God of Grace and God of Glory ~ take two

Krista Tippet once said, "Hymns are the way good church people walk around poetry not calling it that."

Listen once again to the hymn, reading or singing, the third and four verses.

3 Cure your children's warring madness;
bend our pride to your control;
shame our wanton, selfish gladness,
rich in things and poor in soul.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
lest we miss your kingdom's goal,
lest we miss your kingdom's goal.

4 Save us from weak resignation
to the evils we deplore;
let the gift of your salvation
be our glory evermore.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
serving you whom we adore,
serving you whom we adore.

These two verses land with a thud in my lap.  These two verses make me mumble and mutter to myself, "Yeah...I resemble that remark."  These two verses offer both a moment of confession and assurance.  The third verse starts with shining a light the fact that the violence we do to ourselves and others is an illness ~ from which we need to be cured.  While, I am not fond of Henry Fosdick's word "shame" ~ because I don't think that is the way God works or wiggles in to our life ~ I realize that might be my ego trying to defend and deflect and deny.  But those words, "Rich in things and poor in soul," have been true for the nearly hundred years we have been singing these words.  Perhaps we are secretly glad that the organ doesn't stop playing right there causing us to have to ponder what we just said aloud.  Because, as Fosdick says, we can miss God's realm when we are possessed by our own possessions ~ like the one Jesus told to sell everything to follow him, but instead just want away sad for he had many things.

So, when you get to that final verse...about being saved from weak resignation ~ that we might have some resolve and resiliency and respond to the brokenness within us and around us.  Not that we can will ourselves or just try harder...but with God's presence...with God moving in us and through us... we do start to inch-by-inch set out in new directions.

This is what the season of Lent is all about.  It is about be honest with ourselves, about ourselves, as well as the world God so loves.  It is about making amends and finding new ruts, rhythm, routines to live our life.  It is about having the wisdom and courage to see the beauty and brokenness and how sometimes those two things are the same thing ~ beauty of the brokenness and in the messy middle of the brokenness.  It is that which God can use to free us ~ not with some golden ticket to heaven ~ but to serve and to be of service.

This hymn is a prayer and poetry that sets my soul ablaze and helps me find more than a trace of God's graces.  I pray it might for you too.

Grace and peace ~~

God of Grace and God of Glory ~ take one

As you listen to this hymn here are the first two verses to either read ~ or sing out loud

1 God of grace and God of glory,
on your people pour your power;
crown your ancient church's story,
bring its bud to glorious flower.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
for the facing of this hour,
for the facing of this hour.

2 Lo! the hosts of evil round us
scorn the Christ, assail his ways!
From the fears that long have bound us
free our hearts to faith and praise.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
for the living of these days,
for the living of these days.

It has been over a week since the tragic shooting in Parkland, Florida.  In moments when the question, "why" sit so heavy and hangs/hovers unanswerable in the air.  When our collective hearts break.  When emotions stew within us and we feel at once both anger at yet another shooting, sadness for the families grieving, fear for our own children ~ grandchildren.  When we wonder why it is never the right time to talk about what people's access to guns are doing to our culture, because our attention spans will soon be on to the next story. 

It is in these moments I turn and tune my heart to this hymn.  I do this because these words are a prayer for me.  That God's grace, wisdom, courage would be poured out ~ saturate and soak my life.  When I sing these words I often find the words, "From the fears that long have bound us" get caught in my throat.  Fears we have of each other.  Fears about our own self-worth and wisdom.  Fears that the world drunk with power and privilege might never find a way to sober up to the reality around us.

Fear has been, if not in the driver seat - at least in the passenger seat (as Liz Gilbert says) picking the radio station we listen to, ever since 9/11.  Fear for seventeen years has driven debate and discussions and put a wedge in the ways we talk to each other.  Fear has forced us to divide the world into us and them.  It isn't as if this new...we are repeating the history we perhaps did not learn well from movements for equal rights in the past.  It is far easier to say, "They are the problem." and keep your opinion...then to say, "They might have a point." and might need to change.

That is why we need wisdom and courage every hour and for the living of these days.  May we find more than a trace of grace of God to so.

Blessings and peace ~~

Lent Two ~ Creation as the Original Gospel

Over the last few days, we have been turning and tuning our ears to the hymn, In the Bulb.  It is a song about being open to creation, because we know God as the Creator.

Or Artist.

Or Author.

Or Conspirator (which means to be breathe together).

Or Conductor and Choir Member.

Or Imagineer.

Or Envisioner, embracer, and enlivener.

God has the artist touch and flare and fire.

Which is why I love the above page from the St. John's Bible.  I love the seven panels, each visually representing a day.  I love that way light looks like fireworks against the black sky in the first panel.  And the seas and waters separating in the second.  Richard Rohr recently noted that God does not call the first two days, "Good", because there is separation.  But starting on day three land appears with vegetation, starlight like sequins, whales and walruses and waves of water creations, animals and humans ~ call crafted with a creativity we see around us.  Finally rest ~ Sabbath silence of ceasing and being.

I love the image of the dove that hovers and hangs over the last few panels.  Spirit of the living God falling afresh and anew...blessing us from the beginning to today.

Creation displays the handiwork of God.

Yet, so do you!!

Do you see that and sense that when you look in the mirror?  Or do you just see a few more gray hairs as I do in the morning?  Do you see God's spirit hovering or just the frustration fuming?  Or what about both/and?  Because it isn't just either or.  And it isn't just the beauty of creation, there is also danger in lightening and storms and ice and cold and heat.  To live close to the land is to be in awe.  Not just with rose-colored glasses, the kind of awe that is one of respect and reverence and reserve for we know creation has power too. 

If you go outside right now, do you see a painting or hear a hymn?
Or do you sense chaos?
Or both?

May there be more than a trace of grace as we let Creation sing to us today.

Grace and peace everyone ~~ 

Lent Two ~~ In the Bulb There is a Flower

As you listen to this hymn for a second time, pay attention to the second and third verses.

I am particularly taken by the both/and quality of what Sleeth is saying.  She is inviting us to ponder how and where there is light in darkness and doubt in believing.  We can get so caught up in dualism and either/or thinking.  This problem plagues us.  We want to be able to classify and categorize everything, label and store it on a shelf.  We want to do it quickly and would rather than admit if we make a mistake.

There is a great and ancient Chinese proverb about needing to trust in the slow work of the spirit rather than racing to define and distinguish everything it goes like this:

A farmer and his son had a beloved stallion who helped the family earn a living. One day, the horse ran away and their neighbors exclaimed, “Your horse ran away, what terrible luck!” The farmer replied, “Maybe so, maybe not. We’ll see.”

A few days later, the horse returned home, leading a few wild mares back to the farm as well. The neighbors shouted out, “Your horse has returned, and brought several horses home with him. What great luck!” The farmer replied, “Maybe so, maybe not. We’ll see.”

Later that week, the farmer’s son was trying to break one of the mares and she threw him to the ground, breaking his leg. The villagers cried, “Your son broke his leg, what terrible luck!” The farmer replied, “Maybe so, maybe not. We’ll see.”

A few weeks later, soldiers from the national army marched through town, recruiting all the able-bodied boys for the army. They did not take the farmer’s son, still recovering from his injury. Friends shouted, “Your boy is spared, what tremendous luck!” To which the farmer replied, “Maybe so, maybe not. We’ll see.”

Trying to wait before we run head first in to something is not exactly seen as an important characteristic today.  We would rather be first than right.  Many have lost a job recently jumping to conclusions rather than trying to untangle/twist what has always been complex, complicated human moments. 

Where have your already labeled something as good or bad with a sharpie?  Where have you made up your mind and won't consider any further evidence?  And I particularly mean in your own life?  In your unfolding narrative are there places where the period has been placed, rather than a comma?  Are there places you think the chapter ended and yet the character keeps re-appearing? 

I invite you to know only trust in the slow work of the spirit this hymn invited, but also to hold lightly our opinions and understandings.  After all back in 2008, I had never even been to Florida...that was a place of hurricanes and strange news.  And now I actually live here.

So may the trace of God's grace lead us with the wisdom and love we need to take one step at a time.

Blessings ~~

Lent Two ~ In the Bulb There is a Flower

The hymn, "In the Bulb There is a Flower" was composed by Natalie Sleeth in the early 1990s.  The three verses offer a poetic vision that we might use as a prayerful meditation this second week of Lent.  The first verse talks about mystery and hidden-ness of God's presence.

In the bulb there is a flower; in the seed, an apple tree; in cocoons, a hidden promise: butterflies will soon be free! In the cold and snow of winter there’s a spring that waits to be, unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.

So often we don't see as clearly as we think we do.  The obstacles that obscure our view becomes so ordinary and common place...that we don't even notice them.  We come to believe that we have the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.  So, we post it, tweet it.  Gone is any sense of humility, that we might be wrong. 

Think back ten years ago...2008.  The first faint signs of the Great Recession were starting to be seen as the stock market skidded and slid.  It was then that a car manufacturing plant in the city I was serving as pastor closed.  Suddenly the problems of New York sent shock waves closer to home.  My kids were barely in school.  I did not even have a blog!  Rarely do we ever look in the rear view mirror of life and think, "Yup, just as I thought!"

So, why exactly are we so certain and confident today?  There is a phrase from a poem/prayer I use as a mantra in ministry, "Trust in the slow work of the Spirit."  I could use, Sleeth's beautiful images.  To trust in the slow growth of the seed in the soil.  A seed goes down...reaching and establishing roots before it ever springs up.  Or to trust in the process of cocoons...did you know that a caterpillar sheds it's skin several times before ever entering the chrysalis?  I wonder if a few times the caterpillar might think this is finally the time to be a butterfly?  Or maybe that is me being anthropomorphic.  Because there are times I want the seed to grow faster, the butterfly to be born and the snow to melt.  

Yet, we are called to wait with God.  To follow the savory pace of God which means 40 years of wilderness wandering or 40 days of preparing for Easter's resurrection.

What are you waiting for right now?  Medical test results?  News about whether an apology was accepted?  For spring to actually be sprung?

Hold onto that waiting.  Is there some way trusting in the slow work of the spirit can give you strength and sustain and offer more than a trace of God's grace in these day?

I pray so.

Grace and peace ~~   

Lent One ~ Gospel of Disney

Part of what captures and captivates me about Disney is the imagination.  C.S. Lewis once wrote, "But some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again."  We need space and a place for engaging laughter and imagination and dreams.  Perhaps this Lent you can take time to laugh.  I know this may sound odd in a season that has become defined and distinguished by being serious and somber, but I do believe God laughs with us...that laughter itself can be a prayer.  Our imaginations can help open us to new ways to engage and encounter God whose creativity is still speaking/singing/ crafting and creating.  Our dreams...well dreams are God's territory.  Think of Joseph of many color coat fame who can interpret dreams.  Think of Joseph Jesus' father who dreams a dream of taking Mary as his wife.  Think of Peter on a roof seeing a vision of a buffet of off-limits animals coming down on a blanket.  These dreams of God are always expanding and encouraging us to do the same.

Laughter as a prayer.
Imagination as a place to encounter God.
Dreams as a territory of experiencing our expansive God.

What ways can you lean into and learn from these truths?
Who helps you laugh?
What ignites your imagination?
Where do dreams grow legs to go to new places?

I pray these questions might open you to more than a trace of God's grace in these Lenten days.  Please pray with me.

God, thank you for the sound of laughter that surrounds us and can sustain us.
Thank you for ways we can dream new dreams.
Thank you for ideas that stretch the boundaries of what we think is off-limits.
We pray You would continue to move in our midst.  Enter in with contagious joy, with animals that have giraffe necks and owl wings, with ideas about what might until in the remaining days.  If Easter is an awakening to new life here and now, then we can laugh ~ even if others see us as foolish.  We can believe to look for life where others only see death.  We can follow One who was not just resuscitated, but resurrected to show us that matter matters to You, O God.  Come, O God, come with a grace, love, peace and presence we need in these days.  Amen and Amen. 

Lent Week One ~ Gospel of Disney

Having already engaged one song from a Disney movie, we continue with one of my favorites, The Lion King.  There are many reasons why I find this movie fascinating.  First, it is a great commentary on families who put the "fun" in dysfunction.  All of us know what it is to have unresolved conflict hanging and hovering around the Thanksgiving table.  We know how power plays are not confined or contained only in Washington D.C., but find their ways in to our own households.  The conflict between Scar and Mufasa might not be exactly what we experience in our family, but there are sometimes echoes at reunions and picnics.  Second, I find the commentary on our abuse of the environment compelling and convicting, especially considering that this film is a few decades old.  Third, the opening song has some great theological themes.  Listen...and watch the amazing art those who drew the frames crafted and created...

 The middle verse strikes and stays with me:

Some of us fall by the wayside
And some of us soar to the stars
And some of us sail through our troubles
And some have to live with the scars

The questions of why this may be...why do some stumble and some soar?  Or the question might be how do we notice our own stumbling and our own soaring?  Too often, it is easy to tripped or trapped into thinking that we need someone to validate that our stumbling doesn't define us or that our soaring is for real.  There is a circle, cycle, to life.  Moments when we can accomplish more than we ask or imagine.  Moments when we fail spectacularly.  Moments when we taste goodness, grace.  Moments when bitterness lingers, lasts too long.  Sometimes those moments happen simultaneously.  As we enter into Lent, where are you?

Do you feel like your soul is soar or sinking?
Do you feel like your life is trekking like a train or has gone off the rails?

Perhaps again...it isn't yes or no...but both/and.  Depending on the day, the time, we might respond with an emphatic, "Yes" to both.

Take some time today to settle and let these questions soak into your life.  And may you sense more than just a trace of God's grace in this moment.

Blessings ~~