Yesterday I conducted a Spirituality of Gardening seminar in Bellingham. One of my favourite stories to relate is the making of compost. Garbage in, gold out. And as Earth Day approaches it seemed appropriate to reflect on this. The transformation that worms, bacteria and bugs accomplish is truly incredible.
When I lift the lid on our worm bin and watch the thousands of red wriggly worms diligently working to transform our stinky food waste and garbage into fertilizer I am overawed. Gone are the moldy leftovers, the rotten potatoes and discarded broccoli. Gone is the smell of death and corruption. Everything has blended into something new – sweet smelling, rich black compost ready to spread on the garden. Now listen to this fun video about making compost.
What is your response:
God is in the business of transformation. Thank God for compost and worms! Thank God for the healing and transforming power of the Holy Spirit. God can take the very worst of who we are and transform us all into the kingdom of God people we are intended to be. If you have a compost bin go out and lift the lid. Can you remember what you added – what your kitchen and garden garbage looked like? Reach into the bin and pick up some worms. What are the “worms” in your life that God is using to transform you? What could you do to enhance the transformation?
As I contemplated this amazing transformation I could not help but think of the ways that God transforms our lives. Often it is the stinky smelly things from our past, those things we want to throw out in the garbage that God wants to transform into the foundations of our faith and ministry. It is often the addictions, failures and inadequacies of our lives that God transforms into our strengths.
And it is not just we who are transformed. Out of the rich soil of our changed lives other seeds germinate, grow and flourish. My compost bin grows the best squash and potatoes in the garden.
What is your response.
Think about the lives that have been transformed through your “compost” and the soil that has been enriched as a result. What kinds of seeds have germinated in the broken down places God has transformed? How can you continue to nurture and grow these seeds?
As you end this meditation listen to Steve Green sing In Brokenness You Shine. Sit in silence and allow God to speak to you. What other places of brokenness might God want to transform and shine through?
Yesterday I mentioned that Earth Day is almost here and so I wanted to give some creative (and subversive) suggestions on what to make to spread the word and the seed of God’s good earth. Making seed bombs with clay, compost and seed is a great activity for Earth day.
As Eliacin Rosario Cruz mentioned in a recent sermon, seed bombs are not meant to be held onto, they are meant to be shared – throwing them into abandoned lots, toxic waste fields or your neighbour’s empty lot. Here is a great video from UrbanFarmOnline.com that really gives this substance.
For good instructions check out How to Make a Seed Bomb
or download this How to make a seed bomb guide from kidsgardening.org I love their suggestion to make this a summer project for your kids.
For a complete guide to seed bombing visit the Guerrilla gardener. – there are lots of ways you can do this.
Earth Day is coming on April 22nd, and in preparation I plan to post prayers and liturgies from different faith perspectives to get us ready. Sean Gladding just sent me this wonderful Native American prayer. I find that like many native peoples, America’s first nation peoples are very much in tune with the rhythm of the earth, just as Christians once were.
I am also adding another one, also by Chief Yellow Lark that I posted several years ago. It has been extremely popular and I always like to use it as I begin my Spirituality of Gardening Classes.
Earth Teach Me To Remember.
Here is the complete prayer.
Earth Teach Me to Remember
Earth teach me stillness
as the grasses are stilled with light.
Earth teach me suffering
as old stones suffer with memory.
Earth teach me humility
as blossoms are humble with beginning.
Earth Teach me caring
as the mother who secures her young.
Earth teach me courage
as the tree which stands alone.
Earth teach me limitation
as the ant which crawls on the ground.
Earth teach me freedom
as the eagle which soars in the sky.
Earth teach me resignation
as the leaves which die in the fall.
Earth teach me regeneration
as the seed which rises in the spring.
Earth teach me to forget myself
as melted snow forgets its life.
Earth teach me to remember kindness
as dry fields weep in the rain.
Both of these prayers remind us to take time to listen to the wonder of God’s creation. It reminds me to notice not just the majestic mountains outside my window but also the small and seemingly insignificant creatures that are so vital to the healthy thriving of our world. It also reminds me to sit quietly in the presence of the One who has created all things and whose great love is revealed in every dimension of that creation.
The stillness of the earth speaks of stability and constancy. It speaks of the enduring faithfulness of God who sends the seasons in their due time, who waters the earth with the spring and the autumn rains, who brings forth the harvest to nourish our bodies.
It is certainly time for stillness in my own spirit too and I find that the changing season outside is a wonderful affirmation of that. Learning to hear the promptings of my spirit calling me to slow down, sit still in the presence of God and listen is not always easy. But it is essential.
So sit still with me today. Drink in the wonder of God. Quieten your spirit and allow God to refresh and renew you.
Join us for more garden insights and prayers: Spirituality of Gardening Online Course!
Now that Easter is over I have a little more time for quiet reflection. I am also starting to get ready for our annual retreat – this years theme Shalom and the Reconciliation of God. With the Irish monk Columba to guide us we will walk together through scripture, reflection, worship, and creative spiritual exercises, stirring our imaginations and opening our hearts and minds to the reconciling power of God.
In preparation, I have been going back through some of my early meditation videos and thought that you might appreciate this one which I produced back in 2007. I love the meditative nature of Jeff Johnson’s music which I often use as background music. Most of the photos were taken during a visit to the island of Iona in 2007.
I have not put together meditation videos like this (except for the Advent ones) for quitea while – should I do more?
Over the season of Lent this blog and the MSA blog focused on the broad theme of reconciliation. Lent is now well and truly over but our need for reconciliation is an ongoing work. You can expect to read much more on this theme throughout the rest of the year.
As I have mentioned several times over the season, the good news of the gospel is God’s desire to reconcile all things to God self. This is an holistic plan, that embraces not just our inner transformation and reconciliation to God but restoration of creation, the making of peace where there is enmity, healing where there is brokenness and renewal wherever the image of God is distorted. Our creator has begun a process of redemption to restore all things to what they were meant to be.
I know that like me, many of us have not had time to read over the reflections that have been posted so I wanted give you an opportunity to do that.
Practicing Reconciliation will also be the theme for our 2015 annual retreat on Camano Island. We hope that you can join us.
Also, we are in the process of putting together a reading list on reconciliation. If there are books that you think are “must reads” on this topic, please leave a comment at the end of the post.
Posts on Reconciliation from Godspace – these posts are written by myself unless otherwise noted.
Meditation Monday – Let God’s Love Speak
The Book of Forgiving by Desmond Tutu and Mpho Tutu
Meditation Monday – The Subversive Walk of Holy Week
Fall In Love – A Prayer for Lent by Father Pedro Arrupe
Reconciled to the Image of God
Celebrating Oscar Romero – A Step Along the Way
Meditation Monday – How Do You Treat Snake Bite?
Prayers for Lent by Desmond Tutu.
Communion in Mombasa By Idelette McVicker
Variation is So Much Fun by Lynn Domina
Journey to Mosaic…. small step towards reconciliation by Tom Sine
Meditation Monday – Getting Ready for A Dry Spell
Do It Anyway – A Lenten Prayer by Mother Teresa
The Game of Life by Keren Dibbens-Wyatt
Reconciliation by Michelle Pittenger
Lenten Disciplines for Social Justice by Katelin Hansen
Meditation Monday – A River Runs Through
I Cannot Do This Alone – A Lenten Prayer by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Reconciling our Fragmented Selves by Alex Tang
The Body by Keren Dibbens-Wyatt
The Heart of Tolerant Hospitality in Reconciliation by Steve Wickham
Meditation Monday – Let Your Light Shine
Thomas Merton’s Most Famous Prayer – A Good Prayer for Lent
Cut off or Reconciled – Meredith Griffin
Ha Ha Mommy Is An Alien – by Theresa Froehlich
Confessions of a Bookworm by Kate Kennington Steer
Monday Meditation – A Hidden Wholeness
Social Innovate – Join the Feast With Tom Sine
Let Us Pray As Jesus Taught Us.
Playing for The Ashes – A Reflection for Ash Wednesday
Get Creative and Play Games In Lent
Stop Playing Games – Join God’s Reconciling Work for Lent.
Posts on Reconciliation from Mustard Seed Blog. These posts are written by Andy Wade unless otherwise noted.
Reconciled to Self, and then some
Open Hire, A Path Toward Reconciliation
A Cup of Peace – AJ Block
Justice, Filipino Style – Al Tizon
As you can tell from my last few posts, I love rocks. A a teenager I considered becoming a geologist. I always have my eyes open for new specimens to add to my collection.
In Sunday’s Easter sermon, I was reminded that rocks or stones, are important in the Biblical story too. As for me, they can provide a focus for prayer or become memorials and reminders of the events of God in the past. They can also be stones of promise, providing pathways that connect our activities here on earth to the heavenly realm.
On Sunday, I was reminded of other aspects of stones. They can block our view and establish what seem to be impenetrable barriers to the work of God. The disciples and the women went to the tomb not in expectation of resurrection, but to weep and mourn for the hopes that seemed to have been shattered.
The Empty Tomb – He Qi
In the resurrection of Jesus we do not see the stone being moved away from the tomb as we do in the resurrection of Lazarus. All we see is the empty tomb and interestingly (at least in John’s account) Peter and John do not hang around long enough to see the risen Jesus.
How often I wonder does God want to roll away the stone so that we can see the full glory of the risen Christ and we don’t hang around long enough to see him?
In Sunday’s scriptures (Acts 10:39-42) I read
“And we apostles are witnesses of all he did throughout Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a cross, but God raised him to life on the third day. Then God allowed him to appear, not to the general public, but to us whom God had chosen in advance to be his witnesses. We were those who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. And he ordered us to preach everywhere and to testify that Jesus is the one appointed by God to be the judge of all—the living and the dead.
The empty tomb is not the important event of Easter, the living presence of God in the resurrected Jesus is. It wasn’t the empty tomb that transformed the disciples and the women who followed him, it was Jesus appearing to them, eating with them, interpreting the scriptures for them. They met the risen Christ in the 50 days after Easter, and it changed their lives so that they went out not just talking about the things Jesus did, but living them.
So my challenge to all of us today is: will we hang around long enough to enter into the full joy of the risen Saviour? Now that Easter Sunday is over are we back to life as usual or are we ready to encounter Jesus over the next 50 days, which is the true season of Easter, and have our lives radically changed and redirected as a result?
We know what true love looks like because of Jesus. He gave His life for us, and He calls us to give our lives for our brothers and sisters. If a person owns the kinds of things we need to make it in the world but refuses to share with those in need, is it even possible that God’s love lives in him? My little children, don’t just talk about love as an idea or a theory. Make it your true way of life, and live in the pattern of gracious love. (1 John 3:16-18 The Voice.)
Easter Sunday is over. Jesus is risen but what have we done about it? It grieves me that so many people who call themselves followers of Christ live in exactly the same way as their non Christian friends. It grieves me even more that the United States has the highest infant mortality rate of any industrialized nation and the second highest poverty rate. (Only Mexico has higher )
Jesus’ last command to his disciples was “Love one another as I have loved you.” and by that he meant give up our self-centred, self-involved lives and give ourselves to the things that really matter – the work of God’s kingdom – healing the sick, feeding the hungry, setting the oppressed free and preaching the good news in both word and action.
What is Your Response?
Find a quiet place to sit. Make yourself comfortable. Take some deep breathes in and out to relax yourself. Let your mind wander back over the season of Lent and Easter. In what ways has God prompted you to change your inner life and spiritual practices? In what ways has God prompted you to change your outer life and relationships to those around you? What actions can you take in the next couple of weeks to accomplish this?
How many of us are still sitting at the empty tomb with Mary weeping because we are worried about what has happened to the dead body rather than focusing on how to encounter the risen Christ in our lives? Or perhaps like Peter we have gone back to our pre Christ encounter jobs totally unchanged by all that Jesus has said and done.
If we really believed that Christ’s resurrection meant that the world was changed and that his resurrection life now flows in us too surely we would live very differently. We would live by God’s law of love which is the only law in the kingdom of God. NT Wright tells us that love is the language of God’s kingdom. If we truly lived transformed lives like those early disciples who gave up homes, jobs and sometimes family, maybe our world would be a very different place. And if we truly lived as citizens of God’s kingdom speaking the language of love maybe we would see our world transformed in the ways that we say we want it to be.
What is your response?
Imagine yourself walking with the risen Christ into the kingdom of God. Listen to the language of love all around you. How well do you think you understand that language? What “language training” is God prompting you to take in order for you to become more comfortable with that language?
To live by God’s law of love, to become comfortable with the language and culture of the kingdom of God would mean we need to change our lives and become people who care for those at the margins in deed as well as word. It would encourage us to not think about our own needs first but to live into a culture of mutual love and care – one that provides abundantly for all peoples and places particular value on the vulnerable and despised. You know a little like it talks about in the book of Acts.
What is your response?
Sit quietly once more breathing in and out the fragrance of God’s presence. What do you think it looks like to live as God’s resurrection people? You now have ahead of you 50 days of the Easter season to live into the changes God is prompting you to make. What will you do this week to walk that path beyond death into resurrection life?
Now listen to This is Our God The Servant King. Is there any other response you feel God is asking of you.
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