- As you look back on this past week, what insights or observations come to mind that you would not want to forget? Write them down.
- What changes would you like to make, or have started making at home that will enable it to be a place that expresses more truly the faith that you profess?
- Take the time to write out a prayer for your home. Don’t rush. Work on it and change it if necessary, until it expresses the desire of your heart for your home. You might want to print it out and have it laminated, or write it out beautifully and have it framed, and display it somewhere where you and your family can read it often. I’m sure that it’ll be a prayer that God is eager to answer:
Saturday 27 February 2010
Day 10 - Looking back on Week 1
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION:
Friday 26 February 2010
Day 9 - TV: The Plug-In Drug
READING:Romans 12:1-2
It’s been aptly described as ‘the plug-in drug’. Which is quite an accurate description of what television can easily become in our lives. It’s estimated that in many countries of the world, by the time people reach retirement age they would have spent as much as 15 years of their life staring at a TV screen.
It’s assumed nowadays that virtually every home has at least one TV set. A colleague of mine, who doesn’t own a TV and hasn’t for years, had a major fight on his hands when he tried to convince the SABC that he really didn’t need to pay for a TV license. They could not accept that this was possible. He is a rare exception. For most of us, the TV is a fixture in our homes.
For the most part TV is used as a relaxing distraction. As you focus on the screen, your own thought activity becomes suspended, the details of your life recede and you become temporarily free of yourself. All of which, quite frankly, has its place. But listen to these insights of Eckhart Tolle, who writes:
When watching television, the tendency is for you to fall below thought, not rise above it. Television has this in common with alcohol and certain other drugs. While it provides some relief from your mind, you again pay a high price: loss of consciousness. Like those drugs, it too has a strong addictive quality. You reach for the remote control to switch off and instead find yourself going through all the channels. Half and hour or an hour later, you are still watching, still going through the channels. The off button is the only one your finger seems unable to press. You are still watching, usually not because anything of interest has caught your attention, but precisely because there is nothing of interest to watch. Once you are hooked, the more trivial, the more meaningless, it is, the more addictive it becomes.
Now, it would be just silly to suggest that TV is just trivial and meaningless. There are many programmes (well, maybe not that many) that are truly stimulating and thought-provoking or at least creatively entertaining in the best sense of the word. TV can offer challenging and incisive social commentary; and is a major source of news. Make no mistake, come the Soccer World Cup later this year, TV will be the primary tool connecting the entire world around that major sporting event.
But we should not be naïve about the norms and values that we subject ourselves to every time we turn on the telly. Crass consumerism, legitimising violence and distorting the place and purpose of sex are the unholy trinity that TV consistently serves up.
As people of faith we are called to a greater vigilance and awareness in this area. I am convinced that putting far stricter boundaries in place as to the use of television in the home, is one of the single greatest things we can do to help to transform our homes into the sanctuaries that God intends them to be.
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION:
PRAYER:
God of truth and life, we live in a world in which the presence and influence of television is a reality—a reality that so often seems at odds with the truth and life that we see in you. Give to us discerning hearts and disciplined minds in our use of television. Help us to establish the appropriate boundaries that will safeguard us from the addictive and destructive influence that TV will otherwise be in our lives.
We are painfully aware that there are many who appear on TV in your name, but who seem more concerned about wealth and riches and pointing fingers of blame than they are about the message of the cross.
And so we thank you and pray for those people and organisations who are seeking to use TV in truly wholesome and life-giving ways. We pray especially for the Mass Media Project who produced the Heartlines series, and we thank you for the means of grace that has been in our country. Continue to bless their efforts we pray. Amen.
It’s been aptly described as ‘the plug-in drug’. Which is quite an accurate description of what television can easily become in our lives. It’s estimated that in many countries of the world, by the time people reach retirement age they would have spent as much as 15 years of their life staring at a TV screen.
It’s assumed nowadays that virtually every home has at least one TV set. A colleague of mine, who doesn’t own a TV and hasn’t for years, had a major fight on his hands when he tried to convince the SABC that he really didn’t need to pay for a TV license. They could not accept that this was possible. He is a rare exception. For most of us, the TV is a fixture in our homes.
For the most part TV is used as a relaxing distraction. As you focus on the screen, your own thought activity becomes suspended, the details of your life recede and you become temporarily free of yourself. All of which, quite frankly, has its place. But listen to these insights of Eckhart Tolle, who writes:
When watching television, the tendency is for you to fall below thought, not rise above it. Television has this in common with alcohol and certain other drugs. While it provides some relief from your mind, you again pay a high price: loss of consciousness. Like those drugs, it too has a strong addictive quality. You reach for the remote control to switch off and instead find yourself going through all the channels. Half and hour or an hour later, you are still watching, still going through the channels. The off button is the only one your finger seems unable to press. You are still watching, usually not because anything of interest has caught your attention, but precisely because there is nothing of interest to watch. Once you are hooked, the more trivial, the more meaningless, it is, the more addictive it becomes.
Now, it would be just silly to suggest that TV is just trivial and meaningless. There are many programmes (well, maybe not that many) that are truly stimulating and thought-provoking or at least creatively entertaining in the best sense of the word. TV can offer challenging and incisive social commentary; and is a major source of news. Make no mistake, come the Soccer World Cup later this year, TV will be the primary tool connecting the entire world around that major sporting event.
But we should not be naïve about the norms and values that we subject ourselves to every time we turn on the telly. Crass consumerism, legitimising violence and distorting the place and purpose of sex are the unholy trinity that TV consistently serves up.
As people of faith we are called to a greater vigilance and awareness in this area. I am convinced that putting far stricter boundaries in place as to the use of television in the home, is one of the single greatest things we can do to help to transform our homes into the sanctuaries that God intends them to be.
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION:
- How much time, on average, do you spend watching TV each week? (Dare to be honest.) Do you think it’s worth it, or would you like this to change?
- What are some of the creative alternatives that you could be doing in the time that you’re currently spending in front of the TV?
- What influence is TV having in shaping your children’s picture of the world? How do you feel about this? What creative changes do you need to make?
PRAYER:
God of truth and life, we live in a world in which the presence and influence of television is a reality—a reality that so often seems at odds with the truth and life that we see in you. Give to us discerning hearts and disciplined minds in our use of television. Help us to establish the appropriate boundaries that will safeguard us from the addictive and destructive influence that TV will otherwise be in our lives.
We are painfully aware that there are many who appear on TV in your name, but who seem more concerned about wealth and riches and pointing fingers of blame than they are about the message of the cross.
And so we thank you and pray for those people and organisations who are seeking to use TV in truly wholesome and life-giving ways. We pray especially for the Mass Media Project who produced the Heartlines series, and we thank you for the means of grace that has been in our country. Continue to bless their efforts we pray. Amen.
Thursday 25 February 2010
Day 8 - Meals
READING: Luke 7:36-50
Meal-times played a hugely significant role in the ministry of Jesus. Over and over again it was at a meal-table that Jesus revealed truths about the Kingdom of God, sometimes through his words but more often than not through his actions.
Today’s gospel reading (Lk 7:36-50) is an excellent example. Jesus had accepted a dinner invitation at the home of a Pharisee called Simon. While he was reclining at the table an ‘embarrassing’ scene unfolds — certainly for the Pharisee though not for Jesus. A woman, with her own story of shame and brokenness to tell, stood at Jesus’ feet weeping, and then wiped his feet with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them. The Pharisee was scandalised that Jesus allowed this woman of ill repute to carry on in this way. For him, it called Jesus’ very identity into question.
But Jesus would have none of it. He cuts right through the Pharisee’s judgementalism, and then deals graciously with the woman, declaring her sins to be forgiven and telling her to go in peace. The point of this story, and many others like it in the gospels, is that for Jesus a meal table was never just about food and eating. It was a fertile place for the deeper needs of life to be addressed—in this case a woman’s need for acceptance and forgiveness, and a Pharisee’s self-righteous blindness.
Think about some of the memorable meal-tables that you’ve sat around in your life. Can you remember one from your childhood, or maybe the one in your first home after getting married? Maybe there’s a particular meal-table from a special occasion that stands out for you, a 21st birthday celebration, perhaps; or maybe a family reunion. What are some of the memories and associations that you have with those tables? What life and grace did they offer? I have a hunch that you may not be able to remember the details of the food that was eaten there, but other powerful memories may certainly remain.
I remember a table in our kitchen when I was growing up. It was a big kitchen, with space enough for a large round table that could easily seat 6 to 8 people. That’s where our family ate most of our meals. The table was a bit wonky, and so we’d often be seated with our food in front of us, and my dad would start turning the table until it was steady, by which time your plate of food was on the other side of the table.
But what I remember most is that everyone in our family had their place around that table. It was a place of belonging and of nurture where each evening I could tell the story of what happened at cricket practice that day, and listen to my sisters’ and parents’ stories as well. All the while being fed and nourished by my mom’s wonderful cooking. As I think back, I can see that our kitchen table was at the very heart of our home and that the gifts that were shared there were some of the very best that God could give.
So, think about the meal table in your home. How often does it get used? By whom? What are the sorts of things that happen there? How could your meal table become a channel of blessing within your home, where the gifts of belonging, acceptance, togetherness, nourishment, reconciliation, conversation, kindness and care can be freely shared? Sadly, many families have simply gotten out of the habit of eating together, and so have effectively cut themselves off from this magnificent means of grace.
Of course, a meal table can be an agonising place when there’s unresolved conflict in the home. The long silences at supper time speak volumes of the need for reconciliation and forgiveness. This is even more reason to sit down at a meal-table, as there at least the possibility exists for underlying tensions to be acknowledged and hopefully brought into the light.
The movie Babette’s Feast offers a beautiful illustration of the gentle grace that is at work in good food lovingly prepared and shared. In the movie, a small community sit down to a sumptuous feast, where the relational tensions and conflicts among them are resolved as they eat and drink together. Of course, there is no set formula for this and no guarantee that any particular meal will be a time of reconciliation. But what can be said is that this is the potential of every meal that is shared with openness and love. Maybe that’s why Jesus chose a meal—Holy Communion—to be the central act of remembrance of his reconciling love.
PUTTING FAITH INTO ACTION:
PRAYER
Lord Jesus Christ, meals were special times for you to share and show your love. May that be increasingly true for me and my family. Show me what I can do to allow this important and necessary part of every day to become a source of grace and life for all who join me at my table. Amen
Meal-times played a hugely significant role in the ministry of Jesus. Over and over again it was at a meal-table that Jesus revealed truths about the Kingdom of God, sometimes through his words but more often than not through his actions.
Today’s gospel reading (Lk 7:36-50) is an excellent example. Jesus had accepted a dinner invitation at the home of a Pharisee called Simon. While he was reclining at the table an ‘embarrassing’ scene unfolds — certainly for the Pharisee though not for Jesus. A woman, with her own story of shame and brokenness to tell, stood at Jesus’ feet weeping, and then wiped his feet with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them. The Pharisee was scandalised that Jesus allowed this woman of ill repute to carry on in this way. For him, it called Jesus’ very identity into question.
But Jesus would have none of it. He cuts right through the Pharisee’s judgementalism, and then deals graciously with the woman, declaring her sins to be forgiven and telling her to go in peace. The point of this story, and many others like it in the gospels, is that for Jesus a meal table was never just about food and eating. It was a fertile place for the deeper needs of life to be addressed—in this case a woman’s need for acceptance and forgiveness, and a Pharisee’s self-righteous blindness.
Think about some of the memorable meal-tables that you’ve sat around in your life. Can you remember one from your childhood, or maybe the one in your first home after getting married? Maybe there’s a particular meal-table from a special occasion that stands out for you, a 21st birthday celebration, perhaps; or maybe a family reunion. What are some of the memories and associations that you have with those tables? What life and grace did they offer? I have a hunch that you may not be able to remember the details of the food that was eaten there, but other powerful memories may certainly remain.
I remember a table in our kitchen when I was growing up. It was a big kitchen, with space enough for a large round table that could easily seat 6 to 8 people. That’s where our family ate most of our meals. The table was a bit wonky, and so we’d often be seated with our food in front of us, and my dad would start turning the table until it was steady, by which time your plate of food was on the other side of the table.
But what I remember most is that everyone in our family had their place around that table. It was a place of belonging and of nurture where each evening I could tell the story of what happened at cricket practice that day, and listen to my sisters’ and parents’ stories as well. All the while being fed and nourished by my mom’s wonderful cooking. As I think back, I can see that our kitchen table was at the very heart of our home and that the gifts that were shared there were some of the very best that God could give.
So, think about the meal table in your home. How often does it get used? By whom? What are the sorts of things that happen there? How could your meal table become a channel of blessing within your home, where the gifts of belonging, acceptance, togetherness, nourishment, reconciliation, conversation, kindness and care can be freely shared? Sadly, many families have simply gotten out of the habit of eating together, and so have effectively cut themselves off from this magnificent means of grace.
Of course, a meal table can be an agonising place when there’s unresolved conflict in the home. The long silences at supper time speak volumes of the need for reconciliation and forgiveness. This is even more reason to sit down at a meal-table, as there at least the possibility exists for underlying tensions to be acknowledged and hopefully brought into the light.
The movie Babette’s Feast offers a beautiful illustration of the gentle grace that is at work in good food lovingly prepared and shared. In the movie, a small community sit down to a sumptuous feast, where the relational tensions and conflicts among them are resolved as they eat and drink together. Of course, there is no set formula for this and no guarantee that any particular meal will be a time of reconciliation. But what can be said is that this is the potential of every meal that is shared with openness and love. Maybe that’s why Jesus chose a meal—Holy Communion—to be the central act of remembrance of his reconciling love.
PUTTING FAITH INTO ACTION:
- Make a commitment as a family to sit down to a meal together every day. If this feels like too big a step, make the commitment to sit down to a meal together at least once a week.
- For the rest of this season of Lent, ban TV suppers.
- If you live on your own, all of this talk about meal tables may seem irrelevant to you, and maybe even quite painful. But your meal table can still be a place where you consciously gather loved ones around you. You might even want to put photographs of them on the table. As you eat, be open to the love that they have to share and the love you have for them, and your meal times will nourish not only your body, but also your soul.
- Practice hospitality. Invite others to share a sit-down meal in your home.
PRAYER
Lord Jesus Christ, meals were special times for you to share and show your love. May that be increasingly true for me and my family. Show me what I can do to allow this important and necessary part of every day to become a source of grace and life for all who join me at my table. Amen
Wednesday 24 February 2010
Day 7 - Practicing the presence of God
READING: Psalm 139:1-12
Brother Lawrence was a 17th century monk who worked in the kitchen of his monastery in France. He wrote what has become a spiritual classic, entitled The Practice of the Presence of God. The central thrust of the book, which bore out Brother Lawrence’s own daily experience in the kitchen, is that it is precisely in the ordinary, everyday things of life that God’s presence can be fully and powerfully known.
In essence, this is what this entire Lenten course is about — discovering that it’s in the everyday things of life that our faith matters, and that’s where our faith can come most alive.
Of course we need the so-called ‘religious’ moments of corporate worship, bible study, Christian service and prayer. These are essential parts of the spiritual life, and can be very significant in opening us to God. But unless we are consistently finding ways to encounter God in our day-to-day living, our ‘high and holy’ moments run the real risk of becoming cut off and somewhat removed from the nitty-gritty realities of our everyday lives.
Brother Lawrence’s down-to-earth advice about practicing the presence of God offers wonderful help. He invites us to see every task, however menial, as no less sacred and infused with God’s love as when the priest lifts up the host (bread) in Holy Communion.
Nowhere is this more pertinent than at home where, if we’re honest, we’d admit that there are many housekeeping tasks that are quite simply a drag. Taking out the trash, washing the dishes, trying to get the vacuum cleaner to reach those little dustballs in the corner behind the couch (where do those things come from?), hanging up the laundry. It’s no surprise that most people of even average means pay for some kind of domestic assistance. And there are at least some people reading this who literally have no household chores to worry about at all. (I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t at least a little envious.)
But for most of us, there is some form of domestic responsibility that is ours; and for all of us, sooner or later, there are day-to-day tasks that come our way that we regard as something of a drag.
But actually, there can be an incredible gift in these things, if we choose to see it. For it’s precisely in the not-so-pleasant necessities of home life that we have a unique opportunity to do something purely for love’s sake. Before you roll your eyeballs at me and reach for a barf bag, let me explain:
I accept that you wouldn’t normally want to dress up a chore like taking out the trash as ‘an act of love’. It’s an act of necessity, because if you don’t do it, soon you and your family (and possibly your neighbours too) will be dealing with some not-too-pleasant consequences. But think about it — even if your motivation for taking out the trash is purely pragmatic, it requires an extension of yourself (i.e. some effort) in service of a broader good, which is exactly what love involves also. This is true of virtually every household chore that I can think of — that it’s really an act of love towards yourself and others living in that household. And if you believe that God is extending Godself in service of the broader good of your home, then your participation in these kinds of chores can rightly be seen as action for the love of God.
This is what Brother Lawrence discovered, and so he could describe the cleaning up of potato peels as the ‘holy labour of love’. This is how Abbe de Beaufort described this simple, godly monk at work:
‘And it was observed, that in the greatest hurry of business in the kitchen, he still preserved his recollection and heavenly mindedness. He was never hasty nor loitering, but did each thing in its season, with an even uninterrupted composure and tranquillity of spirit.’
So next time you’re faced with a household chore that you’d rather not do, rejoice in the gift that it presents for you to do something purely for love’s sake.
PUTTING FAITH INTO ACTION:
As a conscious gesture of love, offer to do one of the household chores that someone else in your family normally does. Let it produce in you a greater appreciation for what they do. Make sure that it’s a joyful experience—which simply requires you choosing it to be.
Think about some of the daily responsibilities that are yours, that could easily become a source of resentment to you. Write them down and ask God to transform them into occasions of deep joy for you:
PRAYER:
Gracious God, thank you so much that your presence in the world is not confined to ‘high and holy’ times and places, but is just as real in the mundane realities of daily life. Thank you that in the responsibilities of household necessities there is rich scope to grow and deepen in love. Help me to see this and to embrace this more and more. Amen.
Brother Lawrence was a 17th century monk who worked in the kitchen of his monastery in France. He wrote what has become a spiritual classic, entitled The Practice of the Presence of God. The central thrust of the book, which bore out Brother Lawrence’s own daily experience in the kitchen, is that it is precisely in the ordinary, everyday things of life that God’s presence can be fully and powerfully known.
In essence, this is what this entire Lenten course is about — discovering that it’s in the everyday things of life that our faith matters, and that’s where our faith can come most alive.
Of course we need the so-called ‘religious’ moments of corporate worship, bible study, Christian service and prayer. These are essential parts of the spiritual life, and can be very significant in opening us to God. But unless we are consistently finding ways to encounter God in our day-to-day living, our ‘high and holy’ moments run the real risk of becoming cut off and somewhat removed from the nitty-gritty realities of our everyday lives.
Brother Lawrence’s down-to-earth advice about practicing the presence of God offers wonderful help. He invites us to see every task, however menial, as no less sacred and infused with God’s love as when the priest lifts up the host (bread) in Holy Communion.
Nowhere is this more pertinent than at home where, if we’re honest, we’d admit that there are many housekeeping tasks that are quite simply a drag. Taking out the trash, washing the dishes, trying to get the vacuum cleaner to reach those little dustballs in the corner behind the couch (where do those things come from?), hanging up the laundry. It’s no surprise that most people of even average means pay for some kind of domestic assistance. And there are at least some people reading this who literally have no household chores to worry about at all. (I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t at least a little envious.)
But for most of us, there is some form of domestic responsibility that is ours; and for all of us, sooner or later, there are day-to-day tasks that come our way that we regard as something of a drag.
But actually, there can be an incredible gift in these things, if we choose to see it. For it’s precisely in the not-so-pleasant necessities of home life that we have a unique opportunity to do something purely for love’s sake. Before you roll your eyeballs at me and reach for a barf bag, let me explain:
I accept that you wouldn’t normally want to dress up a chore like taking out the trash as ‘an act of love’. It’s an act of necessity, because if you don’t do it, soon you and your family (and possibly your neighbours too) will be dealing with some not-too-pleasant consequences. But think about it — even if your motivation for taking out the trash is purely pragmatic, it requires an extension of yourself (i.e. some effort) in service of a broader good, which is exactly what love involves also. This is true of virtually every household chore that I can think of — that it’s really an act of love towards yourself and others living in that household. And if you believe that God is extending Godself in service of the broader good of your home, then your participation in these kinds of chores can rightly be seen as action for the love of God.
This is what Brother Lawrence discovered, and so he could describe the cleaning up of potato peels as the ‘holy labour of love’. This is how Abbe de Beaufort described this simple, godly monk at work:
‘And it was observed, that in the greatest hurry of business in the kitchen, he still preserved his recollection and heavenly mindedness. He was never hasty nor loitering, but did each thing in its season, with an even uninterrupted composure and tranquillity of spirit.’
So next time you’re faced with a household chore that you’d rather not do, rejoice in the gift that it presents for you to do something purely for love’s sake.
PUTTING FAITH INTO ACTION:
As a conscious gesture of love, offer to do one of the household chores that someone else in your family normally does. Let it produce in you a greater appreciation for what they do. Make sure that it’s a joyful experience—which simply requires you choosing it to be.
Think about some of the daily responsibilities that are yours, that could easily become a source of resentment to you. Write them down and ask God to transform them into occasions of deep joy for you:
PRAYER:
Gracious God, thank you so much that your presence in the world is not confined to ‘high and holy’ times and places, but is just as real in the mundane realities of daily life. Thank you that in the responsibilities of household necessities there is rich scope to grow and deepen in love. Help me to see this and to embrace this more and more. Amen.
Tuesday 23 February 2010
Day 6 - The Hospitality of Sacred Space
If you’re wanting to make improvements to your home there’s all sorts of advice readily available. You can browse through a copy of Garden & Home to get some ideas, or pick up any number of other magazines on interior decorating or DIY Home Improvements. Entire daytime television channels are dedicated to ideas and tips (and particularly products) that are designed to make home a more ‘homely’ place.
All of these things focus on the material aspects of a home — the colour of the walls, the layout of the garden, the choice of furniture and fabric. But what about the soul of a home? What advice is there concerning that?
I’m sure that many of us have had the experience of entering a stylish home that has all the latest fittings and finishes, and yet feels rather sterile. Like it has no soul. Conversely, we’ve all been in a home that may be pretty humble, that would never be featured on Top Billing, but there’s an unmistakeable energy and vibrant sense of joy and life that seems to pour out of the walls and through the windows. Instinctively we can sense the difference between a home with soul, and one without.
Thankfully, it has nothing to do with how much money it cost to build or furnish, but everything to do with the creation of sacred space where a home’s greatest gift — hospitality — can be freely given and received. Let me explain.
From time to time I’m called upon to offer a blessing for someone’s new home. I remember one occasion going to a home that had been newly built. The whole family and I went through every room of the house, stopping in each one, anointing it with oil, and offering prayers for all that would happen within them (yes, including the bedrooms and bathrooms!) It was a beautiful time of recognition that there is a whole lot of living that happens in a home, and that every space within it can play a unique and sacred part in allowing God’s intentions for blessing to be fulfilled.
When a kitchen becomes a place of soulful nurture; when an entertainment area becomes a place of laughter and togetherness and the deepening of friendship; when a bedroom becomes a place of rest and tender intimacy; when a living room becomes a place of lively conversation, good music or quiet solitude...then these varied spaces that make up a home are becoming sacred indeed. And the home’s greatest gift ... hospitality ... can be freely given and received. A gift, rightly understood, which is not just for the benefit of guests, but first and foremost is intended for a home’s regular inhabitants.
But when spaces within a home no longer serve their sacred purpose for God’s blessing to be experienced within them — they can become truly inhospitable.
So take a walk through your home and consider each and every space that it contains. Ask yourself what usually happens there, whether it’s lifegiving, whether it’s being used for the sacred purposes that God intends for it. Is it a space in which you easily feel more alive, more connected with those around you, more inclined to joy? If not, how can you begin to redeem each space, and return it to God’s intentions for it? Here are some practical ideas that hopefully will be helpful in getting you started:
Consider each space / room in your home and ask what its unique purpose might be in helping to enable God’s abundant life to be experienced.
Look carefully at the clutter that may be filling each space, and ruthlessly resolve to let it go. Anything that does not serve the sacred purpose of that space is a costly encumbrance that is a burden to the soul of your home.
Find something new that you can put in each space as a sacred symbol of its purpose, or else imbue an existing object with some sacred symbolism that can remind you, whenever you look at it or use it, of that space’s higher purpose. The choice of art can be particular helpful here, not only adding beauty but also meaning to a room.
Engage in simple rituals that can be ongoing reminders of your intention for every space in your home to become a sacred space. Opening the curtains in the morning to let the sunshine in can be a moment of grace if it’s done as a conscious expression of your desire to open the whole of your home to the radiance of God’s love. Holding hands as a family at the meal table as you say grace can be a powerful expression of your being bound together in good times and bad. (This can be especially apt if you’ve burnt the dinner!) Lighting a candle, or a stick of incense in a child’s room at bedtime, can be a beautiful reminder of the gentleness of God’s presence watching over little ones as they sleep. Waiting in the street for your electric gates to open can be a dramatic sign of the opening arms of God who is always glad to welcome you home. All that’s needed is to exercise your imagination, and your entire home can become a fertile, soulful playground waiting to be explored.
One final thought: The central thrust of this devotion has been to see how every space within your home can rightly be seen as a sacred space in which God’s goodness can be experienced and enjoyed. In addition to this it may be helpful to set aside a special place that you can use for your devotions and prayers. I, for instance, have a favourite chair, and next to it some special photographs of some of the people who have been very significant to me in my spiritual walk. And some art works that speak to me. And whenever I sit down in that chair, there is a hospitality that I experience that enfolds me and draws me gently into prayer. What would work for you?
PRAYER
Take my home and let it be, consecrated Lord, to Thee. Amen
All of these things focus on the material aspects of a home — the colour of the walls, the layout of the garden, the choice of furniture and fabric. But what about the soul of a home? What advice is there concerning that?
I’m sure that many of us have had the experience of entering a stylish home that has all the latest fittings and finishes, and yet feels rather sterile. Like it has no soul. Conversely, we’ve all been in a home that may be pretty humble, that would never be featured on Top Billing, but there’s an unmistakeable energy and vibrant sense of joy and life that seems to pour out of the walls and through the windows. Instinctively we can sense the difference between a home with soul, and one without.
Thankfully, it has nothing to do with how much money it cost to build or furnish, but everything to do with the creation of sacred space where a home’s greatest gift — hospitality — can be freely given and received. Let me explain.
From time to time I’m called upon to offer a blessing for someone’s new home. I remember one occasion going to a home that had been newly built. The whole family and I went through every room of the house, stopping in each one, anointing it with oil, and offering prayers for all that would happen within them (yes, including the bedrooms and bathrooms!) It was a beautiful time of recognition that there is a whole lot of living that happens in a home, and that every space within it can play a unique and sacred part in allowing God’s intentions for blessing to be fulfilled.
When a kitchen becomes a place of soulful nurture; when an entertainment area becomes a place of laughter and togetherness and the deepening of friendship; when a bedroom becomes a place of rest and tender intimacy; when a living room becomes a place of lively conversation, good music or quiet solitude...then these varied spaces that make up a home are becoming sacred indeed. And the home’s greatest gift ... hospitality ... can be freely given and received. A gift, rightly understood, which is not just for the benefit of guests, but first and foremost is intended for a home’s regular inhabitants.
But when spaces within a home no longer serve their sacred purpose for God’s blessing to be experienced within them — they can become truly inhospitable.
So take a walk through your home and consider each and every space that it contains. Ask yourself what usually happens there, whether it’s lifegiving, whether it’s being used for the sacred purposes that God intends for it. Is it a space in which you easily feel more alive, more connected with those around you, more inclined to joy? If not, how can you begin to redeem each space, and return it to God’s intentions for it? Here are some practical ideas that hopefully will be helpful in getting you started:
Consider each space / room in your home and ask what its unique purpose might be in helping to enable God’s abundant life to be experienced.
Look carefully at the clutter that may be filling each space, and ruthlessly resolve to let it go. Anything that does not serve the sacred purpose of that space is a costly encumbrance that is a burden to the soul of your home.
Find something new that you can put in each space as a sacred symbol of its purpose, or else imbue an existing object with some sacred symbolism that can remind you, whenever you look at it or use it, of that space’s higher purpose. The choice of art can be particular helpful here, not only adding beauty but also meaning to a room.
Engage in simple rituals that can be ongoing reminders of your intention for every space in your home to become a sacred space. Opening the curtains in the morning to let the sunshine in can be a moment of grace if it’s done as a conscious expression of your desire to open the whole of your home to the radiance of God’s love. Holding hands as a family at the meal table as you say grace can be a powerful expression of your being bound together in good times and bad. (This can be especially apt if you’ve burnt the dinner!) Lighting a candle, or a stick of incense in a child’s room at bedtime, can be a beautiful reminder of the gentleness of God’s presence watching over little ones as they sleep. Waiting in the street for your electric gates to open can be a dramatic sign of the opening arms of God who is always glad to welcome you home. All that’s needed is to exercise your imagination, and your entire home can become a fertile, soulful playground waiting to be explored.
One final thought: The central thrust of this devotion has been to see how every space within your home can rightly be seen as a sacred space in which God’s goodness can be experienced and enjoyed. In addition to this it may be helpful to set aside a special place that you can use for your devotions and prayers. I, for instance, have a favourite chair, and next to it some special photographs of some of the people who have been very significant to me in my spiritual walk. And some art works that speak to me. And whenever I sit down in that chair, there is a hospitality that I experience that enfolds me and draws me gently into prayer. What would work for you?
PRAYER
Take my home and let it be, consecrated Lord, to Thee. Amen
Monday 22 February 2010
Day 5 - Making Your Home a Sanctuary
What difference does your faith make to your life at home?
How does Jesus influence what happens in your home—the kind of person that you are, the things that you and your family do, and how you interact with others who may also be living there?
I’m aware that some people do not regard the place where they’re physically living right now as their home. If that’s true for you, I’d invite you, for the purposes of these devotions this week, to start thinking of the house, or townhouse, or flat, or room where you’re living as your home, however strange that may feel. Because the good news of the gospel is that our faith, if it’s a living faith, really can make a life-giving difference to where we live here and now.
(There will be some reading these words who live in grossly impoverished housing—mere shacks, without even the most basic services like electricity and running water. There are others reading these words who are homeless, who literally live on the streets of our city. I have to acknowledge that your daily reality is so vastly different from mine. I hope that what is written here is not a cause of further alienation for you. Certainly, the awareness of your situation helps me to see my home and my privilege in a whole new light.)
I’d like to begin by saying that your home can become a sanctuary! I don’t say that lightly because I’m aware that home can be a chaotic, demanding and draining place at times:
It begins by recognizing what a sanctuary is.
In secular understanding, a sanctuary is quite simply a safe place providing nurture and care. In religious understanding, a sanctuary usually refers to a church building where the worship of God takes place. Blending these two ideas together, how would you like your home to become a safe place of nurture and care, in which the worship of God happens through the day-to-day activities that are part of running a home?
Sound unrealistic? Impossibly optimistic? Well, Jesus would be hoping for nothing less. And if you place your faith in him, your home is one of the areas of your life that can be radically transformed by that living faith being put into action.
Over the rest of this week we’ll be exploring different dimensions of ‘home life’ from the perspective of faith, as we look for the transformation of our homes into sanctuaries.
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION:
Gracious God, I want so much for my home to become a place where you are known, and where the soulful things of life are experienced as a matter of course. I long for my home to become a sanctuary, but when I think of the chaos that often reigns there, I’m not so sure that this is possible. Guide me and help me I pray, especially in these devotions this week, that I might come to see the ways in which my life at home can be offered to you as a sacrifice that you would receive and bless and consecrate. Amen.
How does Jesus influence what happens in your home—the kind of person that you are, the things that you and your family do, and how you interact with others who may also be living there?
I’m aware that some people do not regard the place where they’re physically living right now as their home. If that’s true for you, I’d invite you, for the purposes of these devotions this week, to start thinking of the house, or townhouse, or flat, or room where you’re living as your home, however strange that may feel. Because the good news of the gospel is that our faith, if it’s a living faith, really can make a life-giving difference to where we live here and now.
(There will be some reading these words who live in grossly impoverished housing—mere shacks, without even the most basic services like electricity and running water. There are others reading these words who are homeless, who literally live on the streets of our city. I have to acknowledge that your daily reality is so vastly different from mine. I hope that what is written here is not a cause of further alienation for you. Certainly, the awareness of your situation helps me to see my home and my privilege in a whole new light.)
I’d like to begin by saying that your home can become a sanctuary! I don’t say that lightly because I’m aware that home can be a chaotic, demanding and draining place at times:
- Cooking and cleaning and basic home maintenance can take a great deal of energy, particularly when there are young children in the home. And when these responsibilities fall unfairly on the shoulders of some, it can become a source of great resentment.
- Then, of course, there are the complex dynamics of family relationships, which have a massive influence on the whole atmosphere at home. When there’s underlying or unresolved conflict with family members, home can be an emotionally exhausting place.
- And then, a home can also be a source of tremendous financial stress—due to the significant costs of servicing a bond, or paying the rent, or maintaining a property.
It begins by recognizing what a sanctuary is.
In secular understanding, a sanctuary is quite simply a safe place providing nurture and care. In religious understanding, a sanctuary usually refers to a church building where the worship of God takes place. Blending these two ideas together, how would you like your home to become a safe place of nurture and care, in which the worship of God happens through the day-to-day activities that are part of running a home?
Sound unrealistic? Impossibly optimistic? Well, Jesus would be hoping for nothing less. And if you place your faith in him, your home is one of the areas of your life that can be radically transformed by that living faith being put into action.
Over the rest of this week we’ll be exploring different dimensions of ‘home life’ from the perspective of faith, as we look for the transformation of our homes into sanctuaries.
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION:
- What difference would it make to you and your family if you lived, not just in a building, but in a sanctuary?
- What could you make with your own hands for your home that would be a source of great satisfaction and joy for you? It could be something decorative or something functional. Why not set yourself the goal of having it finished by no later than Easter Sunday, so that this Easter there would be something tangible in your home that would bear witness to your faith coming alive within you in fresh ways?
Gracious God, I want so much for my home to become a place where you are known, and where the soulful things of life are experienced as a matter of course. I long for my home to become a sanctuary, but when I think of the chaos that often reigns there, I’m not so sure that this is possible. Guide me and help me I pray, especially in these devotions this week, that I might come to see the ways in which my life at home can be offered to you as a sacrifice that you would receive and bless and consecrate. Amen.
Day 4 - Looking back on these first days of Lent
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION:
- As you look back on these first few days of Lent, what insights or observations come to mind that you would not want to forget?
- Turn back to the commitments that you made on Friday. Spend some time mulling over them. Is there anything that you’re needing to add? Think specifically of some helpful ways in which you can be held accountable to these commitments? Think of someone you could invite to be a Living Faith companion over this Lenten journey. Write down whatever thoughts or ideas come to mind, and then commit them to God in prayer.
Friday 19 February 2010
Day 3 - Persevering in Prayer
READING : LUKE 18-1-8
Whatever else this Lenten programme may mean for you, our greatest hope in offering it is that it will encourage you to persevere in prayer, that yours might become a thoroughly prayer-saturated life. This, more than anything else, is what can help transform our faith into a Living Faith.
There is a great deal that has been written on the subject of prayer over the ages, and with good reason. For prayer is one of the great mysteries of the spiritual life. To say that prayer is a mystery does not mean that prayer cannot be understood, but rather that it cannot be boxed within any one particular understanding. There are endless layers upon layers of meaning and insight that can be discovered when you plunge into the great adventure of the life of prayer.
Some people find this overwhelming, and even intimidating. And so they run away from prayer completely, or else turn to prayer only erratically and occasionally when caught up in some crisis. Faced with the wide expanse of this mighty ocean, they are hesitant even to get their feet wet in the waves of God’s prayerful presence that break continually upon the shore of their lives. Certainly, the thought of venturing beyond the shallows as a consistent pattern for their daily lives is something that they never even consider.
This is a great pity, because God is constantly calling out to us, longing for us to venture more boldly into the great mystery of prayer, where we can encounter God in ways that we never dreamed possible, find healing and wholeness for our brokenness and new direction and purpose for our lives.
This Lenten programme is a wonderful opportunity for us to respond to God’s invitation to encounter Him more profoundly in the life of prayer. As we seek to do that, the one quality that will help us more than any other is perseverance. According to the teaching of Jesus, our perseverance is perhaps the greatest requirement if we are to make progress in prayer.
Intuitively we know this to be true. People who say that prayer has failed them are those who have stopped praying. Have you ever heard anyone who has persevered in prayer say that prayer has failed them?
To illustrate this truth Jesus told the parable of the persistent widow and the callous judge (Luke 18:1-8). In the end, justice was served, not because of the judge’s sense of integrity but because of the widow’s perseverance in pleading her cause. Jesus uses the judge not as a point of comparison, but as a point of contrast with God. If a callous judge finally hears the cries of a poor widow, how much more will our loving heavenly Father hear the prayers of those who call to him, and respond quickly with justice and mercy.
Herein lies the secret of the importance of persevering in prayer. We persevere not in order to wear God down, but rather to keep us in that place of open expectation to recognise and receive all that God longs to do for us.
Phillips Brooks said it best when he said:
Prayer is not the overcoming of God’s reluctance.
Prayer is taking hold of God’s willingness!
So be encouraged as you commit yourself to persevering in prayer, especially in this season of Lent, and may you be wondrously surprised by the graciousness and generosity of God who longs to bless you abundantly.
PUTTING FAITH INTO ACTION:
What commitments are you willing to make as you embark on this Lenten discipleship programme? (For example: committing yourself to a dedicated time of prayer each day, worshipping every Sunday, following this guide every day, joining the DVD course on Thursdays, giving up something for Lent, attending the Friday morning Communion Services, praying each day for someone or some need that weighs heavily on your heart, etc.) Write these commitments down, and refer to them often over the coming weeks.
PRAYER:
“Yes, Lord, I will try to pray, even when I am afraid to face you and myself, even when I keep falling asleep or feel as though I am going around in circles, even when it seems that nothing is happening. Yes, Lord, I will pray - not only with others, not only supported by the rhythms of corporate worship, but also alone with you. I will try not to be afraid. Lord, give me courage and strength. Help me to see myself in the light of your mercy and choose you. Amen” (Henri Nouwen)
Whatever else this Lenten programme may mean for you, our greatest hope in offering it is that it will encourage you to persevere in prayer, that yours might become a thoroughly prayer-saturated life. This, more than anything else, is what can help transform our faith into a Living Faith.
There is a great deal that has been written on the subject of prayer over the ages, and with good reason. For prayer is one of the great mysteries of the spiritual life. To say that prayer is a mystery does not mean that prayer cannot be understood, but rather that it cannot be boxed within any one particular understanding. There are endless layers upon layers of meaning and insight that can be discovered when you plunge into the great adventure of the life of prayer.
Some people find this overwhelming, and even intimidating. And so they run away from prayer completely, or else turn to prayer only erratically and occasionally when caught up in some crisis. Faced with the wide expanse of this mighty ocean, they are hesitant even to get their feet wet in the waves of God’s prayerful presence that break continually upon the shore of their lives. Certainly, the thought of venturing beyond the shallows as a consistent pattern for their daily lives is something that they never even consider.
This is a great pity, because God is constantly calling out to us, longing for us to venture more boldly into the great mystery of prayer, where we can encounter God in ways that we never dreamed possible, find healing and wholeness for our brokenness and new direction and purpose for our lives.
This Lenten programme is a wonderful opportunity for us to respond to God’s invitation to encounter Him more profoundly in the life of prayer. As we seek to do that, the one quality that will help us more than any other is perseverance. According to the teaching of Jesus, our perseverance is perhaps the greatest requirement if we are to make progress in prayer.
Intuitively we know this to be true. People who say that prayer has failed them are those who have stopped praying. Have you ever heard anyone who has persevered in prayer say that prayer has failed them?
To illustrate this truth Jesus told the parable of the persistent widow and the callous judge (Luke 18:1-8). In the end, justice was served, not because of the judge’s sense of integrity but because of the widow’s perseverance in pleading her cause. Jesus uses the judge not as a point of comparison, but as a point of contrast with God. If a callous judge finally hears the cries of a poor widow, how much more will our loving heavenly Father hear the prayers of those who call to him, and respond quickly with justice and mercy.
Herein lies the secret of the importance of persevering in prayer. We persevere not in order to wear God down, but rather to keep us in that place of open expectation to recognise and receive all that God longs to do for us.
Phillips Brooks said it best when he said:
Prayer is not the overcoming of God’s reluctance.
Prayer is taking hold of God’s willingness!
So be encouraged as you commit yourself to persevering in prayer, especially in this season of Lent, and may you be wondrously surprised by the graciousness and generosity of God who longs to bless you abundantly.
PUTTING FAITH INTO ACTION:
What commitments are you willing to make as you embark on this Lenten discipleship programme? (For example: committing yourself to a dedicated time of prayer each day, worshipping every Sunday, following this guide every day, joining the DVD course on Thursdays, giving up something for Lent, attending the Friday morning Communion Services, praying each day for someone or some need that weighs heavily on your heart, etc.) Write these commitments down, and refer to them often over the coming weeks.
PRAYER:
“Yes, Lord, I will try to pray, even when I am afraid to face you and myself, even when I keep falling asleep or feel as though I am going around in circles, even when it seems that nothing is happening. Yes, Lord, I will pray - not only with others, not only supported by the rhythms of corporate worship, but also alone with you. I will try not to be afraid. Lord, give me courage and strength. Help me to see myself in the light of your mercy and choose you. Amen” (Henri Nouwen)
Thursday 18 February 2010
Day 2 - Lent
READING : MATTHEW 4:1-11
Yesterday we reflected on the meaning of Ash Wednesday. Today we reflect on the meaning of Lent as a whole.
The season of Lent originates from the early days of the Church as a time to prepare for Easter. It is seen as a time of introspection, spiritual discipline, fasting and repentance (i.e. an active turning away from sin). The season begins on Ash Wednesday and ends with the great celebration of Easter Sunday - a period of 40 days, not counting Sundays. The 40 days of Lent remind us of the 40 days that Jesus spent in the wilderness fasting, grappling with his purpose here on earth and facing the temptations of the devil.
The reason why Sundays are not counted in the 40 days is because Sunday, as the day of resurrection, has always been seen by the church as a feast day. This does not mean that the seven Sundays in Lent are not an important part of this season. Far from it! They are like exclamation marks that remind us, in the midst of our fasting and penitence, of the hope of resurrection and the promised feast of new life that is in Christ.
Lent provides opportunity for people to take ‘spiritual’ stock of their lives as they consider their purpose here on earth and how they are fulfilling it. It’s also a chance to be drawn more deeply into the mystery of Christ’s suffering, death and resurrection, which becomes the interpretive lens through which all things are viewed.
GIVING UP SOMETHING FOR LENT
Traditionally, people have given up something for Lent (which is really a form of fasting) as a way of being continually reminded to pray, and as a sign of their desire to be filled and nourished by God and not by the superficial things of this world.
The list of things that people could give up as part of their Lenten discipline is virtually endless. It could include things like chocolate, sugar in your tea or coffee, junk food, fizzy drinks, alcohol, cigarettes, TV, red meat, speeding, shopping for anything other than essential foodstuffs, movies, wearing make-up or designer-clothing, browsing the internet, computer games, or even some of your sleep.
When choosing something to give up for Lent it is helpful to choose something that will be difficult to let go of, which will frequently remind you of your intention to trust God. Remember, that the point is not to try to prove how disciplined you are, but to reveal how attached you are to superficial things and your deep need for God’s help and grace.
But observing Lent is not just about ‘giving up’ something. It’s also about ‘taking on’ certain commitments – such as prayer, bible reading and acts of service towards others. The commitments to following this daily devotional guide, and getting involved with the other elements of this Living Faith Lenten programme are good examples of this.
All of this may sound a little overwhelming. A little intense. A little daunting. Certainly, making a meaningful Lenten journey is not for the fainthearted – it requires discipline, commitment and perseverance. But be encouraged and reassured – you are not alone! There are others eager to make this journey also, and God’s own Spirit is promised to come to our aid. So go for it! It promises to make yours a Living Faith!
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION:
1. What are some of the feelings inside of you right now as you think about stepping out on this Lenten quest? What are you most afraid of?
2. Spend some time thinking about what you should give up this Lent. Ask the Spirit to stir within you and point you to what would be most beneficial. Write down any thoughts that come to mind in the space provided.
PRAYER:
Loving God, I want to embrace this Lenten season as the gift that it is from you. But I am also afraid that it will expose my weaknesses, reveal my addictions, highlight my lack of discipline and unmask the poverty of my faith. Help me to see that these ‘humiliations’ are in fact the stepping stones to trusting you more fully. Hold my hand, O God, as I begin this quest with you. Amen.
Yesterday we reflected on the meaning of Ash Wednesday. Today we reflect on the meaning of Lent as a whole.
The season of Lent originates from the early days of the Church as a time to prepare for Easter. It is seen as a time of introspection, spiritual discipline, fasting and repentance (i.e. an active turning away from sin). The season begins on Ash Wednesday and ends with the great celebration of Easter Sunday - a period of 40 days, not counting Sundays. The 40 days of Lent remind us of the 40 days that Jesus spent in the wilderness fasting, grappling with his purpose here on earth and facing the temptations of the devil.
The reason why Sundays are not counted in the 40 days is because Sunday, as the day of resurrection, has always been seen by the church as a feast day. This does not mean that the seven Sundays in Lent are not an important part of this season. Far from it! They are like exclamation marks that remind us, in the midst of our fasting and penitence, of the hope of resurrection and the promised feast of new life that is in Christ.
Lent provides opportunity for people to take ‘spiritual’ stock of their lives as they consider their purpose here on earth and how they are fulfilling it. It’s also a chance to be drawn more deeply into the mystery of Christ’s suffering, death and resurrection, which becomes the interpretive lens through which all things are viewed.
GIVING UP SOMETHING FOR LENT
Traditionally, people have given up something for Lent (which is really a form of fasting) as a way of being continually reminded to pray, and as a sign of their desire to be filled and nourished by God and not by the superficial things of this world.
The list of things that people could give up as part of their Lenten discipline is virtually endless. It could include things like chocolate, sugar in your tea or coffee, junk food, fizzy drinks, alcohol, cigarettes, TV, red meat, speeding, shopping for anything other than essential foodstuffs, movies, wearing make-up or designer-clothing, browsing the internet, computer games, or even some of your sleep.
When choosing something to give up for Lent it is helpful to choose something that will be difficult to let go of, which will frequently remind you of your intention to trust God. Remember, that the point is not to try to prove how disciplined you are, but to reveal how attached you are to superficial things and your deep need for God’s help and grace.
But observing Lent is not just about ‘giving up’ something. It’s also about ‘taking on’ certain commitments – such as prayer, bible reading and acts of service towards others. The commitments to following this daily devotional guide, and getting involved with the other elements of this Living Faith Lenten programme are good examples of this.
All of this may sound a little overwhelming. A little intense. A little daunting. Certainly, making a meaningful Lenten journey is not for the fainthearted – it requires discipline, commitment and perseverance. But be encouraged and reassured – you are not alone! There are others eager to make this journey also, and God’s own Spirit is promised to come to our aid. So go for it! It promises to make yours a Living Faith!
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION:
1. What are some of the feelings inside of you right now as you think about stepping out on this Lenten quest? What are you most afraid of?
2. Spend some time thinking about what you should give up this Lent. Ask the Spirit to stir within you and point you to what would be most beneficial. Write down any thoughts that come to mind in the space provided.
PRAYER:
Loving God, I want to embrace this Lenten season as the gift that it is from you. But I am also afraid that it will expose my weaknesses, reveal my addictions, highlight my lack of discipline and unmask the poverty of my faith. Help me to see that these ‘humiliations’ are in fact the stepping stones to trusting you more fully. Hold my hand, O God, as I begin this quest with you. Amen.
Day 1 - Ash Wednesday
READING: GENESIS 3:1-19
“You are dust and to dust you will return. Turn from your sin and return to Christ.”
These are the words that are traditionally spoken to people in the Ash Wednesday service when the sign of the cross is marked in ash on their foreheads. The words and the ashes remind us of two sobering facts that are true for every single one of us:
We are all mortal and are going to die someday.
We are all sinners in need of repentance.
If we think about it for a moment, this is radically counter-cultural, for two reasons. Firstly, the secular culture in which we all live has lost the language of mortality. Death is a taboo subject in our culture, best not talked about. Even for those clearly approaching death, either through terminal illness or old-age, it is still seldom spoken about honestly and frankly. Instead, every effort is made to ignore the fact of our mortality and to deny, for as long as possible, the approaching reality of death that comes to meet us all.
Secondly, the words and symbols of Ash Wednesday are radically counter-cultural in that we have also lost the language of sin. To speak of sin these days seems very old-fashioned and out of date, even in church!
And so to be told: “You are dust and to dust you will return. Turn from your sin and return to Christ” sounds a little strange, and maybe a bit harsh, to our modern ears.
But the gift of Ash Wednesday , and the entire season of Lent, is that it gives us the opportunity to face the truth of who we are, and recognize our deep need for God.
Facing the fact of our mortality - that one day we’re going to die - challenges our delusions of grandeur and encourages us to make the most of the lives we’re living here and now.
Facing the fact of our sinfulness - that left to ourselves we only make a mess of our lives - challenges our delusions of self-sufficiency and encourages us to allow God to do His wonderful work of forgiveness, healing and transformation within us.
Acknowledging these truths of who we really are enables us to turn to God in humility and honesty and own for ourselves our complete dependence upon God’s goodness and grace. This is exactly when God can do His most creative and exciting work in our lives that will take us down that path which leads to life at its best.
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION:
1. What do you think are the reasons why the overwhelming majority of all commercial advertisements in our culture feature young, healthy, attractive, athletic-looking men and women?
2. If this were to be the very last day of your life, what regrets would you have for the things you neglected to do or failed to accomplish in this lifetime?
Reflect on these words of St Augustine:
‘Before God can deliver us we must undeceive ourselves.’
PRAYER:
O God,
maker of every thing and judge of all that you have made,
from the dust of the earth you have formed us
and from the dust of death you would raise us up.
By the redemptive power of the cross,
create in us clean hearts
and put within us a new spirit,
that we may repent of our sins
and lead lives worthy of your calling
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
LIVING FAITH TOGETHER:
This evening, at 7pm, there will be an Ash Wednesday service in the church. You are strongly encouraged to attend this service, to receive the imposition of ashes and hear the grace-filled words spoken over your life, ‘You are dust and to dust you will return. Turn from your sin and return to Christ.’
Please pray for this service, for Roger who will be preaching, and Anna who will be sharing in the time of ministry, and for everyone who will be attending.
“You are dust and to dust you will return. Turn from your sin and return to Christ.”
These are the words that are traditionally spoken to people in the Ash Wednesday service when the sign of the cross is marked in ash on their foreheads. The words and the ashes remind us of two sobering facts that are true for every single one of us:
We are all mortal and are going to die someday.
We are all sinners in need of repentance.
If we think about it for a moment, this is radically counter-cultural, for two reasons. Firstly, the secular culture in which we all live has lost the language of mortality. Death is a taboo subject in our culture, best not talked about. Even for those clearly approaching death, either through terminal illness or old-age, it is still seldom spoken about honestly and frankly. Instead, every effort is made to ignore the fact of our mortality and to deny, for as long as possible, the approaching reality of death that comes to meet us all.
Secondly, the words and symbols of Ash Wednesday are radically counter-cultural in that we have also lost the language of sin. To speak of sin these days seems very old-fashioned and out of date, even in church!
And so to be told: “You are dust and to dust you will return. Turn from your sin and return to Christ” sounds a little strange, and maybe a bit harsh, to our modern ears.
But the gift of Ash Wednesday , and the entire season of Lent, is that it gives us the opportunity to face the truth of who we are, and recognize our deep need for God.
Facing the fact of our mortality - that one day we’re going to die - challenges our delusions of grandeur and encourages us to make the most of the lives we’re living here and now.
Facing the fact of our sinfulness - that left to ourselves we only make a mess of our lives - challenges our delusions of self-sufficiency and encourages us to allow God to do His wonderful work of forgiveness, healing and transformation within us.
Acknowledging these truths of who we really are enables us to turn to God in humility and honesty and own for ourselves our complete dependence upon God’s goodness and grace. This is exactly when God can do His most creative and exciting work in our lives that will take us down that path which leads to life at its best.
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION:
1. What do you think are the reasons why the overwhelming majority of all commercial advertisements in our culture feature young, healthy, attractive, athletic-looking men and women?
2. If this were to be the very last day of your life, what regrets would you have for the things you neglected to do or failed to accomplish in this lifetime?
Reflect on these words of St Augustine:
‘Before God can deliver us we must undeceive ourselves.’
PRAYER:
O God,
maker of every thing and judge of all that you have made,
from the dust of the earth you have formed us
and from the dust of death you would raise us up.
By the redemptive power of the cross,
create in us clean hearts
and put within us a new spirit,
that we may repent of our sins
and lead lives worthy of your calling
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
LIVING FAITH TOGETHER:
This evening, at 7pm, there will be an Ash Wednesday service in the church. You are strongly encouraged to attend this service, to receive the imposition of ashes and hear the grace-filled words spoken over your life, ‘You are dust and to dust you will return. Turn from your sin and return to Christ.’
Please pray for this service, for Roger who will be preaching, and Anna who will be sharing in the time of ministry, and for everyone who will be attending.
Tuesday 16 February 2010
Shrove Tuesday, Fat Tuesday
DAILY BYTE
Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, which marks the start of the season of Lent. There will be reflections on the significance of Ash Wednesday and Lent in the devotions later this week. I would certainly want to encourage you to make an intentional Lenten journey this year, and hope that the resource of these s you continue to use these devotions every day.
This day before the start of Lent is known in differing traditions by different names. In one tradition this is known as Shrove Tuesday. The word ‘shrove’ is the past tense of the old English word ‘shrive’, which means to obtain absolution for one’s sins by way of confession and doing penance. On this day, Christians were expected to go to confession in preparation for the penitential season of Lent. Which sounds like pretty serious religious stuff.
In other traditions this day before the start of the season of Lent is known as Fat Tuesday, or Mardi Gras in French. It is seen as a day for eating rich food and using up all the ‘fat’ in the kitchen before the fasting season of Lent begins. Which is why eating pancakes is often associated with this day. This idea of feasting and celebrating before the Lenten fast begins gains its fullest expression in the carnival type festivities of Mardi Gras celebrations. Which doesn’t sound like serious religious stuff at all.
So which of these two traditions resonates more with you? To obtain absolution for one’s sins by way of confession and doing penance? Or to feast and celebrate? Certainly, most people, if given the choice, would rather go to a Carnival than sit in a confessional.
But what if the deeper truth is that these two seemingly differing traditions are not contradictory of each other?
Could it be that the way to true feasting and celebration lies in the truthful confession of what is really going on in our lives, so that we can be released from the baggage of our sin?
And could it equally be that the way to truthful confession lies in celebrating God’s abundance and feasting on the richness of God’s grace, so that we can find the confidence to come before God to seek the mercy that we so desperately need?
Whether you mark this day in any particular way or not, the traditions associated with it can be a helpful point of reflection as we think about what we believe, and the place of confession and celebration in our lives.
PRAYER
Gracious God, as the season of Lent is about to begin, help me this year to make an intentional journey through it. Remind me that without truthful confession of what is really going on in my life, I will never be able to celebrate the fullness of your love for me. And remind me too, that in celebrating who you are and your rich gift of life to me, I can find the confidence to approach your throne of grace. May this be true for me today, and this entire Lenten season I pray. Amen
READING
‘You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’ John 8:32
Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, which marks the start of the season of Lent. There will be reflections on the significance of Ash Wednesday and Lent in the devotions later this week. I would certainly want to encourage you to make an intentional Lenten journey this year, and hope that the resource of these s you continue to use these devotions every day.
This day before the start of Lent is known in differing traditions by different names. In one tradition this is known as Shrove Tuesday. The word ‘shrove’ is the past tense of the old English word ‘shrive’, which means to obtain absolution for one’s sins by way of confession and doing penance. On this day, Christians were expected to go to confession in preparation for the penitential season of Lent. Which sounds like pretty serious religious stuff.
In other traditions this day before the start of the season of Lent is known as Fat Tuesday, or Mardi Gras in French. It is seen as a day for eating rich food and using up all the ‘fat’ in the kitchen before the fasting season of Lent begins. Which is why eating pancakes is often associated with this day. This idea of feasting and celebrating before the Lenten fast begins gains its fullest expression in the carnival type festivities of Mardi Gras celebrations. Which doesn’t sound like serious religious stuff at all.
So which of these two traditions resonates more with you? To obtain absolution for one’s sins by way of confession and doing penance? Or to feast and celebrate? Certainly, most people, if given the choice, would rather go to a Carnival than sit in a confessional.
But what if the deeper truth is that these two seemingly differing traditions are not contradictory of each other?
Could it be that the way to true feasting and celebration lies in the truthful confession of what is really going on in our lives, so that we can be released from the baggage of our sin?
And could it equally be that the way to truthful confession lies in celebrating God’s abundance and feasting on the richness of God’s grace, so that we can find the confidence to come before God to seek the mercy that we so desperately need?
Whether you mark this day in any particular way or not, the traditions associated with it can be a helpful point of reflection as we think about what we believe, and the place of confession and celebration in our lives.
PRAYER
Gracious God, as the season of Lent is about to begin, help me this year to make an intentional journey through it. Remind me that without truthful confession of what is really going on in my life, I will never be able to celebrate the fullness of your love for me. And remind me too, that in celebrating who you are and your rich gift of life to me, I can find the confidence to approach your throne of grace. May this be true for me today, and this entire Lenten season I pray. Amen
READING
‘You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’ John 8:32
Monday 15 February 2010
Bible-Reading
DAILY BYTE
We’ve all experienced the pleasure of reading a book that we thoroughly enjoyed, but that has no lasting impact. Such books are entertaining and informative, but not life changing. When we finish these books, we have more knowledge but not more character. We are still the same persons we were before.
Unfortunately, this is how we sometimes read the Bible. We look for information, but don’t personally interact with what we learn. We don’t expect our characters to be challenged and changed. The purpose of the Bible is not just information but transformation. The Bible was never written just to be read, it was intended to be listened to and obeyed as well.
With this in mind, today’s devotion is about an ancient form of reading and listening to the Bible. It is called LECTIO DIVINA, and has been acknowledged as a particular spiritual discipline for many centuries. LECTIO means reading; while DIVINA means divine. In other words, it means sacred or holy reading. LECTIO DIVINA is a slow, contemplative reading and praying of the Scriptures that enables you to experience a life-changing union with God. It involves a number of steps, each of which is outlined below.
PRAYER
READING
2 Timothy 3.15-17 (MSG)
There's nothing like the written Word of God for showing you the way to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Every part of Scripture is God-breathed and useful one way or another—showing us truth, exposing our rebellion, correcting our mistakes, training us to live God's way. Through the Word we are put together and shaped up for the tasks God has for us.
Unfortunately, this is how we sometimes read the Bible. We look for information, but don’t personally interact with what we learn. We don’t expect our characters to be challenged and changed. The purpose of the Bible is not just information but transformation. The Bible was never written just to be read, it was intended to be listened to and obeyed as well.
With this in mind, today’s devotion is about an ancient form of reading and listening to the Bible. It is called LECTIO DIVINA, and has been acknowledged as a particular spiritual discipline for many centuries. LECTIO means reading; while DIVINA means divine. In other words, it means sacred or holy reading. LECTIO DIVINA is a slow, contemplative reading and praying of the Scriptures that enables you to experience a life-changing union with God. It involves a number of steps, each of which is outlined below.
- This method of Bible study begins with slow, reverential reading. You must take your time with it. Let the words sink in one at a time. We’re not accustomed to reading this way. Many of us read the Bible as we read a novel or the newspaper—the main purpose being to finish. But in transformational Bible study, we will begin with a small passage and read it once. Then we slow down and read it again and again.
- After you read the passage two or three times, meditate on it. That simply means taking time to think about it. Ask yourself questions such as, “What was Paul saying? What did Jesus mean? Why did the Psalmist express it this way?” What does the passage actually say? Do I understand its context? How might this change my life?” Use a commentary if you have to, but ensure that you think carefully over the passages for yourself, asking questions and considering all the possible meanings.
- This leads us to the next step in the process, which is to pray over the Scripture you are reading. Prayer is a conversation or dialogue with God, not a monologue. We need to listen as much as we speak. Spend significant time in quiet before God, and only then begin to pour out your heart to God, asking him for strength, guidance, and direction.
- The last step of this process is contemplation. At first glance, contemplation and meditation seem like synonyms, but there is a distinction between the two. Contemplation is the process of nailing down how to put God’s Word into action. As you prayerfully read the Scripture, you discover biblical truths, principles, warnings, and commands. The goal is to define what specific thing God wants you to do to put these truths to work in your life. This is what it’s all leading up to—that we will become “doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves” (James 1:22 NASB).
PRAYER
Lord God, thank-you for the gift of the Bible. We pray that you would teach us to carefully read, listen to and obey it. Help us to have the discipline to regularly and consistently personally interact with your Word. In the name of Jesus, who is Word and Life. Amen.
READING
2 Timothy 3.15-17 (MSG)
Friday 12 February 2010
Suffering Psalms - Part 2
DAILY BYTE
Yesterday, we prayed through Psalm 13, grabbing hold of the permission God gives us to be honest in our prayers, expressing suffering and grief. But today, we have the opportunity to look at something else perhaps even more remarkable than that kind of honesty in this psalm.
In her book, Getting Involved with God: Rediscovering the Old Testament, Ellen Davis writes that lament psalms like this one move from “complaint to confidence in God, from desperate petition to anticipatory praise…without ever telling us that the external situation has changed for the better.”
Pray through Psalm 13 again, keeping this in mind!
Psalm 13
“How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I bear pain in my soul, and have sorrow in my heart all day long?
How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?
Consider and answer me, O Lord my God!
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death,
and my enemy will say, “I have prevailed”’
my foes will rejoice because I am shaken.
But I trusted in your steadfast love;
my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
I will sing to the Lord,
because he has dealt bountifully with me.”
Notice the shift from grief and frustration to trust and praise. It moves straight from one to the other even though we have no proof that the source of the sadness and frustration is gone!
What we do know, though, is that the more we make these prayers our own prayers, the more we are changed in the midst of situations of suffering, even if the suffering itself does not change.
These prayers lead us on a journey through tragedy toward hope, recognizing that life can be very hard, but if we join together with people in the past and people in our community of faith today, we have everything we need to engage with this struggle.
PRAY AS YOU GO
Suffering God, we thank you for the sustenance of the psalms and other people of faith who walk with us on our life journeys. Help us to persevere, as we struggle together, drawing nearer to one another and nearer to you. Amen.
Yesterday, we prayed through Psalm 13, grabbing hold of the permission God gives us to be honest in our prayers, expressing suffering and grief. But today, we have the opportunity to look at something else perhaps even more remarkable than that kind of honesty in this psalm.
In her book, Getting Involved with God: Rediscovering the Old Testament, Ellen Davis writes that lament psalms like this one move from “complaint to confidence in God, from desperate petition to anticipatory praise…without ever telling us that the external situation has changed for the better.”
Pray through Psalm 13 again, keeping this in mind!
Psalm 13
“How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I bear pain in my soul, and have sorrow in my heart all day long?
How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?
Consider and answer me, O Lord my God!
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death,
and my enemy will say, “I have prevailed”’
my foes will rejoice because I am shaken.
But I trusted in your steadfast love;
my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
I will sing to the Lord,
because he has dealt bountifully with me.”
Notice the shift from grief and frustration to trust and praise. It moves straight from one to the other even though we have no proof that the source of the sadness and frustration is gone!
What we do know, though, is that the more we make these prayers our own prayers, the more we are changed in the midst of situations of suffering, even if the suffering itself does not change.
These prayers lead us on a journey through tragedy toward hope, recognizing that life can be very hard, but if we join together with people in the past and people in our community of faith today, we have everything we need to engage with this struggle.
PRAY AS YOU GO
Suffering God, we thank you for the sustenance of the psalms and other people of faith who walk with us on our life journeys. Help us to persevere, as we struggle together, drawing nearer to one another and nearer to you. Amen.
Thursday 11 February 2010
Suffering Psalms - Part 1
DAILY BYTE
Our favorite way to be in church – and in life it seems – is to be happy. I wouldn’t dare try to count the number of magazines and songs that focus on this never-ending goal. We teach our children songs like “ The Happy Song” by Martin Smith, part of which goes: “Everybody’s singing now, ‘cause we’re so happy! Everybody’s dancing now, ‘cause we’re so happy!”
It would be nice if that were actually true. I concede that there is absolutely a place for this kind of praise and exclamation of overt joy in our lives. I also affirm that there are times when we must learn to exclaim joy as a proclamation of hope for what we desire for ourselves and the world around us in the future.
However, the reality is that most of us are not overtly happy most of the time. In fact, most of us are struggling with some pretty serious issues most of the time, and as the devotions have discussed this week, to be true community, we must learn to be honest with one another about our struggles and suffering, not simply plaster on a happy face and avoid reality.
As it turns out, many people who have come before us also struggled, and some of them preserved their struggle for us, profoundly naming it The Word of God. We find particularly powerful permission from God to express both our joy and our grief in the stunning beauty and often gruesome honesty of the Psalms.
We tend to quote the psalms of praise and hallelujah quite frequently. But, the overwhelming majority of the psalms actually focus on expressing anger, grief, and confusion!
As you pray through such a psalm of lament today, it is important to note, that these prayers and songs were written by a community and for a community. It is important that we read them together, as we learn to struggle together through our individual and communal suffering.
PRAY AS YOU GO
Psalm 13
How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I bear pain in my soul, and have sorrow in my heart all day long?
How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?
Consider and answer me, O Lord my God!
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death,
and my enemy will say, “I have prevailed”’
my foes will rejoice because I am shaken.
But I trusted in your steadfast love;
my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
I will sing to the Lord,
because he has dealt bountifully with me.
IF YOU ARE FEELING BRAVE…
Re-write this Psalm in your own words, as you reflect upon the challenging circumstances in your own life or in the life of someone you love.
Our favorite way to be in church – and in life it seems – is to be happy. I wouldn’t dare try to count the number of magazines and songs that focus on this never-ending goal. We teach our children songs like “ The Happy Song” by Martin Smith, part of which goes: “Everybody’s singing now, ‘cause we’re so happy! Everybody’s dancing now, ‘cause we’re so happy!”
It would be nice if that were actually true. I concede that there is absolutely a place for this kind of praise and exclamation of overt joy in our lives. I also affirm that there are times when we must learn to exclaim joy as a proclamation of hope for what we desire for ourselves and the world around us in the future.
However, the reality is that most of us are not overtly happy most of the time. In fact, most of us are struggling with some pretty serious issues most of the time, and as the devotions have discussed this week, to be true community, we must learn to be honest with one another about our struggles and suffering, not simply plaster on a happy face and avoid reality.
As it turns out, many people who have come before us also struggled, and some of them preserved their struggle for us, profoundly naming it The Word of God. We find particularly powerful permission from God to express both our joy and our grief in the stunning beauty and often gruesome honesty of the Psalms.
We tend to quote the psalms of praise and hallelujah quite frequently. But, the overwhelming majority of the psalms actually focus on expressing anger, grief, and confusion!
As you pray through such a psalm of lament today, it is important to note, that these prayers and songs were written by a community and for a community. It is important that we read them together, as we learn to struggle together through our individual and communal suffering.
PRAY AS YOU GO
Psalm 13
How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I bear pain in my soul, and have sorrow in my heart all day long?
How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?
Consider and answer me, O Lord my God!
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death,
and my enemy will say, “I have prevailed”’
my foes will rejoice because I am shaken.
But I trusted in your steadfast love;
my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
I will sing to the Lord,
because he has dealt bountifully with me.
IF YOU ARE FEELING BRAVE…
Re-write this Psalm in your own words, as you reflect upon the challenging circumstances in your own life or in the life of someone you love.
All Saints
DAILY BYTE
On the first Sunday in November, the church all around the world celebrates one of my favorite holidays – or Holy Days. All Saints Sunday. This is the day in the Christian year when we recognize that we are part of a community encompassing both the earthly and heavenly realms. It is a community that is alive in the way that it prays and teaches us how to live. We recognize that living in this world is not easy, and as we look at the lives of people who have gone before us, we acknowledge that suffering has happened and that it continues to happen. We also, however, see that the way people who have gone before us have lived, suffered, and died has something to teach us today about how to live together as a life-giving community.
What does it really mean for our lives that we are part of a community that includes both people who are alive on earth and people who have physically died? Does this not sound a bit crazy?
Perhaps, but today, I offer to you to the words of one well-known man who suffered greatly in his life. This voice that speaks out from the communion of saints is St. Francis of Assisi. Although he wrote this prayer in the 13th Century, it still yields truth today, as we acknowledge our world as it is and strive to imagine a world that can be different – one in which all of us help to bear one another’s pain:
Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace;
where there is hatred, let me sew love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood, as to understand,
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
PRAY AS YOU GO
Proclaim today the Apostles’ Creed, as a prayer. This is an authoritative statement about what we believe, as followers of Christ that was compiled a long time ago in the 8th century, and yet, it still rings true today:
I believe in God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth:
I believe in Jesus Christ his only Son, our Lord.
He was conceived by the Holy Spirit
And born of the Virgin Mary.
He suffered under Pontius Pilate,
Was crucified, died, and was buried.
He descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again.
He ascended into heaven,
And is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
The holy catholic Church,
The communion of saints,
The forgiveness of sins,
The resurrection of the body,
And the life everlasting. Amen.
FOCUS READING
Ephesians 2:19-22
So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built into it for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
On the first Sunday in November, the church all around the world celebrates one of my favorite holidays – or Holy Days. All Saints Sunday. This is the day in the Christian year when we recognize that we are part of a community encompassing both the earthly and heavenly realms. It is a community that is alive in the way that it prays and teaches us how to live. We recognize that living in this world is not easy, and as we look at the lives of people who have gone before us, we acknowledge that suffering has happened and that it continues to happen. We also, however, see that the way people who have gone before us have lived, suffered, and died has something to teach us today about how to live together as a life-giving community.
What does it really mean for our lives that we are part of a community that includes both people who are alive on earth and people who have physically died? Does this not sound a bit crazy?
Perhaps, but today, I offer to you to the words of one well-known man who suffered greatly in his life. This voice that speaks out from the communion of saints is St. Francis of Assisi. Although he wrote this prayer in the 13th Century, it still yields truth today, as we acknowledge our world as it is and strive to imagine a world that can be different – one in which all of us help to bear one another’s pain:
Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace;
where there is hatred, let me sew love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood, as to understand,
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
PRAY AS YOU GO
Proclaim today the Apostles’ Creed, as a prayer. This is an authoritative statement about what we believe, as followers of Christ that was compiled a long time ago in the 8th century, and yet, it still rings true today:
I believe in God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth:
I believe in Jesus Christ his only Son, our Lord.
He was conceived by the Holy Spirit
And born of the Virgin Mary.
He suffered under Pontius Pilate,
Was crucified, died, and was buried.
He descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again.
He ascended into heaven,
And is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
The holy catholic Church,
The communion of saints,
The forgiveness of sins,
The resurrection of the body,
And the life everlasting. Amen.
FOCUS READING
Ephesians 2:19-22
So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built into it for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
Holding the Cup
DAILY BYTE
While I’m not a parent, I have spent a lot of time caring for other peoples’ children in my life. And one of the many things you learn when caring for small children is that they don’t know naturally that they must hold a cup with two hands. It only takes watching one grubby, little hand attempt to grab a cup and promptly spill it all down the front of her shirt to realize that some gentle instruction (and a clean shirt) may be necessary.
We’re talking this week about the surprises of God in the midst of suffering, and let me suggest today that one of the beautiful surprises we gain in confronting suffering is that we live in community that bears suffering with us. We learn to bear the cup of suffering in a similar way that a child learns to carry a cup with two hands. We don’t learn on our own how to endure tragedy and grief. Instead, when we are learning to carry a load that is particularly heavy or difficult to balance, others who have endured suffering before can teach us how to bear it carefully and tenderly.
When my mother died a few years ago, I was inconsolable for a long time and was often sent into even deeper grief by well meant but ultimately unhelpful comments about the ways that people who really didn’t understand exactly what I was going through claimed that they did. It took me a while to realize that those who had gone before me and had experienced similar tragedy, including my own mother, as part of the communion of saints, could actually help me to wade slowly through my pain. People who had endured similar life experiences did have some helpful wisdom. They had strategies and patience, and they were the only ones I was able to listen to.
When Jesus cried out to God in the Garden of Gethsemane with the prayer that God might take away his cup of suffering, Jesus showed us the need for even God in human form to draw other human beings alongside of him and allow them to be present with him in his suffering.
Who are you helping currently to carry their cup of suffering? Who are you allowing to draw alongside of you, teaching you to endure your own struggle?
FOCUS READING
Mark 14:32-36
They went to a place called Gethsemane, and Jesus said to his disciples, "Sit here while I pray." He took Peter, James and John along with him, and he began to be deeply distressed and troubled. "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death," he said to them. "Stay here and keep watch." Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him. "Abba, Father," he said, "everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will."
PRAY AS YOU GO
Caring God, you are a god who exemplifies community in your very self. You are one God and yet Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. With everything that you are, you teach us to rely on others and on you. You teach us to reach out to others and reach out to you. Encourage us in our journeys of helping others and ourselves bear the cup of suffering in this life with care and tenderness. Amen.
While I’m not a parent, I have spent a lot of time caring for other peoples’ children in my life. And one of the many things you learn when caring for small children is that they don’t know naturally that they must hold a cup with two hands. It only takes watching one grubby, little hand attempt to grab a cup and promptly spill it all down the front of her shirt to realize that some gentle instruction (and a clean shirt) may be necessary.
We’re talking this week about the surprises of God in the midst of suffering, and let me suggest today that one of the beautiful surprises we gain in confronting suffering is that we live in community that bears suffering with us. We learn to bear the cup of suffering in a similar way that a child learns to carry a cup with two hands. We don’t learn on our own how to endure tragedy and grief. Instead, when we are learning to carry a load that is particularly heavy or difficult to balance, others who have endured suffering before can teach us how to bear it carefully and tenderly.
When my mother died a few years ago, I was inconsolable for a long time and was often sent into even deeper grief by well meant but ultimately unhelpful comments about the ways that people who really didn’t understand exactly what I was going through claimed that they did. It took me a while to realize that those who had gone before me and had experienced similar tragedy, including my own mother, as part of the communion of saints, could actually help me to wade slowly through my pain. People who had endured similar life experiences did have some helpful wisdom. They had strategies and patience, and they were the only ones I was able to listen to.
When Jesus cried out to God in the Garden of Gethsemane with the prayer that God might take away his cup of suffering, Jesus showed us the need for even God in human form to draw other human beings alongside of him and allow them to be present with him in his suffering.
Who are you helping currently to carry their cup of suffering? Who are you allowing to draw alongside of you, teaching you to endure your own struggle?
FOCUS READING
Mark 14:32-36
They went to a place called Gethsemane, and Jesus said to his disciples, "Sit here while I pray." He took Peter, James and John along with him, and he began to be deeply distressed and troubled. "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death," he said to them. "Stay here and keep watch." Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him. "Abba, Father," he said, "everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will."
PRAY AS YOU GO
Caring God, you are a god who exemplifies community in your very self. You are one God and yet Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. With everything that you are, you teach us to rely on others and on you. You teach us to reach out to others and reach out to you. Encourage us in our journeys of helping others and ourselves bear the cup of suffering in this life with care and tenderness. Amen.
Monday 8 February 2010
A Wake-up Call
by Rev Anna Layman
DAILY BYTE
Which is easier? Avoiding certain people, issues, and places that cause us to confront suffering? Or, opening our eyes to the suffering within ourselves and all around us? The answer seems obvious…but, in our frequent blindness, are we actually being harmful, preventing ourselves and those around us from seeing the world and God as they truly are? Are we preventing ourselves from being surprised by God’s presence in the midst of our own suffering and the suffering of others?
I was just nine years old when my family visited Yad Vashem, which literally means, A Memorial Place and a Name. And it was a place and a name that changed the way I’ve looked at humanity and God for the rest of my life. Yad Vashem is the Holocaust Martyrs and Heroes Remembrance Authority in Israel. It is a place of commemoration and study that focuses on the extermination of people during the Holocaust in World War II. Now, remember that I was nine years old. I grew up in American farm country. I had no concept of a Holocaust – a mass slaughter, a reckless destruction of life. In my personal experience, it had never occurred to me that such suffering was remotely possible.
But, I vividly remember that when we got off the tour bus that day, not everyone got off the bus, and I wanted to know why. I asked my mom why I had to go, if other people chose not to see. She responded firmly that we had to learn about these things because they’re real. We had to learn so we could change the world and prevent them from happening again. I didn’t know what she was talking about.
But it didn’t take me very long to figure out because we entered the museum, and all over the walls were plastered images of every imaginable and unimaginable form of suffering. Young women and children who were skeletal and naked stared back at me with their hollow eyes until I could no longer bear to look. So, I closed my eyes and felt my way along the walls, bumping into people and corners until finally, my dad caught sight of me, blind and crying, snatched me up in his arms, and carried me out. That night, my mom found me wandering the halls of our hotel, weeping. I don’t understand, I said. Why are people doing that to one another? What if this happens to all the Christians next?
Little did I know that human suffering is not confined to any one group or people of certain beliefs. Little did I know when I was nine, that when you become a Christian, you do not grow a protective bubble around you so that nothing can ever harm you. As we grow up, we all face this shocking realization, and we re-face it every morning when we look in the mirror still to find ourselves human. We are vulnerable, and suffering is, undeniably, all around us and within us. I simply hadn’t cultivated eyes to see it yet. I was not appreciative when I was little that my mother had the wisdom to make me get off the bus, but seventeen years later, I am so grateful that she made me see and confront life, as it really is.
Seeing images of the Holocaust was a wake-up call in my journey of confronting suffering. It’s quite a drastic example, and I hesitate to use it for fear that it could prevent us from focusing on forms of suffering that may be less dramatic or obvious but are equally challenging in our daily lives. Suffering from addiction. Homelessness. A life-zapping job. Exams. An abusive relationship. Depression. A sick child. A parent who is facing imminent death.
These things are real. Where do you see suffering in your own life or in lives around you? How might this suffering surprise you in the way it teaches you about who we are, as human beings, and who God is? Do you need a wake-up call to see life the way it really is, for better or worse? Has your vision been blurred so that instead of the reality of yourself and others, you merely have seen “trees walking”?
FOCUS READING
Mark 8:22-25
They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man's eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, "Do you see anything?" He looked up and said, "I see people; they look like trees walking around." Once more Jesus put his hands on the man's eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.
DAILY BYTE
Which is easier? Avoiding certain people, issues, and places that cause us to confront suffering? Or, opening our eyes to the suffering within ourselves and all around us? The answer seems obvious…but, in our frequent blindness, are we actually being harmful, preventing ourselves and those around us from seeing the world and God as they truly are? Are we preventing ourselves from being surprised by God’s presence in the midst of our own suffering and the suffering of others?
I was just nine years old when my family visited Yad Vashem, which literally means, A Memorial Place and a Name. And it was a place and a name that changed the way I’ve looked at humanity and God for the rest of my life. Yad Vashem is the Holocaust Martyrs and Heroes Remembrance Authority in Israel. It is a place of commemoration and study that focuses on the extermination of people during the Holocaust in World War II. Now, remember that I was nine years old. I grew up in American farm country. I had no concept of a Holocaust – a mass slaughter, a reckless destruction of life. In my personal experience, it had never occurred to me that such suffering was remotely possible.
But, I vividly remember that when we got off the tour bus that day, not everyone got off the bus, and I wanted to know why. I asked my mom why I had to go, if other people chose not to see. She responded firmly that we had to learn about these things because they’re real. We had to learn so we could change the world and prevent them from happening again. I didn’t know what she was talking about.
But it didn’t take me very long to figure out because we entered the museum, and all over the walls were plastered images of every imaginable and unimaginable form of suffering. Young women and children who were skeletal and naked stared back at me with their hollow eyes until I could no longer bear to look. So, I closed my eyes and felt my way along the walls, bumping into people and corners until finally, my dad caught sight of me, blind and crying, snatched me up in his arms, and carried me out. That night, my mom found me wandering the halls of our hotel, weeping. I don’t understand, I said. Why are people doing that to one another? What if this happens to all the Christians next?
Little did I know that human suffering is not confined to any one group or people of certain beliefs. Little did I know when I was nine, that when you become a Christian, you do not grow a protective bubble around you so that nothing can ever harm you. As we grow up, we all face this shocking realization, and we re-face it every morning when we look in the mirror still to find ourselves human. We are vulnerable, and suffering is, undeniably, all around us and within us. I simply hadn’t cultivated eyes to see it yet. I was not appreciative when I was little that my mother had the wisdom to make me get off the bus, but seventeen years later, I am so grateful that she made me see and confront life, as it really is.
Seeing images of the Holocaust was a wake-up call in my journey of confronting suffering. It’s quite a drastic example, and I hesitate to use it for fear that it could prevent us from focusing on forms of suffering that may be less dramatic or obvious but are equally challenging in our daily lives. Suffering from addiction. Homelessness. A life-zapping job. Exams. An abusive relationship. Depression. A sick child. A parent who is facing imminent death.
These things are real. Where do you see suffering in your own life or in lives around you? How might this suffering surprise you in the way it teaches you about who we are, as human beings, and who God is? Do you need a wake-up call to see life the way it really is, for better or worse? Has your vision been blurred so that instead of the reality of yourself and others, you merely have seen “trees walking”?
FOCUS READING
Mark 8:22-25
They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man's eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, "Do you see anything?" He looked up and said, "I see people; they look like trees walking around." Once more Jesus put his hands on the man's eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.
Waiting for Good
DAILY BYTE
We have seen the wise men demonstrate for us at Christmas that praise is the one and often only response that we can offer to God freely and authentically, even when it is dark, because praise does not only indicate elation and ecstasy.
Praise must also mean faith in a tiny, seemingly unrealistic promise of a world renewed and restored by the power of a loving and almighty God. Praise is not only for the good times, times of plenty, times of prosperity and good health, but it is for all times, the ones that bring us happiness and the ones that cause us pain.
For little children born into squalor and for each of us here today, we must learn to praise God holding the joys and the sadnesses in both hands. We met one of these children amidst the devotions for this week. His name is Lindokuhle.
So, as we prepare for the weekend and Sabbath rest, let us, as Lindokuhle’s name encourages, "wait for good" in the spirit of faith.
For goodness is what God has promised us in the birth of Jesus.
Let us join with all of creation, young and old, rich and poor, flying things and creatures of the deep, singing praises to a God who loved us so much that He risked everything to come down to us.
And though it was dark and there was little hope for light in sight, those who journeyed to see him found ample reason for praise.
Does your life still seem dark? Is there little hope for light in sight? If you take some time to think about the good that entered the world in the humble form of Christ and if you contemplate the striking creativity of God’s created young and old, flying things and creatures of the deep, do you think there may be something good waiting for you? Do you think you can hang on and wait for the good promises of God in your life?
Is it possible that God is there waiting for you? Is this not the ultimate reason for praise?
PRAY AS YOU GO
Pray this prayer of waiting for good, written by Walter Brueggemann from his book, Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth: Prayers of Walter Brueggemann:
God, we are strange conundrums of faithfulness and fickleness. We cleave to you in all the ways that we are able. We count on you and intend our lives to be lived for you, and then we find ourselves among your people who are always seeking elsewhere and otherwise. So we give thanks that you are the God who yearns and waits for us, and that our connection to you is always from your side, and that it is because of your goodness that neither life nor death nor angels nor principalities nor heights nor depths nor anything in creation can separate us from you. We give you thanks for your faithfulness, so much more durable than ours. Amen.
FOCUS TEXT
Psalm 148:13-14
Let them praise the name of the Lord, for his name alone is exalted; his glory is above earth and heaven. He has raised up a horn for his people, praise for all his faithful, for the people of Israel who are close to him. Praise the Lord!
We have seen the wise men demonstrate for us at Christmas that praise is the one and often only response that we can offer to God freely and authentically, even when it is dark, because praise does not only indicate elation and ecstasy.
Praise must also mean faith in a tiny, seemingly unrealistic promise of a world renewed and restored by the power of a loving and almighty God. Praise is not only for the good times, times of plenty, times of prosperity and good health, but it is for all times, the ones that bring us happiness and the ones that cause us pain.
For little children born into squalor and for each of us here today, we must learn to praise God holding the joys and the sadnesses in both hands. We met one of these children amidst the devotions for this week. His name is Lindokuhle.
So, as we prepare for the weekend and Sabbath rest, let us, as Lindokuhle’s name encourages, "wait for good" in the spirit of faith.
For goodness is what God has promised us in the birth of Jesus.
Let us join with all of creation, young and old, rich and poor, flying things and creatures of the deep, singing praises to a God who loved us so much that He risked everything to come down to us.
And though it was dark and there was little hope for light in sight, those who journeyed to see him found ample reason for praise.
Does your life still seem dark? Is there little hope for light in sight? If you take some time to think about the good that entered the world in the humble form of Christ and if you contemplate the striking creativity of God’s created young and old, flying things and creatures of the deep, do you think there may be something good waiting for you? Do you think you can hang on and wait for the good promises of God in your life?
Is it possible that God is there waiting for you? Is this not the ultimate reason for praise?
PRAY AS YOU GO
Pray this prayer of waiting for good, written by Walter Brueggemann from his book, Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth: Prayers of Walter Brueggemann:
God, we are strange conundrums of faithfulness and fickleness. We cleave to you in all the ways that we are able. We count on you and intend our lives to be lived for you, and then we find ourselves among your people who are always seeking elsewhere and otherwise. So we give thanks that you are the God who yearns and waits for us, and that our connection to you is always from your side, and that it is because of your goodness that neither life nor death nor angels nor principalities nor heights nor depths nor anything in creation can separate us from you. We give you thanks for your faithfulness, so much more durable than ours. Amen.
FOCUS TEXT
Psalm 148:13-14
Let them praise the name of the Lord, for his name alone is exalted; his glory is above earth and heaven. He has raised up a horn for his people, praise for all his faithful, for the people of Israel who are close to him. Praise the Lord!
Thursday 4 February 2010
A United Front of Praise
DAILY BYTE
This is the world we live in:
A world where 15 million children were left without parents by the end of 2007 because of HIV/AIDS.
A world where leaders prevent food and aid from coming into their countries to feed thousands of starving people because of nothing more than pride and self-deceit.
A world where the Son of God could be born in a place as lowly and wretched as a squatter camp.
In a world such as this, praise is an audacious action. Praising God flies in the face of reason and good sense.
How can we praise when all around us poverty, disease, and violence threaten to knock the life out of us and those that we love. In a time and place when many are asking – no – demanding, "Where is God" in this mess of a world, how can we be so foolish as to praise God?
And yet, we do! When we worship, we make a point of setting aside time to come together, as people from many different families, places, and life experiences to do nothing else but praise God! Psalm 148 says, “Kings of the earth and all peoples, princes and all rulers of the earth! Young men and women alike, old and young together!” All of them are called to praise the name of the Lord!
People with HIV, leaders who starve their people, people who live in squatter camps, people who sit next to you in church on Sunday. Praise is not exclusive. There is no entrance fee. The act of giving praise to God is free and open to all. It is something we are all called to do, and it is something that brings us together, as human beings with one central goal. Praising God moves us beyond ourselves and connects us to God and to one another in ways that we would not normally be connected.
As such a family, we will feel both joy and pain, but we will never experience these things alone because we have been knit together. I am often overwhelmed by funerals – not just because the focus is on death and grieving – but because so often, people sing praise to God with more passion and richness than at any other time. At the heart of peoples’ sorrow about the brokenness of the world seems to lie a deep need to praise in spite of it, to join together in lifting up voices in sheer releases of praise.
I remember very little about my mother’s funeral, but what I do remember is standing at the front of the church with my family, facing the casket and the altar, with several hundred people standing behind like an army. And after the sound of the first chord from the organ, a wall of sound burst forth behind me, enveloping me and all my sadness, sending it up in a cloud of praise to God.
I turned around to look and saw people positively bellowing out their praise. Whether it is a way of protesting to God or simply giving thanks, praise is our expression to God of how we see the world and how we desire to see it, describing how God made the world and how God desires it to become. Praise is allowing our voices to burst forth through all of the madness and maintain that we are still alive, we are going to stick together, and we will not be silenced!
PRAY AS YOU GO
Pray this scripture this week, as I reminder of our united, persistent, voice of praise!
Psalm 149:6
Let everything that breathes praise the Lord!
Let everything that breathes praise the Lord!
Let everything that breathes praise the Lord!
Amen.
This is the world we live in:
A world where 15 million children were left without parents by the end of 2007 because of HIV/AIDS.
A world where leaders prevent food and aid from coming into their countries to feed thousands of starving people because of nothing more than pride and self-deceit.
A world where the Son of God could be born in a place as lowly and wretched as a squatter camp.
In a world such as this, praise is an audacious action. Praising God flies in the face of reason and good sense.
How can we praise when all around us poverty, disease, and violence threaten to knock the life out of us and those that we love. In a time and place when many are asking – no – demanding, "Where is God" in this mess of a world, how can we be so foolish as to praise God?
And yet, we do! When we worship, we make a point of setting aside time to come together, as people from many different families, places, and life experiences to do nothing else but praise God! Psalm 148 says, “Kings of the earth and all peoples, princes and all rulers of the earth! Young men and women alike, old and young together!” All of them are called to praise the name of the Lord!
People with HIV, leaders who starve their people, people who live in squatter camps, people who sit next to you in church on Sunday. Praise is not exclusive. There is no entrance fee. The act of giving praise to God is free and open to all. It is something we are all called to do, and it is something that brings us together, as human beings with one central goal. Praising God moves us beyond ourselves and connects us to God and to one another in ways that we would not normally be connected.
As such a family, we will feel both joy and pain, but we will never experience these things alone because we have been knit together. I am often overwhelmed by funerals – not just because the focus is on death and grieving – but because so often, people sing praise to God with more passion and richness than at any other time. At the heart of peoples’ sorrow about the brokenness of the world seems to lie a deep need to praise in spite of it, to join together in lifting up voices in sheer releases of praise.
I remember very little about my mother’s funeral, but what I do remember is standing at the front of the church with my family, facing the casket and the altar, with several hundred people standing behind like an army. And after the sound of the first chord from the organ, a wall of sound burst forth behind me, enveloping me and all my sadness, sending it up in a cloud of praise to God.
I turned around to look and saw people positively bellowing out their praise. Whether it is a way of protesting to God or simply giving thanks, praise is our expression to God of how we see the world and how we desire to see it, describing how God made the world and how God desires it to become. Praise is allowing our voices to burst forth through all of the madness and maintain that we are still alive, we are going to stick together, and we will not be silenced!
PRAY AS YOU GO
Pray this scripture this week, as I reminder of our united, persistent, voice of praise!
Psalm 149:6
Let everything that breathes praise the Lord!
Let everything that breathes praise the Lord!
Let everything that breathes praise the Lord!
Amen.
Wednesday 3 February 2010
The Birth of Praise
DAILY BYTE
My struggle about praise in the midst of darkness recently came to a head when I went deep into a squatter camp to deliver a present to a baby boy. The young mother met me at my car just outside of the camp, the baby wrapped in a blanket to shield him from the Cape Town wind, which I hear was unseasonably strong for December. Holding my package tightly, I began to follow her home, weaving in and out of shacks built so closely together that my shoulders almost touched the outside walls. It stank of improper sewage and the air was close to suffocating, as if too many people were trying to breathe the available oxygen so that there was a shortage. Through the dirt and the mess, I continued on following her, clutching my gift and hoping this maze of a journey would swiftly come to an end, realizing though that our destination would not offer much more.
The sun had been shining when I left my car, but as I passed over the threshold into her meager home the air turned dark and still, as if I were entering a cave. I presented my gifts: baby clothes, a few bibs, rash ointment, and held the child, Linbokuhle, whose name means, "waiting for good."
As I looked down at him I realized that I was in the presence of New life, full of possibility and promise, born in a lowly shack in a cramped squatter camp because there was no room "in the inn." As I made my way out to my car, I wondered if this was how the wise men felt... Bearing their gifts, they traveled far, motivated by a star, by a promise of a new king. But when they got closer and closer the scenery changed and their surroundings looked less and less fitting of such potential, of such promise.
Being wise though, they were not deterred by the humility of what they found, for they could see past the surface, past the smell, past the poverty. When they praised God at Jesus’ birth, their praise sprung from a place of great darkness. Yet, because it was of God their praise promised to burst beyond the bounds of darkness into the light of the new day, which would surely follow.
The wise men came to praise the living God and discovered that in order to praise him where he was, they must journey to a place that had no apparent joy or hope, a place where most “respectable” people would never go, a place not fitting for any of us to lay our heads, let alone the savior of the world... but it was there where true praise of God took place. Found in the tension of a broken, inhospitable world and a new life, full of potential, holding that child, my own praise was born.
Where is praise being born in your life? Where are you looking for God?
GUIDING SCRIPTURE
Matthew 2:9b-11a
And there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage.
PRAY AS YOU GO
O almighty God, by the birth of your holy child Jesus you gave us a great light to dawn on our darkness. Grant that in his light we may see light. Bestow upon us that most excellent gift of love to all people, so that the likeness of your Son may be formed in us, and that we may have the ever brightening hope of everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Saviour. Amen.
- Revised from The Book of Worship, 1965
My struggle about praise in the midst of darkness recently came to a head when I went deep into a squatter camp to deliver a present to a baby boy. The young mother met me at my car just outside of the camp, the baby wrapped in a blanket to shield him from the Cape Town wind, which I hear was unseasonably strong for December. Holding my package tightly, I began to follow her home, weaving in and out of shacks built so closely together that my shoulders almost touched the outside walls. It stank of improper sewage and the air was close to suffocating, as if too many people were trying to breathe the available oxygen so that there was a shortage. Through the dirt and the mess, I continued on following her, clutching my gift and hoping this maze of a journey would swiftly come to an end, realizing though that our destination would not offer much more.
The sun had been shining when I left my car, but as I passed over the threshold into her meager home the air turned dark and still, as if I were entering a cave. I presented my gifts: baby clothes, a few bibs, rash ointment, and held the child, Linbokuhle, whose name means, "waiting for good."
As I looked down at him I realized that I was in the presence of New life, full of possibility and promise, born in a lowly shack in a cramped squatter camp because there was no room "in the inn." As I made my way out to my car, I wondered if this was how the wise men felt... Bearing their gifts, they traveled far, motivated by a star, by a promise of a new king. But when they got closer and closer the scenery changed and their surroundings looked less and less fitting of such potential, of such promise.
Being wise though, they were not deterred by the humility of what they found, for they could see past the surface, past the smell, past the poverty. When they praised God at Jesus’ birth, their praise sprung from a place of great darkness. Yet, because it was of God their praise promised to burst beyond the bounds of darkness into the light of the new day, which would surely follow.
The wise men came to praise the living God and discovered that in order to praise him where he was, they must journey to a place that had no apparent joy or hope, a place where most “respectable” people would never go, a place not fitting for any of us to lay our heads, let alone the savior of the world... but it was there where true praise of God took place. Found in the tension of a broken, inhospitable world and a new life, full of potential, holding that child, my own praise was born.
Where is praise being born in your life? Where are you looking for God?
GUIDING SCRIPTURE
Matthew 2:9b-11a
And there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage.
PRAY AS YOU GO
O almighty God, by the birth of your holy child Jesus you gave us a great light to dawn on our darkness. Grant that in his light we may see light. Bestow upon us that most excellent gift of love to all people, so that the likeness of your Son may be formed in us, and that we may have the ever brightening hope of everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Saviour. Amen.
- Revised from The Book of Worship, 1965
Tuesday 2 February 2010
In the midst of darkness
DAILY BYTE
Praise of the Lord is a fitting response to the ways God relates to us, as ordinary people. In the greatest gesture of love and solidarity ever known, God became one of us... a simple human being, vulnerable to pain, sickness, temptation, and even death and all because God wanted to be one with us... to feel what we feel, to mourn what we mourn, to struggle, and to need.
In this gesture God added a dimension to God's limitless capacity for understanding, fulfilling the very essence of the meaning of compassion: to suffer with.
When we read Psalm 148, and when we consider what it means to praise, we think of emotions like joy, elation, utter happiness, sometimes even euphoria. In my mind I actually see dancing and jumping up and down and hands raised up.
Yet, I wonder if there is not another aspect to what it means to praise. When we face the realities of our current situations, both in our larger community and also as individuals, we are certain to feel the tension between the elated praise called for in the psalm and the complexity of emotions we experience when we consider the brokenness of our world.
Some of us may have been blessed with elation over these past few days and may be ready to dance and sing in thanksgiving, but others of us may be caught in cracks of despair dealing with family illness, serious financial woes, or just plain loneliness.
If we consider what life is like for our brothers and sisters to our north in Zimbabwe, we feel this tension between praise and brokenness. For in order to praise the Lord rightly and honestly we must examine this shadow side, this dimension of praising, which on the surface is bereft of joy and happiness. What does it mean to praise God in the dark?
For a little more than two months I have been a minister in the historically black township of Guguletu, outside of Cape Town. In many ways these last two months have been a time for me to learn what it means to praise God in the dark.
A Sunday does not go by when tears do not spring to my eyes as I listen to these peoples’ hymns and prayers, to the rhythm of their dance and the jingle of the bell. And what a brilliant, heavenly sound they make. These grannies, young adults, and children have no problem praising God in the dark, since in a way they know better than me that true praise must emerge from darkness. Otherwise, it is incomplete. In these last few months, I have been the one struggling to praise God in the face of hopelessness.
What darkness do you find in your life? How do you praise in the midst of it?
GUIDING SCRIPTURE
1 Peter: 9
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light.
Praise of the Lord is a fitting response to the ways God relates to us, as ordinary people. In the greatest gesture of love and solidarity ever known, God became one of us... a simple human being, vulnerable to pain, sickness, temptation, and even death and all because God wanted to be one with us... to feel what we feel, to mourn what we mourn, to struggle, and to need.
In this gesture God added a dimension to God's limitless capacity for understanding, fulfilling the very essence of the meaning of compassion: to suffer with.
When we read Psalm 148, and when we consider what it means to praise, we think of emotions like joy, elation, utter happiness, sometimes even euphoria. In my mind I actually see dancing and jumping up and down and hands raised up.
Yet, I wonder if there is not another aspect to what it means to praise. When we face the realities of our current situations, both in our larger community and also as individuals, we are certain to feel the tension between the elated praise called for in the psalm and the complexity of emotions we experience when we consider the brokenness of our world.
Some of us may have been blessed with elation over these past few days and may be ready to dance and sing in thanksgiving, but others of us may be caught in cracks of despair dealing with family illness, serious financial woes, or just plain loneliness.
If we consider what life is like for our brothers and sisters to our north in Zimbabwe, we feel this tension between praise and brokenness. For in order to praise the Lord rightly and honestly we must examine this shadow side, this dimension of praising, which on the surface is bereft of joy and happiness. What does it mean to praise God in the dark?
For a little more than two months I have been a minister in the historically black township of Guguletu, outside of Cape Town. In many ways these last two months have been a time for me to learn what it means to praise God in the dark.
A Sunday does not go by when tears do not spring to my eyes as I listen to these peoples’ hymns and prayers, to the rhythm of their dance and the jingle of the bell. And what a brilliant, heavenly sound they make. These grannies, young adults, and children have no problem praising God in the dark, since in a way they know better than me that true praise must emerge from darkness. Otherwise, it is incomplete. In these last few months, I have been the one struggling to praise God in the face of hopelessness.
What darkness do you find in your life? How do you praise in the midst of it?
GUIDING SCRIPTURE
1 Peter: 9
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light.
Monday 1 February 2010
Ultimate Praise
DAILY BYTE
The devotions on Psalm 148 for this week are compiled by the Rev. Mel Baars and the Rev. Anna Layman.
Pray through this psalm twice now, and the second time, allow your heart to land on one specific praise that you particularly relate to at the moment. What about your life or the earth right now makes you want to praise God? In the challenging world we live in, sometimes it can be really difficult to identify praiseworthy things, and sometimes we simply forget to praise what’s right in front of our noses. If there seems to be nothing to give praise for, pray anyway, asking God to show you something about your life or the world that is worth praising!
~ Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord from the heavens; praise him in the heights! Praise him, all this angels; praise him, all his host! Praise him, sun and moon; praise him, all you shining stars! Praise him, you highest heavens, and you waters above the heavens! Let them praise the name of the Lord, for he commanded and they were created. He established them forever and ever; he fixed their bounds, which cannot be passed. Praise the Lord from the earth, you sea monsters and all deeps, fire and hail, snow and frost, stormy wind fulfilling his command! Mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars! Wild animals and all cattle, creeping things and flying birds! Kings of the earth and all peoples, princes and all rulers of the earth! Young men and women alike, old and young together! Let them praise the name of the Lord, for his name alone is exalted; his glory is above earth and heaven. He has raised up a horn for his people, praise for all his faithful, for the people of Israel who are close to him. Praise the Lord! ~
What came to mind that is worth praising? A sparkling constellation in the sky outside your window? Recent rainfall that has watered your plants so that you don’t have to do it yourself? A truly magnificent person in your life? A feeling of God’s faithfulness to you?
Psalm 148 is the ultimate song of praise. In it, we are told to praise from the very heights of heaven and from the depths of the earth... young and old... birds of the air and creeping things... all seeming opposites. In Hebrew poetry, this is a place in the text that indicates everything or everyone without actually saying “everything” or “everyone.” The psalms are poetry, after all.
The words must paint a picture for us so that we are able to grasp the enormity of these claims! From the highest point of heaven to the lowest places on earth, uncharted depths of sea... Every person from the mightiest king to a humble man or woman who has been alive but seconds to the oldest human being… Everything and everyone in between - "Praise the Lord!" Every facet, every nook and layer, all things seen and unseen, all of creation is commanded to praise the living God.
So even if you feel like you or your life is insignificant – even if you feel like there is nothing in your life worth praising, think again. If God is saying to everyone everywhere that we must praise him, where is the praise in your life?
PRAY AS YOU GO
Lord, teach us to praise you. Open our eyes to the wonders you are working in our lives. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord - Praise the Lord!
Amen.
The devotions on Psalm 148 for this week are compiled by the Rev. Mel Baars and the Rev. Anna Layman.
Pray through this psalm twice now, and the second time, allow your heart to land on one specific praise that you particularly relate to at the moment. What about your life or the earth right now makes you want to praise God? In the challenging world we live in, sometimes it can be really difficult to identify praiseworthy things, and sometimes we simply forget to praise what’s right in front of our noses. If there seems to be nothing to give praise for, pray anyway, asking God to show you something about your life or the world that is worth praising!
~ Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord from the heavens; praise him in the heights! Praise him, all this angels; praise him, all his host! Praise him, sun and moon; praise him, all you shining stars! Praise him, you highest heavens, and you waters above the heavens! Let them praise the name of the Lord, for he commanded and they were created. He established them forever and ever; he fixed their bounds, which cannot be passed. Praise the Lord from the earth, you sea monsters and all deeps, fire and hail, snow and frost, stormy wind fulfilling his command! Mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars! Wild animals and all cattle, creeping things and flying birds! Kings of the earth and all peoples, princes and all rulers of the earth! Young men and women alike, old and young together! Let them praise the name of the Lord, for his name alone is exalted; his glory is above earth and heaven. He has raised up a horn for his people, praise for all his faithful, for the people of Israel who are close to him. Praise the Lord! ~
What came to mind that is worth praising? A sparkling constellation in the sky outside your window? Recent rainfall that has watered your plants so that you don’t have to do it yourself? A truly magnificent person in your life? A feeling of God’s faithfulness to you?
Psalm 148 is the ultimate song of praise. In it, we are told to praise from the very heights of heaven and from the depths of the earth... young and old... birds of the air and creeping things... all seeming opposites. In Hebrew poetry, this is a place in the text that indicates everything or everyone without actually saying “everything” or “everyone.” The psalms are poetry, after all.
The words must paint a picture for us so that we are able to grasp the enormity of these claims! From the highest point of heaven to the lowest places on earth, uncharted depths of sea... Every person from the mightiest king to a humble man or woman who has been alive but seconds to the oldest human being… Everything and everyone in between - "Praise the Lord!" Every facet, every nook and layer, all things seen and unseen, all of creation is commanded to praise the living God.
So even if you feel like you or your life is insignificant – even if you feel like there is nothing in your life worth praising, think again. If God is saying to everyone everywhere that we must praise him, where is the praise in your life?
PRAY AS YOU GO
Lord, teach us to praise you. Open our eyes to the wonders you are working in our lives. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord - Praise the Lord!
Amen.
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