Today’s text
Psalm 46:8-10
Come, consider the wonders of the Lord, the astounding deeds he has done on the earth; he puts an end to wars over the whole wide world, he breaks the bow, he snaps the spear, shields he burns in the fire. 'Be still and acknowledge that I am God, supreme over nations, supreme over the world.'
Reflection
Stillness is our strength. Quiet is our might. Breathing, just breathing we find fullness of heart and silent joy filling every inner space.
Such fullness is a great and holy gift we receive only when the efforts of our minds and hands fall quiet, and the ears of our heart turn inward, listening for the great inner silence from which the Soul of the Universe speaks in our souls.
This great inner silence patiently waits for us to end our chatter and endless doing. It waits for us to stop and listen, to hear what we need to know.
The Great Soul of God speaks echoes silently in our souls, speaking the constant Presence of unrelenting life and unfailing love:
“There is nothing to fear. I am here … always. Listen. Let the stillness fill you with knowledge of the Soul I Am, and your soul will fear no more.
“Wait in silence, and I will come to you. You will know me nearer than your breath, deeper within than your own heart, inseparable from your own being, for I am the stream of life that flows from eternity through all that is, giving life to all … and you.
“Be still and know. I cannot and will not forsake you, for I am Love and Love never turns away. You may turn away, but I am ever there, present within and beyond you, speaking the truth of your life that is my life within you.
"Be still and know the treasure you bear.
"Be still and know. All is well.
"Be still."
Pr. David L. Miller
http://prayingthemystery.blogspot.com/
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Saturday, October 27, 2012
Friday, October 26, 2012
Friday, October 26, 2012
Today’s text
John 8:31-32
To the Jews who believed in him Jesus said: If you make my word your home you will indeed be my disciples; you will come to know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
Reflection
I am still coming to know and always will be. There is no point of final arrival. There are resting places on the way, but only to catch one’s breath and gather up what one ‘knows’ of the mystery of Christ.
And then we continue. The spiritual life is a gracious and loving journey as long as one is content always to be a beginner, always staring again, always knowing you know only a little. You possess but the slightest knowledge of a Mystery who far transcends anything we can think or fell.
But we do know and feel the love of God at the inner point of connection where our own souls and the Divine Soul meet--that inner point we cannot reach or touch but which we know is there, present and truly us.
This knowledge is utterly different from anything gotten from a book, from a teacher, from anything our hands or minds can grasp through great effort.
Knowing the truth is feeling the love of Christ awakening at that point of depth, of soul, where a Great Soul comes and fills you with a knowing of the Love who cerhishes every atom of this universe and totally accepts, treasures and hungers for you to be home, at rest and peace, knowing … knowing … just knowing love and nothing but love filling you.
Then you will know the truth, and it will set you free.
There may only be moments of utter knowing in this life. But the moments come, and they come more often and freely when we accept Jesus invitation to come to him to know, hear, feel be touched by what is in him.
In knowing him, you will come to know the truth that frees … and the final resting place of your soul when your time here is done.
Pr. David L. Miller
John 8:31-32
To the Jews who believed in him Jesus said: If you make my word your home you will indeed be my disciples; you will come to know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
Reflection
I am still coming to know and always will be. There is no point of final arrival. There are resting places on the way, but only to catch one’s breath and gather up what one ‘knows’ of the mystery of Christ.
And then we continue. The spiritual life is a gracious and loving journey as long as one is content always to be a beginner, always staring again, always knowing you know only a little. You possess but the slightest knowledge of a Mystery who far transcends anything we can think or fell.
But we do know and feel the love of God at the inner point of connection where our own souls and the Divine Soul meet--that inner point we cannot reach or touch but which we know is there, present and truly us.
This knowledge is utterly different from anything gotten from a book, from a teacher, from anything our hands or minds can grasp through great effort.
Knowing the truth is feeling the love of Christ awakening at that point of depth, of soul, where a Great Soul comes and fills you with a knowing of the Love who cerhishes every atom of this universe and totally accepts, treasures and hungers for you to be home, at rest and peace, knowing … knowing … just knowing love and nothing but love filling you.
Then you will know the truth, and it will set you free.
There may only be moments of utter knowing in this life. But the moments come, and they come more often and freely when we accept Jesus invitation to come to him to know, hear, feel be touched by what is in him.
In knowing him, you will come to know the truth that frees … and the final resting place of your soul when your time here is done.
Pr. David L. Miller
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Today’s text
John 8:31-32
To the Jews who believed in him Jesus said: If you make my word your home you will indeed be my disciples; you will come to know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
Reflection
Freedom is what the truth does in us. It makes us free. If a word does not give freedom to our souls, it is not a true word, a word that bears the soul of Jesus to our soul.
For, the soul of Jesus is the soul of freedom, the soul of knowing the first and final truth of his life and ours.
God’s eternal invitation is to put ourselves inside and who and what he is that we may know who we are.
Come to me, he says. Lay down inside the truth that is in me. Live there for a while; your heart will grow large. You will come alive and bask in a truth that has always been there but which you may have never known.
So it is.
A young person sits on my couch, confirmation essay in hand, sharing what little they have learned of Christian faith through years of confirmation teaching. But their words and stories bear so much more than anything their young minds are able to put on paper.
I listen and hear the graces of their lives. I hear the beauty of love in their hearts, the passions that draw them closer to whatever it is they will become and the small acts of true goodness and strength that are not small at all.
I hear and see, and I bless them with the grace that is already in them, a grace they barely glimpse, if at all.
There are wonders in you, I tell them, and play their own words back to them so they cannot deny it or act as if I am telling them something false.
There are gifts in your soul that you did not seek, I say. You didn’t even know they are there. You are marvelous, graced with divine beauty and grace seeking to push out of your every pore.
I tell them the truth of what I see and hear in them.
Sometimes their faces get red, embarrassed however slightly, as they look at me with eyes that say, “You see that in me?”
Yes, dear child, I think but do not say, and so much more that you cannot understand right now.
But they hear me. No, more than me.
They have heard words of truth, words from the soul of Jesus about a Love that loves them and lives in them, a Love who gives them gifts that they may be the gift they are to the rest of us, so that we, too, may know the first and final truth.
We are Love’s children, Love’s treasured vessels, bearing the beauty of the One who hungers to live through all.
Breathe free, my children and release the Love you bear.
Pr. David L. Miller
John 8:31-32
To the Jews who believed in him Jesus said: If you make my word your home you will indeed be my disciples; you will come to know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
Reflection
Freedom is what the truth does in us. It makes us free. If a word does not give freedom to our souls, it is not a true word, a word that bears the soul of Jesus to our soul.
For, the soul of Jesus is the soul of freedom, the soul of knowing the first and final truth of his life and ours.
God’s eternal invitation is to put ourselves inside and who and what he is that we may know who we are.
Come to me, he says. Lay down inside the truth that is in me. Live there for a while; your heart will grow large. You will come alive and bask in a truth that has always been there but which you may have never known.
So it is.
A young person sits on my couch, confirmation essay in hand, sharing what little they have learned of Christian faith through years of confirmation teaching. But their words and stories bear so much more than anything their young minds are able to put on paper.
I listen and hear the graces of their lives. I hear the beauty of love in their hearts, the passions that draw them closer to whatever it is they will become and the small acts of true goodness and strength that are not small at all.
I hear and see, and I bless them with the grace that is already in them, a grace they barely glimpse, if at all.
There are wonders in you, I tell them, and play their own words back to them so they cannot deny it or act as if I am telling them something false.
There are gifts in your soul that you did not seek, I say. You didn’t even know they are there. You are marvelous, graced with divine beauty and grace seeking to push out of your every pore.
I tell them the truth of what I see and hear in them.
Sometimes their faces get red, embarrassed however slightly, as they look at me with eyes that say, “You see that in me?”
Yes, dear child, I think but do not say, and so much more that you cannot understand right now.
But they hear me. No, more than me.
They have heard words of truth, words from the soul of Jesus about a Love that loves them and lives in them, a Love who gives them gifts that they may be the gift they are to the rest of us, so that we, too, may know the first and final truth.
We are Love’s children, Love’s treasured vessels, bearing the beauty of the One who hungers to live through all.
Breathe free, my children and release the Love you bear.
Pr. David L. Miller
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Wednesday, October 24, 2102
Today’s text
Matthew 5:1-7
Seeing the crowds, he [Jesus] went onto the mountain. And when he was seated his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak. This is what he taught them: How blessed are the poor in spirit: the kingdom of Heaven is theirs. Blessed are the gentle: they shall have the earth as inheritance. Blessed are those who mourn: they shall be comforted. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for uprightness: they shall have their fill. Blessed are the merciful: they shall have mercy shown them.
Reflection
He was rude and crude. Sarcasm laced nearly every sentence, and he is among the most cynical people I have known.
“Money, it’s all about money,” he shouted when we talked about the wars and conflicts going on around us. “They’re fighting about money!” and then he’d swear again.
His name was Bob Koepp. Bob was the logistics coordinator in the Lutheran World Federation World Service office in Nairobi, Kenya, during the 1990s. He organized food convoys, dozens of trucks long, and sent them off on southern Sudan’s dirt roads with the hope they wouldn’t get confiscated by government troops.
He also ran a mini-airline of six or seven C-130s flying each day from Nairobi and Mombasa, Kenya, to a half dozen cities and towns in Somalia, carrying food and supplies to refugees scattered around north east Africa—who were starving to death at alarming rates.
From his dingy office, this blustery, obese, diabetic man with a heart ready to blow its third and final infarction kept hundreds of thousands of people alive. You could admire him, as long as you didn’t get too close to his tirades.
I hadn’t thought of him in years, but conversation with a couple of our confirmation students brings him to mind.
Bob wasn’t a nice guy. He wasn’t pleasant or all that friendly, although he had his moments. But he certainly was a saint. He gave himself to the mission of Christ in the world.
He may have believed that money is the only real human motivation, but his life contradicted his own cynical view. He worked tirelessly to feed people much of the world was trying to ignore, and he certainly wasn’t getting rich doing it.
I will be thinking of Bob during the next couple of weeks as 18 of our youth affirm their faith. They will make bold promises to proclaim the good news of God in Christ, to serve all people, following Jesus example, and to strive for justice in peace.
The following week we will celebrate All Saints Day, remembering and giving thanks for those saints in our lives who lived the love of Christ and graced our path, showing us how to live.
Normally, we think being Christian somehow involves ‘being nice’ to people, as more than one confirmands’ final essay suggested. Most often, we think of saints, whether the great ones of history or our own saints—grandmothers, uncles and neighbors—as ‘nice people.’
There is truth there. This past weekend we celebrated the lives of two remarkable people who have left us and entered the perpetual light of God’s love. Both were ‘nice’ I suppose. Their souls carried enough of the love of God to move us to awareness that we are special--loved, treasured and safely held in a Love who will never let us go.
God’s saints do that. They are transparent to the Love that transcends us all. They tell us we are wanted and wonderful. They convince our doubting hearts that we are marvelous, for they see the beauty and grace, strength and goodness in us that we fail to notice, and downplay when we do.
For years, I have tried to fill a great hole in my heart, and I have understood ministry as finding and filling that aching hole in the hearts of others, so that it may be filled with the love that transcends every expectation we have, a love so great that it withstands anything life might throw at us.
Our saints give us that.
But they also move us beyond ourselves to go and live the wonder of love and knowledge, skill and warmth that is in us, for the world badly needs it.
The mission of the church, our mission, moves us beyond merely being nice, beyond merely saying we believe certain things and beyond ourselves.
The saints shows us the passionate love of God we most need--and then point to the world’s crying need, which is why on All Saints Day I will light several candles, one in thanks for Bob Koepp.
Pr. David L. Miller
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Today’s text
Mark 10:35-37
James and John, the sons of Zebedee, approached him. 'Master,' they said to him, 'We want you to do us a favor.' He said to them, 'What is it you want me to do for you?' They said to him, 'Allow us to sit one at your right hand and the other at your left in your glory.' But Jesus said to them, 'You do not know what you are asking.
Reflection
Adele came to me last night. She showed up sometime after 3 p.m. amid my sleeplessness with a message, “It’s all in Love’s hands. All of it.”
She was a great spirit among us, a great light that has gone out.
At the age of 96, her irrepressible spirit was taken from us two weeks ago. She is gone, except she’s not really gone. She has gone into that Great Light that shines from Eternity for all eternity into the darkness of our little lives.
So she’s ever here, in that radiance that warms and lights our way until we join her in the Loving Mystery for whom no words will do.
But her words came in an anxious night when the fevers of life and the press of deadlines kept sleep at bay. Her words were simple, “It’s all in Love’s hands.”
Hearing, my anxieties slowly began to release their grip. The endless loop running through my head-- unfinished tasks and unkept promises--slowed and finally fell silent, until I too, rested in the Love’s hands, and sleep returned.
And I knew: I rest in Love’s hands, as does all that kept me awake in the night.
Somehow, my obsessive spirit heard and was convinced there was no need to enumerate all that must be done this day. The fevered agitation over failing and falling short departed into the darkness. It is gone.
But Adele’s words remain, “It’s all in Love’s hands. All of it.”
And I know who Love is, Holy One, so now in the still dark of early fall morning I trust and rest, at peace once more, thankful for your messenger.
She reminds me again to trust and believe, even as she spoke to so many from the black narthex chair she always occupied following worship. Her words, as now, laced with faith in the unfailing love you are.
So her light has not passed from us at all. She has joined the great fullness of your light that comes to us in the night and the day, illuming our anxious hearts with the truth our souls need to know, lest our demons overtake us, stealing away the peace of Christ.
I know why Jesus disciples secretly asked to sit one at his right hand and the other at his left in glory. They were as anxious and insecure as me when the night demons torment my heart.
The disciples knew they could not secure their life by their own work and effort. Sooner or later, we know that is not enough. We know that we are no enough.
We feel our finitude, our limits, our humanity, our fragility, and we need to hear a voice in the night telling us the truth.
“It’s all in Love’s hands. All of it.”
So come to us all Adele, and tell us the truth our hearts need to hear.
And thanks … for your nighttime visit.
Pr. David L. Miller
Mark 10:35-37
James and John, the sons of Zebedee, approached him. 'Master,' they said to him, 'We want you to do us a favor.' He said to them, 'What is it you want me to do for you?' They said to him, 'Allow us to sit one at your right hand and the other at your left in your glory.' But Jesus said to them, 'You do not know what you are asking.
Reflection
Adele came to me last night. She showed up sometime after 3 p.m. amid my sleeplessness with a message, “It’s all in Love’s hands. All of it.”
She was a great spirit among us, a great light that has gone out.
At the age of 96, her irrepressible spirit was taken from us two weeks ago. She is gone, except she’s not really gone. She has gone into that Great Light that shines from Eternity for all eternity into the darkness of our little lives.
So she’s ever here, in that radiance that warms and lights our way until we join her in the Loving Mystery for whom no words will do.
But her words came in an anxious night when the fevers of life and the press of deadlines kept sleep at bay. Her words were simple, “It’s all in Love’s hands.”
Hearing, my anxieties slowly began to release their grip. The endless loop running through my head-- unfinished tasks and unkept promises--slowed and finally fell silent, until I too, rested in the Love’s hands, and sleep returned.
And I knew: I rest in Love’s hands, as does all that kept me awake in the night.
Somehow, my obsessive spirit heard and was convinced there was no need to enumerate all that must be done this day. The fevered agitation over failing and falling short departed into the darkness. It is gone.
But Adele’s words remain, “It’s all in Love’s hands. All of it.”
And I know who Love is, Holy One, so now in the still dark of early fall morning I trust and rest, at peace once more, thankful for your messenger.
She reminds me again to trust and believe, even as she spoke to so many from the black narthex chair she always occupied following worship. Her words, as now, laced with faith in the unfailing love you are.
So her light has not passed from us at all. She has joined the great fullness of your light that comes to us in the night and the day, illuming our anxious hearts with the truth our souls need to know, lest our demons overtake us, stealing away the peace of Christ.
I know why Jesus disciples secretly asked to sit one at his right hand and the other at his left in glory. They were as anxious and insecure as me when the night demons torment my heart.
The disciples knew they could not secure their life by their own work and effort. Sooner or later, we know that is not enough. We know that we are no enough.
We feel our finitude, our limits, our humanity, our fragility, and we need to hear a voice in the night telling us the truth.
“It’s all in Love’s hands. All of it.”
So come to us all Adele, and tell us the truth our hearts need to hear.
And thanks … for your nighttime visit.
Pr. David L. Miller
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Today’s text
Mark 10:35-38
James and John, the sons of Zebedee, approached him. 'Master,' they said to him, 'We want you to do us a favor.' He said to them, 'What is it you want me to do for you?' They said to him, 'Allow us to sit one at your right hand and the other at your left in your glory.' But Jesus said to them, 'You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I shall drink, or be baptized with the baptism with which I shall be baptized?'
Reflection
There come times of cross bearing, moments when decisions face us, and we must decide: Who are we?
Do we believe that we are fitted to bear the cross of Christ, or do we surrender to modern wisdom about self-care and not giving away too much of yourself to needs of another, whether mother or father, child or spouse?
Sometimes I get to see people who understand the truth of the cross. They willingly take up the burden of caring for a family member or a friend in sickness or struggle because, as one recently told me, “I cannot not do this.”
I was moved, and I knew I was looking into the face of someone who knew what it was to take up one’s cross and follow.
The future stretches out before him, and he has no way of knowing how long the burden of caring will last, what it may require of him before it is done or how much of his life will be surrendered in the process of loving someone he must love … to the end of her days.
He knows only that he must walk the path before him and that it won’t be easy.
His is that ongoing baptism into the life of Jesus, which does not look glorious. To some, it may even appear foolish, a waste of life.
But not to eyes of faith, who see the beauty of God in every act costly love … freely given.
And in every loving surrender we see re-birth into the beauty we shall become.
Pr. David L. Miller
Mark 10:35-38
James and John, the sons of Zebedee, approached him. 'Master,' they said to him, 'We want you to do us a favor.' He said to them, 'What is it you want me to do for you?' They said to him, 'Allow us to sit one at your right hand and the other at your left in your glory.' But Jesus said to them, 'You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I shall drink, or be baptized with the baptism with which I shall be baptized?'
Reflection
There come times of cross bearing, moments when decisions face us, and we must decide: Who are we?
Do we believe that we are fitted to bear the cross of Christ, or do we surrender to modern wisdom about self-care and not giving away too much of yourself to needs of another, whether mother or father, child or spouse?
Sometimes I get to see people who understand the truth of the cross. They willingly take up the burden of caring for a family member or a friend in sickness or struggle because, as one recently told me, “I cannot not do this.”
I was moved, and I knew I was looking into the face of someone who knew what it was to take up one’s cross and follow.
The future stretches out before him, and he has no way of knowing how long the burden of caring will last, what it may require of him before it is done or how much of his life will be surrendered in the process of loving someone he must love … to the end of her days.
He knows only that he must walk the path before him and that it won’t be easy.
His is that ongoing baptism into the life of Jesus, which does not look glorious. To some, it may even appear foolish, a waste of life.
But not to eyes of faith, who see the beauty of God in every act costly love … freely given.
And in every loving surrender we see re-birth into the beauty we shall become.
Pr. David L. Miller
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Today’s text
Mark 10:35-37
James and John, the sons of Zebedee, approached him [Jesus]. 'Master,' they said to him, 'We want you to do us a favor.' He said to them, 'What is it you want me to do for you?' They said to him, 'Allow us to sit one at your right hand and the other at your left in your glory.'
Reflection
And it is glory that they want. Why?
Is the ego’s drive for admiration and power an inevitable part of being human? Or is this only a ‘male’ thing?
When my daughter, Rachel, was a small child she would take my face and her hands and insist that I focus directly on her, not on her and my book, the newspaper or another conversation.
Rachel wanted me to let her know she was utterly important to me, important enough to give her my undivided attention, my mind and heart.
But these two, James and John, want to sit beside the seat of power, assuming (and completely misunderstanding) Jesus is about to become some kind of king or ruler to whom others bow down.
They did not seek the undivided attention of one who loves them. They wanted to share in Jesus’ power so that those ‘below’ them would show them deference.
Of course, this angered Jesus’ other followers …because they didn’t want these two to be higher, greater, more important than they were.
They were tripping over their egos, too.
The ego is a heavy burden. We want to feel important, respected. Good enough, but ego always likes to compare, so that with self-satisfaction we can say, “I am more than others … smarter, more important, better at what I do,” … fill in the blank.
Ego loves to distance itself from others and then admire that vertical distance because it establishes that we are somehow superior and can prance a bit. It’s a subtle game, and most of us fall into it at various points in an average day.
I think I escape it best when I can lose myself in someone else’s needs and story, or perhaps when there is work I enjoy. Sometimes it happens when I sit with someone who allows me to be totally human or fragile … whatever I am at the moment.
I sink into such times, forgetting how I am doing or how I appear, and I just savor the moment of work or conversation.
There is great freedom in such moments because somewhere in the process I drop the heavy burden of ego that distracts me from being simply there, present to whomever and what ever I am doing.
I can give myself to something or someone and, strangely, finding myself and my freedom at the same time.
This is a small taste of the freedom of Jesus, the freedom his friends and followers failed to taste most of the time.
He had the freedom to surrender himself in utter grace to the needs of another. This was his power and his glory, a glory that is still little understood and even less desired.
But it is the way of freedom, the path of peace for our hearts and the heart of a conflicted world.
Pr. David L. Miller
Mark 10:35-37
James and John, the sons of Zebedee, approached him [Jesus]. 'Master,' they said to him, 'We want you to do us a favor.' He said to them, 'What is it you want me to do for you?' They said to him, 'Allow us to sit one at your right hand and the other at your left in your glory.'
Reflection
And it is glory that they want. Why?
Is the ego’s drive for admiration and power an inevitable part of being human? Or is this only a ‘male’ thing?
When my daughter, Rachel, was a small child she would take my face and her hands and insist that I focus directly on her, not on her and my book, the newspaper or another conversation.
Rachel wanted me to let her know she was utterly important to me, important enough to give her my undivided attention, my mind and heart.
But these two, James and John, want to sit beside the seat of power, assuming (and completely misunderstanding) Jesus is about to become some kind of king or ruler to whom others bow down.
They did not seek the undivided attention of one who loves them. They wanted to share in Jesus’ power so that those ‘below’ them would show them deference.
Of course, this angered Jesus’ other followers …because they didn’t want these two to be higher, greater, more important than they were.
They were tripping over their egos, too.
The ego is a heavy burden. We want to feel important, respected. Good enough, but ego always likes to compare, so that with self-satisfaction we can say, “I am more than others … smarter, more important, better at what I do,” … fill in the blank.
Ego loves to distance itself from others and then admire that vertical distance because it establishes that we are somehow superior and can prance a bit. It’s a subtle game, and most of us fall into it at various points in an average day.
I think I escape it best when I can lose myself in someone else’s needs and story, or perhaps when there is work I enjoy. Sometimes it happens when I sit with someone who allows me to be totally human or fragile … whatever I am at the moment.
I sink into such times, forgetting how I am doing or how I appear, and I just savor the moment of work or conversation.
There is great freedom in such moments because somewhere in the process I drop the heavy burden of ego that distracts me from being simply there, present to whomever and what ever I am doing.
I can give myself to something or someone and, strangely, finding myself and my freedom at the same time.
This is a small taste of the freedom of Jesus, the freedom his friends and followers failed to taste most of the time.
He had the freedom to surrender himself in utter grace to the needs of another. This was his power and his glory, a glory that is still little understood and even less desired.
But it is the way of freedom, the path of peace for our hearts and the heart of a conflicted world.
Pr. David L. Miller
Friday, October 12, 2012
Friday, October 12, 2012
Today’s text
Mark 10:17-21
He was setting out on a journey when a man ran up, knelt before him and put this question to him, 'Good master, what must I do to inherit eternal life?' Jesus said to him, 'Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: You shall not kill; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not give false witness; You shall not defraud; honor your father and mother.' And he said to him, 'Master, I have kept all these since my earliest days.' Jesus looked steadily at him and he was filled with love for him, and he said, 'You need to do one thing more. Go and sell what you own and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.' But his face fell at these words and he went away sad, for he was a man of great wealth.
Reflection
What if … ?
What if you woke every morning eager for the day, excited and ready to go, knowing the day held a gift?
What if you didn’t know (which you don’t) what that gift is, when it will appear or where?
What if your senses stood on tip toe, on alert, ready to receive the gift, whatever it was?
What if each day were received as a gift of life, complete with moments of joy, of tenderness, with food savory in your mouth and people who wanted to see you and talk with you?
What if you began to experience life in its goodness as a grace from the Great Giver from whose hearts flows the wonder of autumn colors, the beauty of harvested fields and the brisk bite of fall on your cheeks?
What if you experienced the simple goodness of living, of being able to give and receive love, of touching the face of someone you cherish, of seeing the smile of a treasured heart who has known sorrow?
What if you were washed over and filled to the brim by a wave of knowing that you are loved and treasured, always were and always will be, from the first day of your life until the day you leave this earth and enter the fullness of God’s grace?
What if you lived awake and utterly aware of the love of the One who is good all time, The One who loves to give and loves you? What if you breathed in this awareness until it filled your lungs with life and your soul with happiness?
What if?
You would taste eternal life. You would have the treasure of heaven, the treasure the heart wants and seeks in all it tries to accomplish and possess, the treasure we need more than any other.
But possessing, getting more--money, status, power, amusement, success, stuff--doesn’t bring this treasure. You can’t inherit this treasure. You can’t gain it or earn it. It can only be received.
This requires a dramatic shift in consciousness.
A man comes to Jesus, asking to gain eternal life. We normally think of that as something that comes when we are done with this life, and that’s not correct. Eternal life, the life of eternity, is a state we enter here and now, in this life and time, or we do not enter it at all.
Why does he come to Jesus? He comes for the same reason people sometimes come to me. They know something is wrong. Something is missing. Like this man, they need healing, but they can’t name their disease.
Their prayer life has gone dead, if it ever was much alive. Or their life is going well but there is a whole in their soul that craves filling. Or they have destructive things--or suffered such pain from others, and they want to touch and taste something, a healing, a fullness that money can’t buy and working harder can’t bring.
They hunger to know the treasure of heaven, eternal life. This is the life human hearts crave whether they can name it or not. Without it, we feel incomplete.
So what must I do? Give up everything; give it all to the poor, Jesus tells the young man, and us.
We think he must be kidding. Certainly, his words have to understood in some symbolic way. We need to live. We need our stuff to survive. We accumulate what we need and hold onto it tightly.
Too tightly, for life is not about accumulating things, and this becomes abundantly clear at the conclusion of our earthly lives.
Twice in recent weeks I have listened, shared stories and tears with those who have just lost beloved family members. As I listened, I was moved by the rich tapestry of what they shared with their loved on in decades of knowing and loving each other.
The words and stories that evoked tears, the things that were most meaningful had nothing to do with the job, wealth or accomplishments of those who had died.
What mattered, … all that really mattered was the river of love and grace, giving and care that flowed from the hearts of their loved one to them and back again.
A river of grace and goodness, giving and care flowed among them, a stream that begins in the heart of God, the Great Giver, and seeks to pull us all into its joy.
This is what the young man was missing. This accounts for the hole in his heart. His life was gift, not something gained through his strenuous effort to be good.
Eternal life, the treasure of heaven could be felt in his soul and make him truly alive only when he released what he held so tightly and surrendered to the flow of generosity coursing from God’s heart and seeking to pull him along.
When he surrendered to that holy flow he would become part of the river of grace that flowed through the conversations of those to whom I recently ministered in their grief. Then, he would know eternal life, the treasure of heaven.
Until then, all he did and his wealth and all he accomplished would be an impediment to him. You see, wealth, money and what you have accumulated can bring happiness … when it is shared and becomes part of the flow.
Our hearts know this. We feel it every time we share what we have, what we own and who we are. For when we do we know the treasure of heaven, and eternal life fills our hearts.
Pr. David L. Miller
Mark 10:17-21
He was setting out on a journey when a man ran up, knelt before him and put this question to him, 'Good master, what must I do to inherit eternal life?' Jesus said to him, 'Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: You shall not kill; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not give false witness; You shall not defraud; honor your father and mother.' And he said to him, 'Master, I have kept all these since my earliest days.' Jesus looked steadily at him and he was filled with love for him, and he said, 'You need to do one thing more. Go and sell what you own and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.' But his face fell at these words and he went away sad, for he was a man of great wealth.
Reflection
What if … ?
What if you woke every morning eager for the day, excited and ready to go, knowing the day held a gift?
What if you didn’t know (which you don’t) what that gift is, when it will appear or where?
What if your senses stood on tip toe, on alert, ready to receive the gift, whatever it was?
What if each day were received as a gift of life, complete with moments of joy, of tenderness, with food savory in your mouth and people who wanted to see you and talk with you?
What if you began to experience life in its goodness as a grace from the Great Giver from whose hearts flows the wonder of autumn colors, the beauty of harvested fields and the brisk bite of fall on your cheeks?
What if you experienced the simple goodness of living, of being able to give and receive love, of touching the face of someone you cherish, of seeing the smile of a treasured heart who has known sorrow?
What if you were washed over and filled to the brim by a wave of knowing that you are loved and treasured, always were and always will be, from the first day of your life until the day you leave this earth and enter the fullness of God’s grace?
What if you lived awake and utterly aware of the love of the One who is good all time, The One who loves to give and loves you? What if you breathed in this awareness until it filled your lungs with life and your soul with happiness?
What if?
You would taste eternal life. You would have the treasure of heaven, the treasure the heart wants and seeks in all it tries to accomplish and possess, the treasure we need more than any other.
But possessing, getting more--money, status, power, amusement, success, stuff--doesn’t bring this treasure. You can’t inherit this treasure. You can’t gain it or earn it. It can only be received.
This requires a dramatic shift in consciousness.
A man comes to Jesus, asking to gain eternal life. We normally think of that as something that comes when we are done with this life, and that’s not correct. Eternal life, the life of eternity, is a state we enter here and now, in this life and time, or we do not enter it at all.
Why does he come to Jesus? He comes for the same reason people sometimes come to me. They know something is wrong. Something is missing. Like this man, they need healing, but they can’t name their disease.
Their prayer life has gone dead, if it ever was much alive. Or their life is going well but there is a whole in their soul that craves filling. Or they have destructive things--or suffered such pain from others, and they want to touch and taste something, a healing, a fullness that money can’t buy and working harder can’t bring.
They hunger to know the treasure of heaven, eternal life. This is the life human hearts crave whether they can name it or not. Without it, we feel incomplete.
So what must I do? Give up everything; give it all to the poor, Jesus tells the young man, and us.
We think he must be kidding. Certainly, his words have to understood in some symbolic way. We need to live. We need our stuff to survive. We accumulate what we need and hold onto it tightly.
Too tightly, for life is not about accumulating things, and this becomes abundantly clear at the conclusion of our earthly lives.
Twice in recent weeks I have listened, shared stories and tears with those who have just lost beloved family members. As I listened, I was moved by the rich tapestry of what they shared with their loved on in decades of knowing and loving each other.
The words and stories that evoked tears, the things that were most meaningful had nothing to do with the job, wealth or accomplishments of those who had died.
What mattered, … all that really mattered was the river of love and grace, giving and care that flowed from the hearts of their loved one to them and back again.
A river of grace and goodness, giving and care flowed among them, a stream that begins in the heart of God, the Great Giver, and seeks to pull us all into its joy.
This is what the young man was missing. This accounts for the hole in his heart. His life was gift, not something gained through his strenuous effort to be good.
Eternal life, the treasure of heaven could be felt in his soul and make him truly alive only when he released what he held so tightly and surrendered to the flow of generosity coursing from God’s heart and seeking to pull him along.
When he surrendered to that holy flow he would become part of the river of grace that flowed through the conversations of those to whom I recently ministered in their grief. Then, he would know eternal life, the treasure of heaven.
Until then, all he did and his wealth and all he accomplished would be an impediment to him. You see, wealth, money and what you have accumulated can bring happiness … when it is shared and becomes part of the flow.
Our hearts know this. We feel it every time we share what we have, what we own and who we are. For when we do we know the treasure of heaven, and eternal life fills our hearts.
Pr. David L. Miller
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Today’s text
Mark 10:23-26
Jesus looked round and said to his disciples, 'How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!' The disciples were astounded by these words, but Jesus insisted, 'My children,' he said to them, 'how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for someone rich to enter the kingdom of God.' They were more astonished than ever, saying to one another, 'In that case, who can be saved? Jesus gazed at them and said, 'By human resources it is impossible, but not for God: because for God everything is possible.'
Reflection
Jesus is having fun, and so should we. The eye of a needle might be understood as the tiny opening through which a seamstress passes thread as he prepares to sew. It is strictly a ‘no camel zone.’
But it was also the name of a low gate into the city of Jerusalem through which camels could not pass unless they got down on their knees and wriggled through, also needing to lose the payload on their backs. There was no other way they could pass through.
The camel gate speaks to me. Just more than four years ago, I returned to parish ministry after nearly 22 years doing other work, and I was carrying a load.
I carried a load of hurt and wounds from criticism and judgment endured while working in highly public positions. I carried a load of insecurity, wondering if I could still do parish work, wondering also if I really wanted to serve a congregation.
Could it be I only wanted to escape from the pain of criticism and nagging inner doubts about whether I had failed?
There was also a load of pride that made me anxious to share what I had done, who I’d met and the places I’d been. I was eager to be taken seriously because of past accomplishments and significant events in which I’d participated.
But this mattered far less to the new faces I met than I wanted. Few cared much about where I’d been or what I’d done.
I was disappointed by this. I wanted something different, some measure of acknowledgment from them. No more. Today, I remember this, and a strange but most welcome wave gratitude washes through my soul and fills me, bringing tears of thanks.
Realizing, however slowly, that past deeds and victories mattered little to those I had come to serve, I began to drop my load and realize that life is now and here, not then and there.
I began to learn to live … again. (Do we ever get it right?).
Learning to live meant being where I was, letting go of the anxious need to secure my identity and reputation by what once was. It means seeing and attending to what is front of you, no longer interjecting the load of the past into the present.
Being present, being in the now, the wounds of yesterday begin to fade, the self-imposed weight of needing to be taken seriously falls away and one finds freedom, the freedom to receive and share the grace and need of the present.
One enters a new way of being and living called the kingdom of God, which is always the kingdom of the present moment, which invites us to receive what is, to be open to what comes, knowing the love of God is in this moment no matter what else comes.
To know and find such love is to enter God’s kingdom and taste sweet salvation right here and now.
The kingdom is here and now, as I discovered it once more … when I dropped my load.
Pr. David L. Miller
Mark 10:23-26
Jesus looked round and said to his disciples, 'How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!' The disciples were astounded by these words, but Jesus insisted, 'My children,' he said to them, 'how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for someone rich to enter the kingdom of God.' They were more astonished than ever, saying to one another, 'In that case, who can be saved? Jesus gazed at them and said, 'By human resources it is impossible, but not for God: because for God everything is possible.'
Reflection
Jesus is having fun, and so should we. The eye of a needle might be understood as the tiny opening through which a seamstress passes thread as he prepares to sew. It is strictly a ‘no camel zone.’
But it was also the name of a low gate into the city of Jerusalem through which camels could not pass unless they got down on their knees and wriggled through, also needing to lose the payload on their backs. There was no other way they could pass through.
The camel gate speaks to me. Just more than four years ago, I returned to parish ministry after nearly 22 years doing other work, and I was carrying a load.
I carried a load of hurt and wounds from criticism and judgment endured while working in highly public positions. I carried a load of insecurity, wondering if I could still do parish work, wondering also if I really wanted to serve a congregation.
Could it be I only wanted to escape from the pain of criticism and nagging inner doubts about whether I had failed?
There was also a load of pride that made me anxious to share what I had done, who I’d met and the places I’d been. I was eager to be taken seriously because of past accomplishments and significant events in which I’d participated.
But this mattered far less to the new faces I met than I wanted. Few cared much about where I’d been or what I’d done.
I was disappointed by this. I wanted something different, some measure of acknowledgment from them. No more. Today, I remember this, and a strange but most welcome wave gratitude washes through my soul and fills me, bringing tears of thanks.
Realizing, however slowly, that past deeds and victories mattered little to those I had come to serve, I began to drop my load and realize that life is now and here, not then and there.
I began to learn to live … again. (Do we ever get it right?).
Learning to live meant being where I was, letting go of the anxious need to secure my identity and reputation by what once was. It means seeing and attending to what is front of you, no longer interjecting the load of the past into the present.
Being present, being in the now, the wounds of yesterday begin to fade, the self-imposed weight of needing to be taken seriously falls away and one finds freedom, the freedom to receive and share the grace and need of the present.
One enters a new way of being and living called the kingdom of God, which is always the kingdom of the present moment, which invites us to receive what is, to be open to what comes, knowing the love of God is in this moment no matter what else comes.
To know and find such love is to enter God’s kingdom and taste sweet salvation right here and now.
The kingdom is here and now, as I discovered it once more … when I dropped my load.
Pr. David L. Miller
Tuesday, October 09, 2012
Tuesday, October 8, 2012
Today’s text
Mark 10:17-21
He was setting out on a journey when a man ran up, knelt before him and put this question to him, 'Good master, what must I do to inherit eternal life?' Jesus said to him, 'Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: You shall not kill; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not give false witness; You shall not defraud; honor your father and mother.' And he said to him, 'Master, I have kept all these since my earliest days.' Jesus looked steadily at him and he was filled with love for him, and he said, 'You need to do one thing more. Go and sell what you own and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.' But his face fell at these words and he went away sad, for he was a man of great wealth.
Reflection
Commentators have spilled a great deal of ink saying Jesus wasn’t demanding that it isn’t necessary to give everything away to follow him.
But maybe he was, at least to this man.
Perhaps Jesus read enough of his heart to know that accumulating and possessing wealth was at the center of his soul, and only radical surgery could free him from his addiction.
He called the man to radical reorientation of his vision, a new consciousness in which acquisition was no longer the purpose of living.
There is nothing to suggest the man was greedy. Had we known him we likely would have considered him just and decent, a well-off guy who was careful about living a just life and keeping God’s commandments.
But living the kingdom would always be second or third for him, just as it is for most Christians today, perhaps especially in developed Western countries.
Knowing God, loving God, worshiping and giving yourself to the purposes of God are spare time activities, done when there might be a spare moment.
It is too easy to distance oneself from this wealthy man, thinking that I … that we are not like him. But radical surgery is needed for all of us sometimes and most of us much of the time.
The shift in consciousness for which Jesus called is to seek him and the kingdom in all things, at all times. Knowing life is utter gift and the love of God is always ours, we need earn nothing but only respond to the central reality of life.
That reality is the wonder of God, the miracle of a love who makes worlds and places us among them to know and share the beauty and joy of being alive, human and aware of the gift of one’s life and all that is.
In modern life, a thousand forgettable, insignificant elements of living soak up our time, divert our attention and commandeer our souls so that this central reality no longer shapes our hearts and days.
Life is not about getting more, Jesus says, whether that is more education, money, status, success or amusements. Life is awareness of the giftedness of all things, the joy of receiving and sharing the love that emanates from the Infinite Source from which we receive our breath … every moment.
All that hinders such awareness makes us poor, no matter how much we’ve got.
Pr. David L. Miller
Mark 10:17-21
He was setting out on a journey when a man ran up, knelt before him and put this question to him, 'Good master, what must I do to inherit eternal life?' Jesus said to him, 'Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: You shall not kill; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not give false witness; You shall not defraud; honor your father and mother.' And he said to him, 'Master, I have kept all these since my earliest days.' Jesus looked steadily at him and he was filled with love for him, and he said, 'You need to do one thing more. Go and sell what you own and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.' But his face fell at these words and he went away sad, for he was a man of great wealth.
Reflection
Commentators have spilled a great deal of ink saying Jesus wasn’t demanding that it isn’t necessary to give everything away to follow him.
But maybe he was, at least to this man.
Perhaps Jesus read enough of his heart to know that accumulating and possessing wealth was at the center of his soul, and only radical surgery could free him from his addiction.
He called the man to radical reorientation of his vision, a new consciousness in which acquisition was no longer the purpose of living.
There is nothing to suggest the man was greedy. Had we known him we likely would have considered him just and decent, a well-off guy who was careful about living a just life and keeping God’s commandments.
But living the kingdom would always be second or third for him, just as it is for most Christians today, perhaps especially in developed Western countries.
Knowing God, loving God, worshiping and giving yourself to the purposes of God are spare time activities, done when there might be a spare moment.
It is too easy to distance oneself from this wealthy man, thinking that I … that we are not like him. But radical surgery is needed for all of us sometimes and most of us much of the time.
The shift in consciousness for which Jesus called is to seek him and the kingdom in all things, at all times. Knowing life is utter gift and the love of God is always ours, we need earn nothing but only respond to the central reality of life.
That reality is the wonder of God, the miracle of a love who makes worlds and places us among them to know and share the beauty and joy of being alive, human and aware of the gift of one’s life and all that is.
In modern life, a thousand forgettable, insignificant elements of living soak up our time, divert our attention and commandeer our souls so that this central reality no longer shapes our hearts and days.
Life is not about getting more, Jesus says, whether that is more education, money, status, success or amusements. Life is awareness of the giftedness of all things, the joy of receiving and sharing the love that emanates from the Infinite Source from which we receive our breath … every moment.
All that hinders such awareness makes us poor, no matter how much we’ve got.
Pr. David L. Miller
Monday, October 08, 2012
Monday, October 8, 2012
Today’s text
Mark 10:17-21
He was setting out on a journey when a man ran up, knelt before him and put this question to him, 'Good master, what must I do to inherit eternal life?' Jesus said to him, 'Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: You shall not kill; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not give false witness; You shall not defraud; honor your father and mother.' And he said to him, 'Master, I have kept all these since my earliest days.' Jesus looked steadily at him and he was filled with love for him, and he said, 'You need to do one thing more. Go and sell what you own and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.'
Reflection
Some days are designed to alter your consciousness. This is what Sabbath is to be, a day to re-enter your right mind so you might dwell there through the week. Autumn days, too, seem intended for this change of mind.
We travel streets of fading color, reminded that the beauty we are and see does not last forever. It beckons the eye to linger, to take in the best show in town that comes for free.
While it carries the melancholy awareness that summer ends and we do, too, it speaks a deeper truth.
The beauty that surrounds us, the beauty we each are, is given. Life and color comes without our asking as the first and original blessing of the One who loves to bless.
Autumn days and Sabbath time bring awareness that we do nothing to gain life’s goodness. We can only receive with gratitude from the One whose goodness is spoken in every leaf on every tree and in every breath we take.
Awareness of the towering goodness of the One who is all good, and the good in all, arises with each conscious breath. It comes in each moment of awareness that we are surrounded by splendor we did not make.
Each conscious breath: Jesus calls us from sleep to consciousness awareness that there is One who is good and who is giver of life. Look at that One. Look for that One. Feel that One in every … single … breath. Touch that One every moment that love and beauty touches you.
Be amazed that you are alive and your skin can feel the brisk bite of autumn days. Hear the whisper of the breeze. It awakens awareness of the love of the One who is good. Breathe it in until it fills your lungs with life and your soul with happiness.
Awakened souls know: You do nothing to inherit life, and you do nothing to inherit the treasure of heaven. All is gift from the One who is good.
Look and pray to see the wonder of it all.
Pr. David L. Miller
Mark 10:17-21
He was setting out on a journey when a man ran up, knelt before him and put this question to him, 'Good master, what must I do to inherit eternal life?' Jesus said to him, 'Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: You shall not kill; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not give false witness; You shall not defraud; honor your father and mother.' And he said to him, 'Master, I have kept all these since my earliest days.' Jesus looked steadily at him and he was filled with love for him, and he said, 'You need to do one thing more. Go and sell what you own and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.'
Reflection
Some days are designed to alter your consciousness. This is what Sabbath is to be, a day to re-enter your right mind so you might dwell there through the week. Autumn days, too, seem intended for this change of mind.
We travel streets of fading color, reminded that the beauty we are and see does not last forever. It beckons the eye to linger, to take in the best show in town that comes for free.
While it carries the melancholy awareness that summer ends and we do, too, it speaks a deeper truth.
The beauty that surrounds us, the beauty we each are, is given. Life and color comes without our asking as the first and original blessing of the One who loves to bless.
Autumn days and Sabbath time bring awareness that we do nothing to gain life’s goodness. We can only receive with gratitude from the One whose goodness is spoken in every leaf on every tree and in every breath we take.
Awareness of the towering goodness of the One who is all good, and the good in all, arises with each conscious breath. It comes in each moment of awareness that we are surrounded by splendor we did not make.
Each conscious breath: Jesus calls us from sleep to consciousness awareness that there is One who is good and who is giver of life. Look at that One. Look for that One. Feel that One in every … single … breath. Touch that One every moment that love and beauty touches you.
Be amazed that you are alive and your skin can feel the brisk bite of autumn days. Hear the whisper of the breeze. It awakens awareness of the love of the One who is good. Breathe it in until it fills your lungs with life and your soul with happiness.
Awakened souls know: You do nothing to inherit life, and you do nothing to inherit the treasure of heaven. All is gift from the One who is good.
Look and pray to see the wonder of it all.
Pr. David L. Miller
Saturday, October 06, 2012
Saturday, October 6, 2012
Today’s text
Hebrews 1:1-3
At many moments in the past and by many means, God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets; but in our time, the final days, he has spoken to us in the person of his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things and through whom he made the ages. He is the reflection of God's glory and bears the impress of God's own being, sustaining all things by his powerful command; and now that he has purged sins away, he has taken his seat at the right hand of the divine Majesty on high.
Reflection
I stare sleepless at the ceiling of the bedroom; shadows from a street light fix my gaze on the far corner where wall meets wall and touches the ceiling. Sleep won’t come for some time.
So I lie still and watch as the blessings of my life appear in the dim light. They pass before me, and I am happy to be awakened at this early hour for no good reason except to see and pray.
My soul reaches out to the Great Soul who speaks in every blessing, my heart moved from within by a Spirit far greater than my own. Prayer comes too easily for it to be my creation. It flows from the Spirit who seeks me in the darkness of night.
And I understand: I am wanted far more than I can understand.
The God of heaven and earth seeks to be known. The Loving Mystery who speaks in all time and every space, including the small space of my mind and heart, calls me to know the Love that is ever for me, the Love who constantly wants and seeks me.
God hungers to be known by me, in the darkness and in the light, in the day and in the night, in the many and various ways God speaks, and certainly in the face of Jesus where what God says in other moments becomes more clear.
What moves me is that the desire of the Voice in the Night is so much like the desire of the human heart, my heart, to know and be taken in by the Love that fashions the worlds and cherishes them all. My soul is an image of the Great Soul who made the ages.
In the darkness, I see again the face of Jesus, the visible of image of the One who wakes me in the night, finding there a welcoming love who forgives the failures of my soul and invites to simply rest, breathe and know him.
And seeing, I am eager for the morning, knowing what awaits me every morning.
Pr. David L. Miller
Hebrews 1:1-3
At many moments in the past and by many means, God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets; but in our time, the final days, he has spoken to us in the person of his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things and through whom he made the ages. He is the reflection of God's glory and bears the impress of God's own being, sustaining all things by his powerful command; and now that he has purged sins away, he has taken his seat at the right hand of the divine Majesty on high.
Reflection
I stare sleepless at the ceiling of the bedroom; shadows from a street light fix my gaze on the far corner where wall meets wall and touches the ceiling. Sleep won’t come for some time.
So I lie still and watch as the blessings of my life appear in the dim light. They pass before me, and I am happy to be awakened at this early hour for no good reason except to see and pray.
My soul reaches out to the Great Soul who speaks in every blessing, my heart moved from within by a Spirit far greater than my own. Prayer comes too easily for it to be my creation. It flows from the Spirit who seeks me in the darkness of night.
And I understand: I am wanted far more than I can understand.
The God of heaven and earth seeks to be known. The Loving Mystery who speaks in all time and every space, including the small space of my mind and heart, calls me to know the Love that is ever for me, the Love who constantly wants and seeks me.
God hungers to be known by me, in the darkness and in the light, in the day and in the night, in the many and various ways God speaks, and certainly in the face of Jesus where what God says in other moments becomes more clear.
What moves me is that the desire of the Voice in the Night is so much like the desire of the human heart, my heart, to know and be taken in by the Love that fashions the worlds and cherishes them all. My soul is an image of the Great Soul who made the ages.
In the darkness, I see again the face of Jesus, the visible of image of the One who wakes me in the night, finding there a welcoming love who forgives the failures of my soul and invites to simply rest, breathe and know him.
And seeing, I am eager for the morning, knowing what awaits me every morning.
Pr. David L. Miller
Thursday, October 04, 2012
Thursday, October 4, 2012
Today’s text
Psalm 8:3-6
I look up at your heavens, shaped by your fingers, at the moon and the stars you set firm- what are human beings that you spare a thought for them, or the child of Adam that you care for him? Yet you have made him little less than a god, you have crowned him with glory and beauty, made him lord of the works of your hands, put all things under his feet.
Reflection
Again I wake into the world filled with wonder that I am, amazed that I breathe and have senses that fill me with delight in every season, and most certainly in autumn splendor.
At the core of faith, at least for me, is amazement at life, at the immensity of the cosmos and my own smallness. Staggered, I gaze into the night sky realizing this is my gift. I get to take in the vast sprinkling of the Milky Way, millions of stars dusting the clear night as loons call to each other across the darkness.
Light from millions of years ago finally touches my eyes after its cold journey through yawning reaches of space, delighting my heart, moving me to wonder what each one is like.
Wonder is closer yet, near as trees electric with golden light in the October morning, moving me to thanks that I might live on this tiny planet, at this place and this time to see this tree that reminds me once more how graced I am to know the colors of a single moment. Any moment, but most certainly this one.
Open your eyes and see. The world is a wonder. Life is a mystery and miracle no words can express. And love, love for this precious life and the loves we are given, who knows how it happens?
Who can point to the moment, to the word, the turn of head, the smile, the understanding glance and laughter that ignites the heart with the joy of knowing oneness with another?
It’s all wonder, our lives, this earth, the universe, the surprising experience of being alive … able to know and feel life within and around us. None of this can be taken for granted by people who did not create themselves or a single molecule of matter.
All that fills my senses on autumn mornings flows from an Infinite Source who loves life … and me. The stars tell me so. The loons’ haunting cries echo my prayer to know the nearness of this Love who speaks in night skies and autumn trees aglow as if lit from within.
This Love wears a face who was even more enamored of golden mornings than am I, the face of the Love Eternal who seeks me every morning, the face of Jesus.
Today, I join him in the wonder of living, knowing, feeling the One who speaks through it all.
Pr. David L. Miller
Psalm 8:3-6
I look up at your heavens, shaped by your fingers, at the moon and the stars you set firm- what are human beings that you spare a thought for them, or the child of Adam that you care for him? Yet you have made him little less than a god, you have crowned him with glory and beauty, made him lord of the works of your hands, put all things under his feet.
Reflection
Again I wake into the world filled with wonder that I am, amazed that I breathe and have senses that fill me with delight in every season, and most certainly in autumn splendor.
At the core of faith, at least for me, is amazement at life, at the immensity of the cosmos and my own smallness. Staggered, I gaze into the night sky realizing this is my gift. I get to take in the vast sprinkling of the Milky Way, millions of stars dusting the clear night as loons call to each other across the darkness.
Light from millions of years ago finally touches my eyes after its cold journey through yawning reaches of space, delighting my heart, moving me to wonder what each one is like.
Wonder is closer yet, near as trees electric with golden light in the October morning, moving me to thanks that I might live on this tiny planet, at this place and this time to see this tree that reminds me once more how graced I am to know the colors of a single moment. Any moment, but most certainly this one.
Open your eyes and see. The world is a wonder. Life is a mystery and miracle no words can express. And love, love for this precious life and the loves we are given, who knows how it happens?
Who can point to the moment, to the word, the turn of head, the smile, the understanding glance and laughter that ignites the heart with the joy of knowing oneness with another?
It’s all wonder, our lives, this earth, the universe, the surprising experience of being alive … able to know and feel life within and around us. None of this can be taken for granted by people who did not create themselves or a single molecule of matter.
All that fills my senses on autumn mornings flows from an Infinite Source who loves life … and me. The stars tell me so. The loons’ haunting cries echo my prayer to know the nearness of this Love who speaks in night skies and autumn trees aglow as if lit from within.
This Love wears a face who was even more enamored of golden mornings than am I, the face of the Love Eternal who seeks me every morning, the face of Jesus.
Today, I join him in the wonder of living, knowing, feeling the One who speaks through it all.
Pr. David L. Miller
Wednesday, October 03, 2012
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Today’s text
Mark 10:13-16
People were bringing little children to him, for him to touch them. The disciples scolded them, but when Jesus saw this he was indignant and said to them, 'Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. In truth I tell you, anyone who does not welcome the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.' Then he embraced them, laid his hands on them and gave them his blessing.
Reflection
There is a time to receive and a time to give, a time be blessed and a time to bless.
I have reached the time to bless, the time to give, Jesus time. More on that in a moment.
One might object that it is always time to bless and give, just as it is always time to receive blessing and grace from others
Early in one’s life there is more blessing be received than given. It is the natural way of life, easily seen when we are children. We need to receive--food, clothing, teaching and encouragement. You get the idea.
Aging, we take on greater responsibility for ourselves and others--children, students, younger less experienced people at our jobs and in our professions. We pass on what we know; sharing the wisdom and grace we have received in living.
I recently had a birthday with a ‘0’ in it … 60.
The number doesn’t bother me at all, nor does having reached an age that I couldn’t imagine being when I was younger. I don’t look or feel anything like I imagined 60 would be.
In younger years, I thought of what it would be like to reach this age, but I didn’t think I would have this much energy or joy. I didn’t imagine the sense of purpose I feel or the anticipation of what is to come. I didn’t think I’d have this much desire to grow richer and deeper in mind and heart. I thought such growth in would largely be done. Not so.
The big change I notice is that I need less and want to give more.
I devoted so much … too much of my life to filling holes in my heart, proving I was competent, a worthwhile human being to be taken seriously. I was hungry for encouragement and affirmation, needing to know I was okay, accepted and acceptable. I needed a great deal approval and worked hard (ridiculously so) to earn it.
It was never enough. What I needed was to know … and accept … blessing, the blessing of love that cherished me, no matter if I was doing well or not.
There were those beloved hearts along the way who blessed me. Often, I treated their blessing as if it were something I earned (or needed to earn) by my efforts, not as a gift of grace from those--friends, family, spouse--who wanted only that I should be myself, the soul I am and receive the grace they gave.
Somewhere on the way to 60 (I am a slow learner) enough blessing has seeped into my heart that there are fewer holes in me that need filling.
I feel richer, more complete and full of the grace that is the substance of God’s own heart. I have certainly given much to others and blessed them in the course of my life and ministry. But I have reached a point where blessing others, not being blessed is primary.
Grace received has topped the reservoir of my heart and spills out more naturally. This is not an accomplishment but the consequence of receiving the grace and love God through prayer and from other lives for many years.
This is a very good and consoling place to be.
I know what Jesus felt when he took children into his arms and blessed them. He did not feel less. He did not feel depleted.
He experienced the loving grace of an Infinite Soul filling and flowing out him, raising smiles and beauty on the faces of others. And when he was done blessing them, he felt more full than when he started.
Pr. David L. Miller
Mark 10:13-16
People were bringing little children to him, for him to touch them. The disciples scolded them, but when Jesus saw this he was indignant and said to them, 'Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. In truth I tell you, anyone who does not welcome the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.' Then he embraced them, laid his hands on them and gave them his blessing.
Reflection
There is a time to receive and a time to give, a time be blessed and a time to bless.
I have reached the time to bless, the time to give, Jesus time. More on that in a moment.
One might object that it is always time to bless and give, just as it is always time to receive blessing and grace from others
Early in one’s life there is more blessing be received than given. It is the natural way of life, easily seen when we are children. We need to receive--food, clothing, teaching and encouragement. You get the idea.
Aging, we take on greater responsibility for ourselves and others--children, students, younger less experienced people at our jobs and in our professions. We pass on what we know; sharing the wisdom and grace we have received in living.
I recently had a birthday with a ‘0’ in it … 60.
The number doesn’t bother me at all, nor does having reached an age that I couldn’t imagine being when I was younger. I don’t look or feel anything like I imagined 60 would be.
In younger years, I thought of what it would be like to reach this age, but I didn’t think I would have this much energy or joy. I didn’t imagine the sense of purpose I feel or the anticipation of what is to come. I didn’t think I’d have this much desire to grow richer and deeper in mind and heart. I thought such growth in would largely be done. Not so.
The big change I notice is that I need less and want to give more.
I devoted so much … too much of my life to filling holes in my heart, proving I was competent, a worthwhile human being to be taken seriously. I was hungry for encouragement and affirmation, needing to know I was okay, accepted and acceptable. I needed a great deal approval and worked hard (ridiculously so) to earn it.
It was never enough. What I needed was to know … and accept … blessing, the blessing of love that cherished me, no matter if I was doing well or not.
There were those beloved hearts along the way who blessed me. Often, I treated their blessing as if it were something I earned (or needed to earn) by my efforts, not as a gift of grace from those--friends, family, spouse--who wanted only that I should be myself, the soul I am and receive the grace they gave.
Somewhere on the way to 60 (I am a slow learner) enough blessing has seeped into my heart that there are fewer holes in me that need filling.
I feel richer, more complete and full of the grace that is the substance of God’s own heart. I have certainly given much to others and blessed them in the course of my life and ministry. But I have reached a point where blessing others, not being blessed is primary.
Grace received has topped the reservoir of my heart and spills out more naturally. This is not an accomplishment but the consequence of receiving the grace and love God through prayer and from other lives for many years.
This is a very good and consoling place to be.
I know what Jesus felt when he took children into his arms and blessed them. He did not feel less. He did not feel depleted.
He experienced the loving grace of an Infinite Soul filling and flowing out him, raising smiles and beauty on the faces of others. And when he was done blessing them, he felt more full than when he started.
Pr. David L. Miller
Tuesday, October 02, 2012
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Today’s text
Mark 10:13-16
People were bringing little children to him, for him to touch them. The disciples scolded them, but when Jesus saw this he was indignant and said to them, 'Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. In truth I tell you, anyone who does not welcome the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.' Then he embraced them, laid his hands on them and gave them his blessing.
Reflection
Many times this story excited craving and brought tears to my eyes. I yearned to be the child Jesus blessed.
I was that child. I hungered for the blessing of his hands. There were wounds old and new crying out to be tenderly touched. My heart longed for Jesus’ gentle welcome.
Savoring this story, I saw his hands reach out to touch and bless me, to receive me into the arms of divine love. As he did, peace flowed into over hidden crevices of my soul where wounds festered, wounds from feeling unwelcome in so many places and occasions of my life. Healing came, at least for the time of meditation.
I remember those days and wonder why this day is different. Tears pool at the corners of my eyes, but the emotion is not as intense now. My need is less. My soul is quieter, placid, lacking the agitation once stirred by this little story of blessing.
Is this a lack, a loss? Maybe. Maybe my heart has grown apathetic, having lost its zeal. But then maybe not.
Maybe my anxious need has subsided because my heart has received enough love and grace to still the needy craving of my heart.
Maybe my heart can rest, no longer crazy hungry for the next graced moment when Jesus welcome breaks through because my heart finally ‘gets it.’
I have felt the embrace that received the children receiving me so many times and in so many ways that I know I am forever wanted and welcome by the Love that has haunted me from the earliest days of my life.
Today, I look at the story again. I see the open arms of Jesus, his arms enfolding me, his hands touching my head, and I know he welcomes me and wants me and always will.
I need not hurry into those arms as if starved for what every human heart needs. I am one who knows, thanks be to God. So, I step quietly toward him, and my heart rests in quiet knowing.
Pr. David L. Miller
Saturday, September 29, 2012
Saturday, September 29, 2012
Today’s text
Mark 9:38-50
John said to him, 'Master, we saw someone who is not one of us driving out devils in your name, and because he was not one of us we tried to stop him.' But Jesus said, 'You must not stop him; no one who works a miracle in my name could soon afterwards speak evil of me. Anyone who is not against us is for us. 'If anyone gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ, then in truth I tell you, he will most certainly not lose his reward. 'But anyone who is the downfall of one of these little ones who have faith, would be better thrown into the sea with a great millstone hung round his neck. And if your hand should be your downfall, cut it off; it is better for you to enter into life crippled, than to have two hands and go to hell, into the fire that can never be put out. And if your foot should be your downfall, cut it off; it is better for you enter into life lame, than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. And if your eye should be your downfall, tear it out; it is better for you to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell. where their worm will never die nor their fire be put out. For everyone will be salted with fire.
Reflection
Not a week goes by that I don’t hear a misuse … a misunderstanding … an abuse of my faith. Not a week passes that the name of God, the sweet name of Jesus isn’t used to judge or condemn, insult, curse or exclude.
It’s ugly. It’s blasphemy, and it’s a lie. Every time.
And every time I hear the voice of my professors, Duane Priebe. He often said, “Every time you draw a line between who is in and who is out, who is in Jesus’ circle and who is out, you’ll find Jesus on the other side staring back at you.”
A man visits his dieing mother and reads Scripture to her. “You’ve got to believe this,” he says. You’ve got to accept Jesus as your Lord and savior, or you’re going to go to Hell.”
I hear this and wince. The name of God’s most welcoming love is used as a club, a threat to bring fear, and Jesus’ name is no longer an invitation to come home to the love that cherishes us more than we can know.
I go to a website I visit several times a week and suddenly find a voter’s guide for the presidential election. “Who is the real Christian? Who is the real Catholic?” reads one heading. The article compares the two vice presidential candidates, both catholic Christians.
One stands against abortion and gay unions; the other does not. One is has a strong concern and position on health care, immigration reform and the poor. The first is praised as standing on Jesus side of the issues; the other is denounced. Is this right? Is this a faithful representation of who Jesus is and the way to which he calls us?
If you didn’t know who Jesus is, or are already turned a little off by Christianity and the church, aren’t such fights one more reason to turn away, a stumbling block to understanding and faith? So, too, are the ways Christians use the name of Jesus to exclude others or arrogantly act as if they possess the truth and nothing but the truth.
Long ago I lost interest in many things different kinds of churches and Christians fight about. I lost, too, most of my need to be right--or at least to convince others that I hold the correct information and views.
If faith is about fighting, if it is about being right and convincing others that you and your side are true and others are wrong, … I don’t want it, and neither do many others.
But it is not. Our faith is about the light of God shining in the face of Jesus and in the eyes of those who know and live his love. It is about the everlasting love of God that seeks the human heart through all time and in every circumstance of our days, inviting, cajoling and seducing us to come home and truly know who we are.
It is easy to forget who we are. Jesus first friends did, too. They lost their identity--their salt, their flavor, and they missed his mission.
“Stop him,” they implored Jesus, when they saw someone casting out demons in his name. The man was setting souls free, allowing them to live again, liberated from whatever it was that held them captive in less than human state. He did it in Jesus’ name, an extension of Jesus mission, and they wanted to stop him.
“Is this the way you treat my friends?” Jesus seemed to respond. “Don’t you know what I am about? Don’t you know what the kingdom of God is? Don’t you see how your attitude and your actions deny me and hinder the emergence of God’s loving kingdom on the face of the earth?”
God’s kingdom was right there in front of them but they missed it. They couldn’t see and feel it because they gave in to the temptation that is the curse of so much religion and virtually all our politics today.
They arrogated truth and goodness to themselves, discounting and denying the goodness and truth present in others--other churches, other faiths, other cultures, other political persuasions.
Just so, they … and we deny God’s cosmic project … and constant Presence.
There was too little humility in them--and often, in us--to look, listen and discover that truth is so much larger than we are, larger than we know.
The healing presence of Jesus is bigger than us, bigger than our church, bigger than our best theologies and deepest commitments. It is always more.
The kingdom of God’s healing is revealed far beyond us, even in small acts of mercy and hospitality, in deeds as small as sharing a cup of water.
We are a part of a great worldwide--no, cosmic--mission, to give, restore and celebrate life, a mission to wipe away tears, to pour out the mercy of the One who is all merciful, pushing back the forces that disfigure and destroy.
The mission is to gather all that is into intimate sharing with the Infinite Source of life who loves all creation.
The Holy One is at work everywhere, setting souls free, drawing hearts into the Divine Heart of Love, creating space for life to thrive with beauty.
Our privilege and blessing is to know ourselves as part of this great loving project, celebrating the power of God’s love and life wherever and in whomever it appears, knowing always that it will.
Jesus healing love surprises, showing up in people and places, in the hope and generous hearts of those you might imagine less, well, spiritual than you are, … less than you are.
Don’t be threatened by this. Don’t hinder or criticize it. Welcome it. Celebrate it.
Let the ever-present healing love of Jesus lift your soul to the heights, however and where ever it appears. For in that moment you are reminded again that his holy presence dwells also … in you.
Pr. David L. Miller
Mark 9:38-50
John said to him, 'Master, we saw someone who is not one of us driving out devils in your name, and because he was not one of us we tried to stop him.' But Jesus said, 'You must not stop him; no one who works a miracle in my name could soon afterwards speak evil of me. Anyone who is not against us is for us. 'If anyone gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ, then in truth I tell you, he will most certainly not lose his reward. 'But anyone who is the downfall of one of these little ones who have faith, would be better thrown into the sea with a great millstone hung round his neck. And if your hand should be your downfall, cut it off; it is better for you to enter into life crippled, than to have two hands and go to hell, into the fire that can never be put out. And if your foot should be your downfall, cut it off; it is better for you enter into life lame, than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. And if your eye should be your downfall, tear it out; it is better for you to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell. where their worm will never die nor their fire be put out. For everyone will be salted with fire.
Reflection
Not a week goes by that I don’t hear a misuse … a misunderstanding … an abuse of my faith. Not a week passes that the name of God, the sweet name of Jesus isn’t used to judge or condemn, insult, curse or exclude.
It’s ugly. It’s blasphemy, and it’s a lie. Every time.
And every time I hear the voice of my professors, Duane Priebe. He often said, “Every time you draw a line between who is in and who is out, who is in Jesus’ circle and who is out, you’ll find Jesus on the other side staring back at you.”
A man visits his dieing mother and reads Scripture to her. “You’ve got to believe this,” he says. You’ve got to accept Jesus as your Lord and savior, or you’re going to go to Hell.”
I hear this and wince. The name of God’s most welcoming love is used as a club, a threat to bring fear, and Jesus’ name is no longer an invitation to come home to the love that cherishes us more than we can know.
I go to a website I visit several times a week and suddenly find a voter’s guide for the presidential election. “Who is the real Christian? Who is the real Catholic?” reads one heading. The article compares the two vice presidential candidates, both catholic Christians.
One stands against abortion and gay unions; the other does not. One is has a strong concern and position on health care, immigration reform and the poor. The first is praised as standing on Jesus side of the issues; the other is denounced. Is this right? Is this a faithful representation of who Jesus is and the way to which he calls us?
If you didn’t know who Jesus is, or are already turned a little off by Christianity and the church, aren’t such fights one more reason to turn away, a stumbling block to understanding and faith? So, too, are the ways Christians use the name of Jesus to exclude others or arrogantly act as if they possess the truth and nothing but the truth.
Long ago I lost interest in many things different kinds of churches and Christians fight about. I lost, too, most of my need to be right--or at least to convince others that I hold the correct information and views.
If faith is about fighting, if it is about being right and convincing others that you and your side are true and others are wrong, … I don’t want it, and neither do many others.
But it is not. Our faith is about the light of God shining in the face of Jesus and in the eyes of those who know and live his love. It is about the everlasting love of God that seeks the human heart through all time and in every circumstance of our days, inviting, cajoling and seducing us to come home and truly know who we are.
It is easy to forget who we are. Jesus first friends did, too. They lost their identity--their salt, their flavor, and they missed his mission.
“Stop him,” they implored Jesus, when they saw someone casting out demons in his name. The man was setting souls free, allowing them to live again, liberated from whatever it was that held them captive in less than human state. He did it in Jesus’ name, an extension of Jesus mission, and they wanted to stop him.
“Is this the way you treat my friends?” Jesus seemed to respond. “Don’t you know what I am about? Don’t you know what the kingdom of God is? Don’t you see how your attitude and your actions deny me and hinder the emergence of God’s loving kingdom on the face of the earth?”
God’s kingdom was right there in front of them but they missed it. They couldn’t see and feel it because they gave in to the temptation that is the curse of so much religion and virtually all our politics today.
They arrogated truth and goodness to themselves, discounting and denying the goodness and truth present in others--other churches, other faiths, other cultures, other political persuasions.
Just so, they … and we deny God’s cosmic project … and constant Presence.
There was too little humility in them--and often, in us--to look, listen and discover that truth is so much larger than we are, larger than we know.
The healing presence of Jesus is bigger than us, bigger than our church, bigger than our best theologies and deepest commitments. It is always more.
The kingdom of God’s healing is revealed far beyond us, even in small acts of mercy and hospitality, in deeds as small as sharing a cup of water.
We are a part of a great worldwide--no, cosmic--mission, to give, restore and celebrate life, a mission to wipe away tears, to pour out the mercy of the One who is all merciful, pushing back the forces that disfigure and destroy.
The mission is to gather all that is into intimate sharing with the Infinite Source of life who loves all creation.
The Holy One is at work everywhere, setting souls free, drawing hearts into the Divine Heart of Love, creating space for life to thrive with beauty.
Our privilege and blessing is to know ourselves as part of this great loving project, celebrating the power of God’s love and life wherever and in whomever it appears, knowing always that it will.
Jesus healing love surprises, showing up in people and places, in the hope and generous hearts of those you might imagine less, well, spiritual than you are, … less than you are.
Don’t be threatened by this. Don’t hinder or criticize it. Welcome it. Celebrate it.
Let the ever-present healing love of Jesus lift your soul to the heights, however and where ever it appears. For in that moment you are reminded again that his holy presence dwells also … in you.
Pr. David L. Miller
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Today’s text
Mark 9:43
And if your hand should be your downfall, cut it off; it is better for you to enter into life crippled, than to have two hands and go to hell, into the fire that can never be put out.
Reflection
I wonder if any of us is capable of this kind or urgency. I have seen it, but it has been while, for it comes only in circumstances where all distractions are stripped away and matters of life and death take central place.
I think that is Jesus’ point. Life is all that matters, and all other matters are distraction from what should always be central.
And life, … life is to know God, to serve God’s kingdom, to give your heart and hand to knowing and living the Love that is the heart of God.
All that distracts must fall away.
This is our problem. Everything distracts so that life no longer has a center that pulls us back when we wander amid the myriad details of living that draw us from what really is and gives life.
I know people who know they are dying, and I love them.
The distractions of living fall away from their souls, and they are left with a single question: What do I need to pass from this life with peace and dignity?
What is necessary for me to know and do?
The answer, of course, is love. They need to share the love that is in them while they can, and receive the same grace from those most precious.
They want and need to flow in the currents of love that flows through their being from the Eternal Heart of the Universe. Everything else, all that occupied and preoccupied their days and years fades to the background, and the center of existence appears in clear relief.
Perhaps, then, it is predictable that more than one spiritual master of our faith advises us to take each important decision, each day’s duties to the point of our death.
Imagine you are at the point of death, they say. Seeing yourself there, what would you like to have done with this day? What would you like to have chosen with this decision, indeed, with your whole crazy, precious life?
The center of life appears more clearly at that point, answers, too. And they have to do with loving as best we are able.
Pr. David L. Miller
Mark 9:43
And if your hand should be your downfall, cut it off; it is better for you to enter into life crippled, than to have two hands and go to hell, into the fire that can never be put out.
Reflection
I wonder if any of us is capable of this kind or urgency. I have seen it, but it has been while, for it comes only in circumstances where all distractions are stripped away and matters of life and death take central place.
I think that is Jesus’ point. Life is all that matters, and all other matters are distraction from what should always be central.
And life, … life is to know God, to serve God’s kingdom, to give your heart and hand to knowing and living the Love that is the heart of God.
All that distracts must fall away.
This is our problem. Everything distracts so that life no longer has a center that pulls us back when we wander amid the myriad details of living that draw us from what really is and gives life.
I know people who know they are dying, and I love them.
The distractions of living fall away from their souls, and they are left with a single question: What do I need to pass from this life with peace and dignity?
What is necessary for me to know and do?
The answer, of course, is love. They need to share the love that is in them while they can, and receive the same grace from those most precious.
They want and need to flow in the currents of love that flows through their being from the Eternal Heart of the Universe. Everything else, all that occupied and preoccupied their days and years fades to the background, and the center of existence appears in clear relief.
Perhaps, then, it is predictable that more than one spiritual master of our faith advises us to take each important decision, each day’s duties to the point of our death.
Imagine you are at the point of death, they say. Seeing yourself there, what would you like to have done with this day? What would you like to have chosen with this decision, indeed, with your whole crazy, precious life?
The center of life appears more clearly at that point, answers, too. And they have to do with loving as best we are able.
Pr. David L. Miller
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Today’s text
Mark 9:38-41
John said to him, 'Master, we saw someone who is not one of us driving out devils in your name, and because he was not one of us we tried to stop him.' But Jesus said, 'You must not stop him; no one who works a miracle in my name could soon afterwards speak evil of me. Anyone who is not against us is for us. 'If anyone gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ, then in truth I tell you, he will most certainly not lose his reward.
Reflection
Party spirit is the curse of much religion and virtually all politics. We arrogate truth and goodness to ourselves, discounting or denying the goodness and truth present in others--other churches, other faiths, other cultures, other political persuasions.
Just so, we deny God’s cosmic project … and Presence.
Why would Jesus’ disciples want to stop those who set a soul free with the power of Jesus’ name?
Why not go talk to the people healed and released from bondage? Why not celebrate the power of the life of God in the life of human souls?
The disciples react as if someone is poaching on their turf. They act as if the mystery of God’s loving power is a personal possession that makes them more important, as if it is something to be guarded and kept from others.
But it is not. God’s loving power is a call to enter the world of the broken to love and heal in Jesus’ name.
The healing presence of Jesus is bigger than us, bigger than our church, bigger than our theologies and our understanding of who bears and reveals his holy kingdom.
The kingdom of God’s healing is revealed far beyond us, even in small acts of mercy and hospitality, in deeds as small as sharing a cup of water.
We are a part of a great worldwide--no, cosmic--mission, to give, restore and celebrate life, a mission to wipe away tears, to pour out the mercy of the One who is all merciful, pushing back the forces that disfigure and destroy.
The mission is to gather all that is into intimate sharing with the Infinite Source of life who loves all creation.
The Holy One is at work everywhere, setting souls free, drawing hearts into the Divine Heart of Love, creating space for life to thrive with beauty.
Our privilege and blessing is to know ourselves as part of this great loving project, celebrating the power of God’s love and life wherever and in whomever it appears, knowing always that it will.
Jesus healing love surprises, showing up in people and places, in the hope and generous hearts of those you might imagine less, well, spiritual than you are.
Celebrate it. Let it lift your soul to the heights, for in that moment you are not threatened but reminded that his holy presence dwells also in you.
Pr. David L. Miller
Mark 9:38-41
John said to him, 'Master, we saw someone who is not one of us driving out devils in your name, and because he was not one of us we tried to stop him.' But Jesus said, 'You must not stop him; no one who works a miracle in my name could soon afterwards speak evil of me. Anyone who is not against us is for us. 'If anyone gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ, then in truth I tell you, he will most certainly not lose his reward.
Reflection
Party spirit is the curse of much religion and virtually all politics. We arrogate truth and goodness to ourselves, discounting or denying the goodness and truth present in others--other churches, other faiths, other cultures, other political persuasions.
Just so, we deny God’s cosmic project … and Presence.
Why would Jesus’ disciples want to stop those who set a soul free with the power of Jesus’ name?
Why not go talk to the people healed and released from bondage? Why not celebrate the power of the life of God in the life of human souls?
The disciples react as if someone is poaching on their turf. They act as if the mystery of God’s loving power is a personal possession that makes them more important, as if it is something to be guarded and kept from others.
But it is not. God’s loving power is a call to enter the world of the broken to love and heal in Jesus’ name.
The healing presence of Jesus is bigger than us, bigger than our church, bigger than our theologies and our understanding of who bears and reveals his holy kingdom.
The kingdom of God’s healing is revealed far beyond us, even in small acts of mercy and hospitality, in deeds as small as sharing a cup of water.
We are a part of a great worldwide--no, cosmic--mission, to give, restore and celebrate life, a mission to wipe away tears, to pour out the mercy of the One who is all merciful, pushing back the forces that disfigure and destroy.
The mission is to gather all that is into intimate sharing with the Infinite Source of life who loves all creation.
The Holy One is at work everywhere, setting souls free, drawing hearts into the Divine Heart of Love, creating space for life to thrive with beauty.
Our privilege and blessing is to know ourselves as part of this great loving project, celebrating the power of God’s love and life wherever and in whomever it appears, knowing always that it will.
Jesus healing love surprises, showing up in people and places, in the hope and generous hearts of those you might imagine less, well, spiritual than you are.
Celebrate it. Let it lift your soul to the heights, for in that moment you are not threatened but reminded that his holy presence dwells also in you.
Pr. David L. Miller
Friday, September 21, 2012
Friday, September 21, 2012
Today’s text
Mark 9:30-32
After leaving that place they made their way through Galilee; and he [Jesus] did not want anyone to know, because he was instructing his disciples; he was telling them, 'The Son of man will be delivered into the power of men; they will put him to death; and three days after he has been put to death he will rise again.' But they did not understand what he said and were afraid to ask him.
Reflection
We know people like this, people who give themselves away in love and trust.
They love those they have been given to love, and they trust that the One, the Mystery who made them, will raise them up when they lose themselves, when for love’s sake they surrender to tasks that wither the life out of them … or even get them killed.
They are the souls who most clearly show us who Jesus is and what God is like, magnetically drawing us to be as they are and know what they know.
Names come to mind, great names, Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., for example, but faces appear, too. And so many of those faces are not far away, nor are they people whose decisions and sacrifices show up in the daily news.
They are people who give themselves with care to the tiny tasks of the day, to each person they meet, to the situations that come, the needs that arise, and who struggle for patience and grace amid the set-backs, slights and frustrations that are part of living.
They are parents and grandparents who love us, the children who don’t run from the absorbing needs of aging parents, the teacher, the nurse, the helper, the friend or neighbor who cares for our loved one even as much as we do.
They are wives and husbands who forgive the failures of the imperfect people to whom they share their lives and who hang in there when the going is hard.
They are the ones who make food for the homeless and remember the lonely and forgotten who feel life has passed them by and no one cares.
They are us, not just the saints of old or the great ones whose deeds are known and celebrated by millions.
Jesus soul, the Soul of the all-merciful God, is different from yours and mine, yet this is the soul he seeks to give away and give to us, in two ways.
His soul is given to reveal God’s kingdom of divine love. He gives himself to this reality, this vision of a world not yet come, knowing his suffering and death will reveal it, making it real.
And he invites us to walk the path of loving, doing justice and giving ourselves in grace and care. Walking this path, the seed of the Christ Soul within us sprouts and grows so that we have and know the Soul who has us.
If you keep your eyes open, you just may see his great Soul, and amid tears you may find it within yourself.
Pr. David L. Miller
Mark 9:30-32
After leaving that place they made their way through Galilee; and he [Jesus] did not want anyone to know, because he was instructing his disciples; he was telling them, 'The Son of man will be delivered into the power of men; they will put him to death; and three days after he has been put to death he will rise again.' But they did not understand what he said and were afraid to ask him.
Reflection
We know people like this, people who give themselves away in love and trust.
They love those they have been given to love, and they trust that the One, the Mystery who made them, will raise them up when they lose themselves, when for love’s sake they surrender to tasks that wither the life out of them … or even get them killed.
They are the souls who most clearly show us who Jesus is and what God is like, magnetically drawing us to be as they are and know what they know.
Names come to mind, great names, Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., for example, but faces appear, too. And so many of those faces are not far away, nor are they people whose decisions and sacrifices show up in the daily news.
They are people who give themselves with care to the tiny tasks of the day, to each person they meet, to the situations that come, the needs that arise, and who struggle for patience and grace amid the set-backs, slights and frustrations that are part of living.
They are parents and grandparents who love us, the children who don’t run from the absorbing needs of aging parents, the teacher, the nurse, the helper, the friend or neighbor who cares for our loved one even as much as we do.
They are wives and husbands who forgive the failures of the imperfect people to whom they share their lives and who hang in there when the going is hard.
They are the ones who make food for the homeless and remember the lonely and forgotten who feel life has passed them by and no one cares.
They are us, not just the saints of old or the great ones whose deeds are known and celebrated by millions.
Jesus soul, the Soul of the all-merciful God, is different from yours and mine, yet this is the soul he seeks to give away and give to us, in two ways.
His soul is given to reveal God’s kingdom of divine love. He gives himself to this reality, this vision of a world not yet come, knowing his suffering and death will reveal it, making it real.
And he invites us to walk the path of loving, doing justice and giving ourselves in grace and care. Walking this path, the seed of the Christ Soul within us sprouts and grows so that we have and know the Soul who has us.
If you keep your eyes open, you just may see his great Soul, and amid tears you may find it within yourself.
Pr. David L. Miller
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Today’s text
Mark 9:35-38
So he [Jesus] sat down, called the Twelve to him and said, 'If anyone wants to be first, he must make himself last of all and servant of all.' He then took a little child whom he set among them and embraced, and he said to them, 'Anyone who welcomes a little child such as this in my name, welcomes me; and anyone who welcomes me, welcomes not me but the one who sent me.'
Reflection
A person sits down in the chair opposite me in my office. It is morning or evening, perhaps mid-day; it doesn’t matter. Each time is the same.
Their eyes may be moist or veiled by troubles they have yet to name. Sometimes they are full of joy at unexpected blessing or in expectation for life to begin with the young man or woman beside them.
Each time is the same even though their stories and emotions couldn’t be more different.
Each time I am invited to welcome them and enter to their story, however joy-filled or wracked with suffering I can do nothing about.
Each time I am invited to shut off the anxious, internal chatter in my mind and step into their world, hoping that somewhere in the process words, wisdom and grace will appear that will lighten their load or give reason and insight to help light their way.
Each time I wait for the Spirit to stir some clarity and blessing from the morass of my mind where I know I have very little in the way of wisdom or insight, although I do have a bit of grace to share.
Each time I am invited to welcome the child that sits before me.
No, they are not all children. Children seldom make it to my office for these kinds of conversations.
Yet they are children, as are all of us. They come with their humanity in their hands, leading with needs and wounds they can’t heal.
And I get to welcome them, enter their stories and embrace their humanity, which makes me one of the privileged.
Jesus placed a child before his friends and said, “Welcome this child, and you welcome me; you welcome the One Love who sent me.”
I know this is true. Our consciousness is transformed as we welcome the humanity of another.
Entering the world of another human being as needy as we are, we feel and know the open heart of Divine Love opening up in ourselves. Just so, we welcome the One who welcomes us and all, knowing a grace that goes beyond any we, ourselves, can give.
So take your time this day, and take care with each soul. Each person, each meeting, each need is the door through which we enter the Presence of the Heart who is our truest home.
Pr. David L. Miller
Mark 9:35-38
So he [Jesus] sat down, called the Twelve to him and said, 'If anyone wants to be first, he must make himself last of all and servant of all.' He then took a little child whom he set among them and embraced, and he said to them, 'Anyone who welcomes a little child such as this in my name, welcomes me; and anyone who welcomes me, welcomes not me but the one who sent me.'
Reflection
A person sits down in the chair opposite me in my office. It is morning or evening, perhaps mid-day; it doesn’t matter. Each time is the same.
Their eyes may be moist or veiled by troubles they have yet to name. Sometimes they are full of joy at unexpected blessing or in expectation for life to begin with the young man or woman beside them.
Each time is the same even though their stories and emotions couldn’t be more different.
Each time I am invited to welcome them and enter to their story, however joy-filled or wracked with suffering I can do nothing about.
Each time I am invited to shut off the anxious, internal chatter in my mind and step into their world, hoping that somewhere in the process words, wisdom and grace will appear that will lighten their load or give reason and insight to help light their way.
Each time I wait for the Spirit to stir some clarity and blessing from the morass of my mind where I know I have very little in the way of wisdom or insight, although I do have a bit of grace to share.
Each time I am invited to welcome the child that sits before me.
No, they are not all children. Children seldom make it to my office for these kinds of conversations.
Yet they are children, as are all of us. They come with their humanity in their hands, leading with needs and wounds they can’t heal.
And I get to welcome them, enter their stories and embrace their humanity, which makes me one of the privileged.
Jesus placed a child before his friends and said, “Welcome this child, and you welcome me; you welcome the One Love who sent me.”
I know this is true. Our consciousness is transformed as we welcome the humanity of another.
Entering the world of another human being as needy as we are, we feel and know the open heart of Divine Love opening up in ourselves. Just so, we welcome the One who welcomes us and all, knowing a grace that goes beyond any we, ourselves, can give.
So take your time this day, and take care with each soul. Each person, each meeting, each need is the door through which we enter the Presence of the Heart who is our truest home.
Pr. David L. Miller
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