Thursday, November 7, 2013

 Today’s text

Luke 20:37-38

And Moses himself implies that the dead rise again, in the passage about the bush where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Now he is God, not of the dead, but of the living; for to him everyone is alive.'

Reflection

Many who grieve speak to the one who has left them. They do so years, even decades later.

It has been 10 years since my father died, and I still sometimes speak to him. Usually, I thank him for something he did, for the person he was, part of which continues to live in me.

He is as real to me as the clutter on my desk that I promise to clean some day but probably never will. I quickly get distracted by what I find any time I try to make order of the mess.

Sometimes I speak to him with understanding, finally comprehending what life was like for him. I empathize with his struggles and talk to him as a companion on this crazy journey of life that, on days like this, I love so dearly. He taught me that love.

Watching him taught me to love my struggles because it is in the midst of them that you find yourself … and God. In the midst of the mess you discover your soul. You discover you are deeper, more mysterious … and beautiful … than you’d imagined.

“You never know what will happen.”  I have recollection of Dad saying that sometimes. Maybe he didn’t say it much or even once, but somehow I remember it. Maybe it is just what I feel when I look at his life … and mine. “You just never know. Life surprises.”

So open your heart and embrace what comes as from God; it will bless and challenge you in ways you have not imagined. This is the attitude of faith in the face of life … and death.

Don’t think you have it all figured out. Don’t imagine you have really understood much that has or will or might happen. Don’t even think that the dead are dead and can’t speak to you. They do.

God is. And all who have lived live now in him in ways we can’t imagine. The universe is more mysterious, more confusing, more interconnected and more surprising than you think … because God is God of the living.

So live this day and love everything and everyone that comes. You just never know  what might come.

Pr. David L. Miller

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

 

Today’s text

Luke 20:37-38

And Moses himself implies that the dead rise again, in the passage about the bush where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Now he is God, not of the dead, but of the living; for to him everyone is alive.'

Reflection

You are life and the God of the living, so be my God this day. Lift me into the land of the living, for weariness of body and soul weighs on my heart, and I hunger for life.

I hunger for the vitality of assurance that invites human souls forward to embrace the day, to throw their hearts into what must be done and into whatever comes with expectation of love and laughter, knowing the goodness you are will crease my cheeks with joy and fill my eyes with hope.

For I know, … I know Love abides and always will to meet me on my way and to open my eyes one final time when my body fails and I fall into the repose of those who rest in you.

It is faith to which you invite me, the faith of the seed that falls into the earth and dies soon to be born into life unimaginable. It is a mystery, of course, one that does not await the end of my days, but which is here and true on this day.

This day I surrender myself, my life and hopes into the mystery of your love, trusting you have plans for me I do not know.

But this much I know, of this much I am sure: You love life and will lift me from all the little deaths I die, lifting me from despair as I surrender plans and hopes I cherish. So I trust that like the seed I will be born anew from every death, every end, every weariness and sorrow, born anew and more alive than ever before.

I will trust that every day is truly new, and joy comes in the morning.

I will trust because this is who you are and what you do, so let me laugh this day and love … knowing.

Pr. David L. Miller

Thursday, October 24, 2013

 Today’s text

Jeremiah 31:33-34

No, this is the covenant I shall make with the House of Israel when those days have come, Yahweh declares. Within them I shall plant my Law, writing it on their hearts. Then I shall be their God and they will be my people. There will be no further need for everyone to teach neighbor or brother, saying, "Learn to know Yahweh!" No, they will all know me, from the least to the greatest, Yahweh declares, since I shall forgive their guilt and never more call their sin to mind.'

Reflection

To a people in despair, to a nation defeated, to those who dwelt in the darkness of endless exile--because they screwed up, the prophet speaks of a day far in the future, so far in the future no can see or imagine it … but him. And he wonders if he is seeing an illusion that can never happen.

But it does happen, and when it does the people will all know who God is. No one will bother to tell their neighbor who God is or what God is doing. It will be obvious.

But what will they know? Who will they say God is?

God is the One who works behind the scenes of history, in the details of what is happening to bring life out of death, restoration out of destruction, morning light from darkest night.

That is who God is, unimaginable, unpredictable, silent as light but always bringing life and newness from their opposite.

That makes us people of hope because this newness is entirely God’s doing. We don’t bring it about. It is not dependent upon our resources or actions. Newness appears, morning comes, life is reborn from destruction for one reason only: Because God is God, and this is what God does and who God is.

When we see it, wherever we see it we know who God is … even if we don’t much believe or think about God. Doesn’t matter. God is always being God whether we pay attention or not.

But it is better to keep your eyes open and pay attention. For then, you get see and celebrate the light of morning when it first appears on the horizon.

Pr. David L. Miller

Friday October 18, 2013

 Today’s text

Psalm 121: 1-4

I lift up my eyes to the mountains; where is my help to come from? My help comes from Yahweh who made heaven and earth. May he save your foot from stumbling; may he, your guardian, not fall asleep! You see -- he neither sleeps nor slumbers … .

Reflection

An image appears in the mind and blesses the morning.

You float shapeless yet ever present, an angel wisp of substance, transparent yet unmistakably there, neither male nor female, yet gentle and vigilant as a mother hovering over her sleeping child, keeping watch.

A peace-filled smile of infinite tenderness looks down on a sleeping form, covering the sleeper, a silent vigil of love over the beloved.

The image returns to the mind in this early morning hour, and I recognize that it has been present, waiting for me to notice for a least a day since I piloted my car to the home of one threatened by dire disease.

The image of you watching, covering, smiling, tenderly looking over your beloved has lingered at the edge of awareness, but only now do I see what you were revealing to my heart.

This is who you are, and for some challenges, for some threats and suffering, the only answer, the only hope, the only peace is knowing--or in this case seeing--who you are.

Now I see. Thank you.

Now I know, one more time, you are there watching, waiting, loving, hovering and covering even when we suffer, even when death comes near.

You are Love, Love that never ends, Love that never sleeps, Love that in the end always gets its way.

So be there, with them, with me, with all of us. Cover us all.

Pr. David L. Miller

Wednesday October 16, 2013

Today’s text

Psalm 121: 5-8

Yahweh is your guardian, your shade, Yahweh, at your right hand. By day the sun will not strike you, nor the moon by night. Yahweh guards you from all harm Yahweh guards your life, Yahweh guards your comings and goings, henceforth and for ever. 

 Reflection

Guard our lives, O Lord. Keep us from dying.

There are so many ways we lose our lives and die. Days come when we feel the breath of energy and joy fleeing our hearts and failing our bodies.

You are the breath of life that flows within us. Don’t leave us.

Come fill us each morning, for you are the hope for joy and goodness, for meaning and laughter that stirs us to meet each day with expectation and eagerness.

We breathe you in and throw ourselves into the day, doing what you have given us to do in this life.

Turn our eyes from our weakness and failures. Turn us from our fears of not being enough for the challenges of our days. Protect our hearts from eroding despair that we may not receive what our hearts most need to live with joyful purpose and love.

Guard our lives from the forces and emotions that kill our souls and reduce us to empty husks.

Just breathe, O Lord; breathe the felt assurance of your nearness into our lungs with every breath we take. Smile at us in the faces that bless and fill us with the wonder of love and loving.

Guard our comings and going this day lest the weight of our labors or the fatigue at day’s end wither our life and joy.

For we want to live; we yearn to be filled with your breath and life.

We want to draw it into our lungs and feel it filling our hearts. We ache to breathe in the love you are and be filled with the assurance of knowing, always knowing that we are children of a great and eternal love.

And this, only this, is living, really living.

So let us feel your life in us, filling us, guarding us from all the ways death comes. Fill and guard us all, especially those most death most threatens.

We have known your breath within us, O Lord, and we cannot be satisfied with anything less. So please, breathe in us.

Pr. David L. Miller

Friday, October 11, 2013

Today’s text

Luke 17:12-19

As he entered one of the villages, ten men suffering from a virulent skin-disease came to meet him. They stood some way off and called to him, 'Jesus! Master! Take pity on us.' When he saw them he said, 'Go and show yourselves to the priests.' Now as they were going away they were cleansed. Finding himself cured, one of them turned back praising God at the top of his voice and threw himself prostrate at the feet of Jesus and thanked him. The man was a Samaritan. This led Jesus to say, 'Were not all ten made clean? The other nine, where are they? It seems that no one has come back to give praise to God, except this foreigner.' And he said to the man, 'Stand up and go on your way. Your faith has saved you.' 

Reflection

What does it mean to be well? Ask a sick person, any sick person … and they will have an immediate answer.

To be well is to be rid of this miserable condition that limits my life and ties me to this chair, this bed, this house. It is feel energy flowing through your torso, your arms and legs again so that you can get up live the life you have known and want to resume.

To be well is to breathe deeply the sweet air of morning and feel the joy of being alive. It is freedom from the sickness or condition that holds you back and stirs fear of losing your abilities or even your life.

This begins to touch the meaning of ‘being well,’ but it does not come close to the kind of ‘wellness’ that Jesus brings and invites us to enter.

For him and those who seek his way, wellness is a life of gratitude in relationship to the Source of all life and goodness. It involves seeing … and faith as a way of seeing.

“Your faith has made you well,” Jesus says to the sole leper who returned to give thanks. He healed 10, but only this one was well. Only one returned to give thanks. Only one returned to the Source of blessing, mercy and compassion.

Only one saw in Jesus the face of that invisible and all-gracious Source.

Wellness is not the absence of debilitating illness and symptoms. It is the presence of sight, the kind of sight that sees the heart and smile of God in every beauty, every grace, every good person and thing that graces this earth.

Wellness is the gratitude that springs from the center of the soul when you feel and know this Source is love and loves you.

Wellness leaps to life when we see and feel the smile of God behind every good thing. It gives thanks and seeks to live in prayerful relationship with the One from whom all blessing flows.

Those who see and live this way are well, no matter how sick or healthy they are at the moment.

Pr. David L. Miller

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

 

Today’s text

Luke 17:5-10

The apostles said to the Lord, 'Increase our faith.' The Lord replied, 'If you had faith like a mustard seed you could say to this mulberry tree, "Be uprooted and planted in the sea," and it would obey you. 'Which of you, with a servant ploughing or minding sheep, would say to him when he returned from the fields, "Come and have your meal at once?" Would he not be more likely to say, "Get my supper ready; fasten your belt and wait on me while I eat and drink. You yourself can eat and drink afterwards?" Must he be grateful to the servant for doing what he was told? So with you: when you have done all you have been told to do, say, "We are useless servants: we have done no more than our duty." '

Reflection

What in the world is faith? When I was young I thought I knew what the word meant. I could define it and hold forth on the vocabulary of faith, citing each word in Hebrew and Greek.

Now, I wonder if I knew anything then, and I know that I know nothing now, nothing except this Wonder in my soul that I did not awaken. I did nothing to create or summon it. My only act is that of noticing.

In wordless speech, this Wonder speaks and assures me that all is well, that Love abides, that I have all I need, even when I feel like I have nothing of what I need.

It assures me that I have all that is needed to be who I am, which is all I am called to do.

Offer what love and grace as is in you, it says; that love and grace flows from an endless supply you cannot see, but which is always, always there.

It says, Go, do what is given you to do. It does not matter that you feel weak or inadequate or that you are convinced you do not have the internal resources to stand the heat or do what needs to be done. It does not matter that the challenge before you is great.

The Wonder in you is greater still, greater than anything you will ever face. Smile and know. Laugh in the face of struggle. Walk peacefully into each moment. Your seeming inadequacy does not matter. I matter, and I am greater.

I am the Wonder within and so far beyond you. You have what you need … to live.

Faith comes in hearing the Voice, a gift to be received each new day.

Pr. David L. Miller

Monday, September 30, 2013

Today’s text

Psalm 37:5-6

Commit your life to the Beloved,

     confident that Love will act          

on your behalf,

Making clear you pathway,

     Bright as the sun at midday.

Reflection

Sooner or later circumstances reduce you to what is most basic. It does not feel good, but it is great grace.

There are many forms. You come to see your best efforts aren’t enough to change things or do what needs to be done. Unmoved shoulders shrug and walk away from your deepest thoughts and heartfelt labor.

Finitude whispers in wordless speech the body knows: a subtle ache that refuses to leave, a small cough that interrupts sleep, a trembling hand that won’t do what it did with ease yesterday. Where did it come from? And why? 

None of this matters as much as the humble embrace of one’s humanity and of the certainty that human life is and always will be unpredictable and unfair--and no words can make it seem otherwise.

But only the humble, those who feel the ache in the night, the chill of fear and the pain of shrugged shoulders can hear the Voice of Love who breaks through the barriers of our aloneness.

The Voice speaks in the breeze of autumn mornings, still warm with remembrance of summer days. The soul hears and knows: the breeze blows because Love is. The leaves turn because Love is.

Love speaks and awakens itself in the soul, singing Love’s song, reminding the soul that this day is lit by a sun much warmer and brighter than Earth’s midday star.

And just as certainly as life is unfair, this greater sun is more unfair still, more unfair than our failures and finitude, our fears, pains and longings. For, it comes without our asking, and stays beyond our deserving--and never quits.

Love will act, the Voice says at a place so deep in the heart that it is inaccessible to all but the One who made it. So trust and know.

Trust is not an act of will or human accomplishment. It is the gift of Love in the soul, awakened by the breeze that speaks and the leaves that sing a single song:

Love is. Love will be. Love will light your days and abide with you on lonely nights when you long for that Voice that tells you the truth.

Trust and live.

Pr. David L. Miller

Friday September 20, 2013

Today’s text

Luke 16:1-8

Jesus also said to his disciples, 'There was a rich man and he had a steward who was denounced to him for being wasteful with his property. He called for the man and said, "What is this I hear about you? Draw me up an account of your stewardship because you are not to be my steward any longer." Then the steward said to himself, "Now that my master is taking the stewardship from me, what am I to do? Dig? I am not strong enough. Go begging? I should be too ashamed. Ah, I know what I will do to make sure that when I am dismissed from office there will be some to welcome me into their homes." 'Then he called his master's debtors one by one. To the first he said, "How much do you owe my master?" "One hundred measures of oil," he said. The steward said, "Here, take your bond; sit down and quickly write fifty." To another he said, "And you, sir, how much do you owe?" "One hundred measures of wheat," he said. The steward said, "Here, take your bond and write eighty." 'The master praised the dishonest steward for his astuteness. For the children of this world are more astute in dealing with their own kind than are the children of light.

Reflection

There is no way to make perfect sense of this story. Why should the dishonest manager be praised? Jesus and the Gospel writer, Luke, demonstrate consistent concern for the proper use of money. They understand the seductive lure of wealth and the power of greed in the human heart.

The manager from this story seems a likely to subject of their denunciation, unless the point has less to do with money than in his reaction to crisis. He is wise. He uses what is at his disposal to make friends, to build relationships that will sustain him.

His boss tells him to settle his accounts because he is being fired for his misuse of company money. Facing a crisis, he sees that full payment of the debts is not important. What is important is protecting his future so he is safe and welcome.

I am not sure if this Jesus point here. The differences in culture between first century Palestine and 21st century United States is a dense fog preventing modern minds from penetrating what Jesus is saying.

But one thing is clear: the manager used wealth in the service of life-giving relationships.

Perhaps this is one way this strange story works. Wealth must be used not to separate ourselves from others but to build connections and friendships among us as members of the human family. This is God’s intention for our wealth and possessions.

Our possessions are misused when hoarded. They are life-giving when shared to bring benefit to others. They can be used for our own personal advantage or shared to make connections and build a community of mutual benefit.

In this light, it is interesting that sharing of property and a common treasury to which everyone contributed were characteristics of the earliest Christian communities. This is still practiced among some groups of Amish and Mennonites.

There is another way to look at this story. Jesus preached the kingdom of God, which overturned relationships. He precipitated a crisis. The poor were the favored of God. The rich and powerful were cast down from their lofty perches.

Perhaps when the kingdom comes, when God ushers in a new order, the favored and powerful must surrender their privileges and seek justice and mercy for the little ones who have not known societal privilege. They can do it willingly, or they will lose what they have as the new order is initiated.

The wise willingly surrender their privileges because they see what is coming and align their lives with God’s new order.

Either way, with either interpretation, the wise use wealth not to insulate themselves but to build relationships of greater equality and justice, leading to the question: How do I use my wealth? As a too to build life-giving relationships with a wider community, or is wealth my own privilege?

In contemporary United States, there is great accumulation of wealth in the hands of fewer and fewer hands than at any time since the Great Depression. It seems Jesus message about how wealth is to be used is being widely ignored.

Pr. David L. Miller

Thursday, September 12, 2013

 Today’s text

Luke 15:1-6

The tax collectors and sinners, however, were all crowding round to listen to him, and the Pharisees and scribes complained saying, 'This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.' So he told them this parable: 'Which one of you with a hundred sheep, if he lost one, would fail to leave the ninety-nine in the desert and go after the missing one till he found it? And when he found it, would he not joyfully take it on his shoulders and then, when he got home, call together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, "Rejoice with me, I have found my sheep that was lost." 

Reflection

I want to be found. I want to share in the joy. I want the lost parts of me--the places that get lost from grace and love--to be sought and found by this searching God who wants to find and carry me home.

I know home. Home is this Love who made me. When I know and feel it within, filling me, I am strong and know I have all I need. Home is joy. Home is confidence, not in the strength of my mind or hand but in the completeness of the One who is Love. This is home.

But I spend too much time away from home, weary or worried about work undone, about efforts that fail, about the perceived or real rejection of others. My soul languishes, lost, alone, longing for Love to find and fill me once more and tell me what I need to know, the only thing I need to know.

So I want to found by the Great Seeker who is known in every love that is, the One who hungers to find me when I am lost, to fill me when I am empty, to raise me when my spirit withers.

What shall I do? Where shall go I that I might be found?

Nothing? No where? Every where.

I shall go here and be quiet. I shall pour out the lostness of my soul, the weakness of my heart, the hunger to know, and in the midst of it all you will be there. You will find me once more amid my tears and fatigue.

You will find me. Even as you just have, here and now, as I pour out my heart and realize … once more … that it is not my heart I feel, but your heart, O Great Seeker, your love.

Once more, you have found me. Once more you fill me. Once more I know the consoling Presence of the Love so far beyond and so much greater than anything else.

Once more, I am ready to live, really live this day, knowing what I need to know, filled … once more … with the wondrous substance of grace, the Love for which you made me, a vessel to know and carry you to others.

Pr. David L. Miller

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Today’s text

Luke 15:1-6

The tax collectors and sinners, however, were all crowding round to listen to him, and the Pharisees and scribes complained saying, 'This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.' So he told them this parable: 'Which one of you with a hundred sheep, if he lost one, would fail to leave the ninety-nine in the desert and go after the missing one till he found it? And when he found it, would he not joyfully take it on his shoulders and then, when he got home, call together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, "Rejoice with me, I have found my sheep that was lost." 

Reflection

Who are you, Holy One? Old images from early childhood linger in the mind and offend the senses in bad religious art. Certainly, you not a person, an object sitting off in space, on a throne closely watching us.

After all these years I am at a loss to answer any would ask, “Just what is it that you believe? Who is this God in whom you say you believe?”

I can have no adequate images or comparisons to answer the question. Plus, the commandment tells me to make no images of you, for everything I imagine is too small, too primitive and misses the mark of your mystery

Yet, Jesus compares you to the most common things, as if you are as close as my breath, as tangible as the unbuttoned shirt sleeves hanging loose on my arms in the morning cool.

You are that close, he says, close as my desire to save, protect and care for what is mine.

You speak: Feel the desire within you. Feel the longing to take your beloved into your arms and hold them near. Feel the joy that fills you when you enfold tender children and feel their breath against your cheek. Feel the desire to love and protect, to touch and be touched, to comfort a soul in fear and assure them that all will be well because love never fails.

Feel the desire of Love in your heart, and know: This is the Presence of the Holy One, giving you knowledge no book can, personal knowing of the One whom you can never image or imagine.

Just feel it. The Holy One is that desire, that uncreated Love itself in your love, pulsing in your desire for union with those dearest to your heart.

That’s who God is--this hunger for the union, this joy in loving, close as your breath, warm as your heart.

Pr. David L. Miller

Tuesday, September 4, 2013

 Today’s text

Luke 14:31-33

Or again, what king marching to war against another king would not first sit down and consider whether with ten thousand men he could stand up to the other who was advancing against him with twenty thousand? If not, then while the other king was still a long way off, he would send envoys to sue for peace. So in the same way, none of you can be my disciple without giving up all that he owns.

Reflection

The cost of following Jesus is constant and unending--yourself.

It is not once given, but daily. Each day one wakes and chooses, once more, to surrender the self you think you are, the self you have been, for the self that is Christ within you.

There is a pearl of great price in every soul. Call it Spirit. Call it grace or love. It is the Christ heart that hungers for the Love it is, the Love who brought it into being, the Love it hungers to be.

The price of following Jesus, the cost of the cross, is the willingness to surrender whatever else you are for the sake of this heart.

The Christ heart calls us beyond commitments to job, friends or even family. It coaxes us beyond whatever we cling to give ourselves meaning and purpose. It tells us our struggle to be important and to gain other’s respect distracts us from life’s real purpose.

It whispers on dark nights when sleep fails, when the noise of life is silenced and we hear our own inner voice. “Nothing else matters,’ it says. “Nothing. All that matters is being this heart, this soul, this love.”

The voice tells us the truth. It is the voice of the Christ heart calling us beyond what we are, beyond that to which we give our time and attention, beyond the common ways we define ourselves, beyond the labels others assign to us at work or play or school, beyond their expectations and demands.

It calls us to give up all those other selves and be the Great Self that is the heart of Christ hidden and sleeping within.

It asks for everything … and gives much more.

Pr. David L. Miller

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

 Today’s text

Luke 14:25-27

Great crowds accompanied him on his way and he turned and spoke to them. 'Anyone who comes to me without hating father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, yes and his own life too, cannot be my disciple. No one who does not carry his cross and come after me can be my disciple. 

Reflection

Much must be surrendered before we can follow Jesus. This journey is more inward than outward, although sometimes the inward journey comes only when life strips us of trappings and securities we thought essential to a good and happy life.

To follow Jesus is to find one’s identity and worth, one’s joy and peace in nothing external, not in reputation or success, not in the respect of others or the accumulation of whatever the world tells us is valuable.

To ‘come after’ Jesus is to come into intimacy with Wordless Love and feel that wonder at the core of yourself--knowing that One as your truest self, knowing that Love as the one certainty that can never be lost or stolen from you.

Jesus invites and draws us to know what he knows, the inner truth of his life, and to know it as our inner truth.

But we cannot enter this most sacred space when we seek ourselves--our peace and joy, our value and worth, our security, meaning and assurance--in anything other than this inner ground of love.

The great saints knew what Jesus knew. Their lives were grounded in this Love, which allowed them to surrender security and comfort for the sake of the Love within them. They could surrender themselves to hard and frustrating labors knowing themselves as Love’s cherished children.

This was the daily touchstone and stability of their lives. They communed deeply with this Love and found themselves there, content to know what only Love teaches, working, too, as expressions of the Love at their core.

They did not necessarily hate their mothers and fathers and families. Some loved them deeply. But they no longer found their ultimate meaning and purpose there. Their well being and peace was no longer invested in these relationships.

They turned from external sources of peace and freedom, divesting themselves of all that did not ground their lives and actions in the Wordless Love, who tells us everything we need to know.

Pr. David L. Miller

Sunday, September 1, 2013

Today’s text

Luke 14:7-11

Jesus then told the guests a parable, because he had noticed how they picked the places of honor. He said this, 'When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take your seat in the place of honor. A more distinguished person than you may have been invited, and the person who invited you both may come and say, "Give up your place to this man." And then, to your embarrassment, you will have to go and take the lowest place. No; when you are a guest, make your way to the lowest place and sit there, so that, when your host comes, he may say, "My friend, move up higher." Then, everyone with you at the table will see you honored. For everyone who raises himself up will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be raised up.' 

Reflection

There is always someone more distinguished than you invited to share every precious moment of life. And that person is … you, the real you, not the mask of ego you present to the world.

There is a deeper person, a soul, contemplatives call it the ‘true self’ that is so much more--and more real--than the series of masks we wear in the world, one at work, another at school, a third in the neighborhood, and so on.

All of these masks are, at best, a shadow of the deeper reality, the being we each are.

Each of is an incarnation of the breath and life of God. Each of us is a word of God’s loving creativity breathed into time and space. The power of being that gives us life and being is the One who is love. At our core, we are expressions of not of love, but of Love.

And each of intuitively knows … we are so much more than the face we so carefully present to the world.

But there are moments when our true self appears. There are moments when we are totally loved … and loving, giving ourselves away. At times of deepest pain or truest love, our soul spills out. We feel and know that self, that soul that the mystics say is the indwelling of God, the Spirit of God, the breath of God. Choose whichever metaphor you like. They all amount to more or less the same thing.

In such moments, we are aware of the love resides at our core, the love that is God. We feel connected, truly connected with who we really are. We feel our unity with all others and all creation. We feel and know that none of us our islands but are part of one great ocean of life.

It is a moment of lucidity when we know who we are, knowing, too, that all we are and all that exists is enfolded in Uncreated Love.

Still, we walk around each day living an illusion, defending and shining up our tiny selves, those little social selves that must get on in the world and make the best impression, falsely thinking that this surface self is who we are.

The harder we work to inflate our importance and appearance, the more we preen and posture, the more anxious and insecure we become. For, we know the self we defend is an imposter. He or she isn’t truly real.

Freedom and peace come only as we let go of this imposter and listen to the heart of love that burns at our core. Doing this, we slowly give up our worries about climbing higher or getting ahead of others.

When the imposter disappears, we begin to feel the soul we are--the presence of God within. Feeling this, we are raised up to the height of our humanity where we commune with Love Unlimited.

Pr. David L. Miller

Thursday, August 22, 2013

Today’s text

Luke 13:10-13

One Sabbath day he was teaching in one of the synagogues, and there before him was a woman who for eighteen years had been possessed by a spirit that crippled her; she was bent double and quite unable to stand upright. When Jesus saw her he called her over and said, 'Woman, you are freed from your disability,' and he laid his hands on her. And at once she straightened up, and she glorified God. 

Reflection

Gracious and holy God, look upon the weariness of our souls. Touch and lift us. Free us from the load we bear.

Or is even this your will?

How can we ever know that the present moment of trial isn’t the key that opens the door to blessedness?

For bearing the weight that stoops the soul I come to you and am glad of it. I am blessed to be here, tears in my eyes, wondering once more if the disinterested, wandering souls of those I serve is not indication that I am done.

Perhaps I have lost whatever Spirit I once had to draw souls to you. Perhaps I never had it in the first place, and I lived an illusion. But I don’t think so. Truth lies elsewhere.

The needs of my wounded ego to be accepted, treasured and loved become more important than you.

This is the pain of this moment … and the invitation. This is the door to blessedness.

I undergo one more blessed stripping of ego, one more shame, one more experience of the failure to be what I want others to imagine that I am--once more revealing that most of the weight on my shoulders is self-imposed.

And once more I hear the Voice. “Cast aside all thoughts of success and failure, the ego’s petty needs to be seen and taken seriously. Just be. Here. Now.”

You see it all, don’t you, and unlike me you understand the soul’s tangle. And you smile on this soul, this heart that loves and loves you, nonetheless.

“It’s enough,” you say. “It’s enough to hear the Voice of Love telling you to stand up straight and walk.

“I am that Voice.”

“Listen. Nothing else matters.

“Nothing else frees.”

Yes, I know.

Pr. David L. Miller

Thursday, August 15, 2013

Today’s text

Luke 12:49-52

'I have come to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were blazing already! There is a baptism I must still receive, and what constraint I am under until it is completed! 'Do you suppose that I am here to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. For from now on, a household of five will be divided: three against two and two against three.

Reflection

Lord, have mercy on me. Never take from me this fire, this passion, this hunger to be given away in love.

The fire of God is rush of love that fills the soul and wakes us from the sleepy apathy of mere contentment. It is the passion to bless and heal what is broken and console hearts that hurt.

It is the fire in the belly that longs for a great cause, a holy purpose to which one can surrender, knowing there is something beyond your present self that is worth giving all, losing all, surrendering all … with joy

It is passion that can not be content or satisfied by anything less than Unsurpassable Love. It is the hunger to know oneself surrounded, enveloped and filled with love from the Uncreated Source of all that is.

It is burning desire for oneness, for completion, for final unity with God, not just for oneself but for all that is--for all that suffers, for all that is broken, for all that needs to be whole and well.

It is unrest and agitation with business as usual. It is not content to leave well enough alone because love never gives up and never quits until all is truly well.

Fire is the love of God incarnate in our loves, taking flesh in our flesh, filling us and driving us to lives that matter, lives that bless, lives that give life where life and joy are threatened and dying.

Cast your fire in our lives and church, O Lord. Awaken us when we are sleeping, prod us when we are content and apathetic, confront the trivialities on which waste our lives and gifts.

Ignite the flame of divine love within us that our souls may burn with the same passion that flames from your divine heart. Fill us with the fire you are.

Let us live one day, this day, from the heart, pouring ourselves out for love of this crazy, confusing world.

Make us brothers and sisters of Jesus, your fire child.

Pr. David L. Miller

Wednesday, July 4, 2013

Today’s text

Luke 10:17-20

The seventy-two came back rejoicing. 'Lord,' they said, 'even the devils submit to us when we use your name.' He said to them, 'I watched Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Look, I have given you power to tread down serpents and scorpions and the whole strength of the enemy; nothing shall ever hurt you. Yet do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you; rejoice instead that your names are written in heaven.' 

Reflection

The 72 messengers of Jesus did not know why they were happy. They really didn’t understand. But Jesus did, and it is easy to see him smiling as he surveyed their innocent ignorance and told them their names are written in heaven

Truth is that they had already experienced a tiny bit of heaven, which is what brought them joy. They knew the joy of giving themselves to the work of life, the labor of God’s Spirit.

They had released the power of God’s kingdom through their acts of blessing and healing. The wonder of the Almighty and All-Merciful had flowed through their hands and arms, their words and hearts.

They had tasted the very essence of the Absolute, cooperating and flowing in the currents of the Mercy whose name can never be spoken because none of us will ever really understand.

We understand only the wonder of the joy that fills and spills from the depth of our being when we share the blessing and healing and loving that comes from the heart of God.

The messengers of Jesus bubbled with joy at having cooperated with the Holy One by healing and lessening the destructiveness that strikes and mars the fullness of life which God intends.

They experienced heaven coming to the broken through their own hands and mouths, and because they, too, were broken like every human soul, they also felt its healing power.

And they were happy, happy to have tasted a little piece of heaven, happy to have carried it to others, happy to know their names are known in heaven by the One who is Mercy.

They knew this is what life is about, and nothing else matters half so much.

Pr. David L. Miller

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

 Today’s text

Luke 10:1-5

After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them out ahead of him in pairs, to all the towns and places he himself would be visiting. And he said to them, 'The harvest is rich but the labourers are few, so ask the Lord of the harvest to send labourers to do his harvesting. Start off now, but look, I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. Take no purse with you, no haversack, no sandals. Salute no one on the road. Whatever house you enter, let your first words be, "Peace to this house!" 

Reflection

Recently, I returned from a mission trip with 19 others. Their ages and gifts for ministry varied widely, and each contributed the gifts and heart they had to offer.

We traveled to Oklahoma to offer peace to the wounded souls of children whose lives and community were ripped apart by the merciless winds of a tornado that killed more than 20 and smashed more than a thousand homes.

We went together, needing each other at least as much as the children of Moore, Oklahoma needed us.

This is the way of Jesus.  His messengers of peace do no go alone. They live in companionship, knowing how badly they need each other to be souls of grace.

They do not go as conquerors, triumphantly proclaiming success or victory. Nor do they imagine they are better or stronger than the souls to which they go.

They are not burdened by what they own or distracted by those they know.  They travel humbly, knowing they are as dependent and vulnerable as those they serve, just as needy and hungry for God’s merciful kingdom.

They go needing basic necessities--food, shelter, safety, receiving hospitality as grace along the way.

And they offer what everyone needs. “Peace,” they say to those who need the peace of God that only comes as we in our naked humanity reach out our hands to give our blessings and to receive the gifts of others.

Twenty long centuries separated Jesus’ first disciples from our journey to Oklahoma, but these truths remain the same.

We went on our mission trip expecting to give a word of peace and healing. Now, it’s hard to say who received more: The children to whom we extended the peace of God, or we who took to the road to give something we little understand ourselves--except that this blessing of peace is to be shared.

In that sharing, the kingdom of God appeared among us, the community of God’s peace where human beings become more fully human and joy lights the faces of people when you least expect it.

Pr. David L. Miller

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

 Today’s text

Luke 8:26-35

They came to land in the territory of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. He was stepping ashore when a man from the city who was possessed by devils came towards him; for a long time the man had been living with no clothes on, not in a house, but in the tombs. Catching sight of Jesus he gave a shout, fell at his feet and cried out at the top of his voice, 'What do you want with me, Jesus, son of the Most High God? I implore you, do not torture me.' For Jesus had been telling the unclean spirit to come out of the man. It had seized on him a great many times, and then they used to secure him with chains and fetters to restrain him, but he would always break the fastenings, and the devil would drive him out into the wilds. Jesus asked him, 'What is your name?' He said, 'Legion' -- because many devils had gone into him. And these begged him not to order them to depart into the Abyss. Now there was a large herd of pigs feeding there on the mountain, and the devils begged him to let them go into these. So he gave them leave. The devils came out of the man and went into the pigs, and the herd charged down the cliff into the lake and was drowned. When the swineherds saw what had happened they ran off and told their story in the city and in the country round about; and the people went out to see what had happened. When they came to Jesus they found the man from whom the devils had gone out sitting at the feet of Jesus, wearing clothes and in his right mind; and they were afraid. 

Reflection

It’s not right. “Legion,” the possessed man when asked his name, and we might answer the same. “My name is legion, for many things possess and define me.”

But that is not right, not for him or for us.

We are not the demons that take control of us. We are not the fears, defense mechanisms or anxieties about our success, appearance and importance that possess us and obscure our deepest identity.

We are not the deficiencies and disappointments that haunt so many, nor are we the wounds and sorrows that seek control over our waking thoughts.

These things seek to define us, possess us, and too often we allow it, thinking that, yes, this is who we really are: that legion of feelings, the weight of the past, fears of the future and gnawing insecurities that shape our inner life and much outward behavior.

But this is not who we are. This is not our identity, and we know it when we, like the Gerasene demoniac are restored to our right mind.

Jesus enters the wild lands of our confusion, where we are driven about by one compulsion or another that takes possession of our minds and convinces us we are far less than we are.

How many times have I heard others… or myself spoken the words … ‘I am only …’ or I am just a …?’

How many times have I heard others… or myself … speak words that diminish or make light of the gifts, hopes and dignity of who we each are as human souls, bearers of great beauty, promise, love and capacity for receiving and giving grace?

How many times have do we accentuate our deficiencies or smallness for fear of making  too much of ourselves--or to lower expectations so others would not look to us for any truly important?

In such times, we truly are not in our right minds. Right-mindedness appears only in the presence of the power of love that frees us to discover and be who we are as gifted, graced, beautiful children of the Loving Father who hungers for us to know and live our true dignity.

The power of such love frees us from demons that possess that our eyes might glisten and our lives shine with the glory God intends.

Pr. David L. Miller