Rocks and sun are a perfect combo for lizards.
For plants? Not so much…
We’ve probably all encountered the fervor of the newly converted – people hot on a new thing they’ve learned or experienced. A new love, a new job, maybe a new diet; I couldn’t shut up about Weight Watchers when I found it working for me. We may even have met a few born again Christians in the first throes of excitement about the love of God they’ve come to know in Christ.
Sometimes it lasts, sometimes it doesn’t. It depends on the depth of soil that allows roots to grow.
“Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away.”
What conditions make for rocky soil? Sometimes familiarity can make for complacency – same old, same old… that’s a kind of rockiness. Preoccupation with other concerns can keep us from growing spiritual roots.
What is the hot sun that causes the newly rooted plants to wither? Fear, ambition, sorrow, overwork, stress – some of the same enemies we named yesterday.
What are yours?
I remember once being deep in prayer on a retreat (hmm… been a really long time since I’ve been on retreat, speaking of letting roots become exposed…). In the prayer time, I sensed Jesus say to me, “I want you to come be with me every morning, to water your roots.” That’s partly why I named this Water Daily (though, yes, I do have some plants I can only water once a week…)
Are you feeling robust or withered as a spiritual person today? Might you walk that path with Jesus in your imagination and let him show you where you are today – on the path, on the rocks, in the deep soil? What does he suggest you do?
And what are we to do for those whom we see withering spiritually – including ourselves at times?
Help transplant them into deeper soil, provide shade in the form of spiritual friendship - and sprinkle liberally with the Living Water gushing inside you, the Holy Spirit who renews all things in Christ.
7-8-14 - Path and Birds
“Listen! A sower went out to sow.
And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up."
Paths can be beautiful, but they’re not places for growing, are they? We call a path full of greenery an “overgrown path.” Paths are places for journeying, the arteries that carry us from one place for growing to another, if you will.
When the Good News is announced to people on the path, on the move, they may not receive it fully – it remains on the surface, easy pickings for other messages and other priorities that conflict with it.
What are the birds, do you suppose, these entities that gobble up the newly scattered seed so it has no time to take root? Distractions, competing claims, yes – and also something deeper: lies the Enemy tells us to undermine our ability to trust in the goodness of God and the goodness of God in us. Those lies can take many forms, and are often disguised in Advertising. Competitiveness. 60-80 hour workweeks. Stress. Anxiety.
What’s on your list?
Name some paths in your life, in between spaces.
(Work can be a field, or a path; relationships can be a field or a path…)
What are the growing places in your life that you can name and celebrate?
Do you know some people for whom the Word of God has fallen onto the path and been picked off?
How might you help them become rooted in good soil? There’s a topic for prayer today…
The birds are a given. They even have their place.
We just need to shoo them off when they threaten our spiritual health, or someone else’s.
Maybe being active and intentional in the Life of God is like the netting people put over their growing berries and vegetables – the sun and water get through, but the birds have to do their munching somewhere else.
And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up."
Paths can be beautiful, but they’re not places for growing, are they? We call a path full of greenery an “overgrown path.” Paths are places for journeying, the arteries that carry us from one place for growing to another, if you will.
When the Good News is announced to people on the path, on the move, they may not receive it fully – it remains on the surface, easy pickings for other messages and other priorities that conflict with it.
What are the birds, do you suppose, these entities that gobble up the newly scattered seed so it has no time to take root? Distractions, competing claims, yes – and also something deeper: lies the Enemy tells us to undermine our ability to trust in the goodness of God and the goodness of God in us. Those lies can take many forms, and are often disguised in Advertising. Competitiveness. 60-80 hour workweeks. Stress. Anxiety.
What’s on your list?
Name some paths in your life, in between spaces.
(Work can be a field, or a path; relationships can be a field or a path…)
What are the growing places in your life that you can name and celebrate?
Do you know some people for whom the Word of God has fallen onto the path and been picked off?
How might you help them become rooted in good soil? There’s a topic for prayer today…
The birds are a given. They even have their place.
We just need to shoo them off when they threaten our spiritual health, or someone else’s.
Maybe being active and intentional in the Life of God is like the netting people put over their growing berries and vegetables – the sun and water get through, but the birds have to do their munching somewhere else.
7-7-14 - Sower and Seeds
Ah – we’ve arrived at a stretch of parables in our Sunday Gospel
selections. Parables were stories Jesus told to show what the Kingdom of
God, or the Life of God, looks like, how it operates in ways that are
often very different from the ways of this world. Parables invite us to
play, to turn them this way and that and see how our interpretation
shifts according to our angle. Some are short, some long; some are
challenging to figure out; some are explained – which can take some fun
out of it…
This week is one of those stories, which Jesus told and then explained to his disciples in private. Let’s pretend we don’t have that explanation and wonder about the images he offers.
“That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the lake. Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach. And he told them many things in parables, saying: ‘Listen! A sower went out to sow.’”
What do sowers sow? They sow seeds.
Where do they sow it? Ideally, in good soil.
This sower seems to have been a little careless – or maybe carefree. He, or she, just seems to have tossed the seeds randomly rather than laying them down in carefully plowed rows. We know this because some land in places where seeds have trouble rooting and growing.
Who do you think this sower is?
Is it God in creation?
Is it Jesus, the one who came to reveal and redeem?
Is it the Holy Spirit showing up wherever he is invited?
Is it us when we share our faith with another, or when we show love in the name of Christ?
Yes…
Why the randomness? Are all seeds meant to take root, and some just don’t? Are we meant to seek those and help replant them?
What are the seeds – the Word of God, the Good News of freedom in Christ?
Are we the seeds? Hmmm…. How does the story look when it we turn it that way?
Today in prayer let’s put ourselves into this parable – where do you find yourself?
Are you a sower or a seed or soil?
Ask God to show you where God might have you sow love and spirit in your life at this time.
There is something frustrating and wonderful about the scattered seeds – it means that the Life of God can spring up anywhere at any time. Be ready for it!
This week is one of those stories, which Jesus told and then explained to his disciples in private. Let’s pretend we don’t have that explanation and wonder about the images he offers.
“That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the lake. Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach. And he told them many things in parables, saying: ‘Listen! A sower went out to sow.’”
What do sowers sow? They sow seeds.
Where do they sow it? Ideally, in good soil.
This sower seems to have been a little careless – or maybe carefree. He, or she, just seems to have tossed the seeds randomly rather than laying them down in carefully plowed rows. We know this because some land in places where seeds have trouble rooting and growing.
Who do you think this sower is?
Is it God in creation?
Is it Jesus, the one who came to reveal and redeem?
Is it the Holy Spirit showing up wherever he is invited?
Is it us when we share our faith with another, or when we show love in the name of Christ?
Yes…
Why the randomness? Are all seeds meant to take root, and some just don’t? Are we meant to seek those and help replant them?
What are the seeds – the Word of God, the Good News of freedom in Christ?
Are we the seeds? Hmmm…. How does the story look when it we turn it that way?
Today in prayer let’s put ourselves into this parable – where do you find yourself?
Are you a sower or a seed or soil?
Ask God to show you where God might have you sow love and spirit in your life at this time.
There is something frustrating and wonderful about the scattered seeds – it means that the Life of God can spring up anywhere at any time. Be ready for it!
7-4-14 - Independence - and Freedom
Today is America’s Independence Day, which many will celebrate by being freed from a day at work.
Independence means something different in the Christian life than it often does politically – the kind of liberty Jesus invites us into is strongly inter-dependent. We are invited to be tethered to God, to one another and to serving the world, not because we are being forced, but freely choosing to be.
Paul writes in Romans that we have been set free from sin so as to be enslaved to God, the reward for which is sanctification, being made holy. Would we voluntary enslave ourselves to anything? Well, yes… Our lives are full of ways in which we yield our freedom – on a limited basis – to achieve a goal. We become employees working under the policies and procedures of our employers; we pay personal trainers large sums to make us perform painful and arduous exercises; we follow certain diets.
And we voluntarily take on the yoke Jesus offers, which he says is easy – and when we truly trust him, it is. It is only when we pull away that we find it chafes.
I believe that God’s greatest desire for us is freedom, to be free from all that holds us back and makes us less than who we were intended to be, less than who God already knows us to be. That freedom does not make us independent, however – it makes us interdependent.
We are invited to be more dependent on God, to throw all our weight and trust on this One we cannot see but discern in our lives and around us. As we grow in that relationship, we find that God also has ways God is depending upon us, to be the vessels by which God’s transforming love and healing power are enacted in the world. As I’ve been saying lately, “We cannot do it without God; God will not do it without us.” (Listen to Matthew West’s Do Something…)
We are invited to be interdependent with others in our communities of faith, and even with those whom we would serve. We will see peace and justice reign when we truly understand that to seek the good for our neighbor will create good and security and plenty for us. Even better will be the day when we don’t think in “us” and “them” terms at all – as U2 sings in Invisible, “There is no them; there’s only you, there’s only me.”
And we are interdependent in service to the world, willing to be served as well as serve.
I wish you a day of perfect freedom and fun today – with the prayer that, as we celebrate our unfathomable liberties as a nation, we find a pattern of “tethered freedom” in Christ that allows us to be truly free.
Independence means something different in the Christian life than it often does politically – the kind of liberty Jesus invites us into is strongly inter-dependent. We are invited to be tethered to God, to one another and to serving the world, not because we are being forced, but freely choosing to be.
Paul writes in Romans that we have been set free from sin so as to be enslaved to God, the reward for which is sanctification, being made holy. Would we voluntary enslave ourselves to anything? Well, yes… Our lives are full of ways in which we yield our freedom – on a limited basis – to achieve a goal. We become employees working under the policies and procedures of our employers; we pay personal trainers large sums to make us perform painful and arduous exercises; we follow certain diets.
And we voluntarily take on the yoke Jesus offers, which he says is easy – and when we truly trust him, it is. It is only when we pull away that we find it chafes.
I believe that God’s greatest desire for us is freedom, to be free from all that holds us back and makes us less than who we were intended to be, less than who God already knows us to be. That freedom does not make us independent, however – it makes us interdependent.
We are invited to be more dependent on God, to throw all our weight and trust on this One we cannot see but discern in our lives and around us. As we grow in that relationship, we find that God also has ways God is depending upon us, to be the vessels by which God’s transforming love and healing power are enacted in the world. As I’ve been saying lately, “We cannot do it without God; God will not do it without us.” (Listen to Matthew West’s Do Something…)
We are invited to be interdependent with others in our communities of faith, and even with those whom we would serve. We will see peace and justice reign when we truly understand that to seek the good for our neighbor will create good and security and plenty for us. Even better will be the day when we don’t think in “us” and “them” terms at all – as U2 sings in Invisible, “There is no them; there’s only you, there’s only me.”
And we are interdependent in service to the world, willing to be served as well as serve.
I wish you a day of perfect freedom and fun today – with the prayer that, as we celebrate our unfathomable liberties as a nation, we find a pattern of “tethered freedom” in Christ that allows us to be truly free.
7-3-14 - Come Unto Me
Were sweeter words ever found in Scripture for a harried people?
“‘Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
To be a disciple implies taking on the discipline of a master, doing whatever he or she tells you to do. The Pharisees and teachers of the law demanded much of their followers, to keep the Law of Moses perfectly in every particular. Along the way, nuances of love, mercy and relationship often fell by the wayside. The burdens of these demands were heavy indeed, and never satisfactorily met - except by the Teachers, of course.
The same can be said of the demands our culture places upon us these days – to be more productive, more successful, more financially secure, more fashionable, attractive, sweet-smelling, popular… you name it. The new law is no less onerous than the old. And so Jesus’ invitation is alive for us as well.
We too take on a yoke when we take on Christ’s life – yokes being the apparatus placed on oxen so they can pull a cart. We offer our obedience to him and take on the ministry of being his apostles, his witnesses – proclaiming the Good News, healing the sick, feeding the hungry, freeing the captives. Like his original disciples, we are sometimes called to give up things or people that we find precious for rewards only known later.
But Jesus says his yoke is easy, and his burden is light. Unlike the burden of the Law-bound, his is the yoke of freedom in God. Unlike the arrogant Teachers, he is gentle and humble in heart; he was never ashamed to eat with obvious sinners and people on the margins.
Do you want to find rest for your soul? For many of us, our soul is the most restless part of us, especially in a culture that does not privilege space for the spiritual.
Have you experienced knowing Jesus as restful or stressful? If it’s stressful, we might want to take a look at what part of his message we’re focusing on.
What can you do today to find rest for your soul? You might be in a traffic jam getting away for the holiday weekend, which would be pretty much the opposite of finding rest for your soul, right? If that should happen – and I pray it will not – you might ask Jesus to refresh you in the midst of that stress. Pray for other drivers, especially those who get in your way.
And if you’re already where you’re going and easing into a long weekend, may I suggest you start with some “soul rest” time in Jesus’ presence? Hand off your burdens and take on his promise of peace, and spread it around.
“‘Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
To be a disciple implies taking on the discipline of a master, doing whatever he or she tells you to do. The Pharisees and teachers of the law demanded much of their followers, to keep the Law of Moses perfectly in every particular. Along the way, nuances of love, mercy and relationship often fell by the wayside. The burdens of these demands were heavy indeed, and never satisfactorily met - except by the Teachers, of course.
The same can be said of the demands our culture places upon us these days – to be more productive, more successful, more financially secure, more fashionable, attractive, sweet-smelling, popular… you name it. The new law is no less onerous than the old. And so Jesus’ invitation is alive for us as well.
We too take on a yoke when we take on Christ’s life – yokes being the apparatus placed on oxen so they can pull a cart. We offer our obedience to him and take on the ministry of being his apostles, his witnesses – proclaiming the Good News, healing the sick, feeding the hungry, freeing the captives. Like his original disciples, we are sometimes called to give up things or people that we find precious for rewards only known later.
But Jesus says his yoke is easy, and his burden is light. Unlike the burden of the Law-bound, his is the yoke of freedom in God. Unlike the arrogant Teachers, he is gentle and humble in heart; he was never ashamed to eat with obvious sinners and people on the margins.
Do you want to find rest for your soul? For many of us, our soul is the most restless part of us, especially in a culture that does not privilege space for the spiritual.
Have you experienced knowing Jesus as restful or stressful? If it’s stressful, we might want to take a look at what part of his message we’re focusing on.
What can you do today to find rest for your soul? You might be in a traffic jam getting away for the holiday weekend, which would be pretty much the opposite of finding rest for your soul, right? If that should happen – and I pray it will not – you might ask Jesus to refresh you in the midst of that stress. Pray for other drivers, especially those who get in your way.
And if you’re already where you’re going and easing into a long weekend, may I suggest you start with some “soul rest” time in Jesus’ presence? Hand off your burdens and take on his promise of peace, and spread it around.
7-2-14 - Access
Who the heck did this guy think he was?
“All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”
Jesus probably infuriated a lot of people when he said that, claiming to be the one to whom God had entrusted all things, and the only one who could make God known. Some believed him, some did not, some wondered. Pretty much covers the gamut for us too, I imagine.
It feels great when we know something other people don’t yet know. And when we know someone important and get to introduce other people to that person, don’t we feel some power, a little glee, a moment of superiority? If I can have a VIP at a party, I feel like hot stuff. Well, my friends, we know a guy who can introduce us to the God who made the universes, who can not only introduce us but get us an audience, where we can ask anything, confess anything, say anything.
Those who believe that Jesus is who he said he was, and that he is risen and ascended, who count themselves as his brothers and sisters, are ones to whom he has chosen to reveal the Father. Maybe he also chooses to reveal God to others. I don’t know; we've just been told he has made God known to us.
Are we taking him up on that invitation? If you got an invitation to the White House, or to meet with Pope Francis, would you go? I’d move my schedule around to get there. Do we want to know God? We’re told Jesus is the perfect image of the invisible God… and he said elsewhere that those who have seen him have seen the Father… so Jesus is a good place to start.
Today in prayer we might take another imaginary exploration. Our imaginations can be wonderful vehicles for prayer, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Imagine walking with Jesus do wherever it is you imagine the Father to be… a throne room? A corner office? A beautiful field? Play it out in your mind – what do you see? What do you hear? What is said? How do you feel?
In an age when access to power is everything, we might hold as precious how much access to ultimate power and eternal love we have been given in Christ. “For through him we have access to the Father by one Spirit.” You’ve got the “in.” Use your connections!
“All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”
Jesus probably infuriated a lot of people when he said that, claiming to be the one to whom God had entrusted all things, and the only one who could make God known. Some believed him, some did not, some wondered. Pretty much covers the gamut for us too, I imagine.
It feels great when we know something other people don’t yet know. And when we know someone important and get to introduce other people to that person, don’t we feel some power, a little glee, a moment of superiority? If I can have a VIP at a party, I feel like hot stuff. Well, my friends, we know a guy who can introduce us to the God who made the universes, who can not only introduce us but get us an audience, where we can ask anything, confess anything, say anything.
Those who believe that Jesus is who he said he was, and that he is risen and ascended, who count themselves as his brothers and sisters, are ones to whom he has chosen to reveal the Father. Maybe he also chooses to reveal God to others. I don’t know; we've just been told he has made God known to us.
Are we taking him up on that invitation? If you got an invitation to the White House, or to meet with Pope Francis, would you go? I’d move my schedule around to get there. Do we want to know God? We’re told Jesus is the perfect image of the invisible God… and he said elsewhere that those who have seen him have seen the Father… so Jesus is a good place to start.
Today in prayer we might take another imaginary exploration. Our imaginations can be wonderful vehicles for prayer, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Imagine walking with Jesus do wherever it is you imagine the Father to be… a throne room? A corner office? A beautiful field? Play it out in your mind – what do you see? What do you hear? What is said? How do you feel?
In an age when access to power is everything, we might hold as precious how much access to ultimate power and eternal love we have been given in Christ. “For through him we have access to the Father by one Spirit.” You’ve got the “in.” Use your connections!
7-1-14 - Infants
How do you feel about being likened to an infant?
“At that time Jesus said, ‘I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants.”
Some might take it as an insult. We might rather receive it as an invitation to total trust in God. Infants are receiving machines - they do not feed, clothe or even move themselves. The only thing they can “do” is ask for help by using their voices – and reward their helpers with big smiles, which they quickly learn will get them far. The most challenging part of faith-life for many is our dependence upon the grace and mercy and power of God for what matters most in the long-term. Learning to receive God’s goodness and not worry so much about repaying – for we cannot – is a mark of maturity in faith.
Infants are clear about their needs and quick to ask. They are fully in relationship with their care-givers. We can learn from them to go first to God when we need something instead of making it our last resort. And, like those babies who reward us with gurgles and smiles, we can hone our praise response so that it becomes automatic when we’ve received a gift.
Of course, infants are anything but simple. In their tiny minds and bodies are contained all the systems and equipment that adults have, just waiting to mature. I believe that, whether we are young or mature in faith, we have everything we need to live a God-reliant, praise-filled life – it is all given to us by the Holy Spirit in baptism, maybe even in birth, waiting to be developed.
What are some attributes of infants that you would like to borrow and try on as you approach God?
What are the things you cannot do for yourself that you are afraid to trust God with? Or eager to?
Today in prayer we might try an imagination exercise – imagine yourself as an infant being held or watched over by Jesus… how does he interact with you in that imaginary prayer space? Does he say anything? Do you? What do you feel?
Infants have a huge learning curve, because they have everything about life to learn. As Christ followers, we are in a similar position – we have everything about Life to learn. Let’s open our spiritual senses and breathe it in.
“At that time Jesus said, ‘I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants.”
Some might take it as an insult. We might rather receive it as an invitation to total trust in God. Infants are receiving machines - they do not feed, clothe or even move themselves. The only thing they can “do” is ask for help by using their voices – and reward their helpers with big smiles, which they quickly learn will get them far. The most challenging part of faith-life for many is our dependence upon the grace and mercy and power of God for what matters most in the long-term. Learning to receive God’s goodness and not worry so much about repaying – for we cannot – is a mark of maturity in faith.
Infants are clear about their needs and quick to ask. They are fully in relationship with their care-givers. We can learn from them to go first to God when we need something instead of making it our last resort. And, like those babies who reward us with gurgles and smiles, we can hone our praise response so that it becomes automatic when we’ve received a gift.
Of course, infants are anything but simple. In their tiny minds and bodies are contained all the systems and equipment that adults have, just waiting to mature. I believe that, whether we are young or mature in faith, we have everything we need to live a God-reliant, praise-filled life – it is all given to us by the Holy Spirit in baptism, maybe even in birth, waiting to be developed.
What are some attributes of infants that you would like to borrow and try on as you approach God?
What are the things you cannot do for yourself that you are afraid to trust God with? Or eager to?
Today in prayer we might try an imagination exercise – imagine yourself as an infant being held or watched over by Jesus… how does he interact with you in that imaginary prayer space? Does he say anything? Do you? What do you feel?
Infants have a huge learning curve, because they have everything about life to learn. As Christ followers, we are in a similar position – we have everything about Life to learn. Let’s open our spiritual senses and breathe it in.
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