For This Reason…

Tucked away along Colorado Highway 34, outside of Allenspark is the beautiful St. Catherine of Sienna chapel. It is a part of the St. Malo’s retreat center that my good friend Fr. Chad told us about. He had gone on retreat there a number of times when he was stationed at the US Air Force Academy and he absolutely loved it there. Sadly, the retreat center burned down, but the chapel is still there and open. Despite the extensive flooding (it is along the Big Thompson river which flooded out major portions of the valley in 2013), the chapel still stands as a witness and a place of prayer and refuge for the weary traveler and pilgrim. When we entered the chapel, I felt a quiet hush as though the very stones themselves had been transformed by the countless number of prayers offered. Reading the Epistle lesson for this Sunday, I was reminded of this beautiful chapel nestled at the foot of the Rocky Mountains.

“For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name.” (Ephesians 3:14-15) As I paused to not only take pictures in the chapel, but to sit in silent prayer, my heart was filled with an incredibly awe. How can you not feel the beauty of God’s creation in the mountains? How can you do anything less than kneel before the Lord in awe and wonder in such a beautiful setting like St. Catherine’s?

Why do people bow their knees before God these days? In far too many cases, I see people praying for wealth… for power… for prestige… for a winning lottery ticket… for their football team to win… That isn’t what Paul was exhorting the people in the church at Ephesus to pray for at all. Instead Paul lifted his voice in prayer for the believers in Ephesus that “according to the riches of his {God’s} glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love.” (Ephesians 3:16-17)

Praying that God might dwell fully in their hearts through faith as you are being rooted and grounded in love. Wow! Rooted and Grounded in Love! That is not the prayer of a self-absorbed person at all. It is the prayer of a person who wants to “know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that {they} may be filled with all the fullness of God.” (3:19) It is the prayer of one who wants to do more than fill a “religious square” or “check the box” so that their “get out of Hell-fire and Damnation card” might be punched. It is the prayer of one who wants to empty themselves of selfish concerns or desires that they might be used by God to do the work of Christ in this world.

It is a bold prayer… It is a humble prayer… It is a prayer from the very heart and soul of Paul! Now Paul and I haven’t always seen eye-to-eye, but I can say without a doubt that Paul nailed a home-run with this prayer. To know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge… be filled with the fullness of God… be rooted and grounded in love… to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth of that love… there isn’t a selfish thought in that prayer. In this prayer, Paul challenges me to look beyond myself; and instead look to what God is calling me to be and do in this world. And sometimes God calls me to move beyond my comfort zone and speak when my words may not always be accepted by others.

I have found myself in the midst of some conflict and controversy as I wind up my time as the pastor of First Presbyterian Church of DeFuniak Springs, Florida. My stance on Full Inclusion for LGBTQ sisters and brothers hasn’t been very popular in the theologically and politically conservative Florida Panhandle. Nor has my stance on removing the “Confederate flag” from the Courthouse in Walton County. That stance has resulted in some hate-mail. To be honest, some of the attacks have been very personal and hard to stomach. Yet I was compelled to speak out and to speak from what the Lord has shown me to be true. As Denise says, “Love Trumps”! And if I am rooted and grounded in the love of Christ, how can I do anything else but speak in love for full-inclusion and for the removal of a “flag” that is based on hate and bigotry?

Yet, even in the midst of speaking out, I seriously ask God each and every day, to help me speak in love. I also ask God to give me the courage to speak without fear… to speak carefully… yet to speak boldly… to trust in God alone… and, always, to speak from the position of love. Dear reader, may God give you the same courage each and every day. And each day, for that reason, I urge you to join me… bend your knee… that we may be strengthened in our inner being with power through God’s Spirit.