When The Birds Sing

When the birds sing

What do they proclaim 

Thanksgiving and love  

For food and nest and sun

The community of their chorus

Who could deny their sincerity

When they still to silence

Is it peace they enjoy

That all is well and at rest

When the wind moves

Gently through the trees

Does it whisper

Of love and steadfastness

Of hope and endurance

Of goodness and redemption

Though their leaves fall

They again return

To speak of life anew

For the birds

Remember their song

And the trees 

do not forget their dance

So to remind themselves

And us

That we are not alone

We are not forgotten 

That we are loved

And wanted

Little Child

In this morning's gospel reading ( Mt. 18) Jesus answers his disciples that those who become as a little child are the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.  I don't know that the need to become "great" motivates me as much as it once did. But the chance to share deeply in the life of the kingdom; Jesus' sharing of life with His Father in the Spirit, haunts me in the deepest of ways. Maybe the desire for greatness is a young man's desire?  My older desires (I'm in my 50's) are those of simplicity, individuation, wonder, kindness and goodness for those I love (and all really). 

I'm excited that the journey Jesus proposes is one towards becoming "like" a child. It is interesting that He seems to suggest that our aim is to be what we were before we started trying so hard to become. That greatness (whatever that means) might be that we just stop trying to become something and just be who He has always wanted and loved.  To do more playing, laughing and crying?    Could it really be this simple?  

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What Do You Want?

What do you want?  

They had just heard a piece of the most revolutionary news that had ever been uttered.  Of course it was veiled in language that may seem obscure to you and me; "Behold the Lamb of God". But it so altered the focus of Andrew and his companion that they followed him. 

So, Jesus turns to them and asks, "What do you want". I can't help but think that they didn't have a clue of what to say until the words of "uh, where are you staying" broke the silence.   They went with him and spent the day.  

I don't know what they talked about but Andrew made it his first course of business to find his brother; you may have heard of him, Peter, and brought him to Jesus. 

Again, I don't know what they talked about or even if they realized what they were looking for but I know what they wanted.  The same thing I want, Jesus and all He is.  I want to be baptized in Him; saturated with Him, hearing with His ears His Father's voice, receiving that voice with His will, bringing that love to a universe that is starving due to the scandalous rumor that God had become Man in this one. That their fortunes were now forever bound with this Him.  

What do you want?

Belonging

I was sitting in the coffee shop with my Dad

Drinking a cup of coffee, waiting to pick up my children

And I realized how good it is to belong to people

He gave the best years, all of them, 

For my Mom and me and my sisters and brothers

To care for us because we belonged to Him

There is a bond between us; a union of life

Part of my soul is inside of him

And part of his soul lives inside of me

I can’t explain it, but that is how it is

We belong to one another

The same is with my dear one.

We’ve been sharing love and joy and pain

Laughter and tears;

Children and grandchildren now

For more than 25 years

Part of each of us lives inside the other

I’d like to explain this to my children

But I’m not sure they would understand it

It might sound more like restriction than

Realizing part of one’s true self

Is to belong to another

But maybe when I am eighty

And we’re sitting at the coffee shop or somewhere else

They will see what I see now

How good it is to belong.

Maybe they’ll see it sooner than me.

An Old Soul

I want to be an old soul

And a child

An ocean and a brook

A mountain and a stone

I want my feet planted like roots

Deep in the bowels of the earth 

To be one and apart

I want my soul like a bird

Alight with every sight and sound

And breeze and scent on the wind

To know your thoughts 

Without knowing

To move like a river without will

As free as a child who skips

To the music in her mind

As steadfast as a tree 

Which grows in all weather.

Rememberers

The world needs rememberers

To tell us once again

Of stories some time ago

So that we can send our roots down deep

In the past we do not know

Of fishing and cooking and games once played

Of first steps early taken

Of crops and struggles and fears and pain

And making it through somehow

By remembering those who came before

Whose labours and laughter had served them well

That we might remember them now

We all need rememberers 

That we might finally know

From where we've come

And who we are 

And the way that we should go.

The Silence

I seek for what is found in silence

The face I recognize 

Who sets my mind at ease

Who drifts through my thoughts

Separating the wheat from the chaff

I dwell upon the quiet

For it is not the absence of noise

But the presence

The presence of he who knows and is known

Who speaks without uttering a sound

I rest within the stillness

For there I find

I find myself waiting for me

Waiting to show me and

To speak my name

Dan Wills (2013)

What's The Problem?

I was sitting with a friend; enjoying a smoke of my favorite pipe tobacco, and the topic of atonement came up. Specifically we were talking about what occurred throughout the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

It appears that the cross takes absolute preeminence in the fundamentalist's understanding of atonement and eclipses  the 33 years of Jesus' life in the redemptive process. However, as a recovering fundamentalist myself, I see the cross as a part of the whole rather than the single efficacious act. 

In one view humanity has a legal problem; they are guilty sinners in God the Father's courtroom and someone innocent (I.e. Jesus) must suffer the punishment and take away God's wrath. (I realize this a simplistic view, but it basically represents the idea).   Hence Christ'a death on the cross accomplishes that If a person acknowledges by faith and accepts that they have a legal sin problem and that Jesus has paid the price. 

In my view there is no legal problem at all, but an organic problem. 

You see, from before the creation of the universe God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) have existed in a relationship of supreme love, joy & acceptance.  Their desire was that persons like them (not other gods, but beings made in their image) would be included, drawn into their life and enjoy supreme love, joy and acceptance in them.  Which is the reason we are alive!

However, even after mankind's creation, it was necessary that one from within their circle of life would become human; united with creation, and transform humanity from being "only creation" to a new creation united with God in Christ. 

Therefore, when the Eternal Son; in whom all things were created and in whom all things have their being, becomes man He joins himself; indeed He joins the entire Trinity to humanity.  To quote the early church father Irenaeus, 

“Therefore, as I have already said, He caused man (human nature) to cleave to and to become, one with God. For unless man had overcome the enemy of man, the enemy would not have been legitimately vanquished. And again: unless it had been God who had freely given salvation, we could never have possessed it securely. And unless man had been joined to God, he could never have become a partaker of incorruptibility. For it was incumbent upon the Mediator between God and men, by His relationship to both, to bring both to friendship and concord, and present man to God, while He revealed God to man. For, in what way could we be partaken of the adoption of sons, unless we had received from Him through the Son that fellowship which refers to Himself, unless His Word, having been made flesh, had entered into communion with us? Wherefore also He passed through every stage of life, restoring to all communion with God” (III, XVIII, 7).  and again

"He became what we are that we might become what He is in Himself"

Therefore our issue has never been to appease God or resolve a legal problem, but, to be transformed into a person capable of living in God's love!

Look around you. Isn't that how real life and relationships work?  Just because you solve a legal problem doesn't mean you are at one with the person you had the problem.  Think about your children. What is it you truly want in your relationship and how do you accomplish it?  What I want for my children is a true at-one-ness; the ability for them to "know" my love and care for them. I want them to experience my sense of pride and "liking" of them as a person.  What I want is to be able to take my heart and put it in their chest so they can feel for themselves what I feel for them. I want to take my mind and put it in their head so they can "know" about themselves what I know about them.   I know I'm explaining this badly but I hope you get the picture. 

This was exactly the goal of the triune God in the creation and atonement of humanity; that we would know Him as He is and know ourselves as He knows us.  And, this is exactly the what Christ is doing in His creation, incarnation, death, resurrection, giving of His Spirit and His containing ministry as the Incarnate Son. That through His union (truly organic & spiritual union) with us He would "take what is Hjs and make it known to us".  And what is His.....His relationship with His Father in the Spirit. 

The author also owns and operates an online web store at PipeLighters.net

Trinity Sunday

Today, in the liturgical calendar, is Trinity Sunday; where our prayers, readings and hymns emphasize the place of the doctrine of the Trinity in our faith.  The service, sermon, liturgy, prayers and readings were all very nice.  But to be honest, I really don't give a fig about the doctrine.  I'm not concerned with making sure I believe it right so that I measure up to any person, group or church's right way of believing or confessing.  There, I've said it, I don't care about the doctrine.

What I do care about is the reality of the Father, Son and Spirit and their loving activity in the life of the universe.  I yearn (I would use a stronger word than yearn if I could think of one) to have greater insight into the limitless pleasure in the Father's heart as He gazes upon His Son.  I would give away all that I have (which isn't much) to experience with the Son the confidence and sense of being He experiences when He hears the Father say to Him, "YOU are my beloved child in whom my soul delights", and just for moments to experience the mothering Spirit that enables both Father and Son to see each other as they really are.

I feel this way because it is the reality that is pressing its truth into life; we ARE the child in whom God's soul delights.  We are seen as we really are and loved and held close.  Woe to those who would tell us that God would love us IF; or God would accept us or forgive us or hear us IF we believed or repented or were baptized or did anything.  Before the foundation of the world we were chosen in Him to be whole and blameless before Him in love.  The last time I checked I couldn't do anything before I was born.  But God chose you and me to be His beloved child; loved, desired, accepted, forgiven and destined to grow into the dream that was in His heart and the desire that is in our own hearts, the person we most desperately want to be.

Actually, I do care about the doctrine.  But nearly as much as I care about you and me truly knowing the love of the Trinity being lavished upon us.

You are the child God has always wanted.

God Believes in Atheists

Today I passed a church marque that stated, "God doesn't believe in Atheists".  I have to laugh at some of the things that are posted on church signs.  But in this case the message hits close to the heart of faith.

The message on the sign was in response to the idea that atheists don't believe in the existence of God.  However, it would be silly to say that God does not believe in the existence of atheists as atheists do in fact exist.  The problem is deeper as it reveals an underlying perception among too many that "believing in" has to do with the acknowledgement of a fact rather than the true relational aspect of faith.  That is to say it is easy for a proclaiming Christian to say they believe in a God; even a personal God, but it is a very different thing to believe in God.  For example, in John 14 Jesus says to his disciples, "...you believe in God, believe also in me."  Few would argue that Jesus is asking his disciples to believe in his existence, but rather to believe or trust in him.  He was asking them to rely upon their personal knowledge and relationship they have experienced with him to enable them to trust him.  One might ask how can somebody trust in a person that they do not believes exists.  A fair question.  But the real question seems to me is how can you trust someone you don't know, you've never met or don't have any relationship with.

Jesus does not ask us to believe in one that we don't know.  Nor does faith have to do with accepting a reality without evidence of any kind.  He asks us to be conscious of the One who is already in relationship with us and is presenting Himself to us at every turn.  We all too often walk through life failing to recognize those who cross our path and failing to enjoy the relationship that is present to us in them.  A parent and a child can share the same house but not be present to one another so they can know each other and trust one another.  Christ's faith in the Father was one built upon his relationship with his Father.  The Father was present to Him and he was present to His Father.  He knew His Father and therefore trusted or "believed in Him".  He allowed Himself to be known by His Father and was obedient to Him because He knew His Father could be trusted.

This acknowledgment informs us that faith does not begin with us but with God.; that God is first present to us, revealing Himself to us as someone who can be trusted.  Someone can tell you to believe in God but this cannot be the impetus of your faith.  Your faith can only be in response to God's relational activity already preent in your life.

If your faith is weak I suggest you NOT to try harder to believe, but to relax and obervent to see how God may be presenting Himself to you.  Remember, you don't have to make God present, but only pay attention to how God is present and relating to you.  If Jesus' encouragement to us to "believe" is valid then God must be the one to make Himself known to us.  Remember "faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.". I would be tragic if we interpreted his to mean that if we read the Bible we will generate faith.  But rather that God is speaking His "word" to us.  His word that "you are my beloved child in who my soul delights".  His word that "you are the child I have always wanted.". His word that you are desired, forgiven and accepted.

If these words move you or stir something inside of I you then maybe God is addressing you through them.  If not, don't worry.  Just be present to God speaking to you however He deems fit to reach you.  The first move is His.
Maybe you don't believe in God.  That's o.k. because God knows you, believes in you and trusts that one day you will be able to respond to His word to you.