Discovering Discipleship

Look at what happened when the small group prayed after Peter and John were released from prison.

When they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness.   Acts 4:31


Repeatedly we hear that when the believers prayed that God be with them and strengthen them the result took them into places of the mind, heart and soul that were previously unknown.  The foundation of their life was Christ -- solid!  But that foundation shook the structures of their life.  The words they spoke, rooted in Christ, were activated with a boldness that gave them power and authority in His Name.  


Wow!  


That is still happening today.  


When we worship each Sunday and pray together, do we trust that the place in which we gather will shake? When we go out in His Name how do we pay attention to the Holy Spirit's nudges that guide and energize us?  


I invite each one of you reading this post to visit CRLC's new online resource,  Discovering Discipleship, which will be up and running in the next few days.  It is a place for you to visit in the days following Sundays sending words:  Go in peace, serve the poor!  Go in peace, share the Good News!  (or any number of sendings).  


The point is, Sundays and our worship experiences are the bookends for our ministry during the other days of the week.  We want to be intentional about discovering how God is guiding us through the world, because discipleship isn't always the first (or dominant) thing on our minds all seven days of the week.  


Discovering Discipleship postings will appear at least twice a week.  Come.  Be open to discovering the path God is placing before you as you "Go in peace".      

Christ is Risen!  Alleluia!  


Not the end of the story.  It is the beginning of the story.  


Like buds sprouting or blades rising, something new is emerging in your life.  


Life will never be the same.  

We are, of course, Easter People.  We live and move in the joy of the resurrection, which we will celebrate VERY soon. 

According to creed and tradition,  between the crucifixion and the resurrection, Christ descended into hell.  He claimed redeemed those who had been trapped there. 

The Harrowing of Hell

Soul wails

Grovels in torment’s tendrils

Body long worm eaten, soul empty.

             Agonized.

Every small or grand wrong committed (every good omitted) wraps around

             the remains of the heart of soul – cords of iron, forged in pain’s flame. 

Every movement, the slightest motion, clamps the vice of sin another degree. 

             Every day I am drawn more deeply into the yawning maw that is

             Eternal.  Dark.  Despaiar. 

I thought death was finality—that it was total nonexistence. 

             That would have been better.  Far better. 

The empty desolation of all that I ever was sees a something lurking, skulking, stalking.

            A presence that is frigid emptiness.

The dark angel flutters.   It holds me in its chilling burning clench, piercing with empty infusions

that saturate with perpetual, hopeless LOSS.

In the core of my heart’s remains, yet in the remote distance I hear LOVE silently moaning.

 A strong yet beaten voice cries out:   "Father....Why have you forsaken me?"

∞∞∞∞

From beyond wherever I am, a stirring of windy breath and a voice shouting softly.

The cosmos splits with: “It is finished!"

In the center of my desire, yet in the unreachable distance something stirs,

like new life nestled deeply in a womb.

Chains, shackles and weights are loosened, lifted up in life breathing joy.

Eyes long dissolved see Love and hear forgiveness claiming a parched soul.

 I am enfolded.

 Claimed.

Gathered into the ONE who formed every fiber of my flesh in the

                        bowels of the earth long before time began, before there ever was time.

Alpha.  Omega.  Priestly Beloved Companion. 

 My God,  how can it be that
you came here to find me?


by Pamela Czarnota

Good Friday

The Solemn Reproaches

Read the text silently.  Stay with it as long as you wish.  Then read aloud the words in bold.  Move on. 

O my people, O my church, what have I done to you? How have I offended you? Answer me! I led you out of slavery into freedom, and delivered you through the waters of rebirth, but you have prepared a cross for your Savior.

Holy God, holy and mighty, holy and immortal, have mercy on us.

Forty years I led you through the desert, feeding you with manna on the way; I saved you from the time of trial and gave you my body, the bread of heaven, but you have prepared a cross for your Savior.

Holy God, holy and mighty, holy and immortal, have mercy on us.

 I led you on your way in a pillar of cloud and fire, but you led me to the judgment hall of Pilate; I guided you with the light of the Holy Spirit, but you have prepared a cross for your Savior.

Holy God, holy and mighty, holy and immortal, have mercy on us.

I planted you as my fairest vine, but you have brought forth biter fruit; I made you branches of the vine and never left your side, but you have prepared a cross for your Savior.

Holy God, holy and mighty, holy and immortal, have mercy on us.

O my people, O my church, what more could I have done for you? Answer me! I poured out saving water from the rock, but you gave me vinegar to drink; I poured out my life and gave you the new covenant in my blood, but you have prepared a cross for your Savior.

Holy God, holy and mighty, holy and immortal, have mercy on us.


O my people, O my church, what more could I have done for you? Answer me! I gave you a royal scepter, but you gave me a crown of thorns; I gave you the kingdom and crowned you with eternal life, but you have prepared a cross for your Savior.

Holy God, holy and mighty, holy and immortal, have mercy on us.

I struck down your enemies, but you struck my head with a reed; I gave you my peace, but you draw the sword in my name, and you have prepared a cross for your Savior.

Holy God, holy and mighty, holy and immortal, have mercy on us.

I opened the waters to lead you to the promised land, but you opened my side with a spear; I washed your feet as a sign of my love, but you have prepared a cross for your Savior.

Holy God, holy and mighty, holy and immortal, have mercy on us.

O my people, O my church, what more could I have down for you? Answer me! I lifted you up to the heights, but you lifted me high on a cross; I raised you from death and prepared for you the tree of life, but you have prepared a cross for your Savior.

Holy God, holy and mighty, holy and immortal, have mercy on us.

I grafted you into my people Israel, but you made them scapegoats for your own guilt, and you have prepared a cross for your Savior.

Holy God, holy and mighty, holy and immortal, have mercy on us.

I came to you in the least of your brothers and sisters, but I was hungry and you gave me no food, thirsty and you gave me no drink, a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me, and you have prepared a cross for your Savior.

Holy God, holy and mighty, holy and immortal, have mercy on us.

Maundy Thursday

John 13:1-17, 31b-35

 Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him. And during supper Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself.

 Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him.

He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, "Lord, are you going to wash my feet?"

Jesus answered, "You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand."

 Peter said to him, "You will never wash my feet." Jesus answered, "Unless I wash you, you have no share with me."

Simon Peter said to him, "Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!"

Jesus said to him, "One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet, but is entirely clean. And you are clean, though not all of you."

For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, "Not all of you are clean."

After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, "Do you know what I have done to you?

You call me Teacher and Lord--and you are right, for that is what I am.  So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet.

For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.

Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them.

If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.

When he had gone out, Jesus said, "Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him.

If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once.  Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, 'Where I am going, you cannot come.'

I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.

 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

Wednesday of Holy Week

Isaiah 50:4-9a

The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of a teacher, that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word. Morning by morning he wakens-- wakens my ear to listen as those who are taught.

The Lord GOD has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, I did not turn backward.

I gave my back to those who struck me, and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard; I did not hide my face from insult and spitting.

The Lord GOD helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame; he who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who are my adversaries? Let them confront me.

It is the Lord GOD who helps me; who will declare me guilty?

Tuesday of Holy Week

1 Corinthians 1:18-31

For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

 For it is written, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart."

 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe.

 For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

For God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength.
Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.

But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God.

He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption,in order that, as it is written, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord."

Monday of Holy Week

Isaiah 42:1-9

Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations.

He will not cry or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; a bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice.

He will not grow faint or be crushed until he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his teaching.

Thus says God, the LORD, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people upon it and spirit to those who walk in it:

I am the LORD, I have called you in righteousness, I have taken you by the hand and kept you; I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness.

I am the LORD, that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to idols.

See, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth, I tell you of them.

Notes for Holy Week

Pray Your Way Through Holy Week

Write if you wish, but try to focus upon what is going on in your faith life right now during Holy Week 2012 rather than in the past. 

Try not to look at this week as a Bible Study or a Writing Exercise.  Rather, look at it as a time for sitting with God in the presence of scripture.  Perhaps you can let God “read” you – your thoughts and emotions that go deeper than your written or spoken word. 

Go all the way to the Cross.  Abide with Holy Saturday, allowing yourself to contemplate what it means that God searches for you all the time, especially in the dead and dark, hellish places of your existence.

Avoid the temptation to fast forward to Easter’s Alleluia!!!!

(even if you are leading or preparing for Easter Sunday Worship)

Before you pray:  Pay attention to how you are right now. 

God meets you where and how you are, not as you think you should be or wish you could be. 

Take this short but comprehensive inventory:

How am I physically (level of fatigue, tension, headaches, misbehaving organs, even sore toes.)

How am I emotionally?  Quality and intensity of emotions.  Name them.  Are the feelings rapidly changing or fairly consistent?

How am I mentally?  Clear thinking?  Muddy?  Focused?  Chaotic?  Linear or swirling? 

What can you say about how you are in prayer right now?

That is, are you feeling close to God?  Distant?  Hungry for God’s presence?  Wanting to hide?  Ready to just “hang out” with God for a while? 

This inventory helps you to become more aware of how God is reaching out to you through scripture.  Remember, God meets you where and how you ARE. 

Now: 

Read the lesson slowly.

1.       Name the words,  phrases or images that catch your attention. 

2.      Sit with that portion of the passage.  Where does the passage touch your life?  What emotions are arising? 

3.       What does God seem to be saying to you through the passage?  How is God inviting you to be?  What might God be inviting you to do? 

If you accept God’s invitation, how might you change or what might be changed in your life? 

After you pray, consider the following: 

If you could talk with God about this time of prayer, what would you want to say? What would you want to hear from God?                                                                                                      .

Is there anything that you want to take with you from this time of prayer? Anything you want to continue to be with?   

Love Palm Sunday? Why?

Mark 14:1-15:47

Today you will attend church and you have an opportunity to be a part of the parading crowd, singing “Hosanna!” (which means, God save us!)  You will hear the Passion Story read in its entirety.  You will pass through the gates of expectations and experiences that have been building throughout the story of your life as you have written and reflected throughout Lent. 

You will now enter Holy Week 2012.  Do everything you can to stay present to each day this week.  This week I encourage you to pay attention to what God is moving and molding in you now rather than what has gone on in your faith journey in previous years. 

Begin today by envisioning the scene when Jesus enters Jerusalem.  Given the truth of who you are TODAY as a person of faith, where would you be?  Following Him?  Standing on the sidelines but still singing out?  Hiding timidly behind closed doors, waiting for the crowd to pass?

Go deeper:   Many people “love” to come to church on Palm Sunday.  Do you?  If so, why?  If not, why not? 

What do you do with the palms you receive every Palm Sunday?  Do you keep them?  Weave them into a cross?  Hang them over a picture?  Place them into your Bible?  Leave them behind? 

Why do you think you do what you do with them?  What do they mean to you? 

In the moment(s) of dying to self, what did you learn?  What might you say about those moments to give you strength when the next “dying moment” comes?  What could you say that might encourage another facing the cost of discipleship? 

As you “die”: 

What does God reveal to you about God?

What does God reveal to you about yourself?

What does God reveal to you about others? 

Do you know these by heart?

Seek, find, and inscribe upon your heart words of scripture or song that help you be a sacrificial steward of your life. 

Scripture: 

Psalm 42:1-3                           My soul thirsts for the living

 God

Isaiah 40:27-31                       Those who wait on the Lord

 will renew their

 strength

Matthew 11:28-30                  I will give you rest

2 Corinthians 12:7b-10           God’s power made

perfect in weakness

Songs:

Tree of Life and Awesome Mystery               ELW #334

Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross                      ELW #335

Beneath the Cross of Jesus                             ELW #338

A Lamb Goes Uncomplaining Forth              ELW #340

Take My Life, That I May Be                         ELW #685

We Are an Offering                                        ELW #692

“Once Upon a Time I lost my life.”   

Was there ever a time when you completely set aside your pride or preferences or abundance for the sake of another? 

It may have been a situation that took you somewhere or towards someone that you REALLY abhorred.  Or it may have been an occurrence when circumstances stripped you of all power where there was no hope for you to “save” yourself.

How did that opportunity come your way?  How did you approach the moment of sacrifice? 

What was the result of that sacrifice?  How or where have you seen the “much fruit” that Jesus describes about the outcome of “dying to self”? 

Do you love your life?

John 12:20-33  (excerpt below)

…Jesus answered them, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.  Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.

Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.

"Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say--' Father, save me from this hour'? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour.

Loyalty is a wonderful thing.  It describes a relationship that will not be shaken or diluted by time or circumstance.  Once you proclaim your loyalty, you are in a relationship to the person or organization that only YOU can dissolve. 

Jesus has been teaching about and modeling the way God’s Kingdom.  Although the disciples haven’t always understood completely, they have been following by his side or closely behind him. 

This week is the week of commitment. Jesus is laying it on the line, so to speak.  This is the week that we learn CLEARLY what Jesus is asking us, and all loyal disciples to do, even as he goes before us to do it first. 

In  order to be loyal (i.e., to follow) Him we must set aside all that we claim as our life and possessions.  The only way the greatest good of life or resources can unfold is to set it all before Christ as you follow him and stand with Him at the cross. 

For reflection and writing: 

If Christian Discipleship requires your willingness to lose your life for the sake of others, consider this:  Is there anything you hold so precious that you would hesitate to surrender it for the sake of another?  What is it?  How can you loosen your hold on it (or its hold upon you)?

By the way, if there is nothing that you withhold—not time, talent (ability) or possession, use this day to give thanks for whatever it is that has made that possible.   Perhaps you can use this day share your abundance with another.  

Inscribed upon the heart

Jeremiah 31:31-34

The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.

It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt--a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the LORD.

But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, "Know the LORD," for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.

Reflection:

What types of information do you know by heart? 

To know something this well means that we can repeat it without much thought.  It is literally on the tip of our tongue. 

How does something become “known” in this way (by heart)?  Perhaps we work to memorize the information.  Or perhaps we think of it or use it so frequently that it becomes embedded and readily accessible.  It is more than just knowing something.  To know something by heart means that it can be transmitted in an instant – no searching the data banks of our mind. 

Perhaps the reason this kind of information is described as being “known by heart” has something to do with its practicality.  Perhaps, also it has something to do with the emotional connection it has to our personal experience. 

When something is written upon our heart we no longer think about it.  Some have said that the distance between the head and the heart is the longest distance in creation, especially when it pertains to our understanding of God’s sovereignty, mercy and love. 

Let your light shine so that others may see.

As you have written (or thought) about your movement from dark into light, doubt into faith, unbelief into belief, consider the touch points of grace. What are some of the ripple effects that might flesh out your own "witness" to others about Jesus Christ.  

How does your own story resonate in your memory as a source of inspiration on your own dark days?  To whom might you tell your story as a way to inspire them?  (a child?  A young adult?  A seeker?  Anyone who is questioning faith?) 

Words of Light

Seek, find and read scripture or lyrics to a hymn which relates to your idea of who Jesus is and how God reaches out to all the world in Christ.

Memorize or record these words so that you have them readily accessible when you face the darkness of doubt within or around you. 

Scripture: 

John 3:14-21                            For God so loved the world

Romans 8:31-39                       I am convinced

Philippians 2:5-11                   At the name of Jesus every knee should bend

Song:

I Love to Tell the Story                                  ELW #661

What Wondrous Love Is This?                       ELW #666

Lord, Speak to Us, That We May Speak        ELW #676

This Little Light of Mine                                ELW #677

Darkness cannot overcome the light. But sometimes we prefer the darkness.

John 3: 19-21

And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.

For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed.

But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God."

Have you ever experienced the darkness of doubt and despair?  Have you ever found yourself trying to hide from the light of Christ’s truth?

When you returned to God and your folly was held in the light of God’s love and forgiveness, what happened?  This is more than and deeper than accepting the consequences for poor choices or mistakes.  It is about a return to wholeness.

Perhaps you have never fallen into darkness.  Do you directly and personally know somebody who has?  How did you serve them as a believer—as a child of God? 

Go deeper.  If you did wander in the darkness, what brought you back?  Perhaps it was a person.  Perhaps you hit the "bottom" -- who or what was involved in that bottom?  What did you learn about God?  What did you learn about yourself?  What did you learn about others?  

I'm a believer. I wasn't always a believer.

Once Upon A Time, I realized that I truly believed that Jesus Christ is God’s Son.  Ever since then, that belief has made all the difference. 

For your writing:

Perhaps like many people nowadays, you can recall a time “before Christ” in your life.  How did you manage your life at that time?  What were your priorities?  What did you believe was “true” about the world, about yourself and about others?

Even if you can’t remember ever being a non-believer, there are probably people you recall who told you most clearly about Jesus.  They may have told you Bible stories. 

Perhaps there was a time when you began to wonder if it was really true.  Perhaps circumstances were working against your faith, or perhaps you were simply wandering into the territory of doubt. 

Is there somebody who said or did something that opened up your eyes in a new way that refreshed your faith? 

Who proclaimed Christ’s power as Son of God?  Who showed you what it meant to know the love of God? 

Whom have you told about Jesus Christ?  To whom have you demonstrated the love of God? 

Sabbath Time

Ephesians 2:1-10

You were dead through the trespasses and sins in which you once lived, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient.

All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else.  But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved--and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God--not the result of works, so that no one may boast.

For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.

And  John 3:16-17
 "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

 "Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.


After you return from church today:  For Reflection:  What do you remember MOST about today's worship experience.  


Or if you did not attend worship, how did you observe the Sabbath Day?  

Cleansing Agents

Step back from what you wrote about being cleansed or being the one to initiate a cleansing in your family, workplace or congregation. 

Look between the lines of your story and ask yourself: 

What did God reveal to me about God?

What did God reveal to me about myself? about others? 

How do the lessons guide and perhaps inspire me now? 

Go deeper if you wish:  How do you respond to criticism?  Sometimes it is easier to tolerate criticism from somebody we don’t like than it is to accept criticism from somebody we love.  As you pray about areas where you have been challenged by criticism, does it reveal anything that Jesus might be trying to drive from your “temple”?  (ie, your body, your household or your congregation)

Claim the power of the Word

Take time to read scripture or lyrics to a hymn that provide strength during a time of cleansing and purification. 

 Think and pray about why the words are particularly powerful for you.  Perhaps the power is connected to a particular time and place.  Perhaps they are words you heard that shook something negative out of you.  Maybe they are words you prayed or spoke as you served as one of God’s truth speakers. 

Scripture: 

Psalm 51     Create in me a clean heart

Psalm 102   Do not hide your face from me

Joel 2:12-13   Return to the Lord, your God

Romans 12: 1-5     Present your body as living sacrifices

2 Corinthians 12:7b-10  A thorn in the flesh

1 John 1:5-2:2  If we confess our sin, God is faithful and

just

Song:

When I Survey the Wondrous Cross        ELW #803

Lord Jesus, Think on Me                          ELW #599

Out of the Depths I Cry to You                ELW #600

Built on a Rock                                         ELW #652

Where True Charity and Love Abide       ELW 653

Elephant Namers

Every once in a while we are called to be the agents of dramatic changes in a household.  Some people call it “tough love”.  Others refer to it as naming the elephant in the room, or calling a spade a spade. 

When God uses us in this way we often need to face the status quo and disrupt it in the name of a greater good.  It is often a matter of justice.  It is always a matter of bringing the truth into the light. 

It rarely makes us popular in the eyes of others. 

Reflection:  How have YOU been used in word or deed as an agent of truth and authoritative love. 

Write:  Once upon a time, I was the person who waved chords of truth that changed my household (or workplace or congregation or community).                       

Once Upon A Time, Jesus made me look at what he wanted to cast out of me. 

How does that part of your story unfold?  Here’s the truth:  It is so easy to forget that our bodies moving through time and space on any given day are the vehicle and instrument of God’s love.  If we are free of interior and exterior blemishes, that love shines brilliantly to others.  If we have taken on a murky attitude or we are dominated by fear, that love is hidden and/or distorted.  If our strengths and resources are being guarded too tightly or if they are being used for something other than for God’s glory, they will be radically less effective.  They may even harm others. 

Finally, if we abuse our bodies through poor nutrition, or lethargy, or any number of addictions, we sacrifice awareness, energy and endurance.  When God wants to use us in some way, we won’t be prepared to serve. 

Some of the attitudes that Jesus zealously calls from me are: 

             Fear and doubt

Pride and Pretenses that try to assert my own

 preciousness

             Anything that is self indulgent at the

                        expense of another. 

             Any superficiality that tries to deceive others

                        about what is really happening

Usually it is a matter of gentle, consistent invitations to keep striving for the better ways of Jesus.  But every once in a while I experience a knock up side (or over) the head that says, “Hey, Pamela, there isn’t room in God’s temple (ie. YOUR life and your body) for this.  Quit it!”   

It seems that many of my most vigorous phases of ministry have been preceded by a time of being trimmed or tamed by Christ. 

Reflection:

Have you ever been confronted by the zeal of God’s cleansing love?  What needed to be removed from your life or from your physical behavior? What can you say about the result? 

God's Temple

John 2:13-22

The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables.
Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables.

He told those who were selling the doves, "Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father's house a marketplace!"

His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for your house will consume me."

The Jews then said to him, "What sign can you show us for doing this?" Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."

The Jews then said, "This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?"

But he was speaking of the temple of his body.

Years later, Jesus' words will echo in Paul's first letter to the church at Corinth. "Do you not know," the apostle will ask them—and us—"that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?" (1 Corinthians 3.16). We are the body of Christ, both broken and beautiful; in us God's Spirit makes its home.

How is it with your temple this day?

Blessing the Body

This blessing takes

one look at you

and all it can say is

holy.

Holy hands.

Holy face.

Holy feet.

Holy everything

in between.

Holy even in pain.

Holy even when weary.

In brokenness, holy.

In shame, holy still.

Holy in delight.

Holy in distress.

Holy when being born.

Holy when we lay it down

at the hour of our death.

So, friend,

open your eyes

(holy eyes).

For one moment

see what this blessing sees,

this blessing that knows

how you have been formed

and knit together

in wonder and

in love.

Welcome this blessing

that folds its hands

in prayer

when it meets you;

receive this blessing

that wants to kneel

in reverence

before you:

you who are

temple,

sanctuary,

home for God

in this world.

This blessing is from “Teach Me Your Paths: A Pilgrimage into Lent.”    By Jan Richardson

http://paintedprayerbook.com/2012/03/05/3rd-sunday-in-lent-speaking-of-the-body/

In preparation for the next leg of your story, remember that your body is God's vehicle and instrument.  Your body is the means by which God's mission walks through time and space wherever you go.  St. Paul (1Corinthians 3:16) asks us if we know (unbelievable as it may seem) that WE are EACH God's temple.  

Well, I don't know about you, but sometimes I tend to forget that!  Consider this blessing, written and offered by Jan Richardson on The Painted Prayer Book.  

Blessing the Body

This blessing takes

one look at you

and all it can say is

holy.

Holy hands.

Holy face.

Holy feet.

Holy everything

in between.

Holy even in pain.

Holy even when weary.

In brokenness, holy.

In shame, holy still.

Holy in delight.

Holy in distress.

Holy when being born.

Holy when we lay it down

at the hour of our death.

So, friend,

open your eyes

(holy eyes).

For one moment

see what this blessing sees,

this blessing that knows

how you have been formed

and knit together

in wonder and

in love.

Welcome this blessing

that folds its hands

in prayer

when it meets you;

receive this blessing

that wants to kneel

in reverence

before you:

you who are

temple,

sanctuary,

home for God

in this world.

Praying between the lines

Friday, March 9, 2012

Step back from what you wrote about challenges, interruptions and shutdowns this week.  Look between the lines of your story and ask yourself: 

What did God reveal to me about God?

What did God reveal to me about myself? about others? 

How do the lessons guide and perhaps inspire me now? 

Go deeper if you wish:  Are you on a trajectory now?  Or are your plans stalled?  Facing resistance?  Has somebody said to you “You are setting your mind on human things, not on divine things”?

Rooted in the Word

 Take time to read scripture or lyrics to a hymn that you rely upon for support or spiritual guidance. 

 Think and pray about why the words are particularly powerful for you.  Perhaps the power is connected to a particular time and place.  Perhaps one of your mentors or counselors offered it to you when you needed it most.  Or perhaps it was a reading or song that made you stop in your tracks for a while. 

Record your thoughts to be a reminder to yourself that the words are there for you, at your finger tips, the next time your plans and dreams seem to be challenged.   

Scripture: 

Jeremiah 29:11-14  I know the plans I have for you

Psalm 139                You search me and know me

Isaiah 55: 8-9          My ways are not your ways

Song:

Will You Come and Follow Me           ELW #798

Come, Follow Me, the Savior Spake    ELW #799

Oh, Jesus, I have Promised                   ELW #810

When I Survey the Wondrous Cross     ELW #803

Your part in the scene

Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.

He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.

But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, "Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things."

Matthew 8:31-33

Have you ever been encouraged to do something that you knew in that moment would not be wise or for the ultimate good?  How did you assert your own sense of what was the right path to take?  Did you say (in some way or another) "Get behind me Satan?"  Did you try their suggestion (not wanting to make waves) and then make a mid course correction?  

The Grace of a Delay

Sometimes we determine for ourselves a trajectory (or plan) that sounds great on paper.  It may even be affirmed by others.  They may, of course, be legitimate encouragers.  But they may also be merely trying to please us.  Or they may have other motives.  It is important to learn from our experiences that not everybody who has an opinion about what we are considering as a "plan" is an appropriate source of counsel.  Their input may be rooted, at best, in narrow vision; or in worst cases, they may in some way NOT want us to flourish.  

This time of reflection is not meant to move you into a judgmental mode where you criticize the "other" for the way you were shut down.  It is a time for you to understand where and how God was with you in the midst of the challenge.  Take a deeper look.  Barriers to our plans can be frustrating, like detours, road closed signs and speed bumps in a parking lot.  Sometimes they are nothing more than an inconvenience or the law's effort at traffic control  But sometimes they do, literally, save us from a possible disaster, had we been able to keep moving on our preferred road at our self determined pace.  

Read, Reflect and Write.

Was the interruption in your plans like a brick wall?  or a stop sign? a caution sign? or a speed bump?  Did it enable you to traverse a scenic or enlightening byway?  Now as you look at the delay, where can you see God's work in it? 

When you argued with God

Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.

He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.

But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, "Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things."


Matthew 8:31-33

Most of us have been here with Peter.  When we enter discipleship, enthusiasm may take over, and we may begin to dream dreams and envision plans that are not necessarily the way God would have them. 

Any barrier or call for a more patient pace may seem like an affront.  It may not make sense to us.  We may get defensive.  Or our lower lip may jut out in disappointment

 and we may quit, saying something like:  If I can’t have it my way then I won’t do it at all. 

Living in ambiguity can generate all sorts of anxiety.  We need God’s help and guidance in many ways, but especially in becoming vulnerable, unknowing, and obedient.  Dependency upon God increases our faith-hardiness and our resiliency.

I recall a moment when I met with the Assistant to the Bishop to discuss candidacy in the ELCA.  I waxed eloquent to her about my sense of call.  I also told her all of the ways my gifts could most certainly be used -- when, where, how.  At that moment she interrupted me.  In Christ's Name, she rebuked me.  

She said, "You are not ready.  You are too certain about the way this is supposed to work.  Go back to your prayers regarding this.  Listen.  And when you are ready to say nothing more about this than "Yes, and I ask God to help and guide me" come back and we will talk about candidacy." 

I was disappointed and hurt.  I thought that the more I knew about my path (setting my mind on human things) the more effective I would be in discipleship.  Not so.  The less I know the more likely I am to follow the guidance of the divine.  

I thank God, now, that I was rebuked.  I needed that.  

Read, Reflect and Write. 

This week you begin with "Once upon a time, I set my mind on human things."  Can you recall a time when you "knew everything" about the way things were supposed to go?  When did you trust what humans were telling you (through media or peer pressure or your own ego) more than what God was saying?  Who (or what) showed up to rebuke you? 

Sometimes we call these turning points "reality checks".  Something happens that places what we are doing or thinking in line with "reality" and we discover that we have been denying what is true.  When it comes to faithful discipleship,  it may be more accurate to call these turning points "divinity checks".