Today’s text
Matthew 2:7-12
Then Herod summoned the wise men to see him privately. He asked them the exact date on which the star had appeared and sent them on to Bethlehem with the words, 'Go and find out all about the child, and when you have found him, let me know, so that I too may go and do him homage.' Having listened to what the king had to say, they set out. And suddenly the star they had seen rising went forward and halted over the place where the child was. The sight of the star filled them with delight, and going into the house they saw the child with his mother Mary, and falling to their knees they did him homage. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh. But they were given a warning in a dream not to go back to Herod, and returned to their own country by a different way.
Reflection
The eternal conflict continues, Jesus, and I am in the middle of it.
The wise come, seeking to know and be made new by your appearing. But those holding the reins of power seek you only to destroy you and the seeds of newness you plant in the earth’s dusty soil.
So it goes. You come, seeking to born in us again that shoots of truly new life may emerge from amid the dusty decades of our living. But the powers that rule our souls resist their overthrow.
Something in us prefers to keep all things as they are, instead of watering the seeds of the soul from which you grow.
Your growth means change; a change in habits, attitudes, joys and sorrows, in how I speak and use my time. It means becoming a new person, a new soul centered in the joyous growth of the seed of your life in soil of our souls.
Old routines, long engrained, having worn deep ruts in our souls pull us back by the gravity of habit into the selves in which we are stuck. They don’t easily release their grip.
But we have been again to the manger. We have seen your face. The light of eternity has warmed our cheeks and hearts and excited our minds with unexpected possibilities. Something new was awakened, a hope that our lives can be more, more gracious, more purposeful, more holy and joyful, more of you than normally they are.
I want this more, now and all year long. So let me be as wise as the seekers who came bearing gifts.
They did not try to defeat your enemy. They went away from him to savor what they had seen and to contemplate the awakening of mind and heart that had happened for them at your infant bed.
So I will launch no assault on the ruts and habits that resist the seed of your newness in my soul. I can no more overcome them than the wise man could unseat Herod.
I will go another way. I will avoid the destroyers who resist your newness. I will go to those places where best I can remember what I have seen and heard, where I remember what it was like to look at you so closely again, where I can hear your voice in my depths:
‘Behold I make all things new, even you.’
I will savor your voice and every moment of newness and joy in which I know freedom from my sad, old self. For you are making me new, finally at 56, into the soul I might have been long before.
But I know nothing is lost. Nothing. All that I am, even the sad and troubled years, will be graced and given back, to become a gift of your great loving.
Pr. David L. Miller
http://prayingthemystery.blogspot.com/
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Friday, January 02, 2009
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Today’s text
Matthew 2:7-11
Then Herod summoned the wise men to see him privately. He asked them the exact date on which the star had appeared and sent them on to Bethlehem with the words, 'Go and find out all about the child, and when you have found him, let me know, so that I too may go and do him homage.' Having listened to what the king had to say, they set out. And suddenly the star they had seen rising went forward and halted over the place where the child was. The sight of the star filled them with delight, and going into the house they saw the child with his mother Mary, and falling to their knees they did him homage. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh.
Reflection
Come, Lord Jesus. Awaken purest desire in my heart.
Desires clash, Jesus. The wise seek the place of new birth to do homage and give gifts. Herod seeks his advantage, turning what comes to protect possessions and serve self.
The wise come seeking to bless and to receive blessing. Herod seeks nothing, wanting only to protect what is his.
The wise see the world through eyes acute to the coming of the holy. The selfish see through lenses of fear. For them, the coming of God is not a time of open-armed welcome, but an occasion to close ranks to prevent the threat of change, and any change is threat.
And now a new day comes, soon a new year. And I am the same old person, more driven by fears than by anticipation of the holy and lovely, the graced and genuine, the presence of you who are ever present.
Come and convert my heart, Lord Jesus.
Take away the eyes of my anxiety that I may not fear when you come to me in ways that distress my soul or disturb the way I order my little world. It grieves me to think that I might miss you, whom I most need.
So show me the way of wisdom that I may find my way to the places where your life is birthed in and near me. Then, I will open my arms to welcome and worship you, giving such gifts as I have to share.
Come, Lord Jesus. Calm my fears and make my heart wise that I may see and welcome you in every place you come to me.
Pr. David L. Miller
Matthew 2:7-11
Then Herod summoned the wise men to see him privately. He asked them the exact date on which the star had appeared and sent them on to Bethlehem with the words, 'Go and find out all about the child, and when you have found him, let me know, so that I too may go and do him homage.' Having listened to what the king had to say, they set out. And suddenly the star they had seen rising went forward and halted over the place where the child was. The sight of the star filled them with delight, and going into the house they saw the child with his mother Mary, and falling to their knees they did him homage. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh.
Reflection
Come, Lord Jesus. Awaken purest desire in my heart.
Desires clash, Jesus. The wise seek the place of new birth to do homage and give gifts. Herod seeks his advantage, turning what comes to protect possessions and serve self.
The wise come seeking to bless and to receive blessing. Herod seeks nothing, wanting only to protect what is his.
The wise see the world through eyes acute to the coming of the holy. The selfish see through lenses of fear. For them, the coming of God is not a time of open-armed welcome, but an occasion to close ranks to prevent the threat of change, and any change is threat.
And now a new day comes, soon a new year. And I am the same old person, more driven by fears than by anticipation of the holy and lovely, the graced and genuine, the presence of you who are ever present.
Come and convert my heart, Lord Jesus.
Take away the eyes of my anxiety that I may not fear when you come to me in ways that distress my soul or disturb the way I order my little world. It grieves me to think that I might miss you, whom I most need.
So show me the way of wisdom that I may find my way to the places where your life is birthed in and near me. Then, I will open my arms to welcome and worship you, giving such gifts as I have to share.
Come, Lord Jesus. Calm my fears and make my heart wise that I may see and welcome you in every place you come to me.
Pr. David L. Miller
Monday, December 29, 2008
Monday, December 29, 2008
Today’s text
Matthew 2:1-6
After Jesus had been born at Bethlehem in Judaea during the reign of King Herod, suddenly some wise men came to Jerusalem from the east asking, 'Where is the infant king of the Jews? We saw his star as it rose and have come to do him homage.' When King Herod heard this he was perturbed, and so was the whole of Jerusalem. He called together all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, and enquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They told him, 'At Bethlehem in Judaea, for this is what the prophet wrote: And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, you are by no means the least among the leaders of Judah, for from you will come a leader who will shepherd my people Israel.'
Reflection
Great and small, all are swept into the drama of your fleshly becoming, Jesus.
What could the wise men possible want with you? The comfort of their studies kept them close to home and the instruments of their observations. Certainly, they had seen signs in the heavens before that required careful interpretation.
Why does this sign demand departure from their charts and books on a difficult journey? They came to give homage, but what did they expect to see and receive? What illumination did they seek? The wise and discerning are always looking for greater light and understanding.
Were they to find this in a peasant’s child, said to be some kind of king? But born in a barn? Is this the place of wisdom, in smallness and poverty, far from the seats of power where real rulers command and shape the lives of common souls?
But this is where you seem most at work, Holy One, far from the places where we look for significance--or seek it for ourselves. You are there, in the out of the way and the common, asking for our homage.
Kneeling amid the straw and the manure of the average has become the way of wisdom, the road of true understanding and peace.
So we re-enter our dailiness following the holy feast, tired and hoping to return to normal, so that we might get some sleep and right the ship of our lives. But the common places, the office, the workplace, the usual struggles, the difficult faces, look different than before.
Perhaps they are as depressing as ever--or more. Yet these places are the stable, the manger where you lie, awaiting the homage of our loving attention, so that you may teach us the wisdom of gentleness, the understanding that peace begins here, in the places we prefer to flee.
For earth itself has become the straw in which hides holiness and true illumination of soul. So we give ourselves again to the small duties of our days, doing them as to you, praying that such homage will illumine our hearts with the light of your love, laid always in the straw.
Pr. David L. Miller
Matthew 2:1-6
After Jesus had been born at Bethlehem in Judaea during the reign of King Herod, suddenly some wise men came to Jerusalem from the east asking, 'Where is the infant king of the Jews? We saw his star as it rose and have come to do him homage.' When King Herod heard this he was perturbed, and so was the whole of Jerusalem. He called together all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, and enquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They told him, 'At Bethlehem in Judaea, for this is what the prophet wrote: And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, you are by no means the least among the leaders of Judah, for from you will come a leader who will shepherd my people Israel.'
Reflection
Great and small, all are swept into the drama of your fleshly becoming, Jesus.
What could the wise men possible want with you? The comfort of their studies kept them close to home and the instruments of their observations. Certainly, they had seen signs in the heavens before that required careful interpretation.
Why does this sign demand departure from their charts and books on a difficult journey? They came to give homage, but what did they expect to see and receive? What illumination did they seek? The wise and discerning are always looking for greater light and understanding.
Were they to find this in a peasant’s child, said to be some kind of king? But born in a barn? Is this the place of wisdom, in smallness and poverty, far from the seats of power where real rulers command and shape the lives of common souls?
But this is where you seem most at work, Holy One, far from the places where we look for significance--or seek it for ourselves. You are there, in the out of the way and the common, asking for our homage.
Kneeling amid the straw and the manure of the average has become the way of wisdom, the road of true understanding and peace.
So we re-enter our dailiness following the holy feast, tired and hoping to return to normal, so that we might get some sleep and right the ship of our lives. But the common places, the office, the workplace, the usual struggles, the difficult faces, look different than before.
Perhaps they are as depressing as ever--or more. Yet these places are the stable, the manger where you lie, awaiting the homage of our loving attention, so that you may teach us the wisdom of gentleness, the understanding that peace begins here, in the places we prefer to flee.
For earth itself has become the straw in which hides holiness and true illumination of soul. So we give ourselves again to the small duties of our days, doing them as to you, praying that such homage will illumine our hearts with the light of your love, laid always in the straw.
Pr. David L. Miller
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