Thus says the Lord: Stand at the crossroads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way lies; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’
Hebrews 6:11-12
And we want each one of you to show the same diligence, so as to realize the full assurance of hope to the very end, so that you may not become sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
…
Words of Grace For Today
…
So often we journey into the crossroads, and never see the path we choose …
until it’s too late, or maybe never.
Not realizing the Goodness of Life was clearly visible on that other path we did not see, or intentionally did not choose, because the incline was so steep.
And then we stumble and tumble down to the depths of despair at how unfair life is, though we could have … we should have …
It’s all too easy to choose the easiest out, at every crossroads, but the wisdom of the ages is that it’s often the steepest climb up that rewards us with views spectacular, into the horizons of the heart, into the depths of love – God’s for us that never fails us.
So we pray, let us be imitators of the saints who have gone before us. Help us struggle on, on into the day … and the night
For from the least to the greatest of them, everyone is greedy for unjust gain; and from prophet to priest, everyone deals falsely. They have treated the wound of my people carelessly, saying, ‘Peace, peace’, when there is no peace.
Romans 12:9
Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good;
…
Words of Grace For Today
…
We’ve all heard again that famous, or infamous, Rant, I am Canadian. With quiet music building to swells of patriotic music Joe states his case:
Hey, I’m not a lumberjack or a fur trader
I don’t live in an igloo or eat blubber or own a dogsled.
and I don’t know Jimmy, Sally or Suzy from Canada, although I’m certain that their really, really nice.
Uh
I have a prime minister, not a president.
I speak English and French not American
and I pronounce it about, not aboot.
I can proudly sew my country’s flag on my backpack.
I believe in peacekeeping not in policing.
I believe in diversity, not assimilation.
And I believe the beaver is a truly proud and noble animal.
A toque is a hat.
And a chesterfield is a couch.
And it’s pronounced Zed, not Zee, Zed.
Canada is the second largest landmass
The first nation of hockey
and the best part of North America.
My name is Joe
and I am Canadian.
Reality
Given Trump and his threats and actual tariffs that will do great damage to our economy, one can understand the call to be patriotic.
At the core of our problems, though, we do not find economics or politics, but good old fashion love, faith, and hope, expressed as empathy and care for all people, especially the poor.
So ours is not a rant but a chant backed by any number of great pieces of music, for example “Canticle of the Turning” (ELW 723) by Rory Cooney, to the lively Irish folk tune used as a rugby match song:
Hey, I am not a crusading knight, nor a desert ascetic.
I don’t hold exorcisms, live in Corinth or Bethlehem or Nazareth.
I have a pastor and a bishop, not a coach or a guru.
I speak many native languages, but not Latin or Sanskritic.
I proudly were a cross on a fine chain around my neck.
I believe in peace not in war or violence.
I believe in respecting and welcoming diversity, not excluding strangers or foreigners.
I believe the fish is a wonderful symbol of faith, as is the boat.
I’m not concerned with how people pronounce words, but that we share the radical Word of God.
God’s favour is not won by what we do or say or believe, but is God’s free gift given to us.
We can refuse it and we do, sinners that we are. But God keeps saving us over and over again, making us saints able to do miraculous things for others, especially the poor, the hungry, the homeless, the outcasts, refugees, strangers, and especially children.
Christianity may be worldwide and messed up in many places, sometimes even here at home, but it is the gift of life,
the gift of life abundant for all people.
We may be getting fewer in number, but being a follower of Jesus is the best part of life.
My name is not important because God knows it and everything about me and still loves me. I’m not ashamed of my name, yet it’s not what I’m proud of.
I’m proud that I bear Jesus’ cross and Jesus’ name,
Then we left the river Ahava on the twelfth day of the first month, to go to Jerusalem; the hand of our God was upon us, and he delivered us from the hand of the enemy and from ambushes along the way.
2 Timothy 3:11
… my persecutions, and my suffering the things that happened to me in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. What persecutions I endured! Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them.
…
Words of Grace For Today
…
What memories I have, of trials, of lies, of abuse, of un-earned prison, of false judgments, of concerted efforts to destroy our reputations, of rejections, of false accusations, of being told to leave, of being forced to leave town …
of surviving, by God’s grace alone, when all else had failed,
yet being loved profoundly,
of experiencing God’s walking along with me,
of trust rebuilt from the foundations of life,
of many helping in small ways and huge ways,
of being dependent yet free,
of living the dream (hard as it turns out to be).
I’m sure you have your memories of life’s challenges as well.
Hopefully you have known and remember that God has walked with you through them, not removing them or resolving them, but equipping you to endure them to whichever end, theirs or yours, and knowing you are blessed to know life in it’s fullest and most truthful blessedness.
With the memories of God’s blessing in the past comes a hard-won trust in God’s promises for our futures.
Moving into today … all will be well, all will be well, all manner of things will be well.
Wondrously show your steadfast love, O saviour of those who seek refuge from their adversaries at your right hand.
1 Peter 4:14
If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of glory, which is the Spirit of God, is resting on you.
…
Words of Grace For Today
…
God’s saves, graciously, and sends us out to be the hands of God’s saving grace for others. Our adversaries may revile us, but that is only part of the cost of being the hands that do Grace.
In a Word: Walking Partners
After her last miscarriage and hysterectomy, that left Henry and her childless for sure, Mary became a marathon runner. She was in great shape so it came as an unexpected shock when she died of a massive heart attack.
Two years later, out of the blue, Gwen, a member at his church, showed up at Henry’s door, knowing from her own loss the inescapable loneliness of surviving one’s spouse, and knowing that the Holy Spirit saved her and kept saving her as she shared that Grace with others. She asked Henry – he was old enough to be her father – to take a walk with her. In a word, they became walking partners. Named, it became the definition of what they gave to each other. It was not always easy, but they sacrificed a bit to make it work.
Gillian’s Safety-Net
Gillian, as a new mother, struggles with sleep deprivation and poverty. Today there just is no money for milk for the three kids, or diapers for the baby. She had already looked in all the places they put money for a rainy day. But there’d been too many rainy days lately.
Then to her surprise there’s a knock on the door. An old man from church, Henry, stood there, saying he knows it can be tough. He’d helped with his nieces and nephews. He offers to watch the kids for a half hour. Grateful, Gillian disappears into the bedroom and falls asleep. She wakes two hours later. Henry’s still there. He’s had groceries delivered, milk and diapers included. There’s even fish and chips for the kids’ supper, and a microwave meal for her and her husband, Michael, who is due home in an hour. Henry says good bye and hands her an envelop with two $50 dollar bills in it, and says, “If ever you haven’t enough for the essentials, my card is in there, call. I can always help out without noticing the extra expense. I’m not rich, but I have more than enough each month. I’m your safety-net.”
Grocery Delivery In A Word
It’s just a word, but the ‘grocery delivery’ Henry arranged for Gillian was not possible online thing three decades ago – so this is how it happened.
Henry, needing to change the baby’s diaper, found the last one. So he looked around, made a list, and called Gwen, his walking partner. Gwen took a break from work at her car dealership, went shopping for the list that Henry gave her over the phone, plus a few things she grabbed from her experience raising her three young kids. Henry tried to pay her for them but Gwen said she didn’t need it, it was her contribution.
Grandma Gillian
Gillian, now a grandma, knows about the cost of grace. Her husband, Michael, died in a car crash caused by a drunk driver when their youngest was in High School. Times always were and still are tight. She volunteers two times a week at the food bank, and patrols the streets for 4 hours when it’s either real cold in the winter or blistering hot in the summer, to help mostly homeless people find shelter.
The Prices Paid
What Gillian never knew was Henry gave up one meal every third day to have a bit saved up for her rainy days. It wasn’t often, but she had asked once or twice a year as long as the kids were at home.
What Henry never knew was Gwen went in debt helping him and others, eventually having to sell her car dealership to pay off her debt. She retired in poverty, knowing she’d helped as many people as possible after her husband, Frank, had died of cancer in their 40s.
Walking with Henry was her one constant, a costly joy, for she lost out on more than a few opportunities to make a sale by leaving to walk with him.
That day he’d called for her to go shopping for milk and diapers, she’d walked away from a sale, telling the customers she appreciated their support of her business, but that she needed to go help someone with no money. They’d pulled two fifty dollar bills out of their wallets, saying, “Maybe this can help.” That money ended up in the envelop Henry gave Gillian.
two winter months, two summer months are HARD, right?
the rest is up to us?
No, it’s all up to us?
Psalm 40:4
Happy are those who make the Lord their trust, who do not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after false gods.
John 1:41
He first found his brother Simon and said to him, ‘We have found the Messiah’ (which is translated Anointed).
…
Words of Grace For Today
…
Winters are harsh. When one does not have a home, an apartment or house, to shelter one from the weather, then one would do well to prepare, and to prepare well …
first to keep the rain and snow in all forms from one’s living area, whatever that may be.
For if one is wet at -40⁰, one will not survive long. If one has to continually shovel snow, that may provide good exercise, but after a while, and as one ages beyond one’s working years, that may indeed provide a requirement for survival that one may not meet.
Putting one’s trust in oneself is a fool’s life, a fool’s mistake.
There is summer to prepare for winter, at least those days that are neither too hot nor too smokey, during which one can construct whatever one can to keep water and snow that will become water when warmed out of one’s living area.
Putting one’s trust in one’s own efforts, necessary as they are, to keep water and snow at bay, and all the other challenges of winter, like dark and cold – putting one’s trust in one’s own efforts is also a fool’s life and a fool’s mistake.
The harsh days of winter like the bugs, smoke, and heat of summer, can simply drive one mad, in all senses of the word. One can be angry at the days, at life, at the circumstances that have led to one living without proper shelter, or at the way that the environmental challenges are more extreme than when one was young, or that age has limited one’s abilities, or that last year’s extremes have become this year’s normals.
One can become insane trying to understand the cruelty of people that have contributed to one’s circumstances, and the stupidity of those who continue to make it more difficult than it is already. But that kind of stupidity, cruelty, and the worldviews that support them as if they were normal simply cannot be understood.
Not any more than it is possible to understand clearly the insanity of the pursuers of violence, in wars of aggression (taking another country’s land), in civil wars (attempting at the cost of the civilian population to rule over the population), in bullies who use fists to communicate and insist on their own way, or of those who in such refined manners serve up lies to ensure they get their own way.
One must, facing the insanity of people and the harshness of the human messed up environment, place one’s hope in a gracious God, who can and will deliver one from all threats.
Following the invitation of the saints through the ages, we know we have found the Messiah, the Anointed One, the Saviour of the universe and of all souls therein.
So we say, too, also this day: Come and see, for we have found our Saviour. Nothing will make this trust waver. Not bugs-heat-smoke. Not rain, snow, dark or cold. Not bullies, liars, corrupt individuals or systems. Not even our successes, small as they are, of preparing as best possible for the coming days.
For we know, through all our trials and tribulations, God’s steadfast love and protection have accompanied us, and seen us through to green pastures and still waters, and peace no matter what the turmoil that swarms around us and the world.
At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God said, ‘Ask what I should give you.’ And Solomon said, ‘You have shown great and steadfast love to your servant my father David, because he walked before you in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart towards you; and you have kept for him this great and steadfast love, and have given him a son to sit on his throne today. And now, O Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David, although I am only a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in. And your servant is in the midst of the people whom you have chosen, a great people, so numerous they cannot be numbered or counted. Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil; for who can govern this your great people?’
Matthew 4:8-10
Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour; and he said to him, ‘All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Away with you, Satan! for it is written, “Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.” ’
…
Words of Grace For Today
…
Whaddayawant?
What do you really want, if anything you ask for will be given to you?
The genie from the bottle giving you three wishes kind of thing, but not quite.
It’s God asking you, as God asked Solomon.
Or it’s the Devil offering you, as he did Jesus, the world in return for worshipping the Devil.
What do you really want?
Solomon asked for understanding.
Jesus refused the Devil.
And what will you do this day with all God and/or the Devil offer?
Even the smallest choices are a response, but the most obvious direction your answers take are seen more clearly in the large choices,
or are they?
Eat a hearty breakfast, for it’s good for you,
but do nothing to feed your hungry neighbour.
Demand others stay out of your way,
and never take time to see their way.
Rest all day long in comfort, day after day.
While others work and suffer all day, day after day.
Enjoy and even waste plenty of water and power,
while most others have barely enough water if that, and no power.
Today, what little choices will we make that determine others lives
You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.
Acts of the Apostles 17:27-28
so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us. For “In him we live and move and have our being”; as even some of your own poets have said, “For we too are his offspring.”
…
Words of Grace For Today
…
Trying to escape from the Wildernesses
of poverty
of hunger
of harassment
of threats
of apathy
of depression
of other people’s wildernesses
of the desert of a parched soul;
We’ve all tried at one time or another to escape
or at least minimize the parched heat, or the soppy wet floods, or the thunder, lightening, and wind storms of an angry planet or soul that seems out to do us in.
While we may try on our own, in real desperation, as even the least of believers to seek God,
yet God is not to be found, for God is before us, behind us, above us, under us, and to each side of us, walking with us through all the deserts and wildernesses that we traverse.
For we are God’s children, also this day, with all it’s challenges and things to be rightfully feared.
No other solution is needed, and we do not escape at all. God gives us what it takes to make it through, for even if death finds us, and takes us, there God gathers us in
to a home like none we have yet known. Home.
Be nice to have a home even in the wilderness, or maybe especially in the wilderness, eh?!
Can We See Through the Fog Of Demands Laid On Us, To See God’s Love for Us ALL!
Malachi 3:17
They shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, my special possession on the day when I act, and I will spare them as parents spare their children who serve them.
Matthew 5:9
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
…
Words of Grace For Today
…
They shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts!
The Ten Commandments start with BECAUSE. Because God is our God. What follows is many THEREFOREs. Therefore we will keep the Sabbath, honour our parents, and so on, showing us that our relationships are most important. God’s “Because-Therefore” laws begin with God’s love for us, followed by a guide to how we can return God’s love and love one another.
When we live, assured of God’s love for us – not striving to meet the demands of the Laws as if they were all and IF-THEN proposition: If we follow, then we are God’s people. And if not, then not! When we live, assured of God’s love for us life becomes a project of bringing God’s love to all people, and that converts us into peacemakers, those people who bring peace, by assuring people that they are loved, and can love one another,
no matter their differences.
What a blessing to be able to share in today’s polarized and fractured world.