Proper 19 C
Do you remember being in the store with your kids in tow, looking at something for a moment only to turn around and find your kids gone? Do you remember the panic and moment of sheer terror? Or maybe you remember being the kid who turns away for a minute only to find your parents are missing.
Whether you are the found or the seeker today, this gospel speaks to you.
Sheep do not tend to be lost through their own actions. They nibble here and there, find a particularly tender shoot to eat and go for it, and just like a child who gets caught up in his surroundings, does nothing intentionally to get lost, but suddenly finds himself away from his flock. We like sheep may be going along in our own way, not intending to be lost. Perhaps we lost our job, were going through some kind of hard times. This week we have buried two people who had long ties with our church, but both of them were lost to us. One was lost when he moved away to be cared for in his aging process. Another was lost to us through perhaps merely finding other things to do on Sunday morning.
Those who are lost, including us, are sought desperately by God. The ones we would give up on God seeks by turning over every rock, calling out for them to be part of the flock who miss them.
Handel’s Messiah was performed in the most famous rendition as a benefit for the London Foundling Hospital in the 1700’s. The word foundling means orphan and is a quaint term we no longer use, but it fits our meaning of the lost sheep—one who is found. A friend of mine says he found his son in the aquarium. He and his wife went to an adoption day hosted at the National Aquarium in Baltimore to see various children who were hard to find homes for; they followed one little fellow around the aquarium for about an hour and fell in love with him and they adopted him on the spot. Their son was a foundling in every sense of the term.
God adopts us foundlings on the spot too. In our baptism we are adopted into God’s family. At baptism we are anointed by saying we are marked as Christ’s own forever—a kind of spiritual tattoo that cannot be removed. Once we are found and adopted by God there is nothing we can do to be unadopted—we are found once and for all.
We may stray still—we may decide not to be part of the flock, to turn a deaf ear to the voice of God asking us to stay close and be loved—but we cannot be removed from God’s presence whatever we do.
This is hard for some Christians to realize—that murderers, child abusers, and others who do vile things, are still God’s children. In God’s eyes they are redeemable, and worthy always of love. Our prisons are full of people who believe they are not loveable or worthy. Prison ministry is often fraught with helping convicted felons to learn to love themselves enough to want to improve themselves and their lot in life. Programs for GED and college coursework give prisoners a sense of self and pride of accomplishment and help them know they can be productive members of society.
Many groups of people in our society, like prisoners, are forgotten by us but not by God. I visit several homebound elderly who feel connected to this parish by receiving communion. They sometimes tell me they feel unworthy to keep on living because they feel they are a burden to their families. They can no longer attend church, but church attends to them instead and listens to their anxieties and cares.
Perhaps you know of others who are forgotten people, ones you come in contact with and can share a moment of caring conversation. God works through each of us as we seek out the ones who seem to be lost in the shuffle of our fast moving society that does not have time to stop for those who can’t keep up.
And each of us at some time have been found in this way. Perhaps you were feeling down or anxious and someone listened to your cares and helped you voice your worthiness in God’s eyes. God does not abandon us ever. It is we who turn a blind eye to God trying to find us.
Thomas Merton wrote: Our vocation is not simply to be, but to work together with God in the creation of our own life, our own identity, our own destiny.... This means to say that we should not passively exist, but actively participate in God's creative freedom, in our own lives, and in the lives of others, by choosing the truth.
In other words we are both lost sheep and seeker with God in our own lives, by working with God in being found. Can you work with God to be found and find others?
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Empowered by the Spirit
On April 22, 1967, a rainy day in Belvidere, as children were leaving the school around 4 pm, a tornado ripped through Belvidere along Highland street, breaking nearly every window of the fairly new high school and killing 8 students. The storm killed a total of 25 people and injured hundreds, and left rows of homes devastated. If you have ever been near a tornado you know the power of winds reaching 90 or 100 miles an hour. It is said that such winds can cause a straw to be plunged into a plank of wood.
In more recent years, we remember the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, and how even today, mission trips still go to the Diocese of Louisiana to help build houses and clean up storm damage. Wind is indeed a powerful natural force. These winds are fearful forces beyond our control, beyond our ability to do much other than predict that they are headed our way so we may remove ourselves from the force of destruction.
On our farm in western Illinois, my dad used to say that there was nothing to stop the wind that came all the way from Texas. In some early summers before the crops were established in the fields, the wind would whip up the topsoil in the fields around the house and coat the surfaces in our house with a layer of dust. I still catch myself stacking glasses and cups upside down in the cupboard, which we used to do at home to keep dust from gathering in them. Wind’s power calls us to pay attention in our daily lives.
We hear today in Acts, of the power of another wind—the power of the spirit—Ruach in Hebrew, which is translated both spirit and wind. The power of the rush of wind of Pentecost entered all who gathered at the day of Pentecost. They miraculously heard people from around the world speaking in their own language. And this power entered the disciples just as Christ had told them it would, empowering them to witness to the new thing God was doing in the world, telling the world of the love of God for all the world.
The great power of the rush of wind of God’s spirit began the church. From that day, the disciples were changed into evangelizers. Peter, the formerly timid guy, became the pillar of the church, preaching boldly. The power of God’s spirit sent apostles across Israel, across the lands of what is now Turkey, across Greece, and eventually to Rome, the greatest city of the ancient world. The power of God’s spirit took down old ideas and replaced them with the idea of universal love and forgiveness, and started a church that would reach every corner of the earth.
And this power lives on today.
Corrie Ten Boom tells of the power the spirit of God in her life. Corrie was imprisoned by the Nazis during World War II in Ravensbruck concentration camp with her sister Betsie, where Betsie died in the ovens. After the war, Corrie became an evangelist, preaching the gospel of God’s love and forgiveness around the world. One day, after giving a sermon in Germany, she tells that she was greeting people lined up to meet her. Suddenly, a man from the audience came toward her. With a rush of emotion, she immediately recognized him as a guard from the prison camp. He came offering a handshake, as the memories of the camp and the ovens flooded over her—the grief, the hardship, the suffering. She tells what happened next: “I fumbled in my pocketbook rather than take his hand. My blood seemed to freeze. I knew I had to forgive him if I wanted to receive God’s forgiveness, still I stood there with the coldness clutching my heart.” She began to pray, knowing if she could not find the power in herself to forgive, she could at least raise her hand. Slowly she took his hand, and when she did a rush of genuine forgiveness came over her. She said, “I forgive you brother.” For a long time they grasped each other’s hands. Corrie recalls that she realized it was not her love; she had tried to reach out but could not, but it was God’s love empowering her to reach out to the former prison guard and to speak the words of forgiveness.
The power of the spirit, like a tornado, overcomes our own weakness, bursts the stubborn pride we have, gives us courage to speak love in the midst of hate and fear. Unlike the power of the tornado, which devastates all it touches indiscriminately, the power of the spirit of God rushed over the apostles with creative force, just like the winds blew over creation, making people creatures in God’s image.
The power of God’s spirit enters ordinary people, like the apostle Peter and the former prisoner Corrie ten Boom, to function beyond their ordinary capacities. To go beyond their human limits, to see things in a different way and speak out for love.
Unlike the tornado that is feared, the rush of wind of the spirit can be welcomed, because we are safe in God’s realm, kept close to God’s will for us as apostles spreading the good news. Suddenly, the words of other people that sounded like babble to us can be understood in the wind of love. Suddenly we are overcome with spiritual understanding and able to function beyond our normal capacities.
In the Old Testament, the spirit of God descends on selected prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah, and on Moses who led the Israelites of out slavery. But in the new testament, the rush of wind on Pentecost affects all who are there. God is doing a new thing in the church that begins with the life, death and resurrection of Christ. God’s spirit empowers everyone to go beyond their capacities in the spread of the love of Christ.
Look for where the spirit is leading you to go beyond your human frailties and be more loving than perhaps you feel you can be. See how God is trying to empower your love to touch the world around you and spread the good news of forgiveness.
In more recent years, we remember the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, and how even today, mission trips still go to the Diocese of Louisiana to help build houses and clean up storm damage. Wind is indeed a powerful natural force. These winds are fearful forces beyond our control, beyond our ability to do much other than predict that they are headed our way so we may remove ourselves from the force of destruction.
On our farm in western Illinois, my dad used to say that there was nothing to stop the wind that came all the way from Texas. In some early summers before the crops were established in the fields, the wind would whip up the topsoil in the fields around the house and coat the surfaces in our house with a layer of dust. I still catch myself stacking glasses and cups upside down in the cupboard, which we used to do at home to keep dust from gathering in them. Wind’s power calls us to pay attention in our daily lives.
We hear today in Acts, of the power of another wind—the power of the spirit—Ruach in Hebrew, which is translated both spirit and wind. The power of the rush of wind of Pentecost entered all who gathered at the day of Pentecost. They miraculously heard people from around the world speaking in their own language. And this power entered the disciples just as Christ had told them it would, empowering them to witness to the new thing God was doing in the world, telling the world of the love of God for all the world.
The great power of the rush of wind of God’s spirit began the church. From that day, the disciples were changed into evangelizers. Peter, the formerly timid guy, became the pillar of the church, preaching boldly. The power of God’s spirit sent apostles across Israel, across the lands of what is now Turkey, across Greece, and eventually to Rome, the greatest city of the ancient world. The power of God’s spirit took down old ideas and replaced them with the idea of universal love and forgiveness, and started a church that would reach every corner of the earth.
And this power lives on today.
Corrie Ten Boom tells of the power the spirit of God in her life. Corrie was imprisoned by the Nazis during World War II in Ravensbruck concentration camp with her sister Betsie, where Betsie died in the ovens. After the war, Corrie became an evangelist, preaching the gospel of God’s love and forgiveness around the world. One day, after giving a sermon in Germany, she tells that she was greeting people lined up to meet her. Suddenly, a man from the audience came toward her. With a rush of emotion, she immediately recognized him as a guard from the prison camp. He came offering a handshake, as the memories of the camp and the ovens flooded over her—the grief, the hardship, the suffering. She tells what happened next: “I fumbled in my pocketbook rather than take his hand. My blood seemed to freeze. I knew I had to forgive him if I wanted to receive God’s forgiveness, still I stood there with the coldness clutching my heart.” She began to pray, knowing if she could not find the power in herself to forgive, she could at least raise her hand. Slowly she took his hand, and when she did a rush of genuine forgiveness came over her. She said, “I forgive you brother.” For a long time they grasped each other’s hands. Corrie recalls that she realized it was not her love; she had tried to reach out but could not, but it was God’s love empowering her to reach out to the former prison guard and to speak the words of forgiveness.
The power of the spirit, like a tornado, overcomes our own weakness, bursts the stubborn pride we have, gives us courage to speak love in the midst of hate and fear. Unlike the power of the tornado, which devastates all it touches indiscriminately, the power of the spirit of God rushed over the apostles with creative force, just like the winds blew over creation, making people creatures in God’s image.
The power of God’s spirit enters ordinary people, like the apostle Peter and the former prisoner Corrie ten Boom, to function beyond their ordinary capacities. To go beyond their human limits, to see things in a different way and speak out for love.
Unlike the tornado that is feared, the rush of wind of the spirit can be welcomed, because we are safe in God’s realm, kept close to God’s will for us as apostles spreading the good news. Suddenly, the words of other people that sounded like babble to us can be understood in the wind of love. Suddenly we are overcome with spiritual understanding and able to function beyond our normal capacities.
In the Old Testament, the spirit of God descends on selected prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah, and on Moses who led the Israelites of out slavery. But in the new testament, the rush of wind on Pentecost affects all who are there. God is doing a new thing in the church that begins with the life, death and resurrection of Christ. God’s spirit empowers everyone to go beyond their capacities in the spread of the love of Christ.
Look for where the spirit is leading you to go beyond your human frailties and be more loving than perhaps you feel you can be. See how God is trying to empower your love to touch the world around you and spread the good news of forgiveness.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Snow and March
February snow keeps coming,
now wet and heavy.
Birdsong in the mornings
crowding at the thistle seed in afternoons.
Is there hope?
In lent, hope lies dormant.
In the waning of the winter, search for hope
but in lent, hope is feeble,
like the last days of winter, part slush part ice.
Hope lies ahead, but not yet.
Around the corner, yet not seen.
In the song of some cardinals and junkos,
not in robins.
Geese everywhere around the river,
honking and beating their wings into the water.
Coming or going or just here?
More days until the birth of hope, and hunger lies close;
a sun that sets later and later each night.
now wet and heavy.
Birdsong in the mornings
crowding at the thistle seed in afternoons.
Is there hope?
In lent, hope lies dormant.
In the waning of the winter, search for hope
but in lent, hope is feeble,
like the last days of winter, part slush part ice.
Hope lies ahead, but not yet.
Around the corner, yet not seen.
In the song of some cardinals and junkos,
not in robins.
Geese everywhere around the river,
honking and beating their wings into the water.
Coming or going or just here?
More days until the birth of hope, and hunger lies close;
a sun that sets later and later each night.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
New Year
At my previous diocese, youth were invited to the camp and conference center every Dec. 31 for an event called New Year in the Spirit.
A year in the spirit is a goal of many Christians, including me. Making myself open to the Holy Spirit always appears on the horizon, seemingly just out of my reach. How can I stop, slow down, become more aware of God's leading me? Sometimes, especially recently, there seems to be a gap between where I am and where God needs me to be. How do I make up the gap?
Emotional intelligence is one answer for me personally. The more aware I am of what my senses are telling me and the more aware I am of my emotions, the more self aware and centered I am. But these things are hard for me. I am a doer most of the time, more so the older I get and more responsibility I have taken on in my work and personal life.
Once, in the late 1990s, God made me aware that my life was being lived without me. I was not giving 100% to my personal and professional lives, but cruising along. When I acknowledged that I was not really participating in life, then things began to happen quickly--in both my personal and professional lives. I made a huge decision to change careers. I got counseling that, unfortunately, ended my ten-year relationship, but that also brought me real commitment to another person who loves me and whom I love very much.
Change has been challenging, especially at my age, but it has saved my life too. Keeping aware is hard work. It requires stopping in the midst of doing and accomplishing tasks. It requires me to be open to feeling emotional pain as well as joy. It requires me to be willing to suffer and not run away from myself and the events around me.
If following the spirit requires effort, it also gives life and joy. If follwoing the spirit challenges me to go outside my boundaries and comfort zone, it also opens my horizons and has the potential to change my life.
May God keep me close to the spirit, give me the courage to keep aware, this year.
A year in the spirit is a goal of many Christians, including me. Making myself open to the Holy Spirit always appears on the horizon, seemingly just out of my reach. How can I stop, slow down, become more aware of God's leading me? Sometimes, especially recently, there seems to be a gap between where I am and where God needs me to be. How do I make up the gap?
Emotional intelligence is one answer for me personally. The more aware I am of what my senses are telling me and the more aware I am of my emotions, the more self aware and centered I am. But these things are hard for me. I am a doer most of the time, more so the older I get and more responsibility I have taken on in my work and personal life.
Once, in the late 1990s, God made me aware that my life was being lived without me. I was not giving 100% to my personal and professional lives, but cruising along. When I acknowledged that I was not really participating in life, then things began to happen quickly--in both my personal and professional lives. I made a huge decision to change careers. I got counseling that, unfortunately, ended my ten-year relationship, but that also brought me real commitment to another person who loves me and whom I love very much.
Change has been challenging, especially at my age, but it has saved my life too. Keeping aware is hard work. It requires stopping in the midst of doing and accomplishing tasks. It requires me to be open to feeling emotional pain as well as joy. It requires me to be willing to suffer and not run away from myself and the events around me.
If following the spirit requires effort, it also gives life and joy. If follwoing the spirit challenges me to go outside my boundaries and comfort zone, it also opens my horizons and has the potential to change my life.
May God keep me close to the spirit, give me the courage to keep aware, this year.
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