Sky – This Life

God’s Holy Temple

Defiled

Saturday, March 29, 2025

All Creation Holy and Defiled

All Is Holy,

All Of It,

Wonders And All

Habakkuk 2:20

But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him!

Mark 11:17

He was teaching and saying, ‘Is it not written, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations”? But you have made it a den of robbers.’

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Words of Grace for Today –

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So often we think of God as being there,

over there,

in that place,

that one holy place,

or one of many holy places.

Like churches, Temples, etc.

We make rules of how we are to behave in those special, holy places.

Good rules and traditions of hallowed places of prayer, worship, singing, giving thanks, feasting, welcoming all and sharing with everyone.

Which frees us to behave otherwise in all our places.

And that we are so good at that even in those special hallowed places we have behaved horrendously.

But!

God is everywhere in all creation.

All our places are first and foremost God’s places.

Our behaviour in ‘holy places’ as well as everywhere, should be governed by our following Jesus example, and the example of many, many saints who have gone before us, and who walk among us even today.

Reverence, prayers of gratitude, prayers of intercession, and acts of selfless love, acts of justice, acts of bringing equality to all.

Keeping God’s hallowed places holy, means keeping all creation holy, us included.

Hovering Overhead

Protection? … or Drones!

Friday, March 28, 2025

What Do We Hear/See?

See the Drone Threat, Or Is It The Moon Reflecting Christ’ Light?

Isaiah 31:5

Like birds hovering overhead, so the Lord of hosts will protect Jerusalem; he will protect and deliver it, he will spare and rescue it.

Matthew 10:6-7

but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, proclaim the good news, “The kingdom of heaven has come near.”

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Words of Grace for Today –

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Hovering overhead these days,

one thinks of drones, loaded with missiles of destruction used against targets, against enemies, against … too often, innocents.

Who protects them, and us

from Drones – including the metaphorical drones of crazy voices threatening our very lives, livelihoods, sovereignty?

Reset one’s mind to hear/see first the promise long ago given, that God will protect us, that God will bless us, that God will walk with us even when the way is troubled with our earthly demise, laden with minefields of unknown threats and disasters.

Knowing God’s love

unconditional love

for us

and for our enemies,

and remembering it first,

then

the drone threats are

nothing

in comparison to the blessings God already pours out on us, so we have so much to share with others.

Fear not.

Move with the Light,

The Kingdom of God is here!

To Be Seen

To Be Known

Wednesday, March 19, 2025

And Loved

Especially When We Are Cast Out,

Cut-Off,

Alone.

Job 40:3-4

Then Job answered the Lord: ‘See, I am of small account; what shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth.

1 Corinthians 13:12

For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.

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Words of Grace for Today –

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There is nothing more frightening than to not be seen.

To have no one see one as a person, as a person of worth.

Or worse, to be seen and valued as worthy only for what one is not. To be a lie.

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In the Psalm for this coming Sunday we read

O God, you are my God; eagerly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.

Our hearts, minds and spirits know from where we have come, and they thirst to be seen and known for who we are.

Most often we seek to be seen and known by other people. This is not misguided, for God created us people to be for each other God’s presence, God’s voice, heart, hands, and feet, graciously sharing all God’s gifts.

And as Jesus taught, to be God’s loving presence especially for the poor, the ill, the lost, the outcast, the foreigner, and even for our enemies.

What does God do for those, like Job, whom all others have rejected and there is no one to be God’s presence?

God comes and makes God’s own self visible, palatable, healing, loving, and enlivening in mysterious ways, in ways mystics have spoken of for generations.

Just as Paul knew there was no danger in not being seen by other people, because God still sees us, and knows us.

We need not bring our protests to God for how terrible the world has treated us, though we may. God can take it. We can know that God is Great above all, and we are but dust given spirit as a gift from God,

and we therefore can, especially during our Lenten journey, remain humble and still, bending low before the wonders of God all around us,

witnesses to God’s steadfast love for us.

And when we pray it can be in thanks in words the Psalmist gives us this Sunday:

For you have been my helper, and under the shadow of your wings I will rejoice.
My whole being clings to you; your right hand holds me fast.

It Once

Was Good

Sunday, March 16, 2025

But Now You Hide Life From Me

the light is nearly gone, just a sliver of it left,

and then …

Psalm 30:7-8

By your favour, O Lord, you had established me as a strong mountain; you hid your face; I was dismayed. To you, O Lord, I cried, and to the Lord I made supplication.

John 16:22

So you have pain now; but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.

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Words of Grace for Today –

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Oh, it used to be so good, blessed people said, though they plotted and schemed to bring me down, down, down,

without cause, just jealousy and fear at being seen for what they are.

it was

but now

is no more

The joy is gone

the hope has died

for even God has deserted us

and all that is left are promises, promises, promises

as old as the ages and newer than fresh snow

that have been broken

through the ages

so often and

so often

again.

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Where is the joy?

Everything is

Just the Same

Saturday, March 15, 2025

Old Story

The Blues,

from Sky to Ice

and Back.

Isaiah 62:2

The nations shall see your vindication, and all the kings your glory; and you shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will give.

2 Corinthians 5:17

So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!

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Words of Grace for Today –

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The Promises people make,

the Promises scripture makes on behalf of God,

the Promises people make to one another,

the Promises.

…

How can it all be new,

when it’s the same old, same old.

Putting creases on my face, and on yours.

Wearing my all down, down, down.

…

promises

…

More lines, more grief, more loss, more sorrow, more lines.

Until my face, your face, is no more, except dust.

…

So?

One God

One Big Mess –

Friday, March 14, 2025

Us

Oh God, Guide Us, From Darkness

to Light.

Zechariah 14:9

And the Lord will become king over all the earth; on that day the Lord will be one and his name one.

Romans 10:12

For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him.

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Words of Grace for Today –

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God is One.

And we are always one big mess.

Individually and collectively.

Look at the mess in and around us today. It just keeps getting more and more chaotic. The world around us keeps getting fractured into more and more competing fragments of hearts and minds, and bodies.

Yet

God is One.

As we have come to believe, for we cannot know, nor change God.

And only by the work of the Holy Spirit can we know anything true about God.

And this we know: God is generous to all, without distinction.

So open your minds.

Open your hearts.

Open your spirits.

God would have us be God’s own who are as generous to all without distinction.

Found, Favoured

and Sent

Thursday, March 13, 2025

Out of Darkness

into Brilliant Light, God Calls

and Sends Us …

Genesis 6:8

But Noah found favour in the sight of the Lord

1 Peter 2:9

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.

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Words of Grace for Today –

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God chooses us, favours us,

and oh, we could celebrate ourselves into oblivion with such great pride!

But

God does not choose and favour us that we may be made important in our own eyes or in the eyes of the world.

God chooses us, favours us, and then sends us out to proclaim with our deeds God’s mighty acts of saving us miserable sinners caught in the deep darknesses of our own making.

In the Light, by God’s grace alone, we see

God’s Wonders

so clearly contrasted to our own miserable attempts to make things right.

The greatest wonder is that God chooses to save us from the darkness.

Remember.

Re- member.

All that God has done for us, so that we can share it all with others.

Not Found

Zeroed out.

Wednesday, March 12, 2025

Goners

Smoke steals air

on our way to

zeroing ourselves out of life.

Jeremiah 50:20

In those days and at that time, says the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and none shall be found; for I will pardon the remnant that I have spared.

1 Peter 2:24

He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.

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Words of Grace for Today –

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The order was given

by the devil’s generals

to zero us all out.

Out of shelter, clothing, food, water, even air.

Out of energy, movement, thought.

Out of time, out of hope, out of love.

…

Instead God came to zero out our sins

so that we might live free from the incapacitating chains of fear

so that we might live ready and able to give life to others

so that we might be filled with hope and love for all people.

An impossible journey made possible by the only one who made the journey to death and hell to pay for our sins of helping the generals of the devil zero out other people.

So we step forward, against all expectations

into the light of humble penance,

and hope for love that

can transform us

and

the world.

Drowning

Monday, March 10, 2025

Drowned in our own arrogance

Drowning with creation

in the pollution of

arrogance, CO²

Psalm 4:9

I will both lie down and sleep in peace; for you alone, O Lord, make me lie down in safety.

John 14:27

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.

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Words of Grace for Today –

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Drowning in violence staged by uber-hubric arrogance.

Drowning in hate that robs life from so many around the world

and us here, without a home.

Drowning is troubles and horrors, that should long ago have been eliminated from human lives, hearts, minds.

Drowning

Drowning on this obligatory journey.

So we cry, save us, God.

Save us and give us peace at night and through our days.

Save us.

Save

us.

Lost

Out Somewhere

Sunday, March 9, 2025

Nowhere

Where?

Where Are We?

Where!!

Psalm 105:3

Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice.

Romans 15:13

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

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Words of Grace for Today –

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The Lenten Journey is begun,

but we are lost.

Lost in the dashed hopes of all time

and of our time.

Lost to joy.

Lost in seeking.

Lost all hope.

Lost is all peace.

Drones strike, hearts fear, threats spill like regurgitated thoughts, already long since rotten food eaten, poisoned the mind, digested – puked onto the political world stage.

Lost is all power to move.

Yet on a required journey to discover

again the meaning of life.

Seeking is futile, as always.

Find us God we pray, knowing God knows we are lost for God is always also here.