When there was nothing but God

Wilderness is a potent symbol in the telling of God's story.

In the beginning, when God began creating, there was nothing; thus the primal wilderness.  In this space, God was - moving with power, calling into being, distinguishing and separating - a pure experience of divine power, imagination, and creativity.  It set the stage for what wilderness could be, a time and place where the Divine Creator was at work, shaping new paths, bringing light to new visions.

When the people of Israel landed in the Sinai wilderness, it would have been helpful if they had remembered this.  But it is hard.  It is hard to lean into the future when the world you have known disappears.  It is hard to trust that something life-giving will be revealed when your heart is weighted down with grief over what has been lost.  It is hard to put one foot in front of the other when there is no destination in sight and worry fills the wee hours of the morning. Faithfulness to God's calling and trusting in God's powerful presence frequently looks like foolishness and folly.

In those spaces, at those times, we need the God who brings life out of nothing more than some star dust and love.  Thank God that is exactly the God who has come to us and claimed us as 'beloved children' both in the garden and in the wilderness, in life and in death.

How much is enough?

My children did not like peas.  At all.  So every meal that included peas also included a conversation about how many peas had to be eaten.  How many were 'enough'? We finally settled on a system where they ate one pea for each year of their age.

We only ask the question How much is enough? when there is some goal we are trying to achieve (like being excused from the dinner table).  How much is enough laundry detergent for this load of laundry?  How much money do I need to spend on my spouse's birthday present?  How many answers do I have to get right in order to pass this test?  How much money do I have to save for retirement?

People of faith often ask this same question.  How much must I do?  Am I doing enough?  Am I giving enough? (OK, this question isn't asked as often as the others)  Am I compassionate enough?  Am I faithful enough?  How much is enough?

I can only ask "Enough for what?"  Enough for God to love you?  Enough for Jesus to forgive you?  Enough for you to experience the fullness of life that God in Jesus promises us?  Enough to "win the prize?"

Sometimes the question arises out of a searching for a deeper relationship with God, a richer spiritual life, and a sincere effort to be faithful, We look around us and there are too many who are hungry, too many who are oppressed, too many who need healing and comfort.  We look at our own lives and see too many places where we have cut corners, we have been less than compassionate, turned a blind eye and a deaf ear.  We look at ourselves and know that when we stand before God, we have a lot that isn't in right order.

That is how it should be.  When we stand before God we should be aware that all is not well, not in our lives and certainly not in the world around us.  This is not accusation, this is fact.  In religious talk, we are truly broken people, sinners before the Creator God.  This is confession, and it can often lead us to the deeper connection with God that we desire.

However, it is good to remember this: we cannot do enough ever to make it all right.  We cannot fix ourselves nor can we fix the world.  The problem is bigger than we are.

No matter how much we do, we will never prove to God that we are worthy of God's mercy and love. We will not prove our 'goodness' by doing 'enough' ....no matter how much we run and run and run and work and work and work.  Our work does not obtain God's love.  God gives it freely because that is who God is.

The love of God is broader and deeper than we can ever imagine.  We receive God's mercy because that is who God is.  We receive God's mercy because we need God's mercy.  We are always beggars in this equation.  Always.  Always.

So the answer to the question:  How much is enough? is this:  all and none.  Jesus calls us to give all of us......because there is nothing else we have to offer to a God who loved us before time.

All and none:  the challenge of living a life of faith.

Just a little bit of help.........

Just a little bit of help, please.

That's what most of us are looking for in our lives, and boy do I get it.  Some days I ask the universe, "Can't you make it just a little bit easier?"  "Does everything have to be so hard?"  even though we both know that when the trials of my life are compared to millions of others, mine is a ridiculous request.

But life can be wearing, exhausting, and some days it feels like every single force of both nature and the unnatural are conspiring against us.  On really bad days, I am certain that this is true.  Some days I simply don't want to be an adult.  I want someone else to be responsible, someone else to care for me; someone else to fix it.

For many, this role is given to God.  God is the great fixer, the one who will care for us, the great adult in the sky who makes our lives here on earth easier.  God as the cosmic handyman.  This is certainly a starting point for a relationship with God, but in fact, it is a small picture of the God of all creation, the source of all life.  In the end, it isn't a relationship at all since once our troubles have eased, once the crisis is over, once we gotten enough sleep, we move on from conversation with God and leave God behind.

It's a good thing that God doesn't treat us the same way.  God never leaves us behind.  God never says, "One and done" and moves on to love and care for and heal someone else.  God's eye is always on us, and God looks on us in love.  Life is God's ultimate goal: abundant life for all, even the ones who only check in when the going gets rough.

So God sends Jesus.  Once in a manger in Bethlehem.  Once at a time we cannot foretell.  God breaks into our world with a message about another kingdom, where life is gift and joy.  Jesus comes - no, that's not right - Jesus crashes into all the barriers we create, all the protections we put in place, all the power sources we accumulate in order to open a way to a new life, a new kingdom.

Boom!  Racial differences don't matter.  Boom!  Genders are equal.  Boom!  Old and young are valued the same.  Boom! Those who look different from us are treated exactly the same as us.  Boom! The poor are loved just like the wealthy.  Boom!  Here is forgiveness.  Now go and live.

Boom! Jesus crashes in.  Once in a manger.  Once at a time we cannot foretell.......but for which we can hope.  This is the HOPE of Advent, that longing and watching and waiting for the fullness of all time when the final curtain is raised and Jesus reigns.

We live out our lives in HOPE.  Come Lord Jesus.

Dear Lord, I want to live in your kingdom.  Help me walk with you daily.  Amen

It's not all about us......really

We all call him Doubting Thomas, although if you check Thomas out through the entire gospel of John you might change that to Impetuous Thomas.

But, as usual, we are focusing our attention on the wrong character in the story.  It's not Thomas' fear or doubt or unbelief that is at the center.  It is Jesus. Coming. Twice. Not detoured by a wavering Thomas.

Here, look, touch.  I am right here with you.

It's not about our wavering (In the gospel of Matthew, at the ascension some worshipped and some doubted).

 It is Jesus' faithfulness.

Really folks, it's not all about us.  We truly aren't the center of the universe.
The one who created it is.

Faith as business

Every year every ELCA congregation is asked to complete a parochial report.  It is a report filled with  numbers and percentages that is intended (I think) to adjudicate the health of the ELCA.

How many new members?
How many baptized?  adult?  children?
How many confirmed?
How many died?
What is your average worship attendance?
How is your membership defined by racial/ethnic group?

Along with people numbers, we submit $ numbers as well.  Assets, income, benevolence, expenses.

Every year in every congregation I have served we have submitted our parochial report, and on time as well, so please don't read the following as the complaint of a disgruntled and uncooperative member of the clergy.

Numbers have nothing to do with faith, faithfulness, spiritual growth and ethical living.  Numbers have nothing to do with trusting in God when all indications are that God is not paying attention.  Numbers are easy to count and to report, that's all.  (Still many congregations don't even do that little bit).

Choosing to live in the footsteps of Jesus, serving food at the Samaritan Center, giving to disaster victims in NY area, building a pre-school in Zambia, expanding the opportunity for our young people to attend camp, visiting the sick and shut-in, praying for people we do not know, figuring out how to live and die faithfully.....that is the hard stuff.

And there is no place for that on the form.
Let's keep doing it just the same.