Today's text
John 3:17
For God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but so that through him the world might be saved.
Prayer
We are so unlike you, Loving Mystery.
How much time do we spend a day, a week, a year … judging? What is breakdown in my words--70 percent blessing and 30 percent judging? The other way around? Do I bless more souls on an average day than I wound?
And every judgment flows from the seeping wounds of ego. Our anxious, unfulfilled selves, knowing we are barely lovable, seek acceptability in every judgment we pass as we try to reassure ourselves that we are okay, or at least better than the targets of our verdicts.
A young man walks into a classroom in a quiet college town and randomly kills, seven dead now. And I wonder: is this his judgment on the world, on himself? Is it the radical acting out of sick, wounded ego succumbing to final despair?
I don’t know. I just know, my Lord, that our judgments do no good. They don’t help … anyone. When we judge we don’t convince our hearts that we are okay, while others are not. It is but a knowing lie we tell ourselves. A lie that continues the wounding of your world, leaving lacerated souls in our wake, who, in their own place and way, act out their wounds. And the whole ugly cycle goes on.
Except for you, you break the cycle. You enter our world not to judge (we already have plenty of that) but to save those who cannot end the wounding cycle.
You come to us with the blessing of free forgiveness and warm inclusion into the embrace of your love. That love embraces the dead and the killers, the wounded and the wounding, the grieving, the confused and the outraged.
And in that love we find the freedom to give up our judging ways. For you heal the wounds that drive us to wound.
So grant us grace, Loving Mystery, to rest in that love for which we have no concepts, and end, as best we can, the whole ugly cycle.
Pr. David L. Miller
http://prayingthemystery.blogspot.com/
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Friday, February 15, 2008
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Today's text
John 3:13-17
No one has gone up to heaven except the one who came down from heaven, the Son of man; as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so must the Son of man be lifted up so that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him. For this is how God loved the world: he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. For God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but so that through him the world might be saved.
Prayer
I want to be John’s editor, Dear Friend. He needs to adjust his tense.
‘This is how God loved’? Really, John, you miss your opportunity to transform our vision. You pull your punch, failing to say without qualification what is clearly your intent.
Just come out and say it: Not this is how God loved, but this is how God loves, eternally and without surcease. The loving is not once and done, but from first dawn of morning to our final gasping breath, and eternally beyond.
Beyond time. Beyond space. Beyond being and nonbeing. Beyond the immensity of this universe. Beyond the yawning dark stretch of freezing space. Beyond human misery, cruelty and apathy.
Beyond all that we are, all that has happened to us or ever will. Beyond it all: You love and keep on loving.
And not this or that: but this world, the messy, dirty, disordered one that plops in my driveway each morning when the paper boy makes his round.
You love this world and gave not this or that, but the life you are. All for our taking.
And it goes on forever, the life and the love.
Together, may we know them today.
Pr. David L. Miller
John 3:13-17
No one has gone up to heaven except the one who came down from heaven, the Son of man; as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so must the Son of man be lifted up so that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him. For this is how God loved the world: he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. For God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but so that through him the world might be saved.
Prayer
I want to be John’s editor, Dear Friend. He needs to adjust his tense.
‘This is how God loved’? Really, John, you miss your opportunity to transform our vision. You pull your punch, failing to say without qualification what is clearly your intent.
Just come out and say it: Not this is how God loved, but this is how God loves, eternally and without surcease. The loving is not once and done, but from first dawn of morning to our final gasping breath, and eternally beyond.
Beyond time. Beyond space. Beyond being and nonbeing. Beyond the immensity of this universe. Beyond the yawning dark stretch of freezing space. Beyond human misery, cruelty and apathy.
Beyond all that we are, all that has happened to us or ever will. Beyond it all: You love and keep on loving.
And not this or that: but this world, the messy, dirty, disordered one that plops in my driveway each morning when the paper boy makes his round.
You love this world and gave not this or that, but the life you are. All for our taking.
And it goes on forever, the life and the love.
Together, may we know them today.
Pr. David L. Miller
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Today's text
John 3:5-8
Jesus replied: In all truth I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born through water and the Spirit; what is born of human nature is human; what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be surprised when I say: You must be born from above. The wind blows where it pleases; you can hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.
Prayer
The wind blows where it wills, where you will, Blessed One. And it blows here.
Fingers over the keys, perched and waiting for words to flow from inmost source, the heart fills and overflows. Peace prevails. Love bubbles.
And again I know the wordless truth you are.
I have nothing to say; no words will do. Nothing can be said beyond gratitude for the awareness that You Are. You Are this life that comes and fills the heart making me new as gentle music fills the room and lightness my body.
I know your delight: to fill all you love with this life and lightness of being, that all may join the dance of your love in time and space.
The wind of your life blows from an eternal desire to carry all of us off in its flow. Impermeable boundaries of race and religion, nation and clan cannot stop you. The holy wind passes through them all, seeking every crack and opening. And we cannot stop it.
For you blow even through the corridors of this heart, coming unbidden by anything save your love for me.
Pr. David L. Miller
John 3:5-8
Jesus replied: In all truth I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born through water and the Spirit; what is born of human nature is human; what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be surprised when I say: You must be born from above. The wind blows where it pleases; you can hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.
Prayer
The wind blows where it wills, where you will, Blessed One. And it blows here.
Fingers over the keys, perched and waiting for words to flow from inmost source, the heart fills and overflows. Peace prevails. Love bubbles.
And again I know the wordless truth you are.
I have nothing to say; no words will do. Nothing can be said beyond gratitude for the awareness that You Are. You Are this life that comes and fills the heart making me new as gentle music fills the room and lightness my body.
I know your delight: to fill all you love with this life and lightness of being, that all may join the dance of your love in time and space.
The wind of your life blows from an eternal desire to carry all of us off in its flow. Impermeable boundaries of race and religion, nation and clan cannot stop you. The holy wind passes through them all, seeking every crack and opening. And we cannot stop it.
For you blow even through the corridors of this heart, coming unbidden by anything save your love for me.
Pr. David L. Miller
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Today's text
John 3:1-4
There was one of the Pharisees called Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews, who came to Jesus by night and said, 'Rabbi, we know that you have come from God as a teacher; for no one could perform the signs that you do unless God were with him.' Jesus answered: In all truth I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above. Nicodemus said, 'How can anyone who is already old be born?
Prayer
Morning comes. The sun has not yet split the darkness and sent it scurrying into the far corners where it waits it’s time. And I? I am new, born again, from on high.
I walk into this space and decades of encrustation fall from the soul. Unburdened by the weight of yesterday or the freight of fear, no anxiety or regret grips the heart, which flies so free tears fall.
And why? I don’t care. Analysis distances the soul from your sweet gift. Basking is better. Resting is best, sitting enveloped in the cloud of newness that makes the heart young.
I have known young and old. And I know they have nothing to do with the calendar page. I have closed death’s eyes of souls eternally young, fresh and supple even in dying. And I have wearied under the cynical weight of hearts from whom enthusiasm and expectation had long fled, though youth endured.
How can anyone who is already old be born fresh and new? I don’t know how, only who.
I enter your nearness, and my heart knows only morning. Dear Friend, may I grow old with a morning heart.
Pr. David L. Miller
John 3:1-4
There was one of the Pharisees called Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews, who came to Jesus by night and said, 'Rabbi, we know that you have come from God as a teacher; for no one could perform the signs that you do unless God were with him.' Jesus answered: In all truth I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above. Nicodemus said, 'How can anyone who is already old be born?
Prayer
Morning comes. The sun has not yet split the darkness and sent it scurrying into the far corners where it waits it’s time. And I? I am new, born again, from on high.
I walk into this space and decades of encrustation fall from the soul. Unburdened by the weight of yesterday or the freight of fear, no anxiety or regret grips the heart, which flies so free tears fall.
And why? I don’t care. Analysis distances the soul from your sweet gift. Basking is better. Resting is best, sitting enveloped in the cloud of newness that makes the heart young.
I have known young and old. And I know they have nothing to do with the calendar page. I have closed death’s eyes of souls eternally young, fresh and supple even in dying. And I have wearied under the cynical weight of hearts from whom enthusiasm and expectation had long fled, though youth endured.
How can anyone who is already old be born fresh and new? I don’t know how, only who.
I enter your nearness, and my heart knows only morning. Dear Friend, may I grow old with a morning heart.
Pr. David L. Miller
Monday, February 11, 2008
Monday, February 11, 2008
Today's text
John 3:1-4
There was one of the Pharisees called Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews, who came to Jesus by night and said, 'Rabbi, we know that you have come from God as a teacher; for no one could perform the signs that you do unless God were with him.' Jesus answered: In all truth I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above. Nicodemus said, 'How can anyone who is already old be born? Is it possible to go back into the womb again and be born?'
Prayer
No one can see the kingdom … . No, and yet Nicodemus, hiding in the cloak of night, sees and knows you, Jesus. He knows that you stand in the presence of the All-Merciful One. He sees, but doesn’t know that or what he sees.
Yet, his soul is being born from God. The birth pangs have begun; new birth is in process or he would not—he could not—know that you are from God, with God.
He cannot yet know that the blessed future of God’s determined promise already appears right before him. The Spirit has not yet worked such sight that he may see and be born anew to the mystery of your rule that stands looking him in the eye. For you bring the delight of God’s heart to human space and time.
Would that we, too, could see it, and see it always and in all things.
But we cannot: unless, of course, we are born anew, from on high, so that with illumined and confounded eyes we witness the delight of God’s desire coming true in our midst, in the eyes and souls of those we walk quickly by, in the entangled circumstances of our days.
So many things block our vision, most notably our disbelief that you, O Loving One, should bring your kingdom to circumstances of our lives for which we have long stopped hoping for redemption and transformation.
So give us hope to believe that believing we may see, and seeing that may share in your holy kingdom, here and now where we least expect it.
Pr. David L. Miller
John 3:1-4
There was one of the Pharisees called Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews, who came to Jesus by night and said, 'Rabbi, we know that you have come from God as a teacher; for no one could perform the signs that you do unless God were with him.' Jesus answered: In all truth I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above. Nicodemus said, 'How can anyone who is already old be born? Is it possible to go back into the womb again and be born?'
Prayer
No one can see the kingdom … . No, and yet Nicodemus, hiding in the cloak of night, sees and knows you, Jesus. He knows that you stand in the presence of the All-Merciful One. He sees, but doesn’t know that or what he sees.
Yet, his soul is being born from God. The birth pangs have begun; new birth is in process or he would not—he could not—know that you are from God, with God.
He cannot yet know that the blessed future of God’s determined promise already appears right before him. The Spirit has not yet worked such sight that he may see and be born anew to the mystery of your rule that stands looking him in the eye. For you bring the delight of God’s heart to human space and time.
Would that we, too, could see it, and see it always and in all things.
But we cannot: unless, of course, we are born anew, from on high, so that with illumined and confounded eyes we witness the delight of God’s desire coming true in our midst, in the eyes and souls of those we walk quickly by, in the entangled circumstances of our days.
So many things block our vision, most notably our disbelief that you, O Loving One, should bring your kingdom to circumstances of our lives for which we have long stopped hoping for redemption and transformation.
So give us hope to believe that believing we may see, and seeing that may share in your holy kingdom, here and now where we least expect it.
Pr. David L. Miller
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