Friday, February 09, 2007

Friday, February 9, 2007

Today’s reading

1 John 1:1-4

“We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands concerning the word of life—this life was revealed, and we have seen it and testify to it, and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us. We declare to you what we have seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and his son Jesus Christ. We are writing this that our joy may be complete” (1 John 1:1-4).

Prayer

What was from the beginning, this we have seen and touched. Where, dearest One? Where do we touch you? Where do we cradle your flesh? Where do we embrace you, or are we more likely to strike or ignore you, however unknowingly?

The idea that mortal hands should touch Eternity exceeds imagination and awakens disbelief. You, the Unnamable Wonder, the Dark Space before whom I wordlessly stand seeking the wisdom of silence: I touch you?

Yet, each day I touch the flesh and lives of human souls, each bearing a mystery they cannot begin to speak, the mystery of being itself. I cradle my grandsons (all too infrequently) always throttled, unable to speak the wonder and beauty of their lives, the miracle of life itself, which you privilege me to hold in my startled hands.

Holding them, or receiving the welcoming embraces of those among whom you have placed me, I wonder: Do I there touch you, the power of Being Itself, incarnate and constantly seeking fullest expression in their lives? As you incarnated your life in fullest human beauty in my brother Jesus, do you do the same here among us so that when we extend our hands to each other we welcome eternity?

If so, then I touch you daily. And our lives, times and places are holy space where you are present, touchable, knowable in what you continue to create as your love seeks and finds expression in the frail fallibility of human flesh, in me, in all I will touch this day.

Help me to see and know you this day. Awaken my senses and soul to you, who are from the beginning and right here, right now. And this you do, that we know the power of your life, the light of your love, the joy or your companionship. Amen.

--Pastor David L. Miller

Thursday, February 08, 2007

Thursday, February 8, 2007

Today’s reading

1 John 1:1-4

“We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands concerning the word of life—this life was revealed, and we have seen it and testify to it, and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us. We declare to you what we have seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and his son Jesus Christ. We are writing this that our joy may be complete” (1 John 1:1-4).

Prayer

Timeless Mercy, we are more connected with you than we can know. Our joy, our delight, the completion of our lives—your life and ours—are not two things but one. Your own divine life is not fulfilled unless the joy for which we are created overflows our souls, even as your heart bubbles over and flows in a living stream of life and love through all creation.

You tie the completion of your divine life to us, to me. And you dwell in holy unrest until the fullness of life and joy you intend fills and lifts me to the fullness of life that is your joy to share. Failing this, neither you nor I know the completeness that is you divine desire and intention for all that is.

You live dangerously, my Lord, my Friend, for in loving me, you need me, even as I need you. Yet, again and again I flee the joy of fellowship with you and yours, pouring my anxious heart into the crush of daily duties and myriad detail in which I lose myself, my heart—and you. My words lose weight and wisdom. I grow soulless, restless, joyless.

And I hunger for what you love to give—the eternal splendor of your own life. That hunger haunts me today. But even this dis-ease is gift and joy. I name the hunger and a strange thing happens. The tattered fellowship between us suddenly grows rich and full, as if the hunger in my depths is not my yearning but your divine life, pulsing at that unsearchable point where you heart and mine are not two, but one.

This oneness, this sharing of life is my highest joy, the secret hiding behind my smile. In fellowship with you, I am alive in a way I am nowhere else. Thank you. Let me live with you today so that our joy may be complete. Amen.


--Pastor David L. Miller

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Tuesday, February 6, 2007

Today’s reading

1 John 1:1-4

“We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands concerning the world of life—this life was revealed, and we have seen it and testify to it, and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us. We declare to you what we have seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and his son Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:1-3).

Prayer

Dearest One, whatever else I may know today, let me know you. Allow me the privilege of fellowship with you who are the overflowing fountain of eternal life and boundless love.

The fellowship you offer is in our hands and hearts, tangible and visible. We touch and hear your eternal life. We feel you coursing our souls, moving us to hope and to love, to give and to be given to you and all you love.

I know the life you are in words preached and spoken, in sacraments of meager bread filling up empty hands and my heart with a joy and love uncrushed even by busiest days and bouts of melancholy. I know you in faces appearing at my door no matter how banal or common their need or request. In them I see your desire to enter this world deeply and without reservation, to bathe yourself in its pathos and struggle to live and to laugh. It is a desire beyond their own, and I wonder if they know they Wonder they bear.

The eternal life you are rushes through my veins and arteries filling me with your divine longing to give this love that bubbles from source unsearchable in the darkness of my depths. You awaken desires to bathe in and become this love in which I know myself more fully alive than I am anywhere else.

Tell me, is this fellowship with you? If so, I want nothing else. So give me, give us this day such fellowship with you. Release in us the energy of eternity that the environments of our lives may fill with you, the bubbling fountain eternal life and joy. Amen.

--Pastor David L. Miller

Monday, February 05, 2007

Monday, February 5, 2007

Today’s reading

1 John 1:1-4

“We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands concerning the world of life—this life was revealed, and we have seen it and testify to it, and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was reveed to us” (1 John 1:1-2).

Prayer

Who are you, my beloved? I know the writer’s desire to speak, to testify, saying, “This much I know is true.” But your desire moves me far more than my own.

Who are you? You are the One who longs to be known in the eternal life you give and are. You want to be known, but not for your greatness or glorious splendor beyond all light, nor for the dazzling wonder that reduces my futile imagination to worthless rubble each time I try to grasp you. No, you would be known for your kindness, not for your vastness, for your nearness, not your inscrutable eternity.

You would be known as near kindness, present eternity, touchable wonder, tangible source of the eternal hope coursing through our souls, awakening us from the little death of sleep that we might enter a new time and do it all again.

You want me to know you. Such is your desire. The thought alone brings tears. It stops every thought of which my mind is capable. You want me … to know you, to touch you, to love you, to give my life to you who are Life itself. Your joy and chief desire in relation to me and all creation is to be known as eternal life, now, in the face of the Word made flesh, in my own flesh—and in the frail flesh of all whom I will see and touch this day.

I cannot penetrate the wonder of it. You who are eternal want to be known, touched and carried by these frail hands that even now stumble across the keys seeking those that will honor you, my dearest Friend and highest Hope. You, who are life, want me, who bears the seeds of my death, to see and hold and have fellowship with you who are light eternal.

I know you in your desire. And this much I know is true: You are the kindest of all generosities. You are the Nameless Wonder who is before all. You are Source of all life and love who longs to give the fullness of your eternity to me for the fulfillment of my mortal flesh. It is your joy to give and see this joy alight in our eyes.

This day may we touch and see you are in the places you are pleased to be known that we may live. Amen.


--Pastor David L. Miller