Easter!

The tomb is like an hour glass. The women passed through from one time to another.  They were never the same.  When they left the tomb, they passed into a whole new life with Jesus.  

So what a shame--if we pick up the grave clothes, the linen napkins and wear them ourselves instead of putting on the life of the risen Christ and living in the power of his resurrection.  What joy when we put on his life and live for him....and found ourselves raised as well on Easter to Easter life.  

Alleluia!   He is risen!

No Virtual Reality for Holy Saturday

Forgive us, Lord, for we still no not what we did.  
Forgive us, Lord, for we still go to your tomb and look for the dead.
Forgive us, Lord, keeping you in the tomb instead of living in the power of your resurrection. 
Help us now to accept your forgiveness and call us forth as you did Lazarus from the tomb.  Amen

Christ on the Cross

Salvador Dali   Christ on the Cross  c.1951

Once Again...
Why is this Friday is GOOD?

From as early as the 4th C, Christians have observed the crucifixion of Jesus with great devotion.  All that goes wrong in the world and between people is embraced by God's love on the cross--as Isaiah says, "by his wounds we are healed."  The goodness of God is deeper than our suffering, loss and sin.

That's also a faith statement.  Take a look at Salvador Dali's crucifixion.  He is suspended over the earth right down to the particulars of the water and boats.  Jesus died at one time for all places and all times.  It also depicts the prophecy of Jesus in St. John's Gospel that "if I am lifted up I will draw all people to myself." 

We don't have to go.  Yes, there is the draw alright.  But not once does God take away our free will to choose. We can certainly resist the power of King Solomon in his glory.  What about the power of Love? 

Eternal Last Supper

Salvador Dali  "Eucharist"  c. 1955

 What do you see as the central focus in this masterpiece by Dali?  The setting is Christ and the disciples partaking of the eternal Eucharist--but note!  His finger points upward at his body--the earthly vessel and instrument for the Eucharist. 

We live in an age where a very high percentage of people claim they want "spirituality" and not the church.  But the church is the body of Christ, and within its company, the Eucharist rooted in its earthly life in Christ is forever given. 

Think on this.  The next time you take communion?  You join the eternal company of the heavenly banquet.  Instead of going back to the upper room--move ahead where Christ dwells forever, 

Jesus steps aside

It was Wednesday. The Passover was nigh.  But the disciples were still riding high.  That grand entry on Sunday told them that their King had arrived.  It was just a matter of time before the Master’s Kingdom would come.   So why was Jesus looking distraught. His steps were different from what the disciples had seen before.  At midday, Jesus went missing.  They found him on the city’s outskirts, eyes closed, his mind was off some place else.  

All too often we forget that Jesus was not going through this week texting to his Father! Nor did he have a GPS scanning those he felt certain would fall upon him by week’s end.  He was in fact very human, fully the person that you and I are.  He was no automaton going through the motions and getting ready to be nailed to the cross.  He had already prayed that the cup would pass from him.  He was human alright.

The classic theologians taught that God did not redeem what he did not assume.  That double negative was important. He came down from heaven so that we could be lifted up to heaven---and that lifting was on the cross.  We walk the week knowing Easter is ahead.  I am saying, perhaps to some disagreement, that Jesus did not have a cue card.  The suffering would be just as real as what we would feel—and therein lies our salvation.  

Let us pray: 

Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he was crucified: Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

The Day After....

Peter:  Did you see how the people shouted yesterday!
Matthew:  They were lined up all the along the path throwing palm branches.
Peter:  The people are coming around.  They hailed him as their king.
James:  Hosanna! Hosanna! HOSANNA!
Matthew:  Over and over they proclaimed king.
Andrew:  Master?  You haven't said anything....

And Jesus said nothing.  He just sat there thinking to himself. 

Is that all I have been for these people?  A king?  I who came to serve, now a King?  
Father, forgive them.  They know not what they do.  

The day after that entry into Jerusalem must have been something. Jesus must have had second thoughts about it all.   The one who came to be God's servant was proclaimed a King.  Jesus would remember those words, forgive them.    He would say them again. 

God rides into town

God Rides into Town in a Parade 

Not even fit for an Earthly King

 by Kay Hoffman

They waved palm branches as He passed
And hailed Him as their King;
Yet, they knew not of the sorrow
The coming week would bring.

The glad acclaim would soon give way
To jeers and mockery;
In Pilate's court He'd be condemned
To a cross on Calvary.

But Jesus knew He was the price
In God's redemptive plan,
The Sacrificial Lamb come down
To die for sins of man.

The centuries have passed and still
He seeks those lost in sin,
Pleading with unyielding hearts
To repent and follow Him.

On this day we shout our praise,
O, let us not delay;
The palm-strewn path of long ago
Still leads to Him today.


  

Two Rvers at Mt. Vernon

Mount Vernon

O beautiful Mount Vernon home,
The Mecca of our long desire;
Of more than passing interest
To North and South, to East and West,
To all Columbia's children free
A precious, priceless legacy,
Thine altar-shrine, as pilgrims come,
Rekindles patriot fire!

Reflection:

I stood on the grounds of Mt. Vernon and two powerful rivers tugged on my soul.  The river of the past that flows into the legacy of the Father of this nation.  The river of the future that flows into the sea of the future.  Could it be that they meet the ocean of timeless truths, born of the past yet making the future? 

What the water says

My own thought?  

When I know I am alive, I am standing 

near the surf which rolls all the way

to my feet.

I breathe in the depths of the ocean

where we first stepped out onto 

dry land and became a breathing 

organism...

which could be filled with the breath of 

God.

Ocean Pt Surf, Boothbay, Maine

There will always be times when you feel discouraged.

I too have felt despair many times in my life, but I do not keep a chair for it; 

I will not entertain it.

It is not allowed to eat from my plate.

The reason is this: In my uttermost bones I know something,

as do you. It is that there can be no despair when you remember

why you came to Earth, who you serve, and who sent you here.

Clarissa Pinkola Estes
American Author, Poet and Psychologist

Death came too early....

Oh Rachel, 
It is not supposed to happen this way.....

Rachel died last night. 

Her 6 yr old found her stone cold on the floor. I guess they will figure out what happened with an autopsy in Augusta.  But it was her heart...that smoking and the swollen ankles to name just a few tell tale signs. She leaves behind Abby (6), Zach (16), Caitlan (18).  You do the math.  She died at 34, ran away from home at age 16, married and had 3 kids by an alcoholic husband she never divorced from...live in boy friend (best friends at one time with her husband) who has truly been Mr. Mom.  Her mother got the news as she herself lies dying in stage 4 lung and brain cancer. It's not supposed to happen this way.  Rachel was tireless working several jobs at once....doing everything to hold her family together.  Now she finally rests...

I can say that she showed me life on the other side of the tracks.  How do you get by on such little money?  How do you piece together parts into a puzzle to somehow make things work on every level?  The signs were there about her health.  She just never tried to put those parts of the puzzle into the works.  I who have lived the middle class lifestyle tried to help with the family, the rent, the car bills, food cards--whatever to say that I was in her corner rooting her on.  

My yesterday's post could not have been more prophetic from John Updike...

And another regrettable thing about death

is the ceasing of your own brand of magic,

which took a whole life to develop and market--

the whole act--

who will do it again?

That's it: 

no imitators and descendents are the same.  

The Unique You in YOU!

Perfection Wasted

And another regrettable thing about death
is the ceasing of your own brand of magic,
which took a whole life to develop and market--
the quips, the witticisms, the slant
adjusted to a few, those loved ones nearest
the lip of the stage, their laughter close to tears,
their tears confused with their diamond earrings,
their warm pooled breath in and out with your heartbeat, their response and your performance twinned. The jokes over the phone. The memories packed in the rapid-access file. The whole act. Who will do it again? That's it: no one;imitators and descendants aren't the same.

John Updike

A prophecy perhaps....as Updike would soon be diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. The great writer of 50+ books with such skill to win every notable prize but the Nobel---silenced by death, the cruel reaper of all humanity, perfection wasted--except for those live for the Life others bestow on us.  

Getting througn the Day

Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang 

through the Day!

You're gonna have to work with me on this analogy, and then it will really work for you.  Imagine the beginning of the day--the lightness of the load you carry and then as you go through the day, like the engine of a train--you pick up more and more cars, and that's a lot of baggage to pull around.  As each car couples up, the engine strains more and more.  Sooner or later, you turn into the Little Engine that Could--as long as you can make it!

 

 Instead of--"I think I can"--why not find a different way so that you don't have the pull a train load with yo the whole way?

Jim Lohr, in his book The Power of Engagement, reminds us to work 90 minutes and 10 minutes off.  Whatever it takes! Take that 10 minutes by walking up and down stairs--close your eyes and just re-center.  Let go and focus on where you are.  In that small amount of time--you are actually "recovering or resetting" your internal clock.  Lohr has worked with professional athletes, fortune 500 executives, and anyone who wants life back and renewed. Find a way to compartmentalize and move on--uncouple it and move on! Maybe then you can see the lush scenery and breathe in its spirit. 

I once took some time off.  It was unexpected  I just planned the trip and flew off to Maine from Nashville. As I leaned back in my seat,  I scribbled this poem out. 

Peace

The 737 left the runway,

Broke through the sunset,

Settled me into my seat,

And let go of my baggage,

Dropping it over Nashville.

What secret do planes know,

When to lift off, then let go,

Of the weight of the world,

The baggage dragged behind,

That just needs to be dropped?

The most difficult thing in the world

Do all the good you can. By all the means you can. 

In all the ways you can. In all the places you can. 

At all the times you can. To all the people you can. 

As long as ever you can.  

                                                                                     John Wesley

No matter what you make out of the Wesley quotation--it comes down this one point--Connect With People.  As long as we live detached, blind to those around us, nothing that Wesley calls us to do really matters.  The most radical call of Christ is to see each person as your neighbor -- and then to love that person as yourself.  Wesley's statement sounds daunting until we remember Christ telling us to see our neighbor as we would ourselves.  Then you can begin doing all you can for others because you carried enough to connect with them. 

The Blarney of St. Patricks

The Blarney of a Stone 

Oh for the love of legends!

Built into Blarney Castle is a piece of pure bluestone--a precious gem.  The legend says that whoever kisses the stone receives the gift of gab and persuasion. From John Power's
definition is succinct:  'Blarney is something more than mere flattery. It is flattery sweetened by humour and flavoured by wit. Those who mix with Irish folk have many examples of it in their everyday experience.'

The Story behind the Legend
 When Laidir MacCarthy built the castle, he was entangled in a law suit.  He appealed to the goddess Clíodhna.Cormac, and she told him to kiss the very first stone he came across in the morning.  Apparently, when he did that--he won his case hands down with the gift of gab.  MacCarthy embedded the rock into the parapet of the castle. 

Kissing the Blarney Stone

 It is said that legends live when we make them our story.  It no longer matters of the original story was true--if you live out the truth of it. 

So what does it take to find something outside yourself to write the new story and make it come alive in your own? 

Remember Chariots of Fire?  Abrahams is racing in the Olympics and it is his last race to win a medal.  His trainer writes a note and sends it with a medal for his neck.  "Please accept this medal.  My father swore by it." 
So Abrahams wins the race.  Was it because of the medal or because Abrahams found the strength to win from inside himself?

Oh, blarney!

Running Over Ourselves

Watching the Sign Change

I was driving to Nashville and every once in a while--I passed an overhead highway sign which read:  "Number of Traffic Fatalities--104."  Once I entered the city proper, I was on the interstate bypass --  and saw a horrific wreck.  It seemed to involve one car that was crushed.  Driving back that afternoon, the sign was changed to "105."  I don't know if that was from the accident that I saw.  I do know that it is painful indeed to watch that kind of number change--especially after seeing such a terrible wreck.  By the way, I was going to a funeral. 

Now there is no glossing over a physical death.  Who can possibly describe the sense of finality or the void which is empty except of pain?  So nothing I should say should be taken as oversimplifying that anguish.

It occurred to me that the way we spend some days--with our emotions on the fast track--it is little wonder we don't run over ourselves.  Or, maybe in an emotionally sense, we end up being our own fatality, the deadened spirit in the shell of a life.  I do not believe that we have a sign fast enough to keep up with that number. 

Only the driver can set the speed and pace. How many emotional wrecks does it take before we drive our spirits in a healthy way.

The place to begin is with 5 mins each day. 
Look back at the way you have driven. 
Look forward to the road yet traveled.
Then get out of the car and walk--
in other words, slow down and I guarantee you will get more done and survive the day.  

Making the Sunset Yours....

Boothbay Harbor Sunset

More blessed to give than receive.....



How do you say 'thank you' for sunshine or health... for clear days or gentle rains... for happiness, joy or love? 

You say it by sharing what you have. You say it by making the world a better place in which to live.  
                               Thomas D. Willhite, 1940-1983














I just wonder...

I have gone out and breathed in the sunrises, the sunsets, and the glory of the day. But why is it that feels even more peaceful to me after sharing it with others?  Perhaps that is what is behind Jesus' statement that it is more blessed to give than to receive.  He's not diminishing the receiving of a gift. Not at all!  How could he since we receive those gives from the principle Giver--God?  There is a much deeper thought here.  It is in giving that we ultimately receive what God wishes to give us.  Pass on the sunset and it becomes yours in a whole new way.  

The dress of humility

Francis I--A New Man in Pope's Clothing

He did something that other Popes have not done.  He walked out on the veranda and spoke first in Italian to greet the people.  No formal, official blessing in Latin.  Then he asked for the people to pray for him.  And then he bowed his head--and for the first time in anyone's memory, St. Peter's Square fell silent as a new man donned robes -- dressed in humility. 

7 Pounds Worth the Wait

7 Pounds Worth the Wait

You gotta be really patient with this one--but seven pounds is worth the wait (weight?).  Will Smith crashes his car carelessly and kills his girl friend and others.  How do you make up for that?  How do you go on living?  The plot shows Will Smith preparing to commit suicide so that he can give his organs to people he has met and judged to be "good."   Good?  Yes, according to his subjective perception--"the good people" ought to inherit his organs and by giving up his life to others--somehow atone, make up for, the lives that he took.

I am not going to ruin the entire plot.  Let's make sure that we are certain about a few things.  That there are significant limitations on directed giving of organs.  That you can only donate so much of yourself so that it is viable. And there are strict guidelines for governing this kind of thing.  Forget that and the movie works for you.

My problem with the movie?  Aside from the unlikely suicide by Box Jellyfish in a bath tub of ice---the story is completely opposite what we know of the Christian Story.  Jesus makes the unworthy WORTHY because of his donation of his life.  No strings attached.

But God proves his love for us
in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.

 


 

A New Golden Rule

Everyday they check out our stuff in the lines that must seem never-ending to them.  One after another files by and off they go.  Their is the perfunctory, "Have a nice day," even at 11PM when the day is long past.  I wonder if they feel like extensions of their registers?  of the conveyer belt of endless stuff?  But hey, it is a job and they get paid, right? 

In the past year, I have really made an effort to speak to "Linda" at the grocery, "Carl" at Costco and many others by name.  I feel like I have a relationship of some sort with them.  Sure, they move my stuff through too.  But, I treat them as a person in my address to them.  And, I find something that they do to compliment--"I always get in your line because you really move us through."   I do this very easily in Maine because everybody knows everybody in such a small town.

Then, it really dawned on me.  I emerged from the store feeling more like a person because I treated that person like a human being.  There is the danger that we become our own "stuff" instead of the people we are meant to be because we treat others like machines as well. 

Could the Golden Rule be 

that we become what we treat others as? 

All in a Smile!

Please tell me, Baby...
what you see your world to smile about,
the joy that radiates from your face...
that opens your mouth to gulp down
all that you breathe in? 

Is it the same world that we see every day,
and pass up so easily,
filling ourselves with the cares of everything
that presses upon us--instead of, well
just living the day as the day comes to us?

Tell me, Jesus....
did you look at our world through baby eyes,
to see the Kingdom of your Father?
Did you spend a lifetime learning to see with those eyes
of grace,
not the world of judgment?
Perhaps the only way for us to find that kingdom
is to see it through your eyes,
the glow of eternal wonder from the Father.  

Begin the New Day

The past does not equal the future.
Because you may have failed a moment ago,
all day today,
or for the last six months,
or for the last sixteen years,
or for the last fifty years of your life
doesn't mean anything.
All that matters is
what are you going to do now?

                                                                                                                       Anthony Robbins

For one brief moment, the sun rises and casts a highway across the water --and if you dare, you can step on that path and follow to where it leads.  Really... Close your eyes, step out and see yourself walking on it into the mountains to the other side.  Is there ever a looking back after such a journey?  The only question is from Anthony Robbins--what will you do on the other side of the mountains?  Will you keep walking?  Or will there come another time when you can descend into your heart of hearts and set out a new on the light that God casts before you?  

The point of course is that whenever we make ourselves the end of the journey--the journey indeed stops right in our tracks.  But when the light of a new day beckons and we head for the mountains--the sheer enormity of who we are as God's creation--shall we stop and look back?  

Alas, more than once have we allowed the past to bury the future. 

The Fake Among Us

Ralph Napierski (left) poses with cardinal Sergio Sebiastiana outside the Vatican. 

Photograph: Vincenzo Pinto/AFP/Getty Images

Can We Tell the Fake Among Us?  

Who was this guy kidding?  He gets a tacky clergy outfit, ties a purple scarf around his waist, and then gets his picture taken with one of the cardinals.  He actually got inside the Vatican for a moment when the Swiss Guard noticed that he had sneakers on and a black fedora!  Perhaps just a publicity seeker who never expected to get anywhere--except here I am reporting it with others.  Can we tell the fakes among us?  Ask that weird couple who crashed the White House party -- and actually made it!  

Every day we look into our mirrors and who do we see?  Do we know the person who looks back at us?William Blake asks the question--"If you met yourself walking in the garden, would you recognize yourself?" The author Charles Williams got a hold of it and wrote a book, Descent into Hell.  What is hell but the slow loss of the self into complete unrecognition. 

Ever hear this prayer for purity of heart?   "Almighty God, unto who all hearts are open, all desires known and from who no secrets are hid..."  Perhaps by being open to God, and to each other--we come more into focus, the real people we are without masks we prefer to wear because we prefer the fake and being secure--than risking who we really are. 

Selling Ourselves

Street Corner Vendors

They stand on the corners in groups, Hispanic men who are offer themselves for any kind of work they can find.  They begin each day there and hope that somebody will stop and hire them for even a few hours for a few bucks to put food on their tables for their families. The end of the day comes and they are still standing there--maybe something will come up at the last minute.  Or just maybe they are too proud to come home and admit defeat.  Tell me, what is the difference between these men who look for work and the women who stand on the other corner to prostitute their bodies?  Ah!  Of course, the women succeed and earn the money that the men don't. 

All of us Ride the River

River-Riders

Either this life makes sense

or perfect nonsense,

each generation rides the river

to the falls to vanish forever,

or carried by some grace to the

Garden only God could give,

to grow beyond what we deserve

or imagine, the everlasting flow

of life that begins and ends and

then begins again,

in the God we discover has been--

himself the River.

A long winter's night

Winter Questions

Sleet falling, crystals capturing the night,

Clothing trees with ice like iron,

      bent backwards,

                barely breathing,

                        life out of shape,

Like the old man crooked with his cane,

before he ever needed one, from the years

of burden carried, the future that never came.

So the night surrounds the sleeper,

Falling with dreams of weight,

The ice that presses the mind and heart,

     Seizing the spirit,

            Filling the lungs,

                        From breathing the night,

with sleet that freezes the will to live,

like blankets with cold comfort covering

           

            the cry--

                      Awake! Let night fly!

                                        -- that goes unheard.

The questions left from winter lingering:       

            Where is the sun to melt the ice away?

            The cane to carry the weight of the day?

Walking on Water

A section of Boothbay Harbor's Water Front

"Get out of the boat, Peter...

and walk on water?" 

Really, you say...walk on water?  If you stepped off the dock above and walked out 25 yards, you could look back and see the waterfront as you could not from the wharf.  Don't walk on water--then fine, use a boat!  But the idea is that the real miracle is not walking on water, but a different vision altogether.  Of seeing things from a different perspective.  For some, it does take a miracle for them to see things differently or to believe that there is something like a different vision to be had. 

One of my favorite TS Eliot plays got low marks from critics--The Family Reunion.  In it, I found the essence of a "different vision altogether." 

Happiness is not getting what you want.

Happiness is not getting rid of what you want to get rid of.

Happiness is a different vision altogether.  

Go walk on the water--that's where the miracle is!  Turn around once in a while and see where you have gone.  Sit down where you are and take a close look at where you are. Toss the crystal ball.  The future is made of seeing where you are so that you can realize what direction you can head.  Every boat owner knows that Gospel--"figure out where you are before you motor onto a reef!"

Go ahead.  Get out of the boat! 

Betting on the New Pope

Place Your Bets on the New Pope!

Can you believe it?  The odds-makers are out and taking bets on who will be the new Pope.  They have their eyes on two potential candidates and one at a longer 7-2 odds.

Which brings me to that marvelous, and timely, film--The Shoes of the Fisherman.   Anthony Quinn places the Russian Bishop who is imprisoned in a Russian Gulag. Once he is released, he is named Cardinal--and becomes the longest shot of all as he becomes Pope.

The plot of Russian Pope fending off nuclear war is too global for the film for me.  What I was impressed by was the fact that the conclave could not elect a Pope, they were deadlocked, until a few cardinals hear Quinn tell his story of how he fed a prisoner bread to survive.  Quinn himself survived in this Gulag because of the life giving ministry he gave the other prisoner--but that's my take.  The point is that they are all taken by Quinn's claim--"We need the genuine article, the real thing--we need to export a Christian revolution."  Forget staving off nuclear war.  That's Hollywood.  But not so for today's Church which thirsts for the genuine article--and you don't need to be elected Pope to recognize that or to be it yourself.  I'll take that bet! 

The Pit

Sink Hole Claims Florida Man and House

"Oh Lord, do not abandon me to the Pit."

Psalms

A very freak event of nature and sheer tragic coincidence claimed the life of 37 year old Jeff Bush when a "chasm," a monstrous sink hole, opened underneath his bed and swallowed him alive.  CNN reported it this way:  

 

"I heard a loud crash, like a car coming through the house," Jeremy Bush told CNN affiliate WFTS. "I heard my brother screaming and I ran back there and tried going inside his room, but my old lady turned the light on and all I seen was this big hole, a real big hole, and all I saw was his mattress."

Frantic efforts by Jeff Bush could not rescue his brother.  When police and paramedics arrived on the scene, they forced everyone to leave because of the uncertainty of the rest of the house.  A sink hole is bad enough; a chasm can increase exponentially.  

"I know my brother's dead," said Jeff Bush, "but I just can't leave him here."  

If ever there was an event which plays into our psyche of sheer fear--this has got to be it.  There you are, asleep in your bed, and the very ground under you swallows you up.  Somebody pinch me.  This is a nightmare.  

Nobody can gloss over the sheer terror of Jeff as he heard his brother scream.  Sometimes the Bible is used as a gloss to cover over such horror with gross simplicities of inane statements--"He is with God now."   All I can tell you is that I know lots of people who suffer the impending loss of their lives--that it must be like a slow chasm taking you against your will.  I can tell you that I know people who have faced such endings who nevertheless hung on to those they loved and still died in peace. They witness to a love greater than life itself--which shouted in the agony of the life nailed to a cross.

 As for Jeremy Bush?  Lord have mercy.... is all we can pray.  

And also for his brother who now lives with that death. 

Today's Hope

South Portland Spring Garden

If we are ever to enjoy life, now is the time - 

not tomorrow, nor next year, nor in some future life 

after we have died. 

The best preparation for a better life next year 

is a full, complete, harmonious, joyous life this year. 

Our beliefs in a rich future life are of little importance 

unless we coin them into a rich present life. 

Today should always be our most wonderful day.

Thomas Dreier
American Author, Editor and Philosopher

Now I have heard about stopping to smell the roses...but can you smell the flowers that are now breaking through into the Spring?  I don't think that the focus on the present omits a promise that the future brings the Spring no matter what kind of winter we have endured.  All I am trying to say is that when we walk on the barren, frozen ground of March (and snow in Maine!), we walk with a sense that today has the seeds which will eventually bloom--and it is worth cultivating the spirit of patience which knows it begins now...and is the hope for the future.