Friday, September 07, 2007

Friday, September 7, 2007

Today’s text

Luke 14:12-14

[Jesus] said to the one who had invited him, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

Prayer

You do want not us to miss a single joy, do you Jesus? You want us to share the ancient elation that bubbles in your depths, lest we miss the divine delight by which and for which we are made. You want us to taste the ecstasy of God’s own heart that we know the One from whom our beings spring fresh each morning.

So you welcome, no, you urge us toward the joy of the blessedness of God. The Loving Mystery delights to give life to those who possess nothing to repay the divine majesty for the gift of being. We possess and are nothing but for the generosity of the Joyous Spring of Life of whom you, Jesus, are the face.

With the gift of being filling our lungs, you invite us to share God’s delight by giving as God lives, living as God loves, loving as God is. You invite us to share in the being of Being Itself by giving with no expectation of return, but for the crazy liberating joy of this divine madness.

And it would be madness, but for the tears that unexpectedly appear in moments of such loving, revealing a fulfillment of soul beyond human expectation.

So invite us far beyond what is expected, Jesus. There we will know you in the joy and freedom of God you are eager to share. We need and want nothing more.

Pr. David L. Miller

Thursday, September 06, 2007

Thursday, September 6, 2007

Today’s text

Luke 14:1,7-10

On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the Sabbath, they were watching him closely. …When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, he told them a parable. “When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honor, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host; and the host who invited both of you many come and say to you, ‘Give this person your place.’ And then in disgrace you would start to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend move up higher;’ then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you.”

Prayer

We are all beggars, aren’t we Jesus? We are all guests of a greater generosity which gives life and is Life. You are that generosity, the face of the ultimate hospitality that breathes life into all that lives. The only proper posture before you--and each other--is the humility of reality.

Only the humble recognize that our life, our being and presence on this planet, is the decision of a will not our own, the creation of a power we don’t manage, the residue of a Mystery whose joy is making life and movement and beauty.

The humble know that joy is not the power we possess or the status we hold in the eyes of others but the joy of just being at the banquet of life with you. You set the table that all may know your goodness, which we only sample at this end of the banquet table.

Soon enough, too soon, we graduate to that far end of the table where saints and martyrs, witnesses and faithful ones, dine with you face to face and tears have other meaning.

Until then, may our hearts savor the breath in our lungs, the gorgeous curves and sharp crevices of earth, the morning sun and autumnal shadows, the successes and set backs we meet, and more: the love shining in your face, Jesus. All this is banquet unending, and joy is just being there with you.

Pr. David L. Miller

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Today’s text

Luke 14:1,7-8

On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the Sabbath, they were watching him closely. …When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, he told them a parable. “When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honor, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host ….”

Prayer

I love your freedom, Jesus. Your opponents watch you, yet you boldly walk into the places of their strength, unbowed by the fears of judgment and rejection that send me running from myself … and you.

With assurance you step into your future, knowing who you are and what are to do. You are ready, even eager to reveal the shape of a new age that reflects the healing purpose of the Loving Mystery who consumes you. Nothing else matters, and that passion will, indeed, consume all that you are. It will bring your destruction.

Hence, our fear, Jesus. We flee such perfect passion as your own, cutting our conscience lest you lead us to stand before others with nothing to commend us other than the promise of your nearness.

Yet, we are here, starting again, ready to learn and, we hope, to be captured by your word and Spirit and led into places unknown. And that makes us afraid. So we ask: Give us the freedom of soul to we who, so often, are enslaved by fears of judgment, rejection and futures our eyes cannot penetrate.

Fill us with the wild passion for God’s blessed reign that filled you. We know this will certainly lead us into fear and uncertainty, but we will also know you. And that will be enough for us, even as we walk into this new day on our continuing journey in you.

Pr. David L. Miller