Sacramental Mystic – Page 8

Walking

The Wonderful Way

Saturday, June 24, 2023

Even When the Way Looks Obvious,

There are Dangers,

and Choices:

Coyote Ahead?

or Take the Other Path?

Micah 6:8

He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

Philippians 2:5

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,

Words of Grace For Today

If it were so simple, then we would just have to be humble and walk with God, love giving kindness to all (especially those who certainly do not deserve it, and they are many), and do what is just and right.

Trouble is, even for good people, it is hard to do these things. The ways of the world are everything but these; the pressures to be successful in the ways of the world are intense and unrelenting; even in small daily exchanges humans fudge reality in order to get along with others and to seem to be just a bit (or maybe a lot) better in their own eyes and in others’ eyes than they really are; and, let’s face it, walking with God is not something that is even possible because God goes so many places that we cannot follow since we are just not omnipresent, all powerful, and capable of transcending time and space. Even a tele-transporter or time travelling space ship would not make it possible. It’d be hard to follow God for a stroll on a planet with no breathable air, or – imagine this simply – to the centre of the sun!

So often, we hear that we ought to be like Jesus, to live as Jesus did, to make decisions as Jesus did. Besides that we simply cannot (sin gets in the way all the time), if we did we’d all end up crucified by the age of 30 or so. Today’s passage is a bit more realistic: let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus. Ah, that is passive. It is to let the Holy Spirit put that mind in us, and let us be as Jesus was, kind, just, and humble.

Now if we let the Holy Spirit work unimpeded in us and through us, then there is hope that we might indeed, do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with our God

One day at a time, one step at a time. God walks with us, so that we can walk humbly with God.

And that walk is a wonderful, and even the most wonderful, way to proceed through life!

Or did you have other plans for today, and the rest of your days, plans that you cannot or will not cancel?

Awe

An Awesome Thing

Friday, June 23, 2023

Like Sunshine Reflected

Precious, Golden

Off The Ice-glazed Snow,

So God’s Great Works

Reflect Off Our Hearts and Minds

To All Around Us.

Exodus 34:10

He said: I hereby make a covenant. Before all your people I will perform marvels, such as have not been performed in all the earth or in any nation; and all the people among whom you live shall see the work of the Lord; for it is an awesome thing that I will do with you.

Matthew 4:23

Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people.

Words of Grace For Today

There is much in life that can surprise us, but nothing blows us away like the works that God does among us.

Take …

Well take any old day, of any random person, such as yourself.

Look closely.

Perhaps it is filled with unpleasant or downright terrible things.

Look past all that.

Look at how, in spite of it all, you still breathe.

With breath in and out, you can smile.

And with a smile in the face of all the terribleness of any old day of any random person like one’s self,

one can know that God has worked yet another awesome thing.

Awe is the reality of seeing God at work,

Smiling with gentle steadfast love for us, for us all.

After

All God Has Promised, Really?

Thursday, June 22, 2023

The Colours Of Peace Vary.

God’s Promises

Do Not Vary At All.

Thank God!

Jeremiah 14:21

Do not spurn us, for your name’s sake; do not dishonour your glorious throne; remember and do not break your covenant with us.

1 Corinthians 1:9

God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Words of Grace For Today

I woke to take this photo of a peaceful morning after a few days or rather weeks of lots of not so much peace.

In order to get my photos off the cell phone I have to email them and often I write something short and maybe pithy since empty emails don’t do so well. Sometimes pithy ends up to be not so short, as this photo elicited a longer train of thought:

‘After’

after smoke

after dry

after rain

after thunder & lightning

after strong winds

after obnoxious loud music from the neighbours

after it all

peaceful blue skies & green grass & trees & bright sun.

I’ll take it.

…

after an allergy pill 😐

…

Almost as good as a bright winter day with no bugs.”

Reality seen wonderful can too often be tempered by a bit more of reality.

The reality that God promises us is founded only on God’s good Grace and Love for us.

There is nothing that tempers that reality, for God’s Grace and Love already take into consideration all our sins, all evil, all trials and temptations, all storms and challenges of life … everything bad!

As well as everything Good!

What could we do were God to revoke God’s promises?!

What could we do were God to abandon God’s one-sided covenant with us, to be loving and gracious always?!

There is no ‘allergy pill’ to deal with the realities that God’s Grace and Love consider and deal with for us. On our own it would be a disaster, exactly what many people take life to be because they do not accept God’s promises.

What wonder it is, though, to live in the fellowship of Jesus Christ, a fellowship of imperfect and broken and ‘loud, obnoxious music’ people who are almost as bad as us 😐 !

What a wonder to wake each morning, whether it is a calm and peaceful weathered day or a stormy, raged, and ‘filled with sins that break everything in sight’ day, and to know that God is faithful and true, loving and gracious with us, healing us from all our broken hearts, minds, spirits and bodies, forgiving us all our destorying sins.

What a wonder to know that God remains God, loving and merciful.

What a wonder!

Turn Away?

Surely NOT Us!

Ah, But Really?

Monday, June 19, 2023

*No Credit Given at https://www.wionews.com/science/direct-from-star-wars-tatooine-like-planet-discovered-that-orbits-twin-stars-604080 13 Je 2023*

How Many Suns?

How Many ‘gods’?

Ah, If Only We Admitted

How Many ‘gods’

We Turn To?

Jeremiah 17:13

O hope of Israel! O Lord! All who forsake you shall be put to shame; those who turn away from you shall be recorded in the underworld, for they have forsaken the fountain of living water, the Lord.

Revelation 21:6

Then he said to me, ‘It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life.

Words of Grace For Today

We humans have made up commandments and rituals and criteria to convince ourselves WE have followed God and deserve to enter heaven: St. Peter, Open the Gates!

But

it is all self-deception.

Worse, we turn our commandments and rituals and criteria as the basis of judgment against others who have not complied and followed our ways, which we claim are God’s ways.

So we condemn them, damning them to hell,

and we ‘save’ ourselves, sending us to heaven

or so we think.

Truth is our commandments and rituals and criteria are not God’s. Our judgments are not God’s. And St. Peter ain’t opening the gates for us. Instead the devil is. And the Devil gleefully welcomes us into what he has made to look exactly like what we conjured up our ‘heaven’ to look like, … which is totally separate from the essence of God, namely grace, mercy, and unconditional love. The Devil doesn’t wait for us to die, either. Forget that delayed ‘reward’ idea. It’s now and forever

unless

God intervenes with grace, mercy, and unconditional love, saving us from ourselves and our judgments of others.

We have all turned away from God. We have all forsaken God and God’s good ways for us.

We can only beg,

beg for grace,

beg for mercy,

beg for unconditional love

to save us.

Thankfully God has plenty of grace, mercy, and unconditional love for us all. God asks that we exercise that same grace, mercy, and unconditional love for others. So much for our commandments and rituals and criteria by which to judge others, and deceive ourselves.

Ah, mercy me!

Can we abandon our commandments and rituals and criteria for God’s grace, mercy, and unconditional love, also this day? By the Holy Spirit working in us, why not!

The Glue-i-ness

Of All That Is

Sunday, June 18, 2023

Five Useful Things,

New In the Last 50 Years,

and a Stapler

(older than 50 years).

Can You Name Them?

Psalm 89:12-13

The north and the south—you created them; Tabor and Hermon joyously praise your name. You have a mighty arm; strong is your hand, high your right hand.

Colossians 1:16-17

for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

Words of Grace For Today

As exciting as it is to read of new sub-atomic discoveries and theories of how matter is constructed, and that anti-matter must exist … and

As exciting as it is to see new photos of new galaxies, stars and planets, even planets in stable orbits around two stars, and to read of more discoveries about the universe and its origins … and

As exciting as it is to read about and be able to use new discoveries and technologies that give us new and useful products for daily living, like oscillating saws, instant oatmeal, microwaves, heat pumps, hydrogen and/or electric vehicles, computers, cell phones, LED screens, LED lights, and crazy glue (just to name a few things that have become staples for many people over the last 50 years) …

There is no discovery yet that explains the whole universe in all it’s order or rather orders and in all its variations and samenesses, and in its chaos and disorder.

It is tempting, as humans have for all of our history, to turn to our concepts of ‘God’ to explain only the inexplicable, and say that there is no complete explanation for the universe this is ‘proof’ that God must exist.

The saner turn of thought is to accept the reality that if God exists (and we do so believe) and if God created the whole universe and all that is in it (and we do so believe) then:

All that we discover in and about the universe is made possible by God’s creating the universe in such a manner, and by God’s creating us in such a manner

so that: we can discover order and explanations for things that exist –

so that: we can invent new things that are of great usefulness to us –

so that: we can imagine wondrous things (such as Tatooine orbiting around binary suns), and later discover that they are actually things that exist in the universe

so that: we see God in all that is and all that is possible for us to imagine and to discover and to use well.

Take crazy glue. It is so good at mending broken skin, so much so that medical variations of it are used now in surgery to replace stitches and even to hold tissues together that stitches cannot. Yet when used as a regular glue, at least my attempts prove, it fails as a glue more often than not.

Thus perhaps a helpful analogy is that God is the ‘glue’ that holds the universe together, that holds us together, a ‘glue’ that is so much better at its purpose than crazy glue, a ‘glue’ that is perfect and a ‘glue’ that created everything in the beginning as well.

Now to ‘discover’ and ‘use’ that ‘glue’ would be more than a little exciting. That would bring us to break out in a joyous shout of amazement. So it is for Tabor and Hermon and countless people through all time, and even me and you today (again) to break out in joyous praise and wonder at all God has made and is

for and with us even today.

…

… now back to the top for the answer

to what are the five useful things in the photo, besides the stapler, that are new in the last 50 years. Actually the miniature stapler is new in the last 50 years, just not the plain old stapler. –

…

ready?

crazy glue
coloured and clear plastic, stick on, page markers, dispensed in serial
floss – now replaced by floss sticks-picks
the plastic mat under everything
(the stapler, but it does not count for this quiz and, finally,)
the LED flashlight providing the light (a tricky, hidden thing, but what fun is a ‘find everything in the photo’ without something tricky, not unlike the whole universe, or?)

…

Notice the shadow. Everything has a dark side, eh!

Oh, And Happy Father’s Day,

now if the kids would just be in contact, it would make my day!

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.

God’s Face

Shown and Not Hidden

Thursday, June 15, 2023

Even in the Deepest Darkness

and

in the Thickest Fog,

Like This Moon on a Wintry Morning,

God Does Not Hide From Us.

Ezekiel 39:29

… and I will never again hide my face from them, when I pour out my spirit upon the house of Israel, says the Lord God.

Romans 8:16

… it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, ….

Words of Grace For Today

When God shows God’s face …

Ancient times knew that when one saw God’s face, that was the last thing one would see. One died, and quickly.

God visits Moses, calling him to lead God’s people from slavery to freedom. God hides in a burning bush that is not consumed. Moses is convinced it is God.

Moses climbs Mount Sinai and God shows God’s face to Moses giving him the ten commandments, twice since the people have put up a golden calf to worship. Moses has disappeared up the holy mountain. That’s where God is, and surely Moses has seen God and … of course died. So the people move on, insisting Aaron make a godlet for them from their most precious gold. Moses sees this and throws the stone tables of the ten commandments down, breaking them on the rocks. After the people’s sins are dealt with, Moses climbs the mountain again, and chisels a new set of the same ten commandments.

Moses sees God, twice. And Moses’ face shows it: he has turned ashen white from the exposure.

So when God promises to never hide God’s face from the Israelites again, after God returns to them, is that a promise or a threat?

Will the people turn ashed white from the exposure, or die?

Or …

is something else afoot?

Will God show God’s face and bless the people?

When God’s Spirit gives witness, to our spirits (the German translation interprets the genitive ‘our spirits’ as ‘to our spirits’, instead of the English which interprets it ‘with our spirits’, the ‘to’ makes better sense), then we can know that we are God’s children and …

children need not fear seeing their parent, not if the parent is a good parent as God is.

So …

We can give God thanks and praise that God is with us, and does not hide God’s face from us, children of God that we are.

Gentleness,

Or Arthritis, Or …

Wednesday, June 14, 2023

Like Nighttime Snow

Freezing The Pine’s ‘Green’,

Arthritis Grips One’s Thumbs

(and other parts)

Without Warning

Psalm 34:3

O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together.

Philippians 4:4-5

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near.

Words of Grace For Today

A low pressure area (weather) approaches and the barometer drops like lead balloons or truth entering a courtroom.

Lifting a 22’ post to vertical to be packed tight in a hole yesterday leaves me cautious with my back.

But why are my thumbs complaining so loudly. Ah, yes. The lifts, only a few inches at a time, were many over hours … and I used a small but still heavy and very sturdy tree top with many side branches to lift the post and then to support the post between lifts. The best grip (well the only workable grip) put my left thumb in a vise below one of those side branches. So today, screaming out with pain, it wants heat and it’s cool in here since I’ve cooled it down to 13⁰ with the night air to prepare for the coming heat of the day (over 30⁰).

Lots of things, aggressive things, could be done, like turbo pain relievers. But how is one gentle with pain.

Well, one is gentle with arthritis if one has any good experiences with it. Aggressive hardly ever works and is more likely to make it worse. So the coffee press is filled from the hot water pan with a cup. That task done the cup automatically gets held just a few minutes longer in that hand and then is run around the outside of the thumb to warm it. Still the pain.

So after breakfast, the coffee press always has about 3/4 cup of coffee in the bottom with the grounds that does not pour out without extreme measures and then always with grounds in it anyway, so it’s hot after the last cup is poured and it gently, carefully (it’s almost too hot to touch) serves as a heat pad, and finally the the pain subsides enough so that I can write (well type.)

And the day is good.

When it’s not one’s own body that’s screaming in pain, but another person cursing in anger, the same kind of approach works best, if one knows what is good for oneself and others. Find what soothes the pain that is behind the anger, since all anger at it’s beginning and core is pain, is being hurt.

And that hurt allowed to grow into anger. And that anger left to fester by someone who does not know what hurts them grows to nearly fill or actually overfill, the person’s every hour. And that overfill of past pain become anger gets set off with a small spark of pain way too often. And the frequent fire of anger (without any obvious cause) grows until the person is in full out rage … every hour of every day, until ….

So when you encounter an angry person it’s almost impossible to deal to any good effect with the anger that grows out of the present situation, … because, well, that isn’t the pain the person is ‘venting’ with anger or rage.

And the only way to calm the current situation is …

you got it,

with gentleness

that soothes not only the current pain but all that pain built up under the surface.

Gentleness goes a long way, everyday,

with everyone.

Even me.

Even you.

How could God not advise us to let everyone know our gentleness?

How can we exercise gentleness even today?

Or is everything a nail since we are always hammers!? (Hurts my thumb just to think that!)

Holy,

Holy, Holy

And Gracious

Tuesday, June 13, 2023

God’s Grace Blossoms Full Today,

And

God Promises Grace

For Each New Day.

Numbers 14:17

And now, therefore, let the power of the Lord be great in the way that you promised when you spoke, saying, ….

Luke 1:49

… for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name.

Words of Grace For Today

There is always more that has gone before, and more after.

Not just in words of God’s promise, but in our lives. God has worked wonders in our past and promises many more in our futures.

So it is that each day, we give God praise, and hallow God’s name with our worship of songs, prayers, and deeds that extend God’s great works of grace to other people.

Charged and convicted of a crime that never happened, stripped of more than three times the money I had for retirement so that I can never hope to be out of debt, and left unable to even rent an apartment to live in, I have been blessed to live in a self-made camp as a mystic, a hermit, beside a lake, in the midst of nature, able to see the wonders of God each day.

God’s grace abounds. For while many would say I have lost nearly everything, precisely in having next to nothing or any prospects of ever having enough to live in a house again, I have gained full awareness of God’s grace and presence with me, through all that has been unjustly done to me, through all the challenges that the cold, heat, bugs, wild animals (worst are the two legged ones), storms, and equipment and body failures have thrown at me.

God’s grace abounds.

There is nothing

more so crucial

in all of life.

The Perfect

The Very Perfect

Sunday, June 11, 2023

Not All of Us Can Be Perfect,

Or Capture the ‘Perfect Water Droplet’

(which does not exists, anyway.)

Isaiah 31:6

Turn back to him whom you have deeply betrayed, O people of Israel.

1 Timothy 1:15

The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the foremost.

Words of Grace For Today

Humble Pie.

While the world is full of bullies, liars, and doers of evil, so much so it seems it’s impossible to find even one good person –

which reminds one of the visiting pastor to the Lutheran Church of Hope in Tinytown, Anywhere. He was following up on inquiry made to him directly about serving this new church in his spare time. That was an odd request since he was moving to a small town a little jaunt away to start his retirement. Still he met with the chairperson, who showed him around the church building and the church yard. It looked pretty new if small.

He asked as they approached the altar how many members the congregation had. The reply told him everything he needed to know, and more:

Well, ten years ago we were 150 members. But so many were not serious about their faith, so most of them left leaving us with 30 active members. Then two years ago there was a fight between two families. It was groundless, at least in the present. But they had been fighting for generations so who knows what it really was about anymore. So I told both families they could either make peace or leave. Both families left, not just the one’s fighting but all their relatives and a few friends. That left us with 10 active members. In the last two years I’ve worked to avoid any more fights. When someone does not measure up to the standards of our faith I tell them to shape up or ship out. All of them have chosen to ship out. Now we have a real good congregation of two people: myself and my husband. But lately I’m not so sure about him either. I’ve come close a few times to telling him to shape up or ship out. But he’s come around on his own.

–

The problem with fixing everyone else, is it blinds us to our own faults, and that blindness drives us to judge others harshly, maybe as harshly as they deserve, but not as harshly as we ourselves deserve.

The sign of a faithful person is one who can readily say that God’s grace is needed more by one’s own miserable sinful self than any other person.

The writer of the letter to Timothy had it right:

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the foremost.

We can be glad that he claimed that spot. At least we are not as bad off as he was … or?

May your day not force you to be humble, but may you find joy in starting each day humbled by the wonders of God’s grace, and Christ’s work to save us all.