Meditating to Heal

Lamp Unto My Feet

When I think of the story of Jesus feeding the 5000 with fives loaves of bread and two fish, and after all had eaten, there were twelve baskets of food left uneaten, I wonder at the bounty of God’s earth and the goodness of mankind.

All too often we do not see those who are hungry; when we have our fill, we throw away anything left, unable or unwilling to share. I prefer to think that we are thoughtless; if we remembered those in need, we would share. Isaiah dares us to lift up our eyes and see, see what is around us, see who is around us, see the need in our society.

I remember watching early television in the 1950s with my father. There was a program called “Lamp Unto My Feet.” I now realize that this is the opening line of Psalm 119. The show demonstrated how everyday men and women would seek out those in need, bringing them into the lighted path of God.

Perhaps, we need to revisit this program to revitalize our concern for others. We need to give our free time to helping those in need, and we need to support the organizations that devote their energies to seeking out those in need and sharing God’s bounty with them.

 

 

Love for our Neighbors

I have been thinking a lot about love. Love of God, love for others, love of myself. God loves us all, no matter who we are. He grace and compassion for us are unmatched by anything we may do. We can only try to match our efforts to His will.

We must not only care for the stranger, care for the neighbor, but love him, nurture him as needed. Jesus lived among the poor and oppressed, lifting them up to walk in the light of God. This angered the leaders of Israel; can we dare do the same? I believe it is our duty, to follow Jesus and care for those less fortunate than we are.

Recently, many organizations and individuals stepped up to help feed those locked out of jobs during the government shutdown. This is doing God’s will; but we cannot stop just because the shutdown has ended. More people need our love and kindness.

To be like Jesus, we must look to the peripheries of society to see those our leaders are blind to. We cannot blame the poor for their plight. They are poor because jobs are closed off to them; they cannot get jobs that pay well enough so that they can live.

It is time for us to rise and shine as we walk in God’s light. We must share the glory of god with all people . . . ALL people.

 

Be Joyful in the Lord 

One of my favorite psalms is Psalm 100, which is one of the meditations for today. I love the words, “Be joyful in the Lord;” they have meant so much to me over the past few years. I have entered his gates with thanksgiving and received unbelievable and unexpected blessing.

There is no place in my life that I am without the light of God shining on me. Being a prayer minister, I have been blessed when sharing prayers with people who are struggling in portions of their lives. I have many new friends in the international prayers groups I have joined that have expressed a need for prayer. I have always included these friends, even if I have not responded to their calls directly.

The Spirit of the Lord is within all of us, if we take the time to listen. God teaches us many things in our lives, all of which leads to goodness. I pray that the paths that we all walk will be in the shining light we are blessed with. “For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting.”

Living Together as Family – January 28, 2019

Psalm 133 includes the following: “. . . how good and pleasant it is, when brethren live together” and ends with, “For the Lord has ordained the blessing, life for evermore.” These words of King David upon the union of Israel, have great meaning in today’s world.

If we accept God as strength, we need no other defense against those who try to oppress us. He is the only defense we need. If we believe that God’s ways are the ways of truth and grace, then His path is the one we must follow.

I have always said that I love all people, even those I disagree with. I don’t care how obnoxious or evil one is, he is also a child of God, only he has lost his way. He deserves to be loved as much as someone who is kind and loving. He is one that Jesus referred to as the least of these.

We must take the role of complete adoption of this idea, if we want the world to be a better place. Anger and violence only create more anger and violence. Oppression leads to exclusion, poverty, hunger, and a number of other negative factors that we are taught to correct. Only our greed (and fear) keeps us from this.

My wife rebukes me sometimes when I refer to a stranger as dear or brother. But I always am rewarded by a smile and often a hug. Isn’t this God’s way? “Oh, how good and pleasant it is when brethren live together in unity.”

What is our Mission?

Our purpose is to share the glory of God. This is a message that rings throughout the world; if we listen for it. We are one body in our relationship with God. Yet, we are many, sharing our stories and sharing our lives. We are brothers and sisters; we are friends and relatives. All are under the grace of God.

In Luke’s story, Jesus said that the spirit of the Lord was within him and he was with us to bring the glory of God to mankind. We should be able to do as much. We may not have the power and knowledge of Jesus, but we can share God’s glory, just by being friends to all, helping all where needed, feeding each other with the bounty of Earth and the grace of God.

Sarah Bessey, author of Jesus Feminist, said, “Set out, pilgrim. Set out into the freedom and the wandering. Find your people. God is much bigger, wilder, more generous, and more wonderful than you imagined.” This is a similar call; we must go and bring God’s majesty to those we meet, not by being street corner prophets, but by our willingness to help each other, care for each other, and love each other, just a God wishes. 

Be Strong in the Lord

We are so conditioned by our society, that to accept the strength of God to guide us can be difficult. I am no exception. I am retired; I believe that I am in His hands, but I worry that what I have save for this retirement will last. My faith tells me that I must be strong in the Lord; He will provide.

In my lifetime, I have recovered from several physical traumas, due to accidents of various kinds, and one mental trauma, due to a failed business as a result of a drunk driver. Each time, I have risen to the challenge with the help of God and a very strong faithful wife. I have much to give thanks, for the Lord has shown mercy on me.

I testify to His power often; I want others to understand that they, too, can be lifted up by God. I was raised with faith, and even though I turned my back on faith for a time, I know that faith had just become dormant in me, until I was prepared to accept my true self and my true relationship to God and those loved ones around me.

In the words of the Psalmist, “I sing to the Lord.” He is my strength.

 

Spirit of God in Us

Matthew 10: 16 offers these words of challenge from Jesus: “Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.” God wants us to discard the pretense and appearance of this selfish me-oriented life and asks us to walk in the strength and confidence of his light. This will set us free to treat others with respect and love.

We are not walking in the righteousness of God when we allow our government to disregard the needs of the people. This is especially hurtful during this unnecessary shutdown, which is hurting, not only the 800,000 federal workers, but the over 1 million contract workers that will not get back pay. Our government is forcing them to suffer needlessly.

If we are to walk in God’s light, as many of our political leaders say they do, then we cannot allow this suffering to continue. Jesus taught us to care for those in need. We are not doing this. Our laws are not righteous; they are designed to assist those who in the end persecuted Jesus.

If we love God, we must love those who suffer. If we do not love those who suffer, then we cannot love God. God’s spirit is within us; I pray that we can demonstrate this in our daily actions.

 

Living is a Way of Life

Throughout the first five centuries people understood Christianity primarily as a way of life in the present. But these old beliefs are long dead. Our leaders have stressed that material wealth is much more important than the spiritual life that Christianity was meant to bring to the world.

I have always asked when enough is enough. Those in power horde everything, from money to jobs, education to food, and of course, proper housing. We have about 1.5 million homeless people in the United States and another 40 million living below the poverty level. Well-paying jobs and a lack of education are the main causes.

We have cut taxes so low in the United States that education has gone from number one in the world to an abysmal 17^th place following much smaller countries with less opportunities. When my father graduated from 8^th grade in 1902, his final exams included translating Latin and Greek into English; we now are offering remedial reading and English in college to native-born American citizens. This is worse than shameless.

We have lost our way morally in this country; wealth is the only judge of greatness; intellect means nothing. Read the newspapers about how the corrupt leaders are destroying the economic lives of our government workers. This is approved by them, because workers should not share in the wealth of America. Only the rich should benefit.

This is not God’s way; this is not the way of Jesus; this is not the ways of original Christianity. It is the way of those who interpret morality and spirituality with a dollar sign. God save us.

 

Love, God, and Vestries

From Philippians 4: “Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down.”

Tonight is the first night of our annual vestry retreat at Roslyn in Richmond. We welcome new members and dedicate ourselves to working together for the community of God in St. George’s Episcopal Church. It is a time to grow together as a family.

Jesus said, whenever two or more come together in my name, I will be there. We laid the foundation for joining as a family tonight, under the leadership of our rector and associate rector. It was a time of love, laughter, learning, and growing in the Kingdom of God.

We came together is God’s embrace as we shared our hopes and wishes for the coming year. Male and female, black and white, it makes no difference to God; it makes no difference to us. We are all God’s children. We know it; we love it. Our prayers are for the rest of humanity to feel the same warm, loving embrace of a caring God.

Truth

We have many definitions of truth; but I am concerned with only one – the one with a capital T: Truth as defined by . . . what? Biblically, there are many variations of Truth:

• Truth is a quality used to describe utterances that are from the Lord
• Jesus describes himself as the Way, the Truth, and the Life
• For Paul, Truth is the message of God 
• The Synoptic Gospels scarcely use the word truth at all, while in John, it is an extremely significant term referring to Jesus and his ministry. 
• In the Pastoral Epistles, Truth takes on the characteristics of a repository, or official body of beliefs, of which the church is the faithful steward and guardian. 
• Mary Baker Eddy, a 19^th century Christian Mystic and the founder of the Christian Science religion, describes Truth in one word: God.
• The Gospel of Thomas professes that the person seeking Truth will be nourished by God and will fashion wings to fly.
• The Gospel of Truth declares that Truth is the Word of God.

 

Many variations and many interpretations of Truth are available to us, depending on our faith, our religion, our depth of understanding, and our willingness to step outside of our own intellect to examine our relations with God, Jesus, ourselves, and others.

We can only do our best to attempt to understand Truth. Jesus’s life is filled with teaching and healing; but it is also filled with, not a rejection, but a reformation of practical religion. He felt that Judaism 2000 years ago had strayed significantly from God’s word. If He were alive today, he would say the same about Christianity. Jesus preached on the value of all life, God’s love of all people, and man as the shepherd of God’s creation, Earth.

My prayer is that we will recognize Truth and allow it to lead us to the light.