Welcome to âALL SHALL BE WELL,â my video blog designed to help us examine our spiritual center, to create sacred pauses, to join together in contemplation and silence.
ALL SHALL BE WELL . . . A VIDEO BLOG ON SPIRITUALITY – EPISODE NUMBER 1
Category: peace
What Do You Say to a Broken World?
I once preached a sermon entitled, âWhat Do You Say to a Broken World?â In this week, after our nationâs Capitol was breached and defiled, I have wondered if ministers who will stand before congregations in two days are asking themselves a similar question: âWhat will I say on this day to a broken world?â
A friend of mine is preaching this week. I am praying that she will have an extra measure of wisdom, because standing before a congregation while the nation is in chaos is not a responsibility to be taken lightly. My first feeling as I thought about preaching for this Sunday was relief that I was no longer a pastor with such a heavy responsibility, that I did not have to summon the wisdom to speak to a people with heavy hearts who need to hear of healing grace and hope. But my most intense feeling was envy, not hostile envy, but heart envy about my deep desire to speak Gospel Good News to people who need to hear good news. Still I envied my friend and wished that, this Sunday, I could stand before a congregation with wisdom, open my spirit and invite God to speak through me. It is a heavy responsibility and a sacred calling.
Dr. Greg Carey, Professor of New Testament at Lancaster Theological Seminary, wrote an essay this week entitled âPreaching When Itâs Broken.â In the essay he says this:
God bless you, preachers who will address congregations this Sunday . . . Here in the United States, things are broken, most people know theyâre broken, and we all need healing and truth.
For many of us, the invasion of the Capitol and the response to it by people we know, love and admire, brings this brokenness to the foreground. Since that terrible, violent day, I have heard dozens of interviews that expressed anger, frustration, contempt, indignation and all manner of raw emotion. I have also heard wise leaders express their resoluteness to lead this nation into healing, unity and hope.
Indeed, the questions about this Sundayâs preaching call us to attention: How do our pastors, our priests, our rabbis, our imams, our bhikkhus and bhikkhunis stand before their congregations offering comfort when our nation is so broken, so angry, so mournful in the face of violent acts? What will they proclaim? What will they preach? What will they pray? What will they sing?
Minneapolis Pastor and Poet, Rev. Meta Herrick Carlson, has given us a grace-gift with this poem entitled, âA Blessing for Grieving Terrorism.â
A Blessing for Grieving Terrorism
There is sickness
with symptoms as old as humankind,
a rush of power born by inciting fear in others,
a wave of victoryin causing enemies pain.
There is a push to solve the mystery,
to isolate the suspect and
explain the evil simply
to a safe distance from the anomaly.
There is a temptation
to skip the part that feels
near the suffering
that shares the sadness,
that names our shared humanity.
There is a courage
in rejecting the numbing need for data
in favor of finding the helpers,
loving the neighbor,
resisting terror through random acts of connection.
There is a sickness
with symptoms as old as humankind,
but so is the remedy.
From Rev. Meta Herrick Carlsonâs book âOrdinary Blessings: Prayers, Poems, and Meditations for Everyday Life.â Used with permission.
So much truth in her words, so much wisdom âfor the living of these days.â In her words, I feel all over again the desire of my heart, the impossible dream of standing in a pulpit this Sunday, speaking to a congregation that needs strength in the midst of adversity. I will not stand behind a pulpit this week, but I will pray for those who will stand in that sacred space. I will pray for them, the proclaimers, and I will pray for their hearers across this nation. I will lean on this beautiful prayer written by Reverend Valerie Bridgeman:
May God Strengthen You for Adversity
A blessing for today:
May God strengthen you for adversity
and companion you in joy.
May God give you the courage of your conviction
and the wisdom to know when to speak and act.
May you know peace.
May you be gifted with deep,true friendship and love.
May every God-breathed thing
you put your hand to prosper and succeed.
May you have laughter to fortify you
against the disappointments.
May you be brave.
© Valerie Bridgeman, December 18, 2013
When all is said and done, more important than what the âproclaimer in the pulpitâ says is what the hearers hear. For in this time â when violence, riots, terrorism, pandemic and all manner of chaos is so much a part of life â those who listen need to hear a clear message of a God who dwells among us, a Christ who leads us, a Spirit who comforts us under the shadow of her wings. For hearts in these days are heavy, souls are wounded, spirits seek hope. And all the people want to believe that they do not walk alone through their present angst.
I pray that you know that you are not alone, that Godâs grace-filled presence is with you and that âin God you live and move and have your being. As some of your poets have said, âWe are Godâs children.ââ (Acts 17:28)
I pray that your heart will heal and be filled anew with hope. I pray that the wounds of your soul and spirit will heal and be filled anew with the peace of God. I pray that, when you listen in faith, you will hear the voice of God whispering in your ear, âYou do not walk alone.â
I invite you to spend a few moments of meditation hearing the message of this music:
May you see God’s light on the path ahead
when the road you walk is dark.
May you always hear
even in your hour of sorrow
the gentle singing of the lark.
When times are hard
May you always remember when the shadows fallâ
You do not walk alone.
THOSE WHO DREAM
A passage of Scripture that encourages me every time I read it came up this week in my Advent devotional booklet entitled, âThose Who Dream.â The beauty of reflection I have found in this booklet has definitely awakened dreams in me. As I reflected on Advent Scripture each morning, God never failed to remind me that the world is in chaos in so many ways. In the year we will remember as 2020, people languished and lamented through a seemingly uncontrollable pandemic. Many people prayed, many died, many wept, and some were even able to dream.
The sacred text for this past Thursday was from the eloquent Prophet Isaiah. I have always thought of this Prophet as a realistic dreamer who never failed to paint a true picture of a world both evil and good. Isaiah had a way of proclaiming the deep need for repentance while also calling the people to dream of all that could be better and brighter. The bottom line for this Prophet was sin followed by repentance, what that would look like and what a world of righteousness would look like. Thursdayâs prophetic and inspiring word was from Isaiah 61.
The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the Lordâs favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to provide for those who mourn in Zion â to give them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit.
They will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, to display his glory.
They shall build up the ancient ruins; they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations.
Isaiah 61:1-4 NRSV
For I the Lord love justice, I hate robbery and wrongdoing; I will faithfully give them their recompense, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them. Their descendants shall be known among the nations, and their offspring among the peoples; all who see them shall acknowledge that they are a people whom the Lord has blessed.
I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my whole being shall exult in my God, ffor he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
For as the earth brings forth its shoots, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations.
Isaiah 61:8-11 NRSV
Standing in the midst of a pandemic world with all the grave challenges before us, Advent sends us a message. The last good word in these proclamations from Isaiah tell us that our Lord will cause righteousness to spring up before us, before all nations. When righteousness has her way in us, then â and only then â will we dream again. Our dreams empowered with Godâs anointing will bring the advent of righteousness.
After repentance! Only after repentance!
Look closely at Isaiahâs words and you will see anew that God has anointed us to bring good news to oppressed people, to hold in our arms those who are brokenhearted, to comfort the mourning people, to set free people who are bound with chains of their own making and finally, as the Prophet said, âto give them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit.â
What Isaiah tells us after that is my dream for this Advent 2020: âThey shall build up the ancient ruins; they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations.â
All around us are the ruins we have left behind from all that we have done to our world, collectively and individually. The politicians make war among themselves, increasing the chasm that divides them. The people put politics before unity and spew hate at one another. The white supremacists barrage our cities with evil. Some of our people protest the racial injustice they have long endured. Hungry people still wait in the cold for a morsel of sustenance. People who have no home shiver in cold porticos, in parks, under bridges. Violence with its many faces is ever with us. The Coronavirus ravages on. The teachers and parents languish in confusion and disappointment. The frontline health professionals fall in literal exhaustion. Our children ask us when life will be normal again.
Every year, I recall the text of one of my favorite Christmas carols, âI Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.â The carolâs text, written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow on Christmas Day of 1863, is a poem in which he expresses the terror of peace evolving into a world of darkness, hate and war. Two years before writing this poem, Longfellow‘s personal peace was shaken when his wife of 18 years was fatally burned in an accidental fire. Then in 1862, during the American Civil War, Longfellow’s oldest son joined the Union Army and was severely wounded in November of 1863 in the Battle of Mine Run. Longfellowâs words reach deeply into my soul and plant sadness there. Yet, the words are real and true about his world and perhaps, in some ways, his words are real in the world in which we live.
Till, ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day
   A voice, a chime,
   A chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
Then from each black, accursed mouth,
The cannon thundered in the South,
   And with the sound
   The carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
   And made forlorn
   The households born
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
And in despair I bowed my head ;Â
“There is no peace on earth,” I said;Â
   “For hate is strong
   And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!”
Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:Â
“God is not dead ; nor doth he sleep!
   The Wrong shall fail,
   The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men!”
We do not fully understand the ways that Longfellow suffered when he wrote this poem. Yet, we might have an inkling that some of the words describe us, describe our world. In the end, when all is said and done, the carol proclaims that the bells are still ringing loudly and deeply, that God is not dead, nor is God sleeping. Instead God is speaking to us so that we will know, beyond any doubt, that âthe Spirit of the Lord is upon us.â And with that anointing, we will fulfill a covenant with God â the mission God has given us to pray and labor and dream Godâs dream of repairing the ruined cities, the devastations of past generations, as well as the devastations we are seeing before us in this moment in time.
May God make it so. Amen.
An version of Longfellowâs carol was sung by The Carpenters many years ago. Here is the video:
Those Who Dream: An Advent Journey
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Before we begin Adventâs journey on November 29th, I think we need start a few days early to create some peace for our souls â enough peace to open ourselves to Adventâs life-giving message. For you see, the Advent journey always has a particular and unique message for each of us. The message weaves through our spirit as Advent days move on, gently sparking tiny lights is us that open us up to beginning again, to dreaming again. Advent nurtures and caresses us until we can dream new dreams.
Since we saw Advent past, we have languished in the chaos of 2020. Held in bondage by a terrible pandemic, lamenting racial unrest and the violence that caused it, watching political rancor and division. This was the year of âI canât breatheâ and also the year when we found that we could not breathe. Nor could we dream, because the future was unknowable â not at all conducive to dreaming.
And yet, there remains this good word â Psalm 126:1:
When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream.
What does it look like to live as those who dream? The prophets, the psalmists, Mary, Elizabeth, Joseph, Simeon, Anna, the shepherds and the Magiâthey were all dreamers. They received, discovered, and responded to Godâs dreams for the world. In Adventâs journey, we travel step by step into the mystery and awe of Godâs dreams and we pray that they will shape our reality.
Advent is for the dreamers in all of us â those who dream of a deeper connection with God and those who dream of a better world. Advent is for those who dream of comfort and also for those who have given up on their dreams. Advent is for those whose dreams have been crushed and for those who wisely teach us that dreams take soul time.Â
In this approaching Advent, perhaps we will dream alongside prophets and angels, Mary and the Magi. Perhaps we will seek and know Godâs dreams for our world.Â
Will you pray with me?
In this Advent of expectation, God,
draw us nearer to grace,
that our songs of worship
might echo in the hills and valleys of this journey
and also through our lives.
In this Advent of expectation,
grant us a sense of peace and silence and steady calm,
that the hope within our souls
might be the dreams we dream,
the songs we sing, and the melody of our lives.
In this Advent of expectation,
grant us a vision of a shimmering star in the night sky,
that the path we follow
might lead us from a stable
to a glimpse of eternity. Amen.
Those Who Dream Theme SongâPREVIEW VERSION from A Sanctified Art on Vimeo.
Our Smallest Dreams Can Change the Big World
A friend sent me a lovely blessing today and I want to share it with you. These days, many neighbors and friends â people all over the world actually â have a new dream, a new calling to change the world. Itâs an important dream right about now. Pandemic and protests â and all the causes lying underneath them â desperately need to change, and it will take huge dreams to change them. Trouble is, most people like me and you have only small dreams, a few small dreams that sometimes seem so insignificant. Certainly, they are dreams too small to change the big world.
But maybe not!
The message my friend sent me (actually she posted it on Facebook) reminded me that huge change can most certainly come from small acts. The message was todayâs grace for me. So I share the message with you. It comes from The Cosmic Dancer* and is written by Scott Stabile.
She felt like doing her part to change the world, so she started by giving thanks for all of the blessings in her life, rather than bemoaning all that was missing from it.
Then she complimented her reflection in the mirror, instead of criticizing it as she usually did.
Next she walked into her neighborhood and offered her smile to everyone she passed, whether or not they offered theirs to her.
Each day she did these things, and soon they became a habit. Each day she lived with more gratitude, more acceptance, more kindness. And sure enough, the world around her began to change.
Because she had decided so, she was single-handedly doing her part to change it.
â Scott Stabile
Hope is tucked into these words, hidden there and bringing to mind that God highly values gratitude, acceptance, kindness and our smallest, powerful dreams. My dreams and yours can change a world filled with violence, hate, grief, fear and so many more hurts and harms.
There is a lovely Hebrew phrase, Tikkun Olam, that means ârepair the worldâ or âheal the world.â The call of Tikkun Olam has always inspired me to more fully offer my life to be a part of the healing God desires for creation, for the earthâs protection and for kindness, equality and justice for all people.
Can we heal the big world with even the smallest acts of kindness and compassion? Doesnât God whisper to us that we should begin healing the injustice, the violence, the hate, the fear, the mistrust and the deep divisions in the world? Doesnât God inspire us to know the truth that our dreams are never too small? And doesnât God promise to guide us and to lead us in following the compassionate footprints of Jesus until we see the world begin to change?
Resting in the grace of inspiration given to us by God, we truly can cast off the gloomy thoughts that our dreams are too small, too weak and too insignificant. And we can hide inside our hearts Godâs promise that our dreams can become reality, that our tiny dreams really can change this big world. God will enlarge our smallest dreams if we offer them. We can count on it!
May each of us live âwith more gratitude, more acceptance, more kindnessâ and may even our smallest dreams change â heal â the world.
* The Cosmic Dancer is a Facebook community that shares insights through art, poetry, dance and other ârevolutionary rhythms.â
Together!
This morning I have no words. I have tears. I have sadness. I even have some anger that the people I love whose skin is not âwhiteâ are living in grief and frustration. I say only that injustice and oppression cling so close to my friends, today and in centuries past.
I hear my dear friends cry out for justice. I hear them using words to make sense of it all, and I hear their voices fall silent. Silent, with just these words, âIâm tired.â A dear friend posted the words on the left this morning. I want to see her face to face. I want to be together. I want to comfort her, hoping beyond hope that it is not too late for comfort.
I read this horrific headline this morning.
Prosecutors in Hennepin County, Minnesota, say evidence shows Chauvin had his knee on Floyd’s neck for a total of 8 minutes and 46 seconds, including two minutes and 53 seconds of which Floyd was non-responsive. Â â ABC News
Today I find myself deeply in mourning for the violence that happens in our country. I find myself trying to share in the grief of my friend and knowing I cannot fully feel the depth of it. Today I find myself unable to emotionally move away from it all. Today I contemplate George Floydâs cry, âI canât breathe.â
If there is any comfort at all, it comes as a gift of the artists pictured here. In an act of caring, they offer this mural at a memorial for George Floyd.
The names of other victims of violence are painted in the background. The words, âI canât breathe!â will remain in our memories. Today we are together in mourning.
But tomorrow, I will celebrate Pentecost. I wonder how to celebrate in a time when lamentation feels more appropriate. I wonder how to celebrate when brothers and sisters have died violent deaths and when thousands of protesters line the streets of many U.S. cities. I wonder how to celebrate when protesters are obviously exposing themselves to COVID19.
Still, tomorrow â even in such a time as this â I will celebrate the breath of the Spirit. Tomorrow I will join the celebration that has something to do with being together, being one. To juxtapose the joyous celebration of Pentecost with the horrible picture of what we saw in cities throughout our country for the past few nights seems an impossible undertaking. What does one have to do with the other?
Perhaps they do share a common message. From those who protest, this message:
âWe bring our broken hearts and our anger for the killing of our people, for the murders across the ages of people who are not like you. You treat us differently than you treat the people who look like you. For as long as we can remember, you have visited upon us oppression, slavery, racist violence, injustice. And we are tired. We are spent. We are beside ourselves with collective mourning. We canât breathe!â
From those who celebrate Pentecost, this message:
âHow we celebrate the day when the Holy Spirit breathed upon those gathered together, with gifts of wind and fire!
How we celebrate the story told in the 2nd chapter of Acts!â
When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.
They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. Utterly amazed, they asked: âArenât all these who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabsâwe hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!â Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, âWhat does this mean?â
Some, however, made fun of them and said, âThey have had too much wine.â
Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: âFellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. These people are not drunk, as you suppose. Itâs only nine in the morning! No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
ââIn the last days, God says,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and your daughters will prophesy, last days, God says,
your young men will see visions,
your old men will dream dreams.
Even on my servants, both men and women,
I will pour out my Spirit in those days,
and they will prophesy.ââ Â â Acts 2:1-18 NIV
The people did not, in fact, have too much wine. Peter made it clear that wine did not empower the people who gathered in Jerusalem â Â âevery people under heavenâ â to speak and understand as they heard every word spoken in their own language. That would be a start, would it not, if we could speak the same language and truly understand â people who have flesh-colored skin, and brown and bronze, and red and black . . . every skin color under the sun. If only we could understand each other.
And then, what if we could gather together, welcoming every person? What if we could truly gather together and wait for Spirit to fall upon us with empowerment like we have never known before? What if we allowed the Spirit to give us breath, together?
In the end, there is a tiny bit of joy in George Floydâs tragic story. It is a joy much deeper than realityâs sorrow. The artists completed their mural, and in the very center near the bottom, they had painted words that express the greatest truth of all.
Can you see it behind the little girl? âI can breathe now!â
What if we welcome Spirit Breath that will change us? What if we embrace empowerment from the Holy Spirit to help us change our world? What if we end oppression and injustice, together? What if holy perseverance could inspire us to live and act in solidarity with our sisters and brothers, all of them?
What if we dare to give our soulâs very breath to help bring about Beloved Community, together?
Together! Together!
May my God â and the God of every other person â make it so. Amen.
In Bewilderment: Peace
As we celebrate Eastertide with the death of Jesus behind us and his resurrection still in our hearts, the stories that led up to Easter remain in our memories. One of those stories tells of Jesus comforting his disciples. They were bewildered, confused, wanting to know what would happen next.
I can identify with those emotions as this time of distancing grows longer and the spread of the coronavirus continues to threaten. What will happen next? I donât know about you, but I want an answer to that question. Like the disciples discussing their lives with Jesus in the fourteenth chapter of Johnâs Gospel, if an answer does come to us, we probably wonât quite understand it.
First Thomas has a pressing question for Jesus. âWe donât know where you are going,â Lord, âso how can we know the way?â The answer from Jesus wasnât very clear or understandable to Thomas.
Jesus answered, âI am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.â
â John 14:6-7
Then Philip takes a shot at it, telling Jesus to show them the Father. That would be enough for them to feel comfortable about what was going on around them. But the answer Jesus offered did not clear up the conundrum very much.
Jesus answered: âDonât you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, âShow us the Fatherâ? Donât you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? Â Â â John 14:9-10
Finally, Judas (not Judas Iscariot) asked Jesus why he would show himself to them and not to the world. Again, Jesus answered with what might have seemed like a platitude that did not provide much understanding at all.
Jesus replied, âAnyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.
â John 14:23-24
We should remember that this entire conversation began with words of comfort from Jesus to his friends. He told them that day, as he tells us in this day, âDo not let your hearts be troubled.â As they began to end this time with Jesus, the disciples still did not fully understand. But finally Jesus speaks to them with a very clear and grace-filled word of comfort.
All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.   â John 14:25-27
In the end, thatâs all we have that can guide us through uncertainty, confusion and fear. What Jesus left to his disciples, and what Jesus leaves to us, is something simple and pure: PEACE.Â
I am not fully certain how this peace really works. I know only that sensing it in my soul is a miracle â every time. When my heart is troubled â PEACE. When I am confused and afraid â PEACE.
And thatâs enough!
Thanks be to God. Amen.
On Making Your Own Rainbows
In my kitchen window hangs a small faceted crystal ball. Itâs purpose is to hang in the sunlight and make tiny rainbows in my kitchen. When I open the blinds in the morning, the facets on the ball do their job.
I see about eight small rainbows on the floor â just tiny, insignificant rainbows on the kitchen floor. Thatâs it!
My first response is, âThatâs all you got?â
I had hoped for more, like refracted rainbows all over the kitchen. The little ball hanging in the window apparently needed some human help. So I twisted it several times. When I let it go, the little ballâs gift to me was dancing rainbows, not only on the kitchen floor, but also all over the walls of the kitchen, dining room and living room. Now thatâs more like it!
It suddenly occurred to me that I could let the ball just hang motionless in the window, settling for the few rainbows on the floor, or I could twist it and see rainbows in motion creating a celebration all around the walls. So this morning, I made my own rainbows, which is a pretty good mental picture of creating rainbow-like times in life.
It reminds me of part of Noahâs story told in the ninth chapter of Genesis. Itâs about the covenant God made with Noah after the great flood had receded. You probably know the story well, but it bears revisiting.
And God said, âThis is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come:Â I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.
Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.â
So God said to Noah, âThis is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth.â
â Genesis 9:12-17 NIV
I never see a rainbow without remembering the story of Godâs covenant with Noah. I always remember that God made the rainbow a sign, the sign of a covenant promise.
What does that have to do with me and you? Maybe not much for some. But for some of us â those of us who want to see tangible signs of Godâs promises â the appearance of a rainbow means that God still covenants with us, God still makes promises to us and God still keeps those promises. That is Godâs grace to us â Godâs hope, Godâs light, the very peace that comes to us from God.
With that assurance, we are able to make our own rainbows. Yes, in these days we are covered with a terrible, deadly virus, along with the fear it causes us. But we also know that, in days past, we have faced life storms, dark times that threatened to destroy us. And yet, we survived â with scars from old wounds, to be sure â but we weathered each terrifying time and found our way to better days. To survive the worst times of our lives â times when dark, heavy clouds loomed over us â Iâm pretty sure we found ways to make our own rainbows.
What does it look like to make our own rainbows? It looks like seeking out a comforting friend, making sacred space for nurturing your soul, owning heartbreak so that you can be open to the healing of your heart, naming in prayer the wounds and scars of your soul so that your spirit can be made whole.
It seems to me that this is what âmaking your own rainbowsâ means â being open to healing through whatever ways you find soul-nurturing. Rainbows are not a bad analogy for the living of these days. A pandemic threatens us. We cannot change that, but we can change our response to this dark time. I believe that we really can make our own rainbows. Maybe for me it will simply be the act of twisting the crystal ball in my kitchen window. But if that insignificant act reminds me of Godâs promise to be with me, to be in covenant with me, then I think I can make it through another dark time.
I am confident that, if you listen, your soul will whisper to you and tell you how to make your own rainbows â during these troubling days and for all the troubling times you may face on your journey.
May God make it so for you and those you love!
Be well and stay safe.
â KMF
Peace, Pandemic and Love
What a time in the story of our lives! In my lifetime, I have never been personally affected by a pandemic. I have lived a little over seventy years without having this troubling and potentially deadly experience. My prayer is that once the pandemic of year 2020 has run its course, we will not have to live through another one for at least seventy years.
In the past few days, I have heard from students lamenting the loss of their senior year. I have commiserated with friends who feared for their elderly parents, especially those in nursing homes. I listened recently to a discussion about how we could possibly keep incarcerated persons safe from this virus. I have listened to friends and family express deeply held fears about how the virus might affect them and their families. I have heard almost daily from my adult son (an unprecedented number of calls in such a short time) who is worried about his parents and about his wife and their new baby to be born in early April. I have heard from friends my age who are quarantined at home fearing for their health. I have communicated with post transplant patients like me expressing their most intense fear because of their suppressed immune systems. As a recent transplant recipient myself, I completely understand their angst of being on immunosuppressant medications. Like them, I know I have no immune system right now.
There is no doubt that all over the world people are frightened. People of faith, however, know that faith is stronger than fear, God is stronger than despair and love is stronger than death. Of course, even though we might have great faith, we must admit that we donât know what God will do or how God can protect us. That is not unfaith; it is the reality of our humanity. Oh, we can take the easy way out and proclaim words like, âGod is in controlâ or âeverything happens for a reason.â But doesnât the past suffering and pain of your life convince you that those words are not your reality?
One of my former seminary professors taught and preached often about the experience of Jesusâ suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane. Dr. Frank Tupperâs answer to the question about how a loving God could allow Christâs suffering went something like this: âbecause before the foundation of the world God had chosen the way of self-limitation.â
Dr. Tupper also said some things that some people might consider blasphemy:Â
I do not believe that God is in control of everything that happens in our world. Indeed, I would argue that God controls very, very little of what happens in our world. God chose not to be a âdo anything, anytime, anywhereâ kind of God. In every specific historical context with its possibilities and limitations, God always does the most God can do.
In my mind, and through the crucible of my life, I believe that God wanted authentic and honest relationships with humankind that affirm both divine love and human freedom. God built that kind of relationship with me when, through every life storm, every time of despair, every disappointment, every fear, every loss â and through my life-threatening illness â God did not change any circumstance of my suffering, but God promised me a love that would not let me go, ever.
In these days, God is not stopping the dreaded Coronavirus pandemic. God is not stilling our current storm. God is not taking away our very real fear. God is not telling us, âGo on out to that social gathering, I am in control.â Instead God has promised us peace through the words of Jesus recorded in John 16:33:
These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but take courage, I have overcome the world.
I pray that you will find peace in these troubling days and that your faith will be even a little stronger than your fear. I pray that you will not experience economic hardship and that you will have all you need. I pray that illness will spare you and those you love. I pray that your children will thrive even though their schools are closed. I pray that you will find ways to worship God even if the doors of your church are shuttered. Most of all, I pray that you will feel Godâs love as a love that will never let you go.
The words of one of my favorite hymns express these thoughts so well:
O Love that wilt not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in thee;
I give thee back the life I owe,
that in thine ocean depths its flow
may richer, fuller be.
O Light that follow’st all my way,
I yield my flick’ring torch to thee;
my heart restores its borrowed ray,
that in thy sunshine’s blaze its day
may brighter, fairer be.
O Joy that seekest me through pain,
I cannot close my heart to thee;
I trace the rainbow thro’ the rain,
and feel the promise is not vain
that morn shall tearless be.
O Cross that liftest up my head,
I dare not ask to fly from thee;
I lay in dust life’s glory dead,
and from the ground there blossoms red,
life that shall endless be.
â Author: George Matheson, 1842-1906
Perhaps you would like to spend a few moments of quiet meditation listening to this beautiful hymn arrangement.
The Path to Inner Peace, Joy and Freedom
Peace, joy and freedom. All three are needed things, soul things that make us content. They are not easily gained, however, as the daily routine we call life attacks them on a regular basis.
How troubling it is to lose oneâs sense of peace. A number of life situations can result in a loss of soul-peace â worry about illness, financial concerns, difficulty with children, caring for aging parents, moving to another home. It would be impossible to complete the list of things that can steal our sense of peace.
Perhaps we should go one step further, though, and acknowledge that our loss is not merely the loss of peace, it is the loss of peacefulness. That loss can be disconcerting at best and devastating at worse. All of us long for a deep and abiding sense of peacefulness. We sometimes cry out âpeace, peace, when there is no peace.â (Jeremiah 6:14)
Joy! At times, it can be hard for us to feel joy. I think it is because weâre not at all sure what joy hidden inside the soul feels like. For joy is not simply happiness over something that has come to us â a new house or car, a life milestone like graduation or a wedding, a celebration of the birth of a child. Such things seem to bring joy, but our actual response to such events is a brief burst of happiness. Genuine joy â soul joy â happens when something inside of us deeply responds to joy and we tuck it away safely in our hearts. And that kind of joy is not a brief response to a happy event, it is an abiding, spiritual state of being that comes with a grace-filled assurance that Christ came to make sure we live our lives âmore abundantly.â The message from Jesus comes to us using various words:
I have come that you might have life, and have it more abundantly.
(John 10:10, paraphrased)
I came to give life with joy and abundance.
(The VOICE translation)
I have come in order that you might have lifeâlife in all its fullness.
(The Good News Bible)
Living âLife in all its fullnessâ seems to be the end result of abiding joy, in the soul and in the heart. Even when we listened to the song our children learned to sing, âIâve got that joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart,â we somehow knew that true joy was internal not external. That joy resided in our hearts and in our souls.
Finally freedom â the kind of freedom we have when peace and joy is hidden in the deepest recesses of our being. Freedom does not leave those who practice gratefulness, prayer, meditation and confession. It is at the altar of confession that God offers us assurance of pardon. Itâs the opposite of the soulâs bondage. I cannot help but recall the words of the Apostle Paul about the nature of Christian freedom that so boldly introduce the 5th chapter of Galatians:
For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of bondage. (Galatians 5:1)
Frederick Buechner added a new dimension to our longing for peace, joy and freedom with this powerful thought:
Unless there is peace and joy and freedom for you,
there can be no real peace or joy or freedom for me.
Therein lies the crux of living the Christian life: an interconnectedness among those who follow Christ, a community of faith in which each one supports the other. It is an interconnectedness that transcends differences of opinion, different ways of practicing faith, disagreements about which hymns are more appropriate in worship or, even more trivial, what kind of light bulbs should we use in the sanctuary.
Our interconnectedness ensures that each of us will have the will and the faithfulness to enjoy the kind of peace, joy and freedom that abides in us when we âdo not forsake the assembling of ourselves together and when we exhort and encourage one another. The Message translation by Eugene Peterson calls it âspurring each other on.â (Hebrews 10:25)
Perhaps caring for one another â exhorting, encouraging and âspurring each other onâ â is the message of this beloved hymn that so often informs our worship and our community when we sing it together:
Brother, sister, let me serve you;
Let me be as Christ to you;
Pray that I might have the grace to
Let you be my servant, too.
We are pilgrims on a journey;
We are family on the road;
We are here to help each other
Walk the miles and bear the load.
I will hold the Christ-light for you
In the nighttime of your fear;
I will hold my hand out to you,
Speak the peace you long to hear.
I will weep when you are weeping;
When you laugh Iâll laugh with you;
I will share your joys and sorrows
Till weâve seen this journey through.
When we sing to God in Heaven
We shall find such harmony,
Born of all weâve known together
Of Christâs love and agony.
â THE SERVANT SONG, Words and music by Richard Gillard
In our deepest time of prayer and contemplation and in the sacred refuge of our community of faith, our souls find peace, joy and freedom â for all of us, for each of us.
May God make it so. Amen.
God of the Sparrow đ± By Kathy Manis Findley 