I am not afraid of tens of thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around.
Mark 10:15
Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.
Words of Grace For Today
Close to Christmas, and enemies have not relented.
And if you do not have enemies who have not relented, then perhaps you have not lived well and righteously, or courageously.
Still we like to say others cannot enter the Kingdom of God, for they are not humble like children before God.
This we say with our pride swelling, for definitely we are God’s favoured and God’s chosen and at least we are assured of great place in God’s Kingdom …
just like the disciples who argued who would be first in Jesus’ rule!
First are those who have nothing left, who like children are fully dependent on their parents, and on God, for their survival,
which is not going to be much longer on this earth
for the powers that be are quite willing to kill off those who stand righteously before them with truth and grace,
testaments to God’s Grace and Truth.
Like children then, let us take these final days to prepare for God to come, as a helpless child in our midst, as a human, suffering all we do in this hard, short and brutish life,
which by God’s blessings alone (not our material wealth or comforts or privilege) is blessed with challenges and meaningful labour, eternal and overfilled with wonders, and filled with kindnesses unending.
The first day the sun can shine longer than yesterday
…
by a few seconds.
Tuesday, December 22, 2020
Life is Filled with Wonderful
Mundane Things
Like Cold, Snow, Trees, Light
From Generation to Generation
All in God’s Hands
Psalm 102:28
The children of your servants shall live secure; their offspring shall be established in your presence.
Revelation 1:8
‘I am the Alpha and the Omega’, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.
Words of Grace For Today
Security is a fleeting illusion, unless one by grace places one’s full trust in God. The security one has then is not in having a comfortable or successful life. Then security is in God’s hands, God who is the Alpha and the Omega (the ‘A’ and ‘Z’ of all.)
When we practice placing our trust in God, which we usually skew into something else, then the ‘habit level’ of our lives moves to a different ‘place’. If we are fortunate (the self made skew not being too extreme) we start each day conscious that God is our all in all, and that all we have and are is God’s anyway, so we ‘give it’ all we’ve ‘got’ by ‘giving it our all’ so that all other people can have life abundant. Then through the day as we make choices each moment, they are at least somewhat informed by this awareness.
The truth is most ‘religious’ people skew the love of God into something that supports their own privilege or position in the world. Rich people interpret God’s blessings as evident in their wealth. Poor people see God’s blessings poured out on the poor. Powerful people interpret God’s blessing as evident in their having power, powerless see God’s blessings in the meek, the lowly, the outcasts, the pure of heart.
And we all desire to have a place in the history of humanity, by not dying and being forgotten, but by making our mark and being remembered for generations. While few can hope to be remembered, most all of us strive to pass on to the next generations some of who we are and what we value.
All this is rather foolish of us, though pretty standard. God keeps calling us to see the world anew, through the eyes of others, through the eyes of Jesus.
We cannot secure our own lives, we all die. We cannot secure our place in history, we all vanish like grass in winter under the snow.
We need not secure our own lives. God already secures us as God’s own children.
The children of God’s children shall live secure; their offspring shall be established in God’s presence.
More we cannot attain. Even this is given to us as a free gift. More we do not need.
So what are we doing this extraordinary Advent to prepare for an extraordinary Christmas?
Whatever we have done this Advent to prepare, whatever we do this Christmas, more than what God has done for us by being born as one of us, is all our own odd skewing of what Christmas is about.
So celebrate, and maybe remember, that what we do is at best a misty, foggy, reflection (in our own warped mirrors) of what God has done, does today, and will do for us, each and every one of us humans, each day.
God takes care of that mushroom cloud of sin and hypocrisy (ours and everyone else’s, too) and sets us re-newed into each moment of each day.
even on this shortest day of the year (in the northern hemisphere)
Psalm 40:17
As for me, I am poor and needy, but the Lord takes thought for me. You are my help and my deliverer; do not delay, O my God.
Ephesians 1:5
He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will.
Words of Grace For Today
I am poor and needy, but the Lord takes thought for me.
When one is homeless, driven deep into poverty by lies and corruption, as I am, one does not have a lot to lose, or to secure or protect one from thieves or harsh weather or more lies and destruction or ill health. Alberta Income Support turned me down because I am not paying rent. I have no money to pay rent, so I am homeless, living in the woods. AIS turned me down because they do not consider paying $300/month to the banks for loans a ‘basic necessity.’ That leaves me with $39/month to live on. Fortunately I have a bicycle to get to town and back (55 km) to get some food from the food bank. Thankfully I can peddle and walk that in 4 hours if the wind is with me both ways, or in at least 12 hours, so in a day. But my health is compromised, especially my digestive system that does not want to work, and age-related arthritis runs wild, so my diet has to have lots of dairy, which is barely ever available from the food bank. And I need medications that I cannot afford.
Thankfully God takes thought of me.
God has sent me people to loan me equipment including enough to build a shelter from 1x4s and insulated tarps with a rebuilt wood stove inside. God sends people occasionally to help me so that I can buy groceries and once in a while gasoline to run a generator for electricity. When things are working, and if I had $500/month, life would be pretty secure. As it is I am still alive, living on $39/month plus gifts and loans from various people.
Isolated in the woods now for 4 years, when Covid 19 arrived and surged in the second wave, I was already isolated from other people. Fortunately I’m an introvert so I thrive in solitude.
Even so each day that I am still alive is a small miracle which I celebrate.
.
There are billions of people around the world this day who do not have anywhere near to the security and capacity that I have.
God destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will.
We are therefore given, freely as Grace, our faith and a calling to be God’s Word, God’s Grace for all people. Consider praying for those many billions who do not or barely have the necessities of life. Go out in ever larger circles from where you live, find them in your own neighbourhood, and join the many people working to give them abundant life, starting with the basic necessities.
That is our calling as baptized, and adopted, children of God.
I am ordained so I can celebrate the Eucharist each day.
Whoever you are, celebrate daily that God has chosen you and equipped you to walk humbly before our God, to provide life abundant to all people, and to work for justice.
That fills our days with wonders and miracles to celebrate: Christ is born, and lives in us for others. This is what we celebrate again this Christmas, as Covid 19 forces us to refocus on the essential miracles and wonders of Christmas. Take these last few days of Advent to prepare. This year the celebration is most precious. Be awake. Be alert. Be ready!
Light one, two, three, four candles to watch for Messiah, let the light banish darkness.
You are that God-made saint of light for all people around you. Shine!
Hear the word of the Lord, O people of Israel; for the Lord has an indictment against the inhabitants of the land. There is no faithfulness or loyalty, and no knowledge of God in the land.
Matthew 3:2
‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’
Words of Grace For Today
Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.
Repent is to turn around, to proceed in the other direction, in the other manner, to proceed with the Grace of God instead of pounding one’s head against the wall of the Devil’s empty promises in vain trying to make something of life, something that cannot be made … it can only be received …
And God offers it freely.
Beethoven would be 250 years old this year. Overcoming all temptations to decay into decomposition humour, he still connects people with their own powerful and profound emotions and with through these emotions to other people. His 5th and 9th symphonies pound down in all the force of life in bar after bar of melody circling to a full climactic ending, that is both a relief to reach and leaves one wanting more. His pastorale melodies encircle the fog of the early morning’s kiss on the lake and bespeak the yearning that connects us all in the hope of being loved and being able to love purely, simply, profoundly. ZDF provides a tour of the world to places and people touched to the core by Beethoven’s music; Bonn, Osaka, Medellín, Ruhrgebiet, Brisbane, Rsumeb (Namibia), Queensland, Chennai (India.)
Music like Beethoven’s reaches deep into us, moves us, heals us, connects us to other people, creates empathy in us for others, and miraculously sets the world right … if for only a short moment.
This is one way in which the Kingdom of God has come near. It is one way in which God reaches into our hearts and calls us to repent, and moves us to proceed in a manner more fitting the wonders that God created us to be and to know in this tragic and beautiful existence we all know.
Where there is no faithfulness or loyalty, and no knowledge of God in the land (which is everywhere in every generation) let music probe deep into our hearts, minds, and lives so that we may repent and proceed in a new (ancient) direction of walking humbly with our God, sharing the Good News (the old, old story of Jesus and God’s love), and always working for justice for all people.
For this Christ came. This we prepare to celebrate, quietly, at our core, with the midnight darkness of our lives sparkling as our candles of remembering, thanks, celebration, and hope, held by people of all sizes, colours, creeds, and experiences pierce through the darkness.
Light one, two, three, [four] candles to wait for Messiah, let the light banish darkness ….
With your strong arm you redeemed your people, the descendants of Jacob and Joseph. Selah
Colossians 1:26-27
The mystery [of God’s Word] has been hidden throughout the ages and generations but has now been revealed to his saints. To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Words of Grace For Today
Ah, God’s mighty arm working for us and the power of mysteries revealed to us chosen few …
These are clear evidence that even as God works the wonders of Grace through so many people, through so many generations, we humans still want to step up to control God, and claim God’s power for ourselves, and use it against our enemies.
Thankfully this is not, of course, not the only message that is contained in scripture, or there would be no Good News, no Word of God, and no Hope to share with the world.
There are occasions when God’s people record that God’s might has saved them from violent destruction by violent enemies. God lead Moses and the descendants of Jacob and Joseph with him by a pillar of cloud in the day and a pillar of fire at night. They escaped through the Reed Sea, on dry land made possible by the wind blowing the waters back. When the Egyptian army pursuing them tried to follow the waters flooded back in, like a tide returning. The army was stopped. The people were free … to wander in the wilderness for 40 years!
God’s mighty arm parted the waters. Yes. Or God guided Moses to use a natural if rare phenomenon of the tide going out, combined with strong winds that laid bare a path across the Reed Sea where a natural ‘bridge’ lay beneath a shallow of water. The out going tide laid the land bare for only a short time before the returning tide driven by the same wind, or perhaps a shift of wind, flooded back over the ‘bridge’ with a great wall of water. Mighty arm of God, was it? Yes, of course … maybe.
Then remember that God does not delight in the death of evil doers, of the enemies of God’s people, but rather in their conversion and being saved.
As for the mystery of God revealed to a select few … this is the cry of a great many through history, who have used this ‘secret wisdom’ to elevate themselves to power over others. Sometimes it’s a small following. Sometimes it’s a great hoard that are subdued. Always the ‘secret’ is false.
God’s mysteries are, as Paul stated so well, that all people, Gentiles included, are saved by God’s Grace and Grace alone; not by the thoughts, words and deeds of any person. No person can be good enough to earn salvation for themselves or for others. We all sin, and sin good and well, enough to separate ourselves from God. The ‘mystery’ that Paul discovered and proclaimed (so it would not remain a mystery) is simple: Jesus came to save all people, because God so chooses out of love to do so!
God chooses. We are forgiven, healed, renewed, and equipped to be God’s Grace for others.
There really is no real mystery to it. But in a world filled with humans, all who want to sinfully claim God’s power for themselves and use it to gain advantage over others, this continually is ‘discovered’ again, as if it were a mystery to all. This is profound and repeated Semmelweis Reflex, ‘the propensity to reject new ideas if they challenge established ones — no matter how compelling the evidence is for the new ideas.’ (See the CBC Ideas radio article on hand washing and Dr. Semmelweis.)
This is not rejecting a new idea, it is rejecting an ancient idea, that rises as if new, which challenges the other ancient idea: that we must save ourselves by working our way to God through [fill in all the beliefs, words, ideas, deeds that have been claimed can save us.] These ‘special’ beliefs-deeds’ are almost always named as a control over people, sometimes with good intentions, often not. Even so they are always wrong headed and destructive as they lead people over the cliff of trying to save themselves, all in vain, as they forego life abundant freely offered by God.
Our work then is to continually renew God’s Word of Grace, for ourselves and for others; to tell the old, old story of Jesus and God’s love, evident since the beginning of time, most clearly told in Jesus life, ministry, healing and saving, and in his death and resurrection.
We give God thanks, that God’s ‘strong’ arm, is filled with Grace, and has saved us from ourselves, again and again and again, since the beginning of time, and will until the end of time.
The covenant that you kept for your servant my father David as you declared to him; you promised with your mouth and have this day fulfilled with your hand.
Luke 1:68-69
‘Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has looked favourably on his people and redeemed them. He has raised up a mighty saviour for us in the house of his servant David.
Words of Grace For Today
A mighty saviour for us in the house of his servant David
So often we wish for power and might, with God’s backing, that we can direct at our enemies in order to make our lives better. God promises a saviour.
David, King David, ruled Israel by most historical accounts successfully, conquering the neighbouring enemies, solidifying power in his hands, securing a place for his people among the many.
As generations passed, and Israel was weakened by corruption and their neighbours grew powerful, Israel’s independence was crushed again and again. Sometimes it’s civilization, culture, and religion were left in shambles. Sometimes they were all subsumed into a foreign rule, to various degrees benevolent or cruel as opportunity and whim arose for that power and it’s agents.
Israel, as we humans are wont, equated their world power or lack thereof with God’s blessings. God promised a saviour. So the people hope for a powerful ruler of Israel, God’s appointed and anointed, to conquer the foreign powers, to run them out, to rule over them in their lands, to expand Israel’s territory to ensure their domination of the future. This was the image they carried of King David, so a saviour from David’s house was this kind of a saviour.
God’s blessings are, fortunately for the majority of humans who are alive and who have ever lived, not equated with world power, wealth, or privilege. God sends Jesus to demonstrate this very clearly: God’s power is that of sacrificial love, of forgiveness and grace, and of justice and mercy. More clearly stated God’s justice is always based on truth and on God’s steadfast mercy. Thankfully, or we’d all be doomed to eternal damnation.
Jesus comes to teach, heal, forgive, save, renew, and equip us to be God’s grace for others.
God has promised with God’s own mouth and have this day fulfilled with God’s own hand. The Lord God of Israel has looked favourably on his people and redeemed them.
This Advent we prepare again to give witness, among all the things that detract us from God’s Word in Jesus, the Saviour, to God’s power, the power of sacrificial love.
The trappings of Christmas are not all available to us, so what will we use to give the world this clear witness during the coming 12 days of Christmas?
My soul yearns for you in the night, my spirit within me earnestly seeks you. For when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.
2 Corinthians 9:10
He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness.
Words of Grace For Today
As the vaccine is promised ...
Like in every generation before we yearn and hope, sometimes beyond hope. Yet sometimes in despair we give up that last strand of hope …
In the dark of the night, when monsters rear their ugly head occupying all the challenges of our days which we thought we could deal with well enough and those monsters eat at the foundation of the order of our lives amid the chaos …
There is always the darkness, the evil that threatens us.
Whether or not we see or listen or know, God promises to judge all with real justice and grace, out of which will come righteousness for all … whether we experience this righteousness or not God’s promises are the only promises that are sure!
God promises to walk with us, giving seeds that we can sow and harvests abundant that we can gather in, increasing in and around us God’s righteousness – for Christ is come.
God’s Son came, and will come again, to make clear God’s will towards us, namely that God loves us and judges us with mercy and truth. Jesus will judge all for everything they have done.
How can righteousness come out of the evil of all humans, which is so destructive, pervasive and enduring? Jesus offers us his record, pure and sinless, and on that record we are judged. Our records, our sins, the evil we have done to others, and the destruction we have wrought on creation … all this is erased as if it never occurred in all of time at all. So we emerge, all of us, righteous.
We do not get to wait for Christ’s judgment until after we die. Christ judges every day, every hour. Christ renews us as righteous every moment. We still remain sinners, yet always are we fully God-made saints.
So we yearn …
We yearn for judgment …
We yearn deep in our bones for judgment, so that we are made righteous, and those that do us evil will be rescued from their sins and we with them.
Advent is the time we relearn to trust God’s promises, and we live this abundant life waiting, alert, holding to the Promise that draws us onward, and draws from us righteousness we did not know we were capable of.
We are the harvest. We are the labourers in the harvest. The harvest is ready, each day. The harvest is so abundant it cannot be stored in all the earth or even the universe. Such is God’s promise to walk with us and bring us to live life abundantly!
No Covid 19 pandemic can rob us of this abundant life. Not even when our usual Christmas habits are not possible this year while we remain safe for ourselves, for our loved ones, and for all our neighbours.
Life is still abundant. Perhaps just because we must rethink what is essentially Christmas, our celebrations in the future will regain a significance we have not previously known.
Whether or not we see or listen or know, God promises and delivers life over abundant for all!
Let us make it so for all people, also this Christmas!
There is none like you, O Lord; you are great, and your name is great in might.
1 John 4:14
The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up; and anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven.
Words of Grace For Today
As the second wave of Covid 19 continues to explode around us with infections, hospitalizations and deaths that overwhelm us …
And finally restrictions are in place that might ‘bend the skyrocketing’ numbers …
Christmas will not be like many before.
There is none like God … the prayer of faith saves the sick, sins are forgiven …
So we trust God, pray fervently and rely on our sins being forgiven by forgiving others
AND
we learn from wisdom available by God’s grace to us all. For example:
On The Dose, a CBC radio program, available in numerous ways including on demand, this past week host Dr. Brian Goldman interviewed psychology professor Steve Joordens who gave advice and guides on how to stay mentally and emotionally healthy through the holidays and beyond. The advice is badly needed by many as resilience to the effects of isolation is plummeting in a free fall as fast as the Covid 19 numbers are skyrocketing.
I had to step away for part of it, such are the demands of my living situation as I balance delicately hour by hour between destruction by ice or by fire, but these are the notes from my daily journal, expanded to make sense to any reader:
1. Plan for next year’s Christmas.
This year do what is necessary to make the holidays (and every day) safe, very safe, as safe as can be, for yourself, for your loved ones, and for all those you all encounter! Many things will not be possible. Be creative this year. Plan next year to do the things you cannot do this year.
This is not like war. We know an end is in sight and recovery to a somewhat familiar normal will come, so we can plan for it. We can make our new normal even better by planning for what is precious!
2. Make intentional social interactions.
We all need to interact with others. Don’t do what is not safe, very safe. Error on the side of safety, for now. That does not mean we cannot have many social interactions. Make your virtual connections real. Listen, share, laugh, cry, ‘be there’ for the intense moments and for the mundane. Reach out to people who may not have someone. Develop ‘pen pals’ or rather phone-pals or zoom-pals.
We are in the same storm, but in different boats. So respect that we all have to cope, each in our own ways. The basics are the same: we need to stay afloat amidst the chaos.
3. Counter Anxiety with Enjoyment.
Cortisol flows when we are anxious and moves us into fight/flight/flee mode in which we do not reason, we just act to save ourselves; or so the instinct works or rather does not work well when fight/flight/flee responses can do nothing to save us, let alone help us.
Endorphins counter the effect of cortisol, so do things and help others do things that bring enjoyment. Climb El Capitan, well … maybe just get a good dose of exercise as you are able. Music moves us to remember good times, brings us to laugh, and dance. Give the gift of music to yourself, and to others. Give music to bring back memories of times before Covid 19.
3. Be a model for children.
Children experience the world through us parents and adults. Do your own work to build up resilience so that you are not anxious around children. They will learn with you to be resilient in the face of extreme challenges. They will learn how to set anxiety aside.
Be a model for other people, too. Adults learn from other adults. We never quite stop learning from others if we stay healthy!
The real dark side that is becoming more and more apparent while everyone is under the stress of Covid 19 restrictions and infections and long term illness and deaths is … is depression, which unchecked is leading to suicides.
Be aware of this and notice your anxiety before it overwhelms you. Be resilient for others. Reach out to others. If you or someone else is at risk of harming themselves, there is help. Reach out. The resources are on the web in many places including www.alberta.ca/coronavirus-info-for-albertans.aspx , scroll down to GET HELP.
4. Learn to relax at will.
You cannot be relaxed and anxious at the same time. Get online guides to practice how to relax. Practice until you can relax without the guides.
Then notice when you are starting to become anxious, and relax instead.
Use this to prepare for sleep as well.
5. Embrace winter.
Get out. It’s safer outside as far as Covid 19 goes. Be safe in the cold, dress for it. Get vitamin D by taking a walk on a sunny afternoon.
6. Bring wood from the first dry stack. (Oops, sorry that’s just the reminder for me to get wood to stay alive through last night’s -26⁰ C dip into hard freeze.)
Everyone has things that need be done to get through the winter and each month, besides dealing with Covid 19. Ensure you and others are doing those things, too. Work (not to an extreme) helps maintain resilience.
We trust God, pray fervently and rely on our sins being forgiven as we forgive others their sins, and we learn from wisdom available by God’s grace to us all.
Be safe, be wise, do not be anxious or let your hearts be troubled: instead find ways to enjoy life and share it with others, and relax into the comfort of God’s arms. God walks with us each day, each hour. God carries us when we falter.
Christ calls us to be God’s arms for one another; carry one another with respect and love.
…
[Thanks to The Dose, though I paraphrased considerably and creatively.]
.
Light one, two, (three), (four) candles to watch for the Messiah, let the light banish darkness ….
[Light One Candle to Watch for Messiah, words by Wayne L. Wold]
He delivers and rescues, he works signs and wonders in heaven and on earth; for he has saved Daniel from the power of the lions.
Hebrews 13:8
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and for ever.
Words of Grace For Today
Lions are not common in Alberta.
Alligators and wolves and elephants of the 2 legged variety abound, but no lions. It’s more difficult to be saved from the 2 legged variety than even from lions.
God steps in to save Daniel, and God works to save us, too. God delivers and rescues, works signs and wonders. The greatest wonder is the love God demonstrates for all people in becoming one us, to save us all. Grace comes
Jesus changes not a bit, not at all. Always gracious, forgiving, healing, and renewing. For all people.
The work of God never ends, never changes, and always gives us life and breath. Against those that would do us harm, God has no end of work and signs to make clear to us, that is God’s never ending wonder.
Signs and wonders fill the days and the nights of all our lives, for us all to see, and for us to give God thanks.
Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming, it is near.
2 Peter 3:13
But, in accordance with his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home.
Words of Grace For Today
They said go west young man.
So I went …
…
north instead.
And
Decades later I’m still going, and waiting,
for a home with the righteous.
If only I could find one of them,
Everyone here is a sinner,
Then I hear the trumpet blow
and see the Lord is coming
bringing
a new heaven and earth and a new home for all these wretched sinners made saints by Grace
