Slow Down

 

God of endless choices, sometimes our lives feel as overwhelming as trying to navigate the cereal aisle at the store.  Good lord, do I need over a hundred boxes for breakfast?  Sometimes, O God, I can make all choices feel like life-or-death decisions.  What if I write an awful morning meditation that doesn’t get “enough” likes?  What if I lose my temper and say something I instantly regret?  What if I falter as a husband and father and pastor?  We live in a world of false urgency with everyone wanting to play the part of “Mordecai” in the stage production of our life.  Good Lord, help!  Help me name and notice which decisions are important and which ones I have surrounded with anxiety and false pressure.  Help me name and notice why some decisions feel bigger because they impact others more than myself.  Help me quiet the voices that shout at me that I have to act now or else.  Amid a world that spins faster than the tilt-a-whirl at the State Fair, God, slow me down to Your pace.  Grant me Your spaciousness.  Be with me in the moments when I am exhausted, overwhelmed, and underslept because my problems keep waking me up at 3 a.m. to chat.  God, You are here in such a time as this.  I am here.  We are here together.  Help me see that others are also in this space, that there are caring people like Mordecai who truly desire to share Your unconditional and unceasing love.  Let me rest in a promise and pace that is guided by You. Remind me that wherever I go, whatever I do, and whoever I am, Your love and grace will not let me know.  May I breathe in this truth now and in the days to come, for such a time as this.  Amen.  

Breathe

 

So far this week, we have considered the false and true Mordecai in our lives.  Those who want to force a choice now and demand a donation, and those who join us in the messiness of choices without trying to fix/save/advise us.  We listed the decisions we are facing personally, religiously, politically, communally, and relationally.  We have named and noticed our list of pros and cons.  And we’ve realized that the choices we make have ripple effects on others.  Hopefully you see why choices have a weightiness.   In such a time as this, we can feel overwhelmed by all that we are facing.  Perhaps we empathize with Esther because we feel like we have the whole world on our shoulders.  So today, I want to invite you to breathe.  Remember that the false urgency of a Mordecai today wants you to decide right now or you will miss your moment.  But, in the spaciousness of God, there is always a pause.  Or as Viktor E. Frankl said, “Between stimulus and response there is a space.  In that space is our power to choose our response.  In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”  I would add to that that in that space is a Sacredness of God seeking for us to pay attention to the One paying attention to us.  It helps to breathe.  I invite you to get out your decision list and breathe.  Invite God to sit within you in that space.  Listen for God.  And I pray if you need a Mordecai to help you listen to your life, I am also glad to be present with you in those spaces and places we find ourselves at such a time as this.

 

Here is a wonderful breath prayer by Rev. Sarah Bessey:

Inhale: I invite the practice of

Exhale: peace and faithfulness.

Ripple

 

Yesterday, I said that a true Mordecai in our life won’t make up false urgency to decide right now.  Yes, some decisions are time-limited.  But many of the decisions we face in such a time as this have a spaciousness for us to breathe, ponder, pray, and listen to God, others, and ourselves ~ that last part of listening to your life is vital.  A true Mordecai’s doesn’t reduce decisions or give me advice, but joins me in the messy middle and the squeeze between the rock and hard place.  Yesterday, I invited you to listen to the decision you are facing personally.  This could be medically or vocationally or volunteering, or which issues you are called to offer your life to or where you want to live.  Some of these decisions are thrust upon you, not of your own choosing.  The decisions we face rest not only in our one wild and precious life but can have ripple effects and ramifications on those we care about.  If I decide that I really want to become a clown in the circus, that is going to impact Gina.  Decisions can have relational ripple effects and religious effects.  How we see God matters here.  Is God a judge waiting and watching for your decision to render a verdict on your life?  Or is God the caring, compassionate one sitting with you and reminding you that you are beloved, whether you go left or right or stay put or dig deeper?  Finally, some of our decisions impact our community and country.  This is true of voting.  This is true of what we post online.  This is true of how we speak outside our homes.  Today, ponder the decisions you are facing, and ask if there are others who this choice will impact.  Esther’s choice impacted a whole group of Jewish people.  Most of my decisions rarely mean life or death for others or myself, even when it feels that way.  From yesterday on that page with pros and cons or if you made a decision tree, name and notice others who might be impacted by what you are facing.  Sometimes the pressure we feel is because there are people quietly and silently on the margins of the page who we haven’t noticed, but our hearts know our choice will effect and affect.  Hold this truth alongside God, who is there with you in the rock and hard place moments we all are wedged and wiggling our way through in such a time as this.  Amen.

False Mordecai

 

Yesterday, we played with the idea that lots of people want to wear Mordecai’s sandals in our lives.  There are lots of people who want to fix, advise, save you, tell you what to do, how to do it, when and where you should show up, and to act now or you will fail!  And these messages tell us, send $50 now to support the cause, because don’t you care?!?  False Mordecai’s come to us as marketing schemes and fundraising demands.  False Mordecai comes to us wearing masks of urgency and pulling the strings of compassion.  False Mordecai comes to us through social media platforms or 24-hour news cycles or political machinery.  How do we know when our still-speaking God is showing up wearing the skin-suit of another?  How do we tell a true Mordecai from a false?  First, pause.  Breathe.  False Mordecai, like all salespeople, operates with made-up urgency.  You must act now!  Unless someone is dangling from a ledge or playing out in the street with a speeding car zooming down the road, chances are you can breathe…even walk away… to tell the “Mordecai” that we want to pray on it, rather than be preyed upon.  Second, pray.  Listen for God.  Several weeks ago, when we read 1 Corinthians 12, Paul talked about the spiritual gift of discernment.  Discernment is a wonderful dance between the individual and collective.  One form of discernment is to use the tool of listing the pros and cons.  For Esther, the pro of speaking up was saving her people, including Mordecai, who was her adoptive father.  The con was that she was risking her life from a King who had already banished one wife.  The pro was she could make a difference.  The con was that there were no guarantees of success.  Do you see that this was not a slam-dunk decision?  Oftentimes, A False Mordecai preys upon the idea that their way is the only way and that other ways will make you less of a person.  Ultimately, Esther needed to consider the consequences.  She could hold onto her life and possibly watch her people endure the heartbreak and soul ache of genocide, or she could risk her life for the sake of others.  Finally, let me be clear that even though my mind wants to make so many life-or-death decisions, rarely do I wear Esther’s sandals.  Yet, A False Mordecai makes it seem that if I don’t do this now, donate now, act now, I will be seen as less than and a failure.  Today, I invite you to ponder prayerfully the decisions you are facing.  Write them down.  You may make a list of pros and cons.  Or you can Google how to make a decision tree.  After you put down your thoughts, listen for God’s guidance.  And there is a third step.  Find a trusted friend.  A true Mordecai in our life will sit with us in the rock and hard place moments, not telling us what to do or trying to advise/fix/save us…they will help you listen to your life and how God is seeking to show up.  Tomorrow, we will ponder the true Mordecai in our life, but for now.  Name and notice the decisions you are facing personally, religiously, relationally, and as part of wider communities/groups/country/world/cosmos.  Amen.

For Such a Time as This

 

The comedian Jerry Seinfeld once said we spend a lot of time talking about time.  Whether we are rushing around at a frenzied pace ~ feeling like a Tasmanian devil who just drank ten cups of coffee!  There is an image for you.  Or we are frustrated that the line is moving too slowly, or wishing we could turn back time, rewind, and revisit that moment when we blinked and missed a significant event.  Of course, the concept of time is part of human invention.  Our ancestors didn’t wake up to an alarm clock when tending sheep or cultivating crops.  Their bodies lived closer to the earth and its rhythm.  Plus, we know that gravity affects time.  Time moves a little faster at the top of the Empire State Building than at street level.  Who knew your Morning Meditation was going to include a science lesson?  I think about this when I hear Mordecai say to Esther that perhaps she had come to her royal position for such a time as this. (Esther 4:14).  Remember from yesterday’s sermon a few key fun Bible Nerd facts.  First, Mordecai and Esther are strangers living in a strange land.  They are foreigners, refugees.  They are not Persians; they are immigrants.  Not only are they marginalized ethnically, but also religiously as Jewish people.  Third, Esther was an orphan, which meant she found herself at the intersectionality of discrimination based on family status, gender, religious affiliation, and nationality.  That is a place of vulnerability and fragility.  She is so far on the margin that a stiff breeze could blow her over the edge.  The interesting plot twist is that Esther catches the King’s eye, and he marries her.  Well, he added her to his harem, because let’s not try to frost over the burnt cake of sexual oppression of women/sisters in faith by men, both in scripture and in our society still today.  But Esther’s does have access to the King.  However, this particular King was not a great guy, because he had one of his wives banished for refusing to participate in a beauty pageant he was putting together during a six-month party.  Seriously, who has the time for a six-month party?  But I digress, or maybe that is part of the point, too, in this story.

 

Mordecai is asking Esther to play the only card she has in her hand to advocate for the Jewish people whom the King is plotting and planning to kill.  This reminds us that the Bible is an adult book written for adults with themes and threads that are still woven into the fabric of our society.  Do I speak out or stay safely on the sidelines with my head down?  Do I dare step into the arena, or should I stay in the stands amid the masses?  When and where do I use my voice today?  Let me be clear that you may have a Mordecai calling you to do something that your heart objects to.  The truth is, there are a lot of voices out there demanding and decreeing that you do something NOW.  That you must act now or else you are being complacent and complicit with the enemy.  That if you will miss your chance to be Superman and Wonder Woman and Mighty Mouse here to save the day.  Good grief.  There is so much money wrapped up in playing us against one another.  As the mystics say, when pulled left or right, I choose to go deeper.  Too often, pastors can play the Mordecai card, telling you what you should do.  But ultimately, Esther had a choice, and so do you.  Who is a Mordecai in your life?  How is that person speaking to your life?  Through face-to-face conversation or over emails that flood your inbox or by being an influencer pouring out hours of content that you consume?  Where do you feel energized to stand up and speak out, and where is there reluctance?  Let’s sit with this today, asking God to cut through the chaos and clutter of our noisy world with a voice we need.  Amen.

Prayer

 

God of light and love, we don’t always understand Your ways.  We wish loving other humans didn’t feel like trying to hug a porcupine.  We wish that love could follow a formula or process that would guarantee results.  And yet, such a static world would be stale.  And such a world would not reflect You, O God, as You evolve and expand with each experience in this world.  God, help me continue to sit with the hard questions and invite Love to have a voice in this dialogue.  Help me stay engaged at the table, not searching for easy answers, but committed to continuing the wayless way of showing love in very human-sized approaches.   When I make mistakes, may I seek forgiveness.  When I feel my heart burst with love, may I enjoy that too.  When I am tired, hold me in an embrace I need every day.  God of love that never lets us go, help me lean into Your everlasting arms and feel Your presence filling and fueling my life.  Amen.

Wait...Another Assignment??

 

Religion helps us ask hard questions, but it does not often offer us easy answers. ~ Rabbi Shai Held.

 

I find this quote very helpful.  This quote reminds me that I don’t have to be a SuperSpiritual Answer person…not that I was very good at the job anyway.  I kept tripping on my cape, and don’t get me started on how I can’t fly, jump over even a regular-size building, or even bend a twist-tie back around the bread wrapper.  Yet, there is disappointment in this quote.  Why go to church if not to receive good advice and moral lessons to apply to your life?  Thank you for that hard question.  I believe we go to church to live the questions with others.  For me, the most meaningful questions need dialogue partners.  How do I love my enemy?  I can’t solve that Rubik's Cube-like question on my own.  I can’t figure out forgiveness in a vacuum.  While yes, I can love God and myself in isolation, I would be missing that pesky part about loving others/neighbors/family/friends/and that annoying person whose views feel like nails on a chalkboard of my soul.  I think part of the difficulty we face today is the sheer number of people we encounter in life, many of whom we do not know.  We have digital “friends” who we see only in their posts on the social platform of your choice.  And those people get under our skin.  Moreover, because those posts are visual, that activates and animates another part of our brain.  It is one thing to read words about destruction; it is another to see it.  Moreover, the amount of news that comes to us daily is more than I think my brain can process.  The pace of news exhausts and overwhelms us.  No cape can rescue everyone; we live with the hard, unanswerable, sometimes unsolvable questions.  We do so faithfully.  That is foundational and formational to the idea of “Love Makes a Family”.  Love is an active verb in that sentence/sentiment.  Love is changing and challenging.  Love involves more than just yourself.  Your love longs for expression in the world.  If you sat down with Love for a meal, what questions would you ask?  I mean that.  Write down the questions you have for Love.  I hear you thinking, “Great, another homework assignment this week?!  What is it with this guy?”  Imagine Love is sitting across from you at the table.  Talk to Love.  May this invitation awaken your imagination and creativity.  May your conversation engage your mind, heart, soul, and life this day.

Crumpling Up Our Charts

 

As you try to chart love, you may be feeling some resistance, reluctance, or resentment.  Love can’t be charted, contained, or controlled.  You may look at your chart and just think, “This tiny box doesn’t do justice to what I felt with mom/dad/divorced spouse/child who broke your heart or a friend who fills your heart so full it could burst.”  You may wonder, “Why am I doing this again?”  You don’t have to.  Not that you need it, but you have permission to stop working on the chart.  You can rip it up and recycle it.  The chart is an invitation to explore why the word love lands in different ways within us.  My prayer was that it would help you notice and name why your inner defense attorney yelled, “Objection,” when you hear this word in church.  Our Hebrew friends talk about love manifest in kindness or walking in God’s ways.  Rabbi Held says that love is an “existential posture”; it is how I show up and stand in the world today, the ways I orient my life, the direction and destination.  Held also says love is a commitment to work that takes a lifetime.  Love becomes less an emotion to tend, and more a way of tending our lives.  Love is willing to be a dance partner with countless other emotions.  This means that love and anger can co-exist within us at times (although both emotions burn a lot of calories, so it is hard to maintain them both over time).  How can we let love and anger talk to each other?  How do we let love and exhaustion inform each other?  Are we willing to take our place in exploring the whole wheel of emotions?  Trying to walk the tightrope of exploring our experiences of love is not easy.  Perhaps, given all that is going on in the world outside your window and as you peer into the window of your soul, it might just be too much right now.  So, set aside the chart.  Not every tool is helpful for every prayer practice.  I don’t want a sledgehammer when I go out to garden.  I don’t need loopers to fix a leak under my sink.  Same with the way-less way of life.  I pray that you might write down what is stirring within you as you ponder how the ties that bless us can also bound/bind us, cutting off oxygen and leaving hurtful wounds.  How the ties that hold us together come unraveled.  Take what you can from what I am saying, leave the rest.  May you experience and encounter God’s presence in these days in countless ways.  Amen.

Contemplating the Chart of Complex Love

 

Yesterday, I invited you to make a chart of the various relationships and expressions of love.  On the left, you wrote down the relationship: parents, grandparents, aunts/uncles, spouse, children, friends, and church members.  I invited you to name names and try to describe the texture of that love.  The third column of the chart, trying to define how love was OR wasn’t expressed.  This is often the hardest part.  It can be painful to say that a parent withheld love.  It can brush or bump up against an old scar to say that love has faltered, or forgiveness was not given in a relationship.  Today, I want you to notice God who is next to you, looking over the chart.  There are two prayers I have for this invitation.  First, for you to see the complexity and contradictions around the four letters of love.  There is a reason why we find love both fascinating and frustrating, which you can begin to see when you write down all the ways love has both held and hurt you.  When you are honest that your dad's leaving you was traumatic and caused love to lose its luster.  When you are honest about your grandmother’s love, which was through food, but never in hugs, or maybe came with expectations too high a pole vaulter couldn’t clear them.  When you are honest, you drag into your life these experiences (good, bad, and ugly) of love like a piece of toilet paper stuck to your shoe that you don’t notice.  Second, I believe this chart helps us see the expansiveness and diversity of love that we hold in our hearts but don’t often talk about.  This helps us see the experiences that have shaped you, made you who you are.  You may think, “No wonder I am suspicious of all this love talk when I see firsthand that I’ve never felt the unconditional and unceasing part of God’s affection.”  Or no wonder I doubt that love is a force, because too many people have used love to manipulate.  While God’s love doesn’t come with terms and conditions in fine print you can’t read, human love rarely can embody God’s call.  We keep trying.  The more we awaken to how the past is impacting the present, the more we can begin to let God have the brokenness and less-than-perfectness of affection in our lives.  May you discover and uncover God’s presence as you keep working, adding to, writing on your chart of love this week.  Amen.

 

Remember, you can download by clicking here

Charting Our Complex, Complicated Love

 

One of the most overused words that we toss and throw around is “love.”  I often feel those four letters cannot bear the weight of our expectations.  Krista Tippet recently said, “I’m on record bemoaning across the years that ‘love’ is the most watered-down word in the English language. I know that invoking love feels very soft for our hard realms of politics and war.”  This is especially true in the church, where the central and core message of Jesus is to love God with our whole being (from the top of our heads to our pinkie toes) and to love our neighbor as ourselves.  (Matthew 22:37-40).  Unfortunately, Jesus did not give us a five-step, easy-to-follow plan to accomplish this call.  Jesus didn’t leave us an IKEA-like hieroglyphic art telling us how to live our faith, embody/express God’s love.  Jesus tells us to love God, others, and ourselves.  Mic drop and lots of furrowed brows with frownie faces thinking, “Um, could you say just a little more about that, Jesus?!?”  How do we love God?  I can make things very complicated, complex, and convoluted; it is truly one of my spiritual gifts.  When I boil down what it means to love God, for me, this invitation is about paying attention to God who is paying attention to you, me, and we.  We open our sacred imaginations to the traces of God’s grace etched in our lives.  It is only when we experience God’s love that we can express God’s affection to others.  God’s love that doesn’t come with a wagging finger of shame or blame.  God’s love, which isn’t passive-aggressive like me when I say to someone, “I am not mad, I’m just disappointed.”   God’s love is a thread that seeks to heal our wounded hearts, make us whole, and send us out…where inevitably other humans will hurt us again…so the process repeats again and again. 

 

How do you define “love”?  Maybe it isn’t just words but examples.  What does love feel like, taste, sound, smell, or look like?  When was the last time you were fully loved?  This June, we are exploring the theme, “Love makes a family”.  Both the words “family” and “love” are meant to be expansive.  Both words invite experimentation.  Both words will never be exhausted or explored in our lives.  This is one reason why the definition of love is too static.  If we try to confine love, it will become stale.  You can’t put love in a museum case behind plexiglass to protect it; it starts to wither.  Love and vulnerability are the street corners of your heart.  Love and expression are the prayers of your soul.  Love and forgiveness/healing are the work of your life.  Love and family are dynamic and diverse, constantly changing. 

 

Yesterday, I invited you to explore love by listing all the people in your family growing up, your family of a spouse/partner, and your neighbors/friends/Florida family of adaptation and affirmation.  After you name names, then write down the way “love” was experienced and encountered with each. Was love freely given or with more strings attached than a puppet?  Was love unceasing or given with expectations?  Was love withheld or shared?  As I do that, I start to see that the way love was experienced with my mom was different than with dad and is different than with my wife and my kids.  I start to see the breadth and depth.  You can make a chart where on the left you list the relationship: dad, mom, grandparents, aunts/uncles, cousins, spouse, kids, neighbors, friends, etc.  Then add the names.  Then the way love was/is felt/experienced.  Then, any other notes.  Four columns that can help us see that love is messy and human and more diverse than the people who are trying to share this word in all our humanness in these days.  May God’s unconditional and unceasing love be with you, enfold you, and hold you as you try this exercise out.

Click here for a downloadable worksheet

Prayer

 

And Breathe

 

Yesterday, I invited you to pay attention to your breath.  This isn’t some new or novel way to be, but it is as ancient as breath prayers. This is a meaningful way to settle your mind and awaken your attention to God’s presence.  This dates back to early Christianity as a way to pray without ceasing. (1 Thessalonians 5:16)  There is usually a phrase you say in a whisper as you inhale and one as you exhale.  Here are a few examples from Sarah Bessey.

 

Inhale: Show me who to be,      Exhale: and what is mine to do.

Inhale: You give us peace,        Exhale: My heart is not troubled.  (inspired by John 14:27)

Inhale: Courage and grace        Exhale: are my home.

Inhale: I will not despair,       Exhale: Hope is my daily choice.

Inhale: Protect the truth-tellers, Exhale: Surround them with comfort and grace.

Inhale: Remind me to breathe   Exhale: and to believe.

Inhale: In the darkness,            Exhale: illuminate the truth.

Inhale: Despair is not my only option,          Exhale: I choose stubborn faithfulness.

 

Try to create your own.

 

Inhale: God is my shepherd      Exhale: Guide me today.

Inhale: Let the nets of my life    Exhale: Be filled with Your love.

Inhale: Infusing God                Exhale: Inspire my living

 

For me, this prayer practice reminds me of two truths.  One, spirituality is about paying attention.  Two, religion means reconnecting myself to God and others, and the me I sometimes hide from myself/others.  Your breath is central and core to embodying and living these two truths every day.  May you experience and encounter the Eternal with every breath you take today.  Amen.

The Diversity of Dust

 

One day, the Eternal God scooped dirt out of the ground, sculpted it into the shape we call human, breathed the breath that gives life into the nostrils of the human, and the human became a living soul. Genesis 2:7 (The Voice Translation)

 

On Monday, I offered you four translations of Genesis 2:7; you can go back and re-read to remind yourself and review what leapt off the page.  I love the Voice Translation.  There is an earthiness to the words above.  God is getting God’s fingernails caked with the clay of earth.  God on God’s knees, sweat on God’s brow.  I picture God trying to form the legs, carefully making them the same length, which isn’t easy.  Do you think that took God a few tries?  Or I picture God forming a pinkie toe, so fragile and vulnerable, maybe a toe or two even broke off the first time.  Or God making the head just right so that we wouldn’t topple over on ourselves!  Humans are fascinating, as is all of creation, which is God-soaked.  Notice that without God’s breath, the human was just a lump of clay…because that is what we were and are and can be!!  We are dust.  And, Scripture says, we are divine.  We are human (of the soil) and stardust.  We are a messy mixture of so many contradictory and complex experiences and events.  We are people who have individual and shared histories.  You reflect God’s creativity, all of you.  Brian McLaren says that all of you are welcome and all of you is welcome.  This means that you can fully let both the beautiful and broken parts of yourself be seen in this world.  This is complicated by the fact that trust between us is broken (if not shattered).  This is made more difficult and demanding because we don’t practice letting our light shine bright in many places.  We all wear masks that make every day feel like Halloween.  We hide behind titles or money or possessions or power.  We show up in one place with one version of ourselves and another place in a different way.  Do we realize the truest image of God within us, or is that sacred spark so hidden beneath cultural expectations, layers of shame, blame, hurt, and not feeling fully accepted and affirmed?  In June, we celebrate PRIDE month, honoring God’s creativity and beauty in LGBTQ+ siblings.  Like any other month when we shine a light on God’s beloved (Black History Month, Women’s History Month, Asian-Pacific Islander Sunday, Mental Health Month, Juneteenth, Creation Justice Month, and countless other holy days to see the diversity of Divinity), we may wonder, “Why all the fuss?”  Shouldn’t we just emphasize our common humanity?  While I believe God’s love is unconditionally offered to all, I know that I live this side of God’s full realm and reign.  I still pray, “Thy Kingdom/Kin-dom Come,” which means two things.  First, God’s realm ain’t here yet.  Second, I need to let go of my reign and realm where I am in charge/control.  It is a blessing to celebrate these days and months that invite us to delve/dive deeper into the complexity of creation and our Creator.  God is still forming.  God still has the clay of your life under God’s fingernails.  God is still fashioning, forming, and isn’t finished yet with you or me or we as a people.  How can I find ways to let God be God?  I think it begins with breathing in.  When I inhale, I am infused and inspired by the holy oxygen of God.  When I exhale, I let go of control (see Morning Meditations from last week on letting go, letting be, letting come).  While I can direct my breath in certain ways, once inside me, the oxygen can take me in a myriad of directions and toward unintended directions.  Notice your breathing today; notice God’s energy around you and within you today; notice how you let loose God’s presence as you move about your day.  Amen. 

Dust Part 2

 

Yesterday, you considered some of your friends who embody and enliven God’s presence in your lives.  I wonder if there are certain character traits you are drawn to?  Are you fascinated with people who are serious and somber, wanting to solve all the world’s problems?  OR would you rather spend time with someone who makes you laugh and forget about life for a while?  Would you rather sit over a cup of coffee with your friends, or do you want to go have an adventure together (knowing that for some of us going out to a movie feels like an adventure!)?  Are you drawn together because of geography, spirituality, politics, interests, music, or some other magnetic force?  Review your list today and put down what you love about each person.  Maybe it is that you’ve shared life and have funny stories you relive each time you are together.  Maybe your pal is your book friend with whom you are always swiping suggestions for your next great read.  It is a wonderful gift not only to think about what you appreciate about others, but to tell the person!  I remember at camp, we would do affirmations at the end of the week.  We would have a piece of paper for each person in our cabin, go around, and write down what we appreciated about each other.  It was meant to be anonymous, but you could sometimes tell who wrote what on your sheet of paper.  We never outgrow our desire for affirmation.  In May, we spoke about gifts.  I often find it is easier to talk about others’ gifts rather than my own.  Yet each of us is continually created in God’s image and bears God’s love in unique ways that are needed in such a time as this.  Ponder who you are connected to and why you have a tie that has been a blessing to you.  And, if you feel brave, you may even want to share that with the people on your list.  Amen.

Dust

 

Then the Lord God formed (hu)man from the dust of the ground and breathed into the nostrils the breath of life, and the (hu)man became a living being.  Genesis 2:7 (NRSV)

 

So YHWH fashioned an earth creature out of the clay of the earth and blew into its nostrils the breath of life.  Genesis 2:7 (Inclusive Bible)

 

One day the Eternal God scooped dirt out of the ground, sculpted it into the shape we call human, breathed the breath that gives life into the nostrils of the human, and the human became a living soul. Genesis 2:7 (The Voice Translation)

 

God formed Human out of dirt from the ground and blew into its nostrils the breath of life. The Human came alive—a living soul! (The Message).

 

Yesterday, we began a series called Love Makes a Family.  In Genesis 2, after God forms, fashions, breathes, and loves the first dust being into life (Dusty), God observes that it isn’t good for a human to be alone.  This isn’t about dating or marriage.  This is about connection.  If you rewind just a bit to the first creation narrative in Genesis 1:1-2:3, at the very end, God says, “Let us make humans in our image” Genesis 1:26.  God is in relationship (with both the Spirit and Chaos) before the sky/seas/manatees/Creation responds to God’s voice.  God is in collaboration and cooperation with the Spirit, sloshing chaos, and Christ from the beginning.  God loves committees and group projects.  I asked you in the sermon to ponder some of the people who have left fingerprints upon your heart in your life.  In Genesis 2, God seeks a partner, helper, or companion for the first human.  While the dogs were great, while the birds sang songs, while the armadillos had a great sense of humor, it wasn’t until the first human gazed into the eyes of another featherless biped that the soul felt full.  We are meant/built for relationships because that is a central and core characteristic of our Creator.  Who are your partners who make your heart sing?  In fact, rewind and remember.  Who were your pals in elementary school, high school, when you started work, and right now?  This isn’t meant to be an exhaustive assignment.  Scroll through the photo album that lives in your memory.  Are you still in contact with any of them?  Which friend have you known the longest?  This isn’t a competition.  Sometimes we meet a soul friend late in life.  Further, it isn’t the length of the list that matters.  As a matter of fact, Dunbar’s number suggests we can maybe only have three to five intimate friendships and that we can only really “know” up to 150 people ~ after that, they become acquaintances.  Or as Arthur Brooks says, you can have deal friends (where the relationship is transactional) or real friends (where no one keeps a spreadsheet over how many times you ask for a favor).  Ponder your list.  What are your thoughts?  Can you have more than five close friends?  Do you feel like you really know more than 150 people?  Or do you find that several people are more deal friends than real?  If Love Makes a Family, then how can our church encourage caring and belonging (two of our values) that is real for each person?  May God expand and improvise our living out of these questions each day.