quiet

Sabbath, quiet, prayer, meditation, and reflection are integral parts of the Christian spiritual journey. Yet, they seem like luxuries to many of us. We think that once we get our "work" done then maybe we can do those kinds of things.

Jesus carved out daily time for these practices. It was the only way he could truly know his Father. In his last time of sabbath prayer and meditation we are allowed to listen in...the Garden of Gethsemane. It is deep struggle and yet deep obedience also. And it leads to deep connection in the most god awful moments on the cross.

In Genesis 1 God created the world in "7 days." In the first six days of creation God says each day's creation/work is "good." But on the 7th, the sabbath, he calls it "holy" rather than good.

We live in a world that is obsessed with the good. We think the ultimate purpose of our life is to be good or to become good. Church has been twisted to supposedly help us to be good people, good citizens, good Christians, good parents, good children and so on.

Our ultimate purpose in life is to be holy rather than good. And like Jesus in his daily regimen of discipleship spirituality as we hear it in Gethsemane, we can only become holy when we allow our lives to decline or as the Apostle Paul says, as we die to ourselves so that we might be alive in Christ.

With the world's demands on us, this is not easy. We will be called lazy or off task or not getting the job done. That is why reading the Bible is so important! That is the purpose of the Bible. To help we creatures to allow God to restore us not just to a good status, but to our life of holiness. Pray, mediate, reflect, observe the sabbath.

now truly a senior...

Oh yea, I turned 60 yesterday. Today I got my 60+ Program form from the University of Akron where I can audit any class for free if there is room. I went online and checked out the course listings for the spring term. I am drooling. Probably will wind up in politcal science or history to start.

The state helped me to remember that I was now a senior by sending me unsolicited my "Golden Buckeye" card. Not really depressing. More of a surprise.

I got the ultimate birthday gift for someone entering his senior years...a new furnace! And it works great. So, though my circulation may not be as good as it was in the coming years, I won't be cold! (unless the power grid shuts down and climate change comes about...maybe I better start taking some environmental studies courses too.)

how many of us are Bernard Madoff's

How many of us really are "Bernard Madoff's" in our daily lives? Most if not all of us won't have $50 billion to attempt it with...but we are often trapped in lives of outward image management.

Thank you God for your gift of forgiveness in a world based more on outward image than authentic soul.

This night, the eve of Christmas, for we who are disciples of Jesus, we celebrate again that ultimately it is not our image, but the light of God in Jesus Christ that shines through us that is real.

to wait upon the Lord and ponder God's Word

"A parsonage without a study is comparable to a church without a pulpit." (Karl Buchsel, 1803-1889).

Not to read or study at all is to tempt God. To do nothing but study is to forget the ministry (Pasquier Quesnel, 1634-1719).

Dost thou pray? Thou art speaking with the Bridegroom. Dost thou read? The Bridegroom is speaking with thee (St. Jerome, ca. 346-420).

breaking the law with greed

from Romans 7:

"The law code had a perfectly legitimate function. Without its clear guidelines for right and wrong, moral behavior would be mostly guesswork. Apart from the succinct, surgical command, 'You shall not covet,' I could have dressed covetousness up to look like a virtue and ruined my life with it. "

Sounds like what we've done with capitalism.

a Romans 7 life

my life these days finds God in Romans 7

http://snipurl.com/88r89

doing what we want or doing what we need to do for ourselves

from Eugene Peterson's book Working the Angles

"We not only have bodies, we are bodies, so none of us is capable of untainted objectivity regarding our own bodies. All of us...want coddling, not healing. We prefer comfort to wholeness. And we can deceive ourselves about ourselves endlessly."

the dark night

The "dark night of the soul" began to be defined with St John of the Cross. It is knowing even in despair that this is part of our spiritual journey given by God. I know of it at this time of my life. Like the Apostle Paul the good tbat I intended 2 do does not seem 2 get done

Romans 7
17-20But I need something more! For if I know the law but still can't keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help! I realize that I don't have what it takes. I can will it, but I can't do it. I decide to do good, but I don't really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. My decisions, such as they are, don't result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time.

song of the homeland

Like our ancestors in exile, being Christians observing Advent in the American christmas culture is like singing the Lord's song in a strange land

Psalm 137

1 By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept
when we remembered Zion.

2 There on the poplars
we hung our harps,

3 for there our captors asked us for songs,
our tormentors demanded songs of joy;
they said, "Sing us one of the songs of Zion!"

4 How can we sing the songs of the LORD
while in a foreign land?

5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
may my right hand forget its skill .

6 May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth
if I do not remember you,
if I do not consider Jerusalem
my highest joy.

7 Remember, O LORD, what the Edomites did
on the day Jerusalem fell.
"Tear it down," they cried,
"tear it down to its foundations!"

8 O Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction,
happy is he who repays you
for what you have done to us-

9 he who seizes your infants
and dashes them against the rocks.

!

and finally from Heschel

Here are my last postings from the book "The Sabbath" by Rabbi Abraham Heschel.

"Monuments of stone are destined to disappear; days of spirit never pass away."

"Inner liberty depends upon being exempt from domination of things as well as from domination of people. There are many who have acquired a high degree of political and social liberty, but only very few are not enslaved to things. This is our constant problem - how to live with people and remain free, how to live with things and remain independent."

"All days of the week must be spiritually consistent with the Day of Days. All of our life should be a pilgrimage to the seventh day..."

David Loar
Pastor of Fairlawn West United Church of Christ
Akron, Ohio

time is holy

I am finally finishing the book "The Sabbath" by the late Rabbi Abraham Heschel. I now know why this book is so important. Its here at the end. Heschel makes clear what has been clearly spoken in the Bible...time is far more holy than space. But we have made space far more holy and made time a tool for ourselves.

I just posted this on my twitter: finishing Heschel's "The Sabbath". Time is far more holy than space. Yet so much of Advent in our culture is about rushing

We have reduced holy "time" down to an hour on Sunday. However, we have transformed space (buildings) into the "church." We most often use the term "church" to refer to the building we use and to what we do on Sunday morning "I went to church." (rather than, "We were in the worship of God.")

We have turned material into our idol. And like our ancestors of old, we worship them with our time and money. Because space is clearly where we spend more time and money than in the act of worship or sabbath and in the care of our brothers and sisters...as a church. We ask people to "commit" to the church, but that boils down to time and money to an organization based in the building.

God finally gave in to king David and agreed to have the temple build. But God still said that the sabbath was holy, not the temple. Over and over again. Six days of creation were "good", but the seventh was/is "holy."

We will continually and always lose our way when space remains our focus. We are unwilling to give our time to God. Even here in the Christian season of Advent, which is all about time!

sabbath, regular days and holy

Great quotes from the late Rabbe Abraham Heschel in his book "The Sabbath."

In the Bible "The good is the base, the holy is the summit. Things created in six days (God) considered good, the seventh day (God) made holy."

"We usually think that the earth is our mother, that time is money and profit our mate. The seventh day is a reminder that God is our father, that time is life and the spirit our mate."

age

Oh to be 55 again!

Advent time in a Christmas world

everywhere its Christmas around me. but on the christian calendar its advent. waiting & hoping. that's where most of my life is spent. there are those rare glimpses of heaven that are pure joy. that's Christmas! so I'll wait in advent because those glimpses of joy are worth the wait.

a whole lot of shaking going on

"We turn to God for help when our foundations are shaking, only to learn that it is God who is shaking them." Charles West