Saturday, December 6, 2014

Mark 1:1-3

The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It is written in the prophet Isaiah: Look, I am going to send my messenger in front of you to prepare your way before you. A voice of one that cries in the desert: Prepare a way for the Lord, make his paths straight.

Prepare Love’s way

What is the Lord’s way, if not that of Love that transforms the heart and sets us free?

We make the path straight by releasing all that blocks the flow of Love between God and ourselves … and between us and others. Sin is all that blocks the flow of self-giving Love that pours from the depth of God’s heart.

We are made to bask and revel, to know …sweetest communion, heart-to-heart, with the One Love who made us, the One who is the Heart of our hearts.

It is this communion that fulfills the human heart. All that stops the flow of grace and goodness is to be cleared away … as much as this is in our power.

Make straight the Lord’s paths. Remove the obstacles to knowing and reveling in the Love, the Life that flows from deepest mystery to the mystery of our hearts.

These obstacles are as diverse and manifold as the human race itself. What keeps us from receiving and giving, from knowing and sharing the Love of Holy One as it flows from secret depths of eternity?

Perhaps our resentments, angers and disappointments prevent the flow of love from penetrating calcified hearts.

Perhaps we are too busy to pray or even to feel what is in our hearts and offer it to God.

Perhaps we fail to see and return to the sacraments of God’s life in our lives, the people and places, the practices and moments that make us truly alive and filled … with the Love which completes us.

Make straight God’s paths. Prepare his way. Remove the negative thoughts that shut down the flow of love in you. Dwell no longer on the disappointments and resentments that sour the heart and turn it from love. Release the festering wounds at which you pick. Let go of the threatened ego’s need to win and be considered important. 

Turn your eyes to the Love who seeks you in every love, every grace and beauty. Run to the places where you know … the Love who comes to make you alive. Go there, and let it draw you into its gravity.

Your heart will open like a flower. Joy will so fill you that you can barely speak. Expectation and unfailing hope will open your eyes to the Love who is, the Love who comes to you again and again … because that’s the way Love is.

Make straight the path for the One who comes.

Pr. David L. Miller

Friday, December 5, 2014

Mark 1:1,7

The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. …[John the Baptist] proclaimed  the one who is more powerful that I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals

Kissing the feet

I wonder if you are truly a human being until you have been so moved that you are eager to bend down and kiss someone’s feet.

This may seem a strange thought, hopelessly out of date. But you don’t really know what is in your heart until you love, admire and even adore someone so much that this act of humility and affection seems natural as breathing, something your heart is eager to do.

Mothers kiss their children’s feet all the time in complete affection and care, an acknowledgement that their heart totally belongs to their little one. They would do anything for them.

In ancient times, taking off someone’s sandals and washing of kissing their feet was an act of abject humility, something slaves would be ordered to do.

But for mothers and John the Baptist … and for those who have been moved to deep love … this is an act of joy. It expresses the heart’s desire to be given away in love and service to the one they kiss.

We become completely human, truly human souls, when the heart is moved to this place of giving and humility, when a slave’s act is a joyous expression of a love that cannot be denied.

Jesus comes. He appears and awakens this kind of love in the John’s heart. It is the beginning of the good news.

Jesus is the good news who moves us beyond our hang-ups and all that hems in our hearts to kiss the feet of the Love who comes to set us free.

Pr. David L. Miller

Monday, December 1, 2014

Isaiah 40:9

Get you up to a high mountain,
   O Zion, herald of good tidings;
lift up your voice with strength,
   O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings,
   lift it up, do not fear;
say to the cities of Judah,
   ‘Here is your God!’

A voice beyond all others

There is a Voice

beyond all others

the heart strains

to hear, for it is life

and joy, bringing

news of the love that

comes anew every

morning awakening

hope for the day when

waiting is done and

fullness comes.

Trained by Love

to want nothing but

the love …Love is,

the heart, finely

tuned, leans forward

to capture every sound

and syllable, every

note and song yearning

for the moment,

word and note make magic

and the wanted news

fills the heart with the

wonder for which

every heart hungers.

Rise up O Voice, and

speak, sing, shout

the morning song that

fills the heart,

strengthens soul

and makes alive

once more.

Pr. David L. Miller

Saturday, November 29, 2014

Mark 13:35-37

“Therefore, keep awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn, or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly. And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.’

Stay awake

 

 Stay awake. Christ is coming ... to you.

The deep cry of our hearts is to know Christ coming to us, touching, filling us with the love that makes us alive, so that no matter our condition--joy or struggle, strength or illness--we know we are safe and well in the Love who comes to each of us … again and again … to join himself with us … that we might have his light and life … in ourselves.

Jesus’ call to stay awake is grace, an invitation to welcome Christ in all the ways he comes to us.

The business of life, the rush of this season, lulls us to sleep even as it exhausts us. We fall utterly unconscious to what is happening in our souls. What am I thinking? Feeling? What is giving me real life and joy; what is stealing it from me?

We don’t know unless we struggle to stay awake through prayer and love. These two keep us awake.

We must listen to our needs and the needs of our wounded world and pray, “Come Lord Jesus,” responding with generosity to the needs of God’s hungry and suffering ones in the world.

And we must cultivate love for life, love for God’s world, love for others next door or a world away. Love begins with gratitude, by saying “thank you” every single day for the blessings our life, focusing on the graces you have received … not on what we don’t have or imagine we must have to be happy.

And if you cannot find anything for which to be grateful, I invite you to take your pulse.

Stay awake. Christ is coming to you.

This month … find places of silence away from the distractions of work and entertainment.Stand in silence under the night sky, or look into the clear cobalt skies of winter afternoons and marvel at creation.

Listen to those who speak to you without worrying about what to say next. Read a favorite passage or book that opens you to the mystery of God’s love. Sit and talk, share a drink, a thought, a memory with someone who truly cherishes you. Listen to music that opens your soul.

Stay awake. Receive each day and moment that comes without insisting that it be like yesterday or anticipating all the ways tomorrow might be better. 

Stay open and try with all your might to love each day, knowing … that amid all that happens … Christ who is Love … is coming to you.

Light a candle … and know.

Pr. David L. Miller

Friday, November 28, 2014

Mark 13:32-37

“Therefore, keep awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn, or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly. And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.’

Advent watching

For who and what

do we watch and

wait? And how to

stay awake when

waiting is long?

Only love knows

how; only those who

love stay awake, for

they know their life

depends on hearing

again the voice their

hunger craves, the smile

that cures all fear,

the words that speak

the love their hearts

must hear … and know

for life to be life

for them.

With love we wait

and watch for Love’s

appearing; it is no

burden or task

but eager longing,

for what we know

will come, a waiting

with joy for what

Love … alone

can bring.

Pr. David L. Miller

Thursday, November 27, 2014

Mark 13:32-37

“Therefore, keep awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn, or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly. And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.’

Awakened

Crisp air awakens my cheeks as I step into the starless night, the sky shrouded in low November clouds.

It does not matter. Skylight is not needed. Brisk air awakens inner light and raises my eyes to the sky to give thanks late on this eve of Thanksgiving.

“Thank you,” I say aloud in the darkness. “Thank you for cold winter air that makes me glad I am alive.

“Thank you for awakening my heart. Thank you for the gratitude that springs suddenly to life and fills me.

“Whatever You are, so mysterious, so far beyond anything I can think or imagine, thank you that my soul is alive to this moment, that my eyes search the dark night sky in wonder that You should come to me and that I should know … this joy, this love.”

Stay awake. That’s what Jesus says. Here, under the night sky, in an empty parking lot, I am awake, and there is nothing in me but love and gratitude for life--and for the gift of this wakefulness.

How did it come? Why am I awake to love and life now and not always?

Were I so awake at all times my anger would never get the best of me, my patience would be unflappable, my heart would always flow with grace, eager to bless those who come my way whether they like me or not.

This is what I would be were I always awake to this mysterious love within me. But these moments come and go, and it seems I am powerless to produce them because they under the command of a Mystery I do not control.

Jesus commands us to stay awake. You do not know when I will come to you, he says. But I cannot wake myself. It is his coming that awakens us.

The Love he is awakens this same Love that lives in us, the Love that is our truest self.

Once you have been awakened to this Love, you want to stay awake and watch for every small way it comes to you that you may know the joy of communing with him, knowing what God from all eternity wants you to know.

We keep falling asleep. But maybe we can work to stay awake. Maybe we can cultivate a silence of heart unfilled by the distractions of work and entertainments. Maybe we can stand in silence under the night sky. Maybe we can listen to those who speak to us without worry about what to say next.Maybe we listen to music that opens the door of our souls.

Maybe we can receive each day and moment that comes, not insisting that it be like yesterday or anticipating all the ways tomorrow might be better. Maybe we can receive each day for what it is … with whatever challenges and graces it brings.

Maybe this will keep us awake to the Love that comes on November nights.

Pr. David L. Miller

Tuesday November 25, 2014

Today's text

Mark 13:32-37

‘But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come. It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his slaves in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch. Therefore, keep awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn, or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly. And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.’

For what we wait

There is a joining we know and a joining for which we wait, a joy we know and a joy that aches for completion only the Holy One can provide.

Christmas celebrates the joining of divine reality with human substance, revealing what we each are but which we have not become.

We look at Jesus in his mother’s arms and wonder at the beauty of the child. We believe and know he is the face of heaven shining on us and making us alive once more.

This is the joining we know. His light warms and heals hidden longings for which no other fulfillment can be found.

We see him and know the love who is Love touching us and quieting the inner ache, whispering once more, “Rest, my love is enough for you.”

We are creatures made from Love, by Love and for the Love Christ is. In him, we see what we each are and what we … and all nature and history … will be.

Our joy is to be finally and fully joined with the Love shining from his face that it might also shine from ours, in our hopes and tears, our longings and our laughter.

This joining is our Advent longing. We do not await the birth of Jesus who has already come but the birth of Christ in us and all creation, the full joining of the divine heart with our human hearts so that everywhere we look and all we shall see is Christ, the perfect unity of God and creation.

We stay awake for he comes to join with our hearts in all times and every moment.

Pr. David L. Miller

Tuesday November 18, 2014

Matthew 25:37-40

Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?” And the king will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.”

The light of Christ

There are several mysteries here. The first is the presence of Christ in the man in need, the suffering woman, the neglected child. It is not just that Jesus identifies with those in need, though he does. There is more.

Christ is present in every human being. Each is an image of God meant to shine a light of God’s grace and beauty in this world.

The blessing of the poor lifts those weighed down by life that the inner light of grace might shine in their eyes and hearts that they may know and be what they are--lights of the God’s holy presence shining rays of the Love Christ is.

This is not for them alone, but … for me … and for all who grow weary and stagger through days lost from the joyous light of Christ animating and lifting our hearts.

To see and know the light of Christ shining and enveloping you from the eyes of another gives life that is Life … and joy that is Joy. It awakens the Life within us, and we shine with the light of Christ we each are.

We need each other to be awake and alive, the light of Christ in you awakening me, and the light in me awakening others … that the presence of the Holy One may shine in our hearts and give light to a world descending now into winter’s darkness.

However cold it becomes, there is a warmth within, a fire of grace and eternal love, the very image of the Eternal Love at the depth of every human soul. The struggles of life can beat the fire down, but its embers are ever there, awaiting the spark of grace to ignite the fire into the light of Christ, the true self of every human being.

Shine the light you are, so alive and crazy beautiful, and the Christ light within you and the hearts of others will warm you through winter’s coldest blast.

Pr. David L. Miller

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Matthew 25:14-21

“For it is as if a man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them; to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. The one who had received the five talents went off at once and traded with them, and made five more talents. In the same way, the one who had the two talents made two more talents. But the one who had received the one talent went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money. After a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. Then the one who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five more talents, saying, ‘Master, you handed over to me five talents; see, I have made five more talents.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.

The law of our nature

The story goes on, and it’s not good news. The guy who has only one talent loses what little he has to those who already have more. It is one more chapter in the old story, “Them that’s got shall win; them that’s not shall lose.” The poor get poorer. Nothing new here.

The Master in the story gives from his fullness to each servant. But at the end he is not sympathetic. He has no compassion on his fearful servant but sends him away into the darkness where the soul aches for the light of God.

So is God, the Master, a punisher like this? Or is God like the healing hand of Christ reaching to the tenderest spots in our hearts to heal us again when morning comes?

Does God look at the world with jaundiced eye or with the warmth of one who loves us in spite of ourselves, welcoming every open heart?

I’ll take the latter. Everything I have ever learned in prayer and meditation, everything the wise and most Spirit-filled through the centuries have written speak of the passion of a love so warm and life-giving they stumbled over themselves to speak it.

But there are laws in the world of Spirit as everywhere else. The Divine Spirit works in certain ways, and when we resist these ways we cut ourselves off from the joy of the Master for which we are intended.

The Master gives life and breath, gifts and graces in creation. It is God’s nature to give, and human souls are created in the image of the Giver of all life. The two servants who risked what they had received cooperated with the Spirit. They flowed with the living stream of grace and love that springs from the heart of God.

The servant who fearfully hid what he had acted against God’s nature … and his own. He tries to hold tight to what he has, fearing punishment instead of obeying the Master’s way, the way of gift and grace, the way of risk, the way that leads to joy.

He did not know or trust that he was made in the image of his Master. Violating his own nature he lived in darkness not the light of the grace for which we hunger.

In the world of Spirit, when you give something away you become more … not less. You enter the Master’s joy.

Pr.  David L. Miller

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Today's text

Matthew 25:14-21

“For it is as if a man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them; to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. The one who had received the five talents went off at once and traded with them, and made five more talents. In the same way, the one who had the two talents made two more talents. But the one who had received the one talent went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money. After a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. Then the one who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five more talents, saying, ‘Master, you handed over to me five talents; see, I have made five more talents.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.

Enter the joy

Joy is not found by holding back, playing it safe. It is known only by those who throw themselves and their gifts into the unpredictability of living and caring, knowing, too, that there are no guarantees.

None of us are made for holding back, being careful, protecting what you have at the risk of losing something. Truth is … life always involves losing. We can never hold onto everything we want or need, friends, jobs, good times enjoyed, what we once were … .

Everything changes. Time passes on, an ever-rolling stream. Simple realism here.

Faced with this, how shall we live? Defensively? Grasping as tightly as we can to what we have, to who we are, to what we know?

Or do we throw ourselves into living, loving, giving ourselves fully to our time and place, our loves and duties, knowing we may be surprised by things we could have never imagined? Everything may not turn out the way we want. It may be better … or worse.

But that is not what really matters. What matters is being who and what we are, knowing we are fashioned in the image of the God, the Love, from whom our lives and this earth flow.

This One, this Love does not grasp but opens the divine hand to let life flow like a river, generously pouring out the divine creativity, giving Life, risking it on creatures who may never acknowledge the eternally generous Source of their breath … and all that is.

Such pouring out of self, not knowing what will come; this is the way of Jesus through which we enter the joy of the master, not only at heaven’s door, but now.

The crazy truth is opposite of what many think. The door of joy is not grasping who you are, but giving yourself away.

Pr. David L. Miller

Friday, November 7, 2014

Today’s text

Mathew 25:13 

Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.

Ask why

Blinded by pretension

of sight, nothing is seen but

the surface sheen the arrogant

mind imagines is all

that is, when all that is

hides the One Love present

playing behind, beneath.

beyond and within all that is.

Blind eyes do not ask why

there is anything at all,

why life, or why this

crazy love, irresistible

magnetic, drawing the yearning

heart home as sun glow

illumines the art of autumn

leaves from far horizon,

earth’s star setting once more,

sweetest light of day, caressing

earth’s wonder, delighting

hearts one last time before

dieing in the purple night to

spring again from eastern shore,

light of tomorrow opening our

eyes to miracles, no

just one, to the Love

who makes us human, alive, free,

glowing within with light whose

Source no eye can see,

no mind can know.

Then, illumined and alive,

finally sighted and hope-filled, 

we know this is the day, this 

the hour of salvation; Eternal 

Love, who always is, welcomes

us again to know … and live

a life of knowing why,

why life, why this crazy

love yearning for home, why

the dieing light makes art 

of autumn afternoons

Pr. David L. Miller

Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Today’s text

Psalm 70:1

You take delight, O Radiant One in gracing me with new life! O Beloved, come and renew me! 

From me to we

Delight of my Life, light

my world, this heart with

the wonder of wordless

Love, the smile of Beauty

complete, unspeakable

spinning the mind, stealing

all hand-holds, leaving

nothing to grasp, but

awareness of this elusive

undeniably real Presence,

filling the secret room

with the Radiance

of heart-to-Heart union

where knowing completes

hope’s desire.

Your Love is life at

new day’s appearance,

awakening anticipation

for what will be, thankful

for what is, wanting always

the More you are, that in

union there is no more me,

only we …

in the day life is complete and

wanting is no more, for

Love is all in all.

Pr. David L. Miller

Sunday, November 2, 2014

Today’s text

Matthew 5:1-3

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:  ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 

Poor & rich

Wise and secure today,

no grasping rankles the heart

content to welcome what

comes as from your hand,

receiving as one who has no

claim on tomorrow or

even my next breath.

Poverty of spirit You

call it; forsaking all claim

and demand of what is not

or which cannot yet or

perhaps ever be, but receiving

with gratitude what is, knowing

the Love and grace it is;

the challenge, too, each

thing, each day, each grace

a challenge and gift shaping

the soul into the Mystery

of You who are in this

and every soul.

So with open hearts we

live, waiting …

the unveiling only time  

can bring, but knowing

always the Mystery we bear

is the Love you are, shaped

by particularities of our

surprising lives and

histories--who could have

guessed?--each a glory

of Your Glory.

Just so, in hope we watch,

trusting, knowing …

whatever time brings or

soul grows in its secret soil

will be the Love you are, and

peace will attend our poverty

of spirit, a taste of that kingdom

made of Love alone

by Hands not ours.

Pr. David L. Miller

October 28, 2014

Today’s text

Matthew 5:8

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

Seeing

Beatific vision tradition calls

the seeing of the One who

sees in love, so different

from our seeing, obsessed eyes

compulsive, fixed on warts

and wounds, busy tongues

seeking every sore spot.

With delight the Seer sees

every curve and contour

of body and soul, eyes

lingering, caressing,

slowly moving, savoring

even the smallest the quiver

of lips upturned into the smile

that echoes the Divine Heart’s

joy, who sees and says, “mine,

mine, mine,” bursting with Love

at the sight of life filled

and revealing the Life who is.

Just so we are seen by

the Beauty who seeks

and savors Beauty

in all, inviting us to see

self and all so well, and

seeing to know in all we

see the One who always is …

and Who always is Love.

Seeing that we are seen

in love, vision is pure, and

we see with love through

eyes longing for the One

Love present in all that is, waiting

the day we see Beauty

and nothing more.

Pr. David L. Miller

October 27, 2014

Today’s text
 

1 John 3:1-2

See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is.

As you see …

I am glad I was born in a rural place where fields roll among hills carved by ancient glaciers, where golden trees follow valleys, crowding near rivulets that run when the rains come, seeking the water of life … just like me.

The trees, I see, are my brothers and sisters, teaching me what I tend to forget.

Autumn colors are all around, not only in rural landscapes. But seeing the hills roll before your eyes from the top of a ridge, hazy mounds purple in far distance, awakens the awareness of beauty in a young child, or at least in the child that I was … and in many ways still am.

But as the years pass a blessed awareness appeared: Somehow, mysteriously, the beauty you see resides also within you, or you wouldn’t be able to see it at all.

The hills whisper that the beauty you see is the beauty you are.

We become … more and more what we see, more of the beauty … or, sadly, the ugliness or distractions or whatever it is on which our eyes most linger.  

You are the Great Beauty shining in the hills of childhood memory and in the eyes and hearts of so many, in so many places where I sat and listened--and looked into the glow of eyes and hearts where shined your Love and Beauty … and was made more alive than I had ever been.

I saw you then … and now, and you continue to make me feel truly alive, moving me to hunger for more … of  You. Whatever goodness and beauty lies within this soul was brought to life by seeing you where you appeared, or at wherever I had eyes to see and know you.

As we see, so we become, so let me see you that as you are so I may be.

Pr.  David L. Miller

October 24, 2013

Today’s text
 

Philippians 4:4-5

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

Holy joy

Some days are so holy.

Yes, I know all days are holy,

gift and grace.

But today it is all ‘round,

golden leaves fall, covering

the yard, a blanket of color,

the bounty of summer,

giving themselves to the earth

and me, the gift of life for whatever

life will come when earth warms

again to delight my soul

in the new season

Fedora pulled low, shielding

my eyes from the sun still warm

penetrating the soul’s

inner room, painting the patio

cloister gold and blue, as tears

from hidden Source clear the soul’s

vision awakening thanks

for this moment, for the holiness

that surrounds and fills everything

and me.

Thank you for the gold and blue,

but more for eyes and heart awakened

to feel and know … the Love in all things

and me, too. Love that opens eyes

and heart to see and know the Mystery 

of what is right there, present 

every moment,beauty of Love untold, 

grace of the Grace beyond knowing, 

heart awakened by the Love within, 

warming me even more 

than autumn sun.

Pr. David L. Miller

October 23, 2013

Today’s text

Psalm 90 (paraphrase)

You gather those who love You as friends returning from a long journey, giving rest to their souls. You anoint them with the balm of understanding, healing wounds of the past. … Increase the Light within us--O Beloved, hear our prayer.

Home once more

Long we wander, wondering,

doubting if ever we come

to the place Love filled

us, once more to know the

home we do not choose

but which chooses us.

Lost, our souls convinced

moments of heart-full

knowing forever gone

never to be known

once more in sweetness

of tears and faces

glowing, lit within by

Light uncreated

by human hands.

Sun rises, a new day

surprises birthing hope,

You the Lighthouse piercing

dark clouds once more

finding our lostness amid

waves that sicken

the soul, drawing us

home again to know

the Love thought lost amid

the living we must do.

Light finds and shines in

not only on souls once

lost amid the waves,

found and filled; prayer

answered once more, wounds

once bleeding find healing, no,

Healing Light, again finds

them, once more home in

the Love who is this

world’s Heart.

Pr. David L. Miller

October 20, 2013

Today’s text

Psalm 90:1-2

Eternal and Immortal One, You have been our refuge in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, before You had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting, You are the Alpha and the Omega.

Morning praise

Before star light

startled the ancient

darkness, before light

awakened hope that life

could be, that beauty

should blossom,

Love lived,

Present, unknown

abiding and birthing

all that is that all

that is may know

the Presence of Love

Present always.

Awakened

we know You,

Love who lives

in every love

we know.

Morning comes again

with Mystery within,

Presence of Love

abiding, undeniable,

Spirit beyond my own.

You abide every where,

in all, but known only

by those who love,

known … dearly

as they know

the curve of their

beloved’s cheek.

They … I know

this … Something

Who is no thing but

Thou, Someone

Who is Ever More

than a person, Beyond all

the searching eye can

see, More real

than life’s breath, giving

life beyond breath, eternal

life, the Presence

of Love Immeasurable

simply there, abiding …

within the heart’s

secret room.

Sense? Can this be

sense at all? Can any

words speak what the

morning heart simply

knows as the gift

of the Giver?

No one can name

You; Alpha and Omega,

not nearly enough.

You are no thing; You

are Love Abiding every

time and place, beyond

all that is, yet held here,

in this soul privileged

to know …

You.

Thank you for this

joy above all others.

Pr. David L. Miller

October 16, 2013

Today’s text

Luke 10:29-37

But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor?’ Jesus replied, ‘A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, “Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.” Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?’ He said, ‘The one who showed him mercy.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Go and do likewise.’

Beyond reason

I remember days of wandering and reporting from out of the way, forgotten and never-known villages, finding and recording the drama of difficult lives.

I went to places the Western world never really knew--Bor, Aswa, Atepi, Ame and dozens of others in southern Sudan caught in the maelstrom of civil war, as if any war was ever civil … especially to the poor.

I recall entering devastated towns to discover aid agencies had pulled out their people because it was too dangerous. The Red Cross, United Nations organizations like UNICEF, Save the Children, church relief organizations … all had left, leaving only the most intrepid who stayed, trying to keep the starving survivors alive long enough to plant seeds of hope in a new season.

After everyone else left, two organizations often stayed--medical staff from Doctors without Borders and nuns from Mother Teresa’s Sisters of Charity. They remained in war zones and instability where they were as likely to get killed or sick as those they served.

The stayed beyond any reasonable expectation of what they should do risking their lives for those at risk.

I loved them for that. I could kiss the dirt at their feet. Some of them were a gnarly crowd, hardened by the lives they lived, the deaths they witnessed and the risks they took.

No one needed (or would dare) to tell them ofthe story of the Good Samaritan. They lived it every day in conditions that reasonable people avoid or flee at all costs.

As I watched them I muttered to myself, “Where do you get such people? How do you make people like this?”

You don’t.

These are the awakened hearts of the world. These are those whose hearts have been roused by an inner love that moves them beyond limits, beyond reason, beyond expectation.

Only the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ makes hearts like these, stirring them to feel and become the love God wants us all to be.

Such people can make us nervous. They are often criticized or judged as being foolish or strange. They may scare or unsettle us because they love so freely, giving totally while we hold back protecting ourselves, our safety, our personal boundaries.

However these hearts were awakened--by beauty or suffering, by being loved or abused, by being helped or neglected--however the Spirit awakened them, they are a lighthouse shining in the darkness showing us who God is, how we are to live … and the beauty that lies deep within ourselves … awaiting its awakening.

Pr. David L. Miller

October 15, 2013

Today’s text

Luke 10:29-37

But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor?’ Jesus replied, ‘A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, “Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.” Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?’ He said, ‘The one who showed him mercy.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Go and do likewise.’

The awakened heart

Why do some stop and others not? What is in the heart of the man who reached out to help? What makes him more … human?

I keep coming back these days to a single phrase, the awakened heart.

I look at the wonder of a harvest moon and my soul spills over with gratitude, my heart awakened from sleep.

I listen to the heart of another, to souls who privilege me with their secret hurts and deepest loves, and my heart fills and flies from my chest to bless as fully as I am able.

I am awakened and know myself, the beauty within, the grace that hides or sleeps or gets lost and hidden beneath layers of living.

What is the secret of holding the tender self within where love lives?

So easily it gets lost beneath the judgments of others, the hurts we suffer, the losses we endure. We lose ourselves, too, amid the details of what must be done.

Some have never known the warm grace of the awakened heart, filled with generosity and gratitude, love and joy. They do not know that this … not whatever they are pursuing or distracting themselves with …this is the height of their humanity

But I don’t think the tender self, the soul of love we each are ever dies. It is still there, deep within, no matter how many layers of pain or confusion or busyness or simple shallowness hide it.

It waits its awakening, sometimes needing time and voices to coax it out, reminders that when all is said and done who we really are is this beauty and grace that appear when the heart is awakened.

Sometimes it happens in an instant as when moon and stars fill us with wonder at the glory of being a human being amid the magnificence of our universe.

Or we look into the eyes of another and want nothing more than to bless and lift them from their sorrows. Then, too, the heart awakens to itself, knowing who it is and the Mystery who lives within

Ultimately, this is a mystery I do not begin to understand but only notice and try to describe with inadequate words and concepts that are not up to the task.

But I know … when the heart awakens love flows like water from an inexhaustible Source within the soul.

It happens sometime in prayer, or when we remember one loved and lost, or maybe when the right song penetrates the shell around our heart and awakens hope. It even happens amid the most common of conversations, or when, like the Good Samaritan, we see someone who truly needs what we have to give.

There is no way to list all the ways or circumstances in which the heart awakens, but it does help to take time to pray, to listen in silence to what your heart most needs and where it is most blest, and to spend time in the presence of those who love you most. This all helps.

But we do not make it happen. The awakened heart of the Samaritan … or your awakened heart on a moonlit night … is a gift from the One who is the Heart of the Universe.

Pr. David L. Miller