This is photo is of the peace candle in my Advent garden. The full word peace is obscured, the leaf behind is splattered with red wax – a little like blood. I could not help but think of that this morning as I read about the terrorist attacks in France and grieved with the victims and their families.
As the Christmas season, the season of “peace on earth” ends, we are very aware that the peace we long for in the coming of Christ is not fully realized in any part of our world. Hopefully that does not stop us longing for it, and working towards it.
Like so many of us I enter the day with a heavy heart for the victims of violence and the fear it leaves behind.
This first prayer was written by my friend John Birch as he thought of Paris but was aware too aware that in Syria, Iraq, Nigeria and other countries such deaths are all too frequent.
Loving God, we pray
for those whose lives
have been cut short
by acts of violence
fuelled by hatred
or religious zeal,
and the individuals
who perpetrate
such horrific acts.
May those who mourn
for loved ones lost
feel the warmth
of your compassion,
and those who rejoice
at such loss of life
meet face to face
the one true God
and understand
the difference
that love can make.
©John Birch, faithandworship.com
—————————————–
The second prayer here is one that I wrote this morning as I thought about the terrorist attacks in France and all the other places of the world that face continual turmoil and unrest. I am very aware of the inadequacy of our words and of the mixture of grief, fear and anxiety that events like this instill in us. Resting in the presence of God, and allowing God’s love to flow through us to those who are victims of these situations is often the best that we can do.
God who weeps, God who mourns, God who comforts,
Weep in us, mourn with us, comfort through us.
God who lives, God who cares, God who loves,
Live in us, care with us, love through us.
God who heals, God who transforms, God who brings peace,
Heal in us, transform with us, bring peace through us,
make all things new through us.
Let all you have created be made new,
In us, with us, through us.
Legendary gospel singer, composer and producer Andraé Crouch died Thursday at the age of 72. He had been hospitalized in Los Angeles since Jan. 3 following a heart attack.
The seven-time Grammy winner was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 1998. His songs were recorded by Elvis Presley and Paul Simon, he collaborated with Stevie Wonder, Chaka Khan, Elton John, Quincy Jones and Diana Ross, and he was a backup singer on several Michael Jackson songs.
As a tribute I thought I would post my favourite of his songs – I am posting two versions – the first because it has the lyrics, the second because it also includes some of Andraé’s testimony. May God be with his family as they grieve.
The research is in, gardening, and interacting with nature is good for our health and well being, especially for that of our kids. Living near nature dramatically impacts our health and interaction with nature decreases the health gap between rich and poor. Contact with nature helps children to develop cognitive, emotional, and behavioral connections to their nearby social and biophysical environments. Nature experiences are important for encouraging imagination and creativity, cognitive and intellectual development, and social relationships (Read the article). Kids in particular who suffer from attention deficit disorder can have their symptoms alleviated by spending more time outdoors. Another informative article shares that it helps to relieve stress in children as well.
There is also evidence that exposure to soil bacteria could improve our health by boosting our immune system. And believe it or not even Sniffing Compost Makes You Happy – Literally
Other studies suggest that just looking at nature improves our health and reduces the time it takes to recover from surgery. So imagine what a difference a whole afternoon outside can do.
Getting our kids involved in the garden can have even more benefits. In her article Go Outside and Play: Four Reasons Why Exposure to Nature is Essential To a Child’s Wellbeing, Suzy DeYoung talks about the amazing health benefits of getting kids outside. According to the EPA, indoor air pollution is the US’s number one environmental health concern. They encourage kids to get outside and play but I think that working in the garden can be even more beneficial.
So let’s get our kids outside. Here are some resources to help:
From organic gardening:
The Permaculture Research Institute has a great 4 part series on “Getting Kids into Gardening”:
- Creating a Butterfly Garden
- Creating a pizza garden
- Creating a Resilience Garden
- Growing Creativity in the Garden
Great curriculum for children and gardening from Presbyterian Church
From Container Gardening for kids
- Kids Gardening and “helping young minds grow.”
- Seven Indoor container gardens kids will love
Some Other Ideas for Kids garden crafts
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
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