Thursday, August 16, 2007

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Today’s text

Luke 12:35-37


“Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit; be like those who are waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet, so they may open the door for him as soon as he comes and knocks. Blessed are those slaves whom the master finds alert when me comes; truly I tell you, he will fasten his belt and have them sit down to eat, and he will come and serve them.”

Prayer

You offer no threat in these words, dear Friend, only invitation and promise. You come, that’s the promise. You come; that’s your promise. You come and are eager to bless, giving yourself in holy and humble service to we who hold our breath for your arrival.

You are always coming, Jesus. You come to a virgin’s womb. You come to the unknown and unheralded. You come to the hungry and lost. You come to your friends and your enemies. And you come from your tomb, risen and new, so that your coming transcends time and space. You come to every time and place at once, past, future and now to me in this quiet space. You come and always will.

Your invitation is to light a lamp and keep our hearts and eyes open. For you appear at times and in guises we cannot predict: Maybe in the news that a faraway colleague has died that moves you to sudden tears and prayer. Maybe the guy who helps broken old folks into the clinic on 55th, or the vibrant voice on the phone that leaves you a little more alive. You often surprise me, Jesus, coming in word, a story, a face that glows with a grace transparent to the eternal.

You come. It does not matter how. What matters is opening heart and mind to receive you. For in receiving you, you serve us, giving life, healing heart and soul, feeding us with a bread that satisfies that hunger that finds fulfillment no where else.

Pr. David L. Miller

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Today’s text

Luke 12:32-34

“Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven; where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, your heart will be also.”

Prayer

You are the unfailing treasure, Holy One. You are the One who never wears out and cannot be destroyed. It is you I need and would hold every moment in this purse, this soul of mine that holds also much of the detritus of ego-driven life.

If I could but hold you fast, touching your nearness, I would savor the thought of you at all times and in all things. You would fill me to overflowing with the unfailing fullness of your love. My words would be so different, more filled with grace, giving life in all circumstances, not just in rare moments.

But I am full of the cares of the day, decisions to make, deadlines to meet, disappointments with self and others, the drive to justify myself and to ferret out the “right thing” to do and say. There is a life to be lived and work to be done. It absorbs my consciousness, and I forget. I seek myself in all these things, not you, but I find no treasure there.

Turning turn from the heart-shattering awareness of your love, I devolve into something much less than the human soul I am when I am near and full of you.

Forgive me for fouling your earth with my pettiness. Don’t let me forget. Make my heart large and expansive like yours and fill it with your Fullness, which is truest treasure.

Pr. David L. Miller

Monday, August 13, 2007

Monday, August 13, 2007

Today’s text

Luke 12:32

“Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”

Prayer

Do you smile when you say this, Jesus? Do joy and yearning fill you as you survey the faces before you? Do you look for a glimmer of understanding in their eyes? Do you wait to see if their minds will race and their hearts dance as it dawns on them that these are the happiest words ever spoken, the most joyous in all the world’s weary history?

Please know that my heart dances, Jesus, and I cannot sit still in my chair. For you bring news that is better than any that ever has been or will be. It is the Father’s good pleasure to give, and to give to me, and to give no small thing but the life of fullness and eternity, where every tear is wiped from every eye and death is no more, where all things are engulfed in your delight and fear dissolves in a bottomless sea of mercy: for all is well, and all is in you.

But I already knew this, my Beloved. I knew it is your joy to give, for you have woven that awareness into my soul, fashioned in your image and restored in your likeness. I find highest joy in blessing other souls with a word of care and hope, a word that awakens in them the awareness that they, too, are possessed by a love that renders them speechless. There is nothing better. It brings tears to my eyes.

To yours, too? Pardon me for speaking of you in such human terms. I know you are more, always more. I cannot comprehend you. But you let me taste your joy and know what brings you pleasure. And that alone is all I need to live in expectation and to die in hope.

Pr. David L. Miller