It is time to start thinking about the garden. I know because I am being inundated with catalogues and emails from seed companies.
To be honest until a couple of days ago I was not sure if I wanted to start a garden this year. Last year was a very challenging garden experience for me. It started with the loss of 150 tomato seed starts because of contaminated (supposedly organic) soil. It continued with a feeling of being overwhelmed by both the work and the harvest with too little help and too busy a schedule. It ended with my mind in a whirl wondering where the garden year had gone and why I had not really enjoyed it.
Then I read A New Heaven and A New Earth by Richard Middleton who says:
Many recent studies of the garden of Eden in Genesis suggest that this garden, in its relationship to the rest of the earth, functions as an analogue of the holy of holies in the tabernacle or the Jerusalem temple. The garden is the initial core location of God’s presence on earth; this is where God’s presence is first manifest, both in giving instructions to humanity (2:15-17) and in declaring judgement (3:8-19). The garden is thus the link between earth and heaven, at least at the beginning of human history. The implication is that as the human race faithfully tended this garden or cultivated the earth, the garden would spread, until the entire earthly realm was transformed into a fit habitation for humanity. But it would thereby also become a fit habitation for God.
Suddenly my perspective was transformed. How can I not plant a garden I thought? I am not just planting vegetables and flowers, I am creating a fit habitation for humanity and for God.
So one of my new year’s resolutions is to make sure that I get out and enjoy the garden this year. I want to create something that is worthy of the God I love and worship. And I want to relish this habitation that God desires taking time to walk and talk with God in this place.
However I know I cannot do this alone. So I am in the process of creating a garden team to work with me. Do you live in Seattle? Do you love gardening but have nowhere to get your hands in the dirt? Would you like to make fresh garden salads straight out of the garden? If so perhaps you would like to join of the Mustard Seed House garden community and help us create a place that is indeed a fitting habitation for both humanity and God. Please feel free to contact me and see how this could be possible.
I have always been fascinated by how Christians perceive Jesus and love to chat to people from different theological and cultural backgrounds to explore this. I also love to collect images of Jesus from other cultures and have included some of my favourites in this post.
It is interesting to me that early Christians (and the Celtic Christians we so much admire) saw Jesus as a companion and a brother. It was only after the emperor Constantine became a Christian that the view of Christ shifted to more of an emperor figure. No surprisingly as Christendom took hold and wars became justified as holy wars we also started to see images of Christ as a warrior king.
The more I reflect on who Christ is the more uncomfortable I am with these images of Christ. In the gospels he is more likely to touch lepers and talk to tax collectors than he is to embrace the rich and the powerful. He is more likely to be seen in the face of a repentant beggar than in the face of a self righteous Pharisee.
Supper at Emmaus – by one of my favourite artists He Qi http://www.heqigallery.com/
My own view of Jesus continues to change. I now see him in the faces of the homeless and the mentally ill. I recognize his love in the compassion of firefighters and ambulance drivers. I experience his heart ache in the grief of those who have lost children and friends to racial violence and war. Jesus is all around us. He stands at so many doors in our hearts that are closed to him and asks us to open and recognize who he is.
Here is a poem I wrote a couple of years ago that reflects on some of my thoughts about who Jesus is.
Our God with a Human Face
In Christ Jesus God’s love is revealed
Our God with a human face divinity concealed
Even the simplest act God’s spirit divine
Ennobled and sanctified like water into wine.
Jesus washes feet
Born in stable, raised as a refugee
Compassion and caring in his actions we see
Friend of the outcast the broken the poor
In the faces of others god’s image he saw
The face of the father providing a home
The prodigal son who has chosen to roam
The love of a mother embracing her child
To these faces of God we are all reconciled
But a beggar who is hungry and needs to be fed
A refugee running from a war she has fled
All who are tortured, in suffering and pain,
The image of God in their faces remain.
Sharing the burdens of those who are poor
God’s image in others we seek to restore
Planting our mustard seeds, watching them grow
A kingdom that’s coming glimpsed now as we sow
Preaching the good news, proclaiming God’s peace
Healing the broken, bringing captives release
Enabling each person as God wants them to be
The image of God in their faces we see.
You might also like to watch this short video I put together several years ago when I was reflecting on this. I know the quality is not very good but I still think it gives us some good thoughts to reflect on.
So what type of people and what situations most represent Jesus for you? I would love to hear your response.
I have always been a star gazer. As a child I loved to to visit the planetarium and soon learned to identify the most prominent stars in the night sky. On our frequent family camping trips I loved to gaze up at the awe inspiring expanse of the milky way, and imagine myself navigating by the stars.
I particularly loved the Southern Cross, which dominates the Australian flag. It is the first constellation of stars that every Australian child learns to recognize. I not only learned to identify it, I also learned to use it to find my direction if I got lost.
Then I moved to the northern hemisphere and the stars I relied on were no longer visible. I kept looking for them though and it was quite a while before I admitted that I needed to reorient myself and learn to follow new stars.
The magi too were stargazers and had probably been watching the stars in their sky for many years. Then suddenly a new star appeared. I wonder how long it took them to realize they needed to ignore all the other familiar stars and accept the radical challenge of following it. Did they know it would change their lives completely?
Even then they needed help to reach the right destination. Did they stop in Jerusalem because they were lost? Perhaps they were afraid that they had made this long journey for nothing. Or maybe they panicked because even though the star gave them direction it did not give them a destination.
What fascinates me is that those they asked for direction – Herod and the religious leaders in Jerusalem knew the right destination but they still did not follow. In fact quite the reverse. Perhaps they knew that the messiah would ask them to make radical changes to their lives and they just were not ready for that.
How often do we miss what God wants to accomplish in and through us because we are not willing to let go of the familiar and the comfortable to follow? Richard Middleton in his inspirational book A New Heaven and A New Earth, says:
the good news of the kingdom can be grasped only through a radical challenge that requires a fundamental reorientation of life. (263).
So as we move into Epiphany how willing are we to accept the radical challenge the gospel calls us to? How willing are we to reorient our lives around God’s ultimate purpose in the incarnation of Christ:
For in him (Christ) all the fulness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross (Col 1:19-20)
God’s restorative work is holistic, it embraces not just our inner transformation and reconciliation to God but restoration of creation, reconciliation and the making of peace wherever there is enmity, healing wherever there is brokenness and renewal wherever the image of God is distorted.
As you reflect on what I have written here you might like to meditate on this Fijian prayer I came across several years ago. The Fijians too used the southern cross for guidance in far more perilous conditions than I will ever know, maybe a little like the magi, they set out on journeys for which they knew the direction but not the destination.
We ask you dear God that
Just as the great Southern cross
Guides our people as they sail over the Pacific at night
So may the cross of Jesus Christ
Lead us through the night and guide us safely into a new day.
How willing are we to follow the star that leads to where the Christ child is being incarnated in our midst and work for this reconciliation, restoration, redemption and renewal? How willing are we to reorient our lives so that this becomes our motivation and purpose?
Aba-Novák_The_Worship_of_the_Three_Magi_1921
Arise, shine, inheritors of God’s light,
You have come and heard,
The light of God has come into our world,
It has reached across time and space into our hearts.
And nations will come to its brightness.
Arise, shine, you in whom Christ’s light is born,
You have come and seen,
The light of God’s son has brought salvation,
He has proclaimed God’s justice and love.
He has overcome the darkness and brought new life.
Arise, shine, privileged ones who live in the light of Christ,
You have come and followed,
Christ our Lord has redeemed our world,
He draws us into a loving family,
From every tribe and family and culture.
Arise, shine, you who are called to share God’s light,
Now, you must go and tell others,
No longer be satisfied with the old life,
Learn to love your neighbour as yourself,
So that they may know Christ, and the hope his message brings.
Amen
I hope that like me you have taken time over the last couple of days to reflect and renew your focus as you look ahead to 2015. I have taken a couple of hours each morning over the last few days to do just that. I used the posts that I blogged in the last few days to help me focus as well as a couple written by good friends Jim Wallis at Sojourners and Christine Valters Paintner at Abbey of the Arts. Their posts bring very different input to my reflecting time. Jim encourages us to extend our view of who we see as our neighbours and who we are called to love. Christine encourages me to embark on the unknown journey no matter how long or difficult it may be, being open to wonder along the way.
Out of this has come not just some very practical goals and resolutions for 2015 but also the following prayer which I plan to use each morning throughout January to help me strengthen my sense of what God is calling me to. Perhaps you too would like to use these posts and prayers to strengthen your faith in the coming weeks.
Sit still,
listen deeply
to yourself, to God, to others,
Let the wonder of God’s world
speak to you.
Sit still,
listen deeply,
Remind yourself to breathe.
Let God’s fragrance
fill your heart, your mind, your soul.
Allow yourself to be changed.
Sit still,
listen deeply,
let go of all that is precious to you,
Let go of what distracts,
And of what could lead you astray.
Surrender the thoughts of your heart,
and the meditation of your spirit,
to become acceptable in God’s sight.
Sit still,
listen deeply,
let all God has placed within you
be unleashed.
Discover God,
Unveil yourself,
Give all that you are freely to God.
Be reconciled
to God’s purposes,
to God’s people,
To God’s world.
Sit still,
listen deeply,
Trust always in God.
Check out these posts to help in your retreat process:
Unleashing the Potential of the New Year with a Spiritual Audit.
Making New Year’s Resolutions as A Spiritual Discipline
Wise men from Jesusmafa Camaroons
In a couple of days we will celebrate the Eve of Epiphany (January 5th) and the arrival of the Magi. We have watched and waited through Advent, in Christmas we have come to the manger and seen the birth of our Saviour and now we are asked to go, to follow, and to tell others. It seems very fitting that this celebration is the first in the new year because it is an invitation to begin afresh, with new dedication and zeal for the ways of God.
Because Tom & I did not grow up in a liturgical tradition, we assemble our creche before Christmas with the Magi already there. But traditionally, our turbaned wise men with their camels should move slowly around our house towards the manger, only arriving on January 5th – the Eve of Epiphany.
This is an incredible season that many of us ignore, unaware of its significance. The Magi knew that the rising of God’s morning star heralded an event of cosmic proportions. They left everything behind to follow the star.
I wonder at their improbably presence in the Christmas story, at their capacity to recognize the divine lying in the gloom of poverty.
But where are the Jewish sages to join them around my tiny creche? Where are the religious leaders who longed for the Messiah? They were invited. The star led the magi to Jerusalem. News of Israel’s Saviour reached the holy land on the lips of foreigners. The priests were able to name the place of the Messiah’s birth from prophecy and pointed the pagans in the right direction. But why – why – did none follow? (From Invitation to Epiphany: tabitha Plueddemann Mosaic Bible)
Every Christmas we meet with Christ in a new way, a way that should mean death to our old selves and new birth into the eternal life of God. Epiphany is an invitation to follow the Christ that we have encountered over the Christmas season and begin a new journey. So why, why don’t we follow with the same dedicated commitment and zeal that the Magi and early followers of Jesus showed?
For the Magi their journey towards the Christmas star was life changing. They could no longer go back to their old gods. They could no longer walk the old paths or be satisfied with the old life. They had met the Messiah and recognized him as light to the world not just as God’s glory revealed to Israel. They had seen him as God’s redeemer to foreigners as well as to the Jews. And as a result they did not go back to the religious leaders of jerusalem after their revelation – they went home by a different way.
How has our journey towards Christ and the light of his presence changed us this Christmas season? What new journeys are we embarking in that show we have been touched by God’s light? How can we better follow him into a new journey that leads us and others towards God’s eternal light?
Through Advent we have watched and waited,
In Christmas we have found the Messiah,
And we have been changed.
Now we must follow God’s guiding star,
Light to the world, redemption for all people.
We can no longer be satisfied with the old life,
We must journey deeper into God.
May we open our ears to listen,
So that we can hear God’s heartbeat.
May we open our eyes to watch,
So that we can see God’s presence.
May we open our minds to believe,
So that we can embrace God’s ways.
May we open our hearts to trust,
So that we can share God’s salvation.
Happy new year and welcome to a year filled with incredible potential. We have enjoyed the excitement of fireworks and New Year parties. All of us have hopes and expectations for the months that lie ahead. It is not hard for me to believe this will be a wonderful year. The sun is shining, and I am looking out my office window at the beautiful snow covered Olympic mountains. Yet by the end of summer the snow will be gone and the hope and promise they offered may be gone too.
I have already shared ideas on how to make resolutions that stick and talked about the refocusing prayer retreats Tom and I take but feel I cannot emphasize this enough.
Retreats are not just important for us as individuals, they are also important for us as an organization. Taking a retreat with your staff or ministry team is something I highly encourage at this season. Over the years, our MSA staff retreats have totally reshaped the ways we function as an organization. They led us to develop a rule of life, helped us to reimagine ourselves as a community that discerns together the will of God for our organization and pointed us towards the discernment process we use each week in our team meetings.
The process I outline below – what I call taking a spiritual audit is one that you might like to take alone and also as part of your leadership enrichment. Take out your journal, find some alone time, sit prayerfully in the presence of God and get to work.
Look back over the last year:
Consolations: what has been life gaining and deepened your sense of connection to God and God’s purposes for you? How could you strengthen these aspects of your life?
Desolations: what has been life draining and made you lose that sense of intimacy with God and your confidence in God’s purposes for you? How is God speaking to you through this?
What are the major pressures in your life and ministry? Where do you think the pressure comes? What are the underlying causes? What is one thing you could do in this next year to relieve some of this pressure?
How do the above impact your spiritual well being? Write down the positive and negative impacts of the consolations, desolations and pressures on your life and ministry. Share them with a spouse, friend,or spiritual advisor. Prayerfully consider ways in which you could harness this impact so that your heart could be broken open to new possibilities for a better future. What is one new practice you could incorporate into your spiritual disciplines to maximize the life giving nature of these forces.
Look back at your spiritual life:
How has God spoken to you in the last week? Take some time to reflect on what God has said to you through prayer, through scripture, through the needs and words of others, through other means.
What rhythm do you move to? What daily, weekly and yearly events set the rhythm for your life? In what ways do these enhance your spiritual well being? In what ways do they distract you from achieving your full spiritual potential?
What gives you joy in your spiritual journey at present? Make a list of those aspects of your life that make you eager to get out of bed in the morning and face the day’s routines. Which of these give you a joyful sense of God’s presence with you throughout the day? In what ways could you enhance these aspects of your life?
Where do you sense God is currently at work in your transformation? In what areas of your life do you feel you are becoming more Christlike? What would give God the most opportunity to continue that work?
What do you do on a regular basis to nurture your spiritual life? Looking back over your consolations and desolations from the last year, what has made you feel close to God? What regular practices would nurture that closeness? What are the major distractions that interfere with regular spiritual disciplines?
Now prayerfully consider what God has said to you through this process. Read back over what you wrote in your journal. What most stands out for you as you read. Reflect on it. Spend some time in silence listening to the still small voice of God.
Now its time to look ahead.
What changes is God prompting you to make in order to further your spiritual growth:
- In your daily or weekly commitments and rhythms?
- In your spiritual routines?
How will you ensure that these changes are adhered to?
- What is one new practice you would like to institute to help maintain your new resolutions?
- What is one relationship you could nurture to provide accountability and encouragement as you walk this journey?
This is the second post I have written on preparation for the new year. You might also like to check out Making New Years Resolutions as a Spiritual Discipline.
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