Washington's Mudslide

The Mudslide:  Before and After

The Before and After pictures of the mudslide tell all--complete and utter devastation, an entire ecosystem changed in an instant.  The loss of life in seconds...  The area had been warned of the highest risks possible for exactly this kind of avalanche--it is that unstable.  Yet something there is in us that ignores the warnings and goes about life anyway.  Until that is--we lose it.  No explanations or "they were warned" suffice in the enormity of such loss.  There's no covering up such agony of loss. 
"Teach us O Lord to number our days by your grace," writes the Psalmist--and writes of the only true foundation for life.  All of life is a high risk zone.  One enzyme gone awry, a blood clot, a texting driver, an asthma attack--and suddenly, life is gone.  Only when we realize that life itself was the absolute gift do we muster the words of thanksgiving that we have what we have and can shape our lives by the choice of living thankfully while we have it.  There is also a before and after picture of lives that never knew, then lived in grace.  It reverses the above...into new growth, life, Life is found! 

The last voice of taps....

I heard the voice of bugler sounding
through the trumpet,
and my head bowed to honor the dead.
I thought of the one who died,
but the sound was a roll call for those,
buried in sacred ground,
who stood for just a moment to salute,
one new life who joined them
a nation's gratitude then eternal rest.  

The Search for Flight 370

Malaysian Authorities at News Conference

Can we possibly overlook the dramatic contrast going on in our world--between the cooperation of nations to find the mission flight #370 and Putin's Land grab?  There is of course the noticeable lack of Russian support for the search, and after all, they busy gobbling up another country.  It is as if they see themselves back in a colonial period of entitlement to any nation where the Russian language is spoken.  Whereas the difference in languages does not hinder the multi-nation search 1500 miles off Australia.

For those on Lenten journeys, we recall Jesus' wilderness sojourn and his walk toward the cross.  The powers and principalities at his birth were just as nonchalant at the end of his life until the charge of sedition and Pilate's political expediency nailed him to the cross.  He was killed because of what others thought he threatened -- they could have ignored him.  Somehow, we are called to make our call--who was he and who is he now for us? 

The Divine Breath

I was leaving Costco the other day, when a checkout lady said to me, "We are in for more snow next week--have you heard that?"  I said facetiously--"Oh the retail stores put out their own weather reports to boost sales!"  For some reason, that one off-handed comment really made her laugh.  And as I was leaving the store, she was repeating it again.  "Listen to what I just heard..." and off she went. 

It reminded me of the Buddhist first commitment to do no harm, which starts with what we put into the air for others to breathe.  That's right--do we harm others by what we say and put into the air? Can we possibly restrain ourselves from the crap we say--so that others do not have to breathe it? 

That same afternoon, I was visiting a friend in the hospital.  I pulled up to parking space while a person pulled out.  Another car approached from the other lane, a good bit after I had been waiting.  As I pulled into the spot, the other drive sat on her horn and then she yelled an obscenity as whizzed past.  Talk about polluting the air!  Then I had to work with that first commitment not to repeat that story over and over to "pollute me" and then the people I was visiting. 

Seems to me that the breath God gave us in the Creation Story is what we are called to breathe back into world and other people to renew them as the souls they were created to be.  It's like the light breaking through the darkness of clouds and remembering that we were created to be the children of the Light of Christ...and we can do that with our words. 

Finding the Kingdom

You can learn new things at any time in your life if you're willing to be a beginner. If you actually learn to like being a beginner, the whole world opens up to you.

Barbara Sher
American Author and Career Counselor

Jesus took a child, whom he put among them, ³and said, ‘Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. ⁴Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. ⁵

                                                                                                  Matthew 18:2ff    

There is a huge irony that we spend our lives growing up only to learn that we have to reverse the process--and become like trusting children of God--without the illusion of a life's work to say that we are independent!  

John Lennon Wisdom

When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life.  When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up.  I wrote down ‘happy’.  They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, 

and I told them they didn’t understand life.     –John Lennon

How many us truly understand the assignment we were given when we were born? Oh yeah, that was a very long time ago for some of us.  But to the very end, the assignment stays the same.  Buddha would say that happiness means letting go of resisting change in life which creates suffering, let go and go with the flow.  Jesus would say that happiness is to seek first the Kingdom of God when all things will then be given to you.  One appears to be the inward journey.  The other -- the outward journey.  What they have in common is stepping outside yourself and no longer making yourself the object of your life.  What a paradox!  You find your happiness when you let go of yourself.  By the way, notice how the quotation was written?  With "understand life" for its own line?  I think we only do that when we let go of our own life and walk into Life itself.  

The Real Hunger of Lent

A serious house on serious earth it is,

In whose blent air all our compulsions meet,

Are recognized, and robed as destinies.

And that much never can be obsolete,

Since someone will forever be surprising

A hunger in himself to be more serious,

And gravitating with it to this ground,

Which, he once heard, was proper to grow wise in,

If only that so many dead lie round.

“Church Going,” last stanza—

Philip Larkin 

 Lent is all about journey—that takes us through the
wilderness sojourn to Jerusalem to outside the city gates and the cross.   

After that, well, you’re on your own!  It is a journey of faith, basic trust in the
God of Jesus Christ who seeks us out.   

Enter Philip Larkin and “Church Going.”  All of the preceding stanzas walk you through
the ruins of a church, or at least one that has aged in disrepair.  There is an inkling 

it is still used and that
he has been there before.  The presence of God moves under the appearance of things, invisible 

to those who visit it as
a museum.  The last stanza touches on the soul’s hunger for which only this place can satisfy—

at least for Larkin, he
realizes the hunger which is somehow satisfied only by the sheer holiness of
the place.  Such is the journey of Lent.  To awaken—wake up to!—the soul’s true hunger and food, 

the life of the resurrection now.  

The First and Last Word...

I shall be telling this story with much tender loving care....

A very good friend told me the story about his daughter's funeral....she was killed when she lost control of her car.  Fortunately, the older couple she hit did survive.  At the funeral, when he went to the communion rail, all he could say was--"Thank you for her life."  Imagine even getting that much out from a broken heart. 

The word "Eucharist" literally means "thanksgiving"--a profound thanks for the "gifts of God for the people of God," as we say in Episcopal service.  When we drink the death of the Son, we partake in his resurrection to Life that God gives.  Is it possible for us even to behold and receive such grace to mutter "thank you?"

Still Looking for Flight 309....

The satellite images of the possible pieces of Malaysian Flight 309 as remarkable as they are--are even more so because they were released by the very closed and secretive China.  Perhaps it is because the majority of the passengers came from China.  But even still, the Chinese never, ever tip their hand to show the extent of their technology--and this is as remarkable a find as it is for it to be shared.

Sadly, this is not the wreckage...mostly  for the families of their loved ones who boarded that plane never to be seen again.  The journey of life is into places of death.  In Lent, we acknowledge the ashes which only God can spark into flames of new life.  Going into this wreckage, wherever it lies, is like walking into that tomb....where only Jesus Christ emerged to say death is not the end. 

Priceless...the BMW Pricetag!

The great Western disease is, 'I'll be happy when... When I get the money. When I get a BMW. When I get this job.' Well, the reality is, you never get to when. The only way to find happiness is to understand that happiness is not out there. It's in here. And happiness is not next week. It's now.

Marshall Goldsmith
American Author

The Lenten journey is often misunderstood as a denial of the wealth of the world.  It is not.  Rather, the Lenten journey recognizes where true wealth lies and then sells everything to go after it.  It is never an arriving--it is only a growing in Christ. 
  

This life therefore is not righteousness 

but growth in righteousness.not health but healing 

not being but becoming not rest but exercise. 

We are not yet what we shall be but we are growing toward it. The process is not yet finished but is it going on. This is not the end but it is the road. All does not gleam in glory. but all is being purified.  Martin Luther

 

Putin Power Grab

Kiev Mourns

"The strong do what they will,

                                        The weak do what they must...."

Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War

To think that I almost dropped a course in college history because it began with this book...and in those days, I was asking the "relevance question."  What difference will this book ever make for understanding the world.  It's been a second Bible.  The land grabs of the powerful over the weak recurs in history--and is it laughable that our leaders and others around the world can only reply in utter weakness--"Now, now...this is the 21st century and we don't act this way."  It was Thucydides who chronicled the human heart and mind that does not change over history--the powerful take what they want. 

Yet this Jesus moves into the wilderness sojourn we call Lent--utterly weaponless.  The temptations were all about power and his choosing to demonstrate it.  He chose to be human--the Son living to the Father, which made him the son.  St. Paul got it right when took a popular hymn and recorded it in his Letter to the Philippians, 2:5-11--who emptied himself and took the form of a human to be a servant.  Later, Paul would write--God's power is made perfect in weakness, leading by serving. 

It was Stalin who scoffed at this notion of power, laughing it off--"Tell me, how many divisions does the Pope have?"  Check out the status of Stalin now!  It seems that this world as conflicted as it is gives way to a Kingdom, therein....a world without end. 

Plane Drops Out of the Sky.....

The plane was there one minute and gone the next--the Malaysia 777--one of the newest, most efficient aircrafts--just dropped out of the sky with 222 aboard.  Speculation abounds as to what happened--and if this is indeed the terrorism that TSA warned about in our nation--perhaps their trial run?  The human loss is staggering when you consider the generations who could have come from their lineage. 

Recently I flew first class to Chicago --which was cheaper than an economy ticket when you add in luggage costs.  How is that possible?  Frankly, I did not ask and just climbed aboard.  For the 5 day trip, it was the only relaxing time--just to kick back, ease off, and let the stress fall out of the sky. 

Perhaps we forget the slender thread that divides us from life and death and how very suddenly every that thread can break.  "Teach us O Lord to number our days by your grace," writes the Psalmist...that we have that same grace on both sides of the thread, of this mortal life and eternal life---we are are upheld by that grace which never breaks and ties itself to our souls no matter what happens in this life. 

Finding our Way Home

Prayer of One Who Feels Lost

by Joyce Rupp

Dear God,

why do I keep fighting you off?

One part of me wants you desperately,

another part of me unknowingly

pushes you back and runs away.

What is there in me that

so contradicts my desire for you?

These transition days, these passage ways,

are calling me to let go of old securities,

to give myself over into your hands.

Like Jesus who struggled with the pain

I, too, fight the “let it all be done.”

Loneliness, lostness, non-belonging,

all these hurts strike out at me,

leaving me pained with this present goodbye.

I want to be more but I fight the growing.

I want to be new but I hang unto the old.

I want to live but I won’t face the dying.

I want to be whole but cannot bear

to gather up the pieces into one.

Is it that I refuse to be out of control,

to let the tears take their humbling journey,

to allow my spirit to feel its depression,

to stay with the insecurity of “no home”?

Now is the time. You call to me,

begging me to let you have my life,

inviting me to taste the darkness

so I can be filled with the light,

allowing me to lose my direction

so that I will find my way home to you

How to be found when you are lost...

There is a very special restaurant on Main Street in Rockland, ME called "The Brass Compass." The local folk gather there and ignore all the news from the Bobby Flay Thrown Down -- and owner Lyn Archer's win with her famous triple decker club lobster (called "lobstah") roll.  Sure, she won but they were not really so surprised at that.  What makes the place special goes beyond the cook'n to the groups that gather--spin their yarns, and find their way in the world through each other. 

I've sat in that place and overheard my share of conversations. It's the interaction that matters--the connection that forms, that leads them beyond themselves to new pathways. 

Paul talked relentlessly about "the body of Christ," the image for the followers of Jesus.  With each other, they made up far more than a group of individuals.  The whole was truly greater than the sum of the parts.  Each life broken in their living--found and formed a new wholeness with each other.  "Every day new" for Christians was the truth of their faith. Life was always more, far more than any individual--and yet, and yet! the individual was most profoundly herself/himself when in the Body.

Ash Wednesday

"Remember that you are dust 

and to dust you shall return."

What a day of paradox.  We claim our mortality and we find our eternity.  We acknowledge who we are as frail children, and we touch on our divinity in Christ.  And so the first shall be last and last first--and the meek shall inherit the earth at the same time that 5,000 are fed from a few fish and barley loaves.  The Good news.  We claim creation. We find the Creator.  Ashes marked on our foreheads burst into flame with the reality and identity that only God gives.  Somewhere, even in Lent, over in the corner of the nave as the faithful come forward for ashes--an angel hovers and whispers--alleluia. 

Mardi Gras Madness

For an evening, the Lord of Misrule reigns over Fat Tuesday--the peculiar custom to let sin run rampant so that grace may abound.  New Orleans continues as the capital for the hurrah of the day--the excuse for riotous living before the discipline of lent. Somewhere along the way, the day got mixed up with pancakes for some reason.  Why is it that before a season of sacrifice we justify the day of gluttony and things that ultimately glaze glum over spirits?  We do the same thing with All Hallow's Eve and the night of ghosts, goblins and demons--before the high feast day of All Saints that celebrates the very best of what God creates in us.  Like the two masks above--a roller coaster with the ups and downs of the human spirit.

Maybe we should recall the day before Lent begins that there is a thread of grace that runs through the best of times and the worst of times--the feast days and the days of discipline.  As St. Paul finally learned--how to rejoice in all matters of things because of the thread of grace that ties it all together. 

The Next Life

It is said that we only need two lives--not the nine of a cat!  There is the life that we practice with.  There is the life that we finally decide to live.  Where is the tipping point that moves us to the recognition of where we are?

Let me take the finality out of the choice. Can't we go from the practiced life to the next life and then step up from there?  Perhaps the biggest worry we may have is to stop that movement, to give up practicing, and forget the grace of starting again....from our knees, the place of prayer, where Holy Spirit touches human spirit and lifts us up. 

Transfiguration!

How exactly do you depict what happened on the Mountain of Transfiguration?  The disciples saw Jesus for who he really IS (not was).  Or, God the Father through the Holy Spirit revealed the Son to the disciples.  In other words, the fullness of God came nearer to them--God showed himself, his glory in the face of his Son,.

The Gospel accounts say he was bright, bleached white--or could we say pure light, the Light of the World just as he said he was?  What they took away was the reality of that Light, the perception of divinity, the eyes to look into the heart of reality and know once and for all--our vision only looks on the appearance of things. God grants the light to see things as they really and truly are. 

Off to the Wilderness

 

How much the wilderness desert looks like wilderness of snow!

I am off the Kalamazoo, MI and might as well be headed for the wilderness--except that it is covered with snow!  It is a far different world from where I am now--cold alright, but not the snow covered world, the umbrella over everything green with life stored underground.  Sometimes the best we can do is change the location, switch out the role, walk in a new way--with the assurance that the Spirit drives you there just as it did Jesus--out into the wilderness where we meet God.  The demons are only our resistance, of what we place between ourselves and God--and these in the wilderness of any kind, are self-made illusions that evaporate by the love of God we went there in the first place.

How much this world looks like the wilderness!