Clear As Crystal

I went over to church this morning for Lectio Divina. The passage was Revelation 21:9-21, a fairly long passage describing the new Jerusalem that will come down from heaven. In Lectio we read the passage several times and listen for God to impress a word or phrase on our heart. Here's the passage:

One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, "Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb." And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south and three on the west. The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

The angel who talked with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city, its gates and its walls. The city was laid out like a square, as long as it was wide. He measured the city with the rod and found it to be 12,000 stadia in length, and as wide and high as it is long. He measured its wall and it was 144 cubits thick, by man's measurement, which the angel was using. The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass. The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, the fifth sardonyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst. The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of pure gold, like transparent glass.

What God impressed on me was the idea that in the new Jerusalem/Heaven, there will be clarity and transparency. In the beginning of the passage it says the city was clear as crystal. Later, the wall is described as pure like glass. Finally, the street of the city, which was pure gold was like transparent glass. It struck me that this is a place where there are no secrets, nothing can be hidden, where every thing and everyone has pure motives and will live transparent lives.

To live this way today would be scary but only because in this bodily form I'm a sinful creature. But then, I will know fully even as I am known and will not be ashamed of what others know about me. Also, I will not be embarrassed by anything I know about someone else.

It strikes me that this is a description of the perfect spiritual community where we all know and are all known fully.

One More Death in the Family

I hope this will be the last post this year about deaths in the family. Yesterday I heard from my sister, Betty, that our uncle, Paul Henninger, died Friday, October 9th. Paul was married to our Aunt Stella (Dengler) who died when she was very young - in her 40's.

As kids we loved to visit Aunt Stella and Uncle Paul on their farm. They had a wonderful place in Lenhartsville. I remember learning to fish for the first time in the pond on their property.

Paul was 94 years old. After his first wife, my Aunt Stella, died, he remarried a wonderful lady named Grace and they were married for more than 43 years.

Paul always struck me as a man of peace and grace, he seemed to be the perfect gentleman at all times. The photo above was taken this past January at my brother Marvin's funeral. We will miss seeing him at future family gatherings.

DOS

Yesterday I participated in a Day of Solitude at Lakeland. We learned several ways of praying and meditating on God.

The first prayer technique we learned is called Lectio Divina (Divine Reading). The idea is that we enter into a time of prayer and in this prayer mode, we read a passage of scripture from the Daily Lectionary. We take turns reading the passage until several people have read and we become very familiar with what it says.

Next, a few more people read the passage while we look for a word or phrase God wants to impress upon us, this is called reflection. In the third step, we respond by journaling about the word or phrase we selected. We are encouraged to write whatever comes to mind. Writing forces us to slow down because the mind can move much more quickly then the pen.

In between reading and reflection we are given an opportunity to share the word or phrase by speaking it to the group. Speaking is another way of slowing down our thoughts. We are reminded however, that we are still in prayer and it is not a time to get preachy or comment on someone's thoughts - we are not there to fix others.

The last step is contemplation and in this step we are encourage to consider how the insight God has given, might play out in the next 24 - 72 hours. Again, we are encouraged to journal to capture any actions we feel we need to take.

After Lectio Divina we moved into two exercises in which we get quiet and Listen to God. Dan said that the monks use to say you need to get quiet long enough to where the monkeys in the trees get quiet and the demons in your head stop speaking. We learned that there are two modes used to move into this quiet time. The first is Kataphatic where you use something to help you focus. It might be worship music, written prayers, a book, the bible or a candle.

The other mode is Apaphatic where you use nothing, you simply close your eyes and focus your thoughts on God. This is also referred to as "Centering Prayer". Because our thoughts have a tendency to wonder, you should have a word to use when you need to refocus. My word was "mercy" from Luke 18 where the tax collector's prayer is simply "God, have mercy on me a sinner".

We spent about 90 minutes in Kataphatic prayer and 20 minutes in Apaphatic or Centering Prayer. In between these two times of listening to God, we performed an act of service for about 45 minutes. In this activity, we did some act of manual labor, cleaning, sweeping, etc. During this time we were encouraged to pray for those who would be using the tables, chairs and other things in the facility over the next days and weeks.

The last activity was a type of prayer time in which we spent time drawing or doodling and coloring on a piece of construction paper. During this time of drawing or doodling, we were encouraged to intercede on behalf of others for whom we wished to pray.

It was a good day not only for the solitude but for the instruction in various ways to connect with God in prayer.

Another Death in the Family

This has been some kind of year for our family. First my brother died on New Years Day followed by my cousin Ruth Ann then my brother-in-law's sister Dianne, Darlene's Aunt Virginia, a close friend's father, another friend's mother and most recently, my sister-in-law's mother. In addition, a nephew had a massive heart attack and paramedics told my sister he was gone. Fortunately, they revived him in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. They put him in a deep freeze coma to preserve blood-flow to the brain and when they brought him out he was fine. Another nephew had a rollover car accident but received only minor injuries.

We turn 57 this year, only 3 years from 60. It didn't hit me when I turned 50 that I was getting old but 60! My little brother turns 50 this year and my oldest sister is in her mid 70's. I'm getting depressed so I think that's all I'll have to say for now.

Poet, Priest and Prophet

My notes from Pastor Dan Wilburn's message today.

Ben Franklin said all we want for our children is that they become healthy, wealthy and wise. the healthy and wealthy part is fairly straight forward but what about the wise part? We don't really understand how to be wise or pass wisdom along so we settle for expertise. We teach our kids how to be experts at things like, homework, being polite, riding a bike, etc. But, our kids can learn that stuff from others. Experts can tell us how and what to pack for a journey but they can't tell us how to walk. Wisdom teaches us how to walk.

Our kids need us to be Poets, Priests / Priestesses and Prophets.
Spiritual Poets help interpret life from a spiritually slanted position and interpret spiritual matters. Actually, they interpret everything from a spiritual perspective. They can learn the science behind why it thunders and lightnings from others but no one else is going to teach them that these things are part of God's creation. The school teacher or Barney the big purple dinosaur isn't going to teach them that the thunder and lightening should be scary and exciting at the same time, like God and that we should appreciate and enjoy both aspects.

Priests and Priestesses usher people into God's presence. This is what we need to do for our children and it involves teaching them both how to pray and how to listen in prayer. Prayer is really a response to something God said. there is a secrete to listening to God in prayer and we need to teach that to our kids. They need to learn from us the practice of wasting time - spiritually by learning to rest in the Lord and quietly open their heart to God's instruction.

Prophets redirect their kids thinking away from what is false to what is true. For example, a TV add shows a family driving a new car to some far off and wonderful destination. Truth - they just want your money. If we buy the new car, we'd use it to do the same things and go the same places we go in our old car.
Teach them mercy and to be merciful not just to "do unto others as you want them to do to you". That golden rule we all learn is a far cry from what Jesus taught in Luke 6:27-36. The golden rule is about fairness but Jesus is about mercy. Fairness is about what I deserve based on what I've done but Jesus said, give to others even if they can't give back.

I wish I'd understood and practices this stuff when my kids were at home. In fairness, if we are going to each this to our kids, we need to start living it ourselves. We will learn the wisdom at the feet of Jesus and no other place.

God's blessing is not what we hope for

Luke 6:19 says "and the people all tried to touch him, because power was coming from him and healing them all". This phrase struck me because today, like then, people are trying to touch Jesus. Really, they are trying to "tap" him for something - a healing, a blessing, a job, etc. Few want him for himself but rather for what he can do or give. It's the consumer in us coming out in our faith. Even in our faith we try to find contentment through acquisition.

Jesus goes on to say it is not those who acquire that are blessed but just the opposite. It is the poor, hungry, sad, hated, insulted and rejected who are blessed. How few of us are willing to accept this truth. We'd rather have men speak well of us and accept us and be blessed by men rather than by God. God's blessing is not what we hope for.

Love's Grand Story

These are the notes I took from our pastor's message yesterday. This is why I feel we are where we need to be right now. You can listen on the web site at www.lakelandcommunitychurch.org, although I noticed they haven't update with the May 3rd message just yet.

There are a number of Grand Stores. Most are meaningless stores. Most of us try to stay busy to keep from realizing our helpless hopelessness. God's Grand Story was the story Jesus followed. Jesus really believed the world was lost and floundering without him and without hope. He felt they needed Psalm 23 rest, which is peace that sheep have when they are under the protection of a good shepherd (Matt 11:28-30).

Most of us live to consume, hoping it will bring contentment. This is a lie, contentment is not one purchase away. If consumerism is our Grand Story are we finding contentment inside of ourselves? May be, but only until the next thing comes along that we want.

God's Grand Story is based on love. Sacrificial love, taking us from more important to less important. He created us out of love for us. Humans screw things up when we try to be as good as God because the next step is to be gods. It's why Adam and Even ate the fruit, so they could be like God. When we go down this road the story of love fades away.

The primary purpose of God is to reveal the one who can give man true rest - Jesus. It doesn't come through power and strength but through weakness and death. Paul says the victory was made complete on the cross - notice, not at the resurrection (1 Cor 15:3-8). Paul is sitting in a prison cell and he says, "Jesus rescued me". Paul's story is God's story and it can be our story. Our story is caught up in a larger story, it has to be!

Jesus' words are, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, 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." (Matt 11:28-30) But, it will cost you everything. You will stop consuming for contentment and start loving to find contentment.