This Week

This week is for adventure.  The adventure of mom putting her first child on the bus.  The adventure of setting the alarm and getting up for class in a far away state, in a shared room, and with no one to tell you to get out of bed. The adventure of remembering the years of driven by school schedule even though the years you have lived alone are now double the amount of years the children were in school.

While this week may not at first sound like an adventure, an adventure is not only thrilling and interesting.  An adventure takes us out of our comfort zones.  An adventure stretches us.  An adventure is to unfamiliar territory and we don't know if we like it until we arrive.  If its fun, great!  If its uncomfortable, we find ways to live through the discomfort until we move onto another place.  An adventure always brings us close to our inner lives, both the life with God and the life God calls us to live.

A Blessing for this week of adventure from Celtic Daily Prayer,
May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you,
wherever He may send you.
May He guide you through the wilderness,
protect you from the storm.
May he bring you home rejoicing
at the wonders he has shown you.
May He bring you home rejoicing
once again into our doors.

This Day

This morning the sun is shining in Ellicott City.  The air is calm. And, while I have a schedule planned, can I truly say I know what is going to happen this day?  One could even say I have a forecast of the day.  The appointment and to do lists.  My priorities are numbered so that I can appropriately attend to the prayer, spiritual, education, physical and emotional needs of those in my care.  Will it happen in that order?  Will another need or priority emerge.  Likely.

Even on a calm, sunny, planned day it will not unfold as predicted.  That is normal.  Despite what we know at the beginning of the day, can we with certainty know the future?

Add to the normal chain of events a hurricane, the likelihood of the unexpected increases many times over.

Our lives always carry the possibility of the unexpected be it within the normal range or in the hurricane range.   This day we pull aside each veil to reveal what is next knowing Christ is always before us.

Sunday: The Praise of Creation

This morning's post is taken from Earth Gospel, A Guide to Prayer for God's Creation by Sam Hamilton - Poore.  On a morning when the power of creation has literally taken the power out of our human systems, we place ourselves in the depth, beauty, and wildness of God's world that surrounds us.  While St. John's cannot worship as community in the church, we can worship in a community of shared prayer and praise.



Opening based on Isaiah 42: 10-11
Sing God a new song!
The sea with its creatures,
the coastlands and its peoples,
the deserts and the mountains:
let them sing God's praise.

Hymn from "Acclaim with Jubilation" by Brian Wren, 1990
Acclaim with jubilation
and sing in harmony
with nature's old, evolving, unfolding symphony,
the blazing of the comet, the greening of the planet,
are songs without a voice, that bid us all rejoice.

The shrieking of the storm-wind,
the surging of the seas, the awestruck alleluias that whisper through the trees,
the rushing, booming surf-beat, the thumping, pulsing heart-beat,
resounding through the blood and bone to praise the Holy One.

Acclaim with jubilation
the Singer and the Song.
Come out of isolation to sing is to belong.
To God, whose mighty singing sets all creation ringing,
lift heart and soul and voice,
be thankful and rejoice!

Scripture Psalm 96 from The Saint Helena Psalter
Sing to God a new song; sing to God all the whole earth.

Sing and bless God's holy Name; proclaim the good news of salvation from day to day.

Declare God's glory among the nations, God's wonders among the peoples.

For God is great and greatly to be praised, more to be feared than all gods.

As for all the gods of the nations, they are but idols, but it is God who made the heavens.

Oh, the majesty and the magnificence of God's presence!
Oh, the power and splendor of God's sanctuary!

Ascribe to God you families of the peoples, ascribe to God honor and power.

Ascribe due honor to God's holy Name; bring offerings and come into God's courts.

Worship the Most High in the beauty of holiness; let the whole earth tremble before God.

Tell it out among the nations that God reigns!
God has made the world so firm that it cannot be moved, and will judge the peoples with equity.

Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad;
let the seas thunder and all that is in it;
let the field by joyful and all that is therein.

Then shall all the trees of wood shout for joy before God, who will come;
who will come to judge the earth.

God will judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with truth.

A pause for meditation & prayer upon the scripture...


Another Voice Helen Camara (1909-1999)
The psalms teach us to lend our voice to all creatures: to the mountains and the waters; to the trees
and the birds; to the light that comes from above and for the earth that provides for us; to the creatures of the sea, from the tiniest fish to the whale...Ah, but would you like to have seen the splendor of the act of creation? Then just think, creation is made anew, instant by instant, at God's hand.

Prayer Thomas Ken (1709) adapted
Praise God,
from whom all blessings flow;
praise God, all creatures here below;
praise God above, all heavenly host;
Creator, Christ, and Holy Ghost.
Amen.

Blessing
May you hear today
the song of God's grace unfolding,
the music of the world becoming,
the beating of Christ's own heart
in, with, and under all creation.

Sabbath Surprise

Immediately after writing yesterday's Sabbath reflections, my husband suggested we go for a sail in our 12 foot day sailer, Soul Asset. A morning sail is a little unusual but he said, "The winds are good." Anticipating ways to know, feel, and taste God's presence in my sabbath discipline, I grabbed my sunscreen.

The winds were good, very good and very strong. The boat mightily plowed through the waves. Warm bay water sloshed into our faces. If you have not had the experience of sailing, then the ride is at the same time like a carousel and an airplane in turbulence. Rolling up and down as well as bumpy and trembling. Both fun and scary. With each gust, the boat heeled (leaned way over). The wind whistled and the sails groaned.

God as a boat plowing through the waves? The boat and the sea are companions on the journey. The sea rolls and the boat floats. God is both powerful and buoyant.

Tasting God as salty bay water? God is in the salt and the water that nurtures the leviathan and the tiny hermit crab.

God as fun and scary? I was pushed to the edge of my comfort zone and then over the edge. I could not look forward into the wind and waves so I looked backward at the shoreline. Keeping in view a familiar landmark, I rolled with each new unexpected wave. I trusted the power of the wind and water as well as the buoyancy of the boat. I let go of everything that my mind was telling me and fully embraced the moment. I placed myself in the vastness of the water, the sky, and the wind knowing that creation is more wild, more fun, more vast, and more exciting than I can fathom. Sabbath surprise.

Sabbath Day

For Christians, Sunday is the designated day of Sabbath. It is the day to rest in God's goodness. Worship in community is an essential discipline to enter that deep rest when when know, touch, feel, and sense God is in all, of all, and within all. Some say they feel and sense this vastness of God by playing, walking, enjoying the outdoors. Some say they feel and sense this vastness in the grandeur of organ music or the depth of prayer. Some say Sabbath is a time to break the routine and do nothing.

Many years ago, a New York City police officer who was a member of the congregation I served, offered this perspective on Sabbath, "I need to set aside one day a week when I get on my knees." Sabbath brings us to our knees placing each one of us in perspective with our creator. We are of ultimate value to the One who loves us and yet as a grain of sand on the wide shore. Sabbath is resting our our moment with God and resting in the glory of all those moments for others.

Sabbath is not a place that we walk into easily, which is why we need a community disciple and a personal discipline to enter Sabbath. The community discipline is worship. The personal discipline is a intense, alert, and lively focus on God. It is more than being in creation; it is being in creation so that we are in God. It is more than a rest from schedule or play; it is chosen activities that minimize our directing our lives and allowing God to direct us.

Sunday Sabbath, for Christians, is intentional discipline with our knees in contact with the earth, our minds alert to goodness and our tiny yet important contribution to the sweep of God's purpose, and our rest in all that God gives to us.

Summer Sabbath

Since June, I have concluded my emails with 'Enjoy this summer sabbath.' With each encouraging message to allow ourselves to fall into the richness of creation that summer brings, I am also aware that we are saving up for one season the richness that creatures of God may, can, and, should enjoy every week.

Summer is the season when the routine is put on pause. Schools pause. Jobs pause. Schedules pause. Even church attendance pauses, as members and pastors take some time away. We throw ourselves into different activities and new experiences and lots of fun. We find, or have time, for things that renew our inner being, the connection with our hearts. We find, or have time, for the things that rest our monkey minds from jumping from one thought to the next. We find, or have time, to be aware of our bodies feeling hunger, warmth, sleepiness, and, energy outside of framework of a schedule.

As summer concludes, I aways want to retain, carry over, remember some of this sabbath. What was it like to stay in on that rainy day, sip tea, and read until late afternoon? What was it like to feel the sun on my shoulders? What was it like to truly pause and listen to my breath? Perhaps summer has more to teach and there is much more that I can learn by taking even a Sunday afternoon to find time to connect to my heart, listen to my breath, quiet my mind, and rest in the vast wonder of a Creator God.