by Carol Dixon
‘Then God looked at everything he had made.
It was very beautiful, so very good!’ [Book of Books by Trevor Dennis]
The other day I posted one of David Adam’s beautiful prayers about caring for God’s world on Godspacelight in response to Louise Connor’s reflection “Back” and its Stories and I thought it would be good to tell a bit of the story behind David’s lovely prayer.
Recently my daily devotions have been taken from some of the Celtic writers and their care for the world we live in. I was blest to meet Canon David Adam, a prolific writer on Celtic spirituality, when he was the vicar of Lindisfarne and to see his living spirituality in action firsthand as he prayed and taught in the church there. Afterward we shared some memories of growing up in Northumberland – we were both from the town of Alnwick. Although David was 10 years older than me, many of our memories of our hometown and the countryside around it in the mid part of the 20th century were the same and we both shared a love of the beauty of the world God created.
Alnwick in the 1950s (Old postcard)
It seemed a simpler time then in the early 1950s, post World War 2, when people didn’t have much and what we had we often shared with our neighbours. There didn’t seem to be the striving towards acquiring more and more possessions and most people were in the same boat – rationing was a great leveler – and there wasn’t as much plastic about. Both our mothers carried string shopping bags for their daily shop and the weekly groceries were delivered by a boy on a bicycle in a cardboard box on the front of it (it must have taken him ages to deliver everything!). The travelling shop stopped in each street once a week and the fishmonger brought round locally caught fish door to door and for the rest of the fresh items we went for the daily ‘messages’ to the butchers, bakers etc. (no fridges in those days), while the milkman was up early in the morning to deposit a glass milk bottle on each doorstep. I was delighted to discover that his grandfather was the lamplighter whom my granny used to tell me came round at 8pm every night just after curfew sounded on the Town Hall clock in Market Place. We agreed that it wasn’t all idyllic though – most of the buildings were a sooty black from the coal fires and the fields on the edge of town smelled strongly of invasive fertiliser in early spring to encourage the crops to grow in the cold northeast climate – perhaps that is why he came to care so much for the environment round us.
In his final book Love The World David traces the history of the universe and encourages us to care for the Earth. He invites us to look upon our planet and care for it as God does.
In the chapter on Grasses, he writes ‘grasses grow from their base… So they are almost indestructible surviving fire, flood, frost and drought, grazing animals and mowing by humans. Grasslands support and sustain more animals than any other habitat… Let us remember that includes us.‘ and he continues with a poem.
Photo by Gary Fultz on Unsplash
Lament for a hay meadow.
The year the farmer ploughed the hay meadow
I felt bereft; it had been there since my birth.
Machinery had done its work
And the creatures had lost their home.
Sweet grasses, corn cockle and bunting,
Lark song from the sky,
The yellow buttercup and the bees,
All disappeared without time for goodbye.
Lady’s mantle and her bedstraw,
The oxeye daisies and the camomile,
Never to be seen anymore.
To lose flowers, birds and creatures
Feel like a total eclipse of the sun. [© David Adam]
Photo by Chinh Le Duc on Unsplash
A prayer
Creator God
We are astounded at your care for the world,
For each tiny bird and bush,
plant and person, insect and animal;
For each star and constellation in the immensity
Of the beautiful universe that you created;
And as you looked at everything you had made
You saw that it was good.
Help us to look upon our earth and its people
With the same love and learn to care for it
as you care for all things, from the greatest to the least
So that we leave our planet ‘as good as new’
For future generations who come after us
So they may see that everything is beautiful
As you intended.
(© Carol Dixon – based on ‘God makes the world’ from The Book of Books – The Bible retold for young people by Trevor Dennis)
My friend (& co-writer for Godspacelight) Sheila Hamil has written a wonderful song about seeing the world with God’s eyes which she is delighted for me to share with you.
May it be our prayer too.
Painting of the Earth from space, Photo by Elena Mozhvilo on Unsplash
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Return to Our Senses explores approaches to prayer that connect our spiritual practices to everyday life, awakening all our senses to a deeper relationship to our loving God. Some of the practices have existed for centuries and only require us to tap into the rich knowledge and practices of ancient followers of Christ to access them. Others will be newly created, springing fresh from our imaginations and creativity, specially designed for intimacy with God in our present culture. This is a great book for group study.
Available in paperback or to download – the download version comes with a free study guide! Also available bundled with breath cards. See more in our shop!
by Melissa Taft
Editor’s Note: This is now CLOSED for submissions. Thank you to those who contributed, and stay tuned for more information!
You may have heard by now that Godspace is putting together a cookbook, and we are looking for submissions. You might know about our fabulous Hospitality Resource Page and the many recipes therein – wouldn’t it be lovely to have it all at the tip of your fingers? Plus recipes from our authors and Godspace family – and maybe even YOU!
We are hoping to gather this resource over the next two months as part of our theme Embracing the Wild Hospitality of God and have it available for purchase in time for Christmas!
Over the years Christine has generously shared many of her famous recipes, and is excited to gather them together in one spot and support the work that Godspace is doing at the same time. What a lovely gift it would make for so many situations -newlyweds, new cooks, new adults, old friends, that one aunt who always brings the same thing and it doesn’t get eaten except for polite bites at the family potlucks but maybe if they could just find some better recipes it would work out better for them and this could help, your college buddy, the sky is the limit.
So how can you help your aunt AND Godspace at the same time? Send in some recipes! For those who contribute three or more recipes, you will receive a FREE downloadable copy. We truly want this to be a Godspace community effort, embracing the wild hospitality of our community and thusly God’s hospitality as we share a virtual smörgåsbord. As Christine has said, “Do you have a favourite recipe or two you would like to contribute? We really do want this to be representative of the Godspacelight community and would love it if some of our readers are able to contribute too. We are particularly interested in original recipes or those passed down from family members, like my grandmother’s shortbread recipe.” There’s something wonderful about a recipe that has love and meaning behind it; a history. With that in mind, here are the guidelines:
- Send your recipes to godspacelight@gmail.com by September 30th
- The directions must be in your own words, no matter where you got it from.
- If your recipe has an origin other than your own creativity, be sure to attribute it correctly – tell us where it comes from! (See below for more on recipe attribution)
- Tell us why this recipe is important to you. How do you use it? When do you use it? Is it special because it’s a family heirloom? Is it good for feeding a crowd? Just a few sentences please – a paragraph will usually do, though a sentence or two is fine!
As you can see we want this to be more than just a set of ingredients and instructions – we want to get a flavor of our global community and make it something truly special, something we can all be proud of and turn to time and again for encouragement and ideas. As Christine said, “This is an invitation to all our readers so please consider inviting your friends to contribute too. Are you a vegetarian, a vegan or a meat eater? What decisions shape your life and the food you eat? How do you incorporate seasonal foods? How do these decisions impact your life? These are all aspects of the wild hospitality of God that we would love to draw together in this book.”
As far as being able to publish and use the recipe, what we basically need is for you to give us the instructions in your own words and to tell us where it’s adapted from. That’s all it boils down to! The ingredients and measurements can obviously stay the same, and there’s only so many ways you can say “pulse the dough”, but both to publish and because we want to hear this recipe from YOU, from your heart to our stomachs, we want to know how you make what it is you make. So tell us in your own words. And tell us where it came from: “recipe adapted from my mom,” “recipe adapted from this website,” “original recipe in this cookbook, adapted here” etc. David Lebovitz elucidates more here:
The answer is that you cannot cut and paste content directly from one website onto another (yours) unless you have their permission. If you wish to republish someone else’s recipe, you should do what newspapers and magazines do and “adapt” the recipe, which means that you’re not just changing a few words around, but actually completely rewriting the recipe in your own words, explaining how you made the recipe.
And that is what we want – how YOU made the recipe. You, our treasured Godspace readers, authors, community. One of the recipes I’ll be including is our family’s lemon bar recipe, which comes from a cookbook that was hand-typed and hand-bound at some point in the 1920’s or 1930’s as a fundraiser for my great-grandma’s church ministry. Hand-drawn illustrations, poems, and the like adorned the pages along with stories and no-nonsense no-context recipes. My great-grandma passed it to my grandma, who passed it to my mother, who passed it to my sister. But we all have a copy of those lemon bars, as they have long been a family staple! And that’s what this cookbook reminds me of. Family treasures and community, embracing hospitality with wild abandon. Cheers!
Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash
Enjoy this FREE download – a compilation of all the beautiful art, poetry, stories and more that made up our Artful Julybilee. Explore what it means to live as Christ lived through the lens of art – with contributions by many of our authors. All in one beautiful booklet – visit our shop for more info!
by guest Margery Tate via Carol Dixon
Summer Song
Summer suns are glowing …
Prayer
Loving God, we praise you for this beautiful season of summer.
We praise you for the gift of this day and for the beauty all around us.
We praise you for buttercups and wildflowers in the meadows, sparkling streams and blue skies.
We praise you loving God for summer.
Thoughts of summer…
“Spring flew swiftly by, and summer came; and if the village had been beautiful at first, it was now in the full glow and luxuriance of its richness. The great trees, which had looked shrunken and bare in the earlier months, had now burst into strong life and health; and stretching forth their green arms over the thirsty ground, converted open and naked spots into choice nooks, where was a deep and pleasant shade from which to look upon the wide prospect, steeped in sunshine, which lay stretched out beyond. The earth had donned her mantle of brightest green; and shed her richest perfumes abroad. It was the prime and vigour of the year; all things were glad and flourishing.” Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist
“Summer gathered in the weather, the wind had the proper touch, the breathing of the world was long and warm and slow. You had only to rise, lean from your window, and know that this was the first real time of freedom and living; this was the first morning of summer.” Ray Bradbury
Hymn – Morning Has Broken (Words: Eleanor Farjeon; Music: Bunessan – Scottish melody)
“Consider the lilies of the field, they toil not neither do they spin, yet Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.” Luke 12 v 27
“If God cares so wonderfully for flowers that are here today and gone tomorrow won’t he more surely care for you?”
Guided meditation in a summer meadow
Picture yourself in a beautiful summer meadow, surrounded by wildflowers, you can hear birds a little way off and you know that you are completely safe.
You can feel the warmth of the sun on your face and body. Just lie here for a moment and enjoy this wonderful place of peace and calm. Notice the scent of grass and flower. Hear the gentle hum of insects and bees. Feel the texture of the grass. As you lie gently on the soft grass and feel supported by the earth and warmed by the sun, know that you have everything you need.
Be still in God’s presence
Companions Prayer (by Brother Lawrence)
O God here we are all devoted to you, make us according to your heart.
In Christ make us one that the world may believe, mould us according to your heart.
Name your friends and family and picture them sitting in the summer meadow and Jesus speaking his words of wisdom and comfort….
Pray for our fellow Godspacelight writers… giving thanks for the spiritual substance they bring in their varied reflections….
Prayer for others…
Pray for those for whom summer hasn’t come and whose days are hard and living a constant struggle. Picture Jesus, coming to each of them, to enfold them in his love.
Call to mind scenes of devastation then, recall the scene from the Chronicles of Narnia, when Aslan flies over the frozen earth and as he passes, life springs up anew in all its wonder and beauty.
Give thanks to God who says I make all things new.
Thoughts of Brother Lawrence Day 21
“There is not in the world a way of life more sweet nor more delightful than continual converse with God.”
Hymn – In Heavenly Love Abiding
1 In heavenly love abiding,
no change my heart shall fear;
and safe is such confiding,
for nothing changes here:
the storm may roar without me,
my heart may low be laid;
but God is round about me,
and can I be dismayed?
2 Wherever he may guide me,
no want shall turn me back;
my shepherd is beside me,
and nothing can I lack:
his wisdom ever waketh,
his sight is never dim;
he knows the way he taketh,
and I will walk with him.
3 Green pastures are before me,
which yet I have not seen;
bright skies will soon be o’er me,
where the dark clouds have been:
my hope I cannot measure,
my path to life is free;
my Saviour has my treasure,
and he will walk with me.
– Anna Laetitia Waring (1823-1910) 7 6 7 6 D
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FB Live!
Join Christine Sine and Tom Sine for a lively discussion on Hospitality as the doorway to the kingdom – Wednesday August 3rd at 9 am PT. Happening live in the Godspace Light Community Group on Facebook – but if you can’t catch the live discussion, you can catch up later on YouTube!
As many of you already know Tom and I celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary a couple of weeks ago and last week were able to go away to Anacortes for several days. It is only 1 1/2 hours from Seattle but it is a perfect sanctuary, a place we have retreated to regularly for the last 20 years. Our latest hideaway place is right on the bluff looking over the Salish Sea, a perfect place to watch the changing patterns of sun and sea. This time we took a much longer break, with our dog Goldie of course, and so I did not have time to write my usual Meditation Monday, so I decided to re-post about one of my favourite getaway by the sea pastimes – beach combing.
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When I walk the seashore, I meet in that one sacred space, both the immanent and the transcendent God. The ocean stretches out as far as my eye can see, and way beyond, just as the sense of the divine lies far beyond any human understanding. And yet that same ocean laps at my feet and deposits all kinds of very ordinary objects on the shore for me to discover as I do my beachcombing – objects that may have stories to tell me about who I am and who God is for me, and how our realities embrace in this ordinary-extraordinary space where the water meets the land. (Landscapes of Prayer: Finding God in Your World and Your Life – Margaret Silf (24,25)
Tom and I have just returned from one of our quarterly prayer retreats. One of the things I always like to do on these retreats is to take a book with me to help me focus and Margaret Silf’s delightful book Landscapes of Prayer was my choice for this retreat. As I sat on the beach after a beachcombing forage along the pebbled sand, I read the quote above. It is followed by the story of Jesus making breakfast on the beach for his friends and in her narrative she likens this to a beach BBQ where the aroma wafts across the shore to them inviting them to breakfast and a new beginning.
She suggests that beachcombing is a wonderful way to pray and adapts the Prayer of Examen to fit into this context but as I sat there on Friday holding my very ordinary treasures of rocks and shells, I found myself wanting to create my own process of discernment so I have adapted her questions and added some of my own. Here are the questions and reflections that came to me that you might like to adapt for your own use. They became even more important for me when I created a Beach Coming Meditation Garden a couple of years ago and so I talk about them in my newest book Digging Deeper
Beachcombing
Beachcombing As Discernment
- What treasures have you discovered in the ordinary landscape of the last few months that caught your attention with delight and joy, bringing you new life as they connected you to God, to yourself and to others? For me the gifts of wonder that have been birthed come to mind – first my book The Gift of Wonder now three years old, but also the gifts of grandkids in Australia and adopted grandkids Texas that are special gifts of wonder for me. These are the treasures that have transformed what could have been very ordinary time into extraordinary, shaping both my faith and life in unexpected and precious ways.
- Who or what has nourished and enriched your life helping you to find new depths of faith, healing the hurts that still shape you? My husband Tom’s supportiveness and encouragement is the most sustaining and wonderful gift that has built my confidence as I stretch myself beyond my comfort zones. As well as that the garden, both its beauty and its productivity nourish my spirit and my soul relaxing and growing not just me but all who enter it.
- What are the waves that lap at the boundaries of your life sometimes gently bringing rest and calm from stress ago other times crashing like storm waves with tumult and destruction to your well-ordered plans? My contemplative practices and my breathing prayers are the gentle waves that calm my soul and nourish my spirit helping me to relax and also find relief from the facial pain that still plagues me. The waves that crash like storm waves are the stories of those at the margins – refugees, houseless people; migrants at the border; LBGTQ community all rejected because of their “risky” lifestyles and poverty-filled deprived lives. Yet I realize as I think about this that it is these storm waves, not the gentle ones that both uncover and deposit new treasures – maybe new understanding, deeper compassion and generosity’ stronger cries for justice welling up from within.
- As you look back over your beach today have you left a trail of footprints that need to be washed away by the loving presence of God – things you wish you had handled differently that have left you with regrets, guilt, anxiety? I always feel that I should be doing more than I am – speaking out more strongly for justice or being more generous and compassionate. This can paralyze me and immobile me. I sit this morning watching as the cleansing flow of the rising tide washes away these regrets and feelings of guilt and I feel refreshed and made new again.
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Pebble question mark
As you bring your prayer to a close gather up your treasures. How will you display them for future remembrances or where will you store them? As I look at my collection I wonder what new creative practices they could stir within me. I hold the rocks in my hand – an ordinary collection of different colored stones – I shape them first into a question mark and then into a circle reminded that questions help bring wholeness and completeness. When I get home they will be shaped into a more permanent remembrance for me, how about you?
Now as I look to the future I wonder what does God want me to learn from my beachcombing experience that will help shape the months to come? First I realize the importance of my contemplative and creative practices. I need to make are that I protect the time that I dedicate to these every day, no matter how busy I get. Second I need to protect the relational time Tom and I have together and not allow my vocation and travel to distract me from this. Third I must not be too hard on myself when I fell I have messed up, remembering that God forgives no matter what mistakes I make. Discernment comes in many shapes and forms I realize. Usually I expect to come out of a time like this with clearly defined goals, but on this retreat I have also learned the need to relax and allow the waves to shape who I am becoming, even if there are no clear goals that come out of the process.
Some Questions can bring completion and wholeness
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Enjoy A Sacred Summer
Summer is here! Let Christine Sine and Lilly Lewin guide you through the symbols of summer into sacred refreshment. Enjoy 180 days of access to retreat at your own pace. All the details can be found in our shop!
Another beautiful Taize style contemplative service from St Andrews Episcopal church. Enjoy
A contemplative service with music in the spirit of Taize.
Carrie Grace Littauer, prayer leader, with music by Kester Limner and Andy Myers.
Permission to podcast/stream the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-710-756.
photos and writing by June Friesen, scripture from The Message translation
Friendship – what is friendship? Friendship is having a mutual caring, active relationship with another that is built upon trust. The photo above is one of my best friends. Over my lifetime I have made and developed many friends, some of whom are still close to me while others are separated by distance and consequently they are not as close as we once may have been. My friends just happen to be spread over a few countries, not just states.
Why is friendship important? The human race is created to thrive in relationship. It was that way from the beginning as in Genesis 2 God realized after He created Adam that it was not good for Adam to be alone. So He created another human, a little bit different and called her woman and introduced her to Adam as his helper. Friendship as we observe it in the Scriptures as well as in the world today definitely is something that is needed. It is helpful to each and every one of us. The truth is that we often take our friends for granted and spend little time nurturing and/or appreciating the full impact of the relationship. When I was researching online, I found this statement:
“Friendship Day is celebrated to remind friends how valuable they are and to express their affection, support, and other sentiments. This day is usually celebrated so that we and our friends can make this day special.” – BetterHelp.com
It is a time when we can appreciate our friends with a note, a phone call, a text and for some there may be a gift exchanged.
First, I want to share a brief history of this day from my research online. It started in South America somewhere around 1919 as sort of combination celebration of Valentines’, Mother’s, and Father’s Days all rolled into one. Over the past decade it has spread worldwide and the particular catalyst has been the Latin American countries. In 2011 the United Nations declared it to be an international celebration on July 30, 2011. Their goal was so that it would be an avenue to encourage friendships that would not have boundaries. Another goal was to facilitate a means to a more wholesome relationship between people groups as well as nations and countries. Hopefully this day will remind many of us of the value of having each other in our lives, as it is indeed a lonely life when one has no one to share with, care about and call a friend.
In the book of Proverbs, the writer talks about how valuable a wise, reliable friend is for someone.
11-12 The right word at the right time is like a custom-made piece of jewelry, And a wise friend’s timely reprimand is like a gold ring slipped on your finger.
13 Reliable friends who do what they say are like cool drinks in sweltering heat—refreshing!
Did you catch the difference between the first phrase and the second? It said that the right word at the right time is like custom-made jewelry. Wow, that is not costume jewelry but ‘custom-made jewelry.’ When someone is deeply in love with another they may go and have a custom piece of jewelry made because they want it to be the perfect design for their special friend’s taste. We often think of this in regard to couples where the young man goes and has a ring custom-made for his girlfriend/fiancé. Second, it says it is like a gold ring being placed on another’s finger. This is referencing a reprimand I might rephrase to ‘a teaching moment.’ It is someone who we trust, who respects us and wants to help us improve our character so they gift us with helping us learn a better way to do and/or say something.
Now one may respond that they do not see too many friends exchanging expensive gifts but loyalty is a gift that goes even deeper than a material gift. It means that there is a relationship of caring and sharing between two or possibly more individuals where no one ever needs to worry about having someone who cares for them in their struggles. I really like the last phrase in this passage as it says that a ‘reliable friend is like a cool drink in hot weather.’ I know what hot weather is from experiencing outdoor temperatures up to 120 degrees Fahrenheit and cool water is so welcome, as well as so necessary for providing at least some degree of comfort. And yes, I would definitely agree, that a close friend is one who provides some sort of comfort even when one is in a place of complete brokenness and loss.
For those people who claim to be followers of a God who loves all peoples we should see this as an opportunity to show appreciation for the community of friends that we have around us. That may just be a thank you verbally, in a text, a phone call, a note, an email and for some a special token of some sort such as even a meal out together or a small gift, and/or a bouquet of flowers. In our world today of rushing around for one reason or another, being preoccupied with all of the things technology brings into our space, etc. we often forget to appreciate those who are an important and/or integral part of our life. My friend sometimes reminds me, ‘June we need to do something – we haven’t been together for a long time.’ I am thankful for a friend/friends like that who help work the friendship because friendships do not just happen, they are chosen, created and nurtured.
Paul also has some words for us in Philippians. Philippians 2:1-4
If you’ve gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care—then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand.
There is a phrase in about the middle of these verses where Paul says: ‘Do me a favor.’ He prefaced this phrase with the challenge of the claim people make about how they are followers of God, particularly Christians. I challenge myself as I read these verses – how often do I forget to practice some of these things in my friendships? Let me share in a tribute what a real friendship looks like to me.
A FRIENDSHIP TRIBUTE
My friend:
How often have I taken the time to say ‘thank you’ –
Not enough I am sure – so today I want to tell you how important you are in my life.
Thank you for always being ready to share a hug with me –
No matter what the occasion or whether there is any occasion at all –
Thank you for the phone call, the text, the note –
Letting me know you thought of me and want to just say ‘Hi,’
Thank you for the times we have a good chat –
Remembering the good times and even the challenging times –
Thank you for reaching out when it has been silent from my side –
Letting me know that you miss the contact and reminding me we are still needed by each other –
Thank you for that unexpected little gift you bless me with ‘just because’,
They often are just the ‘pick me up’ I need at the moment,
And often I place it in a special place to remind me –
You are always mindful of our special friendship – and you care.
You, my friend, have been such a blessing to me –
You have taught me that I matter to you as well as to others and you remind me of that from time to time –
You have taught me that self-care is important and is not always self-centered and selfish as some may tell me it is –
You have taught me to ‘reach for the stars’ and never to limit the things I could be capable of doing –
You have given me wings to fly to places I never would have explored –
You have challenged me to ‘never give up’ until I have at least tried –
You have shown me the tools and encouraged me to use them
You have also been the one who when I failed at first who said,
“Why don’t you try it this way this time?” and then achievement was won.
Yes, my friend, I thank you for standing strong beside me,
Never giving up, never demeaning, never discouraging –
But when necessary taking my hand and helping me walk the journey
One more step, one more day, one more breath at a time.
Thank you, my friend, for being God’s unconditional love and encouragement here on this earth. Amen.
This tribute is dedicated to my husband, Ron, who has proved to be a true friend for over 54 years.
Enjoy this FREE download – a compilation of all the beautiful art, poetry, stories and more that made up our Artful Julybilee. Explore what it means to live as Christ lived through the lens of art. All in one beautiful booklet – visit our shop for more info!
One thing following the lectionary does for a teacher, preacher, and the individual is to force us to look at passages that we might not like, or ones that make us feel uncomfortable. This week’s lectionary gospel passage is one of those, Luke 12: 13-21. In this passage, Jesus talks to us about our stuff! About our tendency to want to hold on to stuff tightly and or store it up in bigger barns rather than sharing or even being grateful for it!
I have a love /hate relationship with stuff. I’m known for my piles and my bins filled with art supplies and worship gear. Currently my garage is filled with clutter that is just waiting for a week of cooler days and motivation for someone to help me organize it. After two years of not doing in person sacred space gigs, all the gear has just been stuck in storage with random stuff thrown in on top of it all! I come from a long line of hoarders of various degrees, and I definitely get panicky when Marie Conde takes EVERYTHING out of the closet all at once! How will it ever get finished before someone interrupts?
I’ve needed the help of the FlyLady to bring any kind of order to my stuff and give me a framework for household cleaning.
Jesus wants us to look at our relationship with stuff…things, money, and even emotional stuff that we tend to store up.
READ THE GOSPEL …What do you notice?
Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”
Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” 15 Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”
And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. 17 He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’
“Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’
“But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’
“This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”Luke 12: 13-21 NIV
NOW READ it in THE MESSAGE version
Someone out of the crowd said, “Teacher, order my brother to give me a fair share of the family inheritance.”
He replied, “Mister, what makes you think it’s any of my business to be a judge or mediator for you?”
Speaking to the people, he went on, “Take care! Protect yourself against the least bit of greed. Life is not defined by what you have, even when you have a lot.”
Then he told them this story: “The farm of a certain rich man produced a terrific crop. He talked to himself: ‘What can I do? My barn isn’t big enough for this harvest.’ Then he said, ‘Here’s what I’ll do: I’ll tear down my barns and build bigger ones. Then I’ll gather in all my grain and goods, and I’ll say to myself, Self, you’ve done well! You’ve got it made and can now retire. Take it easy and have the time of your life!’
“Just then God showed up and said, ‘Fool! Tonight you die. And your barnful of goods—who gets it?’
“That’s what happens when you fill your barn with Self and not with God.” Luke 12: 13-21 THE MESSAGE
Imagine the Scene in Luke…where are you ? What do you notice? Imagine the responses of the people listening to Jesus.
What bothers you about this passage? What does the Holy Spirit want to say to you through it?
Jesus doesn’t answer the man’s question…why not? What does Jesus know about this guy? What does Jesus do instead?
When you think of GREED what do you picture? Do you imagine a person or a tv show or something in culture? We definitely don’t like to think of ourselves as greedy people. Yet we can be just like the farmer in the story.
What would the opposite of GREED be for you?
What are you storing up for yourself these days? Fear, anger, joy, peace, resentment, bitterness, hope, love? What else?
What do you want to store up in your relationship with Jesus? Talk to Jesus about this.
What do you tend to hoard or hold on to that you might want to consider letting go of or holding more loosely? Talk to Jesus about this.
RICH MAN Rembrandt
READ: “God gave us Abundance why do People Go Hungry”
LISTEN :
Father Richard Rohr can say more in seven minutes that some folks can say in 7 hours! Listen to his sermon on this passage.
Eric Bibb is my favorite bluesman! He has a great song about ” Too Much Stuff”
PRACTICE:
● 5-minute Gratitude Practice: Being grateful and generous are the opposite of being greedy and letting stuff get in the way! Each day this week, write down three things for which you are grateful. Nothing is off-limits. Something might seem trivial, like, “I’m grateful for spoons.” But if you really are grateful for spoons, then you are grateful for spoons. It might be someone in your life: “I am grateful for my children.” It might be something that happened that day: “I am grateful for being able to stop before getting in an accident.” It might be something beautiful you saw. Remember, nothing is off-limits. Each day…write those down. Don’t just think about them. Write them. Each day, look back at the days before. By the end of the week, you are looking back at seven days worth of gratitude.
I’ve often wondered what it would be like to have lots and lots of money, like if I won the lottery….How generous would I be? Would I be afraid of losing it all or would I be looking for ways to bless other people? I love to share what I have now, and I hope that if I had more, I would give more! I started a practice of praying for folks who have ABUNDANCE!
Take time to pray for the top 10 richest people in our world…What would happen if they didn’t store up all their wealth? Pray that they see how to give more to solve problems like homelessness and world hunger.
FIND A CONTAINER with a LID HOLD ON TO IT and Consider the things you have been holding on to too tightly, the things you’ve been storing up that you need to let go of….greed, anger, despair, bitterness, comparison, hate, fear, stuff….. Give this to Jesus. Ask him to help you!
Now OPEN THE CONTAINER Consider the things that you’d like to store up in yourself and in your relationship with Jesus….HOPE, LOVE, COMPASSION…What else? Talk to Jesus about this! Use this container as visual reminder this week to store up the things that matter, not things that you cannot take with you. You might even add notes or images to the container as reminders….
What do you want to store?
“Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.
Matthew 6: 19-20
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