Sacramental Mystic

Security Based on God’s Truth

Sunday, September 25, 2022

In Overwhelming Darkness of Evil,

God’s Light Is

Always With Us

Psalms 121:3

He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber.

1 Corinthians 1:4-8

I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus, for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind— just as the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you— so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ. He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Words of Grace For Today

As the challenges of every day and of facing corrupt and even evil people continues without end, there is only one security available to any person. This security is that God walks with us, guides us (as much as we listen), and protects us. Before God we need not fear anything at all. Given that assurance is there anything we need fear?

No.

Yet, as the scheming is underway to blame us again for what we have nothing to do with as guilty people are let run free to commit crime after crime, one rightly fears both those who claim to be agents of justice, and those who openly declare with words and deeds that they have no concern for their crimes. For history has shown they run far from truth to find someone to blame, guilty or innocent.

In the end, the unjust and evil will answer to God’s justice. And we will live always walking with God at our sides, suffering with us, bringing hope into every situation. That security has no equal.

So we take this one day at a time, preparing for winter, justly hoping it will not be as hard as last year.

Thanks we give for all the gifts God gives us, as they provide us avenues to see God, right by us.

Those Darn People!

Saturday, September 24, 2022

It’s All Weeds,

Beautiful Weeds

In God’s

Good Creation!

Zephaniah 1:12

At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and I will punish the people
who rest complacently on their dregs, those who say in their hearts,
‘The Lord will not do good, nor will he do harm.’

Revelation 3:17-18

For you say, “I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing.” You do not realize that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. Therefore I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich; and white robes to clothe you and to keep the shame of your nakedness from being seen; and salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.

Words of Grace For Today

We are all wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.

Okay, I’m often of a different assessment of my situation. It’s not often that good.

Except I do keep myself clothed, mostly appropriately; and I do wear glasses, terribly scratched as they are, so that I can see clearly enough to prepare for winter and keep producing photos that are sometimes even good; and occasionally I have two quarters to rub together and use to fill the water tank (so that’s $25 to drive there and back) and I have not yet run out of water though it’s been close a few times; and while people may pity me, though I think it’s not many, as most cheer my unjust suffering, and I try to make a blessed case of my circumstances; but I’m caught on the wretched part. Don’t know how to change that, since I’ve confessed since I was a young child that I am a wretched sinner, needing God’s forgiveness.

I would guess everyone can produce a similar short accounting of how they are or are not wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. All of our efforts to say we are not simply help prove how so we are, and blind to the fact.

All too many people through all time have lived neither fearing and loving God, not caring, assured in themselves that God ‘will not do good, nor harm.’

There are and always have been the saints, people faithful to God, if still wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked, we are also humble or so about it all, and we turn our eyes and hopes to God.

In return God promises to walk with us. That makes God quite familiar with our wretchedness, pitiable-ness, poor-ness, blindness, and nakedness. God knows what God is getting into long before we realize where we are at, where people have been for so long. Why did God create and why does God continue to create such a universe with such people in it?

Love.

It’ll make you do the darnedest things.

(Thank God for that, too!)

Since I Have Chosen You …

Friday, September 23, 2022

Life is Golden All The Way Down,

Even Amidst Death

When We Know God Has Chosen Us.

First Samuel 12:22

For the Lord will not cast away his people, for his great name’s sake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you a people for himself.

Ephesians 2:8

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.

Words of Grace For Today

Bill sat next to Janet after their dance. They’d danced a dance each day together for the last year, after they were married, both in their late 60’s.

Remembering as Bill did how wonderful it was to be chosen by Janet so long ago on the floor of the High School dance, in the semi-darkness, so lonely, so frightening, so foreign. Then Janet came along. Janet who had dated Ted for as long as anyone in their class dated, until they’d broken up three months ago. That Janet, who’d he’d always watched and admired and wished he were Ted, until they broke up and Ted started dating Daniel and Janet dated almost anyone she wanted and not many were chosen. That Janet asked him if he would dance.

She said she’d been watching him. Watching him watch her. For years she had seen him. For years she had wanted to watch him, to ask him out. It was so frightening.

That had been the start of a whirlwind of wonder and a world that was so colourful Bill barely had time to catch his breath. Senior year, she said she wanted to be with him for the rest of their lives. A week later Bill had asked her to marry him. She had stood up in shock and walked off … and never came back.

That Janet now was his wife, and he was her husband, after two separate lives of joys and sorrows, wonders and such deep loses. And they danced.

Always one or the other would ask, ‘Since I have chosen you, will you dance with me tonight?’ And always the other answered, ‘Since I have chosen you, there is no greater honour than mine to be able to dance with you.’

So God asks us, ‘Since I have chosen you, will you dance with me today?’

Great Lordy, Lordy Over Us!

Tuesday, September 20, 2022

Those That Would Lord It Over Others,

Have Only Shadow Powers;

For God’s People Know

Real Power Is In

Serving,

Weakness,

and Self-sacrifice.

Isaiah 42:1

Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights;
I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations.

Mark 10:42-43

So Jesus called them and said to them, ‘You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant.

Words of Grace For Today

Since the beginning of time, those who people have looked to rule them, to protect them, to keep peace within and without, have lorded it over them instead and given the better portion to their chosen supporters, so that they would remain lords, who could enjoy power and comforts taken from others.

Since the beginning of time nearly every person has prayed that they would be free from being lorded over by others. The greater the power one holds the greater it is that someone more powerful lords it over one. Until the most powerful, who is ‘answerable to those hidden powerful people’, and wishes to be free from that hold those behind the scenes have over them.

God provides a different vision of those who might lead, protect, and keep the peace, namely that those who are the greatest and most powerful will be those who serve others in all things.

So God’s chosen servant comes to bring justice, to free people from being lorded over by others. And Jesus points his followers to how greatness is measured in God’s Kingdom and among them: by the ones who serve others.

As always we think ‘those others’ are the ones who lord it over people and us, though in the privilege and comforts we enjoy (even homeless in the wilderness), we ‘lord it over others’ through the economics and world powers that provide us things like electricity, clean water, tools of so many kinds, decorations to life of more kinds, and places of relative peace. These we enjoy only because they are ‘taken’ or ‘kept’ from others in the world’s arrangements that favour us.

So we pray this day that we would be profoundly thankful for all that we have, from the bottom of our feet, to above our heads, from the first minute of the day in the midnight darkness broken by our electric lights, to the rising sun and the breakfasts that nourish us, to the high noon sheltered from intense weather, to the setting sun and the comfortable beds that provide us a safe place to sleep, and everything in between and beyond.

So we pray each day, throughout the day, for all things.

Nomads On This Planet

Sunday, September 18, 2022

Wherever We Live,

There Are Signs

of Lives Lived

Before Us

Now Gone,

As We Will Also

Numbers 9:18

At the command of the Lord the Israelites would set out, and at the command of the Lord they would camp. As long as the cloud rested over the tabernacle, they would remain in camp.

Colossians 3:17

And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Words of Grace For Today

Nomads moving according to the command of the Lord, moving only when the cloud over the tabernacle disappeared.

Doing everything in Jesus’ name, and giving thanks to God.

As our days fill with challenges, rewards, chance goodnesses and grace, kindness, and the ever-present traps of evil, this is the difference between living abundantly and struggling every day: how do we approach each moment?

Do we taken on the challenges, temptations, and take in the joys, goodnesses, and graces with the assurance that God walks with us, so that for everything we can give thanks.

Do we see our demise threatened after the next corner that even joy can bring us to round?

This is life abundant:

To know we are not settled, not ever, in a security provided by our circumstances in this world.

To know that we move through this world even as we do not take direction from God, then God accompanies us down into the messes and hell-holes we create for ourselves or other toss us into.

To know that our demise is not the end, it is not to be feared, and in it God will gather us home, to a home with all the blessings and security we wished for in this life.

To know that until then we get to share with everyone God’s promise to walk with us and show us how love, grace, and kindness bring goodness to life even in the dankest corner of our lives.

To know that today is God’s day for us, again.

Surprise!

Saturday, September 17, 2022

When the Holy Spirit Shows Up (Again),

All Expectations Are Dashed,

and Exceeded!

Psalms 89:15

Happy are the people who know the festal shout, who walk, O Lord, in the light of your countenance.

Colossians 3:12

As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.

Words of Grace For Today

How are we to live in this world that feels so much like a hell hole so many days?

Well it’s like this man who walks down the street, trips and falls into an open hole and cannot get out because the sides are so steep. He calls out for help but no one seems to hear him.

Finally a very wealthy man comes by and stands at the edge of the hole. Hearing the trapped man’s plea the rich man throws down a fist full of money and walks on.

Eventually a doctor comes by and stands at the edge of the hole. Hearing the trapped man’s plea the doctor throws down a prescription and walks away.

That’s what so much of our days look like. Either we are in the hole, or we are trying to help people stuck in holes, but there really is little change from day to day.

We all just keep walking on.

But there’s more. There is the rest of the Hole Story.

Remember that man in the hole unable to get out. His sage continues after the rich man tosses in money and the doctor a prescription. A lawyer tosses down a brief. A drug dealer spills in some smack. Finally a farmer hands down a bag of produce. Some of that helps a bit, some certainly not.

Hours later a friend of the trapped man comes by and stands at the edge of the hole. The trapped man says with some relief, “Thank God you’ve found me. Find a rope or a ladder and help me get out of here.” The friend instead jumps into the hole.

See that’s the surprise that God provides for us each day. God sends good friends to jump right in with us, if they are not in the hole already!

The first man exclaims: “How stupid! Now we’re both trapped.”

We are right there, how stupid can God be to walk with us or send others down here. We want out, not company in the ‘hell holes’ we’ve gotten ourselves into. Then comes the next surprise.

God, like the friend responds, “It’s okay. I’ve been down here before and I know the way out.” (story told on West Wing by Leo to Josh dealing with post trauma syndrome after he was shot. 2007 reworked and added rich man. Edited 2022)

So Christ calls us forgiven sinners made saints to clothe ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.

Then we will walk in God’s countenance and know the festal shout well, for each day will be a celebration of all that God can do in spite of us, for us, and through us for others. Each day is not like the last, except that God’s Grace abounds again and again, in surprising ways.

Home or Homeless, As Saints …

Friday, September 16, 2022

There Are More

Wonders In The Universe

Than We Can Imagine,

And More To Be Encountered

Today!

Isaiah 32:18

My people will abide in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting-places.

Ephesians 2:19-20

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone.

Words of Grace For Today

While not quite homeless, nor quite housed, I live in a wondrous place.

I cannot say that it is a secure dwelling against the heat and cold and rain and snow of normal years, yet alone the extremes of climate change, nor that it is always a quiet resting place, with all the drunken, drugged up parties that slice the peace to bits each summer, or the threats that wander in where they do not belong.

I can say that this place is holy, consecrated, set aside for life.

While a citizen for decades, I seem to be a stranger to normal people, meaning people who use vague language and deception to cover the evil of their days. They remain strangers to me anyway, no matter how many of them I encounter, for I do not ‘get it’ that people proceed everyday so inauthentically, and then scoff and condemn those few of us who actually speak truth with regular precision and intention, and hear/read exactly what others produce as words … and are amazed at what people say that is so far from truth or even possible!

Thankfully I am also a long time citizen of God’s Kingdom, one of the saints. We are at home with Jesus the Christ and all God’s wonders.

This is the way to proceed through each day: thankful for God’s wonder-filled universe in which we, sinners so great, are made to be saints, and thus are able to see, hear, and trust the truth, the foundation of the universe.

In All the Moments After …

Tuesday, September 13, 2022

In the Dark, We Learn to See the Light.

Psalms 118:14

The Lord is my strength and my might; he has become my salvation.

Romans 15:13

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Words of Grace For Today

On this side of disaster, destruction, and demise (unearned but foisted on us by our enemies that claimed to be our family) we breathe and know it is a miracle.

We see the sun rise, and know it is a miracle.

We see the grass grow, the pine trees fill with acorns, the chicks grow to mature ducks and geese, and we know it is a miracle.

We work hard to prepare for the hard winter predicted ahead, and see the resulting piles of wood, completed repairs and improvements, and we know it is all wonder-filled miracles.

For God has become again and again our salvation, our breathe, and our hope.

So we would hope for you, that you would know the miracles that God works wondrously in your days, and thus find peace in the Holy Spirit’s power to transform the worst of the worst into blessings unending.

16 Tons?

Monday, September 12, 2022

Pilot or Passenger

Every Flight,

Every Life,

Has A Beginning

That many others have made possible.

Psalms 78:3-4

[Remember the glorious acts of God,]
things that we have heard and known,
that our ancestors have told us.
We will not hide them from their children;
we will tell to the coming generation
the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might,
and the wonders that he has done.

Matthew 10:8

Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment.

Words of Grace For Today

While living a life, self-sustained and self-determined, no great mishaps interrupting one’s plans and trajectory, it is all too easy to forget so much.

How one’s ancestors worked so hard to bring us to the beginning we were given as a gift.

How God provided for their survival in wondrous ways.

And how at each turn in our own lives, God is there, walking with us, calling us, blessing us, begging us to return to God.

Then disaster strikes. Small or huge, particular or general. And our self-sustained life is no longer possible, as if it ever were that.

Then we will only survive if we remember what our ancestors have taught us about God’s great blessings, and we return to God.

What then?

Simple: Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment.

One day awaits us each morning, filled with opportunities to remember, to return, to serve others with the love that cures, raises, cleanses, and casts out.

It’s not 16 tons and deeper in debt to the company store, but it is that each day we receive more than we can possible give back, and we live blessed to be deeper and deeper in debt to God for all the blessings poured over us. It is impossible to repay that debt, and it will never be called. Miracles and wonders.

Staff or Ghost?

Tuesday, August 30, 2022

The Holy Ghost,

a Guiding Light Through the Night?

Or Both!

Exodus 14:21

Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. The Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night, and turned the sea into dry land; and the waters were divided.

Hebrews 11:29

By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as if it were dry land, but when the Egyptians attempted to do so they were drowned.

Words of Grace For Today

Sometimes, okay honestly, quite often, I wish that I had Moses staff to ‘part the troubled waters’ that block my escape from my tormentors and from the challenges that threaten to do me in.

Or, as the Hebrews passage states it, I wish I had the faith to part the ‘troubled waters’ that hem me in and hold me fast to the slavery that has been forced upon me.

But then, it’s like waiting for God to rescue you from a flood, and along the way refusing help from neighbours in a truck driving out through the low waters rising quickly, and the rescue boat that comes when the waters have filled the streets and roads, and the helicopter that will pluck you from the roof top. Instead St. Peter gets to point out that those offers for rescue were God at work.

So, it’s on with the day’s work, trusting that I will wisely choose what to do today of the many I can do or at least start doing today (and maybe even some that I think are impossible yet!)

The light shines, so it’s time to work. Now if the solar system were not burned out that would translate into power to use for some of the work. That’s one thing that I need to work on, since I’m low on gasoline for the generator!

Small challenge of power. At least it is not someone else fight to take my power from me. For that I am always thankful.

On with the day. What will it bring, and what can be done. That will be seen and given thanks for as the sunsets and I lay down to rest.

And for you? What will the day bring? More wishes for Moses’ staff, or focusing on what is possible … even if it looks impossible to start with?!