Thursday, April 17, 2008

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Today’s text

John 14:5-11

Thomas said, 'Lord, we do not know where you are going, so how can we know the way?' Jesus said: I am the Way; I am Truth and Life. No one can come to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father too. From this moment you know him and have seen him. Philip said, 'Lord, show us the Father and then we shall be satisfied.' Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? 'Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father, so how can you say, "Show us the Father"? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? What I say to you I do not speak of my own accord: it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his works. You must believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe it on the evidence of these works. I am.

Prayer

Many ways beckon, Jesus. They promise to make us real, alive and significant, at least in our own eyes. There is the way of knowledge in which we wrap ourselves in words and concepts imagining we can tame reality to our categories.

There is the way of accomplishment in which we consider ourselves more worthy than others, admiring (as we do) the distance between us and those who have and thus are less.

There is the way of experience in which we pretend to be more real by what we have seen, done and absorbed into memory. There are even ways of claiming our pain to separate and hold ourselves above others, as if pain and finitude were not great levelers of all humanity.

There are not enough words to name all the ways we quest for that elusive life where we finally we become real and the anxious whispers of our emptiness are silenced.

Then there is your way, Jesus. You dwell as one with the Loving Mystery for whom we have no good name. You live in utter dependence on a love human flesh cannot command, partaking and sharing a wealth beyond all human endeavor.

You live knowing that all that belongs to this Loving Mystery is yours, and to this One you belong. In this fullness, you act and speak and give what is yours. And you tell me that you are the way, bidding me to trust, to believe and to live in the fullness you share.

May I dwell in your way, my Brother. Only then will my heart become so generous that I will finally be real, beyond this shadow.

Pr. David L. Miller

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Today’s text

John 14:1-3

Do not let your hearts be troubled. You trust in God, trust also in me. In my Father's house there are many places to live in; otherwise I would have told you. I am going now to prepare a place for you, and after I have gone and prepared you a place, I shall return to take you to myself, so that you may be with me where I am.

Prayer

I am in the basement again, Jesus. Sitting here, fingers poised for any the least word you might give me. Are you here?

You want me to be with you where you are. And I am richly consoled by this thought. The warmth of a love beyond my own races through me, whispering reassurance that my faith is not in vain. It tells me that I am not alone and never will be.

I am here with you. And always will be.

Your promise is for now and ever. You come again and again to take us to yourself, the place of our great belonging. And you come even now to me. Thank you. My early morning heart requires your nearness. I am not myself apart from you.

But I ask: Come also to those whose faces trouble my own. They lose themselves as disease strips ability and memory away, leaving but the husk of the fullness that once was theirs … and ours.

I don’t know how you might come to them this day, taking them into the heart of your nearness. We who love them would be consoled to see and know how such blessing happens, especially for those who have forgotten how to hope and those who can no longer name their beloved.

But most often we neither see nor know. So with tears of wild hope we trust your promise that they, too, shall be with you where you are. This day and ever.

And we know that this place is grace beyond all human measure.

Pr. David L. Miller

Monday, April 14, 2008

Monday, April 14, 2008

Today’s text

John 14:1-3

Do not let your hearts be troubled. You trust in God, trust also in me. In my Father's house there are many places to live in; otherwise I would have told you. I am going now to prepare a place for you, and after I have gone and prepared you a place, I shall return to take you to myself, so that you may be with me where I am.

Prayer

The morning comes. Foggy consciousness clears as the shower stings the body to life. Too soon the day’s demands crowd the mind, making it an inhospitable place even for its own resident, me.

You speak of a dwelling place, Jesus, which you prepare for us that we may be with you. You seem to point to a time well ahead and a realm more exalted than the mundane round of daily duty.

But my morning need moves me to hear you afresh. In the house of the All Loving One there are many rooms where we may live. And I would live in one here and now.

I want, no, I need my soul to be a hospitable dwelling where the mind can rest at peace even as it grapples to order the day as see to life’s labors. I need this soul to be a place of welcome for me and for all I encounter in the coming hours.

So I ask: Can you make of me a fit dwelling place for human habitation? Will you clear out the anxious rush, the fears and grudges, the insecurities and prejudices that I may dwell even now in the house of the All Loving?

For I would dwell with you. Only so do am I a place where I and others may truly live.

Pr. David L. Miller