Grateful Advent 3

 

As we pray through Advent this year, I’m offering seven Bible citations each week to meditate on. You can download a file with all seven or return to this blog daily for inspiration.

One way to do this is to read and pray the verse first thing in the morning and let it sit with you all day.

Another is to post the citation where you’ll see it throughout the day as a reminder.

You may want to pick just one for the whole week.

God will honor your commitment to being present in what ever way you decide is best.

This week’s list is below and the pdf with images is here.

Grateful Advent 2

 As we pray through Advent this year, I’m offering seven Bible citations each week to meditate on. You can download a file with all seven or return to this blog daily for inspiration.

One way to do this is to read and pray the verse first thing in the morning and let it sit with you all day.

Another is to post the citation where you’ll see it throughout the day as a reminder.

You may want to pick just one for the whole week.

God will honor your commitment to being present in what ever way you decide is best.

This week’s list is below and the pdf with images is here.

Grateful Advent 1

 As we pray through Advent this year, I’m offering seven Bible citations each week to meditate on. You can download a file with all seven or return to this blog daily for inspiration.

One way to do this is to read and pray the verse first thing in the morning and let it sit with you all day.

Another is to post the citation where you’ll see it throughout the day as a reminder.

You may want to pick just one for the whole week.

God will honor your commitment to being present in what ever way you decide is best.

This week’s list is below and the pdf with images is here.

Rejoice always, pray continually (1 Thessalonians 5:16)

Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. (1 Thessalonians 5:17-18)

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. (Philippians 4:6)

The peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:7)

But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 15:57)

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever. (1 Chronicles 16:34)

For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be glory forever! Amen. (Romans 11:36)

Thanksgiving

 Thanksgiving is this Thursday. I hope you each have a blessed and joyous day. Although the fourth Thursday in November is set aside to remember what we are grateful for, we can also give thanks every day.

An activity for Advent (which starts this coming Sunday, December 1) could be to specifically find at least one thing to be grateful for. Finding two or three is even better. The Advent meditations on the blog will guide you through some hints for this.

Parables in Pentecost: Friend in Need

 Scripture

This final parable of the Pentecost series is from Luke. It follows right after Jesus teaches the disciples the Lord’s Prayer and highlights the responsiveness of God to our needs.

And he said to them, ‘Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, “Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.” And he answers from within, “Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.” I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs. So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!’ (Luke 11:5-13)

 

Conversation starters

We hear about someone who goes to a friend at midnight asking for bread. This seems an odd time to be asking for food and perhaps that’s the point. There is no bad time to come to God in prayer with our needs. Jesus notes, because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs.

Jesus then goes on to encourage us to ask, search, and knock, for everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. We are reminded that we do not withhold good things from our children, and therefore, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.

Sometimes we forget that and think some things are too big or too little to bother God about. “My need for a job is insignificant when there are so many dying in wars,” we may think. Or “God won’t care about my fear over the upcoming surgery, so I won’t pray.”

Like a loving parent, God wants us to bring our concerns and needs. Like the homeowner, he will take note of our needs and respond. I will note that God’s timeline for response may not match my timeline. I “want what I want when I want it” as the 1905 operetta Mlle. Modiste states. God knows what we really need and the timing of responding to that. It may seem God, like the homeowner is saying, Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything. But, God will respond in our best interest.

Action Item

What are some things you hesitate to ‘bother’ God with?

To help you visualize the parable, you might draw 3 loaves of bread and write on each one something you want to pray for or about. Add this to your daily prayer routine.

Parables in Pentecost: Rich Fool

 Scripture

As those of us in the US (and around the world) ponder and process the election results, our Parable for this week is about the “Rich Fool.” It is a familiar one about a man who built extra barns for his bounty, but did not get to enjoy the fruits of his labor.

This parable comes after someone in the crowd said to [Jesus], ‘Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.’ But he said to him, ‘Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?’ And he said to them, ‘Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.’ (Luke 12:13-15)

Luke goes on to relate the parable:

Then he told them a parable: ‘The land of a rich man produced abundantly.  And he thought to himself, “What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?” Then he said, “I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” But God said to him, “You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich towards God.’ (Luke 12:16-21)

Then he expounds further to his disciples, saying, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? If then you are not able to do so small a thing as that, why do you worry about the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith! And do not keep striving for what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not keep worrying. For it is the nations of the world that strive after all these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, strive for his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well. (Luke 12:21-31)

Conversation starters

How might the parable and the teaching before and following encourage us to see what is important. The person (probably a man) in the crowd who wants his fair share of an inheritance and the fictional rich man who builds useless barns rather than sharing his bounty are contrasted with God’s total care for every part of creation. The birds and grass are just as important as humanity. Furthermore, we cannot really control any part of our lives. We cannot add a single hour, nor change the past.

Holocaust survivor and psychologist Viktor Frankl said “Forces beyond your control can take away everything you possess except one thing, your freedom to choose how you will respond to the situation. You cannot control what happens to you in life, but you can always control what you will feel and do about what happens to you.” (Man’s Search for Meaning, first published 1946) Nelson Mandela acknowledged much the same thing on release from prison, “As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn't leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I'd still be in prison.” Mandela made a conscious choice to release hatred, bitterness, and fear. God calls us to do the same and let God have control of our lives.  

Action Item

Take time to consider, as a friend of mine did publicly on Facebook, the implicit biases that affect your decisions and your need to control certain things. For instance, I come from a place of privilege as a white, middle-class woman with a secure home and enough money for the foreseeable future. I have a loving husband and health. My children are content, and… I could go on because, in fact, I am very blessed. Yet, I can feel out of control and fearful when any of those blessings are threatened in real or imagined ways.

The Rich Fool in the parable learns that he cannot really control who gets his bounty. We may feel we have lost control if the election didn’t go the way we hoped, or we may feel jubilant and think we are in control if we are happy with the outcome. Both are false. God alone is in control. Paradoxically God’s control comes at the cost of letting everything go and taking up the cross. Jesus’ parable reminds us, so it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich towards God.

Think about a few things in your life that you think you ‘control.’ Ask yourself if that is true or not.

Think about your response when things feel out of control. Can you share your fear or anger or other emotions with God? Can you open your hands, even a little, and let God be in control?

We can choose to live for the kingdom—the Reign of God. We can try to be in right and loving relationship with God and therefore with all creation and with other humans. Not an easy task. Nelson Mandela stated, “May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears.” Maybe, as this image suggests we simply need to get outside our walls and reconnect in many simple ways with each other…

 

 

Parables in Pentecost: Prodigal Son

 Scripture

We return to looking at the Parables in the church season of Pentecost with the story of the Prodigal Son. This parable is found only in the Gospel of Luke. Some scholars have suggested that it could be titled the “Prodigal Father” because of the great love with which he welcomes his dissolute son home.

11 Then Jesus said, ‘There was a man who had two sons. ¹²The younger of them said to his father, “Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.” So he divided his property between them. ¹³A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and travelled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living. ¹⁴When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. ¹⁵So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. ¹⁶He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything. ¹⁷But when he came to himself he said, “How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! ¹⁸I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; ¹⁹I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.’ ” ²⁰So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. ²¹Then the son said to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” ²²But the father said to his slaves, “Quickly, bring out a robe—the best one—and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. ²³And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; ²⁴for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!” And they began to celebrate.

25 ‘Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. ²⁶He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. ²⁷He replied, “Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.” ²⁸Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. ²⁹But he answered his father, “Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. ³⁰But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!” ³¹Then the father said to him, “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. ³²But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.” ’ (Luke 15:11-32)

Conversation starters

The story of the Prodigal Son is an interesting one to consider on the weekend of All Saints and All Souls remembrances. All Saints Day (Nov. 1) recalls the ‘big name’ saints of the church calendar. All Souls Day (Nov. 2) is a less well-known feast day to remember all the saints and loved ones in our lives.

The father in the parable rushes to greet his returning son with grace and forgiveness and love. God rushes to greet us, and all the other saints around us, in just the same way. In fact, he is so joyful he says, “Quickly, bring out a robe—the best one—and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!”

We are told there is joy in heaven over one sinner who repents (Luke 15:7). Too often, though, we can be like the older brother who is angry over the party given to his brother. He doesn’t recognize the father had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.

In these last couple days before the General Election, there is much division and finger-pointing, and outright hate between those who disagree over the best candidate. Perhaps it would behoove us to be more prodigal in our love. Perhaps if we celebrate the sainted-ness of each individual we meet, no matter what their political position is, we will find a common humanity no matter the outcome.

I would also suggest this post from the Center of Contemplation and Action highlighting a sermon by Richard Rohr from 2017 as applicable as how to live now and post election.  

Action Item

This weekend would be a good time to remember that we each are a saint of God, as the song says “for the saints of God are just folks like me…”

Think of the saints in your life and, if possible, thank them for their presence in your life.