Lent II A Being Born Anew
We have plenty of scary things going on in the world lately. The demonstrations in the middle east that have sometimes turned violent, are cause both for concern and hope that leaders will give their people more freedom and act to repair problems and treat all classes fairly. These problems seem to be made by people—the greed and seeking of power through military force.
Then there is what we usually call natural disaster—hurricane Katrina, which still affects the people of Gulf Coast, the earthquake in Haiti, which keeps that nation under a pall of hunger and distress, and now ten days ago, the earthquake and tsunami in Japan with nuclear power plant explosions and the death of perhaps as many as 10,000 and the displacement of many more Japanese in the areas north of Tokyo.
And here across our states we see legislators struggling to make ends meet, by slashing, of all things, budgets for education and health care.
So, today, as I ponder these events around the globe, I feel a little like Nicodemus. Nicodemus was a scholar of Judaism, a leader of the temple, who comes to Jesus in the night asking questions. Someone has said Nicodemus goes from having all the answers to having all the questions. He acknowledges that Jesus’s power is from God, but when Jesus says anyone can have the power of God by being born from above, he skeptically asks how one can be born from his mother again?
When I see the crises of the world, I see both the sins of people and the power of creation. In the middle east and here I see how we have squandered our inheritance, made bad choices in how we care for each other, and do not take responsibility for the core issues like people’s right to dignity, the need for quality education and accessible health care.
In the so-called natural disasters, I see where we have engineered our way into the path of destruction of waves and fault lines. In the Mississippi River valley, we have built so many levees and been engineered so much that the river no longer meanders like rivers were meant to do, so it breaks the levees and washes away houses and lives that have thought they were safe behind the levee. We have the sense that we can control the power of creation.
Whether is it people and money or the natural forces of wind, earth, fire and water, we want control. We ask that our leaders do not surprise us, that our day not be interrupted by rain, sleet or snow, high wind, flood or earthquake, and like Nicodemus we do not understand how God is asking us to rely on the love and security that only God can give.
It’s a condundrum to be sure. God has given us the minds and technological know-how to be seemingly safe and secure, on the one hand, and on the other hand, we must ask how we have abused this gift of knowledge and technology and used it to control people and reduce the earth’s quality and ultimately the quality of our lives? How has people power displaced the trust in an all-loving God of creation?
Jesus tells Nicodemus that God so loved the world that he gave his Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life. Eternal life means life here and now, not life later in heaven. Eternal life means abundance for all whom God loves, not just the people we think should be loved. Jesus is stating that we have all we need now from God, all we need to do is say yes with outstretched hands.
We see this kind of trusting response to God in Abraham whom God leads into a new land, away from all he knows, the comfort of friends and family and the shelter of house and security of all he owns.
How are we being asked to leave security and comfort and go to a new place? How has the strife and disaster of our world and in our local states challenging you to rethink yourself as a link in our technologically secure world that masks the real lack of security we ultimately have? Where is God in your daily life as you go along not thinking about the many ways you participate in pushing God away?
The writer Parker Palmer calls our wanting control and feeling responsible for everything that happens to us as “functional atheism”. In other words, whenever we feel we have everything under our thumb, look out. God may be trying to help us understand how very much we need the guiding love and gift of God’s presence. To acknowledge this dependence on God is to be born anew. Just like Nicodemus, we bring our questions, and are told that God so loved the world, so loved us that all we need to do is say yes.
Saying yes to God makes us compassionate, so that when we see the disasters around us, we cry, but instead of seeing our technology and our power as the response, we can begin to see God’s creative power as the answer. Instead of blaming each other, we can pray that God help us to make the world the place of God’s kingdom, not ours.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Lent III
Lent III A And the rest of the story
I grew up in a household where self-esteem and self-regard were in short supply. Both my parents had abusive fathers. My mother in particular had a difficult time, with 10 brothers and sisters. Her mother died when she was 8 and a step mother was also verbally abusive, telling her how little she meant in the world, and that she was nothing.
Today we have another woman who most probably had very little self-worth. She was a Samaritan, a member of a tribe that the Jews do not consider very worthy because they do not worship in the approved manner. She is a woman in a world dominated by men, where she has had multiple husbands. There are many theories of why she has gone through so many husbands—some of them may have died, not unlikely in a society where the life expectancy may have been not much past 35, and perhaps 40 for those who could afford good food and shelter. She may have been set aside by husbands if they found she could not have children. All a man had to do was give her a bill of divorcement on the grounds of her barrenness. We don’t know why she had so many husbands, and we don’t know why she was living with a man who was not her husband, but we are certain that a woman could not live alone at that time and make a living. Women needed men and their access to financial security to live.
We don’t know exactly what was going on with this unnamed woman at the well. She is such a contrast to Nicodemus whom we heard about last week. Nicodemus is an educated Jewish leader, this woman is an uneducated outcast of the Samaritan sect. Nicodemus is a man with power in the synagogue, this woman has to come to get water in the heat of the day, as opposed to the other women of the village who would have come in the early hours to gather their water, so we know she was outcast within her village. Nicodemus knew a lot about the faith, but must see Jesus in the night, this woman knew nothing about her faith and met Jesus at noon. We know Nicodemus’ name, we have no idea what this woman was called.
But the one thing that links these two people who have conversations with Jesus , that while they are strangers to him, yet Jesus knows them both. Jesus calls Nicodemus a wise leader of the synagogue, and he tells the Samaritan woman he knows she has had all five husbands and is living with another man.
For the unnamed woman, an outcast in so many ways, this revealing of her situation is a shock. They start their conversation about water, and Jesus tells her she should be asking him, who asked her for a drink, for living water. First she is confused just like Nicodemus is about being born from above. Jesus is challenging the people he meets to think spiritually. Then Jesus talks about her husbands and she is amazed that she is so known by this man whom she calls a prophet.
As they continue to talk about living water and the worship of God in spirit and in truth, and she responds with what little she knows about the coming of a messiah. Jesus then names himself as that messiah. She runs back to her people to spread the word that it is not just a prophet she has encountered but the messiah who told her everything she had ever done.
Note that she there is an implication in her tone and something that is left out but could easily have been said. “he told me everything I have ever done…” and she could have added: “and he loved me anyway.”
This woman is transformed into the first apostle—the first to tell of the messiah, not to believing worshipers in the temple but to Samaritans who worship the wrong way. The Samaritans immediately come to believe because of her testimony.
What a transformation. The outcast woman who most Jews would not have even spoken to, Jesus has folded into his arms of love and understanding, and given the very words that she needed to understand that living water from God was needed for her and all those like her. The woman who could only draw water in the heat of the day has instead drawn living water and the knowledge of God’s great gift in the savior Jesus. The woman who didn’t even have a name has named Jesus the messiah, named the hope of the Jews, not only the perfect ones of Jerusalem, but the messiah of the imperfect ones of Samaria.
Jesus shows us a God who is doing great things. God knows us. God knows the dark things within us and about us, and God loves us not only despite who we are, but because of who we are. God in Christ has shown that God is a God of expansive openness and love, not of condemnation and exile. That while the Israelites wander in the wilderness of dry dust God is ready to give them the water they need, and in Christ God gives water that will quench our thirst today and always.
Such a great God who cares for us and about us may at times seem far away. The Samaritan woman who had been in six different relationships may have felt that no one cared about her or for her, and in fact loathed her and cast her out of their society. God must have felt very far away for her, and yet in her downcast state, she meets the messiah who tells her that she is worthy of God’s living water.
In our feelings of unworthiness, God is trying to reach us. God knows our challenges, and loves us even in the midst of them and perhaps because of them. Do you know how much you are loved by the God of living water today?
I grew up in a household where self-esteem and self-regard were in short supply. Both my parents had abusive fathers. My mother in particular had a difficult time, with 10 brothers and sisters. Her mother died when she was 8 and a step mother was also verbally abusive, telling her how little she meant in the world, and that she was nothing.
Today we have another woman who most probably had very little self-worth. She was a Samaritan, a member of a tribe that the Jews do not consider very worthy because they do not worship in the approved manner. She is a woman in a world dominated by men, where she has had multiple husbands. There are many theories of why she has gone through so many husbands—some of them may have died, not unlikely in a society where the life expectancy may have been not much past 35, and perhaps 40 for those who could afford good food and shelter. She may have been set aside by husbands if they found she could not have children. All a man had to do was give her a bill of divorcement on the grounds of her barrenness. We don’t know why she had so many husbands, and we don’t know why she was living with a man who was not her husband, but we are certain that a woman could not live alone at that time and make a living. Women needed men and their access to financial security to live.
We don’t know exactly what was going on with this unnamed woman at the well. She is such a contrast to Nicodemus whom we heard about last week. Nicodemus is an educated Jewish leader, this woman is an uneducated outcast of the Samaritan sect. Nicodemus is a man with power in the synagogue, this woman has to come to get water in the heat of the day, as opposed to the other women of the village who would have come in the early hours to gather their water, so we know she was outcast within her village. Nicodemus knew a lot about the faith, but must see Jesus in the night, this woman knew nothing about her faith and met Jesus at noon. We know Nicodemus’ name, we have no idea what this woman was called.
But the one thing that links these two people who have conversations with Jesus , that while they are strangers to him, yet Jesus knows them both. Jesus calls Nicodemus a wise leader of the synagogue, and he tells the Samaritan woman he knows she has had all five husbands and is living with another man.
For the unnamed woman, an outcast in so many ways, this revealing of her situation is a shock. They start their conversation about water, and Jesus tells her she should be asking him, who asked her for a drink, for living water. First she is confused just like Nicodemus is about being born from above. Jesus is challenging the people he meets to think spiritually. Then Jesus talks about her husbands and she is amazed that she is so known by this man whom she calls a prophet.
As they continue to talk about living water and the worship of God in spirit and in truth, and she responds with what little she knows about the coming of a messiah. Jesus then names himself as that messiah. She runs back to her people to spread the word that it is not just a prophet she has encountered but the messiah who told her everything she had ever done.
Note that she there is an implication in her tone and something that is left out but could easily have been said. “he told me everything I have ever done…” and she could have added: “and he loved me anyway.”
This woman is transformed into the first apostle—the first to tell of the messiah, not to believing worshipers in the temple but to Samaritans who worship the wrong way. The Samaritans immediately come to believe because of her testimony.
What a transformation. The outcast woman who most Jews would not have even spoken to, Jesus has folded into his arms of love and understanding, and given the very words that she needed to understand that living water from God was needed for her and all those like her. The woman who could only draw water in the heat of the day has instead drawn living water and the knowledge of God’s great gift in the savior Jesus. The woman who didn’t even have a name has named Jesus the messiah, named the hope of the Jews, not only the perfect ones of Jerusalem, but the messiah of the imperfect ones of Samaria.
Jesus shows us a God who is doing great things. God knows us. God knows the dark things within us and about us, and God loves us not only despite who we are, but because of who we are. God in Christ has shown that God is a God of expansive openness and love, not of condemnation and exile. That while the Israelites wander in the wilderness of dry dust God is ready to give them the water they need, and in Christ God gives water that will quench our thirst today and always.
Such a great God who cares for us and about us may at times seem far away. The Samaritan woman who had been in six different relationships may have felt that no one cared about her or for her, and in fact loathed her and cast her out of their society. God must have felt very far away for her, and yet in her downcast state, she meets the messiah who tells her that she is worthy of God’s living water.
In our feelings of unworthiness, God is trying to reach us. God knows our challenges, and loves us even in the midst of them and perhaps because of them. Do you know how much you are loved by the God of living water today?
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Seekers and Foundlings
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?
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?
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.
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