Everything is God's Grace

When the righteous man searches for the nature of all things,
he makes his own admirable discovery:
that everything is God's grace.
Every being in the world, and thhe world itself,
manifests the blessings and generosity of God.
- Philo of Alexandria

In this in-between space . . .

‘A little while, and you will no longer see me, and again a little while, and you will see me.’ - Jesus (John 16:16)

Dear Friends in Christ -

One of our parishioners sent this prayer to me this week, and it struck a chord deep in my spirit . . . There's something comforting about it. In essence, it says that we can be who we are because God is who he is.

In this in-between space of Holy Saturday, may praying this prayer bring you clarity, humility, confidence - and peace.
Faithfully,
Janet+

I thank you, Lord Jesus, for becoming a human being
so I do not have to pretend or try to be God.
I thank you, Lord Jesus, for becoming finite and limited
so I do not have to pretend that I am infinite and limitless.
I thank you, crucified God, for becoming mortal
so I do not have to try to make myself immortal.
I thank you, Lord Jesus, for becoming inferior
so I do not have to pretend that I am superior to anyone.
I thank you for being crucified outside the walls,
for being expelled and excluded like the sinners and outcasts,
so you can meet me where I feel that I am,
always outside the walls of worthiness. Amen.

-- Richard Rohr, Hope Against Darkness, p. 38

The End of the Story

"It is finished." - Jesus (John 19:28-30)

"The infinite beauty of God is constantly being discovered anew." - Gregory of Nyssa

Dear Friends in Christ -

The story we hear on this Good Friday is old to us: we've heard it over and over again. We come to it again in sadness, in curiosity, in hope, in wonder. We come to this story again because it is powerful to us.

Though they don't know it, my children watch their favorite movies over and over again for the same reason. They bask in the power - and comfort - of seeing the bad guys lose and the good guys win.

HOW we come to these stories makes all the difference. My children come to their favorite movies as if they had never seen them before, with fresh eyes and open hearts, ready to say "take that!" when the bad guys are vanquished and to cheer "yeahhhh!" when the princess is saved. Are your eyes ready to see something new? Is your heart open to experiencing this story afresh?

The end of this story is just the beginning . . . .
Faithfully waiting for the end
and the beginning,
Janet+

Examine yourselves . . .

"Examine yourselves, and only then eat of the bread and drink of the cup." - 1 Corinthians 11:28

Dear Friends in Christ -

By this point in Holy Week, I've done it all. Yelled at my adorable kids. Ignored my loving husband. Shouted unkind words at people "in my way" in traffic. Lied to myself and others . . . by not being sober about my finitude and overextending. Watch out. Cheating and stealing could be next. At this point in Holy Week I know the truth: I really am capable of anything . . .

The Angel on my shoulder (the same one who was at the open tomb??) says, "OK, then. That means you're ready. Ready to let go and let God. Ready for Resurrection . . .

"Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There's crack in everything
That's how the light gets in." (Leonard Cohen)

Bring on the light!
Unfaithfully - and yet, by grace, still here with God and you,
Janet+

Jesus knows

Jesus: ‘Very truly, I tell you, one of you will betray me.’
John: ‘Lord, who is it?’
Jesus: ‘It is the one to whom I give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.’
(exerpts from John 13)

Dear Friends in Christ -

Jesus knew who would betray him. In this scene, Jesus points out the one who betray him to the authorities: Judas.

But the reason this scene sticks in John's mind so clearly is that he realized the implication of what happened here: Jesus knew EVERYTHING. He knew that not only Judas, but also, eventually, all of the disciples would betray him. Not one of the twelve would be loyal to the end.

Jesus knew about them. He knows about us, too. He knows that sometimes we're more honest than we care to admit because we don't want to look like a goody-two-shoes. He knows that sometimes we're less honest than we care to admit because . . . well, for all sorts of reasons.

Jesus NEVER stops knowing us, NEVER stops loving us. Even when we blow it.

May that thought comfort us all as we stumble our way to the Cross this week. (And may it dis-comfort you if you're not stumbling your way to the Cross this week!)

Faithfully stumbling,
Janet+

It's amazing, really

"‘Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say - "Father, save me from this hour"? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour.'" - Jesus (John 12:27)

Dear Friends in Christ -

As I've been preparing for this Holy Week, one thought has greatly impressed me, remained with me . . . Jesus CHOOSES to do his Father's will. God never coerces Jesus to go to the cross. God doesn't guilt Jesus into into it. God doesn't manipulate or trick Jesus into it. In spite of the fact that he's troubled about what lies ahead, Jesus goes to the cross freely because he wants us to have the what we've lost: love, freedom, peace, eternity.

It's amazing, really . . . "For since by man came death, by man came also resurrection . . . " Astonishingly amazing.

In awe,
Janet+

There's nothing more compelling than . . .

"When the great crowd of the Jews learned that he was there, they came not only because of Jesus but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. So the chief priests planned to put Lazarus to death as well, since it was on account of him that many of the Jews were deserting and were believing in Jesus." - John 12:9-11

Dear Friends in Christ -
. . . a resurrection story. We all love them. Remember last fall when, for 69 days, we were fixated on the story of the miners trapped underground - and rescued - in Chile. Remember just a month ago, when we followed the story of the tsunami in Japan, waiting to hear about - and rejoice with - survivors and their families.

We know what death is. People around us have died. Parts of our very own selves have died - due to grief, physical injury, heartbreak, betrayal.

Our deepest longing is to live. The longing for life is so great in us that we breathe without even consciously willing it. The longing for life - abundant life - is so great that we strive not just to make ends meet, but also to make a difference.

For those who follow Jesus, this week is more than just a family gathering, a special dinner. This week, we walk again with Jesus, who died and rose again FOR US. There's nothing more compelling that a resurrection story, THIS resurrection story, the greatest story ever told.

Don't forget to share YOUR resurrection story with a friend this week. It just might bring them to Jesus. It just might change a life.

Faithfully,
Janet+

Still waving palms . . .

"They brought the donkey and the colt, and put their cloaks on them, and [Jesus] sat on them." - Matthew 21:7

Dear Friends in Christ -

When Palm Sunday is over, I never feel like I'm quite finished. I always have the sense that I'm still standing on a streetcorner, palm branch in hand, my cloak in the middle of the street with hoof-prints on it. Jesus has passed by, and now the rest of the crowd has moved on. But there I am, still drinking it all in.

It's a beautiful scene, and I want to remember it, hold onto it: thousands of people hailing Jesus as their radiant king, waving to people from the back of a donkey.

This is it. He's the one. The Messiah for whom we have waited. The one who will save us.

Matthew, the author of today's Gospel, is so eager to impress upon future readers that Jesus really is the Messiah, that he goes to great lengths to point out EVERY prophecy that is fulfilled by Jesus' coming - including prophecies from different Old Testament prophets that say Jesus will enter Jerusalem on a colt AND a donkey.

The thought of Jesus riding two animals simultaneously brings a smile to my lips. That would have been a sight to see! And I'm sure it's not quite what Matthew had in mind. No, he was just trying to tie up all the loose ends.

But that's impossible. At least for now, not even Jesus himself tries to do it. The story has to play out - messily - to the bitter end. On the same streets where people waved branches of palm and hailed him as their king.

Faithfully,
Janet+

What is the darkness . . . ?

"I have come as light into the world, so that everyone who believes in me should not remain in the darkness." - Jesus (John 12:46)

Dear Friends in Christ -

Clearly, this promise that we won't remain in darkness has nothing to do with the weather! It seems like we haven't seen the light, the s-U-n in WEEKS!

What kind of darkness IS Jesus talking about here?

Certainly, the darkness in our lives isn't lack of information; there's more of that to be had than we can process.

Certainly, the darkness in our lives isn't lack of basic necessities; we all have a roof over our heads and most of us would actually be a bit better off for skipping a meal now and then.

Certainly, the darkness in our lives isn't lack of opportunity; even if we don't have the job we would most love to have, there are abundant places where we can use our talents for good.

What IS the darkness in our lives? The chief darkness in our lives is in our own hearts. The dark corner of our hearts where resentment festers. The dark corner of our hearts where jealousy lurks. The dark corner of our hearts where fear constantly mutters 'not enough' and 'what's in it for me?'.

Jesus came not only to bring light around us, but also IN us. And if we believe that we need His light and open ourselves to it, it will allow us to put away the worst kind of darkness, the darkness IN us. Forever. THIS is the whole point of the Holy Week to come.

Faithfully,
Janet+

Getting Out of the Box

"Accordingly, though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was." - John 11:5

Dear Friends in Christ -

Management experts have this grid called the "urgent important matrix." It's a grid with four boxes:
Not Urgent, Not Important
Not Urgent, Important
Urgent, Not Important
Urgent, Important
(if you want to see a picture of this matrix, Google "urgent important matrix')

This past week, I've been living in one of these boxes: Urgent, Important. When emergencies arise, this is where I usually need to be. Where I want to be. Where I can often be most helpful. There's a problem, though, with camping out in the "Urgent, Important" box: the things in the other boxes don't get done!

Jesus spent a lot of time camped out in the "Urgent, Important" box, too. But after a while, he refused to stay there any longer. Healing ("urgent, important" stuff), he said, isn't my first job. Heck, he said, it's not even my most important job; my #1 job is to give glory to God.

I'm sure that Jesus' friends thought that it was a mighty darn inconvenient time for him to make a move from one box ("Urgent, Important") to another box ("Not urgent, Important"). But people - including US - never would have received Jesus' message, never would have known His true purpose, if he stayed in one box.

As we roll into Holy Week, it's crucial that I'm not stuck in the "Urgent, Important" box (visiting the sick, helping folks with emergencies, going to meetings) - but make a move into the "Not Urgent, Important" box - preparing, studying, writing . . . blogging! . . .

I have to confess that getting out of the box - even to write this blog post this morning - feels strange, and risky! I feel concern that folks I care for won't have their needs met. I feel frustration about important things left undone. But years ago, I signed on to be a disciple, and that means following where my Lord has led the way.

And I'm not the only one called to "get out of the box!" You, too, are a disciple. In Holy Week you, too, are called to get out of the "busy box" and spend some time in "Not Urgent, Important." It will save your life.

Faithfully,
Janet+

Refreshment for Tonight: A Prayer for the Morning

He turns a desert into pools of water,
a parched land into springs of water. - Psalm 107:35

Dear Friends in Christ -

Someone at our "Adventures" study group this evening shared this prayer, which she prays every morning. It was so powerful that I asked if she would share it. She sent it immediately, so I now pass it along to you. I'll be praying it tomorrow morning, and I invite you to join me!

Blessings,
Janet+

SIX GESTURES OF THE MORNING PRAISE
By Joyce Rupp

1. Offering the Creator praise and gratitude:
Stretch your arms high and wide above your head.
I THANK YOU, HOLY ONE, FOR THE GIFT OF ANOTHER DAY OF LIFE.

2. Intentionally being aware of my spiritual bond with all of creation:
Hold arms out from your sides, a little below shoulder height. Move (pivot) to the left and to the right with your arms stretching outward toward the cosmos.
I REACH OUT IN COMPASSION TO MY SISTERS AND BROTHERS THROUGHOUT THE UNIVERSE.

3. Offering my life to the Holy One:
Stretch your arms out straight in front of you, slightly apart, palms up.
I GIVE TO YOU ALL I AM AND ALL I HAVE.

4. Opening to accept what the Holy One offers me this day:
Pull your hands close together and cup them as a container.
I OPEN MY ENTIRE BEING TO RECEIVE THE GIFT THAT YOU HAVE WAITING FOR ME IN THIS NEW DAY.

5. Remembering to be kind to our planet Earth:
Bend over, reach down, and touch the floor, or better yet, the ground, if you are outside.
I TOUCH THIS PLANET, EARTH, WITH AWE, REVERENCE, AND GRATITUDE, PROMISING TO CARE WELL FOR HER TODAY.

6. Awareness of the indwelling presence of the Holy One:
Stand up, cross hands over your heart, and bow to the waist.
MAY I BE UNITED WITH YOU THROUGHOUT THIS DAY, AWARE OF YOUR LOVE STRENGTHENING ME AND SHINING THROUGH ME. AMEN!

-- From "Out of the Ordinary: Prayers, Poems and Reflections for Every Season" by Joyce Rupp

Message for today

Dear Friends in Christ -

Here's today's message from the apostle Paul:
"For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Letter to the Romans 8:38-39)

Here's today's message from me:
Glad to hear it, Paul, 'cause I'm feeling a little overwhelmed at the moment!

Faithfully trusting,
Janet+

Lost in the Shuffle?

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit* set their minds on the things of the Spirit.* To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit* is life and peace. - Romans 8:5-6

Dear Friends in Christ -

Someone once said that the definition of insanity is to do the same thing and expect different results. Yeah. Well. Then color me insane, BUT trying to be less insane.

As a priest, Lent is my "busy season." So it's easy for me to be preaching deeper spirituality and reflection while rushing around like a mad woman for 18 hours a day. This year, I'm trying to shed some insanity and get different results by doing something different.

My Lenten discipline has been to practice noticing and doing beauty. And I'm striving to keep that up - even in the face of feeling like the ever-rolling stream of time is speeding up, rushing toward Easter.

When I stay faithful to this discipline of beauty, something different does happen. The cloudy noise in and around me seems to subside. I cease to feel lost in the shuffle. I can hear and see things. Today, I noticed the fresh-tilled earth in my garden and paused to run my hand through the silky clumpy damp dirt. And all of a sudden, I felt less overwhelmed and more like singing . . . "Almost heaven, West Virginia . . . country roads, take me home" . . . and smiling.

Faithfully,
Janet+

Prayer for a Whirlwind Day

"Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life . . ." - Jesus (John 6:27a)

Dear Friends in Christ -

It's a whirlwind day for me today. Happy busyness at home (my adorable young son's birthday - he's 6!). Lots of work at the church (including assisting a couple of people with serious emergencies). Errands that need to be run to keep up with our volunteer and community commitments.

When everything on my list involves working "for the food that endures" how do I find the place to touch down? Just a simple prayer . . .

GOD grant me the SERENITY to accept the things I cannot change;
COURAGE to change the things I can;
and WISDOM to know the difference.
Living one day at a time;
enjoying one moment at a time;
accepting hardships as the pathway to peace.
Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is,
not as I would have it.
Trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His will -
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him forever in the next.
Amen.

Faithfully,
Janet+

4/3 SERMON - Hard Work AND Design

WAY OF SALVATION: THE BIBLE AND THE 12 STEPS - Part 5 of 6

Dear Friends in Christ -

I offer you this exerpt from the sermon I preached at St. Paul's on Sunday, April 3rd . . .
Blessings
Janet+

"One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see." - Man Born Blind, after Jesus put mud on his eyes and he washed them in the pool (John 9:25b)

Every once in a while, there’s something that I want to put in my sermon, even though it has nothing to do with the Scripture passages or theme for the week.

I haven’t talked about sports in church recently, so I thought it was time . . . Final Four Basketball is underway. Butler – a team from a small, liberal arts college in the mid-west – has made it to the national championship game for the second year in a row. Certainly the players are incredibly talented. Some are saying they’re lucky. A news analyst commented, “Luck is the residue of hard work.”

“Luck is the residue of hard work.”

I’m wasn’t sure that that had anything to do with our sermon series or today’s Gospel lesson, but I liked the notion that luck could be a side benefit of our hard work, so I thought I would throw it in.

Then I stumbled on an article about Tiger Woods. Remember him? He’s long been known as one of the most talented golfers in the world, ever. Part of the reason he’s so good is that he chose not to rely on talent alone; he added hard work to the equation. At a time when many pro golfers hit the course without a regular workout regimen, Tiger worked out hard. In the early 2000s, he started working out a couple of times a day, piled on the muscle, and bulked up from 160 to 185. With the combination of talent and hard work, he became nearly unstoppable.

But then we all know what happened next. Human failings got the better of him, pulled him under. Tiger himself said that he lost everything that meant anything to him – his wife, his kids, his reputation. Hard work alone didn’t get him where he most wanted to go.

All that made me curious . . . curious about the role of luck in our lives, and curious about quote that I had been turning over in my mind. I wondered if the quote was original to the news analyst. So I looked it up on Google. And I discovered that the original quote, which is slightly different, is attributed to a guy by the name of Branch Rickey, an innovative Major League Baseball executive who was famous for breaking the color barrier in baseball by signing Jackie Robinson for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Rickey was also known to be a man of deep Christian faith.

What Branch originally said is something more like this: “Luck is the residue of hard work and design.”

Ah, now that sheds an interesting light on things, doesn’t it?

Hard work AND design. The combination surely resonates with the 12 Steps we’ve been working through. God’s design is the foundation. Hard work is required to bring us into the fulfillment of that design.

As we work our way through the 12 Steps of AA, the 12 Steps of Healing, the 9th and 10th Steps are the ones we’re reflecting on today. Step 9 is: Wherever possible, made direct amends to such people we’ve harmed, except when to do so would injure them or others. Step 10 is: Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.

These two activities show up over and over again in the twelve steps: “admitting” and “making amends” Fully two thirds – 8 of the 12 steps – involve admitting powerlessness or wrong and making amends for things done or left undone. Holy cow! Any way you slice it, that’s a lot of work, a lot of very humbling, very hard work.

And this is where we come back to design. One of the things that’s amazing about the way God designs things is God’s fearless generosity. When God designed all things in the beginning, he designed them beautiful and full. He poured all of his own goodness into it – power and beauty and knowledge - without concern for what might go wrong. He made man and woman in his own image, sharing with them, granting them god-like powers – free will, creativity, love.

Indeed, God knew even then, that things could – and would – go badly wrong. But his design had space for that, too. And for a perhaps even deeper kind of perfection – redemption – experience of Mystery beyond measure – that from the ashes of disaster, glory burst forth, from death, life can rise.

Doing The Stuff You Know

"But thanks be to God that you, having once been slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were entrusted, and that you, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness." - Paul (Romans 6:17-18)

Dear Friends in Christ -

A couple months ago, one of the beloved parishioners here at St. Paul's (beloved by others, beloved by me) asked me how I was doing. He asked the question on one of those days when I was looking a little ragged around the edges - dark circles under my eyes from not quite enough sleep the night before, clothing slightly askew from getting down on the floor with the kids at church, shoes clicking quickly along as I rushed between meetings. I replied, "Good, a little tired, but good!" With a knowing smile, he said, "You know, all those wellness training things we send you on don't do any good if you don't DO the stuff they teach you."

If I had a bull's eye painted on my chest, he couldn't have made a better shot. I felt humbled - and grateful for his honesty.

"He who has ears to hear, let him hear." Yep.

The main challenge in the Christian life - in all of life, really - isn't to amass more knowledge, but to live true to what we already know. If we actually DID the two commandments in the New Testament - (1) Love God and (2) Love your neighbor as yourself - astonishing things would happen.

Over the past couple of months, God has brought my encounter with this parishioner to mind many times, continuing to call me to DO the good I know to do. This week, God teased my attention back to this with the following story. May it bless - and CHALLENGE - you as it did me.

Faithfully,
Janet+

A young agricultural official was sent out by the County Extension to help farmers improve their crops. In visiting the first farm on his agenda for the week, the young official talked excitedly with the farmer about the practices recommended in a book he was offering. “This book will tell you everything you need to know about farming,” the official said enthusiastically. “It tells you when to sow and when to reap. It tells you about weather, what to expect and when to expect it. This book will tell you all you need to know.” “Sir,” the farmer said, “that’s not the problem. I know everything in that book. My problem is doing it.”

Springs

"Singers and dancers alike say,
‘All my springs are in you.’" - Psalm 87:7

Dear Friends in Christ -

The little boys at our house today for my son's 6th birthday party ran and leapt in the short spring grass like jittery little lambs stumbling out into pasture after being penned up. The fact that it was pretty darn chilly and the sun was under the clouds most of the time didn't phase them in the least. Their delight in each other and in the games they played overflowed - and dislodged my grumpiness.

I've been feeling impatient. Impatient to find the finishing touches for tomorrow's sermon. Impatient for some resolution in a couple of sticky situations. Impatient for warmer weather.

Usually, I come away from the frenzy of children's birthday parties exhausted. Today, though, in witnessing their tumbling revelry, I felt gentled, satisfied to be drinking in the springs of beautifully good moments with a bunch of blissful little kids.

With thanksgiving for the Source of the springs,
Janet+

Oh-oh.

"'Whoever is from God hears the words of God. The reason you do not hear them is that you are not from God.’" - Jesus (John 8:47)

Dear Friends in Christ -

Heard the voice of God lately? If not . . . oh-oh. Perhaps the problem is the same one the Pharisees were having almost 2000 years ago. Jesus tells the Pharisees straight up that the reason they don't hear the word of God is that they're "not from God."

How is it that people seeking so hard after God that they became religious leaders, people "made in the image of God", could end up "not from God"?

Somewhere deep inside me a voice replies . . .
"Inch by inch
day by day
slipped a little
off the path
and lost my way."

There are so many destructions (oops - I meant to type distractions - or did I?) all around. Right things can turn out wrong, good things can turn out bad if they're set in incorrect framework, lived out of proportion. And then it's as if someone put earplugs in for us when we weren't looking, and . . . silence. It's as if God isn't speaking anymore.

Oh-oh.

God is always speaking. So if we can't hear Him, the problem is with us, in us. The way to get the cotton out of our ears? Do something we know God has been telling us to do. Any little thing, any bit of faithfulness will start the process.

Though we're sometimes afraid to hear God, it's GOOD to hear his voice. And the absence of it: deadly.

Faithfully striving to hear,
Janet+