Christmastide and the New Year: Reflection on Titus 2:11-14

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all, training us to renounce impiety and worldly passions, and in the present age to live lives that are self-controlled upright, and godly, while we wait for the blessed hope and the manifestation of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. He it is who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify for himself a people of his own who are zealous for good deeds.

One of the many debates I had with professors in seminary was focused on this passage. The question was built around how we understood God’s redemptive acts: is salvation FOR all people or did God appear TO all people. The question has continued with me as I never found peace with any conclusion. Yet peace is what is found when we’re willing to live with that ambiguity, and this scripture gets right to the point of why that is.

“While we wait.”

“While we wait” is a term that we’ve all heard in some form: “While we wait for permission to take off, please listen to your flight attendants as they review the safety instructions of this aircraft,” or maybe when we were young, “While we wait for dinner why don’t you go wash your hands.”

Waiting is a hard thing for us in this culture. We want to get to the point, get to a conclusion, get to a destination. A couple of days ago we GOT there as Christians! Christ is Born! Christmas happened! WOOOO! Okay, but now again, we wait. We wait, and we’re told to do things we know we should do, but don’t always (I know I don’t listen to safety instructions nor did I often wash my hands) while we wait. We wait for “Thy Kingdom Come.” A Kingdom that Jesus always referred to in the present tense. Well if we’re here, and it’s here, then what are we waiting for?

We’re waiting on us. Waiting for us to do the beautiful things that need to be done. That’s what good deeds are, they are the beautiful things that need to be done. Beautiful things like justice, mercy, and humbleness. Beautiful things like love. Beautiful things like peace. Beautiful things like joy. Beautiful things like hope. Beautiful things that make us all live into that image in which we are created.

Beautiful things were done on Christmas, beautiful things need to be done today.

18th Day of Advent: Joy – A Reflection on Philippians 4:4-7

Farewell, Greetings, Rejoice, Be Glad, Delight! One Greek word so many meanings, yet they are all connected–especially on this Advent journey we’re taking.

So often we take the idea of rejoicing as a happy term. Yet it has a salutation or a valediction that brings with it more depth–the depth of distance. Joy is not just a momentary emotion, but one built around a journey and a larger, longer connection between the parties involved. We are not called to simply celebrate God being God, but to remember the journeys we have been on and the life we share with God.

That greeting–that connection of joy–is not because we’re promised all we could ever desire or because God makes us happy and gives us reason to celebrate, but because of all the emotions we have experienced in our past in our relationship with God. It is that depth of emotion that causes us to say so many of those terms mentioned at the start of this reflection.

We express meaningful greetings and farewells with those who know us deeply and who we know deeply. We ask those closest to us to help us when we’re in need and worried. It is with this same sense of deep, longing joy that we speak to God.

It’s like a letter full of jokes, stories, and memories sent with a deep-seated need to tell someone about what is most important to you at this very moment. This is prayer, and it is the joy of our relationship with God. We don’t just ask, but we share. And the response is not a check in the mail or having everything fixed as we would like it. Like those letters sent to the ones who know us best and care for us most, what is most important is the peace that we receive.

The peace of closeness and connection, the peace of knowing that we are known fully and cared for beyond anything we can understand. And at the end of the day, that is Joy.

11th Day of Advent: What Is Love? – Luke 1:68-79

What is Love?

In our current society, we have moved to a place where romantic love trumps everything and is the reason most marry or enter into relationships. We also have decided that when talking about how we should interact with others that it is the correct word to use, but often we use it as a synonym for respect, or to recognize each other’s mutual humanity. None of these things are in essence wrong, they’re just different ways we understand this word called love–the hardest of terms–especially when it comes to being loved by a God who creates and calls us while also giving us freedom within the created world.

Love becomes even harder to understand when it seems that a God who has that much power leaves us seemingly vulnerable and weak. What kind of love is it that allows for abuse, inequality, crippling poverty, hate, and so many things that harm the very people created in your image, God?

It is in these desperate places that people will act out of their desperation for those they care for. God shows us love through desperate actions. God’s love is the love of promise. A promise is a desperate act, an act that says “I want you to know that not only do I care about you, but I also hear what is important to you, and I will do everything I can to make that happen.” God is a God of desperate love and promises. Thus God is always for those who have nothing but their desperation and their word.

For them, and thus for us all, God will see the promise through: that we will find a new dawn breaking that brings with it light for those in darkness and in the shadow of death. A promise that God will grant a way of peace for us all.

Yet we are not just those who are given that promise. We are participants in that promise–joining in the work, joining in God’s desperation, joining in the promise-making.

We are, as John the baptizer was, sent ahead to prepare the way, to give knowledge, to forgive, to move, to act, to promise, to love.

9th Day of Advent: Labandera

Guest reflection by Sophia Agtarap, Minister of Online Engagement for Rethink Church.

 3:1 See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight–indeed, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts. 3:2 But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap; 3:3 he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the LORD in righteousness. 3:4 Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the LORD as in the days of old and as in former years. Malachi 3: 1-4 

 When I was 12, we moved to the Philippines. Dad felt the call to go back home and serve the people who called him to ministry to begin with. So we packed up all our stuff that wasn’t auctioned off and moved from small town Iowa to the Philippines–a place I had visited a few times but never lived.

 There were customs to get used to. A language to learn to speak and all the other do’s and don’ts you sometimes only figure out by trial and error. Not ideal for an awkward tween already trying to deal with adolescence. One of the things I did remember was the common practice of hand-washing clothes. Most folks didn’t own dishwashers or washing machines. Many of the domestic tasks from dishwashing to washing clothes to cleaning the floor were done manually. The cost of electricity and water were just too high and it didn’t make sense to buy expensive equipment for something you could do with your own two hands.

So we hired a labandera–-a laundrywoman-–a role just as common as a nanny for your kids [which was pretty common] and one that crossed socioeconomic lines. You didn’t have to be rich to have someone help with laundry or childcare.

Every week we got our dirty clothes ready for Aling [A title of familiar respect for a non-family member] Connie. She chatted with us as she prepared the soapy water and asked how our studies and life in general were doing. She told us about what was going on in her life [and sometimes the lives of others]. Her motherly instinct was always felt as we were separated from our own mother for a period of time while she worked in California.

Aling Connie approached her work with care and pride. She would ask for certain kinds of soap because she knew that washing the white school uniforms of three adolescent girls was going to take work. And she wanted to do her best work. She wanted to present us with the whitest, cleanest clothes. Regardless of the condition in which the clothes arrived in her hands, they hung on the clothesline looking brand new. A task not many are up to, yet have to take on. Allowing Aling Connie to handle our clothes week in and week out required a level of vulnerability. The garments we wore most close to our bodies, she was responsible for making clean. It was not just this level of intimacy that enveloped her work, but the love with which she carried it out.

I have shied away from the image of God as a refiner’s fire, as we hear in this passage from Micah. But this image of Aling Connie, I find familiar and comforting. She’s seen our clothes–-and sometimes us–-at our worst. Yet she still showed up and every week I knew that at the end of her time with us, I’d have clean clothes to wear to school, maybe a few new stories, and someone who cared enough to check in with me. 

We are in a season of preparation. Of anticipation of this promise that we will be refined and cleaned and prepared with loving hands so that all we offer might be done in righteousness–-in alignment with God’s Shalom. Where our relationships would be loving and just. But what will it take for us to prepare ourselves for that time?

A little honesty that we aren’t living as people of the promise, perhaps? Maybe even a little vulnerability as we carry around these dirty clothes ready for the wash?

5th Day of Advent: A Prayer of Unity and Deliverance from Thessalonians 3:9-13

My Creator, I want to pray from my heart for my colleagues in distant places. I have never seen all of them face to face but I know them by their marks around this strange brain we call ‘the Internet’.

Though we can deliver our words instantly, God we need your divine guidance as we work toward common goals. Our work draws us deep into our callings, even through difficult stages. Often, the scent of distraction is too much for us and we become lost not only to each other but to ourselves.

This Advent season, give us a collective beginning. Make us a community. Shape each piece of that community to interface with each other, on the one hand, and to fit with our working communities, on the other, so that we can become true bridges. Take that special part of ourselves, that oft forgotten soul element, and shape it to know you better.

As we continue, this Advent, bless each step we take to get closer to our messiah – an unexpectedly compassionate figure in our shared culture who, nevertheless, grew to be a source of courage and inspiration for all of society. We thank you for raising Jesus, and none other, to begin the ministry that we continue today.

We ask you to help us not to be short-sided as we look to the future, because we are not simply fire-keepers–we are all blessed with your fiery Spirit of Pentecost which was the definitive victory over despair. We became one that day because Jesus was able to become one with his Creator.

Please send your spirit into us. Make us thankful and contagiously joyful. Bless us through each other with a love that comes directly from you. In your sweet name,

Amen.

A prayer by John Daniel Gore (Missionary serving in Palestine.)

2nd Day of Advent: A Reflection on 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13

Have you ever had that feeling of excitement when a good friend was coming to visit? You know, that excitement that may cause you to clean a little, cook a little, and sleep too little?

An excitement that, at the same time, means you don’t have to have the perfect looking house or dinner on the table because you know that just seeing each other is going to be all that really matters?

Well, that same excitement is present in our celebration of Advent and so often becomes the focus of our celebrations, but it’s really only part of the journey.

This scripture points to another kind of excitement, an excitement of a relationship that doesn’t end because of time and distance. A relationship that wishes the best for another even if that wish isn’t something you can provide for them–a deeper relationship that’s full of excitement, full of hope. A hope that some time, things will be like they used to be. That the closeness that comes when we think of one another will be fully realized when we’re together again. And even as we are apart, we are not separate.

Not separate at all, for we are part of one another, connected by a power we cannot easily escape. The desires one for another are so strong that the distance between us is but a minor hurdle that we know will be overcome. This excitement, the excitement of knowing that something WILL be even as we realize it is not (and may not be) soon is essential to our story as Christians.

It is a hope that when God comes, everything will be as it should be. It may not happen today, but we know it will happen. So, even as we wait for that day to come, we share in relationship fully, apart yet moving together. Hoping together, planning together, sharing together life.

And that, just that, is wonderful.

Lenten Blog - Art

Today's blog is brought to you by Phoebe Williams:

For Lent, I am reconnecting with God through art journaling. I read and draw scripture listed in the PCUSA daily lectionary and write down the words/phrases/sentences that jump out at me. I sketch what they say about God, our world, etc. which usually leads to the question, “How do I now respond to this in my life?” This can generate inspiring ideas, but also serious convictions about my weaknesses. I can't always answer this question, but each morning brings more insight into the love of God and how to respond to that love. It can be uncomfortable, but exciting to see scripture in a new way, to draw it out and watch it come alive. If any of you love to draw, paint, doodle, or just want to try something new, grab some paper, a marker, some crayons, maybe even some glitter and go for it! My art journal entries are very simple black and white, but you can do this however you feel led with whatever colors/materials/resources you have. You don't have to be perfect, just open to God's lessons. You never know what you'll create and what you'll discover!

Lenten Blog - Writing

The following blog entry is written by Sue Mathews:

What are you giving up for Lent?

How many times have you heard this question as we enter this season in our church year? I’ve never been very good at giving up things like chocolate or nighttime television (a few responses that I’ve heard or seen on Facebook recently). I‘m drawn more to an idea that I heard about just before Lent began last year – the idea of adding something to the normal routine. So last year, I focused on praying for people that bugged me in traffic, were rude in line, or just seemed to be having a bad day. I would whisper a quick prayer for that person as I moved through my day.

This year I decided to write a note to a different person each day. At first I thought that it might be difficult to come up with a person for each day, but I have three on my list right now and today’s note is written. I also want to be intentional about writing every day and not sitting down to write several notes at one time. It might be a simple thank you note, a word of encouragement, a birthday card for someone that doesn’t usually hear from me, or an “I thought about you today” note. Each day as I write, I remember this season of Lent as we prepare to celebrate Easter and hope that what I have added this year will touch others.

Lenten Blog - Friend Friday - The Life We Live

On many Fridays we'll include a Blog Post from someone outside of HVPC speaking to our subject of deepening ones relationship with God:Today we have a word from Erin Collier who is the Children’s Minister at Central Baptist in Midlothian, VA.

It's a catchphrase in many churches: “a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.”  What does that even mean? I'll be honest, part of me cringes when I hear those words, often because they're just said and then left alone.

When something is said so often, it begins to lose its meaning and becomes a cliché phrase, one that cheapens the intent behind it. Yet, because there is still something to it, an actual meaning, I can't allow myself to let go of that particular language. So what does it mean? Here's my attempt at a definition... For me, a relationship with God goes beyond praying, reading the Bible, and worshiping – it is in how we live our lives, and cannot be separated from relationships with others. We were created for community, to be the hands and feet of Christ in the world around us. It's in the faces and words and actions of others that I am able to see the love and light of God lived out on a daily basis. Even the challenges and conflicts bring opportunities to strengthen relationships with others, and therefore with God. It's often after good conversations, times of fellowship, or working side by side with others in ministry that I feel my relationship with God begin to change (for the better).

On February 10, 2012, my friend Melissa died, ending a four-month battle with esophageal cancer. Melissa was an amazing person who loved deeply and sought to have authentic relationships with everyone she met. She was full of life, and to her, being a minister was not a job, but who she was and how she lived. The fruit of that labor was made evident by the 500 people who attended her funeral, and I am confident that each one had some story of how she had deeply impacted them through their relationship with her. As one pastor said, “She did more in three decades than most would do in five lifetimes.”

When I think of my relationship with God and how to deepen it, I now think of Melissa and the life she lived, investing herself in the people around her. She lived life abundantly in relationship with others, overflowing with the love of God and embracing everyone she met without judgment or hesitation. This is what it means to be in relationship – a deep, authentic relationship - with God. My prayer is that I may follow her example and try to do the same.

Lenten Blog - Sunday School

 The following blog entry is written by Dannie Manning: 

 

My Sunday School class helps deepen my relationship with God.  We have very interesting studies of Christian based books in studying God's word and his plan for us.   We are fortunate to have some members that are expert teachers, but everyone teaches at some time.  We have an overall loving relationship with each other and share some of our own needs.  We pray for others.  The members contribute funds which are used in our discretion for a need either in our church or out in the community.  This group is faithfully led and coordinated by Karen Rollins, yet we all feel we are the Class.  So to sum it up, study, teachings, prayer, support and care through my Sunday School class deepens my understanding of God's love for his children and his word.

Lenten Blog - Music Monday - Dreams

One of the things that makes me feel closer to God is talking about the dreams I have.  Not sleep dreams, but the real dreams that I have for life, for others, for the world.  Those things that are deep inside of me that don't always make sense or are even a little scary because they involve a level of risk.  But when ever I talk about them with others, I can feel the spirit moving as we really share dreams and their realities.  So today for music Monday, a song about dreams and sharing what it is that is deep inside ourselves. 

Spit It Out by Tom Prasada-Rao

Lenten Blog - Another Friend Friday

 On many Fridays we'll include a Blog Post from someone outside of HVPC speaking to our subject of deepening ones relationship with God:Today we have a word from Kim Crowley, Associate Minister at Seventh Street Christian Chruch in Richmond, VA:

One way I deepen my relationship with God is to experiment with different types of prayer. Breath prayers for me are so helpful. As one who has a hard time staying focused and still, breath prayers center me in my space. One I use a lot is “Be still and know,” from Psalm 46:10, “Be still and know that I am God.” This verse reminds me to be still and remember who God is, the Holy One always with me. For the breath prayer, breath in thinking or saying, “Be still.” And exhale thinking, “and know.” I find I am centered and in a focused posture.

Another thing I like to do is research prayers of the saints and other traditions. One I pray every Sunday is:
God be in my head, And in my understanding; 
 God be in mine eyes, And in my looking; 
God be in my mouth, And in my speaking; 
God be in my heart, And in my thinking; 
God be at mine end, And at my departing. 
From the Sarum Primer, 13th Century England

Lenten Blog - Waiting

 The following blog entry was written by Kristin Davidson for Advent and revised by Charlene Aldrich for Lent.   

 

A few years ago when I was working as a first grade assistant at a small Catholic school, I began to get a cold – not surprising as it was the middle of February and I was working with kids for 8 hours a day.  Unfortunately I was a little stubborn both about going to the doctor and about taking sick days. 

 

So for a couple weeks I tried to self-medicate with Dayquil and lots of vitamin C, but it only got worse.  When I finally did call in sick to work, I could barely get out of bed to get dressed.  So my mom had to take me to the doctor.  I had a fever; my head ached; my body ached; I could barely breathe without coughing. 

 

While we were sitting in the waiting room, a young girl in pajamas came in with her mom.  The girl looked about as sick as I felt, but she had brought a flannel blanket with her.  She wrapped herself in it and the laid her head in her mother’s lap.  I was more than a little jealous.  That little girl had come prepared to wait.  And I hadn’t even had my morning coffee.

 

There was something truly humbling about being sick in that waiting room.  There I was an adult and my mom had to take me to the doctor.  The nurses looked at me with pity, and the healthy people looked at me with fear, hoping that whatever I had was not transmutable through air.  And what’s worse was that I knew it was my own fault that I had let myself get that sick. 

 

So there I was waiting, and I realized that despite how miserable I felt, there was a little glimmer of hope – hope that the doctor would know what was wrong with me and give me medicine – hope that within the next few days my fever would break, my head and body would stop aching and I would be able to breathe freely through both nostrils.

 

Lent reminds me of that waiting room.  Here we are sick and weak usually through our own stubbornness or pride – waiting – waiting with a glimmer of hope for Christ to come and heal our souls.  We know that Easter's coming, but we have to go through Calvary to get there.

Lenten Blog - Another Music Monday

Bambalela (Never Give Up) is a simple song but one that speaks to what faith is about.  It also is appropriate for Lent as we recognize our sin and await the coming kingdom and Easter.  Enjoy this and feel encouraged by a God that doesn't give up on us and who reminds us that we also should never give up. 

Lenten Blog Series: Friend Friday #2

On many Fridays we'll include a Blog Post from someone outside of HVPC speaking to our subject of deepening ones relationship with God:Today we have a word from Sara DeVane, a minister at First Baptist in Jamestown, NC:

For many of us, the task of “growing deeper” in our relationship with God is a daunting one because we struggle with feelings of inadequacy, like we are already behind in being the good, right disciple of God’s. Before we can begin reading more scripture, praying more, and/or finding more opportunities to serve the needy, we must first take steps in acknowledging that God sees us and God loves us. Period. God loves us. Whether we take one more step in trying to grow closer, scripture is overflowing with stories, situations, and actually words in red telling us that God loves us. God loves you, just as you are today!

Take a moment, right now, and rest in the knowledge that God loves you, just as you are, without changing another thing. YOU! How does that sit with you? Do you feel the strength, compassion, and grace that come from God’s true and unconditional love? This is my challenge to you. Before you begin to fill your schedules with more things, even though they are very good efforts to grow closer to the Father, take time today to acknowledge and accept the love that your God is lavishing upon you. Let God’s love surround you. Let it cover you. Let God love you for who you are. From that place of grace, then begin to make small but definitive steps in your day to day world that reflect God’s amazing love. You will find yourself growing closer, getting stronger, and feeling more at peace simply because you choose to accept the love that God has for you!
Walk today in God’s love, the unconditional love that is yours!

“So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.”- 1 John 4:16

Lenten Blog - Lenten Thoughts

 The following blog entry is written by Nancy Andrews:  

 

Lent is a time of thinking of Christ’s sacrifice for our sins, a gift given freely in love for us.  Each year I try to think of what I might do to show thanks to Him and to express my love for Him.  Jesus forgives all our sins, no matter how terrible.  Yet, I harbor feelings of anger and refuse to forgive, or at best grudgingly forgive.  This year of trying to discern God’s will, my goal is to try to follow Jesus by really forgiving and seeing the goodness in the people who have hurt me.  I will ask Him to help me see with his eyes and forgive from my heart.

“I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.”

                                                                  Isaiah 43:25

Lenten Blog - Music Monday #2

This song speaks to what it means for the Kingdom of God to be on earth.  It speaks of the changes that occur inside of us which lead to changes in the world as a whole.   My favorite verse is the following:

Though I am small, my God, my all,
you work great things in me,
And your mercy will last from the depths of the past
to the end of the age to be.
Your very name puts the proud to shame,
and to those who would for you yearn,
You will show your might, put the strong to flight,
for the world is about to turn.

We so often think of ourselves as not powerful enough to really change the world, but it is not us, but the one that works within us that has the power to change everything, to upend the status quo and make all things new.  Canticle of The Turning, written by Rory Cooney, performed by Gary Daigle, Rory Cooney, and Theresa Donohoo.

Lenten Blog Series: Friend Friday

On many Fridays we'll include a Blog Post from someone outside of HVPC speaking to our subject of deepening ones relationship with God:Today we have a word from theologian Richard Foster:

Our problem is that we assume prayer is something to master the way we master algebra or auto mechanics. That puts us in the "on-top" position, where we are competent and in control. But when praying, we come "underneath," where we calmly and deliberately surrender control and become incompetent... The truth of the matter is, we all come to prayer with a tangled mass of motives altruistic and selfish, merciful and hateful, loving and bitter. Frankly, this side of eternity we will never unravel the good from the bad, the pure from the impure. God is big enough to receive us with all our mixture. That is what grace means, and not only are we saved by it, we live by it as well. And we pray by it.

Leten Blog Series - Gratitude

 The following blog entry is written by Carol Pooser:  

 

For me, acknowledgment and gratitude are the keys.  While I am in the waking up mode in the morning, I thank God for another day and affirm that the day is in his hands.  If I know that it is going to be an exceptionally stressful or busy day, I ask that I will be alert to the work of the Holy Spirit in my life that day.  During the day, I try to remember to thank God for whatever is happening at the time--sunshine or not, family or friends that I am in contact with, work that I am doing.  As I am falling asleep at night, I thank God for a time of rest and for being with me during the day.  Practicing these two attitudes not only draws me closer to God, but is the best medicine for stress and anxiety that I have found.

Lenten Blog - Music Monday

This is a song about the struggles we have living into our dreams, or in the case of Lent the dream of God's perfect world. We live in the dark, but also in a world where God is active everywhere. As Christians we should all be trying to make this world fully realized, released from the cage of those who would rather the world be something less than that which God wishes it to be. We are all loved by God and empowered to be what it is that we were created to be. We have to go be it regardless of the struggles of the world. We are the stewards of the world, and of the dream that is innate with-in us from creation. The Avett Brothers with Head Full of Doubt, Road Full of Promise -

Lenten Blog Series - Tea Time

The following blog entry is written by Karen Rollins: 

This may sound a little funny………….but I have “tea time” with God.   

I started having a regular morning devotional probably about 8 years ago.    I can’t really explain what made me start waking up at 5:30 AM so I would have time to read and pray before heading out the door.  I just started.   Looking back, I think it was God “calling” me.    God still calls and I get up.   I fix my cup of hot tea, settle in the recliner (sometimes I sit on the porch in the summer), and I read.    Sometimes I read from the Bible, sometimes it is from a devotional book, sometimes it is some inspirational piece.  Sometimes I write things down.  And then, I pray …  Sipping my tea in prayer.   Without a doubt, this quiet, one-on-one, tea time with God has changed my life.   I’ve grown in my faith through this time in a way more so than any other.  I have also come to that know that my day is so entirely different when I start off the day in God’s presence than when I don’t.  

Lenten Blog Series - Introduction

How often we look upon God as our last and feeblest resource! We go to Him because we have nowhere else to go. And then we learn that the storms of life have driven us, not upon the rocks, but into the desired haven. - George Macdonald

It is easy to not connect with God regularly when things are going well.  Sure we may say a quick thank you in our prayers for how blessed we feel, but we rarely spend the same kind of time with God when we feel life is good as we do when we are struggling and desperate.  Here on Ash Wednesday, at the beginning of Lent we are reminded of how we are always in need of God, not because God can save us from the world, but because with God the world itself can be seen through eyes of Joy and Love and Peace.  When we travel with God, it is not some journey where we just can't wait for it to be over, but one where all things that feel old become renewed as we journey together as co-creators and as Creator and creation/steward of the world.  Lent calls us to recognize that we do not always travel as close to God as we should, and thus cannot see the world in the way that God sees it.  Yet, we all have times, places, and ways that we get so close that we can get a glimpse of that recreated world and we may know the joy of God's peace.  This blog series through Lent will tell the stories of how some of us here at HVPC find ourselves close to God, and we may sprinkle in a guest post from other church leaders as well.  Come journey with us!

Grace and Peace

Love

February is often called the love month, and with everything that's happening over the next month here at Harbor View it is a fitting title.  We kick off the month a little early this year as the annual Oyster roast falls actually this weekend, but as a February tradition it is an event that we here love, and that shows our love for one another as we join and fellowship together.  This love is familiar, the kind we feel as part of a family, a happy joyous love.  No sooner will we be full of oysters than we'll be preparing to talk about our love for the church together.  On February 12 we will come together to talk about what we all see as the vision for Harbor View.  This love is a self sacrificing love, as we talk not only about what we desire, but hopefully can put aside our personal desires and hear what God desires for us. As soon as we're done with this event many of us will be preparing for St. Valentines day.  There is no great history to St. Valentine, but the name is fitting for the day as Valentine comes from the latin word for strong, worthy, powerful and that describes the love we often celebrate on the 14th of February.  It is a day that we all talk about the power of love, and the passion it can make us feel.  Finally, let us not forget the love of our families, and especially our Children.  On February 24 and 25 we will be holding a Parenting Workshop here at the church. This is a great place to come celebrate being a parent, share with our leader and other parents your experience and hear from them as well as we discuss the balancing act that is parenting and how to show love to our kids in a Christian and constructive way.  As you can see, February is a month of love, and throughout it I hope that we remember the greatest commandments:  Love the Lord God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength and Love your Neighbor as yourself.

1 Corinthians 13:1-10 MSG
If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.
   Love never gives up.
   Love cares more for others than for self.
   Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.
   Love doesn't strut,
   Doesn't have a swelled head,
   Doesn't force itself on others,
   Isn't always "me first,"
   Doesn't fly off the handle,
   Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
   Doesn't revel when others grovel,
   Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
   Puts up with anything,
   Trusts God always,
   Always looks for the best,
   Never looks back,
   But keeps going to the end.
Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompleteness will be canceled.

The Spirit of Everyday (Final Day. . .sort of)

Today we close our series on Finding the Spiritual in Everyday Life.  In some ways this blog series has been about finding ways to use spiritual disciplines in our everyday life.  Spiritual disciplines are the things of life that keep us from becoming comfortable being less than we are created and called to be by God.  These are habits or regular patterns in our lives that bring us back to God and open us up to what God is saying to us.  These are not what to do, or a checklist of things we have to (or even should) do, but things that we do because of why we do them.  They are only disciplines when they are part of being and becoming.   We can't will ourselves into these disciplines, we truly must discover them in our lives, and then nurture their growth as where God is active in our live becomes clearer.  With that in mind here are what are known as the 12 classic spiritual disciplines:

• The inward disciplines -
• Prayer
• Bible study
• Meditation
• Fasting
• The outward disciplines - 
• Service
• Simplicity
• Submission
• Solitude
• The corporate disciplines - 
• Worship
• Celebration
• Confession
• Guidance

Some of these are easy to integrate into everyday life, some harder, but in all the cases the term disciplines doesn't do much to encourage us to try.  The idea that probably does this more justice as we go forward trying to find the spiritual in everyday life is "Otium Sanctum" also known as "Holy Leisure" or "Taking a Break for God."  I have discovered if I look for places where I can find God already close by I can more easily make a time for spiritually recharging. What I have discovered is there is one act I do regularly that includes a high number of these disciplines naturally. That to even my own surprise is playing Ultimate Frisbee. Frisbee for me can be a time of prayer, meditation, and guidance. It also is a celebration of unity and love for others and the world.  All the while I often find myself serving others, enjoy simplicity, and most amazingly finding solitude. 


Frisbee as a time of celebration is easiest to explain. I enjoy being outside, being competitive, and being with others, by playing frisbee I find even in my worst games much to be thankful for and people to celebrate with. Because groups I play with are made up of people from many different places in life, discovering our similarities and differences has become a very meaningful, refilling experience for me. This also though makes the Frisbee field a place of service as I get to share the stories of their lives and often talk with them about their joys and struggles. In sharing our lives I often find things to consider for myself as well.

The greatest joys I find on the field though are actually the peace and solitude I find in playing a simple game among the commotion of the everyday world. As an extreme extravert, I derive almost all my energy from being around people. Thus I have discovered the need to find solitude in ways and places others may not. I discovered back in High School that I would often find a feeling of peaceful solitude while doing something athletic.  Something about the simplicity of sports (at least in my view) gives me space to be quiet internally and let the God who runs with me have some time all of our own, even as the world keeps spinning. 

This is just one example of how I integrate spiritual disciplines into the things I do everyday and enjoy.  I also know people who claim things like laundry, music, art, playing with pets, and even watching TV to be things they can treat as "Otium Sanctum."  I encourage everyone to think about where the spiritual may already be intersecting life (or is close to it) and find ways to nurture this and become a more active participant in all that God is doing, everyday, in everything we do.

The Spirit of Everyday (Day 5)

I am rereading a book that I picked up overseas while on a trip about 12 yrs ago. The general idea behind the book is that it follows the first half of the life of Bluebear.  The book starts with baby Bluebear floating in a walnut shell in a storm on the sea alone.  This is a constant theme in the book as he comes across many different creatures but always seems to realize that he doesn't know exactly who he is.  As he goes through his adventures he can't find anyone quite like him, yet he realizes that just about everyone he meets has something to teach him, be it practical, artistic, or spiritual.  He forms life long friendships, discovers some people will hate him just because he's different, finds out more about how he is similar and different than others, and discovers the vast mysteries of the world he's part of.

Yet, it wasn't until this rereading that I really saw how Bluebear's story parallels ours as Christians.  We are in this world that doesn't always make sense to us, but we have to live day to day in it as things happen that affect us.  These things change us, help us discover who we are, and bring us into relationships with others who make us who we are.  Yet we know this world as we know it is not our home, we are seeking always to know more about what it means to be that which we have been created to be, and seeking to be with others who understand us in such a way to know what it is to be "us."  So we live in each moment, trying to do what is best, what we feel is right, true to ourselves and our beliefs, and move forward seeking meaning, seeking community, seeking God.  We, like Bluebear, know lots of truths from experience or from our studies, but there are also lots of things that are not quite as they seem and many experiences that will continue to shape us.  Our lives are not just a series of short stories, but the stories do make up our lives, they make and remake us moving us forward on life's road.

In the last life covered in the book, Bluebear discovers he's not alone, he finds different forms of community, but he also hints in his final narration that this is not the end of the stories. This is true of us as well even as we begin to feel at home with who we are and find those who love us as part of community.  It is not the end of the story, the stories continue, the seeking for a better understanding of what's true and real continues, the changes in us and the world continues, but we do not yet know the story we are writing here.

The Spirit of Everyday (Day 4)

"When you feel sad or under a curse" . . . whenever I hear those words it always picks me up a notch.  Yeah, I know that's odd, but Godspell's All for the Best is an odd song.  A song about how unfair life is to a catchy happy tune.  Not only is it about the unfairness of life, but also the seemingly ridiculous response Jesus gives to our realization of this. Who is it that is will be blessed in Matthew 5?

• The poor in spirit
• Those who mourn
• The meek
• Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness
• The merciful
• The pure in heart
• The peacemakers
• Those who are persecuted

These are not those who normally feel blessed.  I know I rarely feel blessed when I'm struggling with either my own stuff or with seeing the world as something less than God wishes it to be.  Yet, these are according to Jesus times of blessing, times when we can see somewhere out there a world that is as God would have it.  That is the tension of our faith, we both realize the problem of sin that keeps this world from being what God would have it be, but also are blessed with the knowledge that God does not mean for it to be this way.  We long for that world everyday because that is the basis of Faith(fulness).  The dichotomy of a life in Christ is that we today live both in the "now" and the "is to come."  Our blessing is found in the second half of that, we are already able to live that life, striving to see it more clearly every day.  Yet on Edgar Allen Poe's birthday we'd be remiss if we thought that the tension is easily resolved.  Much of Poe's great, albeit somewhat dark, work came from his experiences where he felt broke, betrayed, alone, and desperate. Likewise we see the struggles of this world and this life, and our laments of "God where are you?" are real. Though based in the same thought, these laments beg for the voice of one who loves us, who brings us peace, who will bring a new day, who never leaves us, and who makes things new.  Yet it doesn't change the cold we feel, or the darkness we experience and in this time we can do nothing but cling to that hope, that promise that we are not alone. 

Be it in sadness, hope, anger, faith or a sense of peace we all live in this world "in between." We know the good, we know the bad, and we know the One, who creates, redeems, and sustains all things.  May we feel protected, loved, hopeful, and most importantly blessed. 

(This song also inspired this post.)

The Spirit of Everyday Life (Day 3)

Today while driving down Camp Road, I once again noticed what I've grown to call the "stairs to nowhere"  This set of well made stairs seem to lead to a platform that serves no purpose as far as I can tell from the outside.  I constantly wonder if they have a purpose, or if they are there as a memorial to some former purpose they once served.  I don't know what they are there for but it seems that those who own them want them there for some reason, and that's all I need to know.

Today it struck me that this is a lot like the idea of God's mysteries.  Paul tells us in Ephesians 1 that God has "made known to us the mystery of his will."  I have always wondered what that really meant because I certainly don't know God's will for my day to day life, much less the will of God in regards to some of the bigger questions we face in this world. Sometimes I think I have the answers only to find out that I'm still far from fully understanding things.

I do though think we can know God's love and know that sometime, somehow, someway it brings everything back into relationship with it's creator.  But the questions remain: How? When? Which way? We don't know any of this, that is the mystery, known only to the one who owns the mystery.  We are given a vision of what it's all about, but at most hints about the rest. 

Much like the stairs to nowhere, it's not important that I know all the answers.  I trust that the owner and creator of them had and has a purpose and reason for what he does.  Likewise I must trust that God who creates and is part of everything in this world has a purpose and a reason for what happens here that will lead where God wants it to go.

The Spirit of Everyday Life (Day 2)

Today's post will once again include music, but it starts with a different sound. I woke up this morning to the sound of sirens outside my bedroom.  Not completely unusual, but 30 minutes later I heard them again going the other way.  And then as I left the house and drove to the church, I passed 3 more in different locations.  This at best was a little unnerving.  I have now been here long enough to realize that while I'm in "Charleston" that James Island is in some ways still a small town, That means even though it seems none of those ambulances were treating anyone directly related to the Church that chances are someone here or someone I know here was affected by them.  This is one of those things that just makes you a little uncomfortable, but also makes you pray for those unseen, unknown people who are part of our community who are experiencing some kind of sadness.  We all need support of a community and of God when we feel a loss or pain.  This is how God made us, and he made us all that way.  We so often in this society find ways to divide ourselves from others.  We discuss how an accident happened, what could have gone wrong, or more likely what someone did to cause it as we sit in traffic waiting and rubbernecking as we travel by.  We talk about how those of a different ideological bent are supposedly affecting our lives here in the country and wonder why they don't think like we do.  We connect quickly to those with shared experiences, but sometimes find it too hard to talk about things that are really important with those who see things differently than ourselves.  Yet, God calls us all, God created us all, God is part of us all as we are all made in God's image.  That spark of God is what connected me this morning to all those who I knew were affected by those ambulances, it was a spirit of community that was created along with our individual spirits.  God is larger than all of our differences, and calls us first to connect with that piece of God that is part of all of us, that binds us together in one mission, one world, one life before getting caught up in the differences.  Five for Fighting had a song a few years back called Slice that asked the question "How can you be as nice as me?  You're not from the same slice as me." I think as people of faith our starting point with others should always be a feeling of "Hello, my fellow child of God.  God loves you, and I do too."  If you want to hear all of "Slice" click here.

The Spirit of Everyday Life

We often search our worship experiences for those moments that touch us, change us, push us forward.  Often we find them in small places, sometimes in larger themes, but while we often seek these when we find ourselves in a worship service or church wide events we rarely seek them as much in our day to day lives, letting words, sounds, smells, and sights pass by like they had no spiritual significance.

Here is a one week challenge:  This week seek the spiritual in everyday and then tell others about what it is that you find.  Likewise you will find a series of blogs this week outlining what we found spiritual in the day prior.  So if you feel you don't even know where to look, start here.  We may spend the entire week just finding the spiritual in one thing, or we may find it in so many variations that we don't repeat the same thing twice.  Both are okay, but if we want to see the world change, we must first change how we see the world.

Today, we found the spiritual in the music we were listening to in the car, in this case Mumford and Sons.  You can find a version of the song that is stuck in our head here.   It is a simple song, and the lyrics certainly seem spiritual, but at the same time it's not inherently "Christian."  Yet it speaks to the soul, speaking of the things that connect us all to some greater vision, and the desire to better understand it while we are still here on this earth.  The most poignant moment for us was: "In these bodies we will live, in these bodies we will die.  Where you invest your love, you invest your life."  This one snippet challenges us to really think about what we put our "love" (passion, energy, spirit) into.  It very much fits a desire to be changed from the inside and touched the spirit and soul today.

Hopefully you will join in the week long journey together, and more so that this will help us all see the world just a little more through God's eyes.

Times of Discernment and Visioning

Another year has begun and many of us have probably made some resolutions about what we'd like to do different this year.  Likewise we start our new year as a church looking at what we may do different this year and in the future.  Much like our personal resolutions, these changes are not to change who we are at our core, but things that we hope will improve ourselves and in turn the world around us. 

The thing with change though is that we often try a number of things before we find the way to actually make a change that works for us.  Sometimes we're not even completely sure what it is that we need to adjust in order to make the changes we feel we want to make.  This is where the work of discernment plays out both for us personally and as a congregation.  If we just make changes without thinking about why and how we're going about changing we often find ourselves unable to become what we really want to be.  Changes don't stick, or have side effects we didn't anticipate. 

When we take the time to really make a plan and a commitment to something we're truly are passionate about though, we become quite able to do things that maybe we thought were impossible, or at very least frighteningly imposing when we first considered them.  Taking time to really examine ourselves, being completely honest with ourselves, and even looking beyond ourselves is something that is scary but necessary if we want to be the best we can be.  It is not just a product of hard work at getting to our desired end result but also of the hard work of really understanding what we want that end result to be, and in the case of the church as it should be in our own lives what that end result that is that God wishes for us.  It is when we passionately seek to better understand God's will above our own that we are most in line with what it is that God wants from us.

We must continually seek God in order to see where we are going, but remembering that we are following a lamp unto our feet with every step.  This is not a process of quickly moving towards a bright light, but a slow progress, step by step together relying on one another and that dim reflection we see of God in the world.  May we all move forward this year yearning to discern that which God wants for us, and clinging to a vision yet unkown.

Amen.