Food & drink

 Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. (John 6:53-57)

Eat my flesh? Drink my blood? Really? These are metaphors, of course. Flesh and blood are a way of saying the whole person, everything they are.

And we do, in fact, eat Jesus, so that everything he is may be ours—his life, his love, his strength, his suffering and especially the intimacy he shares with the “living Father.”

We were never intended to be outsiders, looking in at this mystery. Our fulfillment is to be inside, participating in the unfailing current of love that flows between the heart of God and Jesus’ own heart.

So we eat his words and savor his actions. We hold them in the inner eye of imagination and turn them over in our minds, not so much to understand things about him as to experience his presence awakening within us, illumining mind and heart.

Then, we can sink into our hearts and abide with him, resting in the love we share. Do this, and after a while, your life, too, becomes food and drink for a famished world.

Pr. David L. Miller

Let it flow

Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.’ (John 4:13-14)

Jesus was tired when he got to the well at Sychar, but the woman he met there was in worse shape.

She lugged water from the well every day, week after week, a daily slog without end. But this barely scratches the depth of her fatigue. She was also on her fifth or sixth husband or boyfriend or whatever they were.

World-weary is a term that comes to mind for her; burnt out is another, and we’ve all felt it.

Whatever you call it, it is not living. Life, eternal life as Jesus calls it, is about connection with the Love from whom all things come, the Love who is source of your soul.

Living is the experience of divine love flowing like a fountain in your own heart, bubbling up, filling every cold and empty place and busting forth in your smile, your grace and in the beauty hidden within, waiting for you to cast aside your fears and let it shine.

That beauty, of course, is the presence of Christ, a living stream of love that never runs dry.

Pr. David L. Miller

Always more

Which of you desires life,
   and covets many days to enjoy good?
Keep your tongue from evil,
   and your lips from speaking deceit. (Psalm 34:12-13)

Scratch a typical human being and you quickly find a burning desire for life, a passion to feel the exhilaration of being fully alive. We hunger for more life and more moments when “it can’t get better than this.”

No matter our age, we want more years to have and hold our beloved. We want to watch the generations unfold and bless those who carry our blood for their journeys into years and adventures we will not see and cannot imagine. We long to be blessed by their smiles one more time … and to celebrate every success that awakens their joy.

Wanting this, how shall we live, except with gratitude for the gift of life and the privilege of loving and being loved?

So live with honest hearts, blessing as we have been blessed, thanking our amazing God, ever strong and ever true, who is the mysterious source of all that is good—our hope when threat is near and our joy when the sun shines warm on our shoulders.

And know, there is always more.

Pr. David L. Miller

 

Unnameable

 Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. (John 6: 35)

Understanding your own soul—let alone someone else’s—is a lifelong project. Even Jesus searched for words to name the Mystery in his soul.

I am the light. I am the gate. I am the good shepherd, the true vine, the resurrection, the way, the truth, the life. None of them says enough, and if you think long about anyone of them your head begins to spin until your mind collapses in an uncomprehending heap.

 At their root is something Moses heard when he took off his shoes and hid his eyes from a burning bush. “I AM,” the divine voice said from the fire. “I am who I am.” Moses pushed, but got no further explanation and there was none he likely would have understood anyway.

Jesus puts a face on this Mystery whom no eye has seen so that seeing him we might know there is nothing to fear, ever. Look at him long enough and you begin to see that the great I AM loves us beyond all reason for reasons we will never understand. This love is soul food, a taste of eternity that makes the heart bold.

The other words—vine, gate, shepherd, etc.—offer a few ideas that feed our illusion that we actually understand him. But ultimately, no name will do.

Pr. David L. Miller

Just listen

I hear a voice I had not known: ‘I relieved your shoulder of the burden ... .' (Psalm 81:6)

Stop. For one moment, just stop and listen. Listen to nature. Listen to your breath. Listen to the voices within you. Listen to the person who just happens by. Listen to the world as it stumbles through another day.

You may hear a voice you barely recognize … or one that is so familiar, so near and dear you cannot imagine a day without it.

God speaks in all things. There is no speech, no words, but the voice of Love speaks every moment, begging you to feel and know Love’s holy gift in your every breath.

The divine voice coaxes you to delight in every beauty and to relish every love, to savor every grace that frees and fills you with joy, and to give yourself to every situation that cries for your love.

God is always present, working, speaking in the depth and dynamics of every situation to heal and bless, to guide and give life, abundantly, to every soul and all creation.

Don’t believe the lie that God is far off or silent. Just listen.

Pr. David L. Miller

Live your joy

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us (Ephesians 5:1-2)

Imitate God? How can one ever imitate the inimitable?

The idea overwhelms the mind and shatters the heart. We cannot imagine the majesty and mystery of God who commands the morning, rides on the wings of the wind and yet is closer than our breath.

And we know all-too-well the things we cannot forget--our betrayals and falsehoods, the words and memories that attack in the night, the aching regret over not being the person you could have been, the sin you tell no one except God alone.

Knowing all this, know one thing more: You are God’s beloved, treasured from all eternity, chosen before the birth of time, destined to be one with the One who is Love and nothing but.

So release every shame, every guilt. You are just as beloved as Jesus when he stood dripping wet in his baptismal waters and heard the voice, “You are my Beloved.”

Breathe that in every morning. Make it your mantra through the day. Then, dearly beloved, go live your joy.

Pr. David L. Miller

Living bread

 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live for ever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.’  (John 6:51)

You are what you eat, which is true of both body and soul. So do not consume the anger and negativity that flows so freely in society. It poisons the heart and kills the soul. You are made for living bread.

“So take me to your soul,” Jesus pleads. “My life, my words, the Love that takes flesh in my every act is bread for your soul. Take it in. All that I am is yours. Savor it all until your sleeping soul awakens, and you become the love that I am.

“My flesh will become yours, and yours will become mine. We will live in heart-to-heart communion, you in me and I in you, one, sharing the everlasting love of God. You will taste eternity, knowing how dear you are to God and the forever that awaits you.

“You spend so much of your life on that which you imagine will make you happy. But only the bread of my soul satisfies the hunger in your heart for that something more you cannot give yourself.

“I am that more. I am bread, and I freely give.”

Pr. David L. Miller

Taste and see

I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth. ... O taste and see that the Lord is good. (Psalm 34:1,7)

Words transport the soul to distant times and places. Combine them with melody, and they can carry you into a Love unlike any other.

Take these words, “taste and see the goodness of the Lord.” A cantor sang this chorus, his voice warm with faith, joy radiating from his face, as he stood near the casket of a man who blessed me without ever knowing me.

His life was so transparent to divine love that his face glowed with peace, even as cancer drained him of life. Looking at him, you knew all was well because of the Love who filled him.

Decades later, the sound of that song carries me to that moment so that it is no longer past, but a living sacrament of Christ’s love filling my heart in the present moment.

God‘s love and light still shine in this world. Darkness and hate, suffering and sorrow cannot obscure the beauty of faces and gentle graces that come to carry you into the heart of God and deliver you from every fear. Taste and see.

Pr. David L. Miller

The awakened heart

My friends, if anyone is detected in a transgression, you who have received the Spirit should restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness. Take care that you yourselves are not tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. (Galatians 6:1-2)

 

No law can compel us to love. Love is the molten flow rising warm within, filling the heart, revealing who we really are. It is the fulfillment of our nature.

For we are the love Christ is. This is our nature, our deepest truth, the brilliant spark, the dazzling diamond at the center of our souls.

 Made in the image of the One who is Love, love rises and floods the heart’s inmost chamber when awakened by a word, an image, a moment of beauty, a single breath of morning air … and most certainly by the beauty of Christ.

 Jesus blesses a child, touches a miserable soul begging for mercy or is moved to tears by a restless crowd hungry for something much more than bread. In these, the heart sees the Spirit of divine gentleness and love awakens within.

So gaze at him, savor beauty, be moved by suffering, linger over moments that awaken your heart. You will know the love you are and the Love who cherishes you, free at last to be gentle and fulfill the law of Christ.

Pr. David L. Miller

 

On and on

Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters (v.1)

It’s a 10 mile hike around the loop trail at Waterfall Glen, time enough to hear your heart. Approaching the falls, you can also hear the heart of all humanity. Distant voices and laughter rise from the ravine, echoing among the oaks over the shush of flowing water.

There are always people here on summer days, wading or watching the stream as it runs from an unknown source to its destination in a far off sea. The flow is magnetic and mesmerizing, satisfying a mysterious something in the soul while carrying the heart to a place of peace.

The water just flows; we do nothing to make it happen. It goes where it wants to go. Try to stop it, and it finds a way around the obstacle. Put in your hand, and it caresses your flesh. And it continues, on and on, day and night, year after year, century after century.

A better symbol for the love flowing from God’s heart is hard to find. Maybe that is why people come here, thirsty for a love that has no end.

Pr. David L. Miller

Twice blessed

 

Remember the long way the Lord your God has led you (Deuteronomy 8:2)

Twice blessed

Little do we know what memories will appear in the length of a day. Today, it is Mrs. Moll, the pastor’s wife, long since gone to be with the Lord.

It’s nearly 60 years since I’ve seen her, except in my heart where she is as present as my fingers on these keys.

She stood at the head of the pews in our little church and taught us to sing, a gift for which I will be grateful all my days. Even now one of her songs comes back, hardly sophisticated or in a theology I fully endorse, but there it is, evoking a tear.

“Living for Jesus, a life that is true,” the song starts, and even now, after all the years and miles traveled, it reminds me what and whose I am. I belong to a Lord who loves me and whose Spirit pleads in my heart to never forget it.

Remember, the scripture says. Don’t forget all the ways the Lord in greatest love has claimed and blessed you along your journey. It’s a gracious command. The things you remember return and bless you again.

Pr. David L. Miller

Carried away

 O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever. The upright will see it and are glad (Psalm 107:1, 42)

Carried away

 

O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever. The upright will see it and are glad (Psalm 107:1, 42)

 The slightest breeze embraces early morning on the deck, so faint it is, yet effortlessly transporting the heart to a different place.

The mind falls silent. Consciousness descends to a deeper realm, an awareness of heart for the preciousness of this moment. Resting there, the heart sees what the eyes cannot perceive. It knows what the mind cannot discern.

 There is love, make that Love, at the heart of things, at their Source, who dwells also in the heart’s own depth. Only so can such moments come when we experience spontaneous oneness with God and with life itself, filling us with joy and love for the simple gift and sheer miracle of being alive.  

 The steadfast love of God endures forever, which includes this moment and the next and the next. If we keep looking, eyes peeled and eager to see, moments come when something common—a morning breeze, a child’s smile, a cloud mounting against a cobalt sky—will carry us away to see what is always there.

 Pr. David L. Miller

 

Walk humbly, speak slowly

 Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, ‘The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat; therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it; but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others; but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them. They do all their deeds to be seen by others (Mathew 23:1-5a).

Walk humbly, speak slowly

Something remarkable occurs in Jesus’ perception. He recognizes truth in the words of those who oppose him, something almost unheard of in our current social and political environment.

Today, complex issues are reduced to binary formulas. You are either with Black Lives Matter or you support the police. You are either a Democrat or a Republican, a progressive or someone who deserves to be ‘cancelled.’

Sides form, opinions harden; one side (one’s own) is considered is good, wise and just while the other gets dismissed as wrongheaded, self-serving and evil.

Public discourse is reduced to sloganeering and accusations, which means there is no discourse, no exchange at all.

Unfortunately, so many Christians and churches in our society are little or no better. Their … make that our … spiritual convictions and commitments get eclipsed by political and social ideologies, conservative and liberal, which overwhelm the wisdom of our faith and the presence of the love of Christ in our souls. Today, the attitudes, opinions and behaviors of most American Christians are little more than a mirror of the political and social divides in our society, and all because we fail to ask, what is the call of Christ in our time and place?

The call of Christ, to walk as Jesus walked, can seldom, if ever, be wholly identified with any ideology, political opinion or association because these are all self-aggrandizing and demand the kind of total loyalty no Christian can or should give anyone or anything, except Jesus the Christ.

And Jesus walks in the humility of knowing only God is ultimate good, and the truth of God and how to walk with God appears in many places and people, even in those who opposed, hated, rejected and reviled him.

Listen and do as they say, Jesus says about those teachers who taught people to honor God, but do not do as they do, he added, for they are all about themselves and have no compassion in their hearts.

If we are to follow Jesus, if we are to stand with him, we must avoid the shouting and listen, humbly, for voices that speak compassion and truth, which is always more subtle and nuanced than slogans and placards allow.

We might start by listening to that voice within ourselves.

Pr. David L. Miller

 

 

Freedom road

 Jesus said to him, ‘If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’ When the young man heard this word, he went away grieving, for he had many possessions. (Matthew 19:21-22)

Freedom road

Start talking about demon possession and your friends will quickly remember an errand they need to run. Truth is, human beings are regularly possessed by all kinds of spirits: Greed, sloth, lust, anger, regret, vanity, gluttony, pride … not to mention spirits available in various bottles at your local grocery.

Large parts of modern economies are dependent on keeping us addicted, which is to say possessed by all kinds of things that distract us from the deep crying need at the center of our being.

Our hearts ache for something more, something we cannot name, and in rushes a host of products, activities, distractions and relationships of all kinds that that promise to still the ache, fill the emptiness and satisfy the heart.

And when one thing doesn’t work we may try another, avoiding the nagging truth engraved in our being that tells us we are made for something more.

This explains the downcast face of the rich young man who comes to Jesus … and it explains a great deal of our sadness, too. We give our hearts to that which does not satisfy the heart.

The rich man owned nothing because he was possessed by everything he imagined belonged to him. Unable to open his hands and heart, he could not receive the one thing for which his heart cried, the Love that satisfies.

He went away sad, but equally sad was Jesus who wills our freedom, freedom that comes only when we quit chasing and grasping our own private cures for what ails us, and let his Love fill us. It’s the road to freedom.

Pr. David L. Miller

 

 

 

Little things

 August, 8, 2020

[A] bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!’ When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear. But Jesus came and touched them, saying, ‘Get up and do not be afraid.’ And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone. (Matthew 17:5-8)

Little things

My daughter’s yellow lab, Bailey, knows the meaning of life. Her most frequent pose is to roll from side to back and expose her stomach so the rest of us can fulfill the meaning of our lives, which is to rub her belly.

She knows that we exist for her comfort, and this little thing assures her that all is well with the world. Scratch her belly, and she’ll never forget you.

Small gestures speak volumes in her world, really, in any world. A nod, a glance, a whispered word or even slightest touch can shout great love and care in ways that only a beloved can see and understand.

So I am drawn to the moment Jesus walks to his frightened friend and touches them—on the head, I suppose, since they crouched on the ground hiding their eyes from what, to them, was a fearful vision.

It’s a little thing, so small one wonders why the story teller bothered to record it, especially in his account of a powerful vision where the voice of God is heard. But it is this touch, not the voice or the vision, that I find most, well, touching.

It exudes care, gentleness, affection, tenderness, understanding—things we crave as much or more than Bailey likes her belly rubs.

Jesus doesn’t walk by his frightened friends. He touches them and in doing so touches me, touches all of us with the Love our souls long have craved.

“Get up. Do not be afraid,” Jesus said to the disciples with him. I’m thankful for those words, but I can barely hear them over the sound of his silent touch, telling me exactly what I need to know.

Pr. David L. Miller

Morning light

Then Jesus called the crowd to him and said to them, ‘Listen and understand: it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles.’ (Matthew 15:10-11)

Morning light

Early morning sunlight gilds the front room even through the tightly drawn blinds. The blinds, though white, glow, afire and gilt as bullion as the new day streams between the slats, flooding floor and walls, assaulting heavy eyes that are not yet ready to receive the gift.

The gift, of course, is this day. Ready or not, it comes from the Infinite Source of every new day, a Source we no more understand than we understand the mystery of our own existence.

For this, too, is a gift from that Secret Source who gives existence to that which is not: ex nihilo, out of nothing life comes, in the language of ancient theologians no one has yet improved upon.

My life, your life, the profusion of plants and animals I blithely pass during each walk through the woods, all of it exists even though once it was nothing, even though once there was … nothing.

Everything that is, including the imponderable mystery that I as a human soul should exist, all of it is simply given, existence to that which was not. I suppose this means that the nature of that Source we call God is to give, to share, to grant the privilege of being to that which otherwise would not be.

Gratitude is the only logical response, except for sharing, of course. Our nature is a gift of the One whose nature it is to give and share that life may abound. We are given life that we may share it. That is the message in the morning light.  

Anything less defiles the divine purpose inscribed on every human soul. So, today, let us live the lessons of the light. Perhaps we, too, may glow, alive and afire as the birth of this day.

Pr. David L. Miller

Longing for home

Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them and cured their sick. (Matthew 13:13-14)

Longing for Home

Were I a film maker, I would freeze this moment. I’d fix the camera on Jesus’ face as he stands on the rocky beach, his face panning the crowd.

I’d let it linger on his face, then close in on his eyes, letting the mystery he is unfold in our hearts until the compassion in his soul brings tears to our eyes.

Feeling this, we’d know the meaning of that indefinable longing that rises unexpected within us. It comes in moments when beauty or grace or love or even suffering awakens this yearning, an unquenchable craving for something we cannot quite name, except maybe … home.

Behind every desire lies this one, this pining for a Love that is more than love, a Beauty that is more than beauty, a Healing that is final because it is the answer to that longing we have carried all our lives.

Seeing Jesus’ eyes, I know that for which every soul aches. We yearn to feel whatever is in him in us, to know his soul within our own … at that unreachable place which is the source of our longing.

We crave unbroken oneness with this Love. Only this satisfies our souls. This is the home for which our hungry hearts hunt in every moment and circumstance whether we recognize it or not.

Just I so, I stand beside him for a while, watching as he surveys the crowd, waiting for the moment that the Love in him awakens that Love within my own needy soul.

The moment may not come right away. I may need to wait. The wait may be long, but it will come … and carry me home.

Pr. David L Miller

Just for you

He came to his home town and began to teach the people in their synagogue, so that they were astounded and said, ‘Where did this man get this wisdom and these deeds of power? Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And are not all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all this?’ And they took offence at him. (Matthew 13:54-57a)

Just for you

Our souls cry out to be known that the gifts within us might be shared. So it is not hard to imagine what Jesus felt as he walked away amid the whispers of those who thought they knew him.

Surely, he felt disappointment and frustration when he was dismissed by those in his hometown. But grief may have been the major emotion. He could not give, he could not bless, he could not share the beauty that was in him to lift their lives and ignite their hope.

His very soul was denied. The divine love that filled him could not flow out to engulf their hearts. He came to give a gift of soul and was denied by those who imagined there wasn’t much in him worth having. 

Little did they know that soul was a pearl of immense and surpassing worth. Little could they imagine that opening their hearts and minds to the depth of his being could yield a joy and hope that transcended every suffering and trouble they ever experienced.

Refusing him, they could not enter lives of knowing the immeasurable greatness of divine love.

Different as Jesus is from us, in many ways we are the same—human, born with a soul, each of us bearing unique gifts to be given away. Our daily task is to do as Jesus does—give whatever beauty and grace we find in ourselves, bearing the disappointment and moving on to try again when the gifts we would give are refused.

This is the way that leads to joy in both wonderful and terrible times.

And one more thing: Always open your heart and mind to the next person you meet. You do not know what the Holy One may have placed in their soul just for you.

Pr. David L. Miller

Becoming human

Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks (Luke 10:38-40a).

Becoming human

Come and sit here by me. This is Jesus’ invitation. Just sit. Here. You will rediscover your lost heart and remember who you are.

Living scatters consciousness. The mind spins from one thought to a disconnected next, flying off in divergent directions, losing track of the center, the heart of who we are.

Martha is a metaphor for fractured consciousness; distracted by many things every word and action bristles with impatient energy disconnected from any depth of heart and being. Everything gets done, but is there any love in it? Does her work flow from her heart or from feverish anxiety about superficial appearances?

At Jesus feet, Mary receives gifts of love and wisdom that penetrate the heart, filling her being so that she knows a deep acceptance and love embracing and filling her.

She becomes who she is, a human being, a vessel of this love who, like all of us, requires frequent filling because the stresses of life eclipse the heart.

When this happens, we live shallow lives. Words and actions leap of the top of our minds instead of flowing from the core of who we are as beloved beings. We lose ourselves, the joy of living from the heart of love where blessing and grace flow like water from a fountain.

Some live their entire lives in this unhappy state. For the rest of us, it is easy to lose ourselves in the whirl of living and perhaps especially amid the anxiety and sadness of Covid-19. With everything that has been lost during this time, the greatest is the loss of our souls, our heart, our humanity.

But we can be restored. For our humanity is a gift received while sitting at the feet of a great and all-surpassing love, who says, ‘Come sit by me. Let everything else go for a while and just be with me. You will find your heart.’

Pr. David L. Miller

That voice

Then Jesus left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples approached him, saying, ‘Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.’ He answered, ‘The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom (Matthew 13:36-38)

That voice

Listening to these words, I long for something the first disciples enjoyed every day. They could hear his voice. They could listen and ask him to explain what they did not understand. It is easy to imagine Jesus sitting among them, trying to explain mysteries they failed to grasp.

Understanding or not, they, themselves were grasped by the mystery of his presence, a presence that echoes through moments like these in stories from the gospels. Through them, his presence resonates through the centuries that, I, too, might be grasped and challenged to believe that the life I am living is ‘good seed.’

Would to God that it were always so. I’d like it to be so, but I wonder how many opportunities I’ve failed, times when attention or courage faltered, times when my words or actions might have blessed a soul or redirected a moment to something better than it was. And now more of this life lies behind than before me.

So I wonder: Is there time to become the soul God made in making me? Can this life shine with a love I have long felt but so poorly lived?

All of life is a becoming, at any age, and now I want nothing more than to hear Jesus’ voice resonating in my soul and to become what, he says, I am, good seed, destined to give the world a taste of his divine kindness.

More than his words, it is this presence, the sound of his voice speaking within, telling us we are more than we imagine, that frees us to become what we are.

Listen to that voice, the resonance of love incarnate.

Pr. David L. Miller