Wednesday, April 13, 2016

John 10:27-30

My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one.”

Knowing ...

There is so much of life that is not lived in the joy, quiet or boisterous, of knowing.

Knowing the Mystery you are—the inward awareness of being with and in you—this is life far beyond the mere fact of existence and its assortment of activities.

I sit and listen. I touch a hand or look into the eyes of want or love or pain, emotions truly expressed, and I am, at times, rendered speechless. There is nothing I can say because, in the moment, I know this Mystery, this Love. You.

I am inside, sharing in the Life who is the Source of all existence, pleased to enter a world about which I knew nothing until my hair turned, a world where I am one with the Love whom I know and feel, one with the One whom I see and hear in the depth of others’ words and feelings, if only they could see and hear and know.

We carry the Loving Mystery in our depth, creations of the One Love who is before time. And this Love never casts us out. Nothing can or will separate us from the Loving Mystery within, the One from whom we live so far even though this One is so close.

We are one with the Father. This is the deep truth of our lives though we live far from it … and far from the joyful awareness that Jesus knew every moment.

So help us hear your voice, Jesus, the voice of oneness with the Father, that we, as you, may share the joy of eternal life, today.

Pr. David L. Miller

Sunday, April 3, 2016

Sunday, April 3, 2016

John 21:4-8

Just after daybreak, Jesus stood on the beach; but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, ‘Children, you have no fish, have you?’ They answered him, ‘No.’ He said to them, ‘Cast the net to the right side of the boat, and you will find some.’ So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in because there were so many fish. That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, ‘It is the Lord!’ When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on some clothes, for he was naked, and jumped into the lake. But the other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, only about a hundred yards off.

Love sees

Only Love truly sees.  Love alone opens our heart to see the truth and need, the pain and joy of another human heart. Only love, a truly Great Love, evaporates our defenses so that we may be seen for what we are, in all our beauty and brokenness.

So it is not a surprise to me that it is the one you especially love who first recognizes you, Jesus.

When you are greatly loved … and greatly love …your senses are tuned to any and every sign of the Heart whose presence brings you joy.

The abundance of fish is a sign of the abundance of your love and life. But it is the one with whom you shared closest intimacy that sees beyond the outward sign to you. Your love of him … and his of you … opens his eyes that he may know you beyond, behind and within this moment at the shore.

He sees and knows … you are the Eternal Abundance of Love and Life who fills his heart as full as the net he hauls to the boat … and always will.

You are the fullness of God’s heart seeking to catch us all in your great net, bringing us home to the Love who is and was and ever shall be.

Moments come when I feel and know exactly what he knew that day on the shore. He saw and knew … you. And for the rest of his life, that is all he truly needed.

Pr. David L. Miller

Friday, April 1, 2016

John 21:1-4

After these things Jesus showed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias; and he showed himself in this way. Gathered there together were Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples. Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will go with you.” They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. Just after daybreak, Jesus stood on the beach; but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus.

The moment

I hold my breath, anticipating the moment, Jesus. Your friends will soon see you truly alive. Their hearts will burst with joy. Excited shouts will explode from their lungs as they race toward you, knowing … the Heart they most want and need is right there … with them.

They returned to their old life, fishing. It was what they knew. They could do it without thinking. Their arms and legs instinctively went through the motions.

But their minds were far away in another place and time. Their hearts bled for the One, the Great Love they had seen and known, the Loving Mystery for whom the world had waited through long, brutal centuries.

They had eaten and drank, held and kissed the cheek of the One, the only One who could soothe their aching eyes and fill them with the Great Love who is and was and ever will be.

They had walked and talked with the Holy Love who embraces all that is … and them, despite all the ways they failed him. Of all men and women who have ever lived, they were the most blessed … and the most wounded, for having betrayed him and watched his awful death.

Now, they go on, returning to something they know, trying to find a way to live without the One who is Life.

And I hold my breath, for I know: you are there, waiting at the shore. Always. The moment will soon come, and joy will fill every chamber of their aching hearts.

He stands there, waiting.

Pr. David L. Miller

Monday, March 28, 2016

From an ancient homily on Holy Saturday

I order you, O sleeper to awake. I did not create you to be held a prisoner in hell. Rise up from the dead, for I am the life of the dead. Rise, let us leave this place, for you are in me and I am in you; together we form only one person and we cannot be separated.

We are one

Good and gracious God, this voice crosses many centuries to appear on the page of my prayer book.

I have no idea who wrote this sermon. The name and face are lost to history, but I recognize the voice. It is your voice, your truth and love speaking to the troubled and conflicted places in my heart.

You speak and heal me with a Love that awakens tears of joy and knowing what only the heart can.

I feel the worlds as much as I read and see them in my mind. I feel and know: you would not have me living in the hell of unknowing for even a single moment. Hell is not to know, to feel far off as when our sins and conflicts separate us from knowing the Love that is ours always.

So I turn from all that is petty and negative, from all that is dark and hurtful to the heart. I turn the eyes of my heart to what is light and love, to beauty and grace, and there I know you, shining like the sun, eyes lit with a love who wants and treasures me, removing all sin and shame, lifting every sadness and doubt.

Seeing you within, hell is banished. It cannot stand the joy of such Love unbounded.

I enter heaven and am blessed once more, knowing that we are never separate one from another. We are one person, your love living deep within my own love for you. These are not two but one.

All that I am is in you, encompassed in this great sea of love, and everything you are pours in and through me, leaving no room for anything but the love you are … and that we are … together.

Pr. David L. Miller

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

      I     Isaiah 65:23-25

They shall not labor in vain, or bear children for calamity; for they shall be offspring blessed by the Lord— and their descendants as well. Before they call I will answer, while they are yet speaking I will hear. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox; but the serpent—its food shall be dust! They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, says the Lord.

Hope

Bring peace, O Lord, the peace that only you can bring. We have seen enough of death and killing, hatred and destruction. We ache for the peace of your kingdom where loving kindness fills the earth as water covers the sea.

This hope is not our own, Holy One. It is your gift, your Presence at the center of our souls. We carry you within. You are the Soul of our souls, the soul of the Universe who evermore presses forward in hope for the fulfillment that comes when the Love you are infuses every heart, every moment and every act.

This is not the world in which we live. The world of the morning news bleeds once more with stories of bombs and killing and death. The poison of hatred again denies the truth that the human family is one and when one bleeds we all bleed.

Your hope is that we may all be one, one with each other, an oneness that comes only as we are one with the One Love you are, one with the Love from which we come, one with the Love that is our truest and deepest soul, so denied whenever we hate.

For you are not hate; you are the Love the hopes even when the smoke of destruction fills the halls of airports and trains stations, even when poisoned souls regret that the death count is not higher.

Even then, you press on toward the hope to which you call us, the hope for which you made us. And so, we, too, must hope and press on, seeking to know and become the Love you are, the Love we are. For your Soul burns in our own, and that is why we hope … an ache that drives us evermore to you.

Pr. David L. Miller

Tuesday, March 8, 2016

John 12:1-8

Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, ‘Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?’ (He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) Jesus said, ‘Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.’

From the heart

Mary moves me, O Lord. You draw near the end of your course, and she is ready. She has planned for this moment, eager to kneel at your feet to bless you. She watches and waits for the right moment when she can pour out her heart and reveal the exquisite beauty of a soul that knows you.

She moves me. I watch her and weep as she pours out the perfume. Hers is a love that cannot be contained. All that matters to her is loving you, blessing you, releasing the rush of love that overflows her heart’s deep reservoir.

She lives from the heart, and I want her near always, for I want to live from the heart. Anything less is not quite human. So I watch, hoping to touch her, hoping her beauty will touch and awaken my guarded heart that I, too, may pour out the fullness of my heart to you and all you love.

I don’t know why Mary loves you as she does. Perhaps you healed or blessed her. Or maybe seeing you heal and bless moved her to love whatever you are and whatever is in you.

It was grace that brought her to her knees to show such love for you. That’s who you are. You are the grace from the Holy One from whom we all receive grace upon grace. And having received we become the beauty you are, like Mary kneeling at your feet.

As a young man, I wanted knowledge, insight, great learning. Now all that really matters is becoming as she is.

Pr. David L. Miller

Thursday, March 3, 2016

Isaiah 42:5-7

Thus says God, the Lord,
   who created the heavens and stretched them out,
   who spread out the earth and what comes from it,
who gives breath to the people upon it
   and spirit to those who walk in it: 
I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness,
   I have taken you by the hand and kept you;
I have given you as a covenant to the people,
   a light to the nations, 
   to open the eyes that are blind,
to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon,
   from the prison those who sit in darkness. 

Smiles

I saw a smiles this week that lit up my heart, eyes sparkling with loving joy that tap a fountain of tears in my soul. It had been too long since I felt that light and tasted those tears.

Those smiles awakened life in me, reminding me that you, Holy One, are alive in me. You are those tears and the light that sets me free from dark drudgery when worry and too many details weigh my heart.

I see what I am and who I am to be in the smiles that lifted me. I saw you smiling in their eyes, and felt how hungry you are to be the light that burns brightly in my soul and lights up rooms when I enter.

I am a vessel of your life sent to be a light to those in the dungeons of doubt and despair, guilt and shame, worry and sadness. You send us as to shine with the light of your presence that the souls of all you love may truly live.

Isaiah’s words are a call to know and make known the freedom found nowhere but in the Eternal Love who lights the earth with every dawn and sprinkles the night sky with the starlit wonder of a billion distant suns.

But those smiles are brighter and more powerful than all those suns.

They awaken your living presence in sleeping souls and light human eyes with loving joy and everlasting hope. They breathe the exquisite air of your life into our lungs and we live, truly live.

Pr. David L. Miller

Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Isaiah 42:5-7

Thus says God, the Lord,
   who created the heavens and stretched them out,
   who spread out the earth and what comes from it,
who gives breath to the people upon it
   and spirit to those who walk in it: 
I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness,
   I have taken you by the hand and kept you;
I have given you as a covenant to the people,
   a light to the nations, 
   to open the eyes that are blind,
to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon,
   from the prison those who sit in darkness. 

To be human

This is an identity to be known and a mission to be lived.

For freedom you come to us, Holy One, opening our eyes to see and truly know the freedom that comes from knowing you.

From ancient times until now your messengers did not come to bind people’s hearts but to release them to become what you always intended … human.

To be human is to raise your hands and heart to the sky in gratitude for life; to open your arms in loving welcome to others; to receive the day with hope knowing all it holds is a holy gift to be opened wide-eyed like a child on Christmas morning.

To be human is to live with joyous expectancy despite disappointments and struggles because Love is and always has one more surprise.

The ancient prophet, Isaiah, spoke to a people in bondage, held captive by a foreign invader. But deeper still was the bondage that held their hearts and minds.

They were failing to hope that they would ever see and touch home again. Their minds could only conceive a life … a half-life … lived in bondage, far from the hills and streams, people and places where they truly knew, loved and worshiped you.

They had begun to settle for less than their full humanity because they failed to know your fullness, Loving Mystery.

You called them to be a people revealing what it meant to trust and serve the abundant heart of the One who stretched out the heavens like a sheet.

“Look up,” you said then … and now. “Look at the panoply of the heavens. Breathe the sweet air of earth and know: It is I who made them. The Love from whom they come … comes now to shatter the chains that bind your hearts and minds from the prison of fear and doubt, shame and guilt.

“I come that you may know the freedom for which I made you.”

Pr. David L. Miller

Thursday, February 25, 2016

Isaiah 41:17-20

When the poor and needy seek water,
   and there is none,
   and their tongue is parched with thirst,
I the Lord will answer them,
   I the God of Israel will not forsake them. 
I will open rivers on the bare heights,
   and fountains in the midst of the valleys;
I will make the wilderness a pool of water,
   and the dry land springs of water. 

I will put in the wilderness the cedar,
   the acacia, the myrtle, and the olive;
I will set in the desert the cypress,
   the plane and the pine together, 
so that all may see and know,
   all may consider and understand,
that the hand of the Lord has done this,
   the Holy One of Israel has created it. 

Stream of grace

I am drawn to water. My ideal home would be near a stream or a lake where I look out and see the sun rise or set on the water’s face. I would watch as earth’s fiery star turns the deep into a pool of wondrous color and be amazed that I am alive and able to feel the moment, falling in love again each day with life and the One from whom every moment comes.

Lakes awaken stillness in my heart, but I prefer water that moves, a stream or a great river that rolls ever onward to the next larger river and then to the sea, pouring into the deep, the sun recycling each drop that the rains may fall, awakening the earth to grow green and alive with color … and hope.

Sitting by the water, listening to the hush of a slow current or the chatter of a stream tripping among the rocks brings peace.

It quiets and assures the heart of a deep mystery: Despite the dry, hot places in our lives, life-loving grace is always flowing from the Heart of Wonder to our hearts. And if we are quiet and watch for a moment, it just may flow into us and fill us so full that tears of thanks will water our cheeks with the grace of gratitude.

You are the stream of grace that flows through all time and space. The river ever rolling from time unknown through the times of our lives, slaking our thirst when desert days scorch joy from our hearts.

You are the spring of life rising from earth’s secret center, bubbling fresh in smiles of love, the laughter of friends, the beauty of this unspeakable wonder we call a world and the fresh joy of awakening each morning to a new day, a truly new day.

For all this, accept my evening praise.

Pr. David L. Miller

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Isaiah 41:17-18

When the poor and needy seek water,
   and there is none,
   and their tongue is parched with thirst,
I the Lord will answer them,
   I the God of Israel will not forsake them. 
I will open rivers on the bare heights,
   and fountains in the midst of the valleys;
I will make the wilderness a pool of water,
   and the dry land springs of water. 

Water life

I find my way back here again where water so often flows, hoping that the River of Love you are may awaken within … and a trickle may become a fountain … and a fountain a flowing stream. Only then am I truly alive; only then am I truly myself.

So, I come here to speak and listen through these faulty fingers that hit more wrong keys than right. It’s a fitting metaphor of this life where I miss the mark as often as not.

I get lost in the anxious details of living, gripped by longings I cannot still, aching to feel fully alive and free. And I am dry, thirsty to feel and know you in my deepest heart.

That’s why I am here, praying with these fingers, searching for words with just the right sound and rhythm that will awaken the flow of Love that you are in the depth of this soul. For I want nothing more than to feel one with you, the One I most need.

Millions before me thirsted for you and thirst now to be cooled in the deserts of living by gentle waters that still the heart.

I will not curse this desert of soul where thirst is all I know of you. For thirst gives rise to desire and desire to seeking and crying out to know your nearness. And it is in the crying out that I feel and know you.

My cry is more than matched by your ache for me. Could it be that you are as thirsty for me as I am for you? I believe it is true.

You are not content until I drink from the endless flow of Love that never runs dry, sitting still to hear the flow of living water from the deep pool of your soul.

You are a bottomless sea of Love, Holy One. And I? My soul is a pool of Love, replenished from your endless source each time I come here to sit with you.

Pr. David L. Miller

Monday, February 15, 2016

Isaiah 40:3-5

A voice cries out:
‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord,
   make straight in the desert a highway for our God. 
Every valley shall be lifted up,
   and every mountain and hill be made low;
the uneven ground shall become level,
   and the rough places a plain. 
Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
   and all people shall see it together,
   for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.’ 

A way in the wilderness

My heart seems a wilderness, O Lord. I cannot find or make a straight path there. Nor can I fill in the valleys of melancholy into which I sometimes fall.

I long for the hills, the high places where my heart touches the cobalt sky, where I know the Love you are and know it in me, for me, flowing through me … and everything, everywhere.

I know your glory then, the glory of a Love at the heart of all things … and me. Nothing, absolutely nothing else matters then, for I know: all is well and held in the Love you are that will bring us all home.

But then, knowing your Love … I am home already.

I don’t want to plow down the heights of the hills and make them a plain. That’s where I see who I am, who you are and learn to recognize you in the hearts and eyes of others in the hills and valleys of living.

Your command to make a straight path, a smooth place runs contrary to everything about the human heart. There is seldom anything straightforward about why we do what we do. A twisting mystery of intention and apparent chance brings us to our current places and directs our futures. And life is never smooth for long.

So maybe you mean we need to prepare a way for you to come to us … or prepare ourselves to see and know you when you appear.

Maybe we are to stir our hope when we are in the valleys, and get off our high horses of ego and pride when too self-important, so that our hearts are clear and open to receive you who are ever present and loving, eager for us to know the Love that turns our souls into fountains of life, as you just have for me … again.

Your way is made straight at the tip of these fingers.

Pr. David L. Miller

Saturday, Feb. 13, 2016

Isaiah 40:3-5

A voice cries out:
‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord,
   make straight in the desert a highway for our God. 
Every valley shall be lifted up,
   and every mountain and hill be made low;
the uneven ground shall become level,
   and the rough places a plain. 
Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
   and all people shall see it together,
   for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.’ 

River life

I took a long drive in the country last week, across northern Illinois to a retreat house in southwest Wisconsin. Then I crossed the river to meet an old friend in Dubuque, Iowa, before turning north, up the Mississippi River, choosing country roads and county blacktops that kept me close to the water.

There were soaring eagles and families of deer. I dodged wild turkeys along gravel roads.

But I went to see the river and the great valley through which it winds, flowing ever southward as it has for centuries. It gives me hope. It speaks of a river that never runs dry, of the flow of life-giving waters emerging from a faraway source.

Seeing it bend and turn, even beneath the ice that covers much of its surface, moves me to pray. I give thanks for a River that never runs dry, for a Love that busts from an Eternal Source and flows through all time, a deep, life-giving stream that finds and fills me so that I may laugh again when all laughter has faded from my lips.

And in praying I find that Source is not far off but close and within, and once again Living Water flows through me, bringing tears of relief and hope.

The hills and valleys of living, the dry places and wilderness where we lose our track of our souls, these struggles fade. They no longer trouble me so much as the life of God, the Living Water, the Eternal Love from an ever-Boundless Source fills my heart and carries me in its current.

And I know: The glory of the Lord is the laughter and tears of those who find themselves in the River of Love that you are, Holy One.

I went out into the wilderness with a dry and angry heart. I went out to prepare your way. For I know … you will find me there.

Pr. David L. Miller

Wednesday, February 3, 2016

 Luke 9:28-31

 Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him. They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. 

Seeing you

Every moment we stand in the presence of the holy. This earth, our breath, the morning sky with its promise of a new day … these do not create themselves. There was a time when they were not. Nor do they just appear … from nowhere.

They appear from Creative Source, from the Unimaginable Wonder for whom no name will do.

Every day I stand in awe before you, Holy One. I make no attempt to describe the immensity of your heart, the reach of your power or the wisdom of your plan. There are days I do not even want to speak of you. It is better to know your presence than to stand back and describe it.

I know nothing of you really. Only this: I know and feel you near even as I stumble among these keys, and I know that I love you.

I know that the glory that shines in Jesus is the Love you are, Love that brings Life from nothingness, Love that fills and lifts human beings into the full beauty you intend.

And I know that that every beauty, grace and wonder shines with you, every breath of life and each new morning, too.

Jesus’ disciples witnessed your glory shining in him and were afraid. They did not yet understand. Seeing him gives eyes to see you, the glory of Love, in all that is.

Pr. David L. Miller

Monday, February 1, 2016

2 Corinthians 3:16-18

[W]hen one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.

Face-to-face

I don’t remember his name, only his face and simplicity. He was a Discalced Carmelite, a Roman Catholic religious order known for prayer and nurturing the spirituality of others.

At mid-life, I was learning to pray again, finding ways from the long tradition of the church I had not known.

I asked him how he prayed, expecting a method or procedure he learned from the wisdom of his tradition.

“I sit and look at Jesus,” he said, “and he looks back at me.”

That’s it. There was no more explanation, and that’s the essence of prayer.

I look at you, Jesus, and you look back. The Love in your eyes envelops me and evaporates every concern and worry, releasing me to live and love the life you have given me.

And that’s all you ever ask: To be what I am, the soul that blossoms as I sit in your gaze and know you … as you know me.

Face-to-face with you. I glow within and begin to shine with the Love that beholds me.

I pulled my car into a parking lot on Friday to watch the sky, the play of light in infinite colors and beauty played across streaks of cloud as the sun sank and slipped beneath the horizon.

I sat and looked at the sky… and you, and you looked back. We were praying, together, face-to-face.

And you were making me what you are.

Pr. David L. Miller

Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2016

2 Corinthians 3:12-16

 Since, then, we have such a hope, we act with great boldness, not like Moses, who put a veil over his face to keep the people of Israel from gazing at the end of the glory that was being set aside. But their minds were hardened. Indeed, to this very day, when they hear the reading of the old covenant, that same veil is still there, since only in Christ is it set aside. Indeed, to this very day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their minds; but when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.

Love is God’s name

The law came through Moses. The commandments ordered life for God’s people, as laws order the lives of societies to this day.

But rules do not give knowledge of God. Commandments cannot fill the heart or open the mind to see every sunrise and every breath of winter fresh air as gifts from the abundant heart of the Giver.

Only Love can do this. The eyes of the mind are open when the face of God is revealed as more human and loving than we could ever imagine. The face of Jesus, alight with warmth and welcome to the troubled and broken, whispers what our hearts need to know to live free and at peace.

But we cannot hear and enter freedom if our minds are fixed on reward and punishment, and so much misguided Christian religiosity operates with a reward and punishment model. Do good and you will be rewarded, if not here then in the hereafter.

Faith is not about knowing and following the right rules or obeying commandments Moses carried down Mount Sinai.

It is about trusting that Love is God’s name.

The face of Jesus opens our eyes to see every moment of life and every blessing as a gift from the One he reveals.

The Light from his face shines in so many others. It glistens in eyes of love and acceptance. It shimmers in the laughter that sparkles in the air around people who truly love each other.

And there, too, the Love that is from the beginning, the Love that shines in Jesus, the Love that breathes in every moment seeks to fill our hearts and open our minds … that we may know the Name.

Pr. David L. Miller 

Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2016

2 Corinthians 3:12-16

 Since, then, we have such a hope, we act with great boldness, not like Moses, who put a veil over his face to keep the people of Israel from gazing at the end of the glory that was being set aside. But their minds were hardened. Indeed, to this very day, when they hear the reading of the old covenant, that same veil is still there, since only in Christ is it set aside. Indeed, to this very day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their minds; but when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.

And you will know

God came to Moses on the mountain and revealed the 10 words, the commandments. Moses’ face glowed from the encounter with divine glory. He shined from being in the presence of the Glory from whom all life comes. His heart was illumined not by words but by being face-to-face with the presence of The Presence who is present in every sunrise.

But those who are hard of heart cannot stand and do not want to see or imagine that the Holy One is knowable and near … or even real.

Moses face faded as time passed from his encounter on the mountain. The 10 words, the law he received, however good, cannot give what he knew up there. For he knew God. He stood in the Presence of the Loving Mystery who seeks his people in every moment, longing to bring them freedom and joy.

The law, the commandments, may be a guide for life, but they are no substitute for the encounter, for knowing intimacy with the One who can never be reduced to a word, a name or an idea.

For this One is Light and Love, the Source of every light and every love we know on life’s journey. This Light shines in the face of Jesus, revealing the grace and favor with which the Holy One looks at you.

Look at him and know how you are seen.

Feel the light and warm of Love Itself welling within you. The veil will lift. You will know what no words can ever teach.

Pr. David L. Miller