Tom and I are on our way to Australia, but my thoughts are still with the garden I have left behind and all I need to do to get ready for the upcoming season. The place I start is always with reading a few books to get me revved up for the season. Leah Kostamo’s book Planted: A Story of Creation, Calling and Community, is a great place to start. It is easy to read, full of delightful stories and yet well grounded in theology and a deep concern for God’s good creation.
Leah’s story of the growth of A Rocha in North America is engaging and fascinating. She wrestles with important issues of justice, poverty, simplicity and environmental degradation. I love the humility that admits to the struggle and frustration that she and her husband Markhu face when they make significant life changes in order to commit to what they believe is God’s call on their lives. Her vulnerability is refreshing.
My favourite quote:
What I’m striving for in my own daily life is true simplicity, characterized not by deprivation, but by honest, joyful living. Out of this place of joy and material simplicity one is able to question both consumer trends and one’w own desires…. If we live in this sort of freedom we are also released from making simplicity a goal in itself
I highly recommend this book not just to all my garden friends and to those who are interested in environmental stewardship, but to all those who want to take the purposes of God seriously. This is a great book to give to your friends who need to be gently introduced to these concerns.
Its time to get ready for Lent and Easter and I want to challenge all of us to consider taking Lent seriously this year. Lent is often regarded as a season of soul-searching and repentance for all Christians as a preparation for the joy and celebration of Easter. Unfortunately our soul searching is often as perfunctory as our sacrifices. We spend a little more time reading the Bible and praying. Some of us spend a few hours working with a local mission, but otherwise our lives are unchanged. And after Easter, there is very little to show for our commitment.
So lets us take Lent more seriously and help others to take the plunge too. Let us accept the challenge to develop new disciplines and reach out more actively as God’s loving and compassionate hands. The theme for our Lenten journey this year is is A Journey Into Wholeness. We are planning a multi-pronged approach to the season.
Here at Godspace we will post daily reflections, prayers and practical suggestions for the weeks of Lent. We already have an exciting array of bloggers signed up to contribute posts. These will complement the publication of our new Lenten/Easter devotional A Journey Into Wholeness: Soul Travel from Lent to Easter, now available for pre-order at a special discount price from the MSA website. This book is based on the popular Lenten guide we published some years ago but information and resources have been updated and daily reflections have been added. We hope that you will consider journeying with us through the book as we share the season together. As many of you know this book arose out of my frustration with the triviality of most peoples’ commitment to Lent – giving up chocolate or lattes for 40 days just does not seem to cut it.
Each week of Lent emphasizes a different area of brokenness in our world. Over the five weeks of Lent we will deal with issues of inner healing, hunger, homelessness, stewardship of creation and the brokenness of God’s family.It is our hope that the daily reflections in the book and the additional reflections on the blog will help draw people more fully into those themes, beginning a few days before Lent with reflections on preparing for Lent and Easter.
Keith Anderson President of the Seattle School of Theology and Psychology comments:
To offer daily reflections into wholeness will require substance, range, and depth, if it is to be richly whole itself. The readings in front of you now offer all of that in an accessible way. The material recognizes that we come to the journey with others—there are reflections on the Cross, on self but also on others, creation, and God’s family. The material offers practical ideas for individuals and households. And, because it is written by an ensemble of writers, the material is evocative. You will find yourself drawn into ideas, stories, and more—invited to set out on this journey with others in the season of Lent. I recommend it to you with great hope for what you will see on the journey.
We hope that you will not just read along with us but commit to some of the suggested practices. Maybe you would like to join us for the $2 challenge , or leave your car at home for a week and take public transport. Perhaps you would like to spend a night in a homeless shelter, or visit a couple of churches with different theological perspectives and seek to understand their viewpoints. Whatever you decide we hope that you will share your stories with us so that we can encourage each other by our actions.
Those who live in the Seattle area might like to join us March 1st for our pre-Lent retreat, Return to Our Senses In Lent. This will provide a great opportunity to prepare your heart and establish some new practices for the season. We are also working on a new set of Lenten prayer cards that we hope will help us follow through with our intentions. I suggest you write your weekly commitment on the back of the card so that you can revisit it at regular intervals through each day.
So my question for you today is: How will you use the season of Lent to move from brokenness to wholeness this year? Will you join us in the journey?
It is a new year and in a few days we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day. A new year challenges us to try new things. So in this new year – what if each of us would put fresh mental energy into a relationship with someone who is in some way different than us?
Social psychologists point out that we as humans tend to conserve our mental energy, and researchers Shelley Taylor and Susan Fiske coined the phrase “cognitive miser” to describe what we do. One way we do it, based on Christena Cleveland’s new book Disunity in Christ: Uncovering the Hidden Forces that Keep us Apart , is by hanging out with people who are most like us. It turns out that when we spend time with people who are most like us, we can more easily predict their behavior and therefore the entire social interaction is easier (i.e. less cognitively tiring) for us.
Cleveland’s point is that on Sunday mornings we are “cognitive misers” and find it easiest to worship with others who are most like us. Indeed, Sundays mornings are still the most segregated hour of the week, something that Martin Luther King frequently pointed out.
I love when I see examples of how Bridge of Hope is breaking down barriers and stereotypes for people. Like when a mentoring group is comprised of both African-American and white mentors. But multi-cultural churches remain an anomaly in our society today.
So let’s take the challenge for 2014 – and commit ourselves to overcoming our tendency to be “cognitive misers” and instead exert whatever mental energy it might take to build a friendship across areas that divide us, whether that is racial/ethnic difference, economic status, culture or language. The old dividing lines of housed or homeless, black or white, middle class or poor, unemployed or employed, Democrat or Republican, are transformed in the realization of God’s intention for humankind.
May we live into this reality in 2014.
Today’s post is written by Edith Yoder Executive Director of Bridge of Hope, a ministry which provides a church based approach to ending homelessness.
Edith Yoder
Tom and I are getting ready to head to Australia tomorrow. Our dog sitter, an old friend from Milwaukee, commented this morning that it was awfully dark compared to where he had come from. Thinking about that as I prayed through the morning scripture readings and watched the dawn slowly break inspired this prayer
Martin Luther King via wikimedia commons
This next weekend here in the U.S. we will celebrate Martin Luther King Day which commemorates Martin Luther King’s birthday. I will not be here this year – Tom and I head down to Australia on Wednesday, but it is one of those days that I think should be celebrated throughout the world. It is a day used to promote equal rights for all Americans, though I like to expand that to consider it as a day to promote equal rights for all people. Here are three quotes from King’s speeches that I found very compelling this morning
The great problem facing modern man is that, that the means by which we live have outdistanced the spiritual ends for which we live. So we find ourselves caught in a messed-up world. The problem is with man himself and man’s soul. We haven’t learned how to be just and honest and kind and true and loving. And that is the basis of our problem. The real problem is that through our scientific genius we’ve made of the world a neighborhood, but through our moral and spiritual genius we’ve failed to make of it a brotherhood. Rediscovering Lost Values, Sermon delivered at Detroit’s Second Baptist Church (28 February 1954).
Today I would probably say – we have failed to become a global community, but the sentiment is still the same. We are more closely connected than ever yet less concerned about the needs of others.
We must discover the power of love, the power, the redemptive power of love. And when we discover that we will be able to make of this old world a new world. We will be able to make men better. Love is the only way.
Probably my favourite quote of all is this one:
“Never, never be afraid to do what’s right, especially if the well-being of a person or animal is at stake. Society’s punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our soul when we look the other way.”
When we don’t do what is right and trust our God for provision but rely instead on the values of greed, exploitation and oppression, evil does indeed take over. We have seen it in the enslavement and genocide of peoples. We have seen it in the confiscation of native lands. And we have seen it in the destruction of the earth’s animals and habitats. My home country Australia is suffering from record breaking temperatures that have soared to over 50C or 122F.
Surely there has never been a better time to refuse to look the other way. All of us need to do what is right for those who are still oppressed and marginalized in our world. We need to do what is right to reduce emissions and reduce our consumption to contribute our small bit to the fight against climate change.
As Martin Luther King suggests, our souls suffer along with our bodies and our world when we do not do what is right. And the only way to change that is with the love of God. I pray that today all of us will catch a fresh glimpse of God’s incredible shalom kingdom in which all humanity is set free, creation is restored and we all live together in peace, harmony and mutual concern.
May we dream of a world made new,
Where all of us do what is right.
Where together we shout for justice,
And as one we fight for freedom.
May we dream of a world made new,
Where all of us do what is right.
Where together we seek God’s righteousness
And as one we sing God’s praise.
May we dream of a world made new,
Where all of us do what is right.
Where together we climb God’s mountain,
And as one we enter the promised land.
May we dream of a world made new,
Where all of us do what is right.
Where together we proclaim the good news of God’s kingdom,
And as one we enjoy its peace, abundance and love.
Amen
Today (January 12th) the Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Baptism of Our Lord. The Church recalls Our Lord’s second manifestation or epiphany which occurred on the occasion of His baptism in the Jordan. Jesus descended into the River to sanctify its waters and to give them the power to beget sons of God. The event takes on the importance of a second creation in which the entire Trinity intervenes.
In the Eastern Church this feast is called Theophany because at the baptism of Christ in the River Jordan God appeared in three persons. The baptism of John was a sort of sacramental preparatory for the Baptism of Christ. It moved men to sentiments of repentance and induced them to confess their sins. Christ did not need the baptism of John. Although He appeared in the “substance of our flesh” and was recognized “outwardly like unto ourselves”, He was absolutely sinless and impeccable. He conferred upon the water the power of the true Baptism which would remove all the sins of the world: “Behold the Lamb of God, behold Him Who takes away the sin of the world”.
Many of the incidents which accompanied Christ’s baptism are symbolical of what happened at our Baptism. At Christ’s baptism the Holy Spirit descended upon Him; at our Baptism the Trinity took its abode in our soul. At His baptism Christ was proclaimed the “Beloved Son” of the Father; at our Baptism we become the adopted sons of God. At Christ’s baptism the heavens were opened; at our Baptism heaven was opened to us. At His baptism Jesus prayed; after our Baptism we must pray to avoid actual sin.
— Excerpted from Msgr. Rudolph G. Bandas
A prayer of proclamation!
John is baptising when Jesus draws near. Perhaps he comes to sanctify his baptiser; certainly he comes to bury sinful humanity in the waters. He comes to sanctify the Jordan for our sake and in readiness for us; he who is spirit and flesh comes to begin a new creation through the Spirit and water.
The Baptist protests; Jesus insists.
He is the lamp in the presence of the sun.
The voice in the presence of the Word
The friend in the presence of the Bridegroom
The greatest of all born of woman in the presence of the firstborn of all creation.
The one who leapt in his mother’s womb in the presence of him who was adored in the womb
The forerunner and future forerunner in the presence of him who has already come and is to come again.
John is baptising when Jesus draws near. Perhaps he comes to sanctify his baptiser; certainly he comes to bury sinful humanity in the waters. He comes to sanctify the Jordan for our sake and in readiness for us; he who is spirit and flesh comes to begin a new creation through the Spirit and water. (From Micha Jazz)
A Ukranian Theophany hymn.
To Jordan’s water, to Jordan’s water Christ comes to be baptized. John the Forerunner, John the Forerunner, Now humbly steps aside. Christ Our Lord is baptized. Salvation is now realized. Skies of heaven open, God the Father spoken, O’er the Jordan a Dove, Holy Spirit of Love – Revelation from above.
Three Persons in God, Three Persons in God, Are now revealed to us. Father and Son, Father and Son, Holy Spirit – One God. Christ Our Lord is baptized. Salvation is now realized. Skies of heaven open, God the Father spoken, O’er the Jordan a Dove, Holy Spirit of Love – Revelation from above.
Saint John the Baptist, Saint John the Baptist, Foretells release today. The Lamb of God, the Lamb of God, Will wash our sins away. Christ Our Lord is baptized. Salvation is now realized. Skies of heaven open, God the Father spoken, O’er the Jordan a Dove, Holy Spirit of Love – Revelation from above.
This prayer was in the Christmas devotional I read Monastery Journey to Christmas. Something for us all to think about as we head towards Lent and Easter too. What makes it possible for us to keep a Christmas heart.
Lord let me keep a Christmas heart,
That, mid the tumult of the throng,
Still hears the echo, clear and sweet, of angels’ song!
Lord, let me keep a Christmas heart,
That hears and sees another’s needs,
And strives each day to follow Thee in word and deed!
Lord, let me keep a Christmas heart,
To light with joy the children’s eyes,
And know the Christ Child, though he come in humble guise!
So may I know the joy within
The wise men, coming from afar,
Knew, when at last, o’er Bethlehem
They saw thy star!
So may I keep thy birthday, Lord!
In ll I say, in all I do!
A Christmas heart of faith and love
The whole year through!
Poem by Grace Bush.
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