The triduum and the whole universe

The biggest liturgy (order for worship) of the year started Thursday and continues until we celebrate Jesus' Resurrection. In these multiple services we remember: Jesus gave us communion that we could take him into us and be sustained by him in the world; Jesus cleansed us from sin and urges us to likewise wash other's feet; Jesus died for us; Jesus went to hell for us; and Jesus defeated death and conquered the grave when he rose from the dead on the third day.

But, in our personalized version of Christianity we often forget that the 'us' Jesus died for is not just me or my friends or even all the people in the world.

John 3:16 NASB notes "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life."

God loved the world (the Greek refers to much larger than our planet) and put people in a place where everything was subject to the consequences of human decision. God gave his only begotton Son so that by believing in Him: We won't perish; We'll live forever; We'll be a family of God's children; We're heirs of God who share his suffering and glory; and the universe is waiting for us.

Romans 8:19-21 continues "The creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it in hope that hte creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God."

A couple of big questions as we await Jesus' resurrection:
What do you do to remember you live for more than yourself?
How does your life give hope to the world, even the universe?

The whole world - sins and all

Psalm 51:1-18(19-20); Psalm 69:1-23
Jeremiah 12:1-16; Philippians 3:1-14; John 12:9-19

John 12:19 "Look the world has gone after him"

Christians tend to fall into one of two extremes relating to the world. It is either hostile to God, like the sins of the flesh, all awaiting destruction. Or the other extreme of everything is so good that we're to seek comfort and prosperity often forgetting the clear direction of scripture of how difficult it is for those who have to receive the gospel.

We're to live a challenge somewhere inbetween where we are expecting a difficult journey and that all of the difficult journey is to be offered up to God. We're to live expecting a new creation with the old creation passing away yet somehow enduring. So how do we do it?

How do we be part of the 'whole world' that praises God even when people fall short of praising God? How do we be the people who leaders would point at and feel like all humanity has gone after Jesus? What do you do to avoid the traps and pitfalls of our materialist societal sin? How do you live expectant of something new and yet treasuring what God has given us now? How do you restore feeling and understanding where these two heretical extremes have left us numb to the power of the good news of Jesus Christ?

Palm Sunday: Jesus Cleanses the Temple

El Greco: Christ Cleansing the Temple

Psalm 24, 29; Psalm 103
Zechariah 9:9-12, 13:1, 7-9; 1 Timothy 6:12-16; Matthew 21:12-17
Church of the Apostles Palm Sunday Sermon
While the attention of the crowd is on Jesus, while people are looking to him for victory, while folks expected him to overthrow rulers... Jesus shows his concern for right worship and by seeking to make the temple into a place of prayer for ALL PEOPLE.

And I'm left thinking... Holy Week is consistantly the most important week of my devotional life... it is so full of memories of deep encounters with the Lord that I've set up patterns and ways I expect to experience God... are these things Jesus would clean out?

For your thought and comment:
Where might you expect (or if after the fact did you find) God met you in a new way this week?
What Holy Week practice would you deeply miss if it were removed this year?

Thursday/Friday 5th Week of Lent

Relationships over things

(Sorry I had too much on my plate this week and a number of things slid in favor of maintaining intimacy with God).

Questions for reflection:
How did you learn to pray?
What is your earliest memory of prayer?

For me, I learned from the Book of Common Prayer. I would pour over the book looking for the prayer that addressed the situation I wanted to pray for because I believed prayers would only be effective if they had been made by someone holier than me. While I recommend praying words to God that are your own, this season with the prayer book served me well.

I learned to praise God first and now realize that in doing so I was usually recalling a testimony of what God had done in the past so that he would do something similar again.

I learned to ask for things that others had tested as part of God's heart and so by experience learned about praying within the will of God.

I learned to close prayer giving glory to God and expecting God to do God's will and not mine.

Eventually I learned to pray words straight from my heart, but in some ways because I'd sought so earnestly for prayers, the prayer book words were also prayers from my heart. So, the prayer book with the community that worshiped guided by it led me into relationship with God.

Recognizing Prayer as Essential

Psalm 119:145-176; Psalm 128, 129, 130; Jeremiah 25:30-38; Romans 10: 14-21; John 10:1-18

The challenge today is to think about our perceptions of our prayer life. If we, as most Christians do, believe that prayer is important and effective, not to mention modeled by Jesus, then we should take it more seriously than we often do. Most of us, probably, pray at least once a day, sometimes perfunctorily, sometimes for a long stretch.

However, speaking only from personal experience, I find prayer hard. I find it hard to concentrate, to stay on point, to stay focused. There are so many horrendous issues in the world, in our country, in my friends' lives, in my own life, that they are overwhelming. I can't pray for all of them, so often I don't pray for any. But I do, I really do, believe that prayer is important. That it is our lifeline to our Maker and Savior. So this question is for me, too: Why is it so hard?

How do your rate prayer on your priority list?

How do you move it higher?

Deep Words of Deep Trust

Psalm 51:1-18(19-20); Psalm 69:1-23
Jeremiah 12:1-16; Philippians 3:1-14; John 12:9-19
Psalm 23

Today's mediation from Henri Nouwen reflects on Psalm 23 and states "The deeper these words enter into the center of by being, the more I become part of God's people and the better I understand what it means to be in the world without being of it."

For me, Psalm 23 is one of a number of passages that helps me enter more deeply into being part of God's people. One of them is Jeremiah 12:5 where God challenges Jeremiah and his strength with words of powerful promise. (Here is a book that expands the mediation if you're interested).

What words help you experience deeper trust of God?

Source of Our Joy

Psalm 118; Psalm 145
Jeremiah 23:16-32; 1 Corinthians 9:19-27; Mark 8:31-9:1

Psalm 118 proclaims 'this is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.'

When I led preschool chapel we sang this line every Wednesday and sometimes when we encountered eachother in the halls or on the playground. We developed a culture where seeing eachother called rejoicing to mind. So, whether we were down, up, tired, happy to be with friends, playing, missing Mommy and Daddy, fussy, tantrumy, bouncing off the walls... the songs we sang each week helped us have a way to return to joy in the Lord.

Nouwen writes: "The surprise is not that, unexpectedly, things turn out better than expected. No, the real surprise is that God's light is more real than all the darkness, that God's truth is more powerful than all human lies, that God's love is stronger than death."

An exercise like what I did with preschoolers risks a fake joy, putting on a face when things feel terrible. Yet, it points us to the truth of our rejoicing because Jesus overcame the world and its troubles. It required meeting a child where they were, letting it be okay to be however they were feeling. Then once they were sure it was okay to be where they were, smiling until they were naturally smiling before we could sing of joy and praise to God that was real in the face of troubles.

Questions for reflection and comment:
What is a place or time in your life you are so thankful for that you return to it to praise God again and again?
What is something today real joy in the Lord has shown up?

Prayer Has Power

"To pray for one another is, first of all, to acknowledge, in the presence of God, that we belong to each other as children of the same God." I've always found it interesting that when Jesus taught us to pray, he always used the plural. "Our Father who art in Heaven....Give us this day, our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses, just as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil."

Although God made us unique, we have the same basic physical and spiritual needs and the same struggle against sin. We are all members of the human race with one common Creator.

Prayer certainly has power. But, Nouwen does not offer yet another testimony on how God delivered things that we have long asked of him in prayer. This is not to diminish these requests, for they have their rightful place in our prayer life. Nouwen's focus, though, is on the power of prayer to reveal to us that the Father loves us equally as sons and daughters. We enter into and experience a spiritual truth. "To pray, that is, to listen to the voice of the One who calls us "beloved," is to learn that that voice excludes no one."

To conclude his passage, Nouwen stresses that intimacy with God and solidarity with all people are inseparable. As John writes in one of his letters:

"If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also. (1 John 4: 20-21)."

It is reassuring, especially for those for whom intimacy is a great challenge, that despite our own wounds and willfulness, God spells out the answer very simply: We must strive to love others and deepen our intimacy with them, if we would truly love God and deepen our relationships with Him. The concept of this Scripture severs nicely as a barometer, of sorts; to measure the extent of our intimacy with God by the extent of our intimacy with others.

The Path to Glory

Psalm 95, 102; Psalm 107:1-32
Jeremiah 23:1-8; Romans 8:28-39; John 6:52-59

Questions for comment:
What is one unlikely place from which you've experienced blessing?
When have you experienced love you wanted to share?

^{Romans 8:37-39} No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Origen: As long as we rely on God’s love, we suffer no feeling of pain. For his love, by which he loved us and drew us to him, makes us not feel the pain and crucifixion of the body. In all these things we are more than conquerors. The bride in the Song of Songs says something similar: “I am wounded with love.” In the same way our soul, once it has received Christ’s wound of love, will not feel the wounds of the flesh, even if it gives the body over to the sword.

Bray, Gerald: Romans (Revised). Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1998 (Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture NT 6), S. 233

Unfortunately people wound eachother deeply. Yet, today's devotional from Nouwen and the reading from Romans say something more profound than just get over it rather they challenge us to be transformed by wounds of love. God takes the unlikely and wounds of love and turns them for glory.

Seeking a Spiritual Atmosphere

Psalm 69:1-23(24-30)31-38; Psalm 73
Jeremiah 22:13-23; Romans 8:12-27; John 6:41-51

I don't think much about trash collection other than to put my trash out on the appointed day and to be thankful that it is taken away. Yet, this week I'm encountering articles about how volunteers in Libya are pulling together to pick up trash and how Jina Moore in Sierra Leone notes "sanitation trucks collected trash from city trash bins -- possibly the most dramatic sign Freetown could boast of a regularly functioning government."

When I read Nouwen's reflection about 'seeking a spiritual atmosphere' I found myself reacting against what he wasn't explicitly saying, namely the all too common Christian habit of avoiding all who aren't Christian as if they pollute our atmosphere. It would be silly to put my roommates on the curb to be picked up rather than just the trash we produce. It is even silly to think that it is only them creating trash and not me as well.

So, while I agree it is important to live in a spiritual atmosphere and talk with people who help heighten our sense of expectation for God to show up. I also know it is important to have an effective trash collection system that is sophisticated enough to take out the trash and not the people. It is critical to expect God to show up in our times with people who haven't received the gospel message. And, in our age of recycling, to figure out what is trash and what is a truth filled good idea to be recycled that comes from the other because I'm living in a spiritual atmosphere.

Questions for comment:
What is one idea that you believe because someone who isn't Christian helped you think it?
What is something you think Christians often misidentify as trash?

The Joy of God's Presence

Psalm 101, 109:1-4 (5-19) 20-30; Psalm 119:121-144; Jeremiah 18:1-11; Romans 8:1-11; John 6:16-27

In yesterday's post, Sherri wrote of the need to "practice the presence of God" not just daily, but on a moment by moment basis, like breathing. For the most part, that practice requires a shift in mindset, not an increase in time. Mostly. It is true that we can pray and worship and rest in God's presence while we are doing chores, or driving, or making dinner, or digging ditches. However, it is much harder to talk to God, much less listen to him, while we are on a conference call, editing a manuscript, helping children with homework, meeting a client, or comforting a screaming baby (though this latter situation is the one in which I find myself praying the simplest of prayers, "Help!")

It is useful to have a moment-by-moment prayer life; one that can be practiced throughout the day, but it is also necessary to spend longer stretches of time with God. In order to find, and live out, the Joy of the Lord, we have to spend time allowing Him to speak with us, through prayer, and the scripture, and other people. This does take time.

Nowen says: "I can understand Jesus' words: "How hard is it for the rich to enter the kingdom of God." Money and success are not the problem; the problem is the absence of free, open time when God can be encountered in the present and life can be lifted up in its simple beauty and goodness."

I think he is right, up to a point. We have to make space for God in our lives. This is especially hard for those of us (not me) who are more extroverted and like a lot of things going on at once. We have a tendency to fill up any empty space, and life today makes that easy. There is always a computer to look at, a phone call to make, a tv show to watch. For introverts, space is a bit easier to come by, internally. Nevertheless, we are all under the "busy" pressure, especially in this area, and we all need to deliberately create the time and space for God.


How do you create space for God in your life?

What makes you joyful?

Like a Breath of Fresh Air

Psalm 97, 99, [100]; Psalm 94, [95]; Jeremiah 17.19-27; Romans 7:13-25; John 6:16-27

A man who prayerfully goes about his life is constantly ready to receive the breath of God, and to let his life be renewed and expanded. The man who never prays, on the contrary, is like the child with asthma; because he is short of breath, the whole world shrivels up before him. --Henri Nouwen

What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? --Romans 7.24

The shift for me into going about my life prayerfully was when I realized that I needed rescue every minute of the day, and that God cares about my well-being.

So, for instance, I don't just pray for self-control once a day; if I'm tempted to eat something I shouldn't-- a piece of candy, say, or a jar of Nutella-- I pray for self-control right then (most of the time).

I don't just pray for patience as I'm gazing upon the sweet sleeping faces of my children; when I'm late for swimming lessons and then the little boys who normally move like greased lightning go into molasses mode, I need to pray for patience right then, too.

So once I really internalized that God isn't setting me up to fail, that he offers "present help in trouble," I began praying for everything. Wisdom. Courage. Healing for the suffering people around me. Suddenly, a prayerful life didn't look like what I had thought-- the solemn, stately movements of an Extremely Holy Person; it was life. Just life, full and really unbelievably joyous.

And it really was like breathing deeply for the first time-- or like a long dormant plant bursting into bloom.

Where has God breathed into your life?
Where do you wish pray He would?

Dark Night of the Soul

Psalm89:1-18; Psalm 89:19-52
Jeremiah 16:10-21; Romans 7:1-12; John 6:1-15

At times God seems absent. The Protestant assumption (at least as I've encountered it) is that the person to whom God seems absent is being judged. Since at least St. John of the Cross (in the 16th century) another theology has developed that looks at a time in which God seems absent as a time of soul refining and a chance to seek God for his own merits and not just how we feel.

Mother Teressa is the most recent and longest example of someone who walked in holiness and who felt as if God was absent for nearly 50 years. Therese of Lisieux also experienced a long dark night. I give these names to you in the hope they will help you make sense of your experience if you are feeling God's absence. There is a huge grace for the one feeling like God is absent in being able to pray expecting God's refining more than the more protestant view of judgment.

But I'm hesitant to hold onto the theology of a dark night of the soul or an absent God lest belief in needing a feeling of separation becomes self fulfilling by my expectant creation rather than God's sovereign action. I learned of this theology in the years I've processed 72 hours when I was on retreat and felt God to be absent. Those hours of felt separation from God were so gut wrenching that my meditations of what hell is like begin there. These hours give me particular compassion and persistence when people come on retreats and feel as if everyone except them are receiving a touch by God.

Questions for reflection and comment:
A yes/no question, do you think feeling absence from God is necessary for Christian growth?
Why do you believe a period of God feeling distant is (or is not) necessary for growth in love of God for God's own merits?
What stories do you have of feeling as if God is absent and how people interpreted the feeling?

Compassion and Inclusion

Psalm 66, 67; Psalm 19, 46
Jeremiah 14:9,17-22; Galatians 4:21-5:1; Mark 8:11-21

I spent much of the last two days at the Accessibility Summit at McLean Bible Church. It, the people I met, and Nouwen's reflection about Compassion for Helen leave me thinking about how much poorer we are because of the pace we (or at least I) live life.

For example, A few years ago I'd plan twice as long as I needed to go grocery shopping so that I'd have space and time for divine appointments. Usually when I did this the time turned turned toward some sort of compassionate act toward others. Now, more often than not I go to the grocery store hungry eager to get home and make dinner.

Largely in the name of scheduling time with people for relationship, I'm realizing the sacrifice of relationships. With less time for unscheduled relationships, I wonder how closely the omitted part of the Jeremiah reading applies toward me personally. After the Accessibility Summit, I'm longing for relationships with people dramatically different from me and yet dramatically like me and the opportunity to seek God together.

Questions for comment:
What is one task you do that you could slow down?
How could Church of the Apostles be more welcoming to people 'dramatically different' from us?

Presence In Prayer

“Here we touch the heart of prayer since here it becomes manifest that in prayer the distinction between God’s presence and God’s absence no longer really distinguishes. In prayer God’s presence is never separated from his absence and God’s absence is never separated from his presence.”

Logically, one cannot both be absent and present at the same time. Nouwen’s comment that in prayer this distinction between God’s presence and absence “no longer really distinguishes” raises the question of whether the distinction between his presence and absence is only apparent.

It is true that God is beyond our merely human experiences, as Nouwen states at the outset of this passage. We know from the Creation story in Genesis that God made us. God must have necessarily come before and been beyond human experience in order to create human life. God tells us that he is greater than us in Isaiah:

“Indeed, my plans are not like your plans, and my deeds are not like your deeds, for just as the sky is higher than the earth, 
so my deeds are superior to your deeds 
and my plans superior to your plans.” (Isaiah 55: 8-9)

Yet, we also know that God wants to be and is present and working in our lives:

“For the LORD your God is a merciful God; he will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with your forefathers, which he confirmed to them by oath. 
” (Deuteronomy 4:31 NIV)

“For who is God besides the LORD? And who is the Rock except our God? It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect. He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he enables me to stand on the heights.” (2 Samuel 22:32-34 NIV)

"In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express" (Romans 8:26).

Prayer is the path to experiencing God’s presence: “Draw near to God and he will draw near to you.” (James 4:8). God is faithful and he will make himself available to us. Whatever we ask in the name of his Son, Jesus; Jesus will do in order to bring glory to the Father (ref. John 14:13-14).

I agree with Nouwen that prayer is the key to experiencing God’s presence. However, I will add that the mere act of praying may not bring us into the presence of God. When we pray, our hearts must be disposed to hearing and doing God’s will. I recall times when I prayed and felt nothing and heard nothing. Although I mouthed the words and seemed to pray with good intention, I noticed that I was really afraid to hear what God had to say and was not willing to do his will. When I surrender my reservations and selfish requests, I find I am truly open to his presence. When I truly ask for things in his name and not in my own name, I see the Lord working in my life in awe-inspiring ways.

Prayer Renews: Friday, Third Week of Lent

Psalm 95, 88; Psalm 91, 92
Jeremiah 11:1-8, 14-20; Romans 6:1-11; John 8:33-47

Throughout writings of the Christian Fathers and Nouwen's writings prayer and silence are equated. Responding to yesterday's post folks spoke of most experiencing God when at the very least in solitude.

For example Chrysostom states of Jesus: For what purpose does he go up into the hills on the mountain? To teach us that solitude and seclusion are good, when we are to pray to God. With this in view, you see, we find him continually withdrawing into the wilderness. There he often spends the whole night in prayer. This teaches us earnestly to seek such quietness in our prayers as the time and place may afford. For the wilderness is the mother of silence; it is a calm and a harbor, delivering us from all turmoils.

Yet, tongues or prayer language are often held up in churches like Church of the Apostles as a way to approach God that yields similar peace with added certainty of praying the right things. Maybe I haven't dug deeply enough to find someone who distinguishes the fruits of each so, here I'm digging...

Questions for reflection:
What is the place of tongues/a personal prayer language & silence in your prayer life?
When Paul writes of praying in tongues more than anyone why isn't there a similar boast of being silent more than anyone?

Listening to the Voice of Love: Thursday, Third Week of Lent

Psalm 83,42, 43; Psalm 85, 86
Jeremiah 10:11-24; Romans 5:12-21; John 8:21-32

Questions for comment:
How do you hear God's voice?
What things do you do to keep more sensitive to hearing God?

When I write or talk about hearing God I increasingly feel the language of hearing God is too common to abandon yet too proscriptive to be effective. For me, God usually communicates by dream, impression, image and feeling more than an audible voice or even verbally. Yet prayer and opening myself to the expectation of hearing seems to increase the clarity with which God communicates. The more quiet time I take, the more likely I am to understand God clearly. The more I journal (which I do inconsistently) the more I find myself able to do two way journaling and ask a question of God which He then answers in a way that expands my understanding.

Blessed are the peace-makers?

Lectionary readings for today:
Psalm 119: 97-120; Psalm 78:40-72; Jeremiah 7:21-34; Romans 4:1-12; John 7:14-36

Haiti.

Egypt.

Japan.

Libya.

The world is in rebellion, there are earthquakes and tsunamis and oppression and if I start to think about all the horribleness too much, I can get really depressed. It seems as if there is nothing I can "do" about it. And yet, we are called to "do justice" and to feed the poor and visit the sick and imprisoned. And, one suspects, help people in the rubble from earthquakes though I am pretty sure the Scripture never said that directly.

Nowen tells us that "As long as we imagine and live as if there is no peace in sight, and that it all depends on us to make it come about, we are on the road to self-destruction." Then he goes on to point out that God already has done the hard work of peace and we need to trust Him to work it out.

That does not, in fact, mean that we can just rest on that and not be concerned about the troubles of the world or of our families or of ourselves. And there IS something we can "do" about it: we can pray.

We forget this at times. But prayer is so very powerful. A friend of mine has this to say about prayer.

And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind be alert and always keep on praying for all of the Lord’s people. Ephesians 6:18

I grew up in a tradition that emphasized the personal relationship we had with God and focused on prayer that was mainly about ourselves and for ourselves. This can be good. We need to confess. We need to grow in our understanding of our Saviour. We need times of personal worship and reflection.

But if this is all prayer is, Jesus and me, happy ever after, I think I am missing something.

Something Big.

Prayer not only draws us closer to our Creator and Redeemer, it brings us together as a body. One morning I was praying for the people of Haiti. It hit me. I was not the only one. I was standing with thousands upon thousands of other believer at that very moment, before the Throne of a Holy God interceding on the behalf of others. And while I will not see most of those believers this side of heaven for a moment there was unity that cannot be expressed in words.

Matthew 18:19-20 Again, truly I tell you that if two or three of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my father in Heaven. For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.

And I began to truly understand Matthew 18:19-20. It is not necessarily about geography, it’s about intent. It’s a community, scattered about this earth but united by the forgiveness of their sins and the love of a Holy Father.

I’ve got a confession. Until a few years ago I often skipped the parts of the epistles where Paul talked about the people he prayed for and what he prayed. It seemed a bit boring and not all that relevant to me. Not anymore. Now I know it can be a framework. It’s a guide to praying for those who are in community with you right here and around the world.

Prayer is perhaps the most important thing we can do in terms of peace, both personally and world-wide. We are told to pray, even for the peace of Jerusalem. More importantly, though, prayer is the way that we converse with God and develop our relationship with Him. And it is our relationship with Him that brings us peace, peace that we can then share with others.

How do you find time to pray?

Is it harder or easier to pray for yourself or for the world?

Entering the Silence Within

Today's reflection includes silence, please refer to the previous post and continue the conversation in the comments section.

Today's Lectionary Readings are:
Psalm 93, 96; Psalm 34
Jeremiah 6:9-15; 1 Corinthians 6:12-20; Mark 5:1-20

After the Silence Comes Joy

Psalm 118:24, Isaiah 55:12, Nehemiah 8:10, John 16:22, James 1:2-3

Nouwen provides several examples to illustrate that there is a little sadness in every experience of joy. I have not experienced sadness while experiencing joy in some of the examples he gives. However, I would agree with him generally that we intuit a sense of sadness in the midst of joy and happiness. At some level, I believe, we are aware that even the greatest experiences of joy and sadness in this life are fleeting. They are not permanent and thus will fade, because our lives on this earth will one day end.

Our faith in Christ gives us hope that the imperfect joy we experience here will one day be perfected in Heaven. When we see Jesus again we will have joy and no one (or thing) will be able to take that joy away (John 16:22). Nouwen concludes his reflection with an allusion to John 16:22. Christ' victory on the Cross and the promise of perfect joy for us in Heaven helps me, when I turn to Him, to rejoice in each day, because the Lord has made it (Psalm 118:24) and to count the good and bad in my life as "all joy" (James 1:2-3), trusting that God is allowing it to happen for the sake of my salvation.

"After the Silence Comes Joy" is the title for the reflection for the Saturday for the Third Week of Lent. However, I don't see the relevance of the reference to silence in the reflection passage. Thoughts?

The Cross & Powerlessness

Psalm 93, 96; Psalm 34
Jeremiah 6:9-15; 1 Corinthians 6:12-20; Mark 5:1-20
"The powerlessness of the manger became the powerlessness of the cross." Nouwen

The mystery and power of the cross and the powerlessness it shows is one of the most beautiful and challenging truths for those of us who follow Jesus. Paul struggled with it, the Koran reject it.

Why would God who is all powerful be scandalized, mocked and let himself be powerless? While there are many rich resources to meditate upon the cross and I fondly remember The stations of the cross and especially how I'm confronted with truth when pondering Jesus falling. I've appreciated years of meditations on the Seven Last Words of Christ as each word and resource has taken me to new places.

Yet, this year God is taking me to a new place of simply embracing the mystery of the cross and God's love shown through the cross. I seem to need to be in a place of simpler trust and so the song What would I have done seems to be the most powerful way God is using to touch me with powerlessness without the cross.

Questions for comment:
Is there a part of the story of Jesus' death that particularly resonates in your soul?
How are you entering into the mystery of the cross right now?
What tools/ practices help you enter worshipfully into the reality of what Jesus has done for us?

Imagination expanded

Psalm 75, 76; Psalm 23, 27
Jeremiah 5:20-31; Romans 3:19-31; John 7:1-13

As Nouwen challenges us to care I find the most intriguing part (and possibly most difficult part) identifying fully with the people I'm helping when I haven't imagined myself in their position. As Especially when I'm wondering if I'm helping in the best way, I'm slowed in being the best help.

I found myself also challenged by the passage from John and wonder especially what Jesus means about his disciples' time being now. John 7:6 So "Jesus said to them, 'My time is not yet here, but your time is always opportune.'" Today I'm taking it to mean it is time now to be revealing Jesus, to be showing caring as they learned to do with power in the previous chapter.

Cyril of Alexandria: Initially the disciples were reluctant to feed the hungry, but seeing this, the Savior gave to them in abundance from the fragments. This teaches us as well, that we, by expending a little for the glory of God, shall receive richer grace according to the saying of Christ, “a good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap.”(Lk 6:38) Therefore, we must not be slothful regarding the communion of love toward our brothers and sisters but rather put away from us, as far as possible, the cowardice and fear that lead to inhospitality. Thus we might be confirmed in hope through steadfast faith in the power of God to multiply even our smallest acts of goodness. (Elowsky, Joel C.: John 1-10. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 2006 (Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture NT 4a), S. 215)

Questions for reflection (and comment):
What/who stirs your compassion?
What is easiest/hardest in showing compassion for you?

Sure and Certain Hope

Psalm 95, 69:1-23(24-30)31-38; Psalm 73
Jeremiah 5:1-9; Romans 2:25-3:18; John 5:30-47

Nouwen notes "Only if you pray with hope can you break through the barriers of death."

But the way I learned hope, at least at school and from the dictionary, is very little more than good wishes and unfulfilled desires. My understanding of hope changed as I read and meditated on the phrase Thomas Cranmer put in the Burial Office in 1549, 1552 & 1559: "earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust, in sure and certain hope of resurrection to eternal life, through our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it may be like to his glorious body, according to the mighty working whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself.”

Sure and certain as mofifiers on hope changed my understanding of the word 'hope'. I no longer thought of heaven as a collection of uncertainties cooked up in my head and from deduction from my head but from the promises of scripture. The phrase sure and certain not only increased my desire for resurrection but also my hope that God's kingdom would become visible here on earth.

Questions for your comments:
What are you sure and certain about?
What images of resurrection help you imagine the Kingdom of God?

Complete Joy

Psalm 70, 71; Psalm 74;
Jeremiah 4:9-10, 19-28
Romans 2:12-24; John 5:1-18

Scripture promises God's joy will be in us and that our joy will be complete. On occasion, God gives holy laughter to his church to the consternation of some and the excitement of others. While some feel real joy, others feel pressure to show joy when it just isn't what they're feeling. We end up with a false command to 'just be happy' (warning: if you're fasting from the 'allel...' word stop this film when the angels show up) and a communication of joy that rings hollow to those who are presently experiencing anguish closer to what God and Jeremiah are feeling in today's reading.

But, we know true joy when we experience it. We're made to long for real joy and it can be ours.

How do you explain Christian joy?
What books/movies... would you point someone to who is looking for joy?

What do I really want?

Psalm 72; Psalm 119:73-96; Jeremiah 3:6-18; Romans 1:28-2:11; John 5:1-18

Today's devotional from Nouwen was difficult for me. I didn't think it made sense (seems to be a recurring theme....) This was a particularly tough part:

Your whole life you have been running about, seeking the love you desire. Now it is time to end that search. Trust that God will give you that all-fulfilling love and will give it in a human way.

Really?

Huh.

It isn't the fact that God is fulfilling that bothered me (I believe that). It isn't the fact that we have been running about seeking "love in all the wrong places." (That is just manifestly true.) It isn't even the "human way" part (after all, it is an INCARNATE God I believe in.) But put them all together, and it seems, at first blush, to be wrong.

I can probably name a dozen people for whom that Nouwen position seems impossible. What about the older single person who doesn't feel called to singleness? What about a parent who has lost a child? Or the person who longs in vain FOR a child? Or the person who has been left behind in a divorce that they didn't seek?

Nouwen DOES put a slight caveat in when he says, "Before you die, God will offer you the deepest satisfaction you can desire." So, I suppose that the people I listed above can always cling to the hope that God will redeem the pain they are experiencing at some point toward the end of their life. But that seems to be a poor result when they are looking for "deepest satisfaction."

I think the key to this conundrum (well, it is a conundrum for me, maybe y'all are more spiritually mature than I and don't struggle at all....to that I say, "Harumph!" Anyway, back to the devo....) is the "Trust" part.

IF we trust Him, He will offer us the "deepest satisfaction." Trust requires re-imagining life, and asking God to give us the desire that He wants for us. And His desire for us might not be what we think it is. We have to trust that when we enter into a relationship with God, He will work in our lives to shape us into the person that He wants us to be, if we let Him do it, and that THAT shaping and relationship will result in us receiving the deepest satisfaction.

Of course, we don't have to take what He offers. We can struggle along trying to find fulfillment on our own, in the ways that WE think should work.

Questions for thought:

Are there disappointments in your life where you think God has failed? How can you re-imagine those?

How do we stay "real" about life and what is disappointing, yet still trust in God?

How has God "with skin on" shown Himself in your life?

Mystery, Missed.

Psalm 61, 62; Psalm 68.1-20 (21-23) 24-36; Jeremiah 2.1-13; Romans 1.16-25; John 4.43-54

It is through total and unmitigated powerlessness that God shows us divine mercy. The radical, divine choice is the choice to reveal glory, beauty, truth, peace, joy, and, most of all, love in and through the complete divestment of power. It is very hard-- if not impossible-- for us to grasp this divine mystery.

I'll say.

Especially when "grasp" means to take hold of in a visceral way, not just to apprehend intellectually.

I was going to write a post criticizing all kinds of power tonight. Political power, the power that accrues with wealth, etc. But everything sounded trite and hackneyed, probably because it was.

And the reason the criticisms are hackneyed is because Nouwen is right: it is nearly impossible for us to grasp that divine mystery. We keep missing it.

How do you deal with it? Me, I keep thinking I've nailed it when I Think Deep Thoughts and Use Big Words. But I haven't, not really.

Mystery is just that-- mysterious, and opaque, and %@#! frustrating. Because if we can apprehend it, we can control it. And God won't be controlled.

So how do you deal? What's your best approach? My best approach...well, it keeps giving out.

Poverty of Suffering

Sunday's Readings (sorry I didn't get online yesterday or find another person to provoke your responses).
Psalm 24, 29; Psalm 8, 84
Jeremiah 1:1-10; 1 Corinthians 3:11-23; Mark 3:31-4:9

Today's readings
Psalm 56, 57, 58; Psalm 64, 65
Jeremiah 1:11-19; Romans 1:1-15; John 4:27-42

From Henri Nouwen Luke 6:37

I'm pondering how we respond to people who are in need around us and am today thinking about how so much of life in Fairfax anesthetizes us from such neighborly needs. The suburbs keep us comfortably separated from all but a few people in need on the side of the road and even then we're still protected in our cars. Commuting reduces interaction with neighbors as do long hours and finding our identity in our work. The 'American Dream' of a house with a fence and some land no longer means that we'll be dependant on our neighbors as we were when people first moved here from Europe but now means we'll be increasingly independent of and unknown to neighbors. Sure, there are many exceptions, but by and large we've insulated ourselves from suffering.

Nouwen notes "The suffering person calls us to become aware of our own suffering. How can I respond to someone's loneliness unless I am in touch with my own experience of loneliness? How can I be close to handicapped people when I refuse to acknowledge my own handicaps? How can I be with the poor when I am unwilling to confess my own poverty"

It is hard to look at our own stuff that keeps us from others. We hurt each other, we pull away at inopportune moments, we feel like we're asking too much or having too much asked of us. Our fences and well reasoned homeowner association rules begin to fall. We struggle to figure out how much we can do. Yet, in the parable of the sheep and the goats Jesus makes it clear that people who serve others without looking to the reward (or possibly without even recognizing Jesus) in the one they are serving will receive reward.

Questions for response:
What if any barriers are there to knowing your neighbors?
What fences or barriers do you see between you and others who are in need?
What ways do you see that helping ministries at Apostles (or your church) could grow to better be present with people in need?

DARE TO CARE

Caring for others is linked with a willingness to be open to them. This openness seems to have two dimensions. We must be open to accepting and loving them as they are; but also to allowing ourselves to be known and be accepted by them. This requires a willingness to be vulnerable, to allow others to see in us what we often wish to hide: character flaws, areas of sin, wounds, etc. The barriers we erect to prevent us from drawing close to others often serve to shield us from admitting, to ourselves and God, our own shortcomings.

Jesus said, “Do not judge or you too will be judged….Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, “Let me take the speck out of your eye, when all the while, there is a plank in your own eye?” (Matt 7:1; 3-4, NIV).

Nouwen’s phrase “dare to care” reminds me that suspending those judgments of others—tearing down those barriers to closer communion with others—sometimes requires courage. I’ve found that when I take the action to embrace others, I can no longer hold onto judgments against them. I’ve also found that drawing close to others and allowing myself to be known often reveals that “speck in my eye.” Such a revelation is a priceless gift, although it may not seem so at the time. It gives me awareness of my own sin and an opportunity to repent, confess and receive God’s mercy. And, when I deal with the speck in my own eye, I find I am able to embrace the good and the bad in others, without judgment.

Nouwen reflected on how the evil and good deeds of others could very well be our own; we share in the same humanity.

“When we dare to care, we have to confess that when others kill, I could have killed too. When others torture, I could have done the same. When others heal, I could have healed too. And when others give life, I could have done the same…”

When I mediate on the image of the blood spilling out of Christ’s crucified body, I remember that His blood spilled no less for others than it did for me. I offer this image as a way to help us further realize our common humanity and to draw closer to the God who cared so much for us that he was willing to die to save us.

Prayer

Psalm 95, 40, 54; Psalm 51
Deuteronomy 10:12-22
Hebrews 4:11-16, John 3:22-36

Sometimes we make moving toward God much bigger than it needs to be. Below is a story from the Desert Fathers correcting a heretical sect that believed prayer excluded work.

Questions to draw comments, please pick one or more.
How do you work and pray at the same time?
What tools do you use to help you always be communicating with God?
How might others help you withdraw from a pace that feels like it gets in the way of prayer?


"Some monks called Euchites,1 or “men of prayer,” once came to Abba Lucius in the ninth region of Alexandria. And the old man asked them, “What work do you do with your hands?”

And they said, “We do not work with our hands. We obey St. Paul’s command and pray without ceasing.”

The old man said to them, “Do you not eat?”

They said, “Yes, we eat.”

And the old man said to them, “When you are eating, who prays for you?”

Again, he asked them, “Do you not sleep?”

They said, “We sleep.”

And the old man said, “Who prays for you while you are asleep?” They would not answer him. And he said to them, “Forgive me, brothers, but you do not practice what you say. I will show you how I pray without ceasing though I work with my hands. With God’s help, I sit and collect a few palm leaves, and interweave them and say, ‘Have mercy on me, O God, according to your great mercy: and according to the multitude of your mercies do away with my iniquity.’ ” And he said to them, “Is that prayer, or is it not?”

They said, “It is prayer.”

Sayings of the Fathers 12.9.2

1 Members of a celebrated heretical sect, also known as Messalians.
2 J. Baillie et al., eds. The Library of Christian Classics. 26 vols. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1953–1966. 12:142–43*.

Wesselschmidt, Quentin F.: Psalms 51-150. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 2007 (Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture OT 8), S. 2

Complete

Psalm 50; Psalm [59, 60] or 19, 46;
Deuteronomy 9:23-10:5; Hebrews 4:1-10
John 3:16-21

Deut 9:27 Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Overlook the stubbornness of this people, their wickedness and their sin.

And God did overlook the stubbornness of his people and sent his Son Jesus not to condemn the world but to save the world.

Yet most of us still feel less than fully loved, lacking in something, noticing where Jesus' love that is meant to save the world still leaves places that seem unredeemed. We're dissatisfied with what is in front of us. We're looking for something that completes us and for many Christians, unsure the happiness we have in Christ is any fuller than the happiness of those who are not in Christ. Like the Israelites in the wilderness we grumble because we recognize things that are not complete...

I find the places of discontent and incompleness to be places where God is calling me into something greater. I'm left with a decision to make. What will I do with places where reality doesn't reach the fullness of the redemption for which I hope? Will I allow God to make the place of discontent a positive place of redemption? If so, how? On my own? With Other's help? With God?

A couple questions seeking your comments:
Is dissatisfaction with our circumstances the same as dissatisfaction with God?
What is something that takes more than you to redeem and bring to completion?

The Search

Psalm 119:49-72; Psalm 49, [53]; Deuteronomy 9:13-21; Hebrews 3:12-19; John 2:23-3:15

The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken and contrite spirit; a broken and contrite heard, O God, you will not despise. Psalm 51:17

Nouwen begins today's devotional with the above verse and ends it with a prayer recognizing that the eternal life God promises us has already begun. At first reading, it seemed that the thrust of the devotional, about man's search for his "long-lost" home with God, was tangential to both the scripture and the prayer.

As I thought about it, however, it occurred to me that I search for God's presence most often and most intensely when I am in a broken and contrite place. That is when I feel that I need Him most. And it is in those times of despair and questioning that I also most need reminding that the life He has promised me has already begun; that I can live in His presence continually, if I will but let Him have His way in my life.

And there is something that rings very true about the search for God being a search not only for home, but the home where we belong, even if we didn't know it at the time. This is a theme that has resonated throughout Christendom. Pascal has several Pensees which contemplate the fact that man knows he is wretched only, and precisely, because deep down he knows he is made for something more: "Who indeed would think himself unhappy not to be king except one who had been dispossessed?" Pensee 409 in the Project Gutenberg edition. And Augustine wrote, "Thou hast made us for thyself, and (therefore) our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee." Confessions, Book I, Chapter I. And we have all heard about the "God-shaped void" within us, an emptiness that only He can fill, because it is made to be filled by Him (variously attributed to C.S.Lewis, Pascal AND Augustine.)

This Lenten season I am thinking more about the feeling of coming home and the comfort and safety that God provides. I am also more aware of the knowledge that I have (though often almost completely forgotten) that in God I am complete and that this journey of life is about being reminded of that completeness and recognizing it in new and different ways.

In what ways are you refining your search for God during this time of Lent?

At times in your life when you feel far from God, how do you begin to move yourself closer to Him (or even begin to want to move closer)?

Why is it that we often actively seek God only when we are having a personal crisis?

Whip

Psalm 45; Psalm 47, 48; Deuteronomy 9.4-12; Hebrews 3.1-11; John 2.13-22

When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.” -John 2.13-17, NIV 2011

For most of my life I read this passage as a "Jesus loses his temper" moment. Sunday School teachers faithfully employed it as an example of Anger Without Sinning.

Was Jesus angry? He could have been, although the passage doesn't explicitly say he is. What it does say is that he was zealous. Zeal isn't anger; it's ardor, fervor, passion.

I don't think Jesus just lost it and grabbed whatever was handy; he took the time to make a whip. Maybe it didn't take him very long. Maybe there was a stack of them and all he had to do was gather them up into his hand. But this making an instrument specific to the task at hand looks to me like deliberation.

He had zeal for his Father's house. He had ardent passion. Passionate love is best expressed by deliberate action. Sometimes that means something spectacular and unexpected by the people around you, like turning over tables. Often it means offering healing and hope, whether eating a simple meal with an outcast or raising a dead child.

Ultimately, of course, it means sacrifice.

In today's reading from Henri Nouwen, he says this:

"Being born and growing up, leaving home and finding a career, being praised and being rejected, walking and resting, praying and playing, becoming ill and being healed-- yes, living and dying-- they all become expressions of that divine question: 'Do you love me?' And at every point of the journey there is the choice to say, 'Yes' and the choice to say, 'No.'"

How does it look to live out of zeal for God in your context?

What deliberate action are you taking?

What are some ways God is asking you, his beloved, "Do you love me?" How are you answering?

Excluded

Psalm 41, 52; Psalm 44; Deuteronomy 8:11-20;
Hebrews 3:11-18; John 2:1-12
Matthew 25:34-35
^{Psalm 41:1} Blessed are those who have regard for the weak;
the LORD delivers them in times of trouble.

^{Matthew 25:37} “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?

Nouwen points us to the critical duty of living in God's love so that we can live with a compassionate heart. Psalm 41 points us to the reward of living with this heart. Yet, I'm struck by the unselfconscious way in which living for others is meant to be done represented by the response of the righteous when told they cared for the Lord in Matthew 25.

While care for others brings reward, as we grow in faith the care we're to give becomes care that doesn't care about the reward because it flows out of a place of overflowing love. It seems to me that most of us fall rather short of God's practice of love for others. My possibly wildly wrong theory of why we fall so short in loving others is that most feel less than fully loved, excluded, or even not lovable for a myriad of reasons. Out of our perceived lack, we are then stingy and perpetuate the lack we perceive by pushing away (excluding) those who remind us of our lack. May true love flow into us today!

And I pray today with Hebrews 3:13 God, help us encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of us may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.

Choose your own question:
Carryover question from yesterday: What practices or disciplines help you remember that you are loved by God?
Thinking of Jesus: When in Jesus life might he have had to wrestle or fight to hold onto his identity as God's beloved?

Beloved

Psalm 63:1-9(9-11), Psalm 98, Psalm 103
Deuteronomy 8:1-10; 1 Corinthians 1:17-31
Mark 2:18-22
He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan... Mark 1:13

The Nouwen devotional points us today to temptation and especially temptation to self rejection. I think is is important to remember that Jesus entered the wilderness having heard God's voice proclaim certainty that he is loved “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” Mark 1:11

To often we let our weakness be our downfall when God has chosen the weak to shame the wise. Rest today, knowing even that temptation comes, that you are loved by God.

Question options:
Less personal: What do you think was hardest for Jesus in the wilderness or as his ministry started?
More personal: What practices or disciplines help you remember that you are loved by God?
More risky: What ways has another helped affirm your identity in God?

Nathanael

Psalm 30, 32; Psalm 42, 43 Deut. 7:17-26; Titus 3:1-15; John 1:43-51

Nathanael is one a disciple we read little about. He identifies Jesus because Jesus knows him. The next scene we have of his life, Jesus has died and he's back to fishing but catching nothing.

Nathanael is a character who leads me to think about the difference between being and doing. When Jesus sees Nathanael he greets him who is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit. Nathanael becomes a follower (disciple) of Jesus but isn't numbered among the 12. Then the next think we read about Nathanael (John 21) he's fishing with Peter and has caught nothing all night. Jesus tells them to put the net in on the right side and they catch 153 fish.

What was Nathanael's life like between knowing he's known by the Son of God, the King of Israel and fishing? How did Nathanael's confidence he's known by God impact the way he worked & followed? When we are sure our character is known, how does it impact our actions? What does being known allow us to do? What is the difference between being known for who you are and being known for what you do?

Consider commenting on any of the above questions (or however else this post causes you to respond). Consider sharing an example of being profoundly understood or profoundly misunderstood. We look forward to your comments.

Interruptions

Psalm 95, 31, 35; Deuteronomy 7:12-16; Titus 2:1-15; John 1:35-42

I was in Argentina just before GAFCon (a terrible name for a conference about the future of Anglicanism) and Lambeth (a meeting of the Bishops of the Anglican Communion). I called up Archbishop Venables and hoping for a few minutes with him at his office. I was amazed that instead he invited me to tea at his house which lasted nearly 4 hours before 6 weeks he’d be away.

In that encounter Archbishop Venables showed me an inspiring vision of being available to people that I strive to live up to. While I'm frustrated frequently by limited time, I desire to follow what I experienced in Argentina and be especially available to the random stranger who interrupts my planned day. I've noticed increasingly, possibly by expectation, that the surprise meetings with people are often the most profound moments of holiness.

The story of the Road to Emmaus and following is one of the places that inspires me with expectation for what God will do during interruptions. So much of Jesus ministry happened while he was on the way to Jerusalem focused on the end yet discerning how to be with people in the present.

What interuptions are most difficult for you to handle?
What interuptions bring blessing to you?

Joy and Suffering

Psalm 37:1-18; Psalm 37:19-42
Deuteronomy 7:6-11; Titus 1:1-16; John 1:29-34
Luke 9:22 “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.”

"The greatest joy as well as the greatest pain of living not only from what we live but even more from how we think and feel about what we are living" page 26 Nouwen, Henri. Can You Drink the Cup?. Notre Dame: Ave Maria Press, 1996.

My experience of suffering is shaped by what I believe before I enter a period of pain. Once I'm in the experience the promising words of scripture and friends like: God is present; God provides; God suffered too; God redeems are likely to fall on deaf ears in the approach to my hardened head and heart.

In 2001 I entered a year of Christian service believing God led me to it. Quickly, I was baffled by the way in which people tore into each other choosing to believe malice over charity. I was unsure what to do as each member of our community moved toward depression. As I served the poor, I was surprised by Tuberculosis and then the liver contaminating, sickening drugs required to treat it which demanded bi-weekly doctor's visits. I cried each week at church as the church too was crumbling under the weight of 50 years of suffering. It seemed that all I could see was despair. I doubted my discernment. I questioned the suffering, was it judgment? I could not see God at work.

At that time I had no category by which to interpret the level of pain I saw and personally experienced. Yet, the promises of God have retroactively helped me reinterpret the suffering I saw. I found this harshest of experiences in a Christian community was part of God's plan to equip me for the suffering that often is brought into and happens at churches. What I initially desired only to run from became a place I cherish as Holy because I was in the place where God was redeeming.

God turned my suffering from seeming senselessness into a place where thankfulness flows as I rest in the fact that my salvation was wrought by suffering that brought Jesus to the point of death on a cross.

Please pick at least one question to comment on:
A bigger question for comment: What experience of suffering/pain has God redeemed in you?
A medium question for comment: What suffering confuses you or raises questions in you?
A smaller question for comment: Where do you see suffering that causes you to pray?

Renewing our Minds in God's Mercies

I know God's mercies are new every day, yet it is so easy to forget the goodness of God and his Kingdom. As we start Lent, I recognize a renewed desire to practice disciplines that draw me closer to God.

Knowing there are places where I need to be in a lonely place to keep my mind fixed on God and God's kingdom, as we're told Jesus did in Luke 5:16, I've committed to a few lonely disciplines like measures of fasting and extending time in prayer.

Knowing there are places where I need to be more with others to experience more of the renewing of God's mercy and live demonstrating the Kingdom of God is more than my little disciplines I'm jumping into this blog and increased time with those who personally intercede for me.

Knowing we're called to do our prayers in quiet I proclaim these disciplines with a little reticence hoping to encourage you and spur all of us to more love and good deeds as we meet together in cyber space.

What ways will you seek to keep your mind fixed on God and God's kingdom this Lent? What are the challenges and fruits of the ways you’re trying (especially if you’ve tried them before)?

Welcome to 'Remember Thou art Dust 2011'

I've enjoyed how this year's especially long Epiphany has brought me to an unusually high desire for Lent and the joy of a season of personal and partnered disciplines that draw us closer to God. I'm excited for where this blog will go in this time together as some of us journey for all of Lent and others learn about it and join in as Lent continues. For those of you who have just stumbled on “Remember Thou art Dust”, it is written by members of Church of the Apostles and has an archive of many rich thoughts. This year we especially desire your comments.

Church of the Apostles is moving from a season in which we focused on the Light that we are to show as a Spirit-filled community we're entering a season in which we draw closer to the Lord finding how God made us for intimacy with God, with ourselves, with others, and with strangers.