Lenten Beginnings

Today we had a Lenten Prayer Breakfast. There were many "aha" moments during the session. One in particular was the thought of prayer in our life. At this time of Lent, I am reminded of what Dietrich Bonhoeffer said about prayer:

Prayer does not mean simply to pour out one's heart. It means rather to find the way to God and to speak with him, whether the heart is full or empty.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Some times I fail to recognize if my heart is full or empty. How can that be? I believe that I am not unlike many persons who are simply not in touch with themselves. We for the most part have no clear direction in our lives. We allow ourselves to be thrown from one side of the boat to the other. We let the wind alter our course and blow us to places we never intended. We are really never in control of our lives and our world. We don't even sit still long enough to know what we are thinking or feeling. Is our heart full or empty? More importantly, what is making it that way. I ponder at times if that is really all bad. God has control of the boat anyway!

We are about to begin another Lenten season. A time for reflection and pause in our lives. I invite every person to spend time with themselves this Lenten season. Sit, pray or contemplate all that God has in store for you. Look at what has come between you and God. Concentrate on keeping your journey simple, focused and aimed towards God. Try to sit with yourself even if it makes you uncomfortable. It is in our discomfort that we learn the most about ourselves. Whatever is between you and God needs to be examined for its merit. Perhaps it stays. Most likely, it goes and we become more in tuned to our creator.

A Land of the Holy

I returned last Friday from a ten day trip to the Holy Land. As I saw so many ancient 1st century artifacts, I also saw barbed wire atop walls separating and isolating nation by nation. The city of Bethlehem which is in the West Bank was isolated by a wall separating it from the rest of Jerusalem. It was difficult to see Christ between the wall, barbed wire and land mines signs.

Muslin, Hebrew, Christian all inhabited the smallest of geographic areas.

On our last day, we visited the Holocaust museum in Jerusalem. Mounds of shoes left before people went to their death. People who were slowly and methodically isolated and inhibited from their day to day activities. The horrific sights and sounds of people telling their story. The woman who cried as she echoed the horrors of those days.

All the while it made me think about what I was seeing in Israel. People intentionally being separated from economic and social opportunities. Have the people of Israel forgotten all they endured not too long ago?

A small country with so much going for it. A beautiful land, a fertile land for thousands of years. Religion seeming to go side by side with the land, the people and the story.

Making Disciples

This past Sunday, I preached on the topic of making Disciples. Many of you might have heard the podcast already on the web. I asked two key questions that I think deserve more attention. The first was "Am I in Christ?" and the second one was "Am I in my calling?"

While in business for close to thirty years, I saw so many people who seemed to randomly live their life. Yes, they had a job and made enough salary to get by and then some. However, they did not possess the "it" factor. They did not have a sense of calling in their life. They perhaps were not living up to their full potential in God. I was one of those persons for most of that twenty five years in the corporate world. All I saw and did somehow seemed to flow through the eyes of the company. My family was seen through that lens. I remember always thinking that life must be about more than I was seeing and feeling every day.

I found that difference once I was called by God just as the first Disciples were. After preaching the sermon from Matthew where the first Disciples are called, I realized that God has an imprint already on all of us from the beginning of our lives. We have been sought out and bought by God to be redeemed. All of the work has been done for us or has it?

Jesus first called two brothers then two more. They were all fishermen but none were "fishers of men". None of them really understood or realized the impact on their lives through their dedication and commitment to Jesus. We all are something or have something. The problem is that we never seem to use all that we were created to be for God's highest glory and desire for us.

Yes, God fits, qualifies, authorizes and even commissions us. We have all that we need. All we are to do is follow. There is the rub. For to follow means to sever ourselves from all else so that we can maintain a diligent attendance on Christ. We must know Him inside and out and be able to imitate Him in all that we do. We found it difficult to maintain a constant diligence on anything these days. There is too much in our lives. There is too much complexity and information and knowing. We find it almost impossible to sever ourselves to be with our children or ourselves.

Severing ourselves can be quite difficult. Depending on all that you possess, your family ties, your job, your self identity, we can be quite tied up in our humanity.

I believe that is where God meets us. In our humanity, Jesus issued two commands in the Gospel in Matthew of the calling of the first Disciples 1. repent (I realize that you are human so just say you are sorry) 2. Come after me or follow me. The Gospel suggests that both of these acts are quite important and necessary for our salvation. I am reminded of the Nike ad "Just Do It". I think to become a Disciple we must all really look at Jesus' slogan "Just Follow".

Routine with a "N"

What an experience was felt by me today. My son after having pain for some time underwent a colonoscopy on January 7th to check for Crone's disease. A twenty millimeter polyp was found. It was removed and the results were to come in from pathology within ten days. Today after getting an early morning call from my son complaining of severe pain again. Being a helicopter mom, I called his doctor's office. I left a message stating all that had transpired along with a comment that we had not yet received the results of his colon test.

Throughout the day, I spoke to my son as he asked me if they had returned my call. Some time in the late afternoon, my cell phone rang. My son said "mom have you spoken to the doctor yet?" I responded "no not yet". His voice sounded strange. He then said "they called me". "What did they say," I asked? He responded "I have cancer". I really don't remember what he said after that point. I remember thinking I must not react. I must be strong."What do you mean son?" "That's not funny. Please don't say that" I hurried the reply. "Mom do you think I would be kidding about something like that"?

My world collapsed right in front of me. "What? I don't understand what happened?" "What did they say"?? "What are they going to do"?? "What is happening. I need to talk to the doctor. Let me call you back".

The story ends well. It seems that the biopsy show pre-cancer tissues or cells. Come back in one year to do the colonoscopy over. There was no cancer. However, the emotion was overwhelming during the ten minute time period that went from routine to the non-routine.

I have to reflect on our health care systems. How does a child who is only twenty years old hear over the telephone something that is obviously medically a routine diagnosis. It is of course to everyone except the patient. More subtle to reflect upon is the quick movement from routine life to the non-routine.

It makes me think about all that we consider routine in life and how quickly the routine can suddenly shift without notice. The routine can quickly become the horrific. An example, the recent shootings in Arizona. A routine campaign to meet your politician in a shopping center where people are just routinely wandering by. In a matter of minutes, it becomes the non-routine. People are being shot and killed. Many are wounded. Many are dead.

God is in the details. God is in the big picture. God is with us throughout everything the routine and the not so routine. Our challenge is keeping God in our routine enough so that when the non-routine happens, we still see God. His presence is evident.

Time

I have been thinking today about time. I am reading a book that refers to the time between. I think between what? I next wonder about that thought of a time between time. What happens in that time. I learned at seminary that the word Kairos is an ancient Greek word. It means the right or opportune moment (the supreme moment). I love the moment. It pinpoints time so well. It seems to reflect no movement in time at all. Everything is still in the moment.

We seem to move so quickly each day. We scurry about from time to time and place to place. The seasons roll together. It is soon to be Christmas again. I just remember putting the items of Christmas away. It seems like just yesterday. I thought about all that was to come in time the time between this Christmas and next. Here we are. It is quickly approaching.

It is interesting that the ancient Greeks had two words for time, chronos and kairos. While the former refers to chronological or sequential time, the latter signifies a time in between, a moment of undetermined period of time in which something special happens. While chronos is quantitative, kairos has a qualitative nature. I think that is God's time. The time in between. The time that no one ever thinks about. The in between time.

The term kairos is used in theology to describe the qualitative form of time. In theology, it can be for a passing instant when an opening appears. We call success moving through that period of time when the door is open. The issue becomes that we must make a choice to go through the door of time when it opens. We must be in tune with God and God's time or we miss the opportunity.

In the New Testament, kairos means "the appointed time in the purpose of God", the time when God acts. We see that reference in the Gospel of Mark 1.15, the kairos is fulfilled. Our question today should be first, are we aware of our time? Secondly, are we aware enough to choose to actually take advantage of time and walk through it. Are we really in tune with time? Perhaps not.

Let's begin to watch our time more closely. Be aware of every moment. Be in the moment. Watch as it occurs. Be in time as a fully present being. I think that is where we will find God. God is in the in between. The time between is God time. Enjoy time. Enjoy God!

Some Gleeful Thoughts!

I watched the show Glee tonight. I love the show because of its beautiful singing and its diversification of characters. The subject tonight was church and Jesus. It seems that Jesus' face was displayed in a grilled cheese sandwich that was made by one of the characters. It was the clear image of Jesus to me. I saw it too.

It makes me think of how Christ can be found no matter where we look even in a grilled cheese sandwich. It reminded me of all of those who came to Conyers to see the appearance of Holy Mary. Many saw and many did not. They all came from far away. Some I guess will never see or get it.

We are all called to continue to look for Christ in everything. When was the last time you saw Christ in something. A song, a bird, a person, the day, the sun, they are all examples of the beauty of what Christ was and is and will be.

As an example, the story recently of the hiker who was lost in a California national park. He said he wrote his last will and testament on his hat. He thought God had left him in the wilderness to die alone. He lived as a rescue helicopter discovered him. He may not have seen God yet God was certainly with him. He lives.

Sermon Thoughts 9/12

The liturgy for this week is about the lost sheep. "Who wouldn't go and find a lost sheep and leave the ninety-nine others? I have to think about that for a moment. My first thought is well maybe the ninety-nine are the most important. It's only one little sheep I have ninety-nine more. However, with that attitude then, what if I loose another then another until they are all gone. What happens then? I have no sheep! I know that Jesus is telling us to drop everything to go and find the lost. My goal for this lesson is to uncover why??

From my sermon 9/12:

It was 9/11 yesterday. As many of us ran errands and did chores around the house, many cried their eyes out yesterday because their loved ones were lost on September 11th. When there is a tragedy so significant and horrific, people run to help to try to find that which they hope will not be lost forever. In a burning tower, a flooded house, a muddy slide, a devastated land, people search every ounce of the area to find those who are missing.

Let me ask you this question: Do they stop and say, "Was this person a sinner or a tax collector? If so, I'‘m not going to save them". No of course not! They save anybody they can. Every life is so precious that they will search until they cannot search any more. This searching is exactly what God does for us when we are lost. There is so much great celebration from heaven and all the angels and all people rejoice for one who was lost has now been found.

Jesus rejects the idea that the responsible party for restoration is the "sinner." The stories Jesus tells are clear about this. Why do you think that Jesus tells this parable and uses lost things such as coins or sheep. It is because lost coins and lost sheep cannot restore themselves. Neither do lost people. So to Jesus, we all have the responsibility as the community to help these lost people. They cannot do it on their own. They are lost. The lost themselves cannot find their way home. That’s why we call them lost.

I can tell you all without any hesitation that if one of my children were lost. I would never give up until I found them. God never gives up on us. God never quits searching for those who may be lost.

Everyone is part of God's keeping, and those who have gotten lost in one way or another therefore need special attention from God and from us.