Saturday, March 29, 2014

Today’s text

Ephesians 1:7-10

In him, through his blood, we gain our freedom, the forgiveness of our sins. Such is the richness of the grace which he has showered on us in all wisdom and insight. He has let us know the mystery of his purpose, according to his good pleasure which he determined beforehand in Christ, for him to act upon when the times had run their course: that he would bring everything together under Christ, as head, everything in the heavens and everything on earth.

Reflection

You made us for this, Holy One, to be gathered together into one blessed unity with you whose name is blessed. You did it because it brings you pleasure. You take delight in sharing the substance of your life, your love, your joy and beauty.

This is not a new plan, not an afterthought. You did not think it up as a way to fix the world after the fateful fruit was picked in Eden and the powers of fear, hatred, and evil spoiled the beauty you had made.

From the beginning--no, earlier--before the beginning, before the first spring breathed beauty on our flesh, before first flower awakened us to wonder, before sunlight exploded into a spectrum of color behind the first white cloud, before the first rainbow, before … when there was only darkness and the impenetrable mystery of who you are, already your holy plan was in place, and you were bringing it together.

All things, including me, were destined to be joined with Christ, sharing his intimacy with you. All that is was destined to be gathered together into one great unity, sharing the love you are.

So even now, every taste of the loving unity we know in our flesh is a taste of eternity, a gift of the future into which you are gathering us, so that we laugh with delight, bathed in the love you are.

Pr. David L. Miller

Monday March 24, 2014

Today’s text

Ephesians 1:3-6

Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all the spiritual blessings of heaven in Christ. Thus he chose us in Christ before the world was made to be holy and faultless before him in love, marking us out for himself beforehand, to be adopted sons, through Jesus Christ. Such was his purpose and good pleasure, to the praise of the glory of his grace, his free gift to us in the Beloved.

 Reflection

Open hands. I stand at the table with hands open above gifts of bread and wine, open to welcome the congregation, open in blessing, … open to you, Holy One.

But are these hands really mine? Are they not your hands open to welcome and bless we who are empty and in need the fullness of a love to that heals every doubt, fear and wound of our hearts?

Your hands are always open to give us with everything that is in you,--everything, all the blessings of heaven that we might know the love you are and know ourselves as your beloved.

Your hands say it all: I am wanted, chosen, forgiven, known and treasured since before the dawn of time. And you fill me with the joy of knowing this with all my heart because it brings you pleasure. Could it be that I am your delight?

You tell me it is so. Little wonder sometimes I wake in the middle of the night when sleep flees and repeat your name over and over.

“Blessed,” I name you. “Blessed are you, for you are the love that fills my heart with the blessings of eternity. You stir my mid-night prayer that I might know your open hands and praise the glory of your grace.”

Pr. David L. Miller

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Today’s text

Luke 6:46-49

Why do you call me, "Lord, Lord" and not do what I say? 'Everyone who comes to me and listens to my words and acts on them -- I will show you what such a person is like. Such a person is like the man who, when he built a house, dug, and dug deep, and laid the foundations on rock; when the river was in flood it bore down on that house but could not shake it, it was so well built. But someone who listens and does nothing is like the man who built a house on soil, with no foundations; as soon as the river bore down on it, it collapsed; and what a ruin that house became!'

Reflection

There is only one foundation for life that leads to beauty and confidence on days of plenty, of need and of joy. Only one.

This foundation cannot be found in ourselves but in the one unchanging fact of life: the goodness and compassion of God that does not waver or change with our feelings or fortunes. Only this is unchanging.

Only this can save us from ourselves, from our self-assessments, from the judgments of others, from the feelings that accuse our hearts.

The message of Jesus, the word of the gospel is little understood in our western world, which is so addicted to the notion that human worth and peace of mind is based on our achievement.

I remember Bob. We just laid him to rest in December after a 10 year bout with cancer. He had fought a valiant fight, gracious and courageous to the last.

But the final months of his life were marked by what some might call “stinkin’ thinking.” He suffered from the ‘if only’ disease, replaying scenes from his life wishing he had made a different decision or acted in a more prudent, thoughtful way.

He regretted not getting serious about his faith or prayer until later in life, wondering how his life would have been better lived if he’d gotten serious and grown his soul at earlier age.

He’d lived a good and gracious life, loving his family, working hard, finding success in business, enjoying a variety of sports and excelling in a couple of them even into old age.

Still, he felt he had done too little. He felt he had not been good enough. He felt he could have and should have been a better human being. If only I had tried harder, he thought. I would have been a better person with fewer regrets now.

He was typical of most of us in the western world. The value of his life was built on the foundation of his actions, which at the end of his life felt insufficient.

Now, he felt his foundations shaking, and peace eluded him. He needed to claim another foundation for his life that was always there for him but was insufficiently claimed.

So we together we claimed it. We claimed the utter goodness and compassion of God for his life, for his living and his dying. This does not change. This is solid. This is real and dependable when our feelings and strength fluctuate wildly.

Recently, I stood at the bedside of a new friend, who is the most accomplished person with whom I have ever done ministry. Never before have I been called to the bedside of someone who has a Nobel Prize for physics in his office. He is among the most accomplished scientists of his generation, and the work of future generations will stand on his shoulders.

Yet nearing at the end of life, he is like us all, a beggar for grace. No accomplishment or prize gives peace, assurance and a quiet mind in the face of a terminal condition.

So he, who is so greatly accomplished, turns to the one unchanging fact of his life, the loving goodness of God which is solid and true, unwavering and certain whether we are having a good day or bad, whether we feel righteous and good or profoundly sinful.

Doesn’t matter. We change. We succeed and fail. We are faithful and faithless. We have good days and bad. We do good works and evil deeds. But the solid rock beneath our feet is the compassion of God revealed in Christ.

So at the break of the day and its ending, we turn again and again and again to taste and feel this goodness, reminding our restless souls that there is a place to stand, a quiet place to dwell, a certainty we can know

Our best life, our joy and peace, our patience and comfort, our love and kindness is built on this foundation.

Pr. David L. Miller

Friday, March 7, 2014

Today’s text

Luke 13:18-21

He went on to say, 'What is the kingdom of God like? What shall I compare it with? It is like a mustard seed which a man took and threw into his garden: it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air sheltered in its branches.' Again he said, 'What shall I compare the kingdom of God with? It is like the yeast a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour till it was leavened all through.'

Reflection

Seasons come and go, and this one can’t leave too soon. We are winter weary. But we also know spring will come. 

Green shoots will appear. Crocus and tulips will push through the cold soil. Trees will bud with life that was always there, waiting … until conditions were right for life to burst forth from winter’s prison.

I always loved spring in Nebraska. Farmers planted wheat in the fall. It would sprout several inches tall. Then it went dormant and lost its color as and the days grew short, cold and dark. It slept through the bitter winds of winter.

But there always came a day in early spring when I would be driving along a country road. The sun was regaining its power, and the glint of its rays would catch the broad expanse of surrounding fields just so, and I would see it—the greening of life, a shade translucent and electric like almost nothing else in nature, wheat coming to life to feed the world.

The seeds of life were there all along ready to break loose even though the incessant prairie wind that cut to the bone and made us doubt spring could ever come. 

This is the way it is with us, too, with the seed of Christ in our lives.

The Christ seed of God’s gracious life is always there, present and full of promise--in us--waiting to break out and blossom when conditions are right.

Do not think of this is narrow religious terms. The Christ seed is the seed of grace and beauty, of justice and compassion. When it sprouts and grows it stirs the desire to a more whole beautiful person. It stirs action that creates a better world, a more just nation and the hunger for God’s will to be done on earth. 

The seed grows not just in religious or spiritual people, nor only in Christians but in Muslims, Jews Sikhs and agnostics and atheists. 

And we see its growth. We see it in a million places far outside the stain-glass windows of our sanctuaries. 

It grows in the medical staff and researchers who seek cures for life threatening conditions, in teachers who nurture students into the fullness of what they can become, in the business owner who carefully serves and protects her clients, in the scout leader who nurtures young lives toward honor and respect, in volunteers of all stripes who help pick up the pieces and put lives back together in troubled places. 

And we most certainly see and feel it in friends who help and pray and lift us when we fall behind.

We see the Christ seed growing in all who seek the common good, who resist the powers of death and hatred that destroy the goodness and beauty on this earth. 

And what is this to us, who follow Christ, in this season of Lent?

We must learn to look tenderly at our lives--and take seriously presence of the Christ seed planted in us.

The central purpose of our lives is to nurture the growth of this seed so the wonder of Christ’s life in us may grow into that great tree in Jesus parable, a tree that gives home and shade to others. 

We work the leaven of his life into us so that our lives become bread that feeds those whose lives we touch in one way or another.

We all know people who, by their simple presence, make us more alive, more joyful and stronger because of the life-giving energy that flows from them. 

Each of these souls is a testament to the seed of Christ’ gracious life and power in human beings. Somehow, the Christ seed in them grew, and they became a source of life and beauty for us and others.

They are like the Nebraska wheat in springtime, translucent and green, brimming with life and promise, freshening the earth and our souls with hope and joy. 

This is what the Holy One seeks to do in you and in all creation. 

The Christ seed is always there, always the same, present and powerful, full of promise amid the changes and challenges of every season of our lives.

And this is we pray and sing. It is why we light our candles and listen to our souls in this season. It is the reason we do acts of love and look beyond our needs to those of the homeless and the starving next door or on the other aide of the world.

These things nurture the seed. They work the leaven of Christ deeper into our lives and into the life of the world, freshening our souls that we, too, may be the breath of God’s eternal springtime in the coldness of our world.

Pr. David L. Miller

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

 Today’s text

Matthew 6:1-2, 19-20

Be careful not to parade your uprightness in public to attract attention; otherwise you will lose all reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give alms, do not have it trumpeted before you; this is what the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets to win human admiration. In truth I tell you, they have had their reward. … 'Do not store up treasures for yourselves on earth, where moth and woodworm destroy them and thieves can break in and steal. But store up treasures for yourselves in heaven, where neither moth nor woodworm destroys them and thieves cannot break in and steal.

Reflection

Once, I thought it was a terrible to mark someone’s forehead with ashes and remind them of what we all want to forget: “Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return.”

But on Ash Wednesday this is what we do.

We mark our heads and hear again that we are made from the same elements that make up the rest of universe, elements to which we will return when we are done here.

“Remember you are dust.”

It sounds awful. But now in the seventh decade of my life I hear those words as invitation and grace.

They are an invitation to come home, to be real, honest and human again, to quit trying to be something more than a common flesh and blood human being somehow above others. Quit trying to be something I am not and was never intended to be.

The words tell me that I am dust, but that’s not what I hear.

I hear, “Welcome home, David. It’s okay.”

Welcome home. There is no need to be anything other than what you are, a human soul, sometimes frail and weak, other times stronger than you ever thought you could be, sometimes selfish and careless, sometimes competent or even wise, others times inept--and never as together as I appear to be on good days.

The words invite me to embrace my neediness. For I am terribly needy, needing forgiveness, needing encouragement, needing warmth, needing companionship, needing fullness when I feel empty.

And this makes me more or less like you.

And to this, God shrugs and says, “I know. I’ve always known this about you, and it doesn’t matter because I am life and I am love in infinite supply.

“I am warmth when you are cold. I am the fullness for which you ache when your heart is empty. I am your constant companion when the sojourn of life is hard and lonely. I am the arms that catch you when you fall or fall behind.

“But you will never know me. You will never know the warmth I am, the fullness of your heart in mine, the silent company of my presence in your depths. Never.

“Not until you give up trying to be more than a human being, not until you give up denying that you are one bit less needy than you are, not until you mark your head with the ashes and say again, “I need you. I need you like I need my next breath. I need your warmth and joy, your forgiveness and blessing.

And this is what the ashes say, “I need you, Lord.”

And to this, the Holy One says what we most need to hear, “Welcome home.”

Pr. David L. Miller

Friday, February 28, 2014

Today’s text

Matthew 17:1-7

Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There in their presence he was transfigured: his face shone like the sun and his clothes became as dazzling as light. And suddenly Moses and Elijah appeared to them; they were talking with him. Then Peter spoke to Jesus. 'Lord,' he said, 'it is wonderful for us to be here; if you want me to, I will make three shelters here, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.'  Suddenly a bright cloud covered them with shadow, and suddenly from the cloud there came a voice which said, 'This is my Son, the Beloved; he enjoys my favor. Listen to him.' When they heard this, the disciples fell on their faces, overcome with fear. But Jesus came up and touched them, saying, 'Stand up, do not be afraid.

Reflection

Listen to him. Just listen.

And what do you say to us, blessed friend? “Stand up. Do not fear.”

I fear hours of wasted study by countless preachers will yield a load of glib ax grinding against those three disciples who followed Jesus up the mountain and saw him transfigured in brilliant light.

For decades, small-minded preachers have ranted about Jesus disciples who wanted to build comfortable places for them to live up on the mountain, trying to save this experience with Jesus.

Well, why not? Why not want to be there with you, my friend, lifted above life’s routine, seeing your light and feeling the divine presence in you?

The disciples saw you as you are, one with the Loving Mystery of God, and they were filled with wonder, and yes, with fear at a voice that came from the depth of the universe naming you as eternal Son, beloved.

They wanted to stay there, but they cannot because, as the ax-wielding preachers tell us, the disciples don’t understand you cannot live on the mountain. You have to go live in the valley where life is hard.

And once again, we are told with great authority that the disciples fail to understand Jesus, and they fear the voice that tells them to listen to Jesus.

But what is missed is your divine response to human fear, Jesus. There is no denunciation, no condemnation, no call to repent, no castigation for their ignorance or failure.

There is only a touch … and assurance, “Stand up. Do not fear.”

The Holy Mystery, speaking in the cloud, commands us to listen to the voice of loving assurance, to an invitation to live beyond our fears, to live the love we know in the touch of our brother, Jesus, and the voice of his assurance.

Jesus leads his followers down the mountain into the messy cross currents of powers that seek his destruction. He goes to reveal the depth of divine love and commitment proclaimed from the cross that will kill him.

Listen to him. Listen to the word spoken in his suffering and death.

Listen to the word spoken in his resurrection, “I am with you always to the end of the age.”

Listen to him saying, in way or another, “Do not be afraid. Stand and walk.”

Stand and walk into your life knowing a great love holds you.

Stand and walk into difficult places ready to share the healing touch of Jesus.

Stand and walk with compassion into a hungry world where hurts abound.

Stand and walk with Jesus words in your heart and his touch on your soul.

Listen. Just listen to what he is saying.

Pr. David L. Miller

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Today’s text

Matthew 17:5-7

Suddenly a bright cloud covered them with shadow, and suddenly from the cloud there came a voice which said, 'This is my Son, the Beloved; he enjoys my favor. Listen to him.' When they heard this, the disciples fell on their faces, overcome with fear. But Jesus came up and touched them, saying, 'Stand up, do not be afraid.

Reflection

Touch us this, day, Jesus.

Touch us with the love that won’t let us go.

Touch us that our sadness may dissolve in the gentle rain of your grace.

Touch us that our weary souls may feel fresh and new.

Touch us that hope may burn away the dejection of despair.

Touch us that certainty and resolve may overwhelm our doubts and fears.

Touch us that joy and expectation may fill us at the gift of this day.

Touch us that energy and strength may replace fatigue and weakness.

Touch us that that the negative voices noise in our head may be silenced.

Touch that we may hear the deep inner voice where you speak.

Touch us that our distracted minds may see the beauty of your face.

Touch us that and our scattered energies may serve your purpose.

Touch us that we may feel and know ourselves once more.

Touch us and fill our neediness with your peace

Touch us, Jesus.

Touch us with the love that never lets us go.

Pr. David L. Miller

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Today’s text

Matthew 17:5-7

Suddenly a bright cloud covered them with shadow, and suddenly from the cloud there came a voice which said, 'This is my Son, the Beloved; he enjoys my favor. Listen to him.' When they heard this, the disciples fell on their faces, overcome with fear. But Jesus came up and touched them, saying, 'Stand up, do not be afraid.

Reflection

Listen to him: “Stand up, do not be afraid.”

These are the first words you speak, Jesus, after the mysterious voice from the cloud directs us to you. Stand up, you say, do not be hindered by fears of what will happen or what others may think or do in response.

What should stand up is us, who we truly are, sharing our deepest loves and hopes, even the hidden ones, and the beauties you awaken in us, sometimes even surprising us at the depth of what is within.

It is this depth of soul that you invite to stand without fear. Stand up and do not fear the pain or unrest you might cause, for the pain of denying your soul is greater

It is fear that holds us back, fear of consequences, fear of others opinions, fear of being who and what we are, fear of claiming the freedom that lies always within our grasp.

We do not want to feel this fear. Consequently, we fail to fly, to soar to the heights of love and grace to which the Spirit of your love would propel us.

And coming to the end of life, our deepest regret is knowing that we never fully lived because we were afraid.

Gracious One, save us from this regret. Save us from half-loves and lives half lived.

And save the world, too, from being denied what you give through us when, despite our fears, we heed your voice and stand up

Pr. David L. Miller

Monday, February 24, 2014

Today’s text

Matthew 6:25-26

That is why I am telling you not to worry about your life and what you are to eat, nor about your body and what you are to wear. Surely life is more than food, and the body more than clothing! Look at the birds in the sky. They do not sow or reap or gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they are?

Reflection

Can I trust you? Isn’t that the question here, Lord?

Can I trust that the empty and unfilled places in my life will find what they need because you know me and you know what I need?

You know me. These words stop me and bring immediate comfort.

You know me, and you love what you know of me--and it is your desire that the heart of my heart be filled with the love and peace for which you fashioned me.

But I can trust this?

Many lose faith altogether because they prayed for their heart’s desire and it did not come. Their prayers fell to the earth yielding nothing, at least nothing they could see, nothing that lifted the burden from their hearts.

What can I say to them or even to myself on days the heart feels lost or alone and unfulfilled, when you wonder if it all matters?

How can we maintain simple trust that we are known and that what is needed will come even though it seems unlikely or impossible?

There is only one way I know: To come here, to light a candle of hope again and watch it burn, to pour out the contorted, confusing tangle that is my and every human heart … and when all is said to rest in the promise that you know … me.

These words are a mantra for every day: You know. You know me.

You invite me to rest them … and to know, even as I am known.

Pr. David L. Miller

Saturday, February 22, 2014

Today’s text

Matthew 5:46-47

For if you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Do not even the tax collectors do as much? And if you save your greetings for your brothers, are you doing anything exceptional?

Reflection

Stay open, you say to me. Do not let wounds or worries close your heart. Stay open to the world, to every moment. Do not let sadness or troubles shut you down.

Greet each day, each moment, each person and encounter with the anticipation of newness.

Each day is new. Each moment is unique and complete. Each person and encounter is unrepeatable and replete with promise and blessing.

Open- hearted greeting is not reserved only for that which we know or for those who are familiar and favorable to us. Such a life is a self-imposed prison, isolation from the dance of grace in this unpredictable world.

Greeting each person, each fresh day and moment is the attitude of the disciple who knows … there is love within that needs to flow out in welcome to each face we meet.

It is the manner of those who know … grace resides in the being of those we meet in the routine places of our days, a grace that, once released, makes smiles and laughter as it is freed from the dam of fear that holds it back. 

Open-hearted welcome of life and the lives we meet is the posture of those who know … you, Loving Mystery.

It is the faith of those who know you are Love--and who know that you abide in every place and are the promise of every moment.

Our open-hearted welcome of each day, each person and moment welcomes you, all the Love you are, into our little lives.

So open my heart, my hands and eyes, my ears and senses to receive whatever this day brings, for whatever it brings, it brings you, … and you give me life.

And then, tomorrow will be a new day, once more.

Pr. David L. Miller

Friday, February 21, 2014

Today’s text

Matthew 5:48

You must therefore be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Reflection

Perfection is not about arriving. It is about moving toward wholeness, which is what the word actually means, moving … toward completion of what you are.

And what are we? We are individual expressions of the Being of the Creator, the One, the heavenly Father who is love.

We are individual expressions of Love in flesh and bone, heart and mind, each one unique, each one different.

Perfection is not a static state of arrival at a final destination. It is not purity measured by a standard outside our own being and identity.

Perfection, movement toward completion, is walking deeper into that unique expression of Love that we each are.

The patterns of our lives, who are friends are, the work we do, the people we love and treasure might faithfully be assessed by asking, do they allow and empower me to be the deepest truest expression of the Love the Spirit is shaping in me through genetics, my history and experiences?

Do they give me wings and allow my spirit to soar, or do they tie me to the earth so that I am less that God intends?

God seeks to love the world to greater life through each of us. When we fail to take seriously the call to perfection, the Love God is … is less known. The world is less loved. And we are less ourselves, our joy erodes, our beauty fades.

So we seek and find the sacraments that feed our souls, the places, the graces and faces that move us further along the road to the beauty of perfection in love.

That is our life’s task. It is the Spirit’s work. It is difficult, sometimes painful, but nothing else much matters or gives quite so much joy.

Pr. David L. Miller

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Today’s text

Matthew 5:46-48

For if you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Do not even the tax collectors do as much? And if you save your greetings for your brothers, are you doing anything exceptional? Do not even the gentiles do as much? You must therefore be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Reflection

What do you ask of us, Holy One, except that we become ourselves. And what are we, if not love?

Our true self is love, the wholehearted generosity of the One, the heavenly Father in whose image we are made.

Made in the image of Love, made by Love, made for Love, made to know and to become the Love we are.

You call us to perfection, to completion so that we may know who we are … and know you, whose image we are, whose Being we share.

This is not something beyond us, but something already within us that our fears and wounds keep us from seeing and knowing and feeling.

That is why I keep returning to this place again and again.

I come to light a candle and listen to depths of myself lost amid manifold thoughts, ideas, emotions and demands that clutter my mind each day.

I come to the quiet, to the simple light of a flame that burns not only on my desk but in me, the candle of divine presence that is my true self, the breath of being, the fire of love that appears from my depths in these moments.

And in these moments I know. I know who I am, and I know who you are, Holy One.

I know, too, the souls of everyone I meet, many of them lost in the rush of the day, the demands of life and wounds that hide their truth from them, the truth that is your truth.

They, too, are love, the breath of being; the inner flame of love is their essential nature, an awareness hidden from most of them until moments when your presence in others and in this wondrous world we share awakens their hearts to the truth.

Thank you for those moments of awareness that bring us back to ourselves. Thank you for those souls who awaken our hearts to the divine flame within. Through them, you make us more alive, more ourselves than we have ever been.

Pr. David L. Miller

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Today’s text

Matthew 5:43-45

You have heard how it was said, You will love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say this to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you; so that you may be children of your Father in heaven, for he causes his sun to rise on the bad as well as the good, and sends down rain to fall on the upright and the wicked alike.

Reflection

This day, Holy One, let me stay in the current of love flowing from your divine heart. That is what these difficult words are about, are they not?

Our brother, Jesus, tells us what you want for us, and yes, for the world, too.

The sweet light of morning, the dawning of newness on fresh-fallen snow, glows gold and blinding crystal on powdery white so recently fallen from winter skies.

Light streams over the earth, a new day, a fresh start.

Nothing stops the light. Nothing stops the day from coming. It is a flow of grace, of love and wonder from you who are Infinite Source.

It does not select or choose. It just flows, on and on, seeking every cold corner to warm and make alive.

This is your nature, ever flowing light embracing the earth and warming our hearts with the hope that life might be as bright and wondrous as the scene outside my window.

I look and see, but you invite me to more, to come out and play in the morning light and be warmed through so that I am one with the light that delights my senses and awakens my heart.

“Be one with me,” you say. “Let the light I am fill you so that you may become light amid winter’s chill and be like the sun’s streaming rays, ever flowing, embracing the earth and each moment like sun rays from my eternal store.

“This is joy, and everything that stops the flow is pain.

“So flow, dearest one, flow, even as I flow into you on this new winter’s day.”

Pr. David L. Miller

Monday, February 17, 2014

Today’s text

Matthew 5:38-39

You have heard how it was said: Eye for eye and tooth for tooth. But I say this to you: offer no resistance to the wicked. On the contrary, if anyone hits you on the right cheek, offer him the other as well … .

Reflection

I know irony when I hear it … usually. And it is clear this is irony, since Jesus himself resisted evil everyday, not with violence but with words and the power within him.

He did not back down in the face of evil or oppressors who stole the lives and substance of the weak. His voice was for them and against those who took advantage.

And he certainly did not encourage people to go back to where they could be abused again and again, like some doormat.

Even this turning of the cheek is an act of resistance, an act that says you do not control me or determine my worth. You cannot touch what is deep and most precious in me.

Truth is the slap described here is most likely a backhand. The right hand can backhand a right cheek easily, but the left? That it cannot reach.

It was as if to say there is something in me you cannot touch, something your insult and injury cannot touch. I am a person, who at depth of soul knows my very breathing is the breath of the One who dwells within me and who delights in my very existence.

It is only those who know, who truly know and have felt this delight who can overcome circumstances and remain the strength and beauty they are in troubled moments.

It is only they who they are not defined by others anger or evil, who can lift up their heads without shame when insults, demands or sorrows come.

They are your true children, dearest God, the brothers and sisters of Jesus who know who they are. 

They are your divine breath given form and substance, body and heart, that your beauty may breathe in the world and grace all of us.

So breathe peace and know who you are.

Pr. David L. Miller

Saturday, February 15, 2014

Today’s text

Matthew 5:21-24

'You have heard how it was said to our ancestors, “You shall not kill;” and if anyone does kill he must answer for it before the court. But I say this to you, anyone who is angry with a brother will answer for it before the court; anyone who calls a brother “Fool” will answer for it before the Sanhedrin; and anyone who calls him “Traitor” will answer for it in hell fire. So then, if you are bringing your offering to the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar, go and be reconciled with your brother first, and then come back and present your offering.’

Reflection

Let me tell you about Bill. He is three years old. I've changed his name to protect the guilty.

Bill’s life recently changed. His parents brought a new baby home from the hospital, and Bill is resisting the new situation.

Before the baby, Bill woke up every morning knowing that the day would be about him. The world revolved around him. His parents’ primary concern was him.

Now, there is this intruder. If he cries, people come running. If he is hungry, he is quickly fed. If visitors come to the door, they want to see this new guy who does nothing but eat, sleep, grunt, cry and make messes. And if grandma shows up, she first wants to hold the baby, not Bill.

Bill’s reply to all this, “he’s not yours,” he tells his mother. “He’s not yours.”

Once, Bill knew that life was all about him. It was about keeping him happy and giving him what he wanted and needed.

Now, he must learn that the story of his home is about others, too. It is about finding a way for everyone to get what they need, so there is unity and peace, care and concern for everyone in the household.

It’s a tough learning process for three year-olds, with lots of disappointments, anger and tears, but this is the way of maturity.

It is hard for us, too. Maturity, spiritual maturity is about learning to live in a larger story that is not all about me. …. And this is what Jesus invites you and me to learn as we walk with him.

When Jesus says, “Follow me,” he invites us to see what God is doing. He calls us out of our narrow, ego-centric worlds and shows us that God’s plan for the universe is to draw everyone and everything into a unity of peace where his care and love is shared with all.

He invites to live out this larger story in every relationship of our lives so that God’s kingdom might come and his will might be done.

He invites us to spiritual maturity, where his will for unity and peace, for mercy and justice for everyone stands at the center of your hearts and minds.

This is a big shift. And it also why he talks about our anger.

Our self-centered angers are a chief obstacle that prevents us from walking his way. It gets in the way of the unity and peace that is God’s will for us.

It takes very little thought to see this.

Every day, I drive north on Mill St. as I come to church. And every week, at least once, someone cuts me off at one of the four-way stops. Someone can’t wait their turn.

And every week, some part of me is aggravated that they think they are more important--or where they are going--is more important than my business.

I know you’ve never had this experience or that reaction. And no one here has ever said a few choice words or gesticulated when you get cut off on the highway.

We all have an in-born sense of fair play, and our internal fairness monitor sounds an alarm we are treated unfairly or don’t get our share. Anger springs to life because we feel diminished or taken advantage of.

Ego, pride, our sense of self and value can easily get violated, even by something as small as someone going out of turn.

The anger that follows separates us from each other. It moves us to push others away, to reject or pout. It even divides entire nations, peoples and ethnic groups, making enemies of each other and creating alienation that last for centuries. I certainly saw that in my years of reporting from troubled places around the world.

Anger creates the hell of separation and hatred. It moves millions to resist the unity and peace, of compassion and joy into which God is drawing us.

So what do we do with that anger? What do we do when partners or family, friend or strangers offend and trouble us, which always happens sooner or later?

We walk the way of Jesus. We pray our anger in all its rawness and bitterness. We offer it to God knowing all we are is accepted and will be healed as he wraps us in love as we pray.

We exercise or run or work off our excess energy. We share it with a friend or partner willing to listen and let us get it off our chest, people who will remind us that … we are not our anger. We are not the momentary emotions that pass through us.

We are players in a big story, the story of a love that wants us, and wants us to follow and live the way of peace, the way of mercy, the way of Jesus that heals a broken world.

Pr. David L. Miller

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Today’s text

Matthew 5:21-24

'You have heard how it was said to our ancestors, “You shall not kill;” and if anyone does kill he must answer for it before the court. But I say this to you, anyone who is angry with a brother will answer for it before the court; anyone who calls a brother “Fool” will answer for it before the Sanhedrin; and anyone who calls him “Traitor” will answer for it in hell fire. So then, if you are bringing your offering to the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar, go and be reconciled with your brother first, and then come back and present your offering.’

Reflection

Last night, the evening news carried faces of anger into my living room. Nothing unusual about that, the news always includes stories about the destruction wrought by people and nations enflamed by rage.

But these images were disturbing because they were close-up and involved people doing something most of us do everyday--driving.

The subject of the story was road rage. And the disturbing images were faces of people carried away by their anger, twisted and distorted faces yelling and cursing as they physically beat on the cars of those who had become objects of their rage.

Their twisted faces are, in fact, a distortion of humanity, a degradation of what human beings are and are created to be.

This is easy to see when the anger is that of someone else and when we are calm and uninvolved. But when we are violated by injustice or disrespect anger makes us forget that other human beings are so much more than objects for our approval or disapproval.

It is easy to forget that each is an expression of the creative love of God, even when they don’t act like it and seem to deserve condemnation. It is also easy to forget that our lives are not about winning and losing or about protecting ourselves and our dignity.

We are players in a big story. The Spirit of God is working unity among all people and creation.

The anger that separates us from each other, the anger that denounces and rejects, that pushes others away and divides people and nations from each other violates the Spirit’s work. Such anger creates the hell of separation, the twisted distortions I saw on my TV screen.

There is a good anger, a righteous anger that knows and feels what God is doing from one end of creation to another. We have seen such anger in the lives of great saints and leaders, the Martin Luther Kings of the world, but also in common lives moved to feed the hungry, seek justice and live with mercy.

Their anger is directed toward all that destroys the holy oneness, the unity of compassion and joy into which God is drawing us. In that unity, no one is an object, and twisted faces can relax and find their dignity.

Pr. David L. Miller

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Today’s text

Matthew 5:14-16

'You are light for the world. A city built on a hill-top cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp to put it under a tub; they put it on the lamp-stand where it shines for everyone in the house. In the same way your light must shine in people's sight, so that, seeing your good works, they may give praise to your Father in heaven.

Reflection

I am struck by a phrase, “Why not me?” It reflects a kind of Jesus-consciousness even when the person is not at all religious or doesn’t think much about Jesus.

I heard it again recently from television as a young man was being interviewed about a charity he founded before he had reached his teens. The organization works to free children in Asia from abusive child-labor practices.

The interviewer asked, “Why you?”

Looking straight into the camera with complete conviction, he answered, “Why not me?”

I have heard that reply before from people who have done something significant, even something amazing that saves lives or eases the pains and needs of the world.

And each time I cannot get it out of my mind. Why not me?

Most often, the answer is because we … make that I … lack the consciousness that Jesus offers.

You are light for the world. That means ‘I am light for the world.” Light is in me.  Light is my deepest identity, and it is ready to shine out and glow in the darkness of a world that needs a little more light.

There is no maybe here, no suggestion that if I pray harder or put more effort into it I will become light.

Jesus turns us back to ourselves as if to say, “Wake up! Don’t you see who you are? You are light, now, already. The light of my life is in you. It is already there, so let it shine.”

This is Jesus-consciousness, the awareness that the light of God is in us, whether we acknowledge it or not, whether we are aware of it or not.

Jesus-consciousness is about becoming aware of the light within ourselves that can shine in our corner of the world to awaken joy and gratitude to God in those around us.

We think far too little of ourselves because we do not know who we are. We are not convinced of our identity. We … you … are light.

Never again look at the struggles of the world, the pain of others that moves you and ask, “Why me?”

People of the light ask a different question.

Pr. David L. Miller