salvador who appeared much older than I am sure she was. She lived in a one room shack and cooked over an open flame stone oven. Immediately outside her refugee home was a stream of raw sewage running down the hill on which she lived. She proudly pulled out a warm coke from her old refrigerator used as a storage unit as she had no electricity and offered us a drink, we, the charmed visitors from another world. She was honored that the priest and I came to visit her. I was so humble by her holiness,
I could barely speak. She had eyes that were so alive and yet a face that was weathered with grief and deep suffering. Her husband had been pulled out of their home and killed in front of her. One son was killed by the guerrillas and another by the army. Her only living son was travelling with the guerrillas and she had not seen him in 3 years. Her daughters too were far away presumed to be living in another refugee camp. Only one remained with her and her 3 year old grandson who played in the corner seemingly unaware of the burden of sorrow that their family had carried.
She stood a little under 5 feet tall and yet stood humbly with the quiet largesse of a queen. She told us that she trusted God because God had told us he could be trusted and that we were loved. Jesus after all loved us so much as to live, die and rise for us. She knew with certainty that although things were difficult now; one day her little family would have a piece of land so they could farm and feed themselves and maybe even sell a little of their crops to buy the things they couldn't grow, and if not in her lifetime, then in the next generation or the one that followed but God's word and promise to her would be fulfilled. She spoke with the confidence of a mystic who has known God not as a concept but as a Holy Presence. She spoke Truth and Wisdom with a gentle and holy confidence. It was a very memorable moment of grace.
We can learn much wisdom from this little anawim, we can learn the truth of the wisdom conveyed in this passage in Sirach. Our prayers and our sharing of our heart with God is never in vain. Just as God's word does not go out from God without fulfilling its mission (Isaiah 55:10-11), so our words of the heart do not go out from us and not find a home in God's loving heart.
If there is not more justice in the world; it is because too many of our human family are not in tune with the heart of God and do not move for the communal good. The power of God lies within us to free others from oppression, to be the hands and feet, the vessels of the mission of God to his people especially the anawim. We do have the power to change the world, one little gift, and one person at a time.
God has not promised that we would understand all the mysteries of life, instead God has promised to be with us and to understand us in all our struggles. It is with the heart not the head that we most fully enter in to the Living Mystery of the Presence who is God. Let us trust then when we feel oppressed or even just deeply discouraged that God does hear our hearts' every sigh even before we are finishing exhaling. In our poorest moments when we do not have the means to change our situation ourselves, we are indeed strangely in the moment of grace when we are most open to what was true all along: we need God, we need to be connected to the Creator to be fully ourselves his creation. We need the mercy of God and fortunately we don't have to prequalify, the Mercy of God is already ours just waiting for an open heart to receive what God has already so generously given.
Like the anawim may we be a people of trust and hope even in the most challenging of times, trusting the mercy and justice of God will always affirm the right.
God bless.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Pray always and do not lose heart.
Luke 18:1-8
Jesus told his disciples a parable on the necessity of praying always and not losing heart:
"Once there was a judge in a certain city who respected neither God nor man. A widow in the city kept coming to him saying, 'Give me my rights against my opponent.' For a time he refused, but finally he thought, 'I care little for God or man, but this widow is wearing me out. I am going to settle in her favor or she will end by doing me violence.' "
The Lord said, "Listen to what the corrupt judge has to say. Will not God then do justice to his chosen who call out to him day and night? Will he delay long over them, do you suppose? I tell you, he will give them swift justice. But when the Son of Man comes will he find and faith on the earth?"
There is so much here again. We are called to pray always. A subject for a full retreat rather than a simple post. Still I think a few concepts are worth throwing out. Jesus shows us in the parable that persistence turns the apathetic and undevout heart. How much more can the grace of God work in the heart that persists in prayer? I have trouble with the traditional concept of prayer of petition in some ways. The way it has often been presented is that we need to pray to God so that he will hear our petition and help us. More or less a spiritual version of the squeaky wheel gets the grease. I suppose in some ways this parable could be seen to support this image. I have trouble with it because it doesn't fly with the image of God as a God of unconditional love. God already wants what is best for us. He already knows better than we do what we need. So why then do we need to pray for our needs and hopes?
I, of course, have no special gift of wisdom or insight to know with any certainty but I will share with you what makes sense with a God that I believe to truly love us without conditions. I was actually a child when I wrestled with what seemed to me to be a contradiction, this God of love who commanded us to pray for justice with persistence. Would a God of Love really need to be swayed to act with justice toward his children? Of course not. Yet in many places in Scripture Jesus clearly exhorts us to pray and to pray for each other as well as to pray "always." It seemed that the Spirit gave me the following understanding.
God extends grace to all of us for whatever we need. The passion of God's Love is eternally generous and eager. God is however also a respecter of our free will. He wants us to chose grace so that our relationship may be that much deeper. Often our hearts are stubborn. We want things our way and we generally believe we know what is best for whatever cause we lift up in prayer. God's vision is of course eternal and His vision is also by definition full and true. Our stubbornness needs to be softened, our hearts need to be opened to a grace already given. So God as Creator asks us his creatures to participate in healing each other's hearts as well as our own. How amazing is that, how intimate rather than aloof is our God!
God asks us to pray for each other because prayer is like a gentle rain upon the soul, it blesses and softens the surface upon which it lands so to speak. Over time the hard heart softens and becomes open to a grace already given by a generous God. God invites us into our own healing as we pray for ourselves to grow in faithfulness and grace. God does indeed do much more work than we, but we are also invited into this endeavor of love. Saint Monica prayed for her wayward son Augustine who was too influenced in his youth by the hedonism of his culture. She prayed for about 20 years before much fruit of her prayer was easily evident. Imagine the anguish of a mother so devoted to God who does not know how to get through to her son to receive the faith she longs to share with him. How many mother can relate to St. Monica's anguish? Some hearts take a longer time to soften than others and some heads are very stubborn in resisting the truth that is embedded in their very being. However once the field of Augustine's soil finally willing received the seed of God's grace; how plentiful was the harvest. When Augustine converted his ways, his zeal for God was immense. He eventually became a bishop and his writings still are encouraging souls. He as well as his mother became canonized saints of the Church.
Be persistent in prayer, Jesus directs and his devoted follower Monica echoes. Prayer isn't what we do when we cannot "do" anything else. Pray is one of the greatest gifts we can ever offer for another. Prayer is a transforming power and it changes the world one raindrop at a time. Prayer changes the one who prays as well as the one lifted up in prayer. There is no down side here. We must however have the patience of heaven and trust that God's word does not go forth from his heart and return empty (Isaiah 55). We persist not to wear down a harsh God who needs to be won over, but to cooperate with a compassionate God whose grace has already been plentifully given. We pray to work with God in opening broken but stubborn hearts, including our own, to an awareness of eternal life, to unconditional love, true healing and forgiveness. Prayer is a living power connecting creature and Creator in an embrace of healing, wisdom, forgiveness and holy joy. Prayer is the breath of the Spirit alive within us. Prayer is our very entrance into the community that is the Trinity. Imagine!
So let us not be discouraged if it seems that we pray and "nothing changes." The Spirit of God is alive and powerful. Prayer is our entrance into the water of that stream. Let us persist in prayer at all cost. Our hearts will change. Our stubbornness is not stronger than God's patience, nor is our reluctance stronger than God's compassion for us. In the end Love always triumphs.
God bless.
Jesus told his disciples a parable on the necessity of praying always and not losing heart:
"Once there was a judge in a certain city who respected neither God nor man. A widow in the city kept coming to him saying, 'Give me my rights against my opponent.' For a time he refused, but finally he thought, 'I care little for God or man, but this widow is wearing me out. I am going to settle in her favor or she will end by doing me violence.' "
The Lord said, "Listen to what the corrupt judge has to say. Will not God then do justice to his chosen who call out to him day and night? Will he delay long over them, do you suppose? I tell you, he will give them swift justice. But when the Son of Man comes will he find and faith on the earth?"
There is so much here again. We are called to pray always. A subject for a full retreat rather than a simple post. Still I think a few concepts are worth throwing out. Jesus shows us in the parable that persistence turns the apathetic and undevout heart. How much more can the grace of God work in the heart that persists in prayer? I have trouble with the traditional concept of prayer of petition in some ways. The way it has often been presented is that we need to pray to God so that he will hear our petition and help us. More or less a spiritual version of the squeaky wheel gets the grease. I suppose in some ways this parable could be seen to support this image. I have trouble with it because it doesn't fly with the image of God as a God of unconditional love. God already wants what is best for us. He already knows better than we do what we need. So why then do we need to pray for our needs and hopes?
I, of course, have no special gift of wisdom or insight to know with any certainty but I will share with you what makes sense with a God that I believe to truly love us without conditions. I was actually a child when I wrestled with what seemed to me to be a contradiction, this God of love who commanded us to pray for justice with persistence. Would a God of Love really need to be swayed to act with justice toward his children? Of course not. Yet in many places in Scripture Jesus clearly exhorts us to pray and to pray for each other as well as to pray "always." It seemed that the Spirit gave me the following understanding.
God extends grace to all of us for whatever we need. The passion of God's Love is eternally generous and eager. God is however also a respecter of our free will. He wants us to chose grace so that our relationship may be that much deeper. Often our hearts are stubborn. We want things our way and we generally believe we know what is best for whatever cause we lift up in prayer. God's vision is of course eternal and His vision is also by definition full and true. Our stubbornness needs to be softened, our hearts need to be opened to a grace already given. So God as Creator asks us his creatures to participate in healing each other's hearts as well as our own. How amazing is that, how intimate rather than aloof is our God!
God asks us to pray for each other because prayer is like a gentle rain upon the soul, it blesses and softens the surface upon which it lands so to speak. Over time the hard heart softens and becomes open to a grace already given by a generous God. God invites us into our own healing as we pray for ourselves to grow in faithfulness and grace. God does indeed do much more work than we, but we are also invited into this endeavor of love. Saint Monica prayed for her wayward son Augustine who was too influenced in his youth by the hedonism of his culture. She prayed for about 20 years before much fruit of her prayer was easily evident. Imagine the anguish of a mother so devoted to God who does not know how to get through to her son to receive the faith she longs to share with him. How many mother can relate to St. Monica's anguish? Some hearts take a longer time to soften than others and some heads are very stubborn in resisting the truth that is embedded in their very being. However once the field of Augustine's soil finally willing received the seed of God's grace; how plentiful was the harvest. When Augustine converted his ways, his zeal for God was immense. He eventually became a bishop and his writings still are encouraging souls. He as well as his mother became canonized saints of the Church.
Be persistent in prayer, Jesus directs and his devoted follower Monica echoes. Prayer isn't what we do when we cannot "do" anything else. Pray is one of the greatest gifts we can ever offer for another. Prayer is a transforming power and it changes the world one raindrop at a time. Prayer changes the one who prays as well as the one lifted up in prayer. There is no down side here. We must however have the patience of heaven and trust that God's word does not go forth from his heart and return empty (Isaiah 55). We persist not to wear down a harsh God who needs to be won over, but to cooperate with a compassionate God whose grace has already been plentifully given. We pray to work with God in opening broken but stubborn hearts, including our own, to an awareness of eternal life, to unconditional love, true healing and forgiveness. Prayer is a living power connecting creature and Creator in an embrace of healing, wisdom, forgiveness and holy joy. Prayer is the breath of the Spirit alive within us. Prayer is our very entrance into the community that is the Trinity. Imagine!
So let us not be discouraged if it seems that we pray and "nothing changes." The Spirit of God is alive and powerful. Prayer is our entrance into the water of that stream. Let us persist in prayer at all cost. Our hearts will change. Our stubbornness is not stronger than God's patience, nor is our reluctance stronger than God's compassion for us. In the end Love always triumphs.
God bless.
Remain faithful to what you have learned and believed
2 Timothy 3:14-4:2
You must remain faithful to what you have learned and believed, because you know who your teachers were. Likewise, from your infancy you have known the sacred Scriptures, the source of wisdom which through faith in Jesus Christ leads to salvation. All Scripture is inspired of God and is useful for teaching-for reproof, correction, and training in holiness so that the man of God may be fully competent and equipped for every good work.
In the presence of God and Christ Jesus, who is coming to judge the living and the dead, and by his appealing and his kingly power, I charge you to preach the word, to stay with the task whether convenient or inconvenient-correcting, reproving, appealing-constantly teaching and never losing patience.
There is just so much power in these few verses, not that all the Word doesn't hold a gift. I guess sometimes our hearts need or receive one gift better than another. I just turned 57 and I can tell you that sometimes you just get weary of the battle. You do need someone to hold up your arms to God in prayer. You do need to sit down on a rock and rest. Of course the rock needs to be the Lord. Now here, Paul reminds Timothy that he knows the truth. He challenges Tim and centuries later us, to remain faithful to what we believe and to what we know to be true. He reminds us that we have been given the power of Scripture from our infancy.
When we are young we are inspired to fight the good fight and to run with passion after causes that we know to be worthy. After more than a half century of journey, we sometimes grow weary of the cost of continuing to follow that passion, of continuing to be true to what we know with the heart of our hearts is true.
Christianity, actually any spirituality based on the truth of the Living God is not for wimps. Jesus wasn't kidding when he told us to follow him to the cross. Truth at its crux is paradox, as we draw near to God, this becomes so evident and so costly. We are full of joy in the knowledge of the Teacher received in so many wonderful cups of God who have lead us on our way. Yet our hearts know sorrow too that so many often even those close to our hearts, do not open up to the grace already given. So many choose an alienation and a suffering completely unnecessary. As a physician suffering that is not necessary is oppressive, it goes against nature. It is challenge enough to try to be a cup of healing for the unavoidable suffering that is part of the journey. Trying to heal folks who choose their suffering and resist all manner of alleviation, yet decry life for their sorrow, is more than discouraging as well as perplexing.
Would that we as Church might have incarnated the Good News of the Word a bit better by now so the world would not have much question about believing in the Love of God. As I wrote in another post, the words of Charles de Foucauld really do challenge my heart. He wrote that he wanted to live a life sufficiently good so that folks would meet him and say: If this is the servant, what must the Master be like? So, too, Paul cajoles : Remember what Jesus and all of us have taught you to be true. Remember the Word that awakened you, it's power is not diminished, it's promise has not dimmed. We as a JudeoChristian church have known the Scriptures "since our infancy" as indeed a source of the wisdom of God. We know the Living Word of Scripture is a gift of the Spirit through which God speaks to us heart to heart reproving us, and correcting us as we need it, so to train us in the way of holiness to which we are called by our very creation.
We are thus prepared by God to be "fully competent and equipped for every good work." Imagine! We are groomed to be vessels of the Living God, to be cups of the water of God for each other's thirst. God's word promises that the Spirit will prepare us and give us all that we need to serve well and to meet the challenge of all the good works to which we are called. We can fail miserably in many ways in the world or even in the organized structure of church. God does not promise us to be barons of the world. He does not promise us an easy or in many ways a "successful" ride. ( I believe Mother Theresa of Calcutta once said: God does not call me to success but to faithfulness. But he promises something much greater than worldly achievement. He promises he will accomplish his mission for our lives in the fullness of time if we will only cooperate with his grace, even a little. He does all the real work.
How many of us have jobs in which our bosses do most of the work for us? Yet so it is with our God and we who serve him. So we are asked to wait patiently for the will of God to be accomplished in us in God's own time and own way. We are called to preach the word with our lives, "to stay with the task whether convenient or inconvenient" (and the inconvenient I think has the upper hand.). We are called not to abandon hope, not lose patience no matter how weary or poured out we become. We are encouraged to use the word to lead each other home. We are to teach each other as the Spirit has taught us. We do know who our teachers are. Let us patiently remain faithful indeed to what we know to be true and more importantly to Who we know is Truth and Holy Love.
God bless.
You must remain faithful to what you have learned and believed, because you know who your teachers were. Likewise, from your infancy you have known the sacred Scriptures, the source of wisdom which through faith in Jesus Christ leads to salvation. All Scripture is inspired of God and is useful for teaching-for reproof, correction, and training in holiness so that the man of God may be fully competent and equipped for every good work.
In the presence of God and Christ Jesus, who is coming to judge the living and the dead, and by his appealing and his kingly power, I charge you to preach the word, to stay with the task whether convenient or inconvenient-correcting, reproving, appealing-constantly teaching and never losing patience.
There is just so much power in these few verses, not that all the Word doesn't hold a gift. I guess sometimes our hearts need or receive one gift better than another. I just turned 57 and I can tell you that sometimes you just get weary of the battle. You do need someone to hold up your arms to God in prayer. You do need to sit down on a rock and rest. Of course the rock needs to be the Lord. Now here, Paul reminds Timothy that he knows the truth. He challenges Tim and centuries later us, to remain faithful to what we believe and to what we know to be true. He reminds us that we have been given the power of Scripture from our infancy.
When we are young we are inspired to fight the good fight and to run with passion after causes that we know to be worthy. After more than a half century of journey, we sometimes grow weary of the cost of continuing to follow that passion, of continuing to be true to what we know with the heart of our hearts is true.
Christianity, actually any spirituality based on the truth of the Living God is not for wimps. Jesus wasn't kidding when he told us to follow him to the cross. Truth at its crux is paradox, as we draw near to God, this becomes so evident and so costly. We are full of joy in the knowledge of the Teacher received in so many wonderful cups of God who have lead us on our way. Yet our hearts know sorrow too that so many often even those close to our hearts, do not open up to the grace already given. So many choose an alienation and a suffering completely unnecessary. As a physician suffering that is not necessary is oppressive, it goes against nature. It is challenge enough to try to be a cup of healing for the unavoidable suffering that is part of the journey. Trying to heal folks who choose their suffering and resist all manner of alleviation, yet decry life for their sorrow, is more than discouraging as well as perplexing.
Would that we as Church might have incarnated the Good News of the Word a bit better by now so the world would not have much question about believing in the Love of God. As I wrote in another post, the words of Charles de Foucauld really do challenge my heart. He wrote that he wanted to live a life sufficiently good so that folks would meet him and say: If this is the servant, what must the Master be like? So, too, Paul cajoles : Remember what Jesus and all of us have taught you to be true. Remember the Word that awakened you, it's power is not diminished, it's promise has not dimmed. We as a JudeoChristian church have known the Scriptures "since our infancy" as indeed a source of the wisdom of God. We know the Living Word of Scripture is a gift of the Spirit through which God speaks to us heart to heart reproving us, and correcting us as we need it, so to train us in the way of holiness to which we are called by our very creation.
We are thus prepared by God to be "fully competent and equipped for every good work." Imagine! We are groomed to be vessels of the Living God, to be cups of the water of God for each other's thirst. God's word promises that the Spirit will prepare us and give us all that we need to serve well and to meet the challenge of all the good works to which we are called. We can fail miserably in many ways in the world or even in the organized structure of church. God does not promise us to be barons of the world. He does not promise us an easy or in many ways a "successful" ride. ( I believe Mother Theresa of Calcutta once said: God does not call me to success but to faithfulness. But he promises something much greater than worldly achievement. He promises he will accomplish his mission for our lives in the fullness of time if we will only cooperate with his grace, even a little. He does all the real work.
How many of us have jobs in which our bosses do most of the work for us? Yet so it is with our God and we who serve him. So we are asked to wait patiently for the will of God to be accomplished in us in God's own time and own way. We are called to preach the word with our lives, "to stay with the task whether convenient or inconvenient" (and the inconvenient I think has the upper hand.). We are called not to abandon hope, not lose patience no matter how weary or poured out we become. We are encouraged to use the word to lead each other home. We are to teach each other as the Spirit has taught us. We do know who our teachers are. Let us patiently remain faithful indeed to what we know to be true and more importantly to Who we know is Truth and Holy Love.
God bless.
Our help is from the Lord
Psalm 121: 1-8
Refrain: Our help is from the Lord who made heaven and earth.
I lift up my eyes to the mountains: whence shall help come to me?
My help is the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
May he not suffer your foot to slip; may he slumber not who guards you.
Indeed he neither slumbers nor sleeps, the guardian of Israel.
The Lord is your guardian; the Lord is your shade;
The sun shall not harm you by day, not the moon by night.
The Lord will guard you from all evil; he will guard your life.
The Lord will guard your coming and your going both now and forever.
Isn't amazing how much we are loved? God far from being out to get us is our very guardian, he is our shade from the heat of life, a cool place to rest and refresh ourselves for the ongoing challenge. He guards all our ways and he is ever vigilant. He guards our every coming and going. Imagine! So why do we feel so alone sometimes? Why do we feel forgotten? And why do we feel that "life" is out to get us?
Well sometimes, we may be pursued by evil, but most of the time we are our own worst enemies. We give way too much power to others to hurt us over trivial things. Partly when we are wounded, all too often we don't really let go of the hurt and so it taints other encounters and we become defensive when no one is attacking us. God is the fount of forgiveness. Maybe he is in part guarding us from our self-abuse. We are children of the King and the whole kingdom has been given us to share and celebrate. Yet we all too often act like beggars scrapping for a crust of bread. The song of the Universe courses through our souls as it does through all of creation, yet we deafen to its notes and cling instead to our fears and our all too familiar excuses of why we are oppressed and why whatever isn't our fault. Is the glass half empty or half full and even more importantly do we realize that this vessel actually holds Living Water?
I am not diminishing the reality of life's struggles as I am myself challenged lately in being even more poured out than usual. But it is important to take stock of some central truths. God loves us so much that bridging the estrangement between us remains a passionate urging of the One Who Is, the One Whose Being is Love.
The fire of love that is the mystery of the Song between Father, Son, and Spirit is so beyond all we can even imagine. Yet we know that this Love longs for us and longed to bring us all into wholeness. So it is that Jesus came to show us the Way home, and when we didn't "get it," Jesus stayed true to being the Message even to the cross and beyond, inviting us through the triumph of the cross into the fullness of our creation, a fullness that can only be known as with all creatures, in union with the One who is Creator. Why then with all this seeking on God's part of our healing, our reconciliation with him, would he not protect what he with such passion welcomed back in forgiveness to wholeness and union?
God has our back, and our front and everything in between. We are not alone no matter our daily experiences of loneliness. We are never abandoned no matter how much we may feel forgotten. Our names are written on the heart of God and God's memory is forever. Let us then lift our eyes up to the mountain of God confident that the Lord is our help and will not fail. He will shepherd us home and not let us slip on the rocks, if only we will let him come into our hearts. God does not abandon us, but sometimes we do put God off. We are weary and we know that being with God means loving at all cost. When we are tired of the cost, we may not always be fully receptive to the embrace of God. How patient is our Lover who as God calls each unique soul genuinely: Beloved! Imagine, the Lord of the Universe who made the heavens and the earth of all worlds and all manner of things known and unknown, calls us individually truly Beloved!!
The mind cannot process such things so grandiose, so profound, it is beyond the greatest of human intellects to comprehend; so let us not try. Let us receive with our hearts a Mystery we cannot ever understand, nor do we really need to. Love is not best dissected but celebrated. It is a gift to be received and cherished. God is our Guardian. We can trust like Julian of Norwich: all shall be well, all is well. God is holding all our brokenness and he will not scatter our pieces to the four corners of the universe, rather he gathers us unto His heart and breathes wholeness into us; his vision gazes upon us and his light banishes the darkness oppressing us. He lifts the weight of all the transgressions committed against us and all those we have committed and leads us to dance for joy. He is a guardian we can trust unreservedly and always. Indeed our help is from the Lord. Let us rejoice and be glad!
God bless.
Refrain: Our help is from the Lord who made heaven and earth.
I lift up my eyes to the mountains: whence shall help come to me?
My help is the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
May he not suffer your foot to slip; may he slumber not who guards you.
Indeed he neither slumbers nor sleeps, the guardian of Israel.
The Lord is your guardian; the Lord is your shade;
The sun shall not harm you by day, not the moon by night.
The Lord will guard you from all evil; he will guard your life.
The Lord will guard your coming and your going both now and forever.
Isn't amazing how much we are loved? God far from being out to get us is our very guardian, he is our shade from the heat of life, a cool place to rest and refresh ourselves for the ongoing challenge. He guards all our ways and he is ever vigilant. He guards our every coming and going. Imagine! So why do we feel so alone sometimes? Why do we feel forgotten? And why do we feel that "life" is out to get us?
Well sometimes, we may be pursued by evil, but most of the time we are our own worst enemies. We give way too much power to others to hurt us over trivial things. Partly when we are wounded, all too often we don't really let go of the hurt and so it taints other encounters and we become defensive when no one is attacking us. God is the fount of forgiveness. Maybe he is in part guarding us from our self-abuse. We are children of the King and the whole kingdom has been given us to share and celebrate. Yet we all too often act like beggars scrapping for a crust of bread. The song of the Universe courses through our souls as it does through all of creation, yet we deafen to its notes and cling instead to our fears and our all too familiar excuses of why we are oppressed and why whatever isn't our fault. Is the glass half empty or half full and even more importantly do we realize that this vessel actually holds Living Water?
I am not diminishing the reality of life's struggles as I am myself challenged lately in being even more poured out than usual. But it is important to take stock of some central truths. God loves us so much that bridging the estrangement between us remains a passionate urging of the One Who Is, the One Whose Being is Love.
The fire of love that is the mystery of the Song between Father, Son, and Spirit is so beyond all we can even imagine. Yet we know that this Love longs for us and longed to bring us all into wholeness. So it is that Jesus came to show us the Way home, and when we didn't "get it," Jesus stayed true to being the Message even to the cross and beyond, inviting us through the triumph of the cross into the fullness of our creation, a fullness that can only be known as with all creatures, in union with the One who is Creator. Why then with all this seeking on God's part of our healing, our reconciliation with him, would he not protect what he with such passion welcomed back in forgiveness to wholeness and union?
God has our back, and our front and everything in between. We are not alone no matter our daily experiences of loneliness. We are never abandoned no matter how much we may feel forgotten. Our names are written on the heart of God and God's memory is forever. Let us then lift our eyes up to the mountain of God confident that the Lord is our help and will not fail. He will shepherd us home and not let us slip on the rocks, if only we will let him come into our hearts. God does not abandon us, but sometimes we do put God off. We are weary and we know that being with God means loving at all cost. When we are tired of the cost, we may not always be fully receptive to the embrace of God. How patient is our Lover who as God calls each unique soul genuinely: Beloved! Imagine, the Lord of the Universe who made the heavens and the earth of all worlds and all manner of things known and unknown, calls us individually truly Beloved!!
The mind cannot process such things so grandiose, so profound, it is beyond the greatest of human intellects to comprehend; so let us not try. Let us receive with our hearts a Mystery we cannot ever understand, nor do we really need to. Love is not best dissected but celebrated. It is a gift to be received and cherished. God is our Guardian. We can trust like Julian of Norwich: all shall be well, all is well. God is holding all our brokenness and he will not scatter our pieces to the four corners of the universe, rather he gathers us unto His heart and breathes wholeness into us; his vision gazes upon us and his light banishes the darkness oppressing us. He lifts the weight of all the transgressions committed against us and all those we have committed and leads us to dance for joy. He is a guardian we can trust unreservedly and always. Indeed our help is from the Lord. Let us rejoice and be glad!
God bless.
Friday, October 15, 2010
The power of prayer in our struggles
Exodus 17: 8-13 First reading for 29th Sunday Cycle C
Amalek came and waged war against Israel. Moses therefore, said to Joshua, "Pick out certain men, and tomorrow go out and engage the Amalek in battle. I will be standing on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand." So Joshua did as Moses told him: he engaged Amalek in battle after Moses had climbed to the top of the hill with Aaron and Hur. As long as Moses kept his hands raised up, Israel had the better of the fight, but when he left his hands rest, Amalek had the better of the fight. Moses' hands, however grew tired; so they put a rock in place for him to sit on. Meanwhile Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on one side and one on the other, so that his hands remained steady until sunset. And Joshua mowed down Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.
First note that Amalek attacked Israel. Amalek here for us represents evil attacking the soul. Amalek attacked without provocation and attacked the weakest Israelites; raiding the camp and killing the weakest of the people of Israel. Amalek attacked when the Israelites were escaping Egypt. They were leaving slavery. God delivered them from bondage. They were however not very strong or well recovered from the beginning of their exodus. So they were not a threat to Amalek, and Amalek hit them when they were down and vulnerable. So too it often seems that the negative challenges in our own lives creep in and hit us when we are weakened already and so most susceptible. God delivers us from our bondage in many ways. He then allows the community to support us when we are most vulnerable to unexpected attacks, so that evil will never triumph.
Moses leads Joshua to take on this attack of evil and promises that he will be near supporting the warriors in prayer. As long as he prays and lifts his hands to God the battle goes well, but when he wearies, the battle does not go well. So Aaron and Hur help him to pray and to keep his arms lifted to God. When we are battling negative forces in our own lives, we try to keep our hearts lifted to God and our arms raised in prayer if you will. But sometimes we get discouraged and weary so our "arms" and our direction drops. We have a harder time focusing on the greatness of God and the faithfulness of God sometimes when we are weak, tired and challenged. So just as Aaron and Hur helped Moses we have communities of folks who help lift us up and keep our "arms," our hearts lifted to God.
We do not go home alone and we cannot fight all the battles against evil alone. We need each other and we need the help of God to have the energy to fight the good fight. There are many challenges in our world and much injustice. In the face of so much that needs fixing how do we choose which battle to fight and how do we keep energized on the crusade? We need each other. We need to pray for each other, to be in touch with each other, to keep each other lifted up; when one gets weary, another has strength. We simply do not go home alone, our journeys aren't meant to be solo treks. We are made for community, for human family, for connecting one to another at some primal level of our creation. Connecting with each other is in part how we connect with God and God with us. Our gifts ignite in the community we serve.
Prayer is the soul's conversation with the divine, but even more so it is the soul's reception of a song that is presence, that is Living Love. Prayer takes us home to God and grounds us therefore in ourselves fully. Just as there are a plethora of personas, so too the music of each person's prayer is unique. But even in these private and silent connections of our heart to the One who created our heart, we are supported and encouraged by the presence of others on the journey. They don't have to understand us or our relationship to God nor do they have to understand our current battle with evil or darkness or simply the challenges of our daily lives. But their presence "holds us up," keeping us from defeat in the inevitable weariness that is part of everyone's journey.
So may we look for ways to support each other in prayer and simple ways that we can bear each other up to keep on fighting the good fight, to keep on persevering in caring about the things that really matter and working for good in whatever ways we can, never giving in to the darkness but trusting the Light of God's promise to us.
God bless.
Amalek came and waged war against Israel. Moses therefore, said to Joshua, "Pick out certain men, and tomorrow go out and engage the Amalek in battle. I will be standing on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand." So Joshua did as Moses told him: he engaged Amalek in battle after Moses had climbed to the top of the hill with Aaron and Hur. As long as Moses kept his hands raised up, Israel had the better of the fight, but when he left his hands rest, Amalek had the better of the fight. Moses' hands, however grew tired; so they put a rock in place for him to sit on. Meanwhile Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on one side and one on the other, so that his hands remained steady until sunset. And Joshua mowed down Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.
First note that Amalek attacked Israel. Amalek here for us represents evil attacking the soul. Amalek attacked without provocation and attacked the weakest Israelites; raiding the camp and killing the weakest of the people of Israel. Amalek attacked when the Israelites were escaping Egypt. They were leaving slavery. God delivered them from bondage. They were however not very strong or well recovered from the beginning of their exodus. So they were not a threat to Amalek, and Amalek hit them when they were down and vulnerable. So too it often seems that the negative challenges in our own lives creep in and hit us when we are weakened already and so most susceptible. God delivers us from our bondage in many ways. He then allows the community to support us when we are most vulnerable to unexpected attacks, so that evil will never triumph.
Moses leads Joshua to take on this attack of evil and promises that he will be near supporting the warriors in prayer. As long as he prays and lifts his hands to God the battle goes well, but when he wearies, the battle does not go well. So Aaron and Hur help him to pray and to keep his arms lifted to God. When we are battling negative forces in our own lives, we try to keep our hearts lifted to God and our arms raised in prayer if you will. But sometimes we get discouraged and weary so our "arms" and our direction drops. We have a harder time focusing on the greatness of God and the faithfulness of God sometimes when we are weak, tired and challenged. So just as Aaron and Hur helped Moses we have communities of folks who help lift us up and keep our "arms," our hearts lifted to God.
We do not go home alone and we cannot fight all the battles against evil alone. We need each other and we need the help of God to have the energy to fight the good fight. There are many challenges in our world and much injustice. In the face of so much that needs fixing how do we choose which battle to fight and how do we keep energized on the crusade? We need each other. We need to pray for each other, to be in touch with each other, to keep each other lifted up; when one gets weary, another has strength. We simply do not go home alone, our journeys aren't meant to be solo treks. We are made for community, for human family, for connecting one to another at some primal level of our creation. Connecting with each other is in part how we connect with God and God with us. Our gifts ignite in the community we serve.
Prayer is the soul's conversation with the divine, but even more so it is the soul's reception of a song that is presence, that is Living Love. Prayer takes us home to God and grounds us therefore in ourselves fully. Just as there are a plethora of personas, so too the music of each person's prayer is unique. But even in these private and silent connections of our heart to the One who created our heart, we are supported and encouraged by the presence of others on the journey. They don't have to understand us or our relationship to God nor do they have to understand our current battle with evil or darkness or simply the challenges of our daily lives. But their presence "holds us up," keeping us from defeat in the inevitable weariness that is part of everyone's journey.
So may we look for ways to support each other in prayer and simple ways that we can bear each other up to keep on fighting the good fight, to keep on persevering in caring about the things that really matter and working for good in whatever ways we can, never giving in to the darkness but trusting the Light of God's promise to us.
God bless.
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