Saturday, May 12, 2018

Luke 11:1-2

Jesus was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.’ He said to them, ‘When you pray, say:
Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. 

Desires

“Teach us to pray.” There is a desire beneath the request: I want to know God.

All these centuries later, it is easy to imagine Jesus pulling away by himself and sitting in repose, resting in the Presence he calls Father.

It is easy, too, to understand that Jesus ‘friends wanted what he had. They wanted to know what he knew, this intimacy with the Great Loving Mystery.

What they didn’t know is that the Father shares the same desire. The desire of their hearts is the echo of God’s Spirit in the depth of our own.

The voice of God beckons. Come, sit in my nearness and know me; know the Love I am. Be here ... with me.

Love desires our presence. Love hungers for our attention. Love wants to give to us what this great God shared in intimate closeness with our brother, Jesus. Love wants to fill us that we may become the Love who is the Source of our being.

This is why are moved to pray ... to know the One Jesus knew.  Knowing God ... experiencing in our depths the Love God is ... is what we seek in prayer.

We pray for the kingdom of God to come, first, in us.

Pr. David L. Miller

Friday, May 11, 2018

Matthew 5:13, 16

‘You are the light of the world. ... Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.

You are light

Who am I? This question is emblazoned on the heart of every human being. We come into existence having had no choice in the matter, given life as a gift and a question.

Yet, here the unspoken question of every human heart finds an answer: You are light.

The life in you is the energy of the most High God, a light unique and intended to shine with its particular radiance and color that God may be known and praised as the Holy Source of all that is good and lovely under the sun.

Glory comes as the light of God’s love is refracted through the prism of our being, divine light broken into particular colors and intensity as it penetrates, pervades and passes through our unique identities.

In the light of eternal love, each of us shines to illumine other souls, shedding the light of divine love and beauty on whatever small or large corner of creation God has placed within the compass of our lives.

You are light. There is no room for thinking yourself small or of little significance. There is light, joy, love, wonder, beauty and hope within you.

Open your heart and be what you are. The glory of God is you ... shining and alive with the light of an everlasting love.

Pr. David L. Miller

Sunday, May 6, 2018

Romans 8:14-17

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For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

Glorious contradiction

There is a contradiction in the Christian life between immense joy and unquenchable yearning. It is a glorious contradiction that gives depth and meaning, awakening great love and hope in our hearts.

The Spirit of the Holy One cries out in our spirits at the wonder of life and beauty. We are surrounded by the greening of life as spring raises the dead from winter’s cold. Light and life, color and contour, delight the heart even more than the eye.

Filled with joy our hearts stream out in a cry as wide as the sky, “My Lord and my God, how wondrous you are. Thank you for this earth, for this life, for the wonder that I should be here under the blue expanse to see and feel all that surrounds me. Thank you that I should feel and know that I am your beloved child.”

Without quenching this praise, God’s Spirit within us also aches amid the pain and sorrow that stain every corner of creation. Hatred and hunger, poverty and pain, disease and distress, pollution and degradation mar the goodness of all God has made.

The Spirit groans in pain, but also in hope for the fullness of God’s plan to restore creation so that everything ... everywhere ... and every corner of our being is filled with praise for God’s glory, knowing only beauty and love.

We simultaneously hold both— the joy and the longing, the praise and the pain—living in this glorious contradiction, honored to know the Spirit of the Holy One within our own.

Pr.   David L. Miller