I'll Do It Tomorrow...

In my struggle to not procrastinate, and this is my struggle- these are welcome words to both encourage and challenge me. I hope they do the same for you.

"No unwelcome tasks become any the less unwelcome by putting them off till tomorrow.
It is only when they are behind us and done,
that we begin to find that there is a sweetness to be tasted afterwards,
and that the remembrance of unwelcome duties unhesitatingly done is welcome and pleasant.

Accomplished, they are full of blessing,
and there is a smile on their faces as they leave us.
Undone, they stand threatening and disturbing our tranquility,
and hindering our communion with God.

If there be lying before you any bit of work from which you shrink,
go straight up to it, and do it at once.
The only way to get rid of it is to do it."

-Alexander MacLaren (1826–1910), Scottish preacher

Peace

It is Christmas again and I am hoping everyone got all the things that they wanted. In the midst of a declining economy, with the threat of a recession and continued recession, I wonder if it has slowed our consumeristic stride? There seems to be such a drive to buy, spend, and live life like there are no warnings. The surgeon general’s warnings don’t stop most of the hoi polloi from tobacco use and it doesn’t seem as if the recent economical red flags will slow our drive to purchase more stuff. Well, with tobacco use it is an addiction, and so is our consumerism

In our hearts there seems to be a refusal to “stop and listen to the music.” The music that may be playing a melody of loneliness, or boredom, broken relationships, shame and contempt; we all have our songs. If we stopped buying, cooking, laughing, drinking, acting, eating, recreating etc, we would hear the inner clamoring-and then what would happen? We would have to face “IT.”

O the courage to stop, to tune in, to tune in to our heart, hurts and addictions-not keep life on autopilot and take up courage; courage that comes from believing in the man who was tortured and bloodied on a cross. Jesus who the prophet Isaiah spoke of saying, that by his stripes we could be healed.

I hope the baby in the manger is your healer. May we stop, for God’s sake, and our own, to allow Jesus the baby, the man, the bloodied sacrifice, the risen King, to come into our clamoring hearts and bring PEACE.


Love has come and peace is here….

Amen

"Horton Hears a Who" ( A Tale of Human Dignity)

I just finished watching "Horton Hears a Who."  My son has the story book, which I purchased for him some time ago, however, I failed to recall the story and its profound message until I saw the movie.   "In the storybook version of "Horton Hears a Who," famous children's author Dr. Seuss tells the story of a community of microscopic people called "Who's" who live in "Who-ville". The world is a tiny, yet technologically advanced community of people living on a dust-speck. The jungle elephant Horton has excellent hearing that alerts him to the presence of the people, and he promises to protect them from danger." The antagonist of the story, Sour Kangaroo, embodies the empiricist view with the motto, "If you can’t see, hear or feel something, it doesn’t exist.” Sour Kangaroo is on a mission to destroy the clover (where the Who's live) and bring down Horton, due to the fact that she believes Horton's beliefs and efforts to preserve the Who's are a "nonsensical game." Horton, to his accusers retorts, “A person’s a person.  No matter how small” In the midst of abuse and much peril (long story short) Horton prevails and even Sour Kangaroo becomes a "believer" by the end of the book/movie.

The adage "A person is a person no matter how small" is the major motif of the movie. There are some pro-life groups that have used this statement as their unofficial phrase. We don't know Mr. Theodore Geise's (Dr. Seuss) intentions in writing the book. Either way, the "Screenwriters Ken Daurio and Cinco Paul emphasize the book’s value as an allegory about religious belief."
The book indeed is an allegory about religious beliefs and a window into that fact that we, no matter how small, have been created in the Imago Dei. I would strongly recommend this movie.

Joy to The World

 We have a King, he has come and inaugurated his Kingdom, He will return to gather his people. Joy to the World, our Savior reigns! We have this blessed hope:

Titus 2:11-15a, For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.
15 Declare these things...

Let us indeed make this declaration one to another.


"No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as, the curse is found." 

-Isaac Watts

No Wonder.

It seems as I continue to get older my internal excitement for things tends to be less potent. But my two sons are beginning to bring me to the school of wonder. I wanted to share one of my favorite Chesterton quotes as we continue to "grow old."

“Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, “Do it again”; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, “Do it again” to the sun; and every evening, “Do it again” to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.”

GK Chesterton, Orthodoxy

Sacramental Channels

As Christmas draws closer we begin to sing  about Emmanuel (God with us) and hear about the reality of the incarnation.  The incarnation-Jesus who embodied in the flesh God himself.  The most amazing expression of love; that God would descend into his own creation, put on flesh, and in bodily demonstration show us that he doesn't despise matter, but rather, weds divinity and flesh in Christ.  This incarnation a precursor to our own incarnational reality.  That God would not only send his son wrapped in flesh but, at Pentecost, he would use us as a receptacle for the Divine.  He sent his Spirit to dwell in those who would be born again.  This reality is not only known through the idea/reality of the incarnation but also can be thought of in terms of sacrament.  "The sacramental view of reality affirms that Spirit can be and is encountered in and through material forms."  The two main forms ordained for us in Scripture are those of the Lord's Supper and Baptism and in taking part in Baptism and the Eucharist we experience the presence of Christ.  To say it another way,"sacramentalism is the belief that God works through physical things to effect our lives.  What sacramentalism declares is that there is nothing outside of God's strength.  There is no more of an ultimate spiritual declaration than this:  God can use whatever he wants to speak to us, change us and work in our lives, even physical elements transformed by grace."   The Westminster Divines stated it like this, "God in his ordinary providence, makes use of means, yet is free to work without, above, and against them, at his pleasure" (WCF 5.3).

We are those, if we are Christians, that have been "transformed by grace."  We have come into, through faith in Christ, a union with him.  We know as Christ prayed in Jn 17: 21, "that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me."  Moreover, Paul in Galatians 2:20 states that he no longer lives but "Christ lives in me."  And through this mystical union we become "Sacramental channels"; a people in-dwelt by the Holy Spirit charged to bring the presence of Christ to others.  So we as Christians are "sacramental" in the sense that he or she is a channel for the Presence, a medium through which Love Himself can flow."

May we keep Christ's presence in the forefront of our reality and look to do the same in the lives of others.

Living Stones (A Threefold Perspective)

I am excited about blogging and have been inspired by some good friends of mine to start.

So why the title,  Living Stones?  Taken from 1 Peter chapter 2:4-6, Peter calls the Christian a living stone and he calls the collective body of Christ living stones.  He speaks explicitly about our identity as well as our function as believers.  In relation to our identity, "chosen and precious."  In relation to our function, we are, personally and collectively, being built up, we are a priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices through Christ, who is the chief cornerstone.

Explicitly and Implicitly I believe this passage speaks to three intertwined realities that we must come to terms with.  This passage includes you, the individual, living stone; it includes "you yourselves" the people of God as a whole, and God. 

 

In verse 1, Peter says that we are to want spiritual milk so that we can grow up.  Growing up comes with proper understanding.  Calvin in Institutes of the Christian Religion book one chapter one says, "without knowledge of self there is no knowledge of God."  He goes on to say that all wisdom we posses needs to be twofold : knowledge of God and ourselves.  God's Spirit, Sacrament, his Scriptures, his creation etc, impart to us "knowledge of God."  However, other than God who or what gives us an understanding of ourselves?  Community, the other stones that support us and make up, vs. 9. a chosen race, the royal priesthood, a holy nation.   

We need a proper understanding of ourselves and it is my firm belief that this can not be done apart from others.  No man is an island unto himself and no man can see himself aright apart from community. It takes the exposing eyes of others to help our myopic predisposition.  To be able to see ourselves and God we need God's other chosen and precious stones.