Sunset Moonrise

Sunset & Moonrise

May 28, 2012

Dr. James R. Brooks

How many ways could God have given us light?  The sunlight that helps our food grow, gives us a tan, and helps us to see.  How many ways might God have created light?

In my office, the light makes a sound.  The hum of the florescent lights is always there.  The artificial light is rather noisy.  A noise that is distracting and unsatisfying.

What if God had created the sun with an on and off switch?  Regardless the revolving and rotation of the planets, the sun would turn on and off periodically.  What a savings of energy!  The sun is an opulent source!  The sun is always giving its light regardless of who is looking.  Be we on the sunny side of the planet during its revolution or on the dark side, the sun is bright.  What a waste, we might say.

Might opulence be the key?  Or beauty and artistry could be the point.  God’s creative acts could be more than an efficient production.  God’s creation could be a revelation.  A revelation of God’s love for us.  

What if God’s creation was solely about meeting our need and simultaneously inspiring us to greater heights?

What then of a sunset?  A moment most days when we might reflect upon more than the revolving and rotation of our planet.  A moment most days that invites us to witness the amazing beauty of God’s creative acts.  The providing of light in such a delicate way that it produces a sunset and moonrise.

Thanks be to God for these precious experiences.  May we not take them for less than they are.  May we receive them in ways that inspire us to be more than we might.

Vine is more than Internet

John 15:1-8

The True Vine ≠ Internet 

In the book of Genesis we read that we are created in the image of God.  There is a plural in there that is often forgotten.  Regardless, we are in the image of God.

The plural denotes to me the connectivity of the experience.  

We, humans, create the internet.  The internet is an experience of interconnectivity.  That experience is much like that imaged by God.  The triune God is 3 in 1.  A monotheistic expression of community.  One God in three expressions.  One God presented to us in three different accessible manners.  Or ... One God in three forms to us and to God’s self.  To be one is to be in community ... to be in community is to be one.  As detailed as we might get with our trinitarian theory, community appears to be at the basis of God’s being.  

Let us consider God (Abba) and Jesus.  In the Gospels, those two characters seem to be at the closest communion yet individualized.  Jesus sends us the Spirit, so the dyad becomes the triad and we have a more profound community.

Leap a few thousand years, we created the internet.  From its onset in the late 1960s to today, the map of the internet is if anything connectivity.  From its onset, the internet has modeled connection via diverse and growing path ways.  

My question is if the internet images the connectivity that God models in us as an image of God?  Does the internet model the connectivity we crave in God?  As much as humans crave independence, we create a “network” of connection because we are modeled / made in the image of one who is all about relationship?

A difference is that we are also about control, so we create the internet to control connection.  Like the grape vine, God creates without the desire to control.  Rather, God creates with the desire to produce fruit ... clusters of grape from a tangled mess of branches.  

We desire the internet because of our need for control.  God desires the grape vine because of God’s lack of desire for control (thus the messy and tangled branches) rather a desire for fruit (the clusters of grapes from the green).  

May we produce much fruit (love relationships) and enjoy our life in the vine.

BONUS:    A bonus thought after listening to one of the Elders of my church read the scripture ... What a blessing that Jesus’ images us as branches of the vince that produce fruit.  What if Jesus had imaged us as the roots from which God drew nutrients to produce fruit?  What if we were imaged as the roots, hidden under ground with the dirt to give food to the vine?  Instead, God sees us as the ones who produce fruit for God’s glory!

from the minister’s bookshelf . . .

I recently finished The Shack by Wm. Paul Young.  I was given the book as a gift.  Books are fabulous gifts because they are so much more than the pages caught between covers.  Such is the case with this book.

The Shack is not a book for the faint of heart.  The book contains subject matter that is difficult to read.  However, for those who are curious about or compelled to wrestle with issues of theodicy, such as why bad things happen to good people, this is a particularly helpful piece of reflection.

I was especially taken with Young’s portrayal or God.  Without giving away the book, Young has a fascinating way of explaining the relationship of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.  As much, I was up lifted by Young’s construct of God / human relationship.  While not a classic in the artful use of language, it is a keeper for its approach to the content.  I recommend this book quite highly, and am thankful to the giver of the book to me.

Who Is Being Blessed?

Who is blessing whom?  When I look into the eyes of a pet that seems to know only love and offer it a blessing, who is really blessing whom?  If you are a pet owner by choice, I think you know exactly what I intend.

Our congregation had never held a pet blessing celebration.  Our tradition has nothing official against such celebrations, nor anything particularly for such an event.  If you want to know more about that event, here is a link to the press release.

Nearly 30 pets were brought by almost 20 families to our first such celebration.  This even found only dogs and cats gathering.  It was a bit chilly.  From large and lumbering huskies and dobermans to small short haired kitties and bright eyed chihuahuas, we gathered beneath the sun on the front lawn.

After some opening remarks and a general prayer, I made the rounds to offer blessings.  As I approached, each owner introduced their pet.  And it was then that the magic truly happened.

I went straight for the pet, stooping or kneeling.  After a short greeting / sniffing, I would stroke the pet’s head feeling the soft fur.  With words that seem to ramble but full of intent I blessed the animal, their owner, the family and the relationship they share.  May God help the pet bring their family the joy God intended.

I was receiving so much joy in those moments, who was blessing who.  Jesus, in the gospel of Matthew, points to the birds of the air as models of faith.  They do not store up food but trust the creator.  These pets exhibited such trust in their owners, me and the scene.  Some might have been anxious but nary a one was ill behaved.  

Some weeks ago in worship, we discussed “thin spaces / moments”.  Those times when the distance between heaven and earth drawn thin.  A Celtic concept of moments when we experience God more fully than most of the moments of our lives.  

As I blessed the pets, I experienced a thinness between myself and the creator.  As I rose to give the pet owner a card with more blessing, their smile was like an affirmation of my experience.   A moment of magic was around us.

God has blessed us in many ways.  Through our pets we witness a model of faith.  Our pets are a declaration from God that creation is meant for our joy ... a fertile place for our faith to grow.  The relationship with our pets is a place for us to develop / hone the aptitude to love our neighbor and God.  

Thanks be to the one who gives us the responsibility and rejoicing as pet owners.

Epiphany

How does a color blind preacher express what is beyond words?  Epiphany is that season.  

Reading the various Gospel texts that relate to the season of Epiphany, I read authors at a loss.  How does one articulate in a few sentences the baptism of our Lord and Saviour?  How does one share with the reader what it was like when Jesus called the first disciples?  How does one place on paper the experience of the transfiguration of Jesus?  

I am color blind.  To me the world is not grey.  However, ask the optometrist how many of the dot charts I got right - 2 of 10.  The first time I held my dear’s hand was before Monet’s Waterlilies.  The massive triptyck that he spent years to create.  Did I see the same colors as her?  No.  Was the experience beyond words.  You know the answer.

When Andrew told Peter about Jesus, when Philip told Nathanael about Jesus ... it was beyond the words.  

When you share your faith, fear not of the words.  Fancy phrasing is not the key.  Proper pronouns do not succeed.  The authentic expression of that which transforms your life is inspiring.  

The first disciples were neither poets nor novelists.  Jesus called fisherman and tax collectors.  These are hardly the word smiths of their day.  And yet, the laid the foundation of a faith community that thrives today.  

The faithful are blessed to experience God in ways that are beyond words.  The moments when God blesses us, heals us, reconciles us, transforms us.... beyond words and yet our attempt to speak the experience is itself a powerful witness smiled upon by our Creator.

Blessed are those who dare to share the faith that feeds their souls.  Epiphany is the season of revelation.

A Christmas Reflection at the Edge

At the Edge we see Thee most clearly.  Weddings, birth of a child, graduations are among the many edge experiences where our vision of God gains a modicum of clarity.  I know in my soul that God is in me and through me, around me and beyond me.  Yet it is at the edges of my life where I see Thee most clearly.

A recent watching of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens reminded me of the edge experiences.  Scrooge is visited by a ghost, Marley.  He travels with the three spirits of Christmas; past, present and future.  Scrooge is made aware that Tiny Tim’s life is so fragile as to be in question.  Scrooge is confronted on his relationship with the poor who live on the fringe of life as he knows it.  

This fascinating tale is strewn with edge experiences.  Scrooge is made a spectator by the three spirits.  However, his journey to the edges is actually an invitation to transformation.  At the edges, more than Scrooge’s vision is changed.  

You and I are invited this Christmas season to travel to the edge of life, to the place where Jesus is born.   It is not an invitation to be a spectator.  Spectators stay in the back of the church and watch the journey of others.  You and I are invited up front to worship Jesus and to be changed, saved, healed.   The invitation is not to scare you.  Rather it is an edge experience found in a cradle of new life.

Imagine your Christmas morning following a journey of such magnitude.  No gift beneath the tree will compare.  All gifts will have more meaning.

Surprising Blessings

Today, a friend of mine delivered some Christmas cheer.  Actually it was a birthday present, for a 9 year old, who lived in a trailer, and whose parents had no money for cake and presents.  He wanted to deliver a cake but ended up getting a present - somebody else took care of the cake.  

My friend was not that cheery about making the delivery.  So hard to determine if the one asking for help was actually in need of help or working the system.  He didn’t know this family.  The amount needed was so slight that it seemed not worth the paper work and phone calls to round up the sum of money.  But he kept thinking of the little girl and her birthday and well you know.  He just went and bought the gift and delivered it.  Maybe it was the guilt that both made up his mind and hardened his heart as he drove to the trailer park.

Handing off the gift to the mom did not clarify the situation.  Could go either way - need or scam.  As he climbed into his vehicle, the birthday girl rode up on her bike from school.  Watching how eagerly she was bounding up the trailer stairs, the same stairs he trudged up a minute earlier, he knew he had done the right thing.  And what a treat to arrive early enough she need never know who brought the gift and on time to see the recipient.  Yep - he did a sports celeb point to the sky.  Touchdown!

And again, a giver was blessed beyond measure ... and this time quite by surprise!