Another Question to Ponder

 

Yesterday, we pondered prayerfully the question, does one’s life give any evidence of an encounter with God?

 

Built and baked into that question is a secondary one, when yesterday did you encounter God?  In whom, where, when, and how did the holy show up disguised as your life in the past twenty-four hours?  I am not talking about angels singing from the realms of glory or Gabriel knocking on your door.  That may happen to you, but in my life when someone knocks on my door, they usually want to sell me something.  Often, I can be passive in prayer.  I think if I just throw some words in the general direction of the divine, that is enough.

But what if, like all relationships, our connection with God asks us for to be intentional, thoughtful, and pay attention?  Relationships need to be tended, curated, and cultivated.  How do we do that with God?

 

To get at that, I wonder, who are some of your sheroes/heroes/guides in the world today?  The person could be living or dead.  This could be family or someone you’ve only met through reading his/her book or heard in a podcast.  This could be an author, painter, singer, leader, or your next-door neighbor.

 

As a matter of fact, the longer the list the better!  Try to come up with 10 people who move something deep within you.  After you list the person’s name, ask why?  What is it about the person that sings to your soul? 

 

Some of the people I admire are positive and resilient because I don’t see those traits in myself.

I admire pastors whose words cause my soul to stir and strangely warm my heart.  They minister to me.

I admire people in our church who show up day-after-day faithfully and have done so for years.

 

Sometimes the way we find who we long to be is to ask ourselves about the people we are drawn toward and why.  Once we have named and claimed this group of saints, we can start to feel surrounded and strengthened and sustained because the chance is good that you are drawn to them because they touched/sparked something that is already in you ~ they held a match near the candlewick of your heart ~ but sometimes we quickly blow that out because we are not confident or certain we could really do this. 

 

You may want to keep this list handy and keep reaching for it in the coming days.  For now, ponder the people who have left an impression on your heart.  Thank God for the saints who continue to inform and inspire our daily living.

A Question to Ponder

 

Recently, Richard Rohr in his morning devotional recently asked, “The spiritual question is this: Does one’s life give any evidence of an encounter with God?”  Those eleven words stopped me in my tracks.  For a few moments, I stared at my computer screen as the lawyer who lives in my mind tried to rummage through the art project called my life for some proof that God doesn’t just rent space in my heart for an hour on Sunday, but permanently resides there. 

For a few moments the silence was awkward.  Until, like a child who has just been caught with a hand in the cookie jar, I began to sputter a response.

“Well…I write these devotionals,” I thought.

“And I have now completed nine years at First Congregational UCC,” pause for applause, “that means 460ish sermons, countless pastoral visits, and don’t forget all the meetings!”

I was starting to be on a roll.

“And I try to be a loving husband, caring father, and good friend.”

 

Is that enough evidence?  I wondered.

 

But, perhaps the evidence might not be anything internal, but the impact we have on others ~ much of which we may never know.  When people talk to me, do they sense that I am listening ~ or just pausing long enough before I can make my point?  Do people feel like they can be themselves, their full authentic selves, around me?  Do I feel like I am being who God creates/crafts me to be in these January days?  Does God’s love flow forth from me?

 

Can we hold Rohr’s question close to our hearts this week? What does a life that has encountered God sound like?  Look like?  Feel like? 

Hold this question with me…try not to do what I did…and race for a response.  This is not just a question to answer, but one to ask every day ~ throughout the day.

 

May you and I continue find ways to let loose a love, peace, joy, and hope of God that is renewed morning by morning ~ with the rising of the sun.  May you and I continue to collaborate with our Creator who longs to be embodied in you and me.   May you and I find ways to conspire to be lights in a world that longs for Christ’s presence in these days. Amen.

Happy Epiphany

 

Happy Epiphany everyone!! 

 

Today is a celebration of the visit of the Magi/Wise Ones (we don’t really know if there were 3 or just a group who brought 3 presents) to witness to Jesus as a king/leader.  The Wise Ones ~ usually thought to be astrologers ~ were students of the stars.  Some suggest that the star appeared, they read the signs of a new king of Israel~ but then the star disappeared which is why they went to Herod’s palace ~ because, of course, a king is found in the palace.  Then the star re-appeared to lead them to where Jesus was.  Or maybe they had lost the star only to find it again.

 

Here are some ways to celebrate Epiphany ~

 

Do a house blessing ~ buy going room to room asking for God to find space there.

Eat a three kings’ cake or any cake or a donut.

Some people go winter swimming to remember baptism ~ I will say that I will NOT be doing that because the water is too cold ~ but I will recall my baptism as I wash my hands and face.

Listen to music you love or go out and stargaze.

There is also the tradition of a Star Word…and you can copy and paste the link below into a new tab in your browser to discover your star word.  

https://www.bethelpresby.org/star-words.html

OR we will do this in worship on Sunday as well.  Or you can do BOTH.

 

And if you go stargaze read this poem by Ann Weems:

 

What I’d really like to give you for Christmas is a star. . . .

Brilliance in a package,

something you could keep in the pocket of your jeans or in the pocket of your being.

Something to take out in times of darkness, something that would never snuff out or tarnish, something you could hold in your hand, something for wonderment, something for pondering, something that would remind you of what Christmas has always meant: God’s Advent Light into the darkness of this world.

But stars are only God’s for giving,

and I must be content to give you words and wishes and packages without stars.

But I can wish you life as radiant as the Star that announced the Christ Child’s coming,

and as filled with awe as the shepherds who stood beneath its light.

And I can pass on to you the love that has been given to me, ignited countless times by others who have knelt in Bethlehem’s light.

Perhaps, if you ask, God will give you a star.

 

May the star of wonder, star of light, star with royal beauty bright ~ continue to guide you with a light every day this year.  Amen. 

Epiphany Eve

 

Breathe in God’s love…breathe out the flames of frustration with others we often light our lives each day.

Breathe in God’s love…breathe out the constant critic in your mind that like a hamster on a wheel is ruminating on all that is wrong with you…and others…and the world.

Breathe in God’s love…breathe out with a loud sigh that change rarely happens as immediately or instantly as we’d like.

 

Thursdays are a good day to stop, survey, and steep (like tea in hot water) yourself in the sacred.

Thursdays are a good day to play as a holy way to pray.

 

Breathe in God’s love…breathe out the flames of frustration with others we often light our lives each day.

Breathe in God’s love…breathe out the constant critic in your mind that like a hamster on a wheel is ruminating on all that is wrong with you…and others…and the world.

Breathe in God’s love…breathe out with a loud sigh that change rarely happens as immediately or instantly as we’d like.

 

Thursdays are a good day to stop, survey, and steep (like tea in hot water) yourself in the sacred.

Thursdays are a good day to play as a holy way to pray.

 

How have you had fun this week?  If you haven’t, how might you do that?  Honest confession as a Type-A person I must schedule in and plan for fun…but the more I do that, the more my body/mind/life starts to look spontaneously for fun.  How might you enjoy this beautiful day, even though it may not be perfect? 

 

This is Epiphany Eve…and while there is no service tonight at church…there is a chance to blare/blast Christmas carol…sing, “We Three Kings” or “What Child Is This” or “Jesus the Light of the World” at the top of your lungs…and continue to celebrate Christ who is God’s hope, peace, love, and joy in the flesh, breath, and bone.

 

Breathe and be in God’s presence now and in the days to come.  Amen. 

Prayers for this Wednesday

 

Every year is an unfolding journey, an unknowable future. 

Even with our goals listed.

Even with our calendars ~ the neat/evenly-spaced/orderly boxes.

Even with our to-do lists.

There are these disruptions and interruptions.

 

Hear this poem/prayer from Jan Richardson:

 

If you could see the journey whole you might never undertake it; might never dare the first step that propels you from the place you have known toward the place you know not. Call it one of the mercies of the road: that we see it only by stages as it opens before us, as it comes into our keeping step by single step. There is nothing for it but to go and by our going take the vows the pilgrim takes: to be faithful to the next step; to rely on more than the map; to heed the signposts of intuition and dream; to follow the star that only you will recognize; to keep an open eye for the wonders that attend the path; to press on beyond distractions beyond fatigue beyond what would tempt you from the way. There are vows that only you will know; the secret promises for your particular path and the new ones you will need to make when the road is revealed by turns you could not have foreseen. Keep them, break them, make them again: each promise becomes part of the path; each choice creates the road that will take you to the place where at last you will kneel to offer the gift most needed— the gift that only you can give— before turning to go home by another way.

 

What is that new way you feel called to go?

Why?  Is this a nudge from the holy?  Or is it because someone has told you that was the road to travel? 

In the transition from who we’ve been to who we prayerfully seek to be ~ there is the becoming ~ the active unfolding that cannot be rushed or raced through.  Just as a rose will open in its own time, so your life ~ like creation and seasons ~ moves at a pace and rhythm that might not be on a tight timeline or easy to measure/follow steps.

 

What is the gift you can give today?  Perhaps the gift is self-compassion ~ realizing this is the first time you’ve been as old as you’ve are right now ~ realizing that you’ve never lived this day you are living right now.  Even though some of the surroundings may seem familiar ~ there are differences and distinctions to be honored ~ you’ve never been right here before.  Give the gift that others are where they are because of experiences and encounters and events ~ of which you may never really know.  Give the gift to God of openness and curiosity and love ~ for these are the gifts God gives all creation every day.

 

For the path ahead ~ that we don’t really have a map ~ know that God promises to go beside, before, behind and within you always.  Amen.

Prayers for Epiphanies

 

At the end of the week, we will celebrate Epiphany and on Sunday, January 8, we will honor the Wise Ones who come with gifts to Jesus.  Today, I invite you to read these words from theologian Walter Brueggemann

 

On Epiphany day, we are still the people walking. We are still people in the dark, and the darkness looms large around us, beset as we are by fear, anxiety, brutality, violence, loss — a dozen alienations that we cannot manage. We are — we could be — people of your light. So we pray for the light of your glorious presence as we wait for your appearing; we pray for the light of your wondrous grace as we exhaust our coping capacity; we pray for your gift of newness that will override our weariness; we pray that we may see and know and hear and trust in your good rule. That we may have energy, courage, and faith to enact your rule through the demands of this day. We submit our day to you and to your rule, with deep joy and high hope.

 

Yesterday, we paused to ponder prayerfully times God showed up in our lives.  Today, I invite you to pay attention to the weariness that might be lingering left over from last year.  Maybe for you the pandemic or polarization or personal issues have your soul tired.  Maybe you wanted to leave all that in 2022, but some of it has already shown up in this new year.  Maybe the fresh canvass of 2023 has been tarnished by an experience or encounter you did not anticipate or want.  Now you are wondering how to creatively include the hurt or brokenness in the art project of life.  Maybe there is something that is unsettled and even unsolvable that has been hanging out for years now.

 

List what has exhausted your coping capacities; drained you; left you weary.  Name that which is broken or bruised.  Name where you are frustrated.  Hold all this gently and tenderly.  Hold your life for the preciousness of it, that can also be precarious and fragile.  Hold the Aha and the Good Lords we mutter aloud. 

 

Prayer: God, You move in our lives with goodness and grace that surprises; and then there are times when our soul is exhausted and stretched too thin.  You promise to meet us both when the laughter is easy and when the way seems too long.  Meet us here on this third day of 2023 with Your continual presence.  Meet us in the messiness with a meaning that can transform our whole lives.  In the name of the One who lived his life ~ the good, the bad, and the ugly ~ open to You, Jesus the Christ.  Amen.

Monday morning blessing

 

On this first Monday of a New Year, this blessing doesn’t need you to brush your hair or teeth or put on a different shirt.  This blessing isn’t here to check in on how you are doing with your resolutions.  This blessing doesn’t come with demands or decrees (like Caesar); doesn’t ask you to drop everything immediately or you might miss out, supplies are limited.

 

Nope.  None of that.

 

There is abundance and spaciousness in this blessing.

 

You don’t have to pick up the strands of tinsel still laying in the carpet or rummage around the refrigerator to serve this blessing something other than leftovers.  This blessing isn’t here to inspect or interrogate or investigate.  This blessing is interested in you; the real you ~ you sometimes hide.  The you ~ you made all those promises to transform yesterday.  The you ~ who can frustrate and flummox and fascinate at moments in baffling, bewildering ways.  This blessing doesn’t come with expectations, but with anticipation that you would fling open your heart to receive what this blessing offers:

 

Receive a gift of grace.

Be led by a gift of love.

Be planted in the soil of peace.

Let hope find home, even amid the clutter.

Join hands with joy who sees you…yes the you with messy hair…as created in God’s image.

 

On this first Monday of a New Year, breathe and be in God’s presence.  In this continuing season of Christmas let the truths of God entering your life come for a visit.  Keep holding on to the truth that God arrives in a stable ~ so God is comfortable amid the clutter and chaos of our lives.  On this nineth day of Christmas, we continue to enter the marvel and mystery of this season. 

 

Today, I invite you to list Aha moments from 2022 ~ times you learned something new, a book you read that opened your imagination, an insight into faith or life.  List moments you were aware of God’s presence.  Where did awe leave you speechless in wonder?  Where did hope take hold of your heart?  Where did peace like a river flood your soul? 

 

I don’t know if I can give “homework” in a morning meditation but take this as an invitation to look back at your life over the last year for times when blessings showed up unannounced in your life.  And may remembering and recalling God’s presence woven into the ordinary help you open to God who continues to show up disguised as your life this year.  Amen.