I have a friend who is dying of cancer. We sat and prayed the other day. It is terribly unfair, and I find myself reminding God what a wonderful, loving, gifted, caring man this is. A man who loves life, loves God, and many, many people is dying and you God don't seem to be doing anything to stop it!
Yet if he were not such a good man, and if his wife and friends did not love him, his death would not matter. But it is because it does matter, that again we see goodness. Goodness in the support and prayers of a community. Goodness in the deeds of this wonderful person and the years of good life that he did enjoy.
God allows a lot of goodness in the world. May I never lose sight of it.
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Friday, March 18, 2011
Mini Funerals
I went to seminary at Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry in Ambridge, Pennsylvania, a few miles north of Pittsburgh.
One day I, reading the Beaver County Times, there was an story on a local woman who had attended her own funeral!
She'd gone to see the local funeral director, arranged the service, and invited all her friends to come to her funeral. She thought it would be a shame to have everybody come once she'd died since she wouldn't get to see them.
It was a funny story. But as I read, it dawned on me that we hold funeral services for the living all the time in many churches. We baptize people claiming that they have died with Christ. In fact each baptism is a funeral service. In Holy Communion, we claim to celebrate Jesus death until he returns. We are once again seeking to share in his death, and share in his resurrection.
At baptism we offer the old self to God, the self that is spiritually dead, and whose body will someday die. And we ask to be put to death with Jesus, so that we may also accompany him at the Resurrection. Each baptism is in fact a funeral of that old self.
So, it may be that you've already attended a funeral for yourself and just didn't know it.
Enjoy your mini-funerals each time you get to attend. Peace.
One day I, reading the Beaver County Times, there was an story on a local woman who had attended her own funeral!
She'd gone to see the local funeral director, arranged the service, and invited all her friends to come to her funeral. She thought it would be a shame to have everybody come once she'd died since she wouldn't get to see them.
It was a funny story. But as I read, it dawned on me that we hold funeral services for the living all the time in many churches. We baptize people claiming that they have died with Christ. In fact each baptism is a funeral service. In Holy Communion, we claim to celebrate Jesus death until he returns. We are once again seeking to share in his death, and share in his resurrection.
At baptism we offer the old self to God, the self that is spiritually dead, and whose body will someday die. And we ask to be put to death with Jesus, so that we may also accompany him at the Resurrection. Each baptism is in fact a funeral of that old self.
So, it may be that you've already attended a funeral for yourself and just didn't know it.
Enjoy your mini-funerals each time you get to attend. Peace.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Slavery and St. Pat
Today is St. Patrick's Day.
Patrick, an Englishman, was captured and sold into slavery at age 16. At age 22, the year 412 he escaped and returned to his home and studied for the priesthood. And then in an amazing turn of events, about 435, he returned to Ireland, as a missionary bishop. Those six years captivity had led Patrick to seriously seek God. And now he returned to Ireland, this time a slave to Christ.
He had come to love the Irish people despite their ill treatment of him. Over the rest of his life Patrick traveled vigorously about Ireland. It is estimated that he personally baptized over 300,000 people.
He also is the author of a wonderful Christian repudiation of slavery. His letter to Coroticus is an articulate and impassioned plea to abandon the buying and selling of human beings.
This past Fall, Anne and I got to listen to Somaly Mam, a Cambodian women who was sold into sexual slavery as a young girl. Like Patrick she managed to escape. And she has used her new found freedom to forge a ministry to other young women helping many women to escape slavery and get the help they need.
I keep the picture of Anne and Somaly on my phone. It reminds me that the battle to end slavery is still going on.
May we celebrate Patrick, give thanks for the work of those seeking to end slavery in our day, and pray that the work of setting people free continues in our own day. Amen.
Patrick, an Englishman, was captured and sold into slavery at age 16. At age 22, the year 412 he escaped and returned to his home and studied for the priesthood. And then in an amazing turn of events, about 435, he returned to Ireland, as a missionary bishop. Those six years captivity had led Patrick to seriously seek God. And now he returned to Ireland, this time a slave to Christ.
He had come to love the Irish people despite their ill treatment of him. Over the rest of his life Patrick traveled vigorously about Ireland. It is estimated that he personally baptized over 300,000 people.
He also is the author of a wonderful Christian repudiation of slavery. His letter to Coroticus is an articulate and impassioned plea to abandon the buying and selling of human beings.
This past Fall, Anne and I got to listen to Somaly Mam, a Cambodian women who was sold into sexual slavery as a young girl. Like Patrick she managed to escape. And she has used her new found freedom to forge a ministry to other young women helping many women to escape slavery and get the help they need.
I keep the picture of Anne and Somaly on my phone. It reminds me that the battle to end slavery is still going on.
May we celebrate Patrick, give thanks for the work of those seeking to end slavery in our day, and pray that the work of setting people free continues in our own day. Amen.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
"Take two asprin and call me in the morning"
Psalm 119:67 Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your word. 71 It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn your statutes.
Dr. Paul Brand was an amazing man who led an amazing life. I remember hearing him lecture and talk about the gift of pain. Just those three words, "gift of pain" jolted me. He went on to say pain can help us realize that something is wrong. It makes us seek medical help.
Then he told that God might use emotional and spiritual pain to move us to seek his help.
The truth is that some of us stubborn, willful types, need pain to come to our senses. I was one of those people. God reached me at a low point in my life. I was sick of the person I had become, and tired being sick. The pain led me to find people who could help me recover balance and wholeness.
In these two verses of Psalm 119 the writer is thankful for pain. Affliction helped him come back to God, and learn about God.
So what about compassion? Certainly we are also called to alleviate pain and suffering. There is great good in that. But there are times when we treat the symptoms of people's pain and forget about dealing with root cause.
I hate pain, and hate to see people in pain. I want those two asprin and I want them now. Yet, sometimes pain, emotional, spiritual, physical, and mental is the one thing that turns us to God.
At the very least, pain can tell us there is something in our body, or in our life that needs attention. And at the very best it can lead us to find healing for both body and soul.
May whatever pain is in your life become part of grace. Amen
Dr. Paul Brand was an amazing man who led an amazing life. I remember hearing him lecture and talk about the gift of pain. Just those three words, "gift of pain" jolted me. He went on to say pain can help us realize that something is wrong. It makes us seek medical help.
Then he told that God might use emotional and spiritual pain to move us to seek his help.
The truth is that some of us stubborn, willful types, need pain to come to our senses. I was one of those people. God reached me at a low point in my life. I was sick of the person I had become, and tired being sick. The pain led me to find people who could help me recover balance and wholeness.
In these two verses of Psalm 119 the writer is thankful for pain. Affliction helped him come back to God, and learn about God.
So what about compassion? Certainly we are also called to alleviate pain and suffering. There is great good in that. But there are times when we treat the symptoms of people's pain and forget about dealing with root cause.
I hate pain, and hate to see people in pain. I want those two asprin and I want them now. Yet, sometimes pain, emotional, spiritual, physical, and mental is the one thing that turns us to God.
At the very least, pain can tell us there is something in our body, or in our life that needs attention. And at the very best it can lead us to find healing for both body and soul.
May whatever pain is in your life become part of grace. Amen
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Not ashamed
Hebrews 2:11b “For this reason Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters”
I went flying off the high dive into the pool. And I swam around for a few minutes before I realized that the impact had split the seam on my suit. I was 12 years old and suddenly realized that others had probably seen more that I wished to display. Swimming swiftly to the side of the pool, I dashed for my towel and ran to the dressing room.
As I ran, I just knew that every laugh, every whisper, every voice, was about me. With the horrible self consciousness of an almost teenager, I turned bright red with shame as I sped away.
Early on in life we learn to be self conscious and eventually we learn shame. Sometimes we have done things which are shameful. And sometimes, we are just so acutely sensitive that we can feel shame simply because of peer pressure.
Shame. We’ve all felt it. Shame for something that was not our fault, like my high dive and shame for things that were certainly our fault.
Sometimes it becomes a vicious circle. When I drugged, I felt bad afterwards, ashamed of how stupid I'd been, and of some of the things I'd done, or things I couldn't remember. Of course eventually getting high again removed the shame, at least for a while. And it started the circle all over again.
Over the course of my life, the desire to be part of the "in" crowd, to not be shamed, caused me to do things I would probably never have done otherwise, make fun of people I actually liked, and do many things I wished I now wish I had not.
Over the course of my life, the desire to be part of the "in" crowd, to not be shamed, caused me to do things I would probably never have done otherwise, make fun of people I actually liked, and do many things I wished I now wish I had not.
Living out the fear of shame and humiliation makes us do and say horrible things to each other. There are very few of us who don't wish we could take back an insult, a put down, or hurtful word that we know left someone else drenched in shame.
Thankfully God begins to heal us. The writer to the Hebrews says that Jesus is not ashamed of us. In fact he calls us brothers and sisters. The Lord who knows the awful things I've done is not ashamed to hang around with me and to tell people I'm part of the family.
Monday, March 14, 2011
Tsunami
From Sunday's Lessons
Romans 5:12-14 (The Message version)
"You know the story of how Adam landed us in the dilemma we're in— first sin, then death, and no one exempt from either sin or death. That sin disturbed relations with God in everything and everyone, but the extent of the disturbance was not clear until God spelled it out in detail to Moses. So death, this huge abyss separating us from God, dominated the landscape from Adam to Moses. Even those who didn't sin precisely as Adam did by disobeying a specific command of God still had to experience this termination of life, this separation from God."
In December of 2004, we were overjoyed to hear from Anne's brother Pat. They had been on a beach in Thailand during the Tsunami. They came close to being numbered among the victims. We could imagine all kinds of horrible outcomes as we watched the scenes on TV. Hearing their voices was a great relief.
Now, just over six years later, we finally just heard last night from a family friend who lives in Tokyo and has family all over the country. We have been praying for her and her family, not knowing what was happening with them.
Haiti, New Zealand, Japan. Our beautiful, amazing planet, is also dangerous. The version of the passage above, said that Adam's sin disturbed relations with God in everything and everyone. Our relationship with our planet is disturbed, and our earth's relationship with us is disturbed.
But a bit later Paul writes this (Romans 8:18-28)
That's why I don't think there's any comparison between the present hard times and the coming good times. The created world itself can hardly wait for what's coming next. Everything in creation is being more or less held back. God reins it in until both creation and all the creatures are ready and can be released at the same moment into the glorious times ahead. Meanwhile, the joyful anticipation deepens.
All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it's not only around us; it's within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We're also feeling the birth pangs. These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don't see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy.
Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God's Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don't know how or what to pray, it doesn't matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That's why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.
This time of disturbance is not the permanent state of affairs. God is going to heal this broken and damaged relationship. So what do we do in this time of waiting.
First, we pray. That impulse to pray is from God, so by all means let us pray. God promises to work through our prayers. So pray for those who are doing rescue work, those who are putting themselves in harms way to prevent nuclear reactor disaster, those who are doing the painful work of finding and caring for the dead, and those who have lost homes, possessions, and especially those who have lost loved ones.
Second, we give when disaster strikes. I know someone who raises money for a local charity clinic. When people tell her they can "only" give $5, or $10, she says "No, "only" is not in my giving vocabulary. Your $5 or your $10 can buy this, help pay for that, and is the percentage of this. So don't tell me only. Because your gift matters."
So let us pray and give, and may God honor both.
Romans 5:12-14 (The Message version)
"You know the story of how Adam landed us in the dilemma we're in— first sin, then death, and no one exempt from either sin or death. That sin disturbed relations with God in everything and everyone, but the extent of the disturbance was not clear until God spelled it out in detail to Moses. So death, this huge abyss separating us from God, dominated the landscape from Adam to Moses. Even those who didn't sin precisely as Adam did by disobeying a specific command of God still had to experience this termination of life, this separation from God."
In December of 2004, we were overjoyed to hear from Anne's brother Pat. They had been on a beach in Thailand during the Tsunami. They came close to being numbered among the victims. We could imagine all kinds of horrible outcomes as we watched the scenes on TV. Hearing their voices was a great relief.
Now, just over six years later, we finally just heard last night from a family friend who lives in Tokyo and has family all over the country. We have been praying for her and her family, not knowing what was happening with them.
Haiti, New Zealand, Japan. Our beautiful, amazing planet, is also dangerous. The version of the passage above, said that Adam's sin disturbed relations with God in everything and everyone. Our relationship with our planet is disturbed, and our earth's relationship with us is disturbed.
But a bit later Paul writes this (Romans 8:18-28)
That's why I don't think there's any comparison between the present hard times and the coming good times. The created world itself can hardly wait for what's coming next. Everything in creation is being more or less held back. God reins it in until both creation and all the creatures are ready and can be released at the same moment into the glorious times ahead. Meanwhile, the joyful anticipation deepens.
All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it's not only around us; it's within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We're also feeling the birth pangs. These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don't see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy.
Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God's Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don't know how or what to pray, it doesn't matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That's why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.
This time of disturbance is not the permanent state of affairs. God is going to heal this broken and damaged relationship. So what do we do in this time of waiting.
First, we pray. That impulse to pray is from God, so by all means let us pray. God promises to work through our prayers. So pray for those who are doing rescue work, those who are putting themselves in harms way to prevent nuclear reactor disaster, those who are doing the painful work of finding and caring for the dead, and those who have lost homes, possessions, and especially those who have lost loved ones.
Second, we give when disaster strikes. I know someone who raises money for a local charity clinic. When people tell her they can "only" give $5, or $10, she says "No, "only" is not in my giving vocabulary. Your $5 or your $10 can buy this, help pay for that, and is the percentage of this. So don't tell me only. Because your gift matters."
So let us pray and give, and may God honor both.
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Fear
Deuteronomy 7:17 If you say to yourself, ‘These nations are more numerous than I; how can I dispossess them?’ 18do not be afraid of them. Just remember what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt, 19the great trials that your eyes saw, the signs and wonders, the mighty hand and the outstretched arm by which the Lord your God brought you out. The Lord your God will do the same to all the peoples of whom you are afraid.
I live in Laredo, Texas on the safe side of the U.S. - Mexico Border. I am not worried about the violence there spilling across the Rio Grande.
But though I have been protected by God many times, I am afraid to cross into Nuevo Laredo, Mexico.
When you have met people who have been kidnapped, when you meet families fleeing violence, you think twice. The very real danger, though statistically slight, has kept me on my side of the river for almost two years. I think of my wife Anne, my children, Colin and Suzanna, and others, and I don't want to die in a random incident.
When you have met people who have been kidnapped, when you meet families fleeing violence, you think twice. The very real danger, though statistically slight, has kept me on my side of the river for almost two years. I think of my wife Anne, my children, Colin and Suzanna, and others, and I don't want to die in a random incident.
The drug cartels seem to operate with almost unfettered impunity. And it is tempting to believe that they will never be dealt with. It is also tempting to believe that God is not able to protect us, or has somehow abandoned us.
In today's reading God speaks to Moses. “Yes the promised land is full of enemies. But don't fear them. If I can handle the Egyptians, I can take care of those other guys.”
At this brief moment in time, evil has an upper hand in the city I live next door to. But just as God promises that Israel's enemies will not last forever, I believe that these enemies will fall too.
Pray for the conversion of the young men who are caught up in narco terrorism. Pray for the people who put their lives on the line to try to stop them.
Pray for the addicts who are the root cause of this evil commerce, that they find God and his healing, saving power.
Pray for those in our country who supply weapons to the narcos to repent and become ashamed of what they do, and to turn back to God.
And pray for the victims of the violence, the innocent, the guilty alike. May God have mercy.
Pray for the conversion of the young men who are caught up in narco terrorism. Pray for the people who put their lives on the line to try to stop them.
Pray for the addicts who are the root cause of this evil commerce, that they find God and his healing, saving power.
Pray for those in our country who supply weapons to the narcos to repent and become ashamed of what they do, and to turn back to God.
And pray for the victims of the violence, the innocent, the guilty alike. May God have mercy.
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