Category: Sky

At Sunrise

And At Sunset …

Saturday, June 17, 2023

The Sun Sets,

Through the Smoke From Wildfires.

Psalm 50:1

A Psalm of Asaph. The mighty one, God the Lord, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting.

Luke 17:20-21

Once Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, and he answered, ‘The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; nor will they say, “Look, here it is!” or “There it is!” For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you.’

Words of Grace For Today

The sun rises.

The sun sets.

Life on earth goes on (for some of us, but for many not!)

Climate change, and other troubling developments, lead us easily to say we are seeing the end of all time, the Apocalypse, the Parousia.

Yes, climate change is human created destruction of the environment that sustains life on earth, at a rate never seen or heard of before.

But this is not a sign of the end of time. It may well be the end of life on earth as we know it. Already the severe weather of last year has become the norm for this, and it scares any sensible person about what the future may bring, for it will get much, much worse!

Even in this time, with crises of wildfires and pervasive smoke across Canada, Jesus is already with us.

Jesus is already with us.

Jesus is here, with us, suffering with us, celebrating with us, and showing us how to care for each other, the earth, our environment,

and pointing us to the mercy and grace of God which will give us renewed life each day, in such bounty that we can share it just as bountifully with everyone.

The sun rises.

The sun sets.

And God makes it so, also mercifully giving us new life as the sun rises and as the sun sets.

Cursed Days?

Doch, Blessed.

Friday, June 9, 2023

Threatened By Smoke,

Yet My Days Are Wondrously and Remarkably

(and inexplicably)

Clear!

Yours?

Deuteronomy 23:5

Yet the Lord your God refused to heed Balaam; the Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loved you.

2 Peter 3:15

and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation. So also our beloved brother Paul wrote to you according to the wisdom given to him,

Words of Grace For Today

Now it is not great when one’s enemies join together to give voice to and worse to effect a curse against one continuing to live in peace and even to continue to breathe at all.

God does not work magic to save us. Sometimes it may indeed seem that God barely works at all. Yet God does work and work grace and blessings for us.

Because God walks with us, we trust that any curse spoken or attempted against us will be turned into a blessing, just as God turned Balaam’s curse into a blessing. Thus living and breathing will continue to be wondrous for us.

Today also, each challenge is not our undoing, but cause for us to give thanks, for as many challenges as we face, God gives us the ability to overcome them.

So we live, content, giving God thanks for everything that provides life for us, most of all, God’s presence each day.

Onwards

With Thanks

Monday, June 5, 2023

More Sure

Than the North Star

and the Little Dipper,

God Walks With Us

Isaiah 38:19

The living, the living, they thank you, as I do this day; fathers make known to children your faithfulness.

Colossians 2:6-7

As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

Words of Grace For Today

And on life goes. Not easy. Not like in the past.

Not when we have climate change: wildfires and smoke, storms of vicious power, floods, droughts, and denials that it is anything more than natural evolution as in the distant past.

Life, in the present moment, always has enough challenges to make it seem that life was never this hard, not for us or anyone in the past.

Then we need only remember the difficulty of hauling water, jug by jug, on one’s head, as our ancestors had need to do, until horses, cattle, and donkeys were tamed enough to use as beasts of burden for us. So many other comforts that we take for granted make life so much easier for us than many alive even today. These comforts were beyond any imagination for most humans who ever lived.

So life may not be more difficult.

Yet the truth is comforts and difficulties are not the true measure of life’s difficulties.

Being alone, that is the constant through all of human history and even today which makes every challenge of life extreme, and sometimes impossible. Even hermits and recluses through the ages have found life possible by knowing that God walks with them. While most humans rely on other humans to be with them, to ease the burdens of life, many as they are; hermits who are mystics (and all who take their baptisms seriously) know that the only true companion is God.

Some will say that ‘the blues’, the bottle, or their dog is their only true friend. God though is not limited in anyway. When God walks with us, then come what may, we know how to give thanks. Thanks that overflows, even amidst the most difficult times.

Even today, come what may, we give thanks, and pass on this true assurance of life’s goodness to our children, so that in generations to come, they may face each day, knowing they are not alone.

Inherit

This Mess!?

No *&^! Thanks?

Saturday, June 3, 2023

The Beauty of Creation

Messed Up

By Climate Change=Wildfires=Smoke=Can’t See,

And Can’t Breathe!

Zechariah 9:9

Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

Matthew 5:5

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

Words of Grace For Today

The world seems to be totally messed up.

Lies take the day.

Fake news creates convictions that there is no climate change, just normal evolution. (Really!?)

Politicians that believe their own lies and fake news.

And middle classes that think the fake news politicians are going to actually work for them, and not the special interests and big businesses that support them in exchange for decisions that favour their businesses, or hide the reality of their raping the planet and our future.

The meek shall inherit this!

As one of the meek I will say a resounding, “No Thanks! Keep your messes and give us the New Jerusalem without you or your messes!”

(Maybe that is too much for a meek response?)

…

and then even this sometimes meek and sometimes not so meek person gets to remember that what appears to be a total mess is not beyond God salvaging great good from, and us inheriting it just may be the best thing this world will ever see, other than that God came as a meek saviour, riding on the foal of a donkey. Not the ride for a great leader, eh?!

But exactly the ride for God. For God would show us that great rides, great pomp and ceremony, wild parties of excesses, and shows of great power, force, and privilege, and not even the joys of wondrous comforts in life … all this is not what God created us in creation to be able to experience.

God created us to be able to give. To give life to other people. To restore, protect, use sustainably, and enjoy all of creation.

I guess us meek people (and the not so meek among us) can celebrate today all that God gives us, as we share it with as many people as we can.

When It All Hits

The Proverbial Fan …

Friday, June 2, 2023

Red Beauty?

Or Fire Burning Us Out?

Or Smoke

Taking Our Breath Away?

Haggai 2:9

The latter splendour of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts.

Colossians 3:15

And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful.

Words of Grace For Today

When, though one knows one has done everything possible to make things right, it all hits the fan and gets blown to bits, one has to ask, why?

Happens to all of us, some more than others, always too often.

So how do we proceed through our days, having this happen to us, and knowing it will surely happen again?

Shall we resign, capitulate, and end our days in despair?

Shall we rise up to fight more viciously than ever imagined – hard for pacifists to fight, yet alone viciously – but shall we abandon being pacifists all together and fight like everyone else, and be more vicious now so that we can win, finally!?

Shall we plod on, actually or pretending not to notice how others run us over like bugs on the road of life?

Thankfully God knew it would be like this for us.

God sent Jesus and the Holy Spirit (all God, Three in One, anyway) to demonstrate life on earth for us, and to guide us with God’s power of self-sacrificial love through all that comes our way.

This provides an unwavering peace, the peace of Christ, that we can claim for ourselves at all times, in any circumstance, no matter who stands against us.

Further, though we may fear the result of all the things we have lost as we move forward in our days breathing, God promises that what is taken will be not only replaced (better than insurance of any kind) but that what we receive will be of far greater value. God’s gifts are always greater and more precious than any thing could be.

Today, ask for peace. It is ours. Trust God’s promises, they are sure. Never are we bereft of life’s best and most precious. God sees to that.

Yearning

Deeply

Thursday, June 1, 2023

Looking Up,

and Seeing

the Star

Above the Setting Moon.

Isaiah 25:8

… he will swallow up death for ever. Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces, and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken.

Philippians 3:10-11

I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Words of Grace For Today

I want to know …

Such yearning.

Such yearning that changes the taste and scents of each day, each hour, each minute.

I want to know … but what do we want to know?

So much of life is filled with yearning for the comforts (or things towards comforts) and pleasures that this life offers only with such wiffs, and then they are taken from us, often destroying our ability to yearn with clarity for what will bring health and life.

I want to know … Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings.

Now that is something unlike other yearnings, for it is not for comforts or improvements or anything quickly withering into the evening fog. This yearning to know Christ, the power of his resurrection and (then comes the key to it all – the all that is life and death and existence itself) the sharing of Christ’s sufferings.

That is the key to life: to know Christ by sharing in his suffering. His sufferings were unearned, but offered in order that others might live, and live free and abundantly.

This yearning takes us outside ourselves and extends all that we are toward giving to others; giving everything we can to as many other people as we can so that more and more people will know the power of Christ’s resurrection in their own lives (the hope that moves us beyond living waiting for death).

This yearning is to see that God with a word, has wiped away our tears and disgrace, and the tears and disgrace of all people, and replaced it with the joy and thanksgiving of living fuelled by the power of Christ: self-sacrificial, unconditional love for all people.

May that be our days, and this day. Our hours, and this hour.

The Rock

Sends the Unseen

Saturday, May 27, 2023

What Are We To Do

When The Morning Sun Hides

It’s Warmth and

Life-Giving Rays?

Deuteronomy 32:4

The Rock, his work is perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God, without deceit, just and upright is he;

1 John 3:24

All who obey his commandments abide in him, and he abides in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit that he has given us.

Words of Grace For Today

As Julius and his community worked and waited and struggled to survive in their hunting camp, overfilled by themselves and their many guest, not only the New Iblers, Julius opened Sotorous’ journal and found this passage, an old passage that Sotorus had copied from the time when the earth held nearly 8 billion people and wars and climate change started to displace people:

While our worlds turn upside down on us, through wildfires, smoke, floods, droughts, earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, melting polar ice and permafrost, or through conflicts (personal and geopolitical), or through loss of health, homes, security and peace, or death, how are to know that all is well with us and the world.

We lose all and any sense of orientation that there is an order and rhythm to life that we can rely on, waking in the morning, and sleeping in the evening.

The creation story that begins in Genesis 1 has a rhythm to it, as it lays out the rhyme and reason that God creates the universe, our world and all that is in it: God calls it good.

What are we to do when we no longer sense or can find that rhyme and reason, that rhythm of each day and night, and God’s presence and purpose to create a universe and life in it that is good?

We are helpless on our own.

God planned for this, too.

God let it be written again and again that God is not a God filled with deceit and scheming against us. If only we could hear those words and trust them. But even that kind of trust is gone.

What are we to do?

There is nothing we can do. It not only appears that way, it really is that way.

And we do not need to do anything.

God sends the Holy Spirit to dwell in us. It is the work of the Spirit that allows us at any time in our lives, to sense God’s rhyme and reason, God’s rhythm and order, God’s Grace and Love.

When all sense of any order is gone from our lives, it is not up to us to make it right. God will do that.

God will do that.

God wills that God’s Spirit will do that in us.

So we live each day, that we have a sense of God’s rhyme and reason, filled with thanks and praise.

So when that order is gone, we wait and hope beyond hope that God’s purpose and order for our lives will be given to us again.

So we pray in our chaos: help us God!

Trusting that all will be well, all will be well, all manner of things will be well.

Julius read this to the gathered community on their day of rest.

Led by the New Iblers and God’s Spirit the community responded in a cacophony of voices: “Help us God! Help us God! Help us God!”

Julius ended with: “This the Spirit shows us: All will be well! All will be well! All manner of things will be well. – Let us give God’s Thanks.”

Faith

God’s Gift

Thursday, May 25, 2023

When the Sun Don’t Shine

But a Tinge

of Orange

All Around,

Then What?

Micah 5:1-2

Now you are walled around with a wall; siege is laid against us; with a rod they strike the ruler of Israel upon the cheek. But you, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah, who are one of the little clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to rule in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days.

1 Timothy 3:16

Without any doubt, the mystery of our religion is great: He was revealed in flesh, vindicated in spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among Gentiles, believed in throughout the world, taken up in glory.

Words of Grace For Today

In times of trouble, in desperate times when all hope is drowned by the fires of time eroding like tsunamis burning the coastlands of all inhabitants and buildings, when our lungs burn with the smoke of fires about to consume us, when our feet are already soaked by the waters that will drown us, when the earth continues to shake after all our buildings are rubble, after missiles still explode with more arriving though there are no more cities left on earth, when life withers away, when love grows cold, where all laughter is lost …

Then what ARE we to do?

God knows these times will come in every generation.

God knew we needed more than what we could see or know or demonstrate to be true.

So

God gives us faith,

Faith in the saviour who will rise from the least of us all, a saviour who speaks not to the realities that we cannot change (for conquering enemies or oppressive rulers only makes way for other enemies and other cruel rulers).

No, God gives us a saviour who lives as one of us, teaching, healing, and showing us how to live lives of peace, joy, hope, grace, and love … even as the evil of the world swirls around us.

Jesus lived.

Jesus lives.

By faith we can live as well, even in these days.

The Tinge

Of Dinge

Sunday, May 21, 2023

Those Are Not Clouds, Just Smoke!

Wildfires Burn,

Smoke Kills

From the Inside.

Psalm 51:14

Deliver me from bloodshed, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your deliverance.

James 5:13

Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise.

Words of Grace For Today

The runners sent to bring news of what waters would come their way returned when Julius’ people had managed in the hunting camp for four days. They reported that the five natural dams up river were all spilling over, the higher ones pouring wildly through eroded pathways. The sixth dam, the one closest to their community, still held the waters behind it, though only a meter remained before water would spill over it, and eventually it would erode away like the higher ones already had.

With this report, Julius called the community all together, though most were already there eager to hear from the runners. He asked if anyone had an idea of what they could do.

One of the builders spoke up: we could build a way to let water out of the sixth and fifth dams enough to lower them as much as possible. Let that water run, it would flood a bit, though not more than they had seen in past years. Then they could plug the dams enough so they would hold the flood that was coming. If they controlled the flow in two dams, and maybe even three they could reduce the flooding, maybe enough so that their community would survive. A group of builders gathered around and among themselves filled in the details of a plan. Julius called for quiet as they planned. When the builders turned around, Julius asked them what they needed to make it happen. They responded: lots of workers, everyone available. And tools. We’ll gather the tools. And we will need a few people to prepare meals and make a camp for us at each dam. With people ready to leave the gathering, the runners interrupted with one more piece of information.

They saw smoke off to the northwest on their way back starting at the fourth dam all the way to the fifth dam. There was a big fire somewhere upwind and it made it hard to breath at times. It looks like a tinge of dinge covering the whole sky.

Julius reminded them that they had natural fire breaks on all sides of the community so the fire was not a problem for them, but the smoke could be very dangerous. He asked one of the clothes makers if they could make masks to protect everyone who went to work on the dams. After talking it over with another clothes maker he said they could have them ready in a few days. We could send them by runner as they are ready and the workers would have them before they were done with the sixth dam.

That settled it. Julius asked if there were anything else they needed to hear about before the volunteers scrambled to get everything together for their days of working on the dams. No one answered and a hush came over the people.

Julius reminded them that the fires and smoke and the floodwaters would threaten other communities. They knew of five downstream and two more that the fire and smoke would likely affect. “We will send runners to them to give them news of our plans, ask for helpers, and to see what help we can provide them.”

“Remember always,” Julius said, “what was written and told by the Iblers so many times: ‘Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise.’

With that one of the singers started them singing a song of thanks, and hope, and love carrying the people into the future for generations to come: “Lord, you are life’s hope when life withers away, in clay and on rocks grow full in us, be germinating seed, be a secure place, Bring forth buds and bloom bright in us. And as a new ’morrow breaks on this good planet forth, in this new growing day, blossom in us. Keep us safe, securely, firmly in your strong, good hands and bless us all, bless us all and this your planet.

Lord, you are life’s goodness where loving breaks down,in our coldest times, breathe into us. give generous spirits, be our warming light, be hot flame, be burning in us. And as a new ’morrow breaks on this good planet warming again this new day, burn bright in us. Keep us safe, securely, firm in your good gracious hands, and bless us all, bless us all and your good planet.

Lord, you are life’s joy where all laughter is lost, in our deepest dark, live on in us, be joyous dreams dancing, be comforting sight, be voices and sing on in us. And as a new ’morrow breaks on this good planet forth, a wonder filled new day, sing on in us. Keep us safe, securely, firmly in your loving hands, and bless us all, bless us all and your good planet.”

Lost,

Lost in the Desert

Then

Brought to the Feast

Monday, May 15, 2023

It May Not Be Dry,

But It’s Bleak.

Bleak Winter Cold and Blah.

Or is it blessed peace?

Psalm 107:2-8

Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, those he redeemed from trouble and gathered in from the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south. Some wandered in desert wastes, finding no way to an inhabited town; hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted within them. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress; he led them by a straight way, until they reached an inhabited town. Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wonderful works to humankind.

Matthew 8:11

I tell you, many will come from east and west and will eat with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven …

Words of Grace For Today

Getting lost is common enough and most often resolved easily, if one admits to being lost. Not all of us can be Daniel Boones who are never lost, just a might bit confused of one’s whereabouts.

But being lost, knowing it, and admitting it is the first step to getting help being found again, being set right, being led to the feast.

That’s why we start worship with confession of our sins, so that we know God leads us onward to the feast of life!

Those who would mock us for being lost, are most lost of all people. For they not only do not know they are lost, but they think that by mocking others they can make their own situation more secure. Such it is certainly not.

Each day is another day to be humble and ask God to save us from the dry deserts of our lives, from the smokey hours downwind from wildfires of evil, from the arrogance that would bring us to mock other’s being lost.

The feast after all is not for those who are never lost. The feast is a grand celebration of all those who were once lost, and now are found …

by great mercy

and love.