Our Easter services Sunday were packed and mind-blowing. It was a wonderful day. One moment in particular keeps ringing in my brainbox. It was when my dear friend Claudia shared a deep, enlightening reflection on joy.
Claudia was standing alone at the microphone in front of hundreds of people on the second anniversary of her husband's terribly premature passing, and she observed that anxieties, anger, jealousy and all the other fear-based mindsets and emotions will jump in and demand to be heard, but joy sits quietly on the shelf, not demanding our attention at all, but always waiting for us to turn and reach for it.
Brilliant. So true. We can easily pass up joy in our lives. It happens all the time. Joy is a chosen response, not an automatic reaction, in most cases.
Me, personally...I plan on reaching for it a lot more. There is so much in my world I can respond to with joy, and I have begun to be more mindful as a result of Claudia's words. The sky was blue and the air wonderfully crisp as I walked to work this morning. So what if I was walking because I had blown the engine in my car? There was joy to be reached for and quietly encountered right there on the street I normally zip down at 45 mph.
Life is 10% stimulus and 90% response. Most days I collect grievances and stack mishaps, building walls of resentment that shut out potentially extraordinary insight. I forget: Stimulus sets the agenda, but response shapes the day.
Like the car that won’t move one cold Spring morning, aren’t most of the aggravations of a given day really just the sudden, temporary absence of some ordinary blessing between points A and B? Let us pause in the sacred space between from and to, where much that is good appears 364/365ths of the time. Let us recognize that joy is almost always an option. Why wouldn't we choose to reach for it?
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Holy Week: Reality Check
He asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Messiah.” And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him.
Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.” -- Mark 8:29-33
Knowing there is a God is not the same as knowing God, is it? Acknowledging the initial fact is only the first step on a precipitous, arduous path that most of us choose not to take.
When Peter correctly identifies Jesus as Messiah, he does so with stars in his eyes. He has seen incredible miracles. He has heard astounding sermons. He has stood with Jesus before enormous, adoring crowds. He feels the power and the glory, but he doesn’t know the half of it.
You see, Peter and his fellow followers had always looked to the horizon for a great, conquering Messiah on a charging war-horse, come to set everything right and redeem at last the chosen people in one fell swoop, whisking them off to glory and honor while the other folks were knocked down and left behind. Jesus has to repeatedly, firmly, unequivocally correct this misguided notion. The profane always resist the profound. The gentle are bruised by the harsh. Story time is over, Peter. Wake up to reality.
It is a risky business pointing these things out, but to this day, the would-be followers of Christ regularly require the cold, hard slap of reality. Get behind me, Satan, the truth is the cancer sometimes comes back. Get behind me, Satan, the speeding car doesn’t always stop in time. Get behind me, Satan, starting our third “War to End All Wars” won’t result in Christ coming on the clouds any quicker than did numbers I and II. Prosperity Gospel?!?!?!? Get thee behind me, Satan, God doesn’t intend to be my Santa Claus. God intends for me to be someone else’s Jesus.
“Love God with everything you’ve got, and consider everyone else’s well being to be as vital as your own,” Christ said, summing up the message of all the prophets and scripture from A to Z. Now you and I both know that neither one of us is all that successful in carrying out these two simple requirements. They run counter to what it takes to make our way in this world. Ah, but if we are followers of Christ, the way we are supposed to make in the world isn’t our own, is it?
If I am following Christ to be somehow richly blessed in this world, I might want to turn around now and go back to square one. If I am following Christ to somehow richly bless this world -- yes, here is the path to peace, enlightenment and the kingdom of God.
“For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.”—Mark 8:35
Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.” -- Mark 8:29-33
Knowing there is a God is not the same as knowing God, is it? Acknowledging the initial fact is only the first step on a precipitous, arduous path that most of us choose not to take.
When Peter correctly identifies Jesus as Messiah, he does so with stars in his eyes. He has seen incredible miracles. He has heard astounding sermons. He has stood with Jesus before enormous, adoring crowds. He feels the power and the glory, but he doesn’t know the half of it.
You see, Peter and his fellow followers had always looked to the horizon for a great, conquering Messiah on a charging war-horse, come to set everything right and redeem at last the chosen people in one fell swoop, whisking them off to glory and honor while the other folks were knocked down and left behind. Jesus has to repeatedly, firmly, unequivocally correct this misguided notion. The profane always resist the profound. The gentle are bruised by the harsh. Story time is over, Peter. Wake up to reality.
It is a risky business pointing these things out, but to this day, the would-be followers of Christ regularly require the cold, hard slap of reality. Get behind me, Satan, the truth is the cancer sometimes comes back. Get behind me, Satan, the speeding car doesn’t always stop in time. Get behind me, Satan, starting our third “War to End All Wars” won’t result in Christ coming on the clouds any quicker than did numbers I and II. Prosperity Gospel?!?!?!? Get thee behind me, Satan, God doesn’t intend to be my Santa Claus. God intends for me to be someone else’s Jesus.
“Love God with everything you’ve got, and consider everyone else’s well being to be as vital as your own,” Christ said, summing up the message of all the prophets and scripture from A to Z. Now you and I both know that neither one of us is all that successful in carrying out these two simple requirements. They run counter to what it takes to make our way in this world. Ah, but if we are followers of Christ, the way we are supposed to make in the world isn’t our own, is it?
If I am following Christ to be somehow richly blessed in this world, I might want to turn around now and go back to square one. If I am following Christ to somehow richly bless this world -- yes, here is the path to peace, enlightenment and the kingdom of God.
“For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.”—Mark 8:35
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Corruption is a Slippery Fish
Aren't the headlines painful? New York's governor, Eliot Spitzer, implicated in a prostitution ring. The man who rode a reform agenda into office with a 70% approval rating...the guy who took on the corporate thieves...the guy with the happy family and everything to gain, at this writing, is about to lose it all.
Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.
How excruciating is his fall? Even his political nemesis, that scoundrel Joe Bruno, has thus far refused to pile on. The damage is just too horrific on its own. To toss in more criticism would be like throwing a match on an already raging house fire.
Don't put your trust in the princes of men the psalmist tells us. We are flawed creatures, we humans. It is not a morose downer to acknowledge a universal sinning nature. It is, rather, a more realistic assessment of life together. We're human. We sometimes miss the mark. Enlightened thinkers will admit this truth into life's equation.
To me, the greater crime in prostitution is committed by the pimp and the john. I assume at the prices they were charging, these particular women were not impoverished financially. But, typically, the pimp and john are in a predatory relationship with the prostitute. It is the rich stealing from the poor. It is the strong stepping on the weak. It is the comfortable abusing the desperate.
I had a friend in South Carolina who was a newspaper reporter and something of a deep thinker. During a similar scandal involving a university president and his "assistants," I asked him how this could happen to people with so much power and privilege. He answered by asking me if I had any flaws with which I sometimes struggled. When I acknowledged that I did, he said something that has stuck with me to this day:
"Now, Corey," he said. "Imagine you with your fatal flaw becoming evermore powerful. With power come resources to get whatever you want whenever you want it. But with power come isolation, fatigue, even loneliness. Power does not corrupt. Rather, power makes it all the harder to control the corruption we ourselves carried in with us."
I pray for Gov. Spitzer, his wife and children. I pray for New York. Albany is broken, that is true. But so are the rest of us.
Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.
How excruciating is his fall? Even his political nemesis, that scoundrel Joe Bruno, has thus far refused to pile on. The damage is just too horrific on its own. To toss in more criticism would be like throwing a match on an already raging house fire.
Don't put your trust in the princes of men the psalmist tells us. We are flawed creatures, we humans. It is not a morose downer to acknowledge a universal sinning nature. It is, rather, a more realistic assessment of life together. We're human. We sometimes miss the mark. Enlightened thinkers will admit this truth into life's equation.
To me, the greater crime in prostitution is committed by the pimp and the john. I assume at the prices they were charging, these particular women were not impoverished financially. But, typically, the pimp and john are in a predatory relationship with the prostitute. It is the rich stealing from the poor. It is the strong stepping on the weak. It is the comfortable abusing the desperate.
I had a friend in South Carolina who was a newspaper reporter and something of a deep thinker. During a similar scandal involving a university president and his "assistants," I asked him how this could happen to people with so much power and privilege. He answered by asking me if I had any flaws with which I sometimes struggled. When I acknowledged that I did, he said something that has stuck with me to this day:
"Now, Corey," he said. "Imagine you with your fatal flaw becoming evermore powerful. With power come resources to get whatever you want whenever you want it. But with power come isolation, fatigue, even loneliness. Power does not corrupt. Rather, power makes it all the harder to control the corruption we ourselves carried in with us."
I pray for Gov. Spitzer, his wife and children. I pray for New York. Albany is broken, that is true. But so are the rest of us.
Monday, March 10, 2008
A Whereness of God
But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Even heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, much less this house that I have built! – 1 Kings 8:27
So Solomon begins his dedication of the massive temple he built in Jerusalem, the first of its kind for a God that had first been encountered by humanity somewhere around the Tigris and Euphrates rivers (we think), and who had led men, women and children to wander across borders of far-flung nations, in and out of slavery, self-rule and exile for millennia.
This is the God who compelled Abram to pull up stakes in Ur and travel all the way to Canaan. Who led Joseph and his brothers down into Egypt…Moses and his followers back out. This was a God of nomadic herdsman, itinerant workers, strangers in strange lands and vagabonds. Now Solomon would push a pin into the infinite map of the universe and say “this is where we will meet to encounter God.”
Solomon, in his wisdom, immediately recognizes the irony of the moment: How could the God who created the heavens and the earth, whom our ancestors met everywhere they turned, be contained in this one spot? Nonsense! Solomon’s Temple was not built to narrow the scope of God, but to focus the vision of God’s people.
A church is not built to corral God, but to corral us: God’s wandering, ADHD followers. If we simply stated that we would meet Sunday morning where we most encounter God, some of us would be up in the hills or down by the lake, others in an inner-city soup kitchen, a maternity ward or a Habitat for Humanity construction site. A couple of us would meet at the church, and a few of us wouldn’t even leave our homes.
We are followers of a God who supplies to us no name beyond Yahweh -- I Am. Christ’s given name, Jehoshua, literally means Through God I am Free. Christ sends to us the Spirit whose name means wind (ruah).
But sometimes for us finite, mortal beings, AWARENESS of God requires A WHERENESS of God; a specific place we set apart as communally holy, where we can come together, share our experiences and turn to our God as one to offer praise and worship. Building and maintaining a church are profound acts of worship: a reaching out for God, a humbling of our human intentions. Attending a church is an expression of love to God, an act of faith and sacrifice. From the moment you turn to begin your trip to a house of worship, you have begun a holy pilgrimage, not because you are moving from where God isn’t to where God is, but because you have set your mind and the coming hour on Christ, and are journeying with others to turn together to our God who is everywhere. It is the beginning of our offering before we put anything in the collection plate!
May your church always provide A WHERENESS of God. And, wherever you go outside the church, may you recognize your brother, Christ, in the freedom of will you enjoy, and take in the Holy Spirit in the very air you breath.
So Solomon begins his dedication of the massive temple he built in Jerusalem, the first of its kind for a God that had first been encountered by humanity somewhere around the Tigris and Euphrates rivers (we think), and who had led men, women and children to wander across borders of far-flung nations, in and out of slavery, self-rule and exile for millennia.
This is the God who compelled Abram to pull up stakes in Ur and travel all the way to Canaan. Who led Joseph and his brothers down into Egypt…Moses and his followers back out. This was a God of nomadic herdsman, itinerant workers, strangers in strange lands and vagabonds. Now Solomon would push a pin into the infinite map of the universe and say “this is where we will meet to encounter God.”
Solomon, in his wisdom, immediately recognizes the irony of the moment: How could the God who created the heavens and the earth, whom our ancestors met everywhere they turned, be contained in this one spot? Nonsense! Solomon’s Temple was not built to narrow the scope of God, but to focus the vision of God’s people.
A church is not built to corral God, but to corral us: God’s wandering, ADHD followers. If we simply stated that we would meet Sunday morning where we most encounter God, some of us would be up in the hills or down by the lake, others in an inner-city soup kitchen, a maternity ward or a Habitat for Humanity construction site. A couple of us would meet at the church, and a few of us wouldn’t even leave our homes.
We are followers of a God who supplies to us no name beyond Yahweh -- I Am. Christ’s given name, Jehoshua, literally means Through God I am Free. Christ sends to us the Spirit whose name means wind (ruah).
But sometimes for us finite, mortal beings, AWARENESS of God requires A WHERENESS of God; a specific place we set apart as communally holy, where we can come together, share our experiences and turn to our God as one to offer praise and worship. Building and maintaining a church are profound acts of worship: a reaching out for God, a humbling of our human intentions. Attending a church is an expression of love to God, an act of faith and sacrifice. From the moment you turn to begin your trip to a house of worship, you have begun a holy pilgrimage, not because you are moving from where God isn’t to where God is, but because you have set your mind and the coming hour on Christ, and are journeying with others to turn together to our God who is everywhere. It is the beginning of our offering before we put anything in the collection plate!
May your church always provide A WHERENESS of God. And, wherever you go outside the church, may you recognize your brother, Christ, in the freedom of will you enjoy, and take in the Holy Spirit in the very air you breath.
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