Today’s text
2 Corinthians 4:5-6
It is not ourselves that we are proclaiming, but Christ Jesus as the Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. It is God who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' that has shone into our hearts to enlighten them with the knowledge of God's glory, the glory on the face of Christ.
Reflection
Say the word glory and images of light fill the mind--the blinding brilliance of mid-day, sunburst through clouds at the close of the day, the splendid play of every-changing hues as the sun slowly fills … or recedes from the Grand Canyon.
The Bible suggests dozens of images like this. In the beginning, God creates a world of wonder and beauty, calling light out of the darkness of nothingness.
Moses ascends a mountain to commune with God and returns, his face alight from the reflected glow of his encounter.
The glory of the Lord comes to shine on those who dwell in the land of darkness, the prophet Isaiah says.
.
Zachariah, the father of John the Baptist, praises God for the boy’s birth and the mission he will pursue. “The dawn from on high will shine upon us,” his soul sings.
And when old Simeon holds the infant Jesus in the temple, he looks at the child’s face and knows that this one is “a light to enlighten the nations and the glory of your (God’s) people Israel.”
Glory is light, the light of God’s face, the revelation of God’s heart, the presence of God’s saving power shining on those whose hearts are heavy, those who hunger for life to be made new and fresh and free from all that hinders its shining.
Such glory shines in Jesus, a strange glory, though. For it is not seen most clearly in the bright light of success and adulation, not in popular acclaim and the celebration of the masses, but in surrender to the degrading suffering for the sake of divine love.
We do not reflect this glory as human beings. We do not merely mirror its reflection.
Gazing into the face of Jesus, seeing who he is, his words and works of divine love, his willing suffering unto death, his complete and utter trust of the heavenly Father--the light of his glory shines from the depth of our very being.
We become as he is, alight from within with the wonder of the Loving Mystery of God.
The daily invitation is to follow this Christ who shines with God’s glory.
Follow him into the places you have been led to give yourself. In surrender to those tasks, those people and those challenges, the glory of God will shine in dark places, and the light of God shining in Jesus face … will shine also in ours.
And once again, we shall see the glory of the uncreated light of the unimaginable God.
Pr. David L. Miller
http://prayingthemystery.blogspot.com/
Posts
All Comments
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Today’s text
2 Corinthians 4:5-6
It is not ourselves that we are proclaiming, but Christ Jesus as the Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. It is God who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' that has shone into our hearts to enlighten them with the knowledge of God's glory, the glory on the face of Christ.
Reflection
Illumine my heart, Holy One. Let your light shine out of my darkness. The day comes, but there is little light in me. My spirit is heavy. Gladness eludes me. Energy flags. My spirit is as dreary as this winter day.
I long for smiles that tell me all is well and all will be so. I hunger for my heart to smile and breathe freely, but I am burdened by the weight of the moment.
Responsibilities encumber my heart, duties deaden the spirit, my failures hurt those I love, and a nagging inner voice tells me that more is expected of me than I want to give. There’s that old persistent feeling that I am not ‘making it.’
But this is only a moment, and moments are like waves on the ocean. They rise and fall. There is a crest and trough on each of the innumerable waves that dance on the deep, none of which should be taken with ultimate seriousness. Each soon passes.
Beneath the restless surface the deep is quiet, steady, moving but slowly, unperturbed by the agitation of waves moved by every breath of air.
You, Loving Presence, are the deep, untroubled by fleeting moments.
Your light, to mix the metaphor, shines even when I do not see or feel it, even when the drabness of present moments blind my eyes and weigh my soul.
You shine and will shine in and on me, quieting my soul and bringing the joy that frees me to live, to give, to try, to fail, to get up and go again.
Soon, I will shut this machine down and leave. I will go to people weighed down by disease or discouragement or sorrow. I will take up responsibilities that feel too heavy and duties that can deaden the spirit. I will give my mind and skill to situations that will be little improved by my presence.
But I will go with a word of blessing and with the blessed communion of bread and wine through which you give us yourself, O Lord.
And I will trust that the light shines out of the darkness will shine also on me and in me, somewhere, as I go my way.
So I go.
Pr. David L. Miller
2 Corinthians 4:5-6
It is not ourselves that we are proclaiming, but Christ Jesus as the Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. It is God who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' that has shone into our hearts to enlighten them with the knowledge of God's glory, the glory on the face of Christ.
Reflection
Illumine my heart, Holy One. Let your light shine out of my darkness. The day comes, but there is little light in me. My spirit is heavy. Gladness eludes me. Energy flags. My spirit is as dreary as this winter day.
I long for smiles that tell me all is well and all will be so. I hunger for my heart to smile and breathe freely, but I am burdened by the weight of the moment.
Responsibilities encumber my heart, duties deaden the spirit, my failures hurt those I love, and a nagging inner voice tells me that more is expected of me than I want to give. There’s that old persistent feeling that I am not ‘making it.’
But this is only a moment, and moments are like waves on the ocean. They rise and fall. There is a crest and trough on each of the innumerable waves that dance on the deep, none of which should be taken with ultimate seriousness. Each soon passes.
Beneath the restless surface the deep is quiet, steady, moving but slowly, unperturbed by the agitation of waves moved by every breath of air.
You, Loving Presence, are the deep, untroubled by fleeting moments.
Your light, to mix the metaphor, shines even when I do not see or feel it, even when the drabness of present moments blind my eyes and weigh my soul.
You shine and will shine in and on me, quieting my soul and bringing the joy that frees me to live, to give, to try, to fail, to get up and go again.
Soon, I will shut this machine down and leave. I will go to people weighed down by disease or discouragement or sorrow. I will take up responsibilities that feel too heavy and duties that can deaden the spirit. I will give my mind and skill to situations that will be little improved by my presence.
But I will go with a word of blessing and with the blessed communion of bread and wine through which you give us yourself, O Lord.
And I will trust that the light shines out of the darkness will shine also on me and in me, somewhere, as I go my way.
So I go.
Pr. David L. Miller
Monday, February 13, 2012
Monday, February 13, 2012
Today’s text
2 Corinthians 4:5-6
It is not ourselves that we are proclaiming, but Christ Jesus as the Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. It is God who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' that has shone into our hearts to enlighten them with the knowledge of God's glory, the glory on the face of Christ.Reflection
There is a oneness in Christian faith that transcends the dualism of our common patterns of believing. Typically, we imagine a god ‘out there,’ separate from ourselves. Just so, we place ourselves in the difficult position of trying to work up belief that this god is real, that he exists.
Faith becomes believing in the reality of this god. And if we get that far, we go on to ascribe things to the character of this god--goodness, forgiveness, care purity, judgment or whatever.
No matter what characteristics you ascribe this god remains distant, ‘out there.”
This is an exercise in spiritual apartheid. This god and I are separate, not together. I am here and this god is ‘over there,’ and I have to struggle to jump the broad divide between us.
With this god, we cannot share the intimate communion of those who feel and know--in utter simplicity--what is in the other’s heart.
I have little interest in this ‘out there’ god, although I surely believe that God transcends and is so much greater than us.
What I want … and what we are given … is so much better, and so much more lovingly intimate. For what we are given is not a what to believe in but a who to indwell our souls.
The glory of God shines in every morsel of creation and in the morning light of blessedly new days. This glory shines in our hearts--and in the face of Jesus.
It glistens in his every word and deed, in his glowing compassion and in his desire to enlighten human souls to the grace of the One whose love shines on good and evil alike.
We are invited by the Loving Mystery of God to look at Jesus, again and again, and to know … the beauty of his grace and the life that is in him … is the glory of God’s own heart.
In this knowing, we know one more thing.
The glory we see in him is alive also in us. That glory of God’s loving Spirit allows us to see God’s glory shining in Jesus … and in gentle morning light … and in the beauty of human souls and … well, you get the idea.
This is no ‘out there’ god. This is the Loving Mystery who is right here, awakening love in my heart and yours.
This One is as close as our breath, as near as the beating of our soul’s own loving. In this loving, his Spirit communes with our spirit, giving us close, intimate knowledge that the glory of God is the love that refuses to stay ‘out there.’
Pr. David L. Miller
2 Corinthians 4:5-6
It is not ourselves that we are proclaiming, but Christ Jesus as the Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. It is God who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' that has shone into our hearts to enlighten them with the knowledge of God's glory, the glory on the face of Christ.Reflection
There is a oneness in Christian faith that transcends the dualism of our common patterns of believing. Typically, we imagine a god ‘out there,’ separate from ourselves. Just so, we place ourselves in the difficult position of trying to work up belief that this god is real, that he exists.
Faith becomes believing in the reality of this god. And if we get that far, we go on to ascribe things to the character of this god--goodness, forgiveness, care purity, judgment or whatever.
No matter what characteristics you ascribe this god remains distant, ‘out there.”
This is an exercise in spiritual apartheid. This god and I are separate, not together. I am here and this god is ‘over there,’ and I have to struggle to jump the broad divide between us.
With this god, we cannot share the intimate communion of those who feel and know--in utter simplicity--what is in the other’s heart.
I have little interest in this ‘out there’ god, although I surely believe that God transcends and is so much greater than us.
What I want … and what we are given … is so much better, and so much more lovingly intimate. For what we are given is not a what to believe in but a who to indwell our souls.
The glory of God shines in every morsel of creation and in the morning light of blessedly new days. This glory shines in our hearts--and in the face of Jesus.
It glistens in his every word and deed, in his glowing compassion and in his desire to enlighten human souls to the grace of the One whose love shines on good and evil alike.
We are invited by the Loving Mystery of God to look at Jesus, again and again, and to know … the beauty of his grace and the life that is in him … is the glory of God’s own heart.
In this knowing, we know one more thing.
The glory we see in him is alive also in us. That glory of God’s loving Spirit allows us to see God’s glory shining in Jesus … and in gentle morning light … and in the beauty of human souls and … well, you get the idea.
This is no ‘out there’ god. This is the Loving Mystery who is right here, awakening love in my heart and yours.
This One is as close as our breath, as near as the beating of our soul’s own loving. In this loving, his Spirit communes with our spirit, giving us close, intimate knowledge that the glory of God is the love that refuses to stay ‘out there.’
Pr. David L. Miller
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)