Love

Christmas Day
Wednesday December 25, 2013

 Read: John 1:1-14

 And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.—John 1:14 

If you are actually reading this on Christmas Day, my guess is you arose early and have slipped away into a quiet corner for a brief meditation before the busyness of the day begins. Perhaps you got up early and made sure that everything is ready for guests that are coming.  When all seemed ready, you are now taking some time to catch your breath and slow down a bit so you can enjoy the family and friends when they arrive. Or you may have been busy all day opening gifts, sharing meals, playing in the snow. The company is gone or bedded down for the night, and the dishes are done –or not. It is the close of the day and you are exhausted as you mull over the events of Christmas with God. Perhaps you are like me. I have my family Christmas party earlier in December. My Christmas celebration begins at my church’s Christmas Eve Service and I spend a quiet day with just the Lord and me. While many of my family and friends worry about me being “left alone” on Christmas, I actually rather relish it. We introverted introspectives are weird like that. 

Whatever your style, at this moment, wrap yourself in God’s love. Find your comfort zone. Perhaps lying back in a recliner or setting with a pillow to your back or draped across the couch. Let God’s love seep through every muscle and bone in your body. Feel the warmth of God’s love in the very center of your being. Give God every thought, every pain, every problem, every joy. Breathe in deeply and slowly the presence of God with you. Breathe out anything that is separating you from being fully present to God. Repeat that a few times. Linger in God’s presence. When you are ready, read John 1:1-14. Feel the full impact of its message. God loves us. God did send Jesus Christ into the world, into our world, into our hearts. Experience the joy, fear, thanksgiving that that message has for you. Tomorrow you can take that experience forward into your life, today celebrate, for unto us a child is born.

 Prayer: Lord, I love you and I thank you for the gift of Jesus Christ. Amen.

All scripture passages are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version.

Love

Fourth Week of Advent
Tuesday December 24, 2013

 Read: Psalm 96 

Say among the nations, ‘The Lord is king! The world is firmly established; it shall never be moved.
He will judge the peoples with equity.’
Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; let the sea roar, and all that fills it;
let the field exult, and everything in it.
Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy before the Lord; for he is coming, for he is coming to judge the earth.
He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with his truth.—Psalm 96:10-13 

Righteousness and justice are always connected in Judeo-Christian language. God is the source of what is right for God is righteous. He is righteous because he both judges and saves. If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1John 1:9) The Messiah is called righteousness in relationship to his mercy. Jesus was sent to bring justice into the world. Jesus said the right thing to do always is to love God and love our neighbor as we love ourselves. Doing both of these commandments pretty much covers all the others and takes precedence.

Somewhere along the line in the development of the Christian faith, we moved from a community centered system of belief toward a more individual personal salvation center. There is no question that we are called as individuals to attest to our belief in Jesus Christ, but that is just a beginning step. Taking that step means we are entering into a covenant of love with the diverse peoples of the world who have also taken that step. And furthermore, we are challenged to join all who were created in the image of God into the oneness of God’s love.

Let us join with the Psalmist and celebrate the love shown to us by God in sending Jesus Christ as our redeemer. And lift our voices in song to the Glory of God, our creator, who longs for us all to be one.

Prayer: O God, who painted the blue sky and placed the sun amid it, radiate through our lives your love as we strive to become one. Amen.

All scripture passages are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version.

Love

Fourth Week of Advent
Monday December 23, 2013

Titus 2:11-14

 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all, training us to renounce impiety and worldly passions, and in the present age to live lives that are self-controlled, upright, and godly, while we wait for the blessed hope and the manifestation of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. He it is who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify for himself a people of his own who are zealous for good deeds. 

Succinct and to the point, the letter to Titus tells the story of Jesus with little flourish but filled with substance. God graces us with salvation through the gift of Jesus Christ. Jesus modeled and taught a way of living that prepared us for our role as being the Body of Christ in the world today. He continues with us as we follow his path in service. 

We hold this story close in these final hours leading toward our celebration of the coming of the Christ. The events described changed our lives totally, gave us focus in chaos, courage in times of fear, strength in weakness, and the ability to love beyond our wildest dreams. Jesus Christ sent his followers on a quest to take that story and that way of living to the ends of the earth. 

It is funny how we can so easily tell others about the new athletic shoes we just discovered, the car that gets such great gas mileage, or how well our team is doing this year. It is hard to talk about the depth of God’s love and how that has impacted our lives. Perhaps it is too emotional. But if it is indeed the greatest gift we have ever received, is it not also the greatest gift we could give someone else? 

It broke my heart when I recently heard on the news that a 12 year old girl had committed suicide as a result of bullying. It made me stop and think, where did I learn to respect others as much as I respected myself? Certainly from my parents, but the church was where I heard about it, read about it, sang about, and acted it out in plays and pageants. It was at church where my friends learned it, even the ones who did not have parents that taught then either self-respect or respect for others. 

This year let us celebrate the coming of Christ with all the spirit we can muster and continue in that spirit with a passionate renewal of telling the story of Jesus to the ends of the earth starting next door. 

Prayer: Jesus, Come into my heart, and shine out of my heart to the ends of the earth and right here at home as we wait for the full glory of God. Amen.

All scripture passages are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version.

Love

Fourth Week of Advent
Sunday December 22, 2013

 Read: Isaiah 33:17-22

 For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our ruler, the Lord is our king; he will save us.—Isaiah 33:22

 The Sunday before Christmas is probably a good time to take stock of who rules in our lives. It gets pretty hectic in December for many with all the shopping, decorating, parties, even serving at a homeless shelter or providing gifts for the needy. We sometimes lose sight of what is important and what is not. For others the closer it comes to Christmas the sadder they become. The loved ones they once cherished are no longer with them. It is an interesting reality that for some, depression grows more serious at the holiday season.

 The lord is our ruler and will save us because God loves us. Loving us so much, God sent Jesus to us as a reconciling force driven by love, filled with grace. What possible response is there to such a gift as this? We have journeyed these past few weeks through hope, toward shalom, to joy, and finally have found love once more. We are never alone and we are always loved. Praise God!

 Jesus said we were to love God in return and love our neighbors as we love ourselves. It is really hard sometimes to love ourselves but it is where we must start, if we are to fulfill our response to God’s love. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 that Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Do we apply these traits to ourselves? Are we patient with ourselves? Are we willing to face truths about ourselves that might hurt but by facing them we can overcome them?

 One of the routine safety instructions given when we travel by air is if you are with someone who needs assistance in putting on the oxygen mask, put yours on first so that you will have enough oxygen to help the other. This is good advice for those of us who are seeking to love God and love our neighbors. We need to fill our whole beings with the love of God so that we can be conduits for that love.

 Prayer: God of love, fill us with your love that we might love you and others even more. Amen.

All scripture passages are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version.

Joy

Third Week of Advent
Saturday December 21, 2013

 Read: Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19

But let your hand be upon the one at your right hand, the one whom you made strong for yourself.
Then we will never turn back from you; give us life, and we will call on your name.
Restore us, O Lord God of hosts; let your face shine, that we may be saved.—Psalm 80:17-19

Psalm 80 is one of the post-exilic laments. The people of God had been taken into captivity and tasted the bitter herb of oppression. They longed for a king, a leader, to remove them from bondage and restore them to life. From the Hebrew perspective, if ever there was a time, it was the time for the promised Messiah. It was the time for a new David; one that would fulfill the promise that he would rule for ever.

 Christians, of course, look back on this Psalm and see the foreshadowing of Jesus. The lamenter is bargaining with God. Give us the divine leader and we will turn back to you. One assumes they were aware that it was they who turned away.

 We too want a Savior to get us out of the mess in which we are mired. I fear that the leaders we have elected are giving us exactly what we want and in so doing are giving us nothing at all. It is time that we repent of the greed that drives us to want our cake but be able to eat it too—cut our taxes but not our services, repent of the need for instant gratification, and search for ways to do what is right in providing for the common good.

 For you see the Savior has come, is with us now, and will always be with us. It is time for us to call on his name and answer his call.

 Prayer: Savior, forgive us of our sins both of omission and commission, remind us of what you have taught us, how to love God and love our neighbors as we love ourselves. Make us whole, make us one. Amen.

All scripture passages are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version.

Joy

Third Week of Advent
Friday December 20, 2013

 Read: 2 Samuel 7:18-22

 Then King David went in and sat before the Lord, and said, ‘Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far?…Because of your promise, and according to your own heart, you have wrought all this greatness, so that your servant may know it.
—2 Samuel 7:18, 21 

Tevye, the lead character in the movie Fiddler on the Roof, sometimes comes to mind when I read the Psalms attributed to David. He had a one on one relationship with God. His prayers are from the gut and he holds nothing back. Not so much the prayer in our scripture reading today. David is king now, familiar with power, when he decides he needs to build a permanent house for God. He consulted the prophet Nathan who said go for it, until he had slept on it. Nathan comes back to David and said that the Lord had come to him in the night and told him that David should not build a house for God but his offspring would. But God promised David that God would not take God’s steadfast love from David and that David’s house and his kingdom would be made sure forever before God.

 David’s prayer in response is more nuanced than usual—perhaps more in the tone of the diplomat in negotiations. But in the end, David essentially says, that he is going to hold God to his promise. Pretty audacious don’t you think?

 It occurs to me that God may appreciate a little energy in our prayers, a little trust through risk taking. God wants to know we are taking God as seriously as we expect God to take us. Even though David did some bonehead things in his life, he always took God seriously.

 The incarnation, the coming of the anointed one to reconcile us to God, moves our relationship with God to a higher level. It deepens the commitment on God’s part. Has it deepened the commitment on our part?

 When we sing Joy to the World, the Lord is come this Christmas season let us consider the wonder of the gift as we consider the depth of our response.

 Prayer: O Lord, give us the courage to commit our whole-selves to you in love and service and let us celebrate together our relationship with great rejoicing. Amen.

All scripture passages are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version.

Joy

Third Week of Advent
Thursday December 19, 2013

 Read: Galatians 3:23-29

 There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.—Galatians 3:28 

God did create something good. God did create humans in God’s image instilling in each one of the created a divine spark, a divine breathe of life. Such creatures were surely to be one of God’s greatest sources of joy and God theirs. It apparently was important to God that such a relationship be covenanted through the choice of the created. God had already made God’s commitment in the very act of creation.  

Such a relationship is manifested in love. Love is always a choice. We may experience “falling in love” through our emotions or our attractions, but the true test of love always goes back to choice. I chose to commit my life to God as God has chosen to love me. Such love and relationships are possible between and among all of God’s children when we chose to love one another. 

Love is a verb. It demands our fullest attention to make it meaningful. It may be the hardest work we will ever do. It will be the most joyous. Our loving one another, I believe, is the greatest source of joy for God. So why do we routinely seem unable or unwilling to make that choice? When we profess to love God with all our hearts, mines, and spirits, doesn’t that also entail loving all of our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ even the ones with whom we may disagree? 

We are each on a spiritual journey at different places along the way. We are each very human and view the world through the filters we build up from life experiences that may make us see differently one from the other. But as children of God we are called to find the things on which we can agree and as the whole Body of Christ share in them in our preparation for the final oneness that God intends. My friends let us love one another, for love does come from God. (Based on 1 John 4.7) Who knows we might be surprised at how much can be accomplished from such a relationship. 

Prayer: O Lord, make us one, make us one. Amen.

All scripture passages are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version.

Joy

Third Week of Advent
Wednesday December 18, 2013

 Read: Zechariah 8:1-17

 Thus says the Lord: I will return to Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem; Jerusalem shall be called the faithful city, and the mountain of the Lord of hosts shall be called the holy mountain. Thus says the Lord of hosts: Old men and old women shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each with staff in hand because of their great age. And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets. Thus says the Lord of hosts: Even though it seems impossible to the remnant of this people in these days, should it also seem impossible to me, says the Lord of hosts? Thus says the Lord of hosts: I will save my people from the east country and from the west country; and I will bring them to live in Jerusalem. They shall be my people and I will be their God, in faithfulness and in righteousness. —Zechariah 8:3-8 

When we all get to heaven, what a day of rejoicing that will be. When we all see Jesus we will sing and shout the victory! Go the words to the old song with its name drawn from the first phrase. The song based on John 14:2 suggests what Zechariah envisioned in our scripture today when all God’s people are made one, returned to Jerusalem. It is a theme that runs through end-time literature. Revelation 21 talks about the day when God will pitch a tent and live with all of us. Advent focuses not only on the past and the present, but also the future. 

It makes me wonder if we take these scriptures seriously. Many people hunt through these second coming readings looking for hints of when it will happen. I think we might want to let the message about gathering us together help us look at ourselves to see if we are ready for being one with all of God’s children. Our actions as citizens of the United States seem to indicate that we are not even desirous of being “one” with some.

It appears that our federal government is once again going to take up the revision of our immigration laws as we enter the season of Advent. This is a great time to pray for guidance in the development of those rules so that they are just and fair. I cannot think of anything that would bring God greater joy than seeing all those stamped with God’s image living together in peace with mutual respect. Indeed, what a day of rejoicing that would be. 

Prayer: God of all, write on our hearts the joy of your wonderful oneness. Help us to be a blessing to people from all nations and particularly to those who chose to live among us. Show us the path to welcoming these strangers. Amen.

All scripture passages are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version.

Joy

Third Week of Advent
Tuesday December 17, 2013

 Read: Ezekiel 47:1-12

 I saw on the bank of the river a great many trees on one side and on the other. [The Lord] said to me, ‘This water flows towards the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah; and when it enters the sea, the sea of stagnant waters, the water will become fresh. Wherever the river goes, every living creature that swarms will live, and there will be very many fish, once these waters reach there. It will become fresh; and everything will live where the river goes.
                                                                                                                                        —Ezekiel 47:7b-9 

The Ouachita Mountains were glorious the last week of October. The sun was breathtaking, glistening through leaves of ever hue dotted with rain drops. Beavers Bend Lake looked like the palest blue ice, pristine and clean. This is what God saw as good. This is what gave me joy as I sat and gazed out across that lake in the early morning when I meditated on the wondrous gift of nature our Creator God has bestowed on us.

 God gave it as a resource for our nourishment and wellbeing, but he gave it with a caveat as stated in Genesis 1:27-28:  So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.’ Dominion does not mean license. God blessed us by giving us a sacred responsibility to care for all living things on the earth.

 I am a novice regarding environmental issues. Recently sitting in a legislative hearing regarding wastewater, I truly was out of my element. What I did glean from the hearing was that water is a precious resource to not only the oil companies for drilling, but also to farmers for irrigation. It is also important to me for drinking.

 My dad was a farmer who pumped oil wells on the side. I remember when wastewater was stored in ponds made of dirt and rocks located just off a ways from the pump. Those ponds would catch on fire sometimes.  There was enough oil scum in them to cause blazing flames to appear on top of the water. That was not responsible use of the land.

 We have learned from our early experiences, but we must learn more to assure that our water is not stagnant wastewater and apply what we learn with prudence so that we can continue to take joy in God’s handiwork and fulfill our responsibility to care for it.

 Prayer: Creator God, show us the ways we can be more responsible in fulfilling our commandment to take care of every living think that moves on the earth. Amen.

All scripture passages are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version.