Friday, February 28, 2014

Today’s text

Matthew 17:1-7

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

Reflection

Listen to him. Just listen.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Listen. Just listen to what he is saying.

Pr. David L. Miller

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Today’s text

Matthew 17:5-7

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

Reflection

Touch us this, day, Jesus.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Touch us and fill our neediness with your peace

Touch us, Jesus.

Touch us with the love that never lets us go.

Pr. David L. Miller

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Today’s text

Matthew 17:5-7

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

Reflection

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pr. David L. Miller

Monday, February 24, 2014

Today’s text

Matthew 6:25-26

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

Reflection

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

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

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

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

But I can trust this?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pr. David L. Miller

Saturday, February 22, 2014

Today’s text

Matthew 5:46-47

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

Reflection

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pr. David L. Miller

Friday, February 21, 2014

Today’s text

Matthew 5:48

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

Reflection

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pr. David L. Miller

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Today’s text

Matthew 5:46-48

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

Reflection

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pr. David L. Miller

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Today’s text

Matthew 5:43-45

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

Reflection

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pr. David L. Miller

Monday, February 17, 2014

Today’s text

Matthew 5:38-39

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

Reflection

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So breathe peace and know who you are.

Pr. David L. Miller

Saturday, February 15, 2014

Today’s text

Matthew 5:21-24

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

Reflection

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It takes very little thought to see this.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pr. David L. Miller

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Today’s text

Matthew 5:21-24

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

Reflection

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pr. David L. Miller

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Today’s text

Matthew 5:14-16

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

Reflection

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

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

The interviewer asked, “Why you?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

People of the light ask a different question.

Pr. David L. Miller

Saturday, February 1, 2014

Today’s text

Matthew 5:1-9 

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. Blessed are the pure in heart: they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers: they shall be recognized as children of God.

Reflection

There is only One who is truly blessed, and there is only one true blessedness.

God is the Blessed One, and blessedness is to know God from the inside, as a participant, and not from the outside looking in.

Christian theology long ago fixed on the concept of Trinity, tri-unity, as a way to describe the indescribable God. A stream, a river of infinite and unending love, flows through God.

No, that is wrong. God, the Blessed One, is this flow of mutually shared love coursing among the three expressions of God, Father, Son and Spirit.

Blessedness is to feel and know yourself within that flow as it bears you up, pulls you along, fills your heart, stirs your energy and gives you life in the face of all that would drain it from you.

Poverty and sorrow, weakness and fear, denial of justice, hunger for mercy denied, rejection and conflict--they all mar the beauty of creation and human life.

But the stream of blessedness, the current of love that flows from the heart of God through every corner of creation is not dammed up by the misfortunes of life. It is not held back by the things that we imagine must destroy human happiness and our joy.

The current of Divine love flows through all of this, through misfortunes and pains, through successes and moments of great elation. Ironically, it is often the pains of life that are most likely to draw us into the stream of true blessedness

Where ever and however the currents of love find and fill us, touch and renew us, there is God, there is blessedness, there we find ourselves in God, inside the wonder we cannot define but only experience.

Nor can we make blessedness happen for ourselves. It is always gift, the gift of being in the God-heart, feeling carried, lifted and filled by a current of love that never runs dry.

But we can do something. We can open our mind and senses to the face, places and ways the divine current of blessedness runs through our lives and times--and go there, often!

And we can notice the ways and places we pull away--in sarcasm or cynicism, in anxiety and self-seeking, in hurts and hatreds--from the people and means through which the wonder of blessedness reaches us and pulls us into its flow.

This choice still belongs to us. It is the choice between jumping in the river on one hand, or complaining that life is too hot and dry while standing on the bank.

Pr. David L. Miller

Thursday, January 23, 2013

Today’s text

Matthew 4:17-22

From then onwards Jesus began his proclamation with the message, 'Repent, for the kingdom of Heaven is close at hand.' As he was walking by the Lake of Galilee he saw two brothers, Simon, who was called Peter, and his brother Andrew; they were making a cast into the lake with their net, for they were fishermen. And he said to them, 'Come after me and I will make you fishers of people.' And at once they left their nets and followed him. Going on from there he saw another pair of brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John; they were in their boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. And at once, leaving the boat and their father, they followed him.

Reflection

Sometimes I sit in my favorite basement chair early in the morning, and I read. I read a few verses and I try to see it.

For some reason, it is easy to see these verses: Jesus walking by a lakeshore. He walks alone and sees two fishermen. “Come with me. I will show you how to fish for people,” he says.

They look at each other, brush off their hands, jump off the boat and follow him.

I have often wondered why they did so. Were they tired of fishing? Were they sick of their family? Did they want to get away from the old man telling them what to do?

Did they have empty heart that needed to be filled? Or maybe they had emotional or physical wounds they thought this strange man, Jesus, could heal.

But as I see this scene … and feel what might have been in them as they dropped their nets to follow … I don’t think they went after him to fill some inner emptiness or to heal their wounds.

I feel fascination. I feel excitement, a hunger for adventure, a desire to go and see.

Something about Jesus fascinated them so that they wanted to be near him. Something made them want to know what it was like to spend time with him, to see what he saw, to feel what he felt, to be part of his work and mission.

They did not go after him to fix something negative in their lives, but to become part of something positive, something unknown and exciting, something that ignited their sense of adventure and willingness to take a journey to new places and experiences.

There was just something about Jesus they wanted to be near.

As I sit in my chair and imagine, I see and feel the scene; I get it.

As I see them get up and follow Jesus, there is nothing else I want to do than to be there, with him, seeing and feeling him.

His presence in the quiet of the basement room opens my mind and heart to possibilities for living a life that is free and beautiful, a life of adventure where each day is new and filled with possibilities to bless and be blessed.

Sitting in my chair, I know why they got up and left their boats, not knowing where hey were going or what would happen.

They just wanted to be with the mystery of whomever and whatever he was … because being with him was better than being anywhere else.

Pr. David L. Miller

Tuesday January 21, 2014

Today’s text

Matthew 4:17

From then onwards Jesus began his proclamation with the message, 'Repent, for the kingdom of Heaven is close at hand.'

Reflection

How close is your kingdom, O Lord?

Every day I wake to a where the innocent and even infants fall to outrageous fates of disease and hardship, where the curse of war and the obscenity of hunger destroy whole societies.

We see it and pray in our sanctuaries, “they kingdom come,” often not knowing that it for these--the hungry, the broken, the forgotten that we are praying, not just for the grace of your nearness to rule in our hearts.

We pray for the world,  also little knowing that the kingdom is not far off culmination but a present reality in the midst of that broken world, a presence that is always near, always here, always waiting to be acknowledged and entered.

For the kingdom from heaven has come to earth and is present here.

It is not definable in geographic terms. It is not here or there. It is wherever you are, and you are near to all, but always as possibility, waiting to be acknowledged and received and entered.

The kingdom appears each time your justice and mercy is received so that it begins to transform human lives and relationships, cultures and societies.

Like a mustard seed, it seems small, but rooted in the soul of created life it grows into a great and beautiful tree giving shade and rest, coolness in the heart of the day, its leaves cleansing the foul air of human bitterness and discord.

The kingdom is wherever you are, Holy One, and you are here telling me once more to open my eyes and ears to see and hear the kingdom of your mercy and justice in the sounds of the day, beckoning me receive to enter once more.

Pr. David L. Miller

Wednesday, January 15, 2013

Today’s text

John 1:29-33

The next day, he saw Jesus coming towards him and said, 'Look, there is the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. t was of him that I said, "Behind me comes one who has passed ahead of me because he existed before me." I did not know him myself, and yet my purpose in coming to baptize with water was so that he might be revealed to Israel.' And John declared, 'I saw the Spirit come down on him like a dove from heaven and rest on him. I did not know him myself, but he who sent me to baptize with water had said to me, "The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and rest is the one who is to baptize with the Holy Spirit."

 Reflection

For years this baptism of the Holy Spirit was a mystery to me, and to some extent it always will be. In my mind, Pentecostal Christians had cornered the market on this language.

For them, this baptism looked like the Day of Pentecost, people speaking in different languages, exuberant displays of unexplainable supernatural gifts of healing and interpretation, highly emotional expressions of prayer and praise, fire and brimstone.

As a teen, my Illinois village had a storefront church for a short time. Sometimes I dropped by their mid-week prayer meeting where I was repeatedly told that if I didn’t speak in tongues or show some sign of baptism in the Spirit, “you will burn.” The fires of Hell were being stoked for people like me.

But Jesus didn’t speak in tongues. He certainly healed, but I don’t think this is the heart of what it means to be baptized in the Spirit, as Jesus was.

And it is a matter of heart.

We cannot know the secrets of Jesus’ inner life, but we do know he shared a deep and abiding intimacy with the heavenly Father. They abided together in his heart as one, a loving unity which was the source of Jesus compassion and wisdom, his peace and his power.

We know he retreated into solitude to savor this unity that likely required no words. The fact that his disciples asked to be taught a prayer probably means they had not--or only seldom-- heard him pray aloud.

Perhaps Jesus prayer was this quiet awareness of the Father’s abiding in his depths.

Baptism in the Spirit is immersion into this unity that Jesus shared with the heavenly father.

It is the gift of this deep and intense relationship of mutual love with the Father in which his heart transforms our hearts, so that his will and ours are one, a unity of loving and passionate purpose.

This is a gift not once given but is sought daily. We enter it again and again in open-hearted prayer and live it out in the mundane details of the day.

Pr. David L. Miller

Tuesday January 14, 2013

Today’s text

John 1:29-31

The next day, he saw Jesus coming towards him and said, 'Look, there is the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. It was of him that I said, "Behind me comes one who has passed ahead of me because he existed before me." I did not know him myself, and yet my purpose in coming to baptize with water was so that he might be revealed to Israel.'

Reflection

In Jesus presence--and in the presence of the sacraments of Jesus, separation is disappears.  Sin is removed.

Sin is a power in our lives. It not so much bad or evil things that human beings do, as it is the cold distance between us and the warm heart of God.

It is the condition of not dwelling within the personal knowledge of God’s grace and blessing. Within the arc of grace, we know ourselves and our world as beloved and holy, a place where we and all things are made to glorify and praise God. All creation is a gift for sharing.

Freedom appears in Jesus presence. The heart expands, no longer confined by its ordinary anxieties.

It is like standing on a hill and taking in a broad and beautiful landscape that enlarges your vision and allows you to breathe deeply. Hills rise and fall before your eyes, and your heart reaches out to take it in.

You feel as expansive and broad as the scene before you. Freedom fills you, and you are no longer hemmed in, held down by narrow vision and expectations. The constriction of anxiety about yourself, your performance, about tomorrow or the troubles of the day fade away.

You are in a gracious place where their power wanes, and you feel joy and gratitude that is naturally shared with whomever is near.

This is what it is like when the power of sin is taken away. This is what happens in the presence of Jesus--and in the presence of the community who truly knows him.

There are people who truly know Jesus and in whose presence we know the power of Jesus taking away the power of sin in our lives, which is why we hunger for their nearness.  It is also why I am drawn to small groups that gather to pray and talk, welcoming each others joys and sorrows.

They are sacraments of Jesus, a circle of Jesus presence that takes away the sin of the world, eliminating the separation from the heavenly Father, and coaxing us to enter our humanity once more in freedom and joy.

Pr. David L. Miller

Saturday, January 11, 2013

Today’s text

Matthew 3:13-17

Then Jesus appeared: he came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. John tried to dissuade him, with the words, 'It is I who need baptism from you, and yet you come to me!' But Jesus replied, 'Leave it like this for the time being; it is fitting that we should, in this way, do all that uprightness demands.' Then John gave in to him. And when Jesus had been baptized he at once came up from the water, and suddenly the heavens opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming down on him. And suddenly there was a voice from heaven, 'This is my Son, the Beloved; my favor rests on him.'

Reflection

Shortly after Christmas, I was sent a photo of the recent baptism of Autumn. At the end of baptisms, I routinely lift up the child baptized and invite the congregation to welcome this precious life with all the warmth and joy that is in us. On this day, someone captured this moment. 

As I lifted the child, the camera caught the instant when light from the sanctuary windows enveloped the little girl in a veil of light. 

Her eyes were wide open and fixed on me. I was smiling, as I am sure Autumn's family was smiling … the same way that God smiles on Jesus at his baptism and calls him ‘beloved,’ the one with whom he is well pleased.

This was a graced moment of joy, holding a tender child in the fullness of love and delight for a precious new life.

It is also how the heavenly Father sees Jesus.

I wonder where Jesus was looking at the moment of his baptism. Heavenward, perhaps. Where ever he was looking his heart was attuned to the heavenly father whose love enveloped him and filled his consciousness.

It was an identity moment, a moment when Jesus knew exactly who he was. He knew he was filled with the substance of God. He was filled with the joy and delight, the love and heart of the Source of the Universe.

It was an identity moment, too, for the precious life that I lifted that Sunday into the light of God’s grace, a moment when there is no doubt: This life is known and loved from the depth of the heart of God and always will be.

This is a life the Holy One treasures and will seek every day of her life. This is a life rapt in a love we shall never understand, a love that says not even death can snatch her from me.

“You are mine and I am yours,” Christ said on the day of her baptism… and on the day of your baptism.

You are the child, the man, the woman who is wanted and sought, treasured and held in the light of a love that refuses to let you go. Child of God, this is your identity. 

This is the identity Jesus came to shape so deeply in your mind and heart that you live everyday feeling the veil of God’s love enveloping your life, so that this light and love may be the face with which you meet ever moment of your days.

Powerful social forces and billions of dollars spent in our commercial culture tell us we are not acceptable unless we are thin enough, strong enough, fit enough, successful enough, rich enough, popular enough, beautiful enough, young enough, smart enough or hip enough.

But we do not know ourselves, our identities, until we see and feel ourselves as this little child baptized and held, surrounded by the light of God. We don’t get it until we hear the heavenly Father’s voice saying, “You are my child, the beloved.”

That voice is for Jesus and the mission he carried out revealing God’s kingdom and heart. But it is for you, too, for his mission is to bring you into the same relationship with the heavenly Father as he shared. 

As he knew himself as beloved of God, so are we to know ourselves as God’s beloved. As God used him to change the world, so are we to understand ourselves as beloved souls God will use to change the world.

This is your identity, the identity Jesus comes to give you.

You are God’s child, worthy of love and respect. God will use you to change the world.

Pr. David L. Miller