Category: Night

Answer

My Cry!

Saturday, May 6, 2023

When It Is All Darkness,

Getting Darker,

To Whom Do We Turn?

Psalms 18:6-7

In my distress I called upon the Lord; to my God I cried for help. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears. Then the earth reeled and rocked; the foundations also of the mountains trembled and quaked, because God was angry.

Mark 4:38

But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, ‘Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?’

Words of Grace For Today

As he travelled, studying and practising healing on those who came to him desperate for help, Julius came across this fragment of writing.

Last night the river rose another 2 meters. It’s now 6 meters over flood levels. Both bridges to town are covered and the only way to town is up the point of the valley’s junction, up and across the prairie fields (through two cattle fences -but that is much better than up the old railroad grade winding up to the prairie) to the road to the power station. Then back towards town, but then further away to reach the road that goes across the top of the dam and finally on 39 into town, all told more than 45 minutes instead of the usual 5 minutes. The yard, the old house, the drive and the well are all flooded. If tonight the river rises again even another meter this house will flood like all the neighbours have already in the last two weeks. What will we do then? Will we have power? Will the house wash away? Will we be washed away as well? It’s been so many days now, each with a new report of it getting worse with new threats and new losses. I’ve cried for help so many times. I’m out of voice to cry.

Julius knew this had been just the beginning of the angry climate. Now they were fortunate to live in a place high enough and stable enough that threats were infrequent, only 50 or so a year. One neighbour of their community had fled from an area not even that far away, a community called Fisigner, when a river had flooded and taken 10 homes in the first hour. Everyone left had run. They had looked for other survivors whenever they met other people, or as Julius travelled about, but there were no news of any Fisigner survivors.

Julius thought, what could they do if, when the called to God to be saved, God answered with anger and more violent storms and floods and wildfires and earthquakes. Then he remembered how Jesus woke from his resting in that fishing boat with Peter and the others. The seas had churned and threatened their very lives, yet Jesus was calm. He spoke and the water and the wind were calmed.

Julius decided he would remember that as God’s answer to their pleas.

Valuable

All

Wednesday, May 3, 2023

Some See

The Dark Night

Stealing Away The Day,

Some See

The Moon Setting,

Some See It All,

Including All the Holy People

On Earth

Leviticus 19:2

Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them: You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.

Ephesians 1:12

so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory.

…

Words of Grace For Today

Julius spent all his spare time after he decided to become a healer learning from anyone everything they knew about healing. It was not insubstantial, and the wisest words he learned were spoken by one who took in people suffering from inexplicable illnesses. Their bodies functioned completely normally, sometimes better than most. But their minds were in various states of jumble and seemingly malfunctioning, at least according to what everyone else expected.

This woman, or was she a man, it was hard to tell really, said clearly that what people most needed to hear was that they were valuable and held in great esteem for just being who they were. After all it is from the ones we expect the least that the most unexpected discoveries and advances are made. She took him around to meet with her guests as she called them. Seth heard voices and sometimes exploded in frustrated anger at everyone around. But they had learned, and he had learned, that these would pass, and he could easily go or be taken to a safe space and throw his fits there. During those fits ideas would come to him, sometimes with stark clarity, sometime muddled, and he would record them as best he could. Often his ideas were obvious insights into how they could all improve their living in this Kur, as they called it, and old word for a place of curing and healing.

Zephania sat most of the day, seemingly staring into space. She would say she really did not know time, yet the images she drew and the words she used to describe their Kur, the world around them, the whole planet, and parts of the universe, even the settlement in the Andromeda galaxy that no one had heard from for as long as anyone knew, were astounding. Though she seemed not to be present, she was even more present than anyone else. When they needed to remember something from the days at Kur, they would ask her and she could recount everything in exact detail, even things they knew she had not witnessed with her own eyes.

They started to record as much as they could, especially the information from the AndromedaB Settlement as they called it. Lots of that was gibberish to them.

Julius asked to read the records. He was amazed at the details about healing that her record contained. He learned more reading Zephenia’s journal than anything else.

From that day onward, whenever Julius met with people, he began by telling them how valuable they each were, and how much they could contribute to help everyone live better lives. He started using an old word, “You are holy.”

He Came

For The Ill

Which is Us All

Tuesday, May 2, 2023

Julius Would Have Been Envious

Of Such An Off-grid Camp,

With All It’s Simplicity

and Technology

(like solar power.)

Second Chronicles 30:18-19

For a multitude of the people, many of them from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun, had not cleansed themselves, yet they ate the passover otherwise than as prescribed. But Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, ‘The good Lord pardon all who set their hearts to seek God, the Lord the God of their ancestors, even though not in accordance with the sanctuary’s rules of cleanness.’

Mark 2:17

When Jesus heard this, he said to them, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.’

…

Words of Grace For Today

On his 16th birthday Julius had been out helping neighbours prepare for planting. The preparations were hard work, since long before the snow would melt they had to be ready for the window for planting a successful harvest would be open most years for only 7 days, and when they came could be anything from early April to late June.

He’d read from Sotorus’ journals and three other even older journals that people used to have liquids they could put in machines and use them for the hard work of planting, travelling, and even creating electricity. It was burning those liquids by so many people that had changed the earth’s weather to be more volatile and unpredictable. In the end it was the thing that decimated the human population from an unbelievable 12 billion down to a mere billion, though some said in the dark times it was down to a mere million. But even today no one could know. There was no way to count people across the face of the earth. People only knew about the earth being round and the continents and the vast seas and the expanse of space and the existence (at least at one time) of a settlement in the Andromeda galaxy so unreachably far away. It was the second settlement for everyone knew from Sorotus’ journal that the first had failed.

That day on the 8th farm, as 10 farmers gathered to help each other prepare for planting, and more than 100 others helped as well it started. Every able-bodied person helped, for it was their food the farmers would try to grow. No one knew then, nor did they know now, what it was. When that 8th farm was finally ready, 10 people fell ill. Julius volunteered to provide care for them. He was run off his feet, for they were constantly thirsty and then hungry even though they kept nothing down, and the messes they made with feces, sweat, and blood was almost too much. Julius had never worked so hard in his life. No one, except the one person who dropped off at a distant rock food and water each second day, came close to the spot in the trees where they stayed under a shelter Julius had built of branches and leaves and mud.

Then as the 9th farm was finally finished, another ten people fell ill, and they arrived as well. That same day 5 of the original people fell ill, 1 recovered enough to help Julius, and the other 4 got better but could barely move or talk. At least they ate and drank and made no more messes. When the 10th farm was finally finished, it repeated. Now three people cared for 10 severely ill, 2 had died, 2 recovered, and 8 were unable to move but ate and drank normally. Those recovered, and Julius for some reason, were marked with trails of dark spots down both sides of their faces that extended the length of their bodies to the tips of their toes.

They would for the rest of their lives be marked. The few who were able to have children, Julius was one so blessed, had children that were marked as well. While the marks interfered with life not one bit, they would be used again and again as reasons to exclude and denigrate these people.

That was not on Julius’ mind at all when, after the 10th farm’s ill-helpers arrived and he discovered that his life purpose had arrived in his lap. He would learn to be a healer. Later he would learn they used to call them doctors in Sotorus’ time. He already knew that Jesus was a healer, and since Jesus walked with him, it fit so well that he would help those who were ill.

Later he learned that even the healthy looking people carried many diseases and were actually more ill and deadly dangerous to others, than those who came down with the spotted-cranks, as those farmer’s helper’ disease came to be known. It was the not knowing one was ill that left them free to spread death in their wake to so many people. Though rituals were developed to ‘protect’ farmers’ helpers from falling sick, it had little effect except to make people feel invincible, when they were certainly not.

Julius wrote in his journal that day, “Correct rituals do not save people, and God helps in many and various ways those who are ill, even the majority of us humans who do not know it.”

Sotorus and Julius

Finding the Generations’ Blessings

Monday, May 1, 2023

So Much Technology Obscures and Distracts Us

From Seeing Clearly the Moon

And Jesus’ Light

Under Which All Generations Have Lived

(well almost all.)

Daniel 4:3

How great are his signs, how mighty his wonders! His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his sovereignty is from generation to generation.

Hebrews 12:28

Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us give thanks, by which we offer to God an acceptable worship with reverence and awe;

..

Words of Grace For Today

Sotorus’ journal lay before Julius. As he read, through his young eyes he began to recognize how many generations had lived, struggled to survive and flourish at times, and died. Among them were Sotorus’ father, Peter, Peter’s father, Isaac, and Isaac’s sister, Galilea, and their parents, Sotorus’ great-grandparents, Doug and Dawn. He read of their first venture into another galaxy to find a planet where humans could thrive. Yet it ended with an emergency evacuation and then a 2nd settlement at another planet, though his ancestors had returned to earth with the human population reduced by 90%.

In each generation Julius read how his people had oriented themselves by Jesus’ Word and Light. It had not been simple or naive. It was as great a challenge as any.

Yet as he had learned as a young child already, Jesus walked with his family, and with him. They were mystics, people said, able to see God and God’s works in the common every-day wonders that God provided to them all.

Julius that day before his 13th birthday started to form, what would guide him through the challenges of his life, a foundational understanding, an orientation for life, and a purpose for his own life. He would honour his ancestors and their work to help others with their life’s work. He would strive to give life abundant to all people. Little did he know what other people would make that cost him, and what joy and pain, love and hatred, hope and despair that would bring him.

So he started to realize, as his ancestors had in every generation, that life is full of possibilities, full of challenges, and always filled with God’s presence.

He thought (as we might also): What will our days be like this, another ordinary and extraordinary day in Easter?

Seeing

Seeing the Unseeable

Seeing the (Seeable) Saints

Tuesday, April 25, 2023

Can We See Beyond The Obvious,

The Roadblocks,

The Hopelessness?

Psalms 112:4

They rise in the darkness as a light for the upright; they are gracious, merciful, and righteous.

2 Corinthians 4:17-18

For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.

Words of Grace For Today

It is one thing to know that others are fighting against one, working to take everything from one, even life itself.

It is a whole other thing to have those closest to you, turn and take advantage of ‘knowing you best’ in order to steal even life itself from you. For then, not only do the enemies possess the most private information about you, they have thus ripped one’s heart and foundation of life right out of you, robbing you of the ability to trust any other person. Then it becomes clear that this was their intention from the start. It was not to share the best of life with you, but to steal the goodness of life from you and to make you as miserable as they had been all along. Perhaps they hoped to enjoy the goodness of your life by stealing it from you, but such joy of goodness is never possible through such treacherous evil. So they continue to find their next victim, and the next, and the next ….

God planned for this, too.

God’s Spirit, by grace alone, created saints in every generation before us, people who despite all efforts to rob the goodness of life from them continue to trust God’s promises, and they lived as they chose (aided by the power of the Holy Spirit) to be gracious, merciful, and righteous.

God’s Spirit rescues us who can no longer trust anyone or anything, sends not only the Spirit to guide us, but saints of these generations, to show us how to trust by seeing what cannot be seen: God’s faithful love and presence with us

each

step

of

our

days.

…

Our enemies may have destroyed us by all worldly measures, but we live blessed in so many ways that we can only give God thanks and praise for,

for

we

too

are

made

saints

in

these

days.

…

And we see what cannot be seen.

We trust beyond experiences that have robbed us of all ability to trust.

We live abundantly.

Waiting

Waiting,

Looking and Waiting

Monday, April 24, 2023

In The Deep Cold and Drear of Winter,

We May Wait for and Look for Spring,

but when hope is destroyed,

can we wait and hope

for life to return to our hearts?

Psalms 130:6

… my soul waits for the Lord more than those who watch for the morning, more than those who watch for the morning.

Jude 1:21

… keep yourselves in the love of God; look forward to the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.

Words of Grace For Today

How in the chaos of this world, where truth is sacrificed by everyone every minute, or so it seems, can we find the patience to wait for and look for something better?

What I trusted was the foundation of life here in this country, is blown to bits and shambles. Lies were spread like wildfire rumours, devouring truth, leaving angry accusations levelled at me. It mattered not that they were false rumours, for they were taken up as a call to war against an enemy with more lies added at every turn (even by those entrusted to protect us all from evil), and I was made to be for so many self-righteous people the face of that enemy, though I had lived my life standing quietly and effectively against such enemies and against such lies, rumours and false accusations against others.

How can I wait for and look for God to fix this unfixable chaos that has left me so far in debt I will never see my way clear of it, even as I live as frugally as possible, off the grid in the bush (freaky hot in the summer and hellishly cold in the winter), heating with a rebuilt wood stove, insulated by tarps cast off pieces of foam held in place by cast off pieces of lumber, a door rescued for reuse on its way to the landfill, all built, repaired and held together by ropes and duct tape and lots of wood screws – constantly needing repairs and replacement.

And then I read with new eyes from centuries past poetry, psalms, prayers and literature. People have sighed, plead, and cried aloud for help from much worse betrayals of self and goodness and civility and honesty and love and hope. My life goes on with blessing abundant in the peace of life beside a small lake in the relative quiet of the bush (though fighter jets landing at the nearby base shatter ear drums and peace at all hours, and the nearby oil installation – an old, ear splitting loud electricity generator growls and pounds on and off for days on end, and bush parties in the summer — all this noise when it disappears for hours or days or even weeks makes the quiet, peace, and solitude then so much more noticed and vibrant.)

What chaos and destruction we humans have wrought on others, and on ourselves. It is not that we have not and do not continue to work to bring a just order and peace to bear on this chaos. Many give their all towards such efforts from large and even world-wide to small and personal. Many work outside any lime light, go completely unnoticed during their active efforts, and are forgotten even before they die. For every step forward it seems at least a step is taken backwards. Here we ended slavery of black people. But the world around even today, people are still enslaved. Even here people are held in bonds that control all choices and steal away all fruits of their labours.

Where is our hope?

my soul waits for the Lord more than those who watch for the morning, more than those who watch for the morning.

As the sun rises each morning the Holy Spirit creates hope where there is no reason or evidence for it.

The greatest burden we each bear is that (if only we were honest with ourselves) we all participate, blindly perhaps, enjoying the benefits of this continuing slavery, and contributing to the chaos that consumes life at every turn, stealing bits and pieces of life from others, and even finally their lives — all so that we can live on, as it were.

For this burden steals life from us, either in our acknowledging it, or worse in our trying to deny its weight in our lives. We try to swim and still we sink into the chaos. We try in so many ways to try to convince ourselves we can fix it and save ourselves.

keep yourselves in the love of God.

It is futile.

At best we can beg God to keep us in God’s love, save us, free us, and guide us to

look forward to the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.

Today,

Another day begging God

Receiving from God

Thanking God

Sharing God’s blessings

whether we are so fortunate to live off the grid in the bush or in the tumult of the city.

Resistance

Is Futile (but not stopped)

Saturday, April 15, 2023

We May Ignore The Signs,

And Head Straight for the Moon,

But The Road Turns.

God Planned for That, Too

…

And Picks Up The Pieces.

Job 9:4

He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength; who has resisted him, and succeeded?

Romans 9:20

But who indeed are you, a human being, to argue with God? Will what is moulded say to the one who moulds it, ‘Why have you made me like this?’

Words of Grace For Today

Why would we argue with God?

Well, let me count the reasons! For there is so much that does not proceed in harmony among creatures and within all of creation.

The harmonies at times are wondrous to behold, but they are rare, or so they seem.

So why would we not protest to God and ask for an explanation!

In fact, to whom else would we bring such protestations and inquiries?

But resisting God, now that is another matter, and even more common than bringing protests to God to vent our frustrations with how creation works and does not work.

Resisting God is to take all that God has created and to deny that God ought to be given thanks for it all. It is to attempt to strike out on one’s own into … well where we think we are headed away from God is always a delusion, and we end up creating chaos in God’s good creation.

Resisting God is to refuse to accept the gifts God so freely and generously bestows on us.

Resisting God is futile, except God does let us turn away. God remains though, inviting us to return to accept all God’s good gifts … and to share them with others, so that there is harmony in creation, if only in small pockets for short spurts of time.

When the end of the day comes, will we recognize God’s gifts given this day and the end of the day that God gives to us as a precious gift? Or will we remain lost in the chaos we help to create, that warps our visions of God’s goodness, mercy, and compassion for us all?

Black, Black

Black Saturday

Saturday, April 8, 2023

There is void, darkness, chaos, as before creation.

1 Peter 3:18

For Christ also suffered for our sins

Words of Grace For Today

While Jesus is still dead, darkness presses down on us, spreading into more and more dark corners, emptying creation of all that is, was, and could ever be … and chaos reigns again

as

before

creation.

And if we breathe still, we pray, “God, save us!”

God Dies

God Dies

Friday, April 7, 2023

When God Dies The Light Is Gone.

Mark 15:33-39

When it was noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. At three o’clock Jesus cried out with a loud voice, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?’ which means, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ When some of the bystanders heard it, they said, ‘Listen, he is calling for Elijah.’ And someone ran, filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a stick, and gave it to him to drink, saying, ‘Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down.’ Then Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. Now when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, ‘Truly this man was God’s Son!’

Words of Grace For Today

If we want to ignore truth, then we can say much about how God did not really die, just Jesus.

But Jesus is God. Jesus dies. God dies.

What is left?

As always after death we are at a loss to know anything for sure because death rips the foundations of life out from under us.

And when God dies, the foundations of all the universe are gone, not to be found no matter how hard we seek.

So we are

simply

lost.

…

lost.

…

lost.

…

…

All we can do is pray: “Save us God!

Great Mystery

The Greatest Of All!

Wednesday, April 5, 2023

What Word Do We Have

That Will Bring Light

Into the Deepest Darkness?

Psalms 33:5

He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord.

2 Corinthians 8:9

For you know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich.

Words of Grace For Today

As a windfall is to unwieldy debts, how is an Easter sermon to our heartbreak, loss, helplessness, and struggles to live, sinners as we are?

We understand how debts can become oppressive, sucking the life and hope and joy right out of us. Yet we try to deny that we owe God and so many other people because of all our sins. We run up a debt load that is impossible to deal with. Our debts suck the life and hope and joy right out of us, even if we do not admit.

God planned for that, too.

God took all the riches of God’s own self in Jesus’ purity and sinlessness and God gave that all up. With our sins God ran Jesus into poverty so deep he would not escape it. He paid for our debts with his unjust death, and transferred the greatest riches of innocence, purity, and the best unconditional love to us.

God did this through Jesus’ death … and his resurrection. For God would not in any way stay poor. God spread the riches of all creation, all around … even to us who are such great sinners.

So we live, with hope, joy, and love enough to share with all who encounter us.

With what words could a preacher in an Easter sermon communicate such undeserved freedom to those who anticipate already that they have earned their place in God’s good graces?

What words communicate the largest windfall possible: blessed life that cannot be taken from us!? This is the same question for everyone who receives the gift of faith, not just the preacher on Easter Sunday.

Perhaps with great humility the preacher/believer must confess that there are no such words to be chosen. With “Christ is Risen!” “Christ is Risen, Indeed!” we can say great things that bespeak the wondrous mysteries of God’s love for us.

But to communicate that our sin-debts are paid once and for all time … well that is up to the Holy Spirit to give the people ears to hear, and hearts to learn, and faith to know.

…

Each day, after we have confessed our sins and begged again for forgiveness, let us pray that God will give us ears to hear, hearts to learn, and faith to know God’s Grace for our enemies (us among them, for most often we are our own worst enemies.)