We are heading towards Pentecost and the gift of the Holy Spirit being poured out on all people. But first Jesus has to ASCEND to heaven in order for us to receive the Gift of the Comforter! Ascension Day was officially yesterday (May 21st), but we most often celebrate the feast on the Sunday following. So as you look towards Sunday, and as we prepare for Pentecost on May 31st, 2020, let’s look first at how Jesus commissioned his disciples before he went back to the Father. Below you will find The Great Commission passage in Matthew 28 and some questions you can consider and journal from. Then I’ve given you some ideas to take us into ALL THE WORLD even though we cannot actually travel right now.
For a great look at the Ascension in Art, check out this wonderful blog Ad Imaginem Dei. Make sure you take a look at all four posts!
Before you start, consider a favorite place you’ve traveled. A place that has inspired you or been meaningful to you. Find a favorite photo of this place or a souvenir of this trip. Take time to remember the things that made that trip special. Thank Jesus for the time you had there. Ask Jesus to fill that place with his love and hope today! We did this as our thinplaceNASHVILLE gathering this week, so if you’d like to use it with your small group or community have everyone bring a photo or a souvenir to your zoom call and have them share about their special trip or place.
NOW read out loud or listen to these passages from Matthew. (lectio divina)
Matthew 28: 11-20 NIV
11 While the women were on their way, some of the guards went into the city and reported to the chief priests everything that had happened. When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, telling them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.’ If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day.
16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Matthew 28: 11-20 THE MESSAGE
Meanwhile, the guards had scattered, but a few of them went into the city and told the high priests everything that had happened. They called a meeting of the religious leaders and came up with a plan: They took a large sum of money and gave it to the soldiers, bribing them to say, “His disciples came in the night and stole the body while we were sleeping.” They assured them, “If the governor hears about your sleeping on duty, we will make sure you don’t get blamed.” The soldiers took the bribe and did as they were told. That story, cooked up in the Jewish High Council, is still going around.
Meanwhile, the eleven disciples were on their way to Galilee, headed for the mountain Jesus had set for their reunion. The moment they saw him they worshiped him. Some, though, held back, not sure about worship, about risking themselves totally.
Jesus, undeterred, went right ahead and gave his charge: “God authorized and commanded me to commission you: Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism in the threefold name: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Then instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you. I’ll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age.”
Matthew 28: 11-20 THE PASSION TRANSLATION
11 After the women left the tomb, a few of the guards went into Jerusalem and told the chief priests everything they had seen and heard. So the chief priests called a meeting with all the religious leaders and came up with a plan. They bribed the guards with a large sum of money 13 and told them, “Tell everyone, ‘While we were asleep, his disciples came at night and stole his body!’ If Pilate finds out about this, don’t worry. We’ll make sure you don’t get blamed.” So they took the money and did as they were told. (That is why the story of the guards is still circulated among the Jews to this day.)
16 Meanwhile, the eleven disciples heard the wonderful news from the women and left for Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had arranged to meet them. The moment they saw him, they worshiped him, but some still had lingering doubts.
18 Then Jesus came close to them and said, “All the authority of the universe has been given to me. Now go in my authority and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And teach them to faithfully follow all that I have commanded you. And never forget that I am with you every day, even to the completion of this age.”
What is God’s Word for you today? What is God speaking to you about today? Use the psalm and/or the Gospel as your inspiration. Write, Journal, or create in Art, or Just BE with Jesus. Allow the Holy Spirit to inspire you! THINGS TO CONSIDER WHILE JOURNALING….
What speaks to you today? What do you notice from the passage that you didn’t notice before?
1. The temple leaders couldn’t believe the truth of the situation. They couldn’t receive the gift of the resurrection. So, they bribe the soldiers, make up a story, and lie about the reality. What does this remind you of? Have you ever made up a story because you didn’t like the reality?
2. What makes it hard for you to believe and receive the truth about the resurrection?
3. Are you feeling like worshipping Jesus today? Or do you feel more doubtful today? What are some of your doubts or fears as you consider Jesus in the new world we live in today?
4. What does it mean to be a disciple?
5. Jesus invites us into a relationship with the Trinity…Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We are not alone, we are not orphans. We are now a part of a community. And Jesus commissions us to include others in this community. How does this make you feel?
What does the TRINITY mean to you?
6. “Train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life”….How does this feel different from “make disciples of all nations”? Do you have any “baggage” around The Great Commission? Talk to Jesus about this.
“Then instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you.” What are the practices that Jesus commanded? What are the practices that we can learn and pass along to others as we include them in the community of following Jesus?
7. I’ll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age.” How does this make you feel? What is comforting about this?
HOMEWORK: GO INTO ALL NATIONS…since we cannot go anywhere much right now, let’s take time to pray!
Pick a country or two to pray for this week. Maybe it’s a place you’ve wanted to visit, or a place you’ve been to before that has won your heart. Pray for this country to know and experience more of God’s love and presence in the days ahead.
Do some research into how things are going there due to COVID19. Pray for specific needs. If you have friends in this place, pray for them. Besides the pandemic, pray for other things that the Holy Spirit highlights for you.
Watch a Youtube video or travel video/film on a country and imagine yourself there. Ask the Holy Spirit to show you new things about the people and culture. What do you notice? How can you pray more for this country ?
TAKE TIME TO PRAY for you neighborhood, your town, your state this week. Print out some pictures, watch a video, or find a website or instagram feed to help you pray with between now and Pentecost.
Ask Jesus to help you see Him in your neighbors.
main photo: Hans Suess von Kulmbach, Ascension
German, 1513
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art
©lillylewin and freerangeworship.com
Guest post by Mark Pierson,
I live in New Zealand, home of Hobbits, Zealong Tea Estate, and Jacinda the Magnificent. I started today (Day 7 of Level 2 Coronavirus Lockdown, the date of which I would write 21/05/20), with a cuppa.
In most of the English speaking world “cuppa” refers to having a cup of tea. It doesn’t need anything with it, but a biscuit would be appropriate. Again, in most of the English speaking world, a “biscuit” means a sweet, flat, often hard, unleavened piece of baking. Other parts of the world might call it a cookie. It’s not a scone. A cuppa and a biscuit is acceptable fare at any social interaction from smoko on a construction site to its precocious offspring – high tea. Which would have a scone. And cream, with jam.*
The quality, style and manner of use – or not – of cup, saucer and plate may vary wildly when having a cuppa, as may the tea itself – black, white, weak, strong, tea or tisane, leaves or bag – but the basic elements remain the same: tea and biscuit. Regardless of age, gender, background, social status, ethnicity, sexual orientation, faith, ability or lack of it; white collar, blue collar, dog-collar, no collar, a cuppa and a biscuit is your basic currency of community and connection where I live.*
If we ever needed more of anything in our world at the moment its community and connection. Johann Hari (Lost Connections) reckons the diminishing of both is the major cause of the tsunami of anxiety and depression that has swept over our world recently. I think he’s right.
A few years ago the people at the United Nations – no doubt over a cuppa, although the title would suggest something stronger – decided today would be the World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development. If they’d talked to Johann Hari we might have had the World Day for Cultural Connections for Dialogue and Development.
There’s nothing difficult about overcoming racism and bigotry, you just have to listen to someone who’s different to you (colour, faith, sexual orientation, gender, background, or education) tell you their story. With the emphasis on “listen” and “their”. Actually that is very difficult for most of us to do. In fact it’s pretty much impossible. Unless of course you are committed to following Jesus and letting his agenda become yours. And this only works because of who Jesus is: part of the trinitarian relationship that is the Christian God. His ascension from earth back into that heavenly kingdom means Jesus is God, God is accessible to us, and that God stands for us. This is especially true when we are doing our best to listen to the stories of others so we can be changed more and more into the likeness of Christ, who said that every person is made in the image of God. Every person. Every person.
Today is also the day we particularly remember the ascension of Jesus from earth to the heavens. That’s worth sitting down with a cuppa and a biscuit and thinking about as well.
Last year I served more than 1300 people cups of tea. Mostly at festivals and conferences, but also in churches and homes in NZ, Australia and the USA. I have a slightly formalised (some people would spell that with a zed or even a zee) way of doing it that involves telling some of the story of tea, and the customs associated with its drinking. Then I introduce people to some of the best teas in the world (Zealong Tea Estate) that happen to be grown in New Zealand, and we share cuppas and conversation for 45 minutes. I call it “Tea & Be”. It’s my response to the Ascension and the UN and Johann Hari.
Today is also International Tea Day. Those bureaucrats at the United Nations really like their tea. When I discovered there was no patron saint of tea drinkers (the Vatican prefers caffe crema) I anointed one and Francis Xavier of Goa became the patron saint of the International Guild of Tea Liturgists set up by a few friends who use tea in deliberate ways to bring people together, over a cuppa.
So today is a triple whammy offering me opportunity to think about making connections, having conversations, my prejudices, the flourishing and wholeness Jesus has made possible for me when I follow him, and to do that over a cup of tea – grown sustainably, harvested justly and traded fairly (as all Zealong teas are), perhaps even in conversation with someone who lives differently to me.
*How did you feel reading words and numerals that may have been used in a different way to what you are used to? Was your tendency to try to understand, skip over them, or not read this far!
BIO
Mark Pierson is a husband to one wife, father to four adult children, grandfather to four, and a pastor, writer (The Prodigal Project, The Art of Curating Worship: reshaping the role of worship leader), speaker, occasional blogger at markpierson.org.nz, curator of liminal spaces in public and church spaces, and tea drinker. You can connect with him or invite him to a virtual cup of tea here.
Photos by Mark Pierson, used with permission.
by Lisa DeRosa
As our spiritual practice for our weekly community meal last night, the Mustard Seed House celebrated World Bee Day by building a home for the bees that visit our garden. Christine purchased Turn This Book Into A Beehive for this project.
The book cover sleeve is the outer shell for the beehive and the inner tubes are made by rolling up paper provided in the back of the book.
Once all the papers are rolled, we stuffed the outer shell to provide snug living spaces for the bees.
So, in honor of the bees, we created this beehive as a community and read aloud a liturgy (posted earlier this morning) after enjoying a smoothy and waffle dinner with various types of honey.
These essential pollinators work tirelessly to make our garden flourish. We could not savor the scrumptious flavor of Brandy Boy or Sun Gold cherry tomatoes without these bees. Our trees would not produce the tasty cherries, apples, pears, plums, or peaches either! We are grateful for their unique design and role that they play in our garden.
by Emily Huff
“To raise awareness of the importance of pollinators, the threats they face and their contribution to sustainable development, the UN designated 20 May as World Bee Day.”
When I signed up to share something for this day, our country had not yet seen “murder hornets” in the headlines. We now know that these murder hornets have come to the US and could be a threat to honeybees (along with pesticides and other challenges they already face) which are vital to our agriculture. This reveals the complexity of the ecosystems in which we live and the interconnectedness our world is built upon.
In honor of this day, I wanted to share a prayer from one of my favorite books of liturgies called Every Moment Holy. I think you will see how this prayer is certainly a blessing for the bees, but it is also a blessing for us all today to notice the world around us, to see the delicate balance needed in creation for sustainability and to hear the call to take care of the world God has given us.
A LITURGY FOR THE
Keeping of Bees
Together: We thank you, O God, for the blessing of bees,
Leader: for the wonder of their work,
for the sweetness of their offerings,
and the delight of their harvest.
People: We thank you, O God, for the industry of the hive,
which is like a picture of the kingdom of heaven, always
at work, in ten million places unseen.
We thank you too for the small
comedy of the creatures,
for the humor of their constant severity,
for the buzz and the bumbling of bees
in flight, for the sight of bees bending
slender stalks to harvest in the blooms,
their feet shod in bristling boots of gold,
their backs fuzzed with bright yellow dust
that is the color of joy made visible.
So varied are your creatures, O God!
So wise your creations!
For the blessing of bees we thank you:
for their bright and varied stripes,
for the wisdom of their queen,
and for the potent sting you have
granted them to guard the life of the hive
against the harms of a nature now
fallen and hostile.
We thank you for imbuing them with
an ingenuity of architecture
to build the perfect geometry of the comb,
a golden cathedral that cannot be
accounted an accident.
We thank you, O God,
For the miracle of bees in their labors,
For their tireless industry-
May it inspire us to serve;
for their generosity-
may we also produce enough to share.
Bless these, your creatures,
Which you have given into the service
of your image bearers.
May they be fruitful.
Bless these, your creatures,
May their honey be plentiful and sweet.
May they find in fields of clover and wild
bloom a bountiful harvest of nectars,
that we might gladly share the abundance
of their labors, delighting in
the sustenance and small pleasures you
have provided us through them.
Bless these bees, O God,
and bless their keepers.
For all creatures are yours, bee
and keeper alike. Together may
our co-labors resound
to your praise and glory.
Amen.
Every Moment Holy, by Douglas Kaine McKelvey, www.EveryMomentHoly.com
by Rodney Marsh
“But if you do that, we won’t be able to see your beautiful face.” That’s what I nearly said when advising a group meditation member to switch off their video in Zoom to avoid the connection ‘falling out’. I didn’t say it, but I thought it. I know why I thought it too. I missed the connection with God that came through seeing an image of this person. It is true. Every human face bears the divine image and is therefore beautiful in their own unique way. A deeper connection is missing when we cannot see their face. Our Zoom meditation group meets for thirty minutes once a week. Twenty-five minutes of that time is spent in silence. Yet a connection, (communion is the Biblical word for it) has been built between us – a connection of trust and respect. How? Not by verbal communication but by simply ‘being’ together in silence. Our communion is more deeply shared by video because we can see each person’s unique, beautiful, made-in God’s-image face. For over a hundred years we have been able to ‘ring’ family and now, during the Corona virus lockdown, we are thankful to be able to see digital images the faces of the people we love and who love us. What a wonderful gift. But as with all gifts, a gift that can be misused (or not used).
So, a warning: an icon (or digital image of a person) can be a vehicle, but it is not the person. Whether the person you see over Zoom or in real life is Christ to you depends on your view. So, when Jesus said:
Your eyes are windows into your body. If you open your eyes wide in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. If you live squinty-eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a dank cellar. If you pull the blinds on your windows, what a dark life you will have! (Matt 6:22,23 MSG),
he placed the emphasis on our quality of looking. The gift to learn to look and see the beauty of another person’s humanity (God’s beauty) is given to us as part of our humanity but to see Christ in another we need the gaze of Jesus. A gaze that is the perfect sister/to the kindness that dwells/in his beautiful hands and to see others with eyes of Jesus we need to be seen by Jesus: The eyes of Jesus gaze on us/stirring the heat’s clay (from John O’Donahue’s poem “The Eyes of Jesus” in To Bless the Space between Us”). And, in my experience, the quality of seeing with the eyes of Christ is developed by being with God in silent prayer. Christian meditation has been, for me, a way of being in which, gradually, as I am seen, I begin to see. When discussing human change, Thomas Merton advises, “Get to the root: union with God…. drop everything and hide in yourself to find Him in the silence where he is hidden within you, and listen to what He has to say” (Journals, II 64,65) and John Main says, “Simply to be with God is to be drawn into being the person God calls us to be.” As we become the person God calls us to be se begin to see others as God has called them to be.
For example, consider these faces (images) and, before you read on, consider how you respond to these faces. Are they attractive/repellant to you? Why?
You may note that these images are all of white people with perfect teeth and hair and fine proportions, but, in Jesus gaze, they are not beautiful. In fact, God does not love the people you can see here and they cannot love him. Why? Because they are not human. God did not make them. They are not in his image. These faces are created by facial recognition software at https://thispersondoesnotexist.com/. On the site you can refresh the page to generate an infinity of new non-persons. If you wish, you can also feed the jealousy, anger, sexual desire, fear or pride with which we all sometimes approach other real human neighbours. Neither can they love you into being who God is calling you to be. That requires a real, beautiful person, like you. To dispassionate AI these faces are numbers in a different forms and so other humans become to us without the eyes of Christ.
No matter how AI views you, or other people see you, you have a beautiful face in Jesus’ eyes. Sit in silence, in God’s presence and allow Jesus to sit with you and then the eyes with which you are viewed will become the eyes which see your own beautiful face and your eyes will see and welcome Christ in others because you will be given the eyes of Jesus to see their beauty.
Thought: To be in Christ means to see all creation (including people) with new eyes…. 2 Corinthians 5:17.
“Yesterday, in Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, suddenly realized that I loved all the people and that none of them were or could be totally alien to me. As if waking from a dream… it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun.” Thomas Merton, Journals, March 19, 1958, III.181–83.
Prayer: Lord, help me to see those I meet today through the eyes of Jesus. Amen.
by Christine Sine
This week has been a fun week for me as I have been filming our new Spirituality of Gardening on line course which will be available at the end of the month. As well as that, on Thursday evening I participated in another discussion on Evelyn Underhill’s meditation on The Lord’s Prayer. We focused on the phrase “hallowed be thy name” and talked about how rarely we spend time focusing on God and hallowing the holy, majestic and awe-inspiring nature of divine love.
In the midst however, we were all struggling with how challenging it is to believe in a God of love when so many are struggling and in pain. All of us confront the question “Is GOD a monster or the Savior of the world?” So often when we think like this God catches us up short and says: “Do you think you care more than I do? Do you think your sense of justice and mercy are greater than mine?” As Tom Herrick reminded us “the view we have of God is coloured by the state of our souls.” And none of us have souls that are pure.
However I still find that when I am confronted with these kinds of questions I need coping mechanisms that work and as I look to the future I find that a new song is emerging for me to live by.
In the past I have started my day with gratitude towards God but now I realize that gratitude for what I perceive God has done can taint my view of God too. The place I need to start my day is with that phrase “hallowed be thy name”.
Focusing on “hallowed be thy name” first thing in the morning is writing a new song on my heart. And the longer I spend focusing on the holy, majestic and omnipotent God we serve the better I do throughout the rest of the day. When I began this practice it was just a couple of minutes and then I was on to something else – usually gratitude or prayers for someone I was concerned about, but sometimes just on to distraction of my iPhone screen. So it is no wonder that when I faced difficult questions of God’s control and sovereignty that I struggled.
Awe and wonder walk
Now Tom and I follow our morning devotions with a 2 mile “awe and wonder walk” around the neighborhood…. Kind of extending our “hallowed be thy name practice. We point out to each other the things that give us a sense of awe and of course with the beautiful array of spring flowers at the moment that is not hard. However I have also found that changing my focus each week – so that one week I reflect on color and beauty, another on fragrance, another on texture and so on can also help. I have even had a week of focusing on the weeds in the pavement cracks – reminding myself that even here God plants gardens and beauty.
So now my gratitude practice happens over the breakfast table with that foundational assurance of the holiness and majesty of God. Tom and I share about what we are grateful for… and then we pray for others. Even those prayers have been reconfigured as I change my view of God. A friend once told me that when she prays for disasters, struggling people and crisis situations she starts with “what is God already doing to respond to this situation? How can I join in?”
I find that changing my perspective from “why did God let this happen” (an unanswerable question that I often think gives us an excuse to do nothing) to “What are the God sightings in the midst of it”? totally changes my perspective of the situation and my perspective of God in the midst of it. It is a joy to join God in the work that God is already accomplishing through the gifts and efforts of others. It is a joy too to realize that I am not alone in the efforts. Our magnificent and awe inspiring God has a whole host of labourers responding in the midst of crisis.
I am posting the Taize contemplative service for the Sixth Sunday of Easter from Saint Andrews Episcopal church in Seattle. I continue to find these enriching and nourishing and am pleased to see how many of you do too. I encourage you to visit their YouTube channel and check out the other resources for prayer and worship they provide, . Fr. Rich Weyls, Rector, prayer leader, with music by Kester Limner and Andy Myers. Permission to web stream or podcast music in this service is granted under One License number A-710-756. www.saintandrewsseattle.org
As an Amazon Associate, I receive a small amount for purchases made through appropriate links.
Thank you for supporting Godspace in this way.
When referencing or quoting Godspace Light, please be sure to include the Author (Christine Sine unless otherwise noted), the Title of the article or resource, the Source link where appropriate, and ©Godspacelight.com. Thank you!