The Heavy Gift

Of Righteousness

Tuesday 6 February 2024

When Most of Life is Like

a Tumbled

Jumble

of Upturned Roots,

Where is Righteousness?

Exodus 19:6

… but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the Israelites.

2 Timothy 4:8

From now on there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have longed for his appearing.

…

Words of Grace For Today

…

If only …

If only longing for something would make it so …

If only longing for something would make it so, the world would experience more chaos than even now.

But if God longs for something, then … well then it is going to happen, well maybe. And if we long for what God longs for then it will surely happen, or?

Then comes into play human freewill that makes love possible, and what God longs for most is that we freely choose to love, which means God does not make it happen, but waits for us to choose love, which can take a long time, too often more time than we have.

And God’s longing in not fulfilled.

Then we can long to love, but not choose it, and we are disappointed that God does not make it happen, forgetting that freewill is an essential part of love.

So we long for the Christ to appear, and that alone does not give us righteousness. Nor does our choosing to love God, our neighbour, ourselves, and even our enemies. Us receiving the crown of righteousness is wholly a gift.

Wholly and only a gift given to us.

Wholly and only a gift from God.

Wholly and only a gift given to us though we do not deserve it.

And that is something to celebrate, for the Christ is already arrived and here with us each day, and the crown that we do not deserve is ours,

though it weighs heavily on our heads

for with it comes the responsibility (response ability) to love

without condition or hesitation

all people and all of creation.

Just a little work for us each day, eh?

Seeing The Light

Living the Light

Monday 5 February 2024

Is It Possible, For Us To Be So Wondrous?

Isaiah 30:18

Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.

Acts of the Apostles 15:11

On the contrary, we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.

…

Words of Grace For Today

…

When it comes to knowing God’s Grace, we often think that those who have gone before us have done marvellous things, much more marvellous than we could ever do.

Yet, as we approach Transfiguration John Chrysostom reminds us that it is just the opposite. Jesus brings the greatest in their past before the disciples on top that mountain. Moses and Elijah. Pillars of faith, courage, and wonders.

Christ brings before the disciples the one who had died and the one who had not yet died. Both had lost their life, and had found it. Both had courageously withstood a tyrant: one the Egyptian, the other Arab. Both were simple, unlearned men. One was slow of speech and weak of voice, the other a rough countryman. And both were men who had despised the riches of this world. For Moses possessed nothing, and Elijah had nothing but his sheepskin. Christ brought these men before the disciples, for he wished them to imitate their courage of soul and their steadfastness in leading their people, so that they might be as gentle as Moses, possessed of the zeal of Elijah, and as devoted as both were. He brought these men before them in glory, that the disciples might surpass them. That Christ might uplift their courage against all such dangers, he here brings before them these two men who were such shining lights of the Old Testament.

[John Chrysostom, in Sunday Sermons of the Great Fathers, II, 54-55]

So we also are brought to see these two and all the other saints who have gone before us so that God my use us to do things even more wondrous, as we face the challenges of our days.

Being First

To Throw Deadly Stones

Sunday 4 February 2024

The Fullness of Life is Only

a Not-Stone’s-Throw Ahead

Isaiah 50:8

… he who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who are my adversaries? Let them confront me.

John 8:10-11

Jesus straightened up and said to her, ‘Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’ She said, ‘No one, sir.’ And Jesus said, ‘Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.’]]

…

Words of Grace For Today

…

It’s so common that there is no story in it: people gather in mobs (virtual now, or hidden across communities as always, and in physical mobs) to ‘throw’ the deadly stones to kill off their neighbour they have judged to be sinful beyond the pale.

In fact the lynching mobs are seldom accurate and hardly ever just.

What is a miracle is that when Jesus steps in

those so eager to throw the first weapon of death

step away

for Jesus and his followers have always had a way of making reality come into focus

for us all

especially when we surely do not want that focus to reveal

how sinful are and how much evil we have perpetrated on undeserving others,

– as if condemning and punishing them, by shunning, by exile, or by death,

could ever free us from our sins.

– as if somehow putting them on a more terrible rung than us on the ladder of evil-good would somehow make us less evil and somehow good, or at least good enough!

The result of our oh so common ‘stone throwing’ is that our own sins increase and the Devil consumes more and more of our souls

until there is nothing left of good in us.

…

Our only hope then (as always) is that God will forgive us.

Are we again too proud to be forgiven, for accepting forgiveness requires an admission of guilt.

That admission is only possible when we trust the promise God makes in so many ways: to forgive us and renew us and return us to the fullness of life (where stone throwing is not even considered an option.) From within God’s Grace we take on the burdens of forgiving others, in order that they may (also) receive the fullness of life as a gift.

The Smudge

Of Wonders

Saturday 3 February 2024

Oh, How We Avoid,

The Crystal Clear Lessons of Darkness,

Building Fires

That Consume Even Us.

Psalm 32:8

I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you.

Matthew 4:19

And he said to them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.’

…

Words of Grace For Today

…

Life is like the Milky Way, all out of focus, hinting that something is there, with a smudge across the still night sky, dotted by tingles of light.

So I thought as I stood at 3 am, after stoking the fire, in the quiet night, mild winter air.

Oh, that life were just that peaceful and still and smudged a creamy wonder! Then I see the space station bright, moving too fast to be a star or planet.

As I wonder what else is to be seen,

I grab at my glasses, realizing they are those for working on computers, close range top, closer range on the bottom, hoping to switch them for the distant glasses.

But they are no where to be found.

So I put on the computer glasses and what was just a smudge and a few tingles, starts to ring clear against the black of night,

yet the Milky Way is now a creamier cream with more hints of tingles spotting it up for the view.

Is life this way, out of focus, even at the best of times?

This is what it is like when we follow Jesus, when God instructs us: what were mere hints at God’s greatest wonders come into focus

against a back drop of so many wonders that we cannot distinguish one from the other.

And in the still of the deepest darkness

we realize that God always finds a way to show us the miracles of weakness,

of God’s all powerful love

for us

all.

Global

Issues

Friday 2 February 2024

Looking at You … and Me … and Us All,

and the Whole World!

Isaiah 2:3

Many peoples shall come and say,‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob;that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.’For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

Matthew 5:1-2

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:

…

Words of Grace For Today

…

At home we have an old globe which usually sits on top of a book shelf, and collects dust. Only rarely do we take it down, dust it off, spin it around, peer into the different colours indicating different countries, some long since with new borders and names.

The world actually has a fever, not unlike so many people suffering from demon possession. Yes, whether we admit it or not, there are demons, even today.

…

God’s globe does not collect dust on a shelf. It is alive, though feverishly ill, struggling on into the future. If only we could take it and dust it off it’s and our demons as easily as we can dust off our old globe.

Still God, our creator, is present always with all of us. Every day God works to heal all of creation, including us, so that we in turn can be healers for other people and for all of creation. We do not have any right to think we are better than anyone else. We’ve done nothing to ‘earn’ God’s healing and blessings.

This is what Jesus sat down to teach us all.

Now, how are we going to be God’s healers, today?

Magis et Magis

Wednesday 24 January 2024

invenire iter

in domum nostram

Psalm 102:27

… but you are the same, and your years have no end.

Matthew 28:20

… and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’

…

Words of Grace For Today

…

yInchoHpu’DI’ qeylIS wa’DIch mawjaj. ‘a leS Qaw’be’taHvIS hoSchoHbe’ wIta’rup. matay’Daq malja’ wIchenmoHlaHbe’ ‘e’ wIpIH. nItebHa’ ghob ‘ej potlhbej ropvetlh wIta’pu’. tugh qaStaHvIS poHvam wIpab je ghe”ordaq malja’ wIHuqlaHbe’chugh. nughochmeyMo’ ghu’ luleghbogh nuv’e’ ‘ej tugh bIHoH ‘e’ wIHar. maSaHbe’chugh, vaj maQmIghbe’ jaj wa’DIch vIvanchu’meH HochHom ghIlghameS ‘ vIqelchu’pu’bogh. qatlh Qu’vam?

…

from the Klingon:

God may be the same from time before time to after all time, from before creation to after creation’s end,

but we change as we age, often not for the better,

until we die.

So we worry about what to teach others, instead of learning to live as God created us to live.

We worry about the price of china in tealand and how that affects the price of dirt on the moon for our next new vacation home there.

We worry about invasions from the Andromeda Galaxy and how we can make pre-emptive strikes to wipe out other civilizations that might find us a threat to their existence and seek to wipe us out.

We worry about everything we can do nothing about, and forget

to live as we are created, forgiven, renewed and equipped to live, free from worry and full of energy to help others live in the blessed freedom only God can give.

Whaddayathinkfortoday?

Confess

Our Proud Sins?

Tuesday 23 January 2024

Old Photo, Old Problem:

Confessing Sins.

Psalm 25:11

For your name’s sake, O Lord, pardon my guilt, for it is great.

Mark 2:5

When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’

…

Words of Grace For Today

…

There is nothing more difficult for proud, rich humans to do than to admit their guilt.

There is nothing more difficult for proud, poor humans to do than to admit their guilt.

We spend so much time trying to make it look like we are good enough.

Only when we are assured that God will forgive us are we capable of being so bold as to confess our sins.

And then, as promised God forgives us.

So what are we to do with that forgiveness?

Live lives blessed by forgiving others, maybe?

Whaddayathink today is for?

Dismal, Desperate Visions

Of Renewed Creation

Monday 22 January 2024

Hungering For

Creation Renewed,

As Fresh As New Snow

Covering Every Past Evil

Isaiah 45:8

Shower, O heavens, from above, and let the skies rain down righteousness;let the earth open, that salvation may spring up, and let it cause righteousness to sprout up also; I the Lord have created it.

2 Peter 3:13

But, in accordance with his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home.

…

Words of Grace For Today

…

While the reality of everyday life is quite dismal, more so for many than for us, even the poor and homeless in Canada, for war and famine are things very few of us struggle with and many across the globe face that and worse …

So dismal is life, as it can be seen by any set of eyes, for travails is something humans are always able to create no matter their circumstances, good or bad …

So dismal is life when all is going so well and nothing is satisfactory, for we humans always dream of more, and more and more until we out dream the possibilities of being anything at all …

So dismal is it all

that the vision of water pouring down from on high on the parched earth and into our parched hearts, bringing blossoms and crops to grow in abundance, abundance to feed all our hungers and pains of dreams unmet …

that the vision of showers raining down righteousness and justice for all so that no more do any suffer the evil of lies and greed of others, stealing life out from under us …

that the vision of God bringing from this old creation, so corrupted by our collective and accumulated evils that we have a hard time finding the goodness God declared was there when God created it from the void and chaos – God bring from this old creation a new creation, a creation good from the beginning to the end, untainted by our sins and evils done to others …

that the vision of God’s hand extending into our lives and making things right is so yearned for and dreamt of that we are like the parched land starved for more than 40 years …

So dismal is it all and our God given vision of God putting it right almost takes our breath away …

and then we realize that God has already accomplished this

and this dismal world is already redeemed and made new by God’s mercy and steadfast love, so clearly demonstrated in Jesus’ life, healing, death and resurrection, that

we can only remember now

to breathe in the fresh air

that has renewed what

we saw as so dismal

and made it new

wonderfully

new.

God’s Purpose

For the Good and the Bad

Sunday 21 January 2024

Beauty, Gold And White,

Shall Also Pass.

As We All Will.

What Purpose Has God In All That?

Job 2:10

But he said to her, ‘You speak as any foolish woman would speak. Shall we receive the good at the hand of God, and not receive the bad?’ In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

Romans 8:28

We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.

…

Words of Grace For Today

…

But what is God’s purpose?

Job suffers. No one really can figure out (though many theorize) why God does such terrible things to Job.

Jonah gets the call from God. Jonah runs away because Jonah knows that the task God has for him is, first of all, a thankless task. The Ninevites will not repent. Secondly, they more than deserve to be destroyed. So why should Jonah bother!

God knows otherwise and persists with extraordinary measures to get Jonah on task.

Finally Jonah relents and gives the Ninevites a lacklustre warning, “Repent or be destroyed.”

God’s surprise for Jonah starts with the Ninevites all repenting.

And God continues with the surprise by relenting and not destroying these terribly evil people.

History shows that Nineveh was destroyed eventually.

So I guess God is merciful and loving, but it’s really hard for us people to change and stay changed.

What are we to do with that today?!

Maker

Maker Glue

Saturday 20 January 2024

Even the ‘glue’ that holds snow

to the branches

under the bright sun

in the c.c..co..cold.

Jeremiah 10:12

It is he who made the earth by his power, who established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding stretched out the heavens.

Colossians 1:17

He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

…

Words of Grace For Today

…

To the tiniest piece of physical reality (a quantum is it now?) to the greatest galaxies turning about themselves and in themselves,

and also here on earth as we twirl moving around the sun,

each held in place in relation to the rest by

gravity and …

well held in place by far more complex physical and sub- and meta-physical things than I can name

–

all this God created

and God holds it together.

So also God created each of us, our hearts, minds, and spirits,

holding us together as we breathe and live and move and hope and love and

…

and everything we do and are.

This day again we pray in thanks for all things that keep us alive, especially for the Grace of God that gives us life and hope

and everything.