Friday, December 14, 2018

 Isaiah 12:3-4

With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. And you will say on that day:
Give thanks to the Lord,
   call on his name;
make known his deeds among the nations;
   proclaim that his name is exalted. (Isaiah 12:3-4)

That you may know

Joy is an inside job. It is not the rush of emotional energy released in moments of victory or success. Nor is it the happiness that sweeps through us when good fortune surprises. Joy is not dependent upon outward circumstances. It is deeper, rooted in the soul.

It rises when the heart is warmed and filled by the presence of love … of God … living within us. This love is always there. It is our truest self. We are made in the image of an immeasurable love.

But most days we live far from this awareness, which is why prayer needs to be a daily, hourly, moment-to-moment experience.

It is also why Christmas is central to our faith and spiritual lives. At Christmas, we meet the transcendent God, the Infinite Love who always was and will be, coming to us in infant form, so that we may see and know the love God is.

Seeing him, we know: God is pleased to come to us, not to inspire fear but to awaken the love within us that is our true nature. We, created in the image of Love, commune heart-to-heart with the Love who made us ... and become the Love God is.

In this communion, whether silent ... or speaking friend-to-friend, we are filled with the simple joy of being. God fills us, as water fills a glass to overflowing, washing away all cynicism and fear, boredom and bitterness, all greed and guilt.

All that remains is the gentle joy of being alive and knowing the Love who is and was and is to come, the love shining in the face of Christ ... and in us.

Pr. David L. Miller

Wednesday, December 12, 2018

Isaiah 35:3-4

Strengthen the weak hands,
   and make firm the feeble knees. 
 Say to those who are of a fearful heart,
   ‘Be strong, do not fear!
Here is your God. 

Reflection 

I enjoy visiting people in the hospital. It’s not that I want to see people sick or hurting, but real conversations happen there.

Most patients are pleased to have a visitor because time and worry weigh heavily on their mind. There is also no hiding or pretending that there is nothing wrong. So we talk. Talking leads to honesty, and honesty leads to prayer.

It’s an intimate moment, hands holding hands, hearts joined in hope for healing and strength. Tears sometime appear. The grip of hand-on-hand tightens as hopes and fears are offered in love to the God who is Love. Strength flows through held hands and buoys the heart for whatever might come.

But what has already come ... is the God who is expressed in our flesh, as love and blessing are shared. No one needs to ask, ‘Where is Christ?’ because Christ is right there, in our hands.

We call it incarnation. This is what we celebrate in this holy season: God becomes incarnate, flesh, a body we can see and touch, know and love. In the touching, weak hands find strength, and fearful hearts know God is present, with them.

The incarnation of God most certainly appeared in a Bethlehem stable. Here is our God, cradled in Mary’s arms. Jesus is the human face of the Loving Mystery we cannot see.

But the Incarnation doesn’t stop there. It is not time limited. Incarnation goes on. The Holy One becomes flesh to see and touch, know and love wherever and whenever Love takes on flesh.

And it happens everywhere.

Pr. David L. Miller

Tuesday, November 27, 2018

Romans 10:12b-13

[T]he same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him. For, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’

Everyone

There is no one God refuses to hear. No one is too broken, too lost, too confused, too doubting, too non-Christian or too anything to be unwelcome in the circle of God’s grace. No sin is so great, no life so wayward and no opinion or understanding of life and God so wrong-headed that the Loving Mystery turns away.

The Holy One longs to live in intimate, heart-to-heart oneness with you. God is waiting, eager to hear your voice calling out to be heard.

It is only our arrogance, resistance and failure to pray that prevents us from entering and abiding in loving union with God

So turn from the assumption that you can or should be able to navigate your life without God’s help. Take the risk of trusting that you are loved beyond measure by the ever-generous Source of your existence.

Call out to God with whatever is in you. Seek blessing when you are hurting, lost and alone. Cry out for forgiveness when you know you are wrong and for deliverance when you are threatened and trapped. In moments of joy, exclaim your gratitude to One who longs for you to share your heart.

Don’t let pride or doubt stop you. The invitation is for everyone and most certainly for you.

Pr. David L. Miller

Monday, November 26, 2018

Romans 13:11-12

Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light ….

Day has come

I always check the time when I leave the house for my morning walks. I note when the sun will rise then choose the route I follow to Feather Sound. I want to arrive at the west bank of the pond as the sun appears over the water.

The light may be clear and bright or filtered through clouds. Some days the purple, mottled sky reflects perfectly on the face of the water or glistens cold and pink on snowfall. Other days I see only a gray smudge in eastern sky.

It is never the same. Each day is a unique experience of light coming again to my little place on this earth, telling me … once more … where I live and when.

I live in a world where day has come, where the light of Christ has shined and shines still. Night has passed. Day has come. We have seen the face of God. We have witnessed the light of the divine heart illumining our world.

Morning light awakens the heart, a smile and a prayer of thanks for the light of Christ that lives in us and in this world at the dawning of each new day.

So lay aside all sadness and fear. The light of Christ has dawned and will again, igniting a hope as pure and clear as candles soon lit on our Advent wreaths.

Pr. David L. Miller

Saturday, November 24, 2018

John 6:27

Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.

Soul food

Eternity kisses the soul in moments when love floods our inmost being. Surety fills heart and mind as we know the One who made us living within, filling us.

This is eternal life, the life of eternity … now.

We cannot give ourselves this life of joy and hope. It comes as a gift Jesus is pleased to give as we draw near and feast on his words, as we open our hands to receive the blessed sacrament of his body and blood, as we pray knowing our hearts are heard, and as we live the love he awakens in our souls.

His singular invitation is for us to know him, know the truth and the life in his words and actions. In knowing Jesus, the life he is awakens in us, filling us with the wonder of the divine life in him.

Seek this every new day. Set aside time to listen to him, to imagine him as he speaks and walks among his disciples and as he reaches out in compassion for the broken.

Do not let the busyness of life distract you from seeking what your heart most needs. For what we most need is to know him.

Simply sit and imagine his face looking at you, his eyes filled with desire to give you everything that is in him. Such is his desire, his love for you.

Find your private space, your holy place and just be with him. He will give you food that endures.

Pr. David L. Miller

Friday, November 23, 2018

Philippians 4:4-5

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near.

Knowing joy

Joy arises from the presence of knowing love within the heart.

The warmth of joy is not the rush of emotional energy that fills us in a moment of victory or success, nor even when good fortune surprises us in some way. Joy is not dependent upon outward circumstances. It is deeper, rooted in the soul.

It rises when the heart is warmed by the presence of the Love … of God … living within us. This Love is there, always. It is our truest self, as we are made in the image of an immeasurable love.

We live far from this awareness most days, which is why prayer needs to be a daily, hourly, moment-to-moment experience. Turing again and again to speak to the One who is always near, friend-to-friend, moments come when we are filled with the simple joy of being. For we know the One who is Love living within, filling us as water fills a glass to overflowing.

In such moments no one needs to tell us how we are to live, for all cynicism and fear, boredom and low esteem, all greed and guilt and bitterness are washed away.

All that remains is the gentle joy of being alive and knowing the Love who is, the Love who shines for each of us in the face of Christ, the Love who is always near.

Pr. David L. Miller

Wednesday, November 21, 2018

Revelation 22:20

The one who testifies to these things says, ‘Surely I am coming soon.’ Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!

With eager expectation

The prophet, John of Patmos, was surely wrong … and always right.

He expected the immanent return of our Lord Jesus to call down the curtain on human history and make all things new. But it did not happen.

History wends its weary way with no end in sight, and still we pray “Come Lord Jesus,” just like those who first received the book of Revelation. We do so because our Lord is always coming to us.

God is love and love always comes, seeking to touch and grace and walk with the beloved. The Lord Jesus is always near to accompany us throughout our journey. We experience the return of Christ each time we open our heart to him in prayer and extend our hands to receive him in the sacrament.

He comes each time we cry out from the depth of our longing for the Lord to heal the hunger and hurts and hatreds of our world, each time we plead for him to come to the injustice and destruction that destroys the lives of millions.

Jesus is always coming near because he is love and love needs to give itself away.

So we do not fall asleep or into apathy. We do not live in doubt or sorrow but with eager expectation, knowing our Lord comes not only at the end of time, but here, now, today, to bless us with the presence of the Love for which our hearts long.

Pr. David L. Miller

Tuesday, November 20, 2018

Revelation 21:5-6

And the one who was seated on the throne said, ‘See, I am making all things new.’ Also he said, ‘Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.’ Then he said to me, ‘It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life. 

Only your love

I am making all things new. There is only one thing that can make the world truly new—the Love God is.

All things in heaven and earth are to be filled with fullness of divine love. This is why we pray. This is what we pray for. This is what we most need for the world and for ourselves—to know the love that has neither beginning nor end flowing through our world and our hearts.

We ache to feel a wave of immeasurable love swelling up within, lifting us above our burdened selves into the freedom of truest joy. But the tired, old world weighs leaden on our hearts.

Wildfires rage in California. Mass shootings spill the blood of innocents, again. Political infighting roils the nation. Refugees are denied the mercy they so badly need, and the pathetic images of starving children stare blankly amid the rubble of war in Syria and Yemen.

We hear such litanies day-after-day, but we do not settle for life as it is. We want more because the Spirit of God within us always aches and cries out for the Holy One to deliver our world from death and disease, war and famine, from ancient hatreds of racism, sexism, terrorism and every other ism that wounds the world.

Look and see. There are signs of new life even now, for the Holy One never ceases to pour divine love into our tired, old world ... and us.

So we pray, “Come, Lord Jesus, make all things new. Stir us to live in love that we may make your holy dream come true. We ache for the newness only your love can give.”

Pr. David L. Miller

Monday, November 12, 2018

Luke 23:42-43

Then he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ He replied, ‘Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.’

With me

The most sublime desire of our human hearts finds satisfaction here: You will be with me.

This is what we most need, to be with the Love who seeks always to be with us—and is, right there on the cross.

The Loving Mystery seeks us where we feel most lost and alone, most forgotten and cast off, when our hearts have no hope and surrender to sadness and anger.

Even there, especially there, God is present, sharing our pain and full of promise. Today, you will be with me in paradise.

Isn’t this what paradise is? It is to be with this great love, to know great love embracing all that you are, pain and joy, sorrow and hope. It is to be aware of this great love deep within, bubbling with hope that you are not and never will be lost.

And you won’t. For everything that is and everything you are is encompassed in this great love from whom we are never separate and with whom we will always be.

God’s nature is most clearly known in the cross where great love hears our cries, shares our sorrows and bears us into the paradise of the divine, loving presence. Today and forever.

Pr. David L. Miller

Saturday, November 10, 2018

Colossians 1:15-17

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible … all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

You know

You have seen the beginning … and know the end.

You know the One from whom you come and the One to whom you go at the close of your earthly journey. You know the energy of life and love who holds all creation together, seeking ever to draw all things into loving unity.

Everything is destined to become one, united with the Loving Mystery who reveals the divine will in our brother and Lord, Jesus the Christ.

Look at him. Imagine his face blessing children and healing the broken. Imagine, too, how he rebukes all who would burden our souls with injustice, guilt or harsh demands. Look and know: He is the beginning and end of all things … and of each of us.

Jesus is the face of the eternal Christ, the cosmic Christ who works in all things since before the beginning of time. He reveals what is and was and will evermore be, a Love who creates and draws all creation into unity with Immeasurable Love.

The fullness of the fullness of God lives and speaks, blesses and heals through him. So we know: The beginning is life and love … and the end, too.

Look at him and know. Look at him and live.

Pr. David L. Miller

Thursday, November 8, 2018

Psalm 24:7

Lift up your heads, O gates!
   and be lifted up, O ancient doors!
   that the King of glory may come in.

You are the reason

You were not created to live in fear but with joy, to welcome the victor over every fear each new day.

God is like a victorious warrior returning from battle to Jerusalem. The city gates are thrown wide open in ecstatic joy to welcome the victor to the holy place, the temple, to shower the blessings of divine life and love, replacing anxiety with elation, sorrow with tears of joy.

The gates cannot open quickly enough to receive the victor in whose presence our souls brim, safe in the embrace of divine favor.

With each new day, we can pray, ‘Lift up your heads, O gates!”

Open the gates of deepest soul and welcome the Love who is victorious over all that furrows your brow and fevers your heart. This Love, this Holy One, comes to you anew every day, filled with the blessings of love and life.

Receive and know the victory God has won for you in the resurrection of Jesus the Christ. No death can hold him … or you. No sorrow is so deep that he cannot find you and break its hold.

You are the one for whom he has won the victory. For you, alone. Even if there were no others in the world. So lift up your gates. You are the reason.

Pr. David L. Miller

Tuesday, November 6, 2018

Tuesday, November 6, 2018

Jeremiah 23:4

I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the lands where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold

With an everlasting love

The desire of God is for you.

The Loving Mystery seeks always to bring the broken home, to find the lost who are scattered, to draw the beloved into the divine heart that we may live beyond every fear, knowing the everlasting love that refuses to let us go.

This is the will of God for which we pray each time we gather and innumerable times on our own: “your will be done on earth as in heaven.”

The Holy One creates us that we may live in a community of blessing, gathered with all God’s people and guided by caring shepherds who reflect the divine heart.

In Jeremiah’s time, the shepherds—kings and leaders—failed to protect and nurture the people of God. They did not seek God’s will for the land. The nation was scarred by faithlessness, invaded and the population carried into foreign exile. Bad leaders divide and cause ruin.

But God’s passionate love does not wane or cool. With an everlasting love, God promises to begin again, in every generation, to gather the beloved into the divine heart where every fear and terror can be stilled in the community of blessing.

This is God’s promise, fulfilled in the saving one, Jesus the Christ, the faithful shepherd who seeks always to bring us home.

Pr. David L. Miller

Tuesday, October 30, 2018

Isaiah 25:7-8

And he will destroy on this mountain
   the shroud that is cast over all peoples,
   the sheet that is spread over all nations; 
   he will swallow up death for ever.
Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces,
   and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth,
   for the Lord has spoken. 

Say, yes

There is a future beyond every future, a time beyond the present when the dreams of God and hungry souls will come true.

The dull shroud of death will be lifted by Love, who will wipe away every ounce of sadness that has ever creased our brows.

This is the promise, an eternal promise that has never changed through the centuries. It is written in the heart of God and echoes in our own hearts.

We hear it in every human cry for deliverance from the evil that haunts our lives, striking when we least expect even in the places where we most seek peace, our sanctuaries, our homes,  our circle of friends and even in the inner workings of our minds and bodies.

The shroud of evil, the powers that hate and destroy life, shadows our existence, something we manage to forget only on the sunniest of days, and for our nation … this is not one of those.

But even now the divine dream comes true. It is real. The hope of hungry hearts touches us in every act of decency, every ounce of compassion and care and in every heart that refuses to hate.

Refuse every thought and word of hatred that clouds your soul and darkens the shroud that weighs so heavily on our society and world.

Say, “Yes,” to the Love who promises a future beyond every future. 

Say, “Yes” to love, for every love is the appearance of that future even now in this time.

Say, “Yes,” for love is the presence of the Love who shakes off the shroud, dries our tears and breathes joy into our lungs.

Say, “Yes.” The holy future happens every time you choose to love and bless.

Pr. David L. Miller

Saturday, October 27, 2018

Jeremiah 31:8-9

See, I am going to bring them from the land of the north, and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth, among them the blind and the lame, those with child and those in labor, together; a great company, they shall return here. With weeping they shall come, and with consolations I will lead them back, I will let them walk by brooks of water, in a straight path in which they shall not stumble; for I have become a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.

Ever-searching Love

The sweetest tears are those of coming home to who you are and where you belong.

We are treasured children of a Great Love who never stops searching for us in all the places we lose ourselves and forget who we are.

We spend days, years, even decades lost in a world of busy demands that crowd our minds, pushing and pulling us to be something or someone other than our truest selves.

Meeting the demands of the day, we forget and fail to pause and drink from the depths of that stream of living water that makes our hearts new, a stream that never runs dry.

But we are never fully lost, for the Great Love God is never stops searching for us in all the places we lose ourselves.

God is the ever-searching love who never stops, never gives up, never turns away, finding us along our wayward paths, gathering the beloved into a community of souls where one love is known and shared, where one love fills every heart, overcoming every division and imbuing every relationship.

There is no difference or division from Old Testament to the New. Our loving God has always been about one thing, creating a community of Great Love where we know who we are and where we belong.

Pr. David L. Miller

Monday, October 15, 2018

Job 38:1, 4-7

Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind: “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements—surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone when the morning stars sang together and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy?

Join the song

Autumnal glory explodes across the western sky as an October sun sinks low, brilliant and burnt orange painting the horizon and reaching high to touch eternity in a final hallelujah for the light of the day that was … and the promise of the new one yet to be.

And I am alive to see and praise the Maker of the light beyond and within me, who graces my soul with the capacity for wonder and love. For it is love I know within and beyond the beauty of this Friday moment, a largeness and smallness, too.

For my heart is enlarged to embrace the wonder and grace of being alive and able to feel beauty and love that lifts me beyond words. And I am small, wonderfully small, struck dumb by the wonder of existence. Why should I be? Why should anything be … let alone …this?

Science tells me it took nearly 15 billion years to produce the glory of this speechless moment when the heavens declare the glory of the Loving Mystery whose breath gives me life. Fifteen billion.

But every moment was worth it. Every moment held within the promise of what my eye beholds and my hearts knows.

And it is love … no, Love, I know as my heart joins the song of the stars, the joy of those who know.

Pr. David L. Miller

Sunday, October 7, 2018

Mark 10:43-45

Whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.

What for?

It is for freedom that we live, to live free … and to set others free from whatever enslaves them. This is the divine purpose which Jesus lived every day.

Every morning he woke knowing his holy purpose, the mission assigned to him by the Loving Mystery he knew as ‘Father.’ And he didn’t forget this, ever. It was always at the forefront of his mind: I exist to release the bodies and souls of those for whom I am sent.

To know Jesus is to know the freedom of heart he gives as we enter the circle of his love, into the communion of those who know a Love like no other.

To follow him is to give the gift that is uniquely yours to give, to offer the service and sacrifice that releases the heart and empowers possibilities of another soul whom God so loves.  

The daily question for followers of the way is, ‘Who and what am I for, today? Who will enter a more fulsome and joyous life because of what I do and say? How can I set one human heart free … today?’

You exist to set hearts free with the Love who is in you. This is your greatness, the most noble of vocations.

Pr. David L. Miller

Monday, October 1, 2018

John 4:13-15

Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.’ The woman said to him, ‘Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty.

Full hearts

There truly is no end to thirst in this life. None. Desire never ends. It is always there at the base of every other wanting in our lives.

This is who we are. We are created by Infinite Love, fashioned in the image of Love Unlimited. Just so, we thirst for Infinite Love, longing for union to know … to feel … to bask in … and savor the sweet smile of the Love who is beyond all others.

And wonder of wonders, it happens. Moments arrive when we know our souls being bathed in the Love who is and was and ever will be.

It is then and only then that the wanting ends, but only for the time of knowing, only for the moment when the heart is totally full of Love, leaving no room for desire. There is only the knowing.

Who knew this could be? Who knew the soul’s endless craving could ever find satisfaction in Infinite Love? And who can predict the exquisite moments when graced awareness overwhelms us with the Love who is always there for us, the Love who never ceases wanting us.

Give me this water, asked a woman by a well as she listened to the stranger who stopped by to quench his thirst. She speaks for all of us: Give us the water that quenches the unrelenting thirst to know Infinite Love.

Give it today. Give it now. And give it always. For our thirst, however satisfied in this moment, always returns and will return, Holy One, because the ache within us is the echo in our soul of your desire for us.

You desire that we should drink of the Love you are … and find rest for our souls until we rest fully and forever in you. Full hearts, at last.

Pr. David L. Miller