Friday, November 30, 2007

Friday, November 30, 2007

Today's text

Colossians 1:15-20

He [Christ] is the image of the unseen God, the first-born of all creation, for in him were created all things in heaven and on earth: everything visible and everything invisible, thrones, ruling forces, sovereignties, powers-all things were created through him and for him. He exists before all things and in him all things hold together, and he is the Head of the Body, that is, the Church. He is the Beginning, the first-born from the dead, so that he should be supreme in every way; because God wanted all fullness to be found in him and through him to reconcile all things to him, everything in heaven and everything on earth, by making peace through his death on the cross.

Prayer

You are … you are … you are … the beginning. First born from death, you are the beginning of all we want, all for which we hope. You are the daybreak of eternity, the first light of our final tomorrow, the rose-glow sunrise of newest day that never grows old, unlike this heart of mine.

You are. You are the beginning of the end of death’s finality.

You are the beginning of your church, a people made new, born from the cold death that is this separation from your ever-abiding love.

You are the beginning of the new being, risen afresh from the leaden weights that drag us to earth so that we do not soar on wings of your risen life that lift us above the daily drudgeries of mere existence.

You are the beginning of bitter tears’ hope, the rising of the multitude who will follow you from death into life unimagined.

You are the beginning of all that will be when there will be nothing but you, for you will be all in all.

Be all in all in me this day, risen Christ, for I languish in listless melancholy. I hunger to taste the beginning of the end for which you made me and all. I want to live beyond the death that so often grips the soul.

Let me, this day, see you, lest my heart grow old. May the first light of your tomorrow shine in these, my eyes.

Pr. David L. Miller

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Today's text

Colossians 1:15-20

He [Christ] is the image of the unseen God, the first-born of all creation, for in him were created all things in heaven and on earth: everything visible and everything invisible, thrones, ruling forces, sovereignties, powers-all things were created through him and for him. He exists before all things and in him all things hold together, and he is the Head of the Body, that is, the Church. He is the beginning, the first-born from the dead, so that he should be supreme in every way; because God wanted all fullness to be found in him and through him to reconcile all things to him, everything in heaven and everything on earth, by making peace through his death on the cross.”

Prayer

You are the beginning, O Morning Star, marking the dawn of eternal day. First born from death’s demise, risen from the end our hearts fear, you sign the start of everlastingness, joining all that is in the sweet marriage of divine Spirit and created matter even as they dwell together in you.

We start again the day, knowing little about how it will end or what smiles and desolations we may meet. We cannot see the end of the day, yet we see the end of days, the eternal tomorrow, for we have seen your risen face, Jesus. And we know: every one of our days begins under the sign of the Morning Star, marking the resurrection dawn of a love no death can hold.

We have seen the future, the world’s future--my future, and it is you. All that is, all that I am shall be joined in utter unity with all that you are. You shall be supreme in me and in all, and all shall be life, the life I see and know and taste in you.

Morning Star of everlasting tomorrow, let me taste your holy future today. I crave it like my next breath. Draw us from our divergent hearts into that great harmony of life and love, purpose and passion that is your future present, even here, even now.

Pr. David L. Miller

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Today's text

Colossians 1:15-20

He [Christ] is the image of the unseen God, the first-born of all creation, for in him were created all things in heaven and on earth: everything visible and everything invisible, thrones, ruling forces, sovereignties, powers-all things were created through him and for him. He exists before all things and in him all things hold together, and he is the Head of the Body, that is, the Church. He is the Beginning, the first-born from the dead, so that he should be supreme in every way; because God wanted all fullness to be found in him and through him to reconcile all things to him, everything in heaven and everything on earth, by making peace through his death on the cross.

Prayer

You want your fullness to be found. This is your everlasting desire, Loving Mystery. You want to be known. You want me to find and bask in the fullness of what the eye cannot see, the ear cannot hear and the mind cannot imagine.

Your desire consoles my heart and elevates my soul this winter’s morning. I am warmed by the love revealed here.

For the day’s work called to me amid fitful sleep. It awakened my anxious heart to tasks that out number the hours of the day. But now I awake in a world where your extravagant desire out weighs the anxiety of unfinished tasks.

You hunger for me to find, today, the fullness of you who are the Fullness of life and love, to know you in my brother Jesus, the Christ, the human face of your divine immensity, the shining light of your infinite darkness.

You made me in him, through him, for him, shaping me body and soul that I should be capable of you, capable of wanting you, of knowing you, of finding you--and incapable of finding fulfillment for my restlessness anywhere but in the fullness of your divine generosity.

May I find it today, O Loving Mystery? Let me know the fullness of your divine heart in the grace that draws us beyond ourselves into the blessed harmony and oneness that you intend. Open my heart to the gallery of divine wonder and joy in the familiar faces and spaces of my day.

Then I shall know the love by which, through which and for which I was made. I shall know you. Then your everlasting desire and my restless hunger will find peace.

Pr. David L. Miller

Monday, November 26, 2007

Monday, November 26, 2007

Today's text

Colossians 1:15-17

He [Christ] is the image of the unseen God, the first-born of all creation, for in him were created all things in heaven and on earth: everything visible and everything invisible, thrones, ruling forces, sovereignties, powers-all things were created through him and for him. He exists before all things and in him all things hold together

Prayer

Morning breaks the darkness. Daylight ends the little death of sleep, and here we are again in the midst of life, finding the wonder life in the midst of our mortal bodies.

As at the beginning, we spring from the nothingness of nonbeing into the morning of life, appearing in this particular moment of time for reasons beyond our knowing. Suspended by invisible threads of being, we are joined in an intricate web of being, connected … somehow … to all that it is in a vast fabric of life, moving in indiscernible patterns we sometimes affect but never control.

Instinctively, we turn our eyes to the impenetrable darkness out of which we have sprung, somehow knowing this great obscurity is our Source and the fountain of all life. But the dazzling darkness reflects all vision back upon itself.

Until … until we see you, blessed Christ. For you step from the invisibility we cannot penetrate to reveal the source of our soul and all the soul of all that is.

You are the face of the Impenetrable Darkness, O Christ. You are the first, before all that it is. All that is comes to be through you: all things, each person, each element of creation, each spoonful of matter, each living, growing greenness. Each bears the mark of you who are love. Each is an expression of your life, your beauty, your incorrigible creative joy. Each lives with the life you are. Each finds its place and purpose in the love from which all life springs.

For you are love and life, and in your love you choose to make good and beautiful beings come to life and grow. We don’t know why you should make us or makes us as we are. Except, you love life, and love always has reasons the mind cannot enter.

Pr. David L. Miller