Facing Covid 19: Daily Words of Grace – Apr 20

Monday, April 20, 2020

God’s Eternal Word has Broken into This That We Know.

Genesis 18:19

For I have chosen him [Abraham], that he may charge his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice; so that the Lord may bring about for Abraham what the Lord has promised him.

Romans 6:22

Now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the advantage you get is sanctification. The end is eternal life.

Words of Grace For Today

Wikipedia provides that ‘Sanctification is the act or process of acquiring sanctity, of being made or becoming holy.’

We believe firmly that only God can make us holy. We cannot act to become, or enter a process of becoming holy. Sanctification is a gift given at Baptism. Thereafter one chooses in each minute/choice to act out of being holy, or not; and truth is we all act out of both all the time, simultaneously.

As generations rise and pass, we may well charge the successive generations to ‘keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice.’ This is Abraham acting then, but it is ever since God acting in the lives of the successive generations, one generation, one person at a time, to inspire them to act out righteousness and justice. God and any human who lives, eyes even a bit open, knows there are plenty of people with lots of power, influence and money who, in each generation (also ours), have no inkling for righteousness and true justice. It is all self interest, the rest of humanity be damned. Which really is the condemnation of themselves in eternity.

Given the gift of sanctification we are holy! We have the ability to be holy in every moment. In these choices, compromised as they may be by our still being sinners, we not only have an end in eternal life, we have the blessings of eternal life already today, every day!

As Covid 19 health concerns and orders foist so many new limits on our lives, new challenges, and new frustrations. Humour provides a view to this. My 88 year old Mother, living alone 10 miles from town provided these:

Who would have thought that when the time changed we would go from standard time to twilight zone time, where:
I need to practice social distancing from the refrigerator.
I am so excited! I am so excited. It’s time to take out the garbage. What should I wear?
This month’s biggest decision was where to go for Easter!
the living room or the bed room.

Simple Daylight Savings Time does not look that terrible anymore.

God’s holy people know God’s time is eternal and already it breaks in every day into our mundane lives, making each minute remarkable!

Take that Covid 19!

Facing Covid 19: Daily Words of Grace – Apr 19

Sunday, April 19, 2020

Do Not Be Afraid …

Deuteronomy 32:10

He sustained him in a desert land, in a howling wilderness waste; he shielded him, cared for him, guarded him as the apple of his eye.

Luke 12:32

‘Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

Words of Grace For Today

Isolated as we are, not completely cut off from the living, though keeping our distance, not able to see our loved ones as before, we experience the real effects of living in a desert land, in a howling wilderness waste land.

Even isolated though, we are not alone, for God is with us. God gives us the Kingdom, and in that Kingdom all live, and live well!

Fear cuts us off from our wonderful abilities to reason and place ourselves in reality, and then to choose how to respond … to choose to respond with Grace and Love.

Fear is the enemy greater than all others.

Repeatedly angels and messengers of God’s Word repeat what Jesus said often: Do Not Be Afraid!

It is too easy to let ourselves take in the new reality of being isolated because of Covid 19, of being likely to contract this highly contagious and for some painful and even deadly disease and forget all God’s blessings.

It is too easy to let ourselves despair.

It is too easy to let ourselves spiral into fear

that becomes frantic,

that becomes panic,

that becomes rash and foolish thoughts, words and actions

that put us at great risk, not only from this virus, but at great risk to lose our sanity, our God-given calm and the gifts of the Holy Spirit that equip us to be God’s Grace to others.

God treasures each of us.

So we can treasure one another.

Reach out to others as we still safely can:

especially

if you feel the walls closing in on you,

if fear grows on you,

if you feel despair circling.

Allow God to use each of us to sustain one another through this desert wasteland where fear grows too easily. Connect yourself and each other each day to the Grace that gives us breath, to the Courage that gives us life, and to God’s promises that give us hope, no matter what assails us.

Facing Covid 19: Daily Words of Grace – Apr 18

Saturday, April 18, 2020

The Laws of Physics. An Empty Glove Grows Cold Even in the Light

The Law, Greater than an Empty Hand

Jeremiah 8:7

Even the stork in the heavens knows its times; and the turtle-dove, swallow, and crane observe the time of their coming; but my people do not know the ordinance of the Lord.

Romans 2:14

When Gentiles, who do not possess the law, do instinctively what the law requires, these, though not having the law, are a law to themselves.

Words of Grace For Today

Today all to often sinful people (like us) rationalize anything and everything, as if truth, goodness, purity, and obedience were all relative or in the eye of the beholder or fully dependent on one’s perspective.

Quatsch!

Absolute reality does exist, and those who pretend that they can change reality so that they get to take control and rule over others, are only working out the Devil’s own way.

The ordinances, the Law of God, given in the Old Testament, were not equivocal. Generations spent countless hours interpreting, applying and writing guides to them, but that never changed the Law given by God. Reality is reality. God is God. Law is Law.

Do not murder. Do no commit adultery. Do not steal. Do bear false witness. Do not covet.

These are not complicated, yet a life long challenge to obey.

Jesus’ command is simpler: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and strength! Love your neighbour as yourself, and your enemy.

Jesus’ command is a greater challenge to obey, for instead of proscribing destructive behaviour, Jesus prescribes life-giving behaviour. Jesus’ command impacts everything we think, say and do!

Of course one does not need to hear Jesus’ commands to be able to love God and all people.

On the other hand just because we are baptized hardly means that we will love God and all people. So we need to hear the command again and again, so that we remember what the Holy Spirit equips us to be able and ready to do, each and every day of our lives.

None of us are above God’s law, or above Jesus’ command to love God and all people.

Following the law perfectly is impossible. We remain sinners who break it constantly, but that does not mean that we can pretend the Law does not exist, that we will not break it, and that we are not condemned for those breaches. We are only saved by Grace. That we are saved by Grace alone inspires us to forgive others as we are forgiven.

What a beautiful world that makes, for we are in it, together.

Covid 19: Music Heals the Soul and Body

Covid 19 Advice?

In devotions and sermons plenty of advice is dispensed, as proclamation of the Gospel: that we are equipped to be God-made saints (though simultaneously remaining sinners), so why not do what is good and right, and healthy; and if not now, When!

Today I offer a simple observation about Covid 19 that certainly is advice:

Get good music, and listen to it often.

…

There are of course hammers and blows, rage and chaos, yelling and ranting, or all sorts of dystopia expressions that are viewed as music.

If that is what turns your crank, don’t let me separate you from what keeps you going.

This is not the time, though, to sink obliviously into dystopia. This is time to find a connection to the music of the spheres.

One of the forefronts of physics today is String Theory, which is, in a superbly simplistic peak into it: the universe is made up of teeny strings that vibrate, like strings on a guitar, at different frequencies etc. to make up the differences of energy-matter-time of which the universe is composed.

So, the ancient idea of the music of the spheres re-emerges. And a basic truth of the human psyche-body comes into play: music touches the soul, and if it is music that reflects the marvels of creation, it can heal mind and body.

Dystopia music, music of rage and rant, and music of chaos, on the other hand, actually works against the healing of both body and mind.

What does this mean for us during the quarantine experience of Covid 19? (Okay, I got it: only in the Quarante province of France is it quarantine, for the rest of us it’s sparkling isolation, but the name is not that important, is it? Yes, even the music of words make a small difference in our health!)

This all means that one part, and it can be a large part, of our staying healthy, is to create, or at least listen to, music that heals.

I played Euphonium in college with a professional level band at Concordia College, Moorhead MN. Thanks to Russel Pesola! and all the music classes I took I learned to appreciate the intricacies of brass music.

So these moved my heart and soul once again. They are about bringing health, to the players and to the audiences:

Precisely during Covid 19, a piece for us all:

A Hope for the Future at

and

Cancer Blows 2015 at

Which Ryan Anthony, professional soloist and former member of the beloved Canadian Brass, organized, first as a lark when he was diagnosed with cancer in 2012. Then it solidified into a series of concerts and a foundation, The Ryan Anthony Foundation.

And yes, he is the soloist that closes out A Hope for the Future from his isolation bed in hospital.

The Light of Hope for the Future is There! Play it!

Facing Covid 19: Daily Words of Grace – Apr 17

Friday, April 17, 2020

When They Attack …

Psalms 71:3

Be to me a rock of refuge, a strong fortress, to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress.

2 Timothy 4:18

The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and save me for his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Words of Grace For Today

You, O Lord, are our rock and salvation!

Whatever enemy attacks us, a minute virus, a devilish temptation beyond our resisting, or a deceitful person bent on destroying us by whatever means, God is our refuge. God is a fortress that protects us.

We may be infected, become ill, every ill, suffer and even die.

We may not be able to resist a temptation that rebounds on us, ruining everything about our lives, leaving us with nothing, living on the street, bereft of family, friends and hope.

We may be attacked by a person we trusted with our life, who betrays us, who spreads rumours about us in the church and our community, who lies before the Courts, who stops at nothing to run us out of this life. And the church, the community, and the Courts may not only receive the lies as if truth, but create more lies of their own in order to condemn us and bring us within a thin thread of disappearing into a grave. And the accumulated gaslighting and it’s profound costs may indeed bring us to an early grave.

Still God is our refuge, our rock and salvation. God saves us for God’s own kingdom. Timothy wrote ‘heavenly’ kingdom, but the heavenly and earthly kingdom of God is not two separate things. It is all the same.

Even today, God is with us, and the Kingdom of God is at hand!

For this Kingdom, God saves us, even if our devilish enemies steal everything from us, even the breath that we use to sing God’s praise.

For even in death, God’s glory is made known in the lives of all us God-made saints still sinners.

While we still have breath, let us not waste any opportunity we have to live as ‘little Christs’ for each other, for those in need, for the strangers we meet, and especially for our enemies.

We can live courageously, for God is our rock, our refuge, and our salvation! Nothing can separate us from the love of God that gives us life in Christ.

Facing Covid 19: Daily Words of Grace – Apr 16

Thursday, April 16, 2020

God Gives Us Great Gifts.

Isaiah 5:21

Ah, you who are wise in your own eyes, and shrewd in your own sight!

1 Corinthians 2:12

Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the gifts bestowed on us by God.

Words of Grace For Today

There are so many who think they are powerful, wealthy, wise, and/or famous.

God puts them down as nothing more than mere wisps of grass that fade in the heat and the cold. God instead raises up those who appear weak, poverty stricken, foolish and/or infamous, by the power of the Spirit, to share the gifts God provides to us, and through us to the all people.

Psalm 1 teaches us clearly, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom. Self important people (even those not so remarkably daft as one president proves over and over, assume great wisdom) are as dangerous as the power they wield. Without the foundation of wisdom that is humility before God, there is no real wisdom.

Who are we, these days of Easter, as we celebrate each day the miracle of Christ risen, death defeated, God victorious through sacrificial love, instead of through force or wealth or power that controls others?

More so, what do we rely on, when push comes to shove, when ‘the rock’ squeezes us against ‘the hard place’, when the walls start to close in on us as cabin fever strikes is many and various ways?

Do we rely on the gifts of the Spirit, or the things of this world? Do we rely on God’s Word made palpable in the Body of Christ, and its various sinner-saint members? Do we allow the Spirit to guide us how to be those sinner-saints who bring real help and hope to those in need?

Let the gifts of life flow, from God, through us, to others. We will survive only as we trust God in all things.

Facing Covid 19: Daily Words of Grace – Apr 15

Wednesday, April 15, 2020

Small Normal Things are Blessings Most Obvious.

Blessings are sure!

Deuteronomy 2:7

Surely the Lord your God has blessed you in all your undertakings; he knows your going through this great wilderness. These forty years the Lord your God has been with you; you have lacked nothing.’

2 Corinthians 6:410

As servants of God we have commended ourselves in every way: through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities… , yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything.

Words of Grace For Today

The Covid 19 emergency measures in place in nearly every corner of the world, some tighter than elsewhere, wear on us. We are hardwired to connect with others.

My niece went to the beach in Costa Rica where she lives. The authorities arrived and ordered her to return home. She did. Another beach goer received the same ordered and dallied, to be arrested and placed in their ‘police wagon.’

In Canada we are emptying the jails for there is no real protection there should Covid 19 reach inside those walls. Cleaning solutions are most often water and toilet paper, or a rag from an old towel, if you are lucky. The regular issue of cleaning solution is controlled by the inmates and is little more than water in its effectiveness. Instead of jail, heavy fines are in place for breaching emergency orders.

Through this wilderness of working diligently to avoid a deadly microscopic enemy, how can we trust that God is with us? Our success in avoiding the deadly enemy depends less on what we ourselves do and more on what a whole host of others do! We are in this together, dependent on what the most reckless person among us does!

The real enemy though is not this tiny one that can kill us, nor the sloppy ignorance and apathy of others. The real enemy is our own fear. For fear will make us sloppy, reckless and contagious hosts carrying the tiny enemy about for days before we show signs of being infected.

Fear also knocks the life right out of us, so that even if we never come close to, or even if we survive being infected, and nearly drowning in our own body fluids filling our lungs fighting against this tiny enemy …. Fear reduces life now and after Covid 19 to something so much less than life as God intended and made us able to live.

Fear, panic, and especially irrational terror cut off our thought processes so that we no longer can carefully assess what is happening. Our responses are quick, but often more destructive than the focus of our fear or panic. Irrational terror does not wait for an object of fear to come along our paths. It creates imaginary objects of fear. The wilderness we jump down into is a dark hole which can consume us, or transform us into a devil’s dervish of destruction to others around us.

Paul’s words need to be ours: we have commended ourselves to Christ, no matter our circumstances: no matter the cause for real fear, we remain courageously faithful and loving for others. No matter our riches or our poverty, we remain thankful and generous. No matter the enemies we face, we remain joyous, for Christ gives us life that is not diminished by outward or inward events. Our lives as God-made saints remain intact, even if the universe collapses in on itself.

Surely, then, we have solid reason to be Christ’s voice, hands and feet in these times!

Covid-19 Deadly Serious Humour – Stay the Blazes Home

There are always a few fools, and those who must try to contain them.

Nova Scotia has a story, violaters, a premier with words, and a few songs and a result. People may be listening to each other a bit better, and Staying the Blazes Home!

The first? take on “Stay the Blazes Home!” by Emma VanRooyen and her husband.

And then after many others another song by the Stanfields:

The CBC quote of Stay the Blazes Home the Stanfield’s song, and the sense of it all.

Humour makes the medicine go down!

Facing Covid 19: Daily Words of Grace – Apr 14

Tuesday, April 14, 2020

Born, we have a clean slate. Reborn it is forever cleaned.

Isaiah 51:5

I will bring near my deliverance swiftly, my salvation has gone out and my arms will rule the peoples; the coastlands wait for me, and for my arm they hope.

1 Peter 1:3

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

Words of Grace For Today

At our births our mothers bring us into the world. Each year our family and friends can celebrate with us that we exist! How special it is to have balloons all about, Happy Birthday posters on the walls, candles and figures of thanks and hope ring our breakfast table setting, family singing for us, and at a party of friends we eat cake (ice cream of course!) and blow out the candles with wishes for the future. In these times birthday parties include friends only virtually, and the wishes likely include that we could once again gather with friends in person, to share life together.

Birthdays are important. They help us communicate to each other that we are precious to one another.

More important is the celebration of our second births, our baptisms into Christ’s death and resurrection. Given the gifts of the Holy Spirit we become (while yet always remaining sinners) God-made saints, the people the Light of Christ shines for all the world to see and experience.

As God-made saints we become the arm of Christ: the voice, hands, and feet of Christ that God uses to reach out to bring with real deeds the Grace of God, which saved us, and through us, can save all people.

We are not equipped with the weapons of the Devil: lies, force, deceit, greed, and avarice. The Holy Spirit equips us with the same sacrificial love that Jesus exercised for us in order to save us; courage, healing compassion, patience, creative wisdom, persistent faith, endurance, and undying hope.

With these, we reach out by all means left available to us, to transform other’s lives from Good Friday mourning or Black Saturday despair, to Easter morning astounding and confusing amazement and celebration: Jesus, the Christ, is Risen.

God is victorious. Christ offers opportunities to live fully, giving to others, and the Holy Spirit guides us to surprising, courageous, sacrificial and loving deeds that bring vibrant hope to all … even in these times, especially in these times.

Facing Covid 19: Daily Words of Grace – Apr 13

Monday, April 13, 2020

God’s Camp, Our Home

Genesis 32:2

When Jacob saw them he said, ‘This is God’s camp!’ So he called that place Mahanaim

Matthew 28:5.7

But the angel said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples, “He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.” This is my message for you.’

Words of Grace For Today

Jacob saw the angels (on his way to meet his brother Esau, whom he had cheated out of both his birthright and his blessing). He calls it Mahanaim, meaning two camps, or two hosts. One host is the earthly gathering of a few, the other is the accompanying host of great multitudes of heavenly beings.

Most people today live quite well without meeting any angels. Yet again and again they play a key role in the biblical stories. On Easter the angel is the one who shares with Mary what we treasure as God’s victory over death and all evil: Jesus no longer lays dead in the tomb. He is alive and will meet them back home.

Whether we believe in angels or not, we seem to tell our stories as if …

… as if we could get away from God, and be separate from our creator.

… as if we need despair when we are alone, as if God had deserted us.

… as if God was not always accompanying us.

Everywhere is God’s camp. Everywhere is where Jesus meets us, not just at home. Though now with the Covid 19 restrictions and advice in place we stay home as much as possible, so it is a good thing Jesus is there, too!

When we feel like climbing the walls, remember there are multitudes upon multitudes of angels just on the other side of … well everything.

And even if you doubt angels exist, trust that God is with you always, holding you up when you have no more to give, or patience to take being couped up for all our safeties’ sake.

Where we each live is Mahanaim, God’s camp, God’s home, our home.