Today’s text
1 John 3:15-17
“All who hate a brother or sister are murderers, and you know that murderers do not have eternal life abiding in them. We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us--and we ought to lay down our live for one another. How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need yet refuses to help?”
Prayer
Eternal life is love abiding. Grant us this every morning, Living One. For we, too, do murderer to the souls of those we bypass and take for granted. We work destruction in our failures of gratitude and grace, our refusals to bless and heal, to build up and encourage. We kill the souls of your beloved and the unity of your beloved community with glib words and backbiting.
We each are more fragile and needy than we have courage to acknowledge. We need you. We need each other. We need our communal sharing to be a holy sacrament of your eternal life lest we die, lest we dwell in haunts of sadness and prisons of distrust and anger.
Our souls yearn for the sweet freedom to soar and share and be, for once, ourselves, that rare person who emerges in the morning sun of unspeakable grace where we know we are loved beyond any measure.
And we are. You laid down your life for us, Risen Jesus, and now pour the resurrection of grace into our souls that we may live and grace every life we touch with the love we have received from you, the flowing fountain of eternal life.
May it be so today. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
http://prayingthemystery.blogspot.com/
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Friday, April 13, 2007
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Today’s text
1 John 3:11-14
“For this is the message you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. We must not be like Cain who was from the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous. … We know that we have passed from death to life because we love one another. Whoever does not love abides in death.”
Prayer
We know life, your risen life, in the presence of love, your love, abiding in us. Love is the form of your presence in and among us, Holy Mystery. And we yearn to rest in you whose name is Risen Love Abiding--and abiding here with me.
We yearn because we know what it is to abide in death, Risen One. It is an altogether common experience. Death is dwelling in anxiety about who I am, how I look, how I am doing, how others perceive me. It is fear about today and preoccupied worry about tomorrow.
Death is dwelling in cynicism and disdain for others, their actions and motives. It is separation from all with whom we share common human vulnerability.
Death is dwelling apart from you, separate from your liberating nearness, Risen Restless Love. Death, I know too well, and I weary of its hateful face.
So I come again in these moments to rest my soul in the mystery of your loving nearness. Knowing you here, abiding in this love I have for you, I know again, all is well. And resurrection happens again. I pass from death to life, knowing the love you breathe and speak through this soul.
May I never weary of this endless passage from death to life through which you breathe the life of your love into my soul. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 3:11-14
“For this is the message you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. We must not be like Cain who was from the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous. … We know that we have passed from death to life because we love one another. Whoever does not love abides in death.”
Prayer
We know life, your risen life, in the presence of love, your love, abiding in us. Love is the form of your presence in and among us, Holy Mystery. And we yearn to rest in you whose name is Risen Love Abiding--and abiding here with me.
We yearn because we know what it is to abide in death, Risen One. It is an altogether common experience. Death is dwelling in anxiety about who I am, how I look, how I am doing, how others perceive me. It is fear about today and preoccupied worry about tomorrow.
Death is dwelling in cynicism and disdain for others, their actions and motives. It is separation from all with whom we share common human vulnerability.
Death is dwelling apart from you, separate from your liberating nearness, Risen Restless Love. Death, I know too well, and I weary of its hateful face.
So I come again in these moments to rest my soul in the mystery of your loving nearness. Knowing you here, abiding in this love I have for you, I know again, all is well. And resurrection happens again. I pass from death to life, knowing the love you breathe and speak through this soul.
May I never weary of this endless passage from death to life through which you breathe the life of your love into my soul. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Monday, April 09, 2007
Monday, April 9, 2007
Today’s text
1 John 3:9-10
“Those who have been born of God do not sin because God’s seed abides in them; they cannot sin, because they have been born of God. The children of God and of the devil are revealed in this way: all who do not do what is right are not from God, nor are those who do not love their brothers and sisters.”
Prayer
You sow the seed of tomorrow in our hearts, Risen One. Planting your future deep in the soul’s soil, your seed takes root and grows into a vibrant hope that at once comforts and agitates, so that nothing satisfies but your grace, your life, your justice, your mercy … you.
Bearing your future in our bones, we hunger for the healing of time and space and of our own fractured souls. Such is your promise. Nowhere is it more transparent than in the transfiguration of your wounds, blessed Jesus.
You emerge from your tomb bearing the marks of the nails, the scars of your mutilation. The marks of living and dieing are not wiped from your flesh. They remain. So, too, on us.
Your wounds give silent witness to God’s purpose to heal not by removing our scars but by sowing in them the seeds of tomorrow, which flower into your immense beauty even in places of cavernous wounds and sorrow.
Grant that the seed of your resurrected love should take such root in us that sin be choked out so that you may bear in us the harvest of your love and mercy. There is no surer sign of your blessed rising. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 3:9-10
“Those who have been born of God do not sin because God’s seed abides in them; they cannot sin, because they have been born of God. The children of God and of the devil are revealed in this way: all who do not do what is right are not from God, nor are those who do not love their brothers and sisters.”
Prayer
You sow the seed of tomorrow in our hearts, Risen One. Planting your future deep in the soul’s soil, your seed takes root and grows into a vibrant hope that at once comforts and agitates, so that nothing satisfies but your grace, your life, your justice, your mercy … you.
Bearing your future in our bones, we hunger for the healing of time and space and of our own fractured souls. Such is your promise. Nowhere is it more transparent than in the transfiguration of your wounds, blessed Jesus.
You emerge from your tomb bearing the marks of the nails, the scars of your mutilation. The marks of living and dieing are not wiped from your flesh. They remain. So, too, on us.
Your wounds give silent witness to God’s purpose to heal not by removing our scars but by sowing in them the seeds of tomorrow, which flower into your immense beauty even in places of cavernous wounds and sorrow.
Grant that the seed of your resurrected love should take such root in us that sin be choked out so that you may bear in us the harvest of your love and mercy. There is no surer sign of your blessed rising. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Friday, April 06, 2007
Friday, April 6, 2007
Today’s text
1 John 3:8
“Everyone who commits sin is a child of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The Son of God was revealed to destroy the works of the devil.”
Prayer
I have touched the place said to be the site of your execution, dearest Jesus. I have run my hands across the cool, gray stone on which ancient traditions say your friends placed you. My hands rested there and my tears fell, like all those who came before and who will yet appear.
Perhaps this is the spot where they laid your tortured body to rest. I do not know. But I do know the broken, shot, starved, emaciated bodies of human souls laid to rest or left to rot in road ditches in war zones on the far outposts of humanity. I think of these, too, as I think of your death on this Good Friday.
None of those deaths, none of the bodies bore any appearance of victory or triumph over forces of evil and destruction. Each cried voicelessly into the infinite silence, beseeching the heavens for an answer. Each joined earth’s ancient chorus, pleading for a mercy that can heal the sorrow and redeem the suffering.
You, blessed Jesus, fondest desire of my heart, are the answer to our ancient pleading. You are the mercy that heals the world’s wounds and redeems forgotten deaths of countless multitudes.
Your death destroys the works of the devil. You refused to repay evil for evil, hatred with more of the same. You reveal the eternal mercy that bubbles from the infinite spring of the heart of God. In you, we see the Immeasurable Mercy who holds every life, in every age, every soul, no matter how seemingly bereft or forgotten. In your suffering sorrow, I know the keeper of the sparrow to whom no suffering or death is lost or forgotten.
Your mercy destroys the ancient hatreds and fears of our heart. Bathe us in your mercy, suffering Jesus. You are our hope. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 3:8
“Everyone who commits sin is a child of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The Son of God was revealed to destroy the works of the devil.”
Prayer
I have touched the place said to be the site of your execution, dearest Jesus. I have run my hands across the cool, gray stone on which ancient traditions say your friends placed you. My hands rested there and my tears fell, like all those who came before and who will yet appear.
Perhaps this is the spot where they laid your tortured body to rest. I do not know. But I do know the broken, shot, starved, emaciated bodies of human souls laid to rest or left to rot in road ditches in war zones on the far outposts of humanity. I think of these, too, as I think of your death on this Good Friday.
None of those deaths, none of the bodies bore any appearance of victory or triumph over forces of evil and destruction. Each cried voicelessly into the infinite silence, beseeching the heavens for an answer. Each joined earth’s ancient chorus, pleading for a mercy that can heal the sorrow and redeem the suffering.
You, blessed Jesus, fondest desire of my heart, are the answer to our ancient pleading. You are the mercy that heals the world’s wounds and redeems forgotten deaths of countless multitudes.
Your death destroys the works of the devil. You refused to repay evil for evil, hatred with more of the same. You reveal the eternal mercy that bubbles from the infinite spring of the heart of God. In you, we see the Immeasurable Mercy who holds every life, in every age, every soul, no matter how seemingly bereft or forgotten. In your suffering sorrow, I know the keeper of the sparrow to whom no suffering or death is lost or forgotten.
Your mercy destroys the ancient hatreds and fears of our heart. Bathe us in your mercy, suffering Jesus. You are our hope. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Thursday, April 05, 2007
Thursday, April 5, 2007
Today’s text
1 John 3:7
“Little children, let no one deceive you. Everyone who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.”
Prayer
You are righteous. That is our hope and comfort. So often the word is a threat. Erring souls turn your righteousness into a weapon to beat others into conformity, flaying them for sin and frailty, for being human and weak and needy.
Surely, this makes you weep, even as you, my brother, wept over Jerusalem and in the Garden of Gethsemane. You wept in pain and sorrow for the fallen flower of humanity, for us and the mess we make of things, for the way we use your truth to enslave rather than free.
But you are righteous, and that is our hope. You keep the promise of God to love and to love us to the end. You, blessed Jesus, suffering Jesus, dieing Jesus: you are God’s ‘Yes!’ to all of us who must shout down the “No!” of condemnation and denunciation from accusing voices that haunt the dark corridors of minds.
We can never keep the voices away for long. So we rest in your righteousness. For you are God’s “Yes” … to me. Your righteousness is no weapon but is the gift of fulfilled promise that your love abides, and abides with and for and in us—and ever will.
That is our hope, resting in the suffering love in which you reveal the righteous love of God that never turns or fails. On this holiest of weeks, grant us this assurance. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 3:7
“Little children, let no one deceive you. Everyone who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.”
Prayer
You are righteous. That is our hope and comfort. So often the word is a threat. Erring souls turn your righteousness into a weapon to beat others into conformity, flaying them for sin and frailty, for being human and weak and needy.
Surely, this makes you weep, even as you, my brother, wept over Jerusalem and in the Garden of Gethsemane. You wept in pain and sorrow for the fallen flower of humanity, for us and the mess we make of things, for the way we use your truth to enslave rather than free.
But you are righteous, and that is our hope. You keep the promise of God to love and to love us to the end. You, blessed Jesus, suffering Jesus, dieing Jesus: you are God’s ‘Yes!’ to all of us who must shout down the “No!” of condemnation and denunciation from accusing voices that haunt the dark corridors of minds.
We can never keep the voices away for long. So we rest in your righteousness. For you are God’s “Yes” … to me. Your righteousness is no weapon but is the gift of fulfilled promise that your love abides, and abides with and for and in us—and ever will.
That is our hope, resting in the suffering love in which you reveal the righteous love of God that never turns or fails. On this holiest of weeks, grant us this assurance. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Today’s text
1 John 3:4-6
“Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him.”
Prayer
I know the pain of sin, Holy One, as do you. When sin does not separate there is no space between us, no here and there, no me and you. I rest in you who are not near but here, around, about, within--the all-enveloping wonder with whom I share a seamless intimacy in which there is no separation between my mortality and your eternity.
We are one, and I am certain beyond all doubt that your love holds me fast in this and every age. Assurance fills my heart; joy bubbles over, a flowing stream of life, love and confidence. The idea of turning from you, of seeking life anywhere but in you, is unthinkable, the foulest delusion.
But blessed intimacy shatters like glass when I turn from the constancy of your love to the shifting fears of my fretful soul. Ancient anxieties that I know far too well seize my mind, and I lose the exquisite intimacy of your abiding.
I refuse the invitation of love you write in the inscape of every circumstance and alienate myself from others, avoiding them in fear, boarding up my heart, no longer trusting that communal sharing you seek to work among us.
Sin separates, so that I no longer abide in you but in the disquiet of my mind where fears cloud my vision until I can see nothing else.
But you do not leave me to the lawless disorder of my heart. You come again and again, inviting me to abide in that incandescent love that evaporates my anxiety, restores our union and opens my eyes to see you and to know: my sin is not nearly sufficient to steal me from your love.
Open our eyes to see and know you in this holy time of your self-giving, blessed Jesus. Take away the sin that weights our souls and shatters our joy that we may abide in you, trusting all your love has done and will do for us from this time and forever. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 3:4-6
“Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him.”
Prayer
I know the pain of sin, Holy One, as do you. When sin does not separate there is no space between us, no here and there, no me and you. I rest in you who are not near but here, around, about, within--the all-enveloping wonder with whom I share a seamless intimacy in which there is no separation between my mortality and your eternity.
We are one, and I am certain beyond all doubt that your love holds me fast in this and every age. Assurance fills my heart; joy bubbles over, a flowing stream of life, love and confidence. The idea of turning from you, of seeking life anywhere but in you, is unthinkable, the foulest delusion.
But blessed intimacy shatters like glass when I turn from the constancy of your love to the shifting fears of my fretful soul. Ancient anxieties that I know far too well seize my mind, and I lose the exquisite intimacy of your abiding.
I refuse the invitation of love you write in the inscape of every circumstance and alienate myself from others, avoiding them in fear, boarding up my heart, no longer trusting that communal sharing you seek to work among us.
Sin separates, so that I no longer abide in you but in the disquiet of my mind where fears cloud my vision until I can see nothing else.
But you do not leave me to the lawless disorder of my heart. You come again and again, inviting me to abide in that incandescent love that evaporates my anxiety, restores our union and opens my eyes to see you and to know: my sin is not nearly sufficient to steal me from your love.
Open our eyes to see and know you in this holy time of your self-giving, blessed Jesus. Take away the sin that weights our souls and shatters our joy that we may abide in you, trusting all your love has done and will do for us from this time and forever. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Monday, April 02, 2007
Monday, April 2, 2007
Today’s text
1 John 3:2-3
“Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.”
Prayer
This week we surely will see you, my brother. We will see you as darkness gathers and threatens your life, blessed Jesus. We will see your friends betray and deny you, running from your face in shame and fear.
We will see the powerful denounce and condemn you. We will see you beaten bloody by whips wielded by the rude and malicious. We will see you fall beneath the weight of your burden and beg the Holy Mystery to be delivered from the torture that will wring the final breath of life from your lungs.
We will see you touch and bless your beloved friends, washing their feet and giving yourself to them in a meal of exquisite intimacy and tenderness. We will see you love them to the end. And we will see that you live, and the life that you are cannot be confined to a tomb.
We will see you. And we will know that your love, which knows no boundaries, is transparent to the impenetrable heart of the Eternal Wonder. We will see you, and seeing you we will gaze into the dark mysteries of eternity, there to discover that it is illimitable love from which you came, to which you go and to whom we belong in life and death.
We will see you. Can it be that in seeing we will become like you, sharing the beauty of your face, bearing the belovedness of your heart, alive with the tenderness of your mercy, breathing the gentle air of eternal generosity?
As we see you, so we become and are. Grant us the faith that sees you that your beauty may live in our faces. Such is your desire. May it be, here and now. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 3:2-3
“Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.”
Prayer
This week we surely will see you, my brother. We will see you as darkness gathers and threatens your life, blessed Jesus. We will see your friends betray and deny you, running from your face in shame and fear.
We will see the powerful denounce and condemn you. We will see you beaten bloody by whips wielded by the rude and malicious. We will see you fall beneath the weight of your burden and beg the Holy Mystery to be delivered from the torture that will wring the final breath of life from your lungs.
We will see you touch and bless your beloved friends, washing their feet and giving yourself to them in a meal of exquisite intimacy and tenderness. We will see you love them to the end. And we will see that you live, and the life that you are cannot be confined to a tomb.
We will see you. And we will know that your love, which knows no boundaries, is transparent to the impenetrable heart of the Eternal Wonder. We will see you, and seeing you we will gaze into the dark mysteries of eternity, there to discover that it is illimitable love from which you came, to which you go and to whom we belong in life and death.
We will see you. Can it be that in seeing we will become like you, sharing the beauty of your face, bearing the belovedness of your heart, alive with the tenderness of your mercy, breathing the gentle air of eternal generosity?
As we see you, so we become and are. Grant us the faith that sees you that your beauty may live in our faces. Such is your desire. May it be, here and now. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Friday, March 30, 2007
Friday, March 30, 2007
Today’s text
1 John 3:1-3
“See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. And all you have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.”
Prayer
I know what it is to have a child, Dear One. I have held my children’s cheeks to my own and felt the tender skin of new creation. I have watched over them, stealing into their rooms late at night to hear them breathe, each breath whispering reassurance that they were well and safe and warm, each breath filling me with gratitude and wonder at the blessing of caring for them.
I have watched them grow and given up opportunities for myself, utterly convinced that what happens for them is more important than what happens for me. I deserve no credit or praise. It was no sacrifice. I wanted to do it, and in the giving I discovered a joy surpassing any loss by the length of eternity.
In loving them, you let me taste eternity, the eternity of your everlasting love in which, by which and for which you made me and all your children. Is this the way you love me? Do you know such joy in giving gifts to your children, to me? Do you find unspeakable delight in my breathing, in my stumbling attempts to grow into something more whole and human than I am?
I think so. And I bask in the love in which you hold me, the same love you allow to abide in me. Your abiding love opens my heart to see you and share your delight--and sorrow--in loving. Seeing you as the love you are, we become like our brother Jesus, the face of eternity. What more could I want? Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 3:1-3
“See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. And all you have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.”
Prayer
I know what it is to have a child, Dear One. I have held my children’s cheeks to my own and felt the tender skin of new creation. I have watched over them, stealing into their rooms late at night to hear them breathe, each breath whispering reassurance that they were well and safe and warm, each breath filling me with gratitude and wonder at the blessing of caring for them.
I have watched them grow and given up opportunities for myself, utterly convinced that what happens for them is more important than what happens for me. I deserve no credit or praise. It was no sacrifice. I wanted to do it, and in the giving I discovered a joy surpassing any loss by the length of eternity.
In loving them, you let me taste eternity, the eternity of your everlasting love in which, by which and for which you made me and all your children. Is this the way you love me? Do you know such joy in giving gifts to your children, to me? Do you find unspeakable delight in my breathing, in my stumbling attempts to grow into something more whole and human than I am?
I think so. And I bask in the love in which you hold me, the same love you allow to abide in me. Your abiding love opens my heart to see you and share your delight--and sorrow--in loving. Seeing you as the love you are, we become like our brother Jesus, the face of eternity. What more could I want? Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Today’s text
1 John 3:1-3
“See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed we will be like him for we will see him as he is.”
Prayer
We will be like you, Jesus, my brother? Should this fill me with longing or move me to quake in fear? You were unknown, disbelieved, rejected and denounced. Yet, your heart relished a quiet unity with the Love that fashioned the universe, the Holy Mystery you named Father but who exceeds all naming.
I long to be like you, sharing the uninterrupted harmony with the Love that my soul knows is my only true home. But this comes at the price that I should also be like you in a world that often despises the fire of love and holy justice to which your heart belonged.
But fear is not enough to crush the craving of your Spirit within my spirit. You fan holy desire in our souls. I want you, blessed Jesus. I want to be like you, as you promise, participating in that ceaseless gracious sharing of the triune life of God; that is your joy and strength, your identity and purpose, and you would have it be mine.
You made us for this, but our sharing in your life is so partial and intermittent. We want more, more of you. Grant that we should see and taste you today that we might be like you. We need this more than we can say. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 3:1-3
“See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed we will be like him for we will see him as he is.”
Prayer
We will be like you, Jesus, my brother? Should this fill me with longing or move me to quake in fear? You were unknown, disbelieved, rejected and denounced. Yet, your heart relished a quiet unity with the Love that fashioned the universe, the Holy Mystery you named Father but who exceeds all naming.
I long to be like you, sharing the uninterrupted harmony with the Love that my soul knows is my only true home. But this comes at the price that I should also be like you in a world that often despises the fire of love and holy justice to which your heart belonged.
But fear is not enough to crush the craving of your Spirit within my spirit. You fan holy desire in our souls. I want you, blessed Jesus. I want to be like you, as you promise, participating in that ceaseless gracious sharing of the triune life of God; that is your joy and strength, your identity and purpose, and you would have it be mine.
You made us for this, but our sharing in your life is so partial and intermittent. We want more, more of you. Grant that we should see and taste you today that we might be like you. We need this more than we can say. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Today’s text
1 John 2:27-28
“As for you, the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and so you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, abide in him. And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he is revealed we may have confidence and not be put to shame before him at his coming.”
Prayer
You are Life Abiding, Everlasting Love indwelling. You are the Holy Attraction that holds together all that is, lest creation fly apart and be no more than a fine and formless dust driven by galactic winds, a gritty, senseless chaos of no order or beauty.
You are the abiding, erotic power drawing all that is into community with you and all you love, and you delight in all you have made, even me.
You are the Holy One, the Loving Mystery on whom my heart relies and rests, especially on days of illness and fatigue when I have little strength to hold myself together and meet the day’s challenge.
Let me rest today in the anointing of your Spirit that abides and teaches heart and mind what I need to know and share with your people. They are yours, and you cherish them and dwell in them. And I desire not to deprive them of any small graces you would give through me.
Abiding in your divine love that abides also in this existence you privilege me to live, grant gentle confidence that I may dwell not in shame or apology but in joy, knowing that I, too, am yours, a child of your delight, a soul of your abiding. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 2:27-28
“As for you, the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and so you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, abide in him. And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he is revealed we may have confidence and not be put to shame before him at his coming.”
Prayer
You are Life Abiding, Everlasting Love indwelling. You are the Holy Attraction that holds together all that is, lest creation fly apart and be no more than a fine and formless dust driven by galactic winds, a gritty, senseless chaos of no order or beauty.
You are the abiding, erotic power drawing all that is into community with you and all you love, and you delight in all you have made, even me.
You are the Holy One, the Loving Mystery on whom my heart relies and rests, especially on days of illness and fatigue when I have little strength to hold myself together and meet the day’s challenge.
Let me rest today in the anointing of your Spirit that abides and teaches heart and mind what I need to know and share with your people. They are yours, and you cherish them and dwell in them. And I desire not to deprive them of any small graces you would give through me.
Abiding in your divine love that abides also in this existence you privilege me to live, grant gentle confidence that I may dwell not in shame or apology but in joy, knowing that I, too, am yours, a child of your delight, a soul of your abiding. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Monday, March 26, 2007
Monday, March 26, 2007
Today’s text
1 John 2:26-27
“And I write these things to you concerning those who would deceive you. As for you, the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and so you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, abide in him.”
Prayer
What is this anointing, Holy Mystery? What is this substance that abides and teaches so that I know all I need to know? What can it be, if not your own dear life? You dwell at my depths, stirring awareness of who you are and how you seek to take shape in my life.
From depth of heart beyond my reach, you invite me to rest in the love you are abiding in me. To rest and remain there is to grow strong, loving and wise, gentle and true. Abiding, I learn again who you are and who I am.
I am yours, and more. I am one in whom you are pleased to take a particular shape, rooted in the seeds you planted in my life through genetics and history, through saints and sinners, through places I have seen and dreamed, through those I have loved and those who have loved and rejected me, through every street I have walked and every voice I have heard.
All of them: seeds sown in the soil of my freedom. You abide in and among all these to birth a soul of your own anointing, bringing your living Spirit to particular expression in this life that I, possessed by illusion, dare to call my own.
Let me listen to the life you continue to create in me that I may hear your anointing and be true to that love and wisdom you are pleased to fashion from the seeds you have sown. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 2:26-27
“And I write these things to you concerning those who would deceive you. As for you, the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and so you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, abide in him.”
Prayer
What is this anointing, Holy Mystery? What is this substance that abides and teaches so that I know all I need to know? What can it be, if not your own dear life? You dwell at my depths, stirring awareness of who you are and how you seek to take shape in my life.
From depth of heart beyond my reach, you invite me to rest in the love you are abiding in me. To rest and remain there is to grow strong, loving and wise, gentle and true. Abiding, I learn again who you are and who I am.
I am yours, and more. I am one in whom you are pleased to take a particular shape, rooted in the seeds you planted in my life through genetics and history, through saints and sinners, through places I have seen and dreamed, through those I have loved and those who have loved and rejected me, through every street I have walked and every voice I have heard.
All of them: seeds sown in the soil of my freedom. You abide in and among all these to birth a soul of your own anointing, bringing your living Spirit to particular expression in this life that I, possessed by illusion, dare to call my own.
Let me listen to the life you continue to create in me that I may hear your anointing and be true to that love and wisdom you are pleased to fashion from the seeds you have sown. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Friday, March 23, 2007
Friday, March 23, 2007
Today’s text
1 John 2:24b-25
“If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is what he has promised us, eternal life.”
Prayer
Already the bird sings out the window, Joyous One. Surely you are Creator of spring’s in-breaking, and the bird’s song is your own, arising from the lightness of being that fills the heart on such days as this.
Earth arises from winter’s little death. The seasons turn as tender green wrestles with winter grayness. And hope bubbles from source unseen, awakening awareness that I am part of all this, inextricably connected with the mystery of life and you.
You promise eternal life, and I think I could be well satisfied with an everlasting supply of days like today, filled with hope and the savor of your presence. I dwell with and in the heart of life and joy you are, utterly certain that it is love that has given rise to days like this … and to me.
This is eternity, isn’t it, Holy Joy? Eternal life is to dwell with and in you, knowing no separation but only the enveloping presence of you, who are loving joy beyond my capacity to imagine or feel. But today I think I have a taste of what you promise. Thank you. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 2:24b-25
“If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is what he has promised us, eternal life.”
Prayer
Already the bird sings out the window, Joyous One. Surely you are Creator of spring’s in-breaking, and the bird’s song is your own, arising from the lightness of being that fills the heart on such days as this.
Earth arises from winter’s little death. The seasons turn as tender green wrestles with winter grayness. And hope bubbles from source unseen, awakening awareness that I am part of all this, inextricably connected with the mystery of life and you.
You promise eternal life, and I think I could be well satisfied with an everlasting supply of days like today, filled with hope and the savor of your presence. I dwell with and in the heart of life and joy you are, utterly certain that it is love that has given rise to days like this … and to me.
This is eternity, isn’t it, Holy Joy? Eternal life is to dwell with and in you, knowing no separation but only the enveloping presence of you, who are loving joy beyond my capacity to imagine or feel. But today I think I have a taste of what you promise. Thank you. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Today’s text
1 John 2:23-25
“No one who denies the Son has the Father; everyone who confesses the Son has the Father also. Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is what he has promised us, eternal life."
Prayer
You are most gracious and courteous, Holy Mystery. You constantly invite me to abide and to abide in you. The thought of dwelling near the heart of your eternal kindness is my highest desire. I can want no more. But what is this abiding?
I hear in your words a call to come home from restless wandering, to rest, to remain, to find my home not in the life and reputation which I make for myself but in you.
Our hearts search for home, a place to be and belong, a safe space for body and soul. But, too often, we believe the illusion that it is something we make for ourselves. This is our temptation, and it leads to anxious work, to justifying ourselves and our value, to greed and defensiveness lest we lose our place in the world.
Our place is in you. You invite us to let our minds rest and remain not in thoughts of what we have or will accomplished, but in the eternal love that fashions and hold all things together, the love that holds me and which is a bubbling fountain of life and joy flowing in my own hidden depths.
Let my mind rest and remain in this love today, not in my anxieties about who I am or what I must do. Let me rest and remain in you. For you alone are my home. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 2:23-25
“No one who denies the Son has the Father; everyone who confesses the Son has the Father also. Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is what he has promised us, eternal life."
Prayer
You are most gracious and courteous, Holy Mystery. You constantly invite me to abide and to abide in you. The thought of dwelling near the heart of your eternal kindness is my highest desire. I can want no more. But what is this abiding?
I hear in your words a call to come home from restless wandering, to rest, to remain, to find my home not in the life and reputation which I make for myself but in you.
Our hearts search for home, a place to be and belong, a safe space for body and soul. But, too often, we believe the illusion that it is something we make for ourselves. This is our temptation, and it leads to anxious work, to justifying ourselves and our value, to greed and defensiveness lest we lose our place in the world.
Our place is in you. You invite us to let our minds rest and remain not in thoughts of what we have or will accomplished, but in the eternal love that fashions and hold all things together, the love that holds me and which is a bubbling fountain of life and joy flowing in my own hidden depths.
Let my mind rest and remain in this love today, not in my anxieties about who I am or what I must do. Let me rest and remain in you. For you alone are my home. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Today’s text
1 John 2:23-25
“No one who denies the Son has the Father; everyone who confesses the Son has the Father also. Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is what he has promised us, eternal life.” (1 John 2:23-25).
Prayer
What have I have heard from the beginning? I have heard that you, my brother, Jesus, are the face of the Holy Mystery who long has haunted me. You are the source and substance of Life Eternal, the font and final fulfillment of all life. From the beginning, you are the truth, the love who is the origin of all I see and more I cannot. You are light, and in you there is no darkness, but only purity of Being and Love who fills all time and space--and who seeks to complete me.
You are all this and more I cannot speak. For you are always More, more love, more compassion, more life, more joy, more mystery, more than I can think or imagine. You are always greater--greater than human struggles and sorrow, greater than despair and suffering, greater than our hopes and dreams, greater than our fears and failures, greater than all that troubles and disfigures us body and soul. You are the Ever-Greater One, and you abide in my brother Jesus.
This you have told us from the beginning. And my heart has long known that the contours of Jesus’ life and face are the features of eternity, of you, O Eternal Wonder.
Let us abide in you, Jesus. Teach our hearts to rest and remain in your love and beauty. In that abiding, we meet the love you are, knowing you and ourselves as if for the first time. In you, we discover the unspeakable wonder that, like you, our created bodies bear the Uncreated Beauty of the Ever-Greater One. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 2:23-25
“No one who denies the Son has the Father; everyone who confesses the Son has the Father also. Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is what he has promised us, eternal life.” (1 John 2:23-25).
Prayer
What have I have heard from the beginning? I have heard that you, my brother, Jesus, are the face of the Holy Mystery who long has haunted me. You are the source and substance of Life Eternal, the font and final fulfillment of all life. From the beginning, you are the truth, the love who is the origin of all I see and more I cannot. You are light, and in you there is no darkness, but only purity of Being and Love who fills all time and space--and who seeks to complete me.
You are all this and more I cannot speak. For you are always More, more love, more compassion, more life, more joy, more mystery, more than I can think or imagine. You are always greater--greater than human struggles and sorrow, greater than despair and suffering, greater than our hopes and dreams, greater than our fears and failures, greater than all that troubles and disfigures us body and soul. You are the Ever-Greater One, and you abide in my brother Jesus.
This you have told us from the beginning. And my heart has long known that the contours of Jesus’ life and face are the features of eternity, of you, O Eternal Wonder.
Let us abide in you, Jesus. Teach our hearts to rest and remain in your love and beauty. In that abiding, we meet the love you are, knowing you and ourselves as if for the first time. In you, we discover the unspeakable wonder that, like you, our created bodies bear the Uncreated Beauty of the Ever-Greater One. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Today’s text
1 John 2:20-22
“But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and all of you have knowledge. I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and you know that no lie comes from the truth. Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son” (1 John 2:20-22).
Prayer
What do we know of truth but that which you reveal in us, Holy One? And this is no ordinary knowledge. Our knowledge comes not by intellectual grasping but is a more complex reality, a splendid awareness we never possess but which we enter through the door of your humanity and ours.
You invite us to know that Eternity wears mortal flesh, that Infinite Wonder bears a finite face, that Truth Itself cannot be thought but only touched and held. We look upon the face of Jesus and know not one more human life but the Everlasting Love who is the Truth not of this or that but of all that is.
It is true: I cannot think you. But I take in your face, my Jesus, and the faces of those in whom something of your life seems to dwell, and I know the Holy One does not separate matter and Spirit, flesh and Infinity, time and Eternity. You join them so that Truth may be seen and touched, known not by mind but by clumsy hands and disbelieving eyes fumbling over a treasure beyond human imagining.
Who would believe what we have perceived? For we see and know you. Touching and seeing your life, we enter the door of your humanity and ours into love’s knowledge of Love’s speaking and breathing in human flesh, including our own.
Then, we know the truth: Limitless Life dwells in finite flesh. You wouldn’t have it any other way, would you, Holy One? Amen.
--Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 2:20-22
“But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and all of you have knowledge. I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and you know that no lie comes from the truth. Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son” (1 John 2:20-22).
Prayer
What do we know of truth but that which you reveal in us, Holy One? And this is no ordinary knowledge. Our knowledge comes not by intellectual grasping but is a more complex reality, a splendid awareness we never possess but which we enter through the door of your humanity and ours.
You invite us to know that Eternity wears mortal flesh, that Infinite Wonder bears a finite face, that Truth Itself cannot be thought but only touched and held. We look upon the face of Jesus and know not one more human life but the Everlasting Love who is the Truth not of this or that but of all that is.
It is true: I cannot think you. But I take in your face, my Jesus, and the faces of those in whom something of your life seems to dwell, and I know the Holy One does not separate matter and Spirit, flesh and Infinity, time and Eternity. You join them so that Truth may be seen and touched, known not by mind but by clumsy hands and disbelieving eyes fumbling over a treasure beyond human imagining.
Who would believe what we have perceived? For we see and know you. Touching and seeing your life, we enter the door of your humanity and ours into love’s knowledge of Love’s speaking and breathing in human flesh, including our own.
Then, we know the truth: Limitless Life dwells in finite flesh. You wouldn’t have it any other way, would you, Holy One? Amen.
--Pr. David L. Miller
Friday, March 16, 2007
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Today’s text
1 John 2:18-20
“Children, it is the last hour! As you have heard that the antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. From this we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they did not belong to us; for if they belonged to us, they would have remained with us. But by going out they made it plain that none of them belongs to us. But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and all of you have knowledge” (1 John 2:18-20).
Prayer
Jesus, you have been the source of many divisions. It troubles me, always has. You come that we might abide in you and know the Loving Mystery you bear in our mutual abiding. Yet, you who are all life and joy, who are eternal wonder and everlasting peace, are more often a point of bitter discord even among those who believe into you. Or so it seems.
If only, … if only we truly knew you and the wonder you bear, would we then live beyond bitterness, pride and fear in which we tear at each other? Would we find ways to love and honor each other and your holy body, refusing to rend the garment of loving unity in which you seek to dress us and all things? We rip apart the concord you would create among us.
It has been so since the beginning. Bathed in your love, there remain deep wounds in our souls that do not yet know the healing wonder of being loved beyond all reason. We long for this freedom.
Heal us holy Jesus. Only you can. We need to know you; every part of us needs to know and abide in your love. Then, knowledge of you shall fill us, and we will learn the ways of peace. Amen.
--Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 2:18-20
“Children, it is the last hour! As you have heard that the antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. From this we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they did not belong to us; for if they belonged to us, they would have remained with us. But by going out they made it plain that none of them belongs to us. But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and all of you have knowledge” (1 John 2:18-20).
Prayer
Jesus, you have been the source of many divisions. It troubles me, always has. You come that we might abide in you and know the Loving Mystery you bear in our mutual abiding. Yet, you who are all life and joy, who are eternal wonder and everlasting peace, are more often a point of bitter discord even among those who believe into you. Or so it seems.
If only, … if only we truly knew you and the wonder you bear, would we then live beyond bitterness, pride and fear in which we tear at each other? Would we find ways to love and honor each other and your holy body, refusing to rend the garment of loving unity in which you seek to dress us and all things? We rip apart the concord you would create among us.
It has been so since the beginning. Bathed in your love, there remain deep wounds in our souls that do not yet know the healing wonder of being loved beyond all reason. We long for this freedom.
Heal us holy Jesus. Only you can. We need to know you; every part of us needs to know and abide in your love. Then, knowledge of you shall fill us, and we will learn the ways of peace. Amen.
--Pr. David L. Miller
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Today’s text
1 John 2:15-17
“Do not love the world or the things in the world. The love of the Father is not in those who love the world; for all that is in the world--the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, the pride in riches--comes not from the Father but from the world. And the world and its desires are passing away, but those who do the will of God live forever” (1 John 2:15-17).
Prayer
How can I not love your world, Holy One? You have made it so rich, alive and different from the boring moon. The gull floats above, silver, white and dark shadow all at once; drifting in sweet morning air that gently embraces the Earth with the promise of day. We begin again. Earth rises afresh, if not entirely pure of yesterday’s dirt, yet somehow washed clean enough for us to imagine today may bring our souls’ deep longing.
How can I not love this? I see you in all of it. The gull glides motionless, flicking but a feather to catch shifting columns of lifting air. She hangs not against morning blues and grays—but in you, soaring in the atmosphere of your eternity.
It is all in you—the sky, the day, the morning glow, the gull, the joy I find in all of it. All of it is in you. The cosmos itself is your body, expressing your creative joy and wonder, your power and delight. This blessed moment and all that happens occurs in you, for apart from you nothing is.
You have made us for love, allowing us to share your delight. Help us to know all things in you, no longer seeing through the eyes of pride or fear and selfishness. For then we seek only ourselves in the things you have made. Instead, let us seek and see you and your love, delighting in all that is for the sake of your creative joy and loving purpose. Amen.
--Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 2:15-17
“Do not love the world or the things in the world. The love of the Father is not in those who love the world; for all that is in the world--the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, the pride in riches--comes not from the Father but from the world. And the world and its desires are passing away, but those who do the will of God live forever” (1 John 2:15-17).
Prayer
How can I not love your world, Holy One? You have made it so rich, alive and different from the boring moon. The gull floats above, silver, white and dark shadow all at once; drifting in sweet morning air that gently embraces the Earth with the promise of day. We begin again. Earth rises afresh, if not entirely pure of yesterday’s dirt, yet somehow washed clean enough for us to imagine today may bring our souls’ deep longing.
How can I not love this? I see you in all of it. The gull glides motionless, flicking but a feather to catch shifting columns of lifting air. She hangs not against morning blues and grays—but in you, soaring in the atmosphere of your eternity.
It is all in you—the sky, the day, the morning glow, the gull, the joy I find in all of it. All of it is in you. The cosmos itself is your body, expressing your creative joy and wonder, your power and delight. This blessed moment and all that happens occurs in you, for apart from you nothing is.
You have made us for love, allowing us to share your delight. Help us to know all things in you, no longer seeing through the eyes of pride or fear and selfishness. For then we seek only ourselves in the things you have made. Instead, let us seek and see you and your love, delighting in all that is for the sake of your creative joy and loving purpose. Amen.
--Pr. David L. Miller
Monday, March 12, 2007
Monday, March 12, 2007
Today’s text
1 John 2:15-17
“Do not love the world or the things in the world. The love of the Father is not in those who love the world; for all that is in the world--the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, the pride in riches--comes not from the Father but from the world. And the world and its desires are passing away, but those who do the will of God live forever” (1 John 2:15-17).
Prayer
To what shall I belong? Shall I belong to today or tomorrow, to a passing moment or eternity? The choice is ever before me, Everlasting Love, as are you.
I have known saints whose gaze is fixed on a vision I did not then see--and now only in glimpses. Not swayed by the convenience or correctness of the moment, their words and actions flowed from a depth of center untouched by popular concerns or the need to please. I sensed stability and steadiness in them. They were not blown about by ever-shifting winds of opinion.
Their words resonated not with the mood of the day but with the stillness of eternity, for they knew what is real and true and lasting: Your loving purpose, your all-enduring and ever-abiding love.
I long for a calm heart and quiet fortitude that I might live beyond my anxious and driven ways. Perhaps such quiet is not your gift to me, but stability of vision is your desire for all your children, me included.
Grant, Everlasting Love, that my heart may be fixed on your tomorrow, on the love that lasts. Turn my eyes from passing desires that distract and dissuade me from loving what you love that I may live with heart firmly fixed on your eternal purpose. By your great love, create in me a calm heart and a quiet mind that all I do may echo the holy stillness of your divine heart. Amen.
--Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 2:15-17
“Do not love the world or the things in the world. The love of the Father is not in those who love the world; for all that is in the world--the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, the pride in riches--comes not from the Father but from the world. And the world and its desires are passing away, but those who do the will of God live forever” (1 John 2:15-17).
Prayer
To what shall I belong? Shall I belong to today or tomorrow, to a passing moment or eternity? The choice is ever before me, Everlasting Love, as are you.
I have known saints whose gaze is fixed on a vision I did not then see--and now only in glimpses. Not swayed by the convenience or correctness of the moment, their words and actions flowed from a depth of center untouched by popular concerns or the need to please. I sensed stability and steadiness in them. They were not blown about by ever-shifting winds of opinion.
Their words resonated not with the mood of the day but with the stillness of eternity, for they knew what is real and true and lasting: Your loving purpose, your all-enduring and ever-abiding love.
I long for a calm heart and quiet fortitude that I might live beyond my anxious and driven ways. Perhaps such quiet is not your gift to me, but stability of vision is your desire for all your children, me included.
Grant, Everlasting Love, that my heart may be fixed on your tomorrow, on the love that lasts. Turn my eyes from passing desires that distract and dissuade me from loving what you love that I may live with heart firmly fixed on your eternal purpose. By your great love, create in me a calm heart and a quiet mind that all I do may echo the holy stillness of your divine heart. Amen.
--Pr. David L. Miller
Friday, March 09, 2007
Friday, March 9, 2007
Today’s text
1 John 2:12-14
“I am writing to you little children, because your sins are forgiven on account of his name. I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young people, because you have conquered the evil one. I write to you, children, because you know the Father. I write to you, fathers, because you know him who was from the beginning. I write to you young, people, because you are strong and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one” (1 John 2:12-14).
Prayer
What is this joy that bubbles from source unseen? What is this buoyancy in which I bob atop restless waves that are powerless now, to drag me to the depths? What is this consolation lifting me above the daily struggle to claim the day as a place of grace?
There is no need for the struggle this morning. The war is done and won, and you have carried the day by some process beyond my perception or understanding. There is just this joy in the morning that flows from the simple awareness that you abide, Eternal One, and abide in me. The evil that disfigures life, undermining the vitality and vibrancy of just being alive is no where in sight. It has fled the field of my soul.
For I know you who are from the beginning. Ask me what I know, and I can only answer, ‘not much.’ My knowledge is poor in concept, poorer still in content. It is but simple awareness of a mystery on which I would bet my life, and have. It is loving awareness of Love Abiding. May I name you this way? It seems fitting.
You abide. Amid the daily and the drab, the demands and destruction, you abide. Amid seemingly forsaken moments of such pain and loss that you are abolished from our vision, you abide. Love abides to overcome the evil that disfigures and destroys--and to give awareness of you who are Love Abiding, the ocean of grace in which we float. Amen.
--Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 2:12-14
“I am writing to you little children, because your sins are forgiven on account of his name. I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young people, because you have conquered the evil one. I write to you, children, because you know the Father. I write to you, fathers, because you know him who was from the beginning. I write to you young, people, because you are strong and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one” (1 John 2:12-14).
Prayer
What is this joy that bubbles from source unseen? What is this buoyancy in which I bob atop restless waves that are powerless now, to drag me to the depths? What is this consolation lifting me above the daily struggle to claim the day as a place of grace?
There is no need for the struggle this morning. The war is done and won, and you have carried the day by some process beyond my perception or understanding. There is just this joy in the morning that flows from the simple awareness that you abide, Eternal One, and abide in me. The evil that disfigures life, undermining the vitality and vibrancy of just being alive is no where in sight. It has fled the field of my soul.
For I know you who are from the beginning. Ask me what I know, and I can only answer, ‘not much.’ My knowledge is poor in concept, poorer still in content. It is but simple awareness of a mystery on which I would bet my life, and have. It is loving awareness of Love Abiding. May I name you this way? It seems fitting.
You abide. Amid the daily and the drab, the demands and destruction, you abide. Amid seemingly forsaken moments of such pain and loss that you are abolished from our vision, you abide. Love abides to overcome the evil that disfigures and destroys--and to give awareness of you who are Love Abiding, the ocean of grace in which we float. Amen.
--Pr. David L. Miller
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
Today’s text
1 John 2:9-11
“Whoever says, ‘I am in the light,’ while hating a brother or sister, is still in darkness. Whoever loves a brother or sister lives in the light, and in such a person there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever hates another believer is in the darkness, and does not know the way to go, because the darkness has brought on blindness” (1 John 2:9-11).
Prayer
Love is sight. Anything less is spiritual blindness. I always suspected as much. For when my heart is closed to another human soul not much penetrates my brittle shell. Refusing to love, I remain in the dark, unable and unwilling to see the frailty and truth and of human hearts beating next to mine.
So again and again I pray: Help me Dearest Heart of Mercy. Help me to receive. Open my ears to listen. Make me agnostic again: one who knows he does not know and thus must closely attend to the mystery of those who sit, stand and struggle alongside the enigma of my own life.
Dearest Heart, may I listen and hear, which is to say may I love all whom I encounter for the mystery they are, a mystery hidden in your love. You know them all, and me, which is to say that you love each of us fully, completely, without a moment’s pause. Only love knows and sees the deep heart of another soul--and the heart of the universe, your heart.
To love is to see. To refuse to love is to stumble in dark illusion about who we are and what our life is to be. This day, Holy Light, may I see as you see, to love as you love. Amen.
--Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 2:9-11
“Whoever says, ‘I am in the light,’ while hating a brother or sister, is still in darkness. Whoever loves a brother or sister lives in the light, and in such a person there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever hates another believer is in the darkness, and does not know the way to go, because the darkness has brought on blindness” (1 John 2:9-11).
Prayer
Love is sight. Anything less is spiritual blindness. I always suspected as much. For when my heart is closed to another human soul not much penetrates my brittle shell. Refusing to love, I remain in the dark, unable and unwilling to see the frailty and truth and of human hearts beating next to mine.
So again and again I pray: Help me Dearest Heart of Mercy. Help me to receive. Open my ears to listen. Make me agnostic again: one who knows he does not know and thus must closely attend to the mystery of those who sit, stand and struggle alongside the enigma of my own life.
Dearest Heart, may I listen and hear, which is to say may I love all whom I encounter for the mystery they are, a mystery hidden in your love. You know them all, and me, which is to say that you love each of us fully, completely, without a moment’s pause. Only love knows and sees the deep heart of another soul--and the heart of the universe, your heart.
To love is to see. To refuse to love is to stumble in dark illusion about who we are and what our life is to be. This day, Holy Light, may I see as you see, to love as you love. Amen.
--Pr. David L. Miller
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