Note to readers: From here on I'll be offering these devotions Monday through Friday. With no end to the pandemic in sight I hope to continue writing these and want to have the space and time to make them helpful on a sustainable basis. Keeping to a five day schedule will help me do that more effectively.
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” Matthew 5:4 I had another devotion planned for today, but with the loss of two members of the Christ Church community this week, and several more over the course of this pandemic, I could not help but name where many of us are now. We are mourning the deaths in our community, we are mourning the loss of our togetherness, we are mourning the inadequacy of our mourning in isolation. There is much that we are grieving in this time and it is good to grieve, to name the pain and hold it to the light, to sit before God in our state of loss. Yesterday, before I’d heard the news of Joyce’s passing, I sat beside a gurgling creek in the forest reading Francis Spufford’s beautiful book, Unapologetic. It is Spufford’s attempt to explain the Christian faith and why it makes sense, even in a very post Christian world. Spufford is British and he uses as one of his starting places London’s famed “atheist bus” campaign, a series of city bus advertisements that proclaimed: “There's probably no god. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life." What Spufford finds most problematic about the advertisement is that it follows the shallow psychology of a consumerist world--”enjoy your life” is its highest call. Such a call is completely inadequate to real human experience, Spufford says. What of those who live in the world of death and mourning, the world of addictions that don’t let go, the the world of grief and isolation and pandemic diseases? “Enjoy your life” is a command that encompasses little of the actual living of a truly human existence. Spufford contrasts this shallow advertisement with the more profound reality he finds at the heart of the Christian story. This reality is one that acknowledges all of the pain and failure and suffering and death of human life, the finite and fallible realities we all live through, and yet offers mercy, and yet offers love in the midst of it all. This “and yet” is what compels Spufford’s faith in a culture where faith is dismissed. It is this “and yet” that is is at the core of the Beatitudes of Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount. If you are poor, if you are mourning, if you hunger for righteousness and don’t see it anywhere in the world--whatever your disappointments or failures--God’s kingdom offers a great “And yet” to your experience. Comfort, and joy, and love will come even in the sorrow. In this time of mourning and loss, we must remember the “alleluia, alleluia, alleluia” that is proclaimed in the funeral rite of the Book of Common Prayer. In whatever sorrow we suffer there is now and always “and yet...” Prayer for Today This collect is taken from the “Commendation” portion of the Episcopal burial service You only are immortal, the creator and maker of mankind; and we are mortal, formed of the earth, and to earth shall we return. For so did you ordain when you created me, saying, "You are dust, and to dust you shall return." All of us go down to the dust; yet even at the grave we make our song: Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia. Spiritual Practice for Today There are a number of ways that people in the past have meditated upon their own death. One way for us to face the reality of our end and keep hope for the “and yet” is to plan for our death. Spend some time today revisiting or writing your will and medical advanced directive. If you have particular wishes for your funeral, write them out and file them with your church. This practice can be important for our living faith, but is also practical for both ourselves and our loved ones. One easy to use resource to get you started is the “Five Wishes” advanced directive. Bless our God, O peoples,
let the sound of his praise be heard, who has kept us among the living, and has not let our feet slip. For you, O God, have tested us; you have tried us as silver is tried. You brought us into the net; you laid burdens on our backs; you let people ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water; yet you have brought us out to a spacious place. Psalm 66:8-12 (NRSV) The questions of trials is a hard one. On the one hand, it is a dangerous theology that sees God as some distant being who sets up obstacle courses and gauntlets to test our faith. On the other, we must admit that we often learn more about ourselves and others when we face hard things than when everything is simple and easy. I am glad for many of the hard times I’ve had because they have helped me live more fully into who I am called to be. I don’t necessarily think God laid those burdens on my back (often I did the burdening) but I am thankful that God helped me work through them rather than simply rescuing me. This time of COVID19 is not some grand test designed by God to judge the world. But it is a trial through which God can help us grow and learn more about ourselves. Who hasn’t had their patience tried over these last few weeks? Who hasn’t had to deal with anger and frustration? Who hasn’t been called to love in new ways? These are all important trials and I am sure that our living through them will bring us toward more freedom; that at their end we will find ourselves in a “spacious place.” To see this time as a trial may be a helpful frame to enable its potential for our growth. If we see COVID19 and all of its troubles as just another obstacle to our wills, an impediment to our lives, then we are unlikely to find ourselves enlarged by it. But if like the Psalmist we re-narrate the difficult experience we’ve happened into as an opportunity to test our love, hope, and faithfulness, then we will have the chance to change and grow and emerge into a greater freedom. The challenge for us is how we will tell the story. Will we look back and see God working through the situations of our lives to move us into freedom or will we see ourselves simply as the victims of our circumstance? Its a hard question to answer, one that we must take care with in our reflections, but it is my hope that we will emerge into a fuller sense of ourselves and God’s goodness. May we be able to say, at the end of it all, “Bless our God, O peoples!” Prayer for Today Improvisational God you take the discord of our lives and use it as the beginning of your harmonies. Help us to join in your riffs, finding beauty and goodness even in our trials. Amen. Spiritual Practice for Today There is a common pattern in the psalms of recounting some past hardship and then moving from that into a song of praise. Working from some hardship in your own past, write a poem or song that moves from that time and toward praise of God. Let go of any expectations of quality and instead focus on the movement from pain to praise. When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest. You shall not strip your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the alien: I am the Lord your God.
Leviticus 19:9-10 God is in favor of inefficiency. That’s my conclusion, at least, from the portion of Leviticus assigned for Morning Prayer today. It should come as no surprise, of course. The commandments for Israel included a call to not only cease from labor one day a week but also to not do any agricultural labor every seventh year. Here we have an extension of the theme--don’t harvest all that you can, leave it for the poor and aliens. Elsewhere the wild animals are also included as beneficiaries of Israel’s inefficient harvests. In contrast to this I was recently reminded of an article I read on the decline of ducks in Arkansas. One leading factor is that rice harvesters have become more efficient and so there simply isn’t enough “wasted” grain for the ducks to feed on. Since the flooded forests that once sustained the ducks were cut for rice they’re now left without anything to eat. Couple that with warming winters and the ducks don’t have a good future. In a similar way economists have shown how people who work more and more efficiently, or overwork beyond their paid hours, cost others jobs. By doing the work of two people they actually discount their own work and keep someone else from being hired. Both of these examples offer a taste of the problems that come from a world bent on extracting value to the detriment of the larger community of life. God calls the people of Israel, and we their spiritual descendants, to another way. Instead of maximizing our returns we should take what we need, or do that for which we have been called, and leave enough on the table for others. It will take discernment and imagination to see how we might practice this in our own lives and home economies, but living with simplicity and just enough is a good start. As the economic repercussions of COVID19 proliferate it will be important to do what we can to ensure that all have what they need. This will mean that those of us who have more than we need will have to find ways to share, but also to be a little less efficient, leaving our extras behind. Prayer for Today Generous God you made the world full of all we need. Help us to take only what is necessary and leave the rest so that all may live in the abundance of your good gifts. Amen. Spiritual Practice for Today Read the whole of Leviticus 19:1-18 slowly and carefully. Listen for what God is saying in this passage. Notice particularly the repetitions of words or phrases. Why, for instance, is the phrase “I am the LORD” repeated so often? Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers and sisters, you do not need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. When they say, ‘There is peace and security’, then sudden destruction will come upon them, as labour pains come upon a pregnant woman, and there will be no escape! But you, beloved, are not in darkness, for that day to surprise you like a thief; for you are all children of light and children of the day; we are not of the night or of darkness. So then, let us not fall asleep as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober; for those who sleep sleep at night, and those who are drunk get drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, and put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has destined us not for wrath but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep we may live with him. Therefore encourage one another and build up each other, as indeed you are doing.
1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 Some saw all of this coming. That’s the fact of this pandemic. It should have come as no surprise because for years there have been writers and policy makers and scientists and historians who have understood the fact that a pandemic was likely. Some listened and prepared, most decided to just go on living as though yesterday would be the model for tomorrow. There are other realities that are similar. Many have been warning of the catastrophes of climate change, and yet so many are still in denial, uninterested in changing our economy or lives in order to have a softer landing into the world that is coming (or perhaps to help prevent the worst possibilities of that world). Even deeper, though, there is the reality that God’s reign will arrive in fullness, sooner or later. It is going to come, as Paul said, like a thief in the night, and it is going to change everything. For some it will be a welcome reality, for some it will mean healing and reconciliation and a new community of care and love in fullness. For others, however, God’s reign is an unwelcome arrival. This is not because these people are going to be the brunt of God’s wrath, but if you don’t care much for God now, or if you don’t really want a reconciled community that includes the wrong sorts of people, or if you would rather keep gaining more and more for yourself and don’t want God’s justice to prevail, then the kingdom of God probably won’t be a place you enjoy all that much. The question for us, then, is which will it be? If the fullness of God’s love and justice came into our lives tomorrow would we be happy? Would we welcome all that this would bring into our lives? Or would we instead feel a bit off put, our rhythms unsettled, our selfish needs and desires thwarted? Paul is calling for the church to live now so that we will be awake and ready for the arrival of God’s kingdom. Will we be ready? Will we celebrate the arrival of God’s merciful justice and abundant love? We should begin answering those questions today and get ready for when tomorrow comes. Prayer for Today Surprising God you come to us when we least expect it. Let us prepare for your arrival by living now in the reality of your love and welcoming your mercy among all those we meet. Amen. Spiritual Practice for Today It’s always good to have an preparedness plan for whatever may come. What is your preparedness plan for the arrival of God’s kingdom? What do you need to do or have in order to feel ready for Christ’s coming? Spend some time journaling on these questions today. They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.’ Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, ‘Lord, how is it that you will reveal yourself to us, and not to the world?’ Jesus answered him, ‘Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; and the word that you hear is not mine, but is from the Father who sent me.
John 14:21-24 As I’ve been spending more time at home through this pandemic it has prompted me to think about what home is. For my family it involves a house, a yard (front and back), but also a neighborhood, our own and those close enough to walk to. Home for my family is where we dwell--where we spend our time, day in and day out. If you were to trace our patterns over a year, it is where the pattern would be most bold and bright with regularity. In the Gospel of John, Jesus tells his disciples that God will come and make his home with them. The necessary work for this to happen, Jesus says, is that we love Jesus and love the Father and therefor obey what they command. As I thought about this, it is like imagining the map of the hotspots of my life--the places where I spend a lot of time. Those places are made by my love. I love being with my family and so I spend time with them, returning again and again to the house where we live and live out much of our life together. Along with my family we love Allsopp park and at least one of us goes there nearly every day. It too is included in our home place. Christ Church also, whether in prayer or in presence, is a placed community that I love and spend time with and in. Overtime a pattern is set and it can be said more and more that I dwell in these places rather than simply pass through them. So it is with our relationship with God. When we love Jesus we will spend time with Jesus, when we love the Father we will spend time in the Father’s presence. Our love for Jesus and the Father will call us into certain patterns of life and those patterns are the following of their commandments, not as laws laid down, but as ways of love. Over time, through being with Jesus and the Father we will find that we have made our dwelling with them, and with them then also the Spirit that comes alongside us. And they too will move to be with us, making their home alongside us. Today ask yourself, where is your home? If someone were to map your life, where would the hot spots be--physically and spiritually? Can we move more and more into dwelling with God? Can we welcome the God who wants to dwell with us? Prayer for Today God who came among us make your home in our lives so that where we are you are there with us. Form us in the patterns of your place so that we may follow your ways of love wherever we are. Amen. Spiritual Practice for Today I’ve heard it said that one’s values are best reflected by one’s calendar and budget. I’d add to this where one spends one’s time. Take a moment to make a map of your day to day life. Then use that map as a prayer, asking for God’s blessing and presence in each place to you go. Are there any places where you feel some resistance to this blessing? Spend some time reflecting on why? How might God be asking you to change the map of your everyday life? I take refuge in you, Lord.
Please never let me be put to shame. Rescue me by your righteousness! Listen closely to me! Deliver me quickly; be a rock that protects me; be a strong fortress that saves me! You are definitely my rock and my fortress. Guide me and lead me for the sake of your good name! Psalm 31:1-3 (CEB) In my yard, over the past few years, I’ve been planting a variety of trees and shrubs at various heights. In some areas I’ve also let grasses grow taller than a normal lawn would be. The reason for all of this is to give shelter to wildlife, especially birds. It’s been working because this whole spring we’ve seen a diversity of wildlife like never before. We’ve provided refuge and that has in turn created a more diverse and flourishing community. I thought about this reality as I read the portion of Psalm 31 that is our reading for today. There are many passages in scripture in which God is called a refuge. We normally think of this as a reality of God’s strength and our faith, but I am more and more coming to see it as a part of God’s hospitality for all creation. In order to flourish and thrive we must have safety, we must be able to live without fear. God provides such space in himself and so creation is able to flourish in an ever wider diversity. What if our call as followers of God’s way is to help create a diverse landscape of refuge, places of safety for people and wildlife so that they may live and flourish. What might this mean for how we think about housing and hospitality for those in need? We all need places of refuge and freedom from fear. God provides those for us, so what if we are called in response to then bravely join in God’s work of providing refuge for all creatures who live in fear and want? Who needs refuge on your street and in your community? How might safety bring more diversity and flourishing to your place? Prayer for Today God of refuge you tell us that we have nothing to fear when we find our life in you. Help us to hold fast to your love so that we may offer your refuge and peace to our fearful world. Amen. Spiritual Practice for Today Use today as a time of preparation for a deep Sabbath tomorrow. Close the day by lighting candles and consciously prepare so that on Sunday you can live in rest. On Sabbath it is especially good to take delight in the world around you--creation, neighbors, loved ones. Be sure to intentionally plan ways that you will live into this delight on Sunday. Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful.
Hebrews 10:23 Today is the feast day of Julian of Norwich (1342-1417), one of the great mystics of England. Her book Revelations of Divine Love is one of the classics of Christian spirituality. In this time of crisis, Julian’s great vision of God’s abiding presence and love is especially relevant. Instead of writing my own meditation, I thought the best way to honor Julian would be to offer the following quotations from her work. With slow reading and reflection I hope you will find these words a source of encouragement and challenge for your life. It’s helpful to keep in mind that these insights came from Julian’s experience of direct revelations from God. These are messages she received and now passes on to us: “All shall be well, and all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well.” “If there is anywhere on earth a lover of God who is always kept safe, I know nothing of it, for it was not shown to me. But this was shown: that in falling and rising again we are always kept in that same precious love.” “Our Savior is our true Mother in whom we are endlessly born and out of whom we shall never come.” “And in this he showed me a little thing, the quantity of a hazel nut, lying in the palm of my hand, as it seemed. And it was as round as any ball. I looked upon it with the eye of my understanding, and thought, ‘What may this be?’ And it was answered generally thus, ‘It is all that is made.’ I marveled how it might last, for I thought it might suddenly have fallen to nothing for littleness. And I was answered in my understanding: It lasts and ever shall, for God loves it. And so have all things their beginning by the love of God. In this little thing I saw three properties. The first is that God made it. The second that God loves it. And the third, that God keeps it.” “Prayer is a new, gracious, lasting will of the soul united and fast-bound to the will of God by the precious and mysterious working of the Holy Ghost.” “Lord, let not our souls be busy inns that have no room for thee or thine, But quiet homes of prayer and praise, where thou mayest find fit company, Where the needful cares of life are wisely ordered and put away, And wide, sweet spaces kept for thee; where holy thoughts pass up and down And fervent longings watch and wait thy coming.” “We are made exactly as God wants us to be. We only need to lift our minds above Earth’s empty sorrows so that we can rejoice in the Divine joy.” “For this is the cause why we be not all in ease of heart and soul: that we seek here rest in those things that are so little, wherein is no rest, and know not our God that is All-mighty, All-wise, All-good. For He is the Very Rest.” Prayer for Today Collect for the Feast of Julian of Norwich Triune God, Father and Mother to us all, who showed your servant Julian revelations of your nurturing and sustaining love: Move our hearts, like hers, to seek you above all things, for in giving us yourself you give us all. Amen. Spiritual Practice for Today Julian’s visions all centered around the love of God. Spend time meditating on this reality of the divine. How have you experienced God’s love? Where do you see God’s love today? Look at your own life, but also creation and the lives of those you know. Let thanksgiving for God’s abiding love be part of your meditation. ‘You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, “You shall not murder”; and “whoever murders shall be liable to judgement.” But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgement; and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council; and if you say, “You fool”, you will be liable to the Gehenna of fire.’
Matthew 5:21-22 One of the difficulties of this pandemic has been the burden placed on individuals and families to decide what, exactly, it is that they should do in response. As things slowly begin opening up this will become an even more pressing problem. In Little Rock, for instance, we are not required to wear a face mask when going to the grocery store. Those of us who do, do so because we want to respect those around us and are aware that widespread use of them can help curb the spread of COVID19. Others, however, often refuse to wear a face mask and it can elicit a response of anger or even contempt. The teaching of Jesus about anger is as important now as ever because such conflicts in values and understandings of the disease will only rise. We must learn what it is that we should do with our anger. Jesus’s aim is to bring about a reconciled community of people who have learned to be in right relationship with God and one another. It is critical then for Jesus to deal with anger and its even more insidious companion, contempt, because both of these involve a rejection of another person. Such rejection is deeply wounding to the God who made each of and loves us. I find it helpful to imagine anger, contempt, and their answer, reconciliation, as different bodily gestures. Anger is a kind of pushing away of another person. It is a shove. Contempt is a pushing down of another person or a turning our back on them--a sign that they are not worth even of consideration. In answer to these, reconciliation is the embrace of another, a welcoming into the close circle of our life. We are called to the gesture of embrace throughout our lives (even if our embrace now means not embracing). We must recognize beneath the actions that elicit our anger a human person who is in need of participation in God’s reconciled community. I think that many people are not wearing masks because they are in denial of the deadly nature of COVID19. They may be afraid and their only way to deal with that fear is to act like its source really doesn’t exist. They want to just move on and act as though its not happening, and who among us has not responded in the same way to some challenge in our life? As we move through life in this strange time, let us live with gentleness toward all of those we encounter. Let us bring our anger and contempt to the silence of our hearts where we can let Jesus calm it as he calmed the storm on the sea of Galilee. Then let us look toward those around us with love, recognizing flawed, limited, and broken people, just like us; people God is seeking to heal and restore in wholeness and love. Prayer for Today Reconciling God take the heat of our anger and turn it into love, take the cold of our contempt and kindle it into the fire of forgiveness. Help us to live as witnesses of your grace to all, so that we may not fear but live in peace with all those we encounter. Amen. Spiritual Practice for Today Our bodies are integral to the whole of our personhood. Take time today to pray with your body. This could take the form of walking around your house saying a prayer like the Jesus Prayer stopping and bowing at each transition. Or it could be a prayer of gestures in which you imagine pushing away certain harmful aspects of your life and embracing Jesus as a healing force for your brokenness. Use your imagination and do what feels right for your body, mind, and spirit. Be joyful in the LORD, all you lands;
serve the LORD with gladness and come before his presence with a song. Know this: The LORD himself is God; he himself has made us, and we are his; we are his people and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving; go into his courts with praise; give thanks to him and call upon his Name. For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his faithfulness endures from age to age. Psalm 100, what the monastic tradition has labeled the Jubilate Deo, is one of the great passages for prayer and worship. It is for that reason that it is included in the Daily Office of the Book of Common Prayer as one of the two psalms to be read every day. If you are looking for a scripture to memorize, then this short psalm would be a good one to include on the list. The Jubilate makes a number of important statements about God and our relationship with the divine. It begins with a call to joy--which is the natural outpouring of an encounter with God in God’s fullness. Recently my daughters have been finding all sorts of creatures in our yard, from ribbon snakes to baby cottontail rabbits. It seems like an almost daily occurrence now that one of my daughters will come rushing into the house, exuberant about some new wild creature they’ve found. Theirs is a response of overwhelming joy and it is that same kind of joy that we should experience in an encounter with the divine. We are then called to sing before God, coming before God with thanksgiving and praise. This is the natural response for one who has received an immense gift. Think of the moments when you had a great Yes said to you in life and the kind of response you wanted to give in return. That is the kind of thanksgiving and praise that we are to have before God. God is the one who gives us the greatest Yes, even if we are not always able or ready to hear it. Our praise and Thanksgiving are then turned toward a kind of knowledge. We are supposed to understand a basic fact of reality: The LORD is God and we are God’s creatures. Whenever you see the all caps LORD in the bible, know that this is a substitution for what was originally YHWY--God’s proper name which faithful Jews never pronounced for fear that it would be idolatry. The key here is that it isn’t just any divine being who is God, we are not simply the creatures of any old heavenly reality. We are the sheep of the personal God who has entered history through a particular people, the God who Christians will later see as the one who even came among us in Jesus. From our knowledge we are then called be where God is, to give thanks wherever we encounter God. For the Psalmist this would have been the temple, but now that the temple has been destroyed and Christ has proclaimed himself the new dwelling place of God, this thanksgiving and praise can happen wherever we see Christ in the world--a possibility that exists in every place and person. Such a song of joy is a wonderful reminder in this time of pandemic that, as Wendell Berry has wisely said, we should “be joyful though [we] have considered all the facts.” This joy comes not because we have denied reality, but because we have seen a more profound reality beyond the current moment. That reality is the mercy of God, and it is something that never goes away, whatever time and condition in which we find ourselves. Prayer for Today God of abundant joy and everlasting mercy, guide us in this day so that we may worship you and find your presence in all the places and people we encounter. Amen. Spiritual Practice for Today We are called in Psalm 100 to go into his courts with joy. As I imagined what this might look like I couldn’t help but think of my daughter Lucia. She recently decided she wanted to go around our neighborhood and sing a song of joy for some of our neighbors. It certainly brought a lot of delight to many, including Lucia. Most of us don’t have the daring of a 5 year old, but in our own way I’m sure we can recognize God’s presence around us with joy and share that joy with others. What would that look like for you today? How can you enter the courts of God with joy? How could you bring others into that same place of happy praise? 'You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot.
‘You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hidden. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:13-16 Among the activities we’ve increased in my house amid the pandemic is cooking. We’ve always done a fair amount of cooking and enjoy it, but our meals have changed into the kind more common a couple of generations ago. Instead of just running to the grocery store frequently for this or that, we now have to improvise a meal from what we have. Key to this improvisation has been the use of spices. It is amazing how a good mix of spices can transform some basic ingredients into something wonderful. Salt and spice can enhance and transform the flavor of any food. And salt in particular is helpful because it does not add its own flavor but rather draws out the tastes already present in the food. Jesus, of course knew this well, and so it is this transformative, enhancing character of salt that he uses as a metaphor for the role of his disciples in the world. Far from setting up an opposition with the world, Jesus calls for the disciples to be salt--to bring forth the good flavors already in the world, the good creation God made and wants to redeem. In the same way he calls for them to be light and as such to show the world in all of its beauty and color. When I read these verses I thought of the power such witness can play in our time. We need good salt now, people who make life more flavorful and bring forth all of the good things already here. We also need people who can be lights, who can show us that even in the dark places God’s love an beauty continue. I’m certain many of you have witnessed such salt and light over the past month. There are many who have put their own needs and desires and even lives aside to come to the help of others. Whenever that happens the flavor of the God’s goodness in the world comes forward more clearly. The call to us is clear--as we live into the way of Jesus we help to show the world what it is in its goodness, in all of the ways God intended for it to be in creation. What flavors of God’s good world can you bring forward today? What ways can you show the light of love in the dark corners of our community? This is the challenge Jesus gives us as his disciples. It is a way of being we learn by following him. Prayer for Today Salty God you created a world of goodness, a people full of flavor. Help us to be your salt in the world drawing out the savor of your love. Amen. Spiritual Practice for Today Think of one reality of God’s goodness that you have experienced and bring that to light for someone else. It could be a simple text, a phone call, or a social media post--do something to share the savor of God’s work in your life. |
About this series
COVID19 created an unprecedented situation for all of us. These reflections, originally written for the people of Christ Episcopal Church, were meant to help people of faith learn how to navigate this time and find the threads of God's goodness in the midst of the pandemic. The series has ended but the Pandemic has not. I hope they continue to offer help and hope to all that read them. |