In a time that seems to be defined by negative extremes, I want to suggest a much more positive extreme: extreme forgiveness. The Litany of Penitence which is part of the Episcopal Ash Wednesday proper liturgy is an opportunity to seek God’s extreme forgiveness for all the wrongs we have done or in which we have been complicit.

Jesus’s holy prayer includes the words forgive my trespasses, even those we know nothing about. I have done nothing to oppress any group; however, I do have ancestors from the Massachusetts Bay Colony who may have persecuted so-called witches. I also have southern ancestors who undoubtedly owned slaves or persecuted black slaves. I may not be guilty of these deeds, but inadvertently, I have benefited from them. For these, I pray for forgiveness.

The Lord is my strength and my defense; he has become my salvation. My every day and my future are in the hands of God. His spirit is my soul; therefore, I can only do what is pleasing to God. When Jesus was baptized by John, a dove descended bringing good news. When we share the eucharist, we are re-baptized in the Holy Spirit of God, walking in His light.

Our hopes and prayers fall on tired, weary throats; because we see ungodly deeds all around us. This period of Lent reminds us that Jesus brought forth a new vision for our future, one of Grace. We need to share this grace with all people and creatures and living things. It is the way of God.

 

 

“Blessed . . .

. . . are the Pure in Heart.”

While meditating on this sixth Beatitude, I think of all the wonderful people I have met, either in person or on-line. When I see all of my friends around the world that put God in the forefront of their lives, I am thrilled beyond measure.

There are too many people who say that all is lost in the world. I cannot believe that. There are too many good people, doing good things around the world that help create a positive future for those they come in contact with. I always say that I cannot change the world. But I can change my little sphere of the world. The words I write and share on my Meditations blog and on Facebook with all my new friends around the world who look for more spiritual support in their lives pass to others in their spheres the good news that we are blessed. I call this the ripple effect.

This was started over 2000 years ago on a hillside in Judea; I have been inspired by those thoughtful homilies on Sunday mornings. I am also spiritually raised by those great thinkers and writers that have long since died, but their words are here for us to cherish.

During this period of Lent, let us all meditate on what it means to be part of the human family. We are all created by the miracle of life. Without God’s miracle, we would not be. God created me; God created you. That’s why I can say that I love you, even if I have never met you.

May the Grace of God be with you this Lenten season.

. . . to God in the Highest.” We glory and praise God as Love, Life, and all Creation. Yet . . . we fear God in His majesty! We are all in His presence and are unable to imagine his appearance. He is just to magnificent for us to picture Him. We need Jesus to put a face to God; and, we all see Him in a different face . . . black, white, brown, and whatever color a person happens to be. This is because Jesus is universal. By picturing Jesus, it is easier to pray to God.

I read and study the Bible; I find only two people who have actually seen God: Moses and Jesus. Jesus was both all human and all God; there is no way we can be like Him. Moses, however, was only human, as we all are. This pure human, Moses, faced God in all his majesty; he glowed from being in God’s presence.

Moses was the only pure human to face God. Why? Why only Moses?

Why can’t we? Moses wasn’t any more devout or no more holy than you or me. God chose Moses to lead Israel from Egypt, chose Moses as His first prophet to bring God’s word to Israel.

Why hasn’t God chosen you or me to go to the mountaintop, to face God and deliver his word to others? As a Christian, I believe that God chooses us to deliver His word and His Grace to others. By following Jesus, I am one of His disciples who He sent into the world to spread his message of love and hope to the world, not just those of Israel or Judea, but to all people all over the world.

As a writer of God’s eternal Love and his community of grace for all mankind and womankind, I believe that God has chosen me to bring this good news to all who read my words. For this reason, I believe that I can go to the mountaintop. But I don’t need to: God shows me his face very day. I see God in the person sitting next to me in the pew on Sunday mornings. I see God in my children and grandchildren: the sixteen-year-old looking at colleges and the 10-day-old looking up at the face of his mother and father. I see the face of God in these people.

I also see the face of God in the people I meet on the street, or in the stores, or in the myriad service meetings I have each week. These are also God’s children doing his work and spreading his glory all around.

I see God in the faces of wealth. The is a family now living on the far distant coast show has supported our feeding minister every year by grant us thousands of dollars, even though they were not members of our church. Winners of the lottery, they wanted to share their good luck with others less fortunate. This is God in our lives. Many wealthy people do many things to enrich the lives of those not as fortunate; this is God in our lives.

However, I also see the face of God in the man or woman begging on the side of the road, looking for help to feed their families. Many times, they are immigrants that society has turned its back on. This man or woman often blesses us with God’s grace when we reach out to help them with our few coins or dollars. Can you feel god in their words? I can! My meager generosity is rewarded by a gift I cannot imagine, the gift of God’s grace.

Being a prayer minister in church, I feel the glow of God’s presence with each prayer we offer in His name.

I may not have the shining face of Moses when I see God, but I am filled with His aura, His promise of Grace and Love.

God’s Love of Everything

Paul writes in Romans: And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God . . .

All creation; not just humans. God’s Love is permanent and forever for everything he has created; we should duplicate this love. We say we love God, but we do not love all of his creation. Our abuse of this planet is criminal. We are all to blame.

Richard Rohr writes: “Perhaps the primary example of Christians’ lack of attention to the Christ Mystery can be seen in the way we continue to pollute and ravage planet Earth, the very thing we all stand on and live from. Science now appears to love and respect physicality more than most religion does! No wonder that science and business have taken over as the major explainers of meaning for most people today (even many who still go to church).

Perhaps it is time we return to what is important for the preservation of God’s creations. We just celebrated the arrival of a new grandson. Will he be able to enjoy God’s creation, as my generation has? Will he be able to reverse the damages my generation has done to Earth? I pray so.

Faith

In Swahili it is Imani, notice man in the middle. Faith is something many will turn to only when desperate, beleaguered, or in need of hope. The question is why. From the Gospel of Luke, comes this statement: “You, my child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way. . .”

Of course, Luke is speaking of Jesus; but, perhaps, he is also speaking of us. His writing continues by saying that this prophet will bring the people knowledge of salvation, bringing God’s light to those who dwell in darkness, and whose feet will be guided in the way of peace.

If you are a Christian, or for that matter, any person of faith, this is the mission we are pursuing. Personally, I do not believe that God’s presence was or is reflected on only one human being. I believe that this is what all should be doing.

Faith is a force for good particularly when people are feeling beleaguered and in need of hope. Faith is the way to God’s self-revelation so that, like a well-lighted footpath, it leads us to love. This is why I believe that God has allowed us to be prophets spreading the truth of His grace. We are not Jesus, but we can emulate him and pass on his message.

 

God is Love

In our daily lives, we are the glory of God; He placed us on Earth to care for our brothers and sisters worldwide. As we do this, His glory shines upon all; all we must do is recognize this beauty. We must seek the face of God in all we meet. Never allow ourselves to forget this. Some will criticize; some will say we are insignificant; some will think we are foolish. We must let these doubters know that their injustice and criticisms can never prevail over god’s Goodness. The sea is so great, yet it is nothing but a union of individual drops of water.

We are not perfect; We are not Jesus; we are not God; but our actions can reflect their perfection. Our actions can project Love into the lives of those suffering under cruel injustices. Remember that those who love property and wealth may rule over us, and their actions may try to refute the concept of true Love. But their rule is temporary; their rule is temporal. Their rule is not perfection.

As I reflect on my relationships with others, and I have friends all around this planet we call Earth, I feel a great comfort that enters my very being. This comfort is the knowledge that we love each other, as God Loves us. Together, we are stronger than the forces of ill will. I look upon my friendships as gifts from god’s angels, and, who knows, my friends may in fact be God’s angels. I take comfort in their friendships, knowing that these friends are true gifts from God.

My friends, and this feeling of shared Love, allows me to know that I am never alone. God’s Love is mine, and yours, forever!

 

More than Love

“For God so loved the world”  –  This phrase from the Gospel of John, as true as it is, is so overused and so over-commandeered by people and organizations that have misused its true meaning.

The key word here is love, God’s love. To me, the words God and Love are interchangeable, they mean the same thing. You and I came into this world because God loves us. This is not a Love that can be ignored or tossed aside. This is a Love that is forever with us.

I will go a step further: our whole life is Love. There is no such thing as falling in love or losing love. We are Love; we are the shining example of God’s eternal Love. We cannot fall in love; what we do is recognize that Love is Life. We cannot live without love.

When we trust love, we free ourselves from all falsehoods, free ourselves from fear and heartbreak.

From my original family, I am the only one left walking this Earth. My mother, father, and sister have all returned to the bosom of God’s eternal love. I was saddened at their passing, but I can still feel the love that they represented. All I have to do is think of them, and they are sitting next to me, loving me as if they were physically present.

We cannot, I cannot live without recognizing that love is the core to life. With love, I am never alone; I walk the lighted path that assures me that I am with God. I walk the lighted path that assures me that I am Love.

The Beatitudes

Blessed are the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger for justice, the merciful, the pure of heart, the peacemakers, the persecuted. Nowhere in this list are the rich and famous, the politically powerful, the business, owners, or the clergy. Jesus’ beatitudes are for all those who are not in these classes of people.

When you add to this the two commandments that Jesus gave us: love God and love each other, I can only assume that those people that use Jesus’ words to justify the eight blights on humanity listed above, are wrong. The rich and powerful are twisting His words to justify their greed, their dishonesty, and their hatred of those who are not like them.

Jesus was not a friendly guy; he came into the word as a poor carpenter’s son, and he travelled around the Middle East condemning those in leadership. He challenged every political and religious belief of his time, including accepting people who were not Jewish into his realm of God’s love. This included Roman soldiers, Samaritans, lepers, tax collectors, the people who were shunned by society because of their status in Israel.

Jesus was a loving person; he loved all who suffered, all who were lost, all who followed God’s loving words. His messages of love and comfort for the masses, the people who truly loved God and followed God’s commandments, can be and should be a comfort for us today. There are those in power today, whose only desire seems to be increasing their own status and denying others of rights and benefits that should be, must be, available for all people in the world.

If we live in God’s community of man, we cannot overlook the hunger and poverty of any man, woman, or child on any continent on Earth. Singly, we cannot change the world, but we can change our part of the world and let the ripple effect work its wonders. We were not born to live alone; we are here to serve one another. God loves us all; let us also love us all.

 

 

Loving One Another

The happiest and most blessed people are the ones who get up every morning and care about others, who will help someone in need or will speak up about any injustice when they see it.  Welcoming others may not be easy, but we must step beyond our fear and practice mutual hospitality that we may learn to love as God loves, knowing ourselves and each other as God’s children, our sisters and brothers.

Loving one another means we are children of God, as Jesus was, inheriting the ability to see His light in the world. And by this simple act of recognition, it becomes perfectly natural that in God’s Kingdom our life is one of relating to all of creation as mother, father, brother, sister. When we know that we are loved, we will quite naturally love in return; our hearts will respond to the call of love with gratitude and affection, with devotion and with an eagerness to please.

Together we can walk boldly toward a vision of a more inclusive and equitable future, one in which there are no more “others” — one in which there is a place for all of our beloved communities.  The idea that we are going to put less value on another person because they are different, or disabled, or because they carry an incurable disease is loathing to us.

We are taught to love one another; how can we go against all that matters and belittle the life of any other human being? The answer is we cannot and be happy and blessed.

 

Great Joy and Great Love

There is great joy in this journey called life; it’s difficult and weary, but rewarding and plentiful. Many of us growl and moan, much like bears and camels. We all search for a utopia, not knowing it is within us, at least within our power to acknowledge.

When we work together, we develop our mutual talents to work for the benefit of all mankind. When we are brothers and sisters, working together, we can be successful in working for the grace that life offers. Two, or more, are always better than one, because in their mutual efforts, each is lifted to greater heights.

When we recognize that selfishness and greed only causes misery and discord, we can avoid mutual destruction. God rewards us when we love and respect each other. We are comforted by our mutual love, not by our mutual discord.

It is when we love each other the most intensely and most humanly that we can recognize how real our love for others truly is. The keenness and intensity of this love brings us joy.