Covid19 – Page 41

Facing Covid 19: Daily Words of Grace – May 14

Thursday, May 14, 2020

See

the Sticks and Stones

of Reality.

Job 13:9

Will it be well with you when he searches you out? Or can you deceive him, as one person deceives another?

2 Corinthians 13:5

Examine yourselves to see whether you are living in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless, indeed, you fail to pass the test!

Words of Grace For Today

An exam, sample exams, test scores, failing marks, proving oneself.

All of these come into play for human examinations.

God works differently.

First, there is actually a kind of failing, of standing against the work of the Holy Spirit so doggedly and determinedly and persistently and … or something else (we simply do not know what it is that we can do to fail.) Certainly we know we all fail to be good enough; we are saved only by the Grace of God, through faith, by the work of the Holy Spirit.

That’s exactly the breaking point of our trying to determine when we fail God’s Grace so completely that we are outside God’s abundant love. We humans cannot judge it.

All we know is that God’s Grace is for us and for all others, even the most wretched sinners … as we all were before Jesus saves us …

and

still are!

There are serious deceptions that humans carry out in daily life to get the better of others for themselves. None of these work on God.

God sees right through us to the core and all the way to the core and back. God knows everything about us.

If we were planning … no (it is not IF, it is since … so) Since we all plan to try to deceive God about ourselves this is definitely something to worry about, to be fearful of, and to become existentially anxious about.

The freedom we seek is to realize our attempts at deceiving God and how futile the are, and to once again throw ourselves into God’s mercy.

We can test ourselves. If we are so out of touch with our place with God it is a good place to start some finite self-awareness. The real test has already been played out on the cross, and with the resurrection we have all passed … on Jesus’ coat-tails.

When we realize how dependent our existence is on God’s Grace, then we more often, perhaps more quickly, give up on our efforts to deceive God … and other humans … about ourselves. We learn to point to God’s Grace, and offer it to others.

The greatest freedom is ours when we no longer need to depend on our own performances at all the tests life puts in front of us. We can boldly, courageously, faithfully, and lovingly trust that Jesus is with us each step of the way … and use all our energies and focus to work to give God glory in all we attempt, give God thanks in all we accomplish, and be even more grateful that we survive all the times our attempts fail.

Covid 19 is more than a test of our health. It is a test of our ability to work with and for other humans. We will fail. We will succeed, only as God gives us the abilities and we work diligently with them.

Covid 19 may be in many ways a test of our faith.

Consider that every day we face tests of our faith.

Consider there is much we each can do, even in these times.

Testing our faith does not produce a grade or pass/fail. It is not a measure of our pasts. It is a preparation for the future. It gives us a measure compared to the saints in light, which helps us answer the question, “Is there more we can do! If so, show us!”

Prepare us. Guide us. Rescue us.

…

one day at a time.

Ain’t life wonderful!

Facing Covid 19: Daily Words of Grace – May 13

Wednesday, May 13, 2020

Whatever our ‘home’ looks like

God knows our heart

and comforts us

to be for others

that same comfort

1 Kings 8:39

Only you, Lord, know what is in every human heart.

2 Thessalonians 2:16-17

Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and through grace gave us eternal comfort and good hope, comfort your hearts and strengthen them in every good work and word.

Words of Grace For Today

Jesus says, “Let your hearts not be troubled” in the Gospel for last Sunday, and Pastor Ingrid, www.trinity-lutheran.ca, in last Sunday’s sermon, asked for us all, “You’ve got to be kidding! Are you serious!?!” (These are perhaps close to her words:)

When asked what troubles our hearts we consider our full situation these days …

and answer “You ask what troubles your hearts today? Are you kidding? Are you serious?

“Do you know what is happening in our lives and in our world?

“We live in the midst of a global crisis. We live lives separated from our loved ones, concerned about our financial security, concerned about elderly parents or family members abroad, and concerned about the way our children have to grow up.

“We feel: overwhelmed, isolated, powerless, off balance, and thoughts spinning in our heads.

“My heart is troubled. I think of the pandemic. I think about immigrants nad refugees. I think about gun violence, racism, and poverty. [I would add, the growing blaming, hatred and hate speech online and elsewhere.] I think about those grieving and mourning lingering illness and death of loved ones. I think about families who are struggling and people who are hanging on by a thread.

“And I feel overwhelmed, isolated, powerless. and off balance, with thoughts spinning in my head.

“And you ask what’s troubling our hearts today. Are you kidding me, Jesus. Are you serious about that!?!”

(If you are looking for great music, thought provoking sermons, and meaningful worship – though the liturgy is missing – look to Trinity’s online worship.)

When this is what’s troubling our hearts, can it possibly be that Jesus responds to us by telling us to not yet our hearts be troubled!?!

The truth of the matter is Jesus knows our hearts better than we ourselves.

The truth of the matter is Jesus comforts us exactly where and how our hearts are troubled.

The truth is the Holy Spirit inspires us to extend the love and grace of eternal comfort and good hope to everyone we meet …

and with the internet, to so many people we’ve never met, and who may never meet.

Good work and words …

Being kind …

Listening and learning …

Ready or not the future we feared has arrived and demands more of us …

God has made us ready.

Now we need to be bold.

The Holy Spirit lights a fire under us everyday, not just a light on our heads like angels.

Facing Covid 19: Daily Words of Grace – May 12

Tuesday, May 12, 2020

Forever More …

Our paths are diverse

Let them not be perverse.

1 Kings 3:4 & 9

God said, ‘Ask what I should give you.’ And Solomon said, ‘Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil; for who can govern this your great people?’

Philippians 1:9-10

This is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine what is best, so that on the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless.

Words of Grace For Today

“… So that on the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless.” Well, sinners all, that is impossible … except that Jesus’ record will be used in place of ours.

That redemption of our sinful lives is not dependent upon us, not in anyway. That’s God’s choice, God’s gift, God’s promise to us, each of us.

Now to live boldly, to God’s glory, with courage, as we are able.

Able to have God’s love overflow more and more into us and out of us to others.

So that the ability to discern good and evil, full knowledge and insight help us determine what is best everyday, no matter our circumstance.

We may not have Solomon’s responsibilities, to govern God’s people as ruler, leader and king. Each of us does impact the lives of those around us. We each ‘lead’ and ‘govern’ greatly how others encounter the world and God … either as curse, harsh, short and brutish OR as blessing, redeemed, eternal and joyful.

So we pray: give us, God, your love overflowing that from your Grace and Mercy our knowledge and wisdom may govern our lives and contribute to the lives of those around us.

As we face Covid 19, and every challenge of our lives, let us find wisdom beyond our years.

Let us help others facing loneliness, depression, oppression, scapegoating and gaslighting find your Light shining also for them through us.

Facing Covid 19: Daily Words of Grace – May 11

Monday, May 11, 2020

From of Old

From of Now

From of Then

Psalms 44:2

We have heard with our ears, O God, our ancestors have told us, what deeds you performed in their days, in the days of old.

Luke 10:39

She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying.

Words of Grace For Today

We have received great gifts from God … many through other faithful people.

We have received the ability:

To listen …

To learn …

To listen to Jesus …

To listen to our ancestors …

What would happen if we could listen to the generations yet to come?

God has performed many great deeds, that we remember, that we can listen to as others tell the stories handed down for generations.

“In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, … God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good….”

“A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there …. When the Egyptians treated us harshly … we cried to the Lord…. The Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with a terrifying display of power, and with signs and wonders; and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey….”

“In the night in which he was betrayed, Jesus took bread and gave thanks …”

God has preformed many great deeds even in our time that we can share with each other and give time to listen to and learn from.

An elderly woman’s car would not start in the grocery store parking lot. Covid 19 limited the interactions others could have with her … still a man noticed her distress, walked over and offered to help. Diagnosing it as a battery too drained to start her car, he offered and then insisted that he would run home, grab some jumper cables and set it right. She suggested instead that she could call AMA. He said it was not necessary. Within minutes her car started and he advised her to take a drive to recharge the battery. It worked.

A long term care facility was, like all others, cut off from everyone except the workers coming and going. A staff person volunteered her iPhone to allow video calls to family and the staff started collecting contact numbers for each resident. Even though many suffer dementia they are afraid and lonely. Now they are connected again regularly with family.

With the increased danger of wild fires, a resident of a spread out rural community started noticing almost no one had ‘fire safe’ areas around their properties or homes. He organized a list of the elderly who needed the help first, a list of the properties that needed and wanted help fire-safe-ing, and a list of equipment available. Coordinating it all, with safe physical distances maintained, he organized equipment, people and locations to do the minimum fire-safe work. Almost done, he’s starting a list of more thorough fire-safe-ing and wide fire break paths to stop a wildfire from spreading over more than a quarter section. Of course that is getting organized as well. Everyone contributes. Everyone is safer. There is less risk that a wildfire will necessitate an evacuation, or if it does that any property will be damaged by anything other than smoke.

What stories of God’s great deeds can you share? What stories of God’s great deeds have you listened to and learned from?

What if we could also listen to those from future generations, looking back at our time, so that we could listen, learn, and live more responsibly.

Are we listening?

Are we learning?

Facing Covid 19: Daily Words of Grace – May 10

Sunday, May 10, 2020

See the Beauty, See the Wonder

1 Samuel 10:7

Now when these signs meet you, do whatever you see fit to do, for God is with you.

2 Timothy 2:7

Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in all things.

Words of Grace For Today

Happy Mother’s Day, to the mothers in my life (and in yours.)

How can we meet the expectations that we and others have for how we honour our mothers on this day … when we cannot go see them, give them flowers, ….

There are telephones, and the internet, thankfully.

How can we hug the precious mother who gave us life?

and hopefully astounding love?

In these times this is not possible, or legal, or even advisable … since even if we are asymptomatic we could be contagious and hugging our mothers could share more than we wanted to. We could share that nasty virus that is likely much more dangerous for our mother than for us.

So let words and gestures abound.

Let humour abound.

Let our imaginations abound.

Like the care facility that made a mock up of Tim’s to allow the residents a bit of normalcy: an opportunity to place and receive an order for coffee and Timbits.

Or the children who showed up outside their grandmother’s care-home window, called her to tell her to look out the window, and they danced in a ring, well a sort-of-ring, that turned out to be the shape of a heart! before they rolled all over the ground before standing up in a line to take their bows.

Whatever is required, when we live immersed in God’s Word day in and day out, no matter the challenge that we face, God will be with us as we find our way forward.

Courage, Faith, Love and Hope, all this God provides aplenty for us.

Facing Covid 19: Daily Words of Grace – May 9

Saturday, May 9, 2020

Notice with all God has Given Us

How Much God asks:

Be Kind!

Love even your enemy!

Deuteronomy 2:7

Surely the Lord your God has blessed you in all your undertakings; he knows your going through this great wilderness.

1 Corinthians 4:2

Moreover, it is required of stewards that they should be found trustworthy.

Words of Grace For Today

God has blessed us greatly. This wilderness that we are all going through called Covid 19 pandemic affects us all differently, but we humans are ALL in this together, like it or not!

God is with us!

And

We are stewards of so much. Will we be found trustworthy as stewards who share what is given into our charge as our Creator intended we would?

Like at no other time, the whole world needs us to be faithful, active and proactive!

CBC news reported yesterday that lawsuits and hate speech abound in response to Covid 19.

Lawsuits are explained that we humans lash out at others to blame them when we are hurt, to make someone else accountable.

Hate speech is horrendous.

Quoting from:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/coronvirus-un-fear-xenophobia-1.5561069?cmp=newsletter_Coronavirus%20Brief_1190_26354

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said the COVID-19 pandemic keeps unleashing “a tsunami of hate and xenophobia, scapegoating and scaremongering” …. [It] is fast becoming a human rights crisis.”

Who are the targets of the hate speech?

Jews, Muslims, migrants, refugees, older persons, journalists, whistleblowers, health professional, aid workers and human rights defenders!

Guterres called on political leaders to show solidarity with all people and on educational institutions to focus on “digital literacy” at a time when “extremists are seeking to prey on captive and potentially despairing audiences.” He called on the media, especially social media, to “remove racist, misogynist and other harmful content,” on civil society to strengthen outreach to vulnerable people and on religious figures to serve as “models of mutual respect.”

“And I ask everyone, everywhere, to stand up against hate, treat each other with dignity and take every opportunity to spread kindness,” Guterres said.

There is not one person in Canada who cannot do something each day to stand up against hate, treat each other with dignity and take every opportunity to spread kindness!

I’m not one to give orders, but here is the one that counts the most:

Get to it!

Every morning remind ourselves, this is what the world needs most. God has given us abundantly, now use everything we are and have to end hate, treat everyone with dignity, and spread kindness.

That ain’t so hard.

… and …

That’s the hardness thing we will ever undertake.

Get to it!

Before it’s too late.

Facing Covid 19: Daily Words of Grace – May 8

Friday, May 8, 2020

Steps into the Waters

Come walk wet, baptized

no matter the challenges or frustrations of this day

Psalms 119:77

Let your mercy come to me, that I may live; for your law is my delight.

Mark 1:30-31

Now Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.

Words of Grace For Today

Since forever people have called upon God, and with various degrees of real expectation on a scale from demanded to hoped that God would respond and save them.

On the demand end of that scale of calling upon God for deliverance, the Psalm seems to reflect the old and very common perversion of faith that says: because I have done X then God must do Y for me.

It is about trying to control the uncontrollable things about life. It is trying to raise oneself above the reality of life to become a little godlet: ‘Look at me! I am so X, that I can control what happens to me, to you, in the universe, … why I even can control what God does!’

The hubris of it is astounding, or it would be, if it were not so common … to every human to some degree. After all life is cruel, short and brutish, right?

As Jesus does for Simon’s mother-in-law, why would we not want Jesus to be with us today, walking in to our elders’ sick rooms, struck with Covid 19 as they are, needing ventilators to stay alive and dialysis to cleanse the poisons from their blood?

It’s a bit harder to make this plea for Jesus’ healing with a sense of being able to demand intervention to save a life.

How are we to call upon God?

First off, if we are going to error about communication, then the best one to do this to is God. Save great exercise of kindness and politeness for those we live with and among. The people in our lives need our kindness and politeness. God, on the other hand, already knows we can be less than kind, faithful, loving, and even decent. God is not hurt by our stupidity, if we really come pleading (or angrily demanding) to God.

The gracious reality of God is that God chooses to listen to us, no matter what. God responds, most often with a chuckle and a quiet, ‘no way!’ Or too often with a tear dropping steadily in pain as God dismays at our behaviour so lacking in gratitude as we mostly are, as God must simply say, ‘No, that’s not how life works. You are free. Freedom means suffering is part of life. I am here, suffering with you. Do not let your hearts be troubled.’

Grace abounds also, and sometimes God’s answer is YES! and our request for life, health, and faith are fulfilled. Likely God had it in the works already. Or someone stepped up to make things change, or life just developed that way anyway. Those times of desperate need answered with a YES are more common than we seem to remember.

So we pray today again: God save us! Save us from ourselves, from each other, from the works of the Devil in us all. Save us from destruction, pain, illness, and death. Save others. Do this because you, God, choose. Do this because it will give witness that you watch over your people. Do this for whatever reason, but please do this for us, today; if that is not too much to ask.

Few if any of us can pray, save us from this Covid 19 pandemic; because almost all of us have already suffered some loss because of it. We can pray, loudly, clearly and hopefully,

God deliver us, that we may live to give you the glory!

Today …

Today we can start giving God the glory: be thankful for everything we have.

Share with those who desperately need what we take for granted.

Laugh heartily at the good things, the humorous things that surround us each day.

Smile gently at those you meet; we are almost all struggling in some way, more so these days.

Look up to see the Light

Life is colourful, and most coloured by our attitude. Life is beautiful.

Be part of that beauty at your core.

When the day is done, beauty is splendiforous.

Facing Covid 19: Daily Words of Grace – May 7

Thursday, May 7, 2020

A Rose by any name is still a Rose

even if we have a daffodile

Nehemiah 9:17

You are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and you did not forsake them.

2 Timothy 2:13

If we are faithless, God remains faithful – for God cannot deny Godself.

Words of Grace For Today

God is often seen (as God is reflected often in Scripture) as a wrathful, judging, and destroying God … God who we need fear, obey, and worship.

Amidst this rough view of God, a reflection of our image of ourselves on to God, these words of God’s character repeat often in scripture:

God is ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

These words are taken up into our liturgy. We repeat them Sunday after Sunday (perhaps not every Sunday if our congregation uses many of the liturgies available to keep our hearts and minds freshly engaged by the Word, also the Word in liturgies.) That is one of the benefits of liturgies moulded for centuries on scripture, repeated and repeated and repeated … the words are so familiar that we know them as our Good Shepherd’s voice for us!

This promise of God is … amazing!

It is filled with that amazing grace that saves wretches like us!

We all need forgiveness, from God and countless other people. We need God to be gracious and merciful to us, to be slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

As God is to us, God creates us, Jesus calls us, and the Holy Spirit equips and inspires us to be to all other people:

forgiving,

gracious and merciful,

slow to anger,

and abounding in steadfast love!

Even when we no longer have even a tiny trace of faith or hope or love or mercy or grace or forgiveness in us, (due to whatever Evil or stress, even Covid 19 and it’s side effects on us all) God is still faithful.

God is still faithful!

God remains always faithful to even the most terrible wretches, like us.

God is always faithful,

simply because that is who God is!

A Rose

Yearning 3

Yearning for Everythings to be put Right

In darkness of our enemies’ making
we are yearning for the light,
for the moon to shine,
for the end of night.

We are yearning for things

Skewed by the Devil’s might

to be put back right.

Christ alone can douse us rags

in the Spirit’s precious light,

safe in God’s forgiving crags,

resetting all things coloured bright.

Yearning 2

Yearning for Everythings to be put Right

In darkness of our own making
we are yearning for the light,
for the moon to shine,
for the end of night.

We are yearning for things

Skewed by the Devil’s might

to be put back right.

Christ alone can douse us rags

in the Spirit’s precious light,

safe in God’s forgiving crags,

resetting all things coloured bright.