Birdsongs of Praise

      The days are longer and warmer now.  The sun comes up earlier and earlier and with the sun, come the birds.  There are several birds nesting in the trees around the yard and they begin singing long before the sun comes over the horizon.
        The other morning, I woke up just before five-thirty.  The sun hadn't risen yet but the sky was gray and lightening up enough to see clearly.  It wasn't the light that woke me up though.  It was the birds and one in particular who was in the tree not far from the bathroom window.
        In the stillness of the dawn the bird song was so loud, it almost echoed.  It was bright, jaunty, and lyrical.  In the cool air coming in through the window, the song beckoned me to wake up and enjoy the new day.  It was such a clear and beautiful song, it reminded me of Jesus' entry into Jerusalem; what is called Palm Sunday.  When Jesus rides the donkey into the city and the people cry out in praise, those in authority tell Jesus to order everyone to stop.  Jesus answers, "I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out."  (Luke 19:40)  No composer could write a more beautiful song of praise.
       I stood and listened to the bird's song, gradually joined by other birds.  I lingered for a while but I confess, I soon took my chilly feet and crawled back into bed and went back to sleep.  Morning is not my time of day.
       Now my husband gets up with the sun, usually before his alarm goes off and he is ready to go.  He is like the birds, ready to greet the sun with song.  Me?  I'm more like the cartoon cat Garfield, ready to pull the blankets over my head and wish that morning would come back later.
       And yet as I listened to the bird that morning in the pristine stillness as the sky lightened, I fell in love with the beginning of the day in spite of myself.  A few hours later, when I got up for the day, I tried to hang on to that joy and greet the day with that same sense of joy and hope-filled possibilities.
       I don't think we can change our biorhythms; the slight changes in the lightening of the sky are not enough to wake me up with a song just itching to be sung.  However, I know that my day goes better when I face it with hope.  It wasn't the music of the birdsong that changed my morning but rather that the beauty of the birdsong reconnected me to the Creator, to God, the source of power, life, and hope.
       There are times when facing a new day with hope just feels impossible because of what we carry with us from yesterday: our failures and ourselves.  Sometimes that burden has even kept us awake during the night, robbing us of healing sleep.  But out of love, God sent Jesus that we can be forgiven.  That  forgiveness makes that hope possible no matter what did or didn't happen in all our yesterdays.  The hope of the new day does not rely on us but is a gift from God.

       Whether you wake up in the morning smiling and singing or feeling like you'd rather hit the sun with a giant snooze button, reconnecting with God will do more to make the day go better than any cup of coffee.  Some people enjoy reading devotions or praying in the stillness before anyone else wakes up; some days, a prayer from under the covers may be the best that we can manage.  It can be taking a moment to listen, or see, or smell the freshness of the morning or snuggling next to someone we love.  Find your morning touchstone that allows you to begin your day with God and remember that whatever the day brings, you do not face it alone.  Read Psalm 118:21-24

Planting Time

       Did you hear that the world was supposed to end May 21st?  An evangelical radio pastor put the word out that the world was going to end yesterday. Never mind that he predicted the same thing would happen in 1994.  It was reported that even his own assistant was still making appointments for his for the future and planned to be at work on the following Monday.  Yet Harold Camping urged all his followers to give all their money to the church or spend it because judgment day was really coming and all real Christians should be ready.

        It has been interesting to read and hear what some of the reporters and media people said in trying to understand this prediction.  It was clear from some of the reports that the writer had no church experience at all and didn’t understand the concept that Camping’s radio church didn’t represent most or even a major portion of people who consider themselves Christian.  Some news items seemed to be more about taking a poke at church than taking it seriously – like the report I heard about a business that sells pet insurance for Christians that believe in the rapture.

       The end is coming the billboards and signs said.  Be ready!  The implication was that anyone who is a believer in Jesus wouldn’t have to worry about anything past yesterday. 

       I have to say, I didn’t hear a lot of conversation about it around these parts this week.     

       What I did notice this week was a lot of smiles at the sunny dry days we had.  No matter how tired or hard-working they were, I don’t think I saw one farmer without a smile on his face this week.  Everyone is so happy to finally be out in the fields.  Obviously the concern around here has been more about preparing the fields for growing a new crop than waiting for the end of the world.

       So what does that say about faith around here?  Are we all a bunch of non-believers?

       No.  Questions about when the end of the world is going to be have been around since before Christ.  In the gospels, there is more than one record of the disciples asking Jesus when the day of judgment is coming.

       In all of these conversations, Jesus’ answer remains the same.  We are to be ready, we are to live faithfully all the time because it can come at any moment but we are not to know when.  In the gospel of Matthew where Jesus  actually talks about what signs there might be that the end is near, even there, Jesus says explicitly that not only will we not know when but that even he does not know when.  He says, “But about that day and hour, no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” (Matthew 24:36)

       According to Jesus, it is not our business to worry about when the end will come.  Our job is to live as people of faith.  Our worry is to be ready and to tell others about Jesus.  Jesus  says we have work to do.  Martin Luther would have been right out with the farmers.  He is quoted as saying that if he knew the world was going to end tomorrow, he would plant a tree today.  Our concern is not with tomorrow but with the work to be done today.

       The focus of faith is not on ourselves, what we need or want or what happens to us.  The focus of faith is on God by living and loving as Jesus did; to welcome and care for the lost, the least, and the little ones among us.  The focus of faith is to share the good news of God’s love. 

        As Jesus says, people of faith live in God’s love.  Faith gives us the gift of living right now, today and everyday, of living in God’s love.  People who follow Jesus are not people of the end, but of new life and God’s almighty and eternal love.  Jesus doesn’t leave us with a threat to hang over the world’s head.  Jesus leaves us with a promise – Do not let your hearts be troubled. He gives us peace – rest in God’s love.  Read John 14:1-7

Living Is Believing

       “Our God is an awesome God” Those are the lyrics to a popular hymn-song by Rich Mullins.  But the promise of the words comes from the book of Deuteronomy (Deut. 7:21) which reads, “Have no dread…, for the Lord your God, who is present with you, is a great and awesome God.”  Have you ever wondered what that means?

       I looked up the word “awesome” in the dictionary and it gave me this list: breathtaking, awe-inspiring, magnificent, wonderful, amazing, stunning, staggering, imposing, stirring, impressive, formidable, fearsome, dreaded, and informal meanings: mind-boggling, mind-blowing, jaw-dropping, excellent, marvelous.  These words give a hint at how impossible it is for us to come up with the right words to contain the meaning and scope of God’s identity and work.   We are struggling to understand even the basics of the cosmos, how can we grasp the one who created it?

       It is Easter!  It is time to sing alleluias and declare the glory of God.  For God so loved the world that God gave the beloved son, Jesus Christ whose life and death won our freedom from sin and death. 

       This is the God the God of whom we sing.  This is the power of God, to defeat sin, death, and all evil.  This is the love of God, that that Jesus came while we were yet sinners.  Even in our brokenness, Jesus came for us.  God is an awesome God!

        But do we truly believe in God and trust in God’s love and power?  Do we credit God with being present, relevant, and active in our lives?

       I’m afraid all too often we live as one author puts it, as Christian atheists; saying we have faith but living our lives as if God doesn’t exist.  Faith gets treated as a nice philosophy or set of moral platitudes that help people to be nice but without the real power to really change anything.  In fact, we’d rather not have faith and God messing about in our lives challenging our priorities and our choices.  That would just be too uncomfortable. 

       Jesus met such a young man once, who asked Jesus, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus talks about the commandments, and the young man says confidently that he follows those.  He is a good person.  Jesus tells him he lacks one thing and says to go and sell all that he has, give the money to the poor and follow him.  The young man goes away grieving. (Mark 10:17-22).  Faith is okay until Jesus starts messing with our stuff. 

       So sometimes we don’t want God to have power in our lives but then there are those who live as if God doesn’t have any real power to change things.  That’s what happens when we live as if getting things done is all up to us and we leave God out of the equation.  We live as if God has no power.

       Bono of the band U2 challenges us to: “Stand up for hope, faith, love,… Stop helping God across the road like a little old lady”.  (from the song “Stand Up Comedy” from the album “No Line on the Horizon”) 

       The God of Easter is truly an awesome God.  The God of Easter changed everything for eternity.  If we truly believe that our God is an awesome God, full of power, love, and grace, it should matter in our lives.  As people of faith, the truth of Easter changes everything not only what we believe and feel but also what we do and say in our daily lives.  Read John 20:24-29

The Old Rugged Cross

       The old familiar hymn starts, “On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross”. 

       That is where we come this week, to that lonely hill to look at the cross where Jesus hung.  That ugly, horrible place that was so fearful, so hideous, that his disciples abandoned him and left him to die alone.  There in great pain and agony, Jesus died not because of anything he had done but because out of love for us, for God’s wayward children, Jesus gave everything, including his life.

       What happened on that hill, on that cross is so terrible that if we didn’t know the rest of the story, it would be unbearable.  How  could anyone stand to watch that happen to another human being?  And even more, how could a mother stand there and watch it happen to her child?

        But today we come willingly to hear the story again and to watch in our minds and hearts what happened to Jesus on that hill some 2,000 years ago.

       Why do we cling to this old rugged cross?  How can we bear to come here?

It is only possible because we know the rest of the story.  We know that even though the people who wanted it carried out had only fear and hate in their hearts, the reason that Jesus hung on that cross was love.   Out of love, Jesus gave himself that the world might be saved.

       The cross is the symbol of God’s love.

       Even so, Jesus knew how unbearable it was for his mother Mary to watch.  Even in his pain and agony, he turned to her.  The Gospel of John tells us that when he saw the beloved disciple, John standing next to her, he told her, “Woman, here is your son.”  He looked at John and said, “Here is your mother”. (John 19:25-27)

        He had concern not only that Mary would not be left alone, but that she should have a home, shelter, and to be provided for.  Even while Jesus did what was necessary to save the world and worked salvation’s cosmic deed, he also cared personally and intimately for this woman, his mother.

       That’s the miracle of God’s saving grace.  On one level, it is the act of saving the world, of redeeming all of God’s children for all time – salvation on a cosmic and eternal level.  And yet, Jesus’ act is also one of love for each of us individually and personally.

       Jesus died that awful death for John and Mary, for you, and for me.

       That old rugged cross is not just a symbol, it is the means by which sin and death are defeated. 

        And so it is appropriate for us to come and gather at the foot of the rugged cross; to remember the giver and the price he paid for us. It is appropriate for us to remember our sinfulness and the need of forgiveness that we each have.  Each one of us is the reason that Jesus hung on this cross.

       And so we cling to the old rugged cross.  It is here at the foot of the cross that we find forgiveness.  It is here at the foot of the cross that we are reassured of God’s love; that we are welcome just as we are.  It is here at the foot of the cross that sin is defeated and we hear the good news of the resurrection and life everlasting.

       It is right that we should mark the gravity, the weight of price that Jesus paid for us.  His death, his agony was not a symbol but was real.  

       But this is also the time for celebration.  This old rugged cross is empty.  The story does not end here; it all begins here and it lasts forever.  Because of this cross, we live forever.  Because of the cross, we have forgiveness, we are embraced and held in God's love, and we live in hope and joy!  Read John 19:13 - 20:18  (Please take time this week for the longer reading.)

God is Our Comfort

       We've had quite a week around here with water everywhere.  It's Spring and the Red River is flooding; at least it is trying to be Spring.  Monday it was 60 degrees and warm and sunny.  People were out in shorts running and biking.  I know I enjoyed going out without my jacket.  It was great while it lasted.
       But yesterday, we woke up to some snow on the ground and then it kept snowing all day long.  I went out before my afternoon bible-study and had to dig to find the scraper so I could get the snow off of the car so I could see to drive.  By late afternoon, it looked more like Christmas outside than getting close to Easter.
       It would be one thing if all of this was just a matter of inconvenience or disappointment in the weather change, but the flooding makes it more serious.  No matter how often we have lived through floods in the past, as I was reminded more than once this week, every flood is different and when they hit such high levels, they bring disaster.  There is damage to houses, roads covered by water isolating small towns and rural homesteads, farm animals and wildlife are displaced, and even those of us who are safe are on edge and watchful.
      In the midst of this, neighbors are reaching out to each other and helping each other out from the filling and piling of sandbags to feeding cattle that have wandered away trying to escape water.  After the rivers start returning to their banks, there will be the hard work of cleaning up inside and out so that life can begin to return to normal.  We'll need to help each other out then as well.
       There is a communal aspect to disaster that sometimes makes it easier to reach out to help one another or to ask for help.  When disaster strikes a community (or a large river valley), being affected by the disaster becomes something we have in common to a lesser or greater extent.  The shared experience makes it harder to judge the circumstances as the result of personal fault.  We find ourselves in the same predicament.
       Once after a tornado devastated a small town, I went to the only place in town for a hot meal which was the Salvation Army setup.  I found myself standing in line with the mayor and asked him how he was.  It had been a very hard and busy two or three days since the tornado.  He suddenly stopped and looked around and said, "It's really true.  I just realized I'm here in the soup line with everyone else.  I lost my house too."
       But no matter what has happened, we do not face it alone.  Before, during, and after any disaster or crisis, God is with us.  As it is written, "Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.  When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you." (Isaiah 43:1-2)  God loves and knows you by name and calls you in love.  When we feel alone, it is because we have turned away and lost sight of God who is always there, ready and wanting to hold us in love.  Read Isaiah 66:12-13

You LIght Up My Life!

       I received the best gift some days ago; someone sent me a wonderful and sincere thank you note.  In the midst of a very hard week, it came unexpectedly in the mail.  It means a lot to me; not only did someone appreciate what I've done, but also they took the extra time and effort to reach out and express that to me.  It is so rare these days to receive something personal in the mail that is neither a bill nor junk.
       In our hurry and rush world, such things are becoming a lost art.  Even writing a check to pay for a purchase is seen as an imposition and waste of other people's valuable time these days.  Even talking is in danger of becoming old-fashioned.  I went out to dinner a couple of months ago and at one point, everyone else was texting away on their phones.  In such an environment, it is no wonder that manners are declining.
        Going by the frequency of complaints in advice columns, saying and writing thank-you is one of the social graces that is being neglected.  Most of the complaints treat the thank-you as a tit-for-tat exchange that almost requires retaliation.  The gift must be followed by a thank-you or there will be no more gifts.  Much of the language often talks about it in terms of what is "owed". To me, such exchanges have lost the qualities of grace and of caring that are freely shared.
        The thank-you that I received the other day was not like that at all.  It was not for a gift I had given or personal favor performed.  It was not a thank-you that I was "owed".
        We all need more "thank-you"s in our lives. It's not good enough to relegate it to formal responses to certain gifts.  And while I love celebrating Thanksgiving Day and all it stands for, giving thanks is too important to be reserved for just one day, once a year.  Gratitude balances out our lives and improves our quality of life.
       We need to recapture the art of being grateful for the people in our lives not just for what they can give or do for us but just for being in our lives and being themselves.  Throughout his letters in the New Testament, Paul declares gratitude for the people he writes to and the people he works with.  He rightly credits them as gifts from God.
       Paul writes from the perspective of a life that is not easy.  Away from home, often persecuted or in prison and sometimes lacking even for his winter coat, yet he finds strength, hope, and comfort in the community of the church; the saints, those that like him who also believe in Jesus Christ.  He is not grateful because his life is wonderful and easy but rather he finds his life wonderful because of the people of faith surrounding him.
       Who is a gift in your life?  Often they may not even be aware that they have touched our hearts but their smiles, friendship, encouragement, joy, or presence make our lives richer.  Take the time to show gratitude to those around you.  Perhaps even make a bit of a game out of it and seek a way to make it an unexpected or even anonymous gift of thanks.  You may never know, but your unexpected encouragement may shine the light of love that gives new hope and new life.  Read Philippians 1: 3-11

Splashing in God's Puddles!

       It's one of those days where you just never know what's going to happen.  Like the saying goes, "Life is what happens when I've made other plans"!  When I came indoors a few minutes ago, it was forty degrees above zero, sunny sky, and melting snow.  And yet on the radio, they are still forecasting blizzard warnings for the area between this afternoon and tomorrow.  But now I notice that the sun is now behind the clouds and the wind is picking up and the roads and weather have been bad to the west.  It's coming our way.
       How do you plan for such a day?  Last night we were making plans for the day, trying to work around weather that could include everything from rain to sleet to snow and blizzard conditions.  I knew that today was going to busy and I was trying to figure out how to get everything done in spite of the weather that is predicted.  Grownups plan and worry (and rightly so), taking into account all the variables that the weather throws at us and trying to get things done.
     From the moment the day started, things changed as the day went.  I eventually had to just shrug it off and take the day as it came.  Along the way, I stopped at the grocery store to get some apple juice for the first meeting of a knitting group.  One of the moms from church came in with her children and as you do in a small town, my checking out stopped so we could all say "hello" and chat for a bit.
        We shared talk about the weather and wondering if and when the supposed blizzard would come.  We were all being a bit tired and probably a bit grumpy; after all, it was Friday afternoon after a busy week as Lent got underway.  The mom let out a sigh and said, "You don't know how many puddles we've been through today".  Her little daughter smiled and showed off her colorful rain boots and made it clear that she was having fun even if we
weren't.
       It reminded me that one person's slogging in the mud really is another person's playful splashing in the puddles!  The storm may be coming but she was enjoying the sunshine and the puddles while they lasted.  After all, we've had snow on the ground since the very first of November without a break.  It's been a long winter between puddles.
       Planning is indeed good and necessary; it's how we accomplish long-range goals and also prepare ourselves for the changes and disasters that can come along our way.  But we also need to learn to put ourselves in Gods hands and take each day as it comes.  We can worry to the point that we miss out on the beauty and opportunities to share some joy that are in front of us.
       Lent can become a burden with even more things for us to do and more responsibilities.  But a good Lenten discipline can also be to remind ourselves to slow down and ask God to help us see the world and great each day as a gift from God.  The hard tasks and painful times will find us; we are not in danger of missing them.  However, we are in danger of missing the "God sightings" that are in front of us from the joy of a small child splashing in the first puddles of spring to shared moments of friendship.  Jesus said it best, "So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own."  Read Matthew 6:25-34