Nothing is sweet or easy about community. Community is a fellowship of people who do not hide their joys and sorrows but make them visible to each other as a gesture of hope.
In community we say: “Life is full of gains and losses, joys and sorrows, ups and downs—but we do not have to live it alone. We want to drink our cup together and thus celebrate the truth that the wounds of our individual lives, which seem intolerable when lived alone, become sources of healing when we live them as part of a fellowship of mutual care.”
Community is like a large mosaic. Each little piece seems so insignificant. One piece is bright red, another cold blue or dull green, another warm purple, another sharp yellow, another shining gold. Some look precious, others ordinary. Some look valuable, others worthless. Some look gaudy, others delicate. We can do little with them as individual stones except compare them and judge their beauty and value. When, however, all these little stones are brought together in one big mosaic, portraying the face of Christ, who would ever question the importance of any one of them? If one of them, even the least spectacular one, is missing, the face is incomplete. Together in the one mosaic, each little stone is indispensable and makes a unique contribution to the glory of God. That’s community, a fellowship of little people who together make God visible in the world.
As the season of Advent approaches… as I consider the message of hope, faith, peace, and love… the following words from a sermon that Howard Thurman preached on the message of the prophet Micah ask me to consider the call of God during this holy season.
“What does God require of thee, then, O son of man? To do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God.” And that perhaps is the meaning of religion. Certainly it is the meaning of the good life.” WALKING WITH GOD:
THE SERMON SERIES OF HOWARD THURMAN 1. Moral Struggle and the Prophets (Kindle, location 3792)
Verse of the day
“Give praise to the Lord, proclaim his name; make known among the nations what he has done, and proclaim that his name is exalted.”
– Isaiah 12:4
Voice of the day
“But an Indigenous approach to gratitude focuses on the relationality of all things — the collective benefit; how the Creator’s gift economy flows through many parts of the ecosystem. Gratitude is how this generosity can be traced.”
– José Humphreys III, “Giving Thanks for the Sacred Supply Chain”
Prayer of the day
Our blessings are not siloed, Lord. Refine our thanksgiving, and may our gratitude remind us of your generosity and of our connection to your creation.
“We have come a long way in America because of Martin Luther King, Jr. He led a disciplined, nonviolent revolution under the rule of law, a revolution of values, a revolution of ideas. We’ve come a long way, but we still have a distance to go before all of our citizens embrace the idea of a truly interracial democracy, what I like to call the Beloved Community, a nation at peace with itself.” —John Lewis
“Gratitude is a way of being in the world that does not assume we are owed anything, and the fact that we have something at all—our lives, breath, families, friends, shelter, laughter, or other simple pleasures—is cause for celebration.”
— Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, Earth, Our Original Monastery: Cultivating Wonder and Gratitude through Intimacy with Nature
What might happen if you cultivated a way of being in the world that treats all the things you take for granted as gifts?
The sun has set and the Vesper Lights flicker and glow
It has been a long yet enriching day of ministry
Putting the final touches on Sunday’s worship bulletin
Working on plans for Advent and Christmas worship
Making hospital calls which which were life-giving
Spending the evening with my sweetheart and our precious kitten Stella
A wonderful day indeed
Now as my eyelids grow heavy
I lift this humble prayer to you
Dona Nobis Pacem
Grant Us Peace
A wee prayer from the heart of your Padre…
“A Church that doesn’t provoke any crises, a gospel that doesn’t unsettle, a word of God that doesn’t get under anyone’s skin, a word of God that doesn’t touch the real sin of the society in which it is being proclaimed – what Gospel is that?” –St. Oscar Romero
The sun has set and the Vesper Lights flicker and glow
It has been a busy day of meetings and Advent Worship preparations
The day has managed to keep me busy
Busy and yet I still paused to remember
To remember my mom who slipped through the veil five years ago
To remember the tender ministrations my precious wife offered as she cared for her
To remember the memories of her love of cats
To give thanks for her life and her love
It has been a day indeed
Thank you Spirit for your presence and nurturing support
Now as my eyelids grow heavy
I lift this humble prayer to you
Dona Nobis Pacem
Grant Us Peace
A wee prayer from the heart of your Padre…
The sun has set and the Vesper Lights flicker and glow
It has been a busy day of meetings and Advent Worship preparations
The day has managed to keep me busy
Busy and yet I still paused to remember
To remember my mom who slipped through the veil five years ago
To remember the tender ministrations my precious wife offered as she cared for her
To remember the memories of her love of cats
To give thanks for her life and her love
It has been a day indeed
Thank you Spirit for your presence and nurturing support
Now as my eyelids grow heavy
I lift this humble prayer to you
Dona Nobis Pacem
Grant Us Peace
A wee prayer from the heart of your Padre…
The other day we were talking with a friend about flying. We reminisced about the time well before September 11, 2001 when it seemed almost carefree. Flying is even more challenging in these pandemic or endemic days of COVID. To be honest, we don’t look forward to flying in large part because of the stress. Short fuses, overbooked flights, news stories about violence in the air, and constant delays that we have experienced make it a challenge. As we prepare once again to make a quick trip to Minnesota to see my dad, I feel the same sort of uneasiness welling up within me.
I was browsing through one of Thomas Merton’s journals (A Search for Solitude: Pursuing the Monk’s Life, The Journals of Thomas Merton, Volume 3:1952-1960) when I came across this entry which he wrote while flying to Minnesota and St John’s Abbey for a conference. It seems appropriate to read this and I believe it might be a good thought to focus on each time that we fly.
What a wonderful thing, to ride in the sky and keep quiet and love God. It is indeed true that He asks this–not only the riding in the sky, but love, whatever it may mean for each of us. — July 22, 1956
Keep quiet and love God… I would also add love our neighbors as ourselves.
