God Yearns

Prayer of Love:

Creator God,
You made the world and called it good. Help me to remember that in your eyes I am good. Help me to see the goodness in myself, to love myself just as you love me. I pledge my love to you, a fitting response to the boundless love you heap upon me. Amen

Reading: Walter Brueggmann, “The God who yearns and waits for us”

We are strange conundrums of faithfulness and fickleness.
We cleave to you in all the ways that we are able.
We count on you and intend our lives to be lived for you,
and then we find ourselves among your people
who are always seeking elsewhere and otherwise.
So we give thanks that you are the God
Who yearns and waits for us,
and that our connection to you is always from your side,
and that it is because of your goodness
that neither life nor death
nor angels nor principalities
nor heights nor depths
nor anything in creation
can separate us from you.
We give you thanks for your faithfulness,
so much more durable than ours. Amen.

Meditation:

More often than one would expect, I find myself in conversation with someone who thinks that he or she is not doing as good a job at being a Christian as he or she could be. The person usually believes that his knowledge of the Bible isn’t sufficient, or that she could be doing more for the world, or that, God forbid, he sometimes has doubts about God.

The most honest response is probably “you’re right on all counts.” We could all know the Bible better; we could all be doing more for the world, and we all--at least those of us whose faith is mature enough to allow it--have doubts. It is probably fair to say that God desires more from each of us. God desires the best from us, and knows we have it in us.

It is more than fair to say—in fact it is the plain truth—that these moments are actually part of the work of a Christian. We are called to strive to do better. We are called to yearn for God, and to yearn to do God’s will, just as God yearns for us, and draws us toward the divine will.

And the rest of the truth is that God loves us to pieces, even when we fail miserably--which is seldom the case, though we often think it is. God is nuts about us, and rather pleased with us, for we were, after all, made in God’s image.

Prayer of Thanksgiving:

God of all grace and mercy,
You yearn for me even when I am far from you. You love me even when I fail to do your will. You are always there to help me improve, to set me back on the path of righteousness. Thank you for that. Amen

This Little Light of Mine

Prayer of Joy:

Lord,
What a wonderful world you have made! I thank you for the beauty of the earth, and the many surprises that await me each day. Help me to continue to see opportunity, even in challenge. I receive this day with joy. Amen

Reading: Mark 4:21-23

Jesus said to them, ‘Is a lamp brought in to be put under the bushel basket, or under the bed, and not on the lampstand? For there is nothing hidden, except to be disclosed; nor is anything secret, except to come to light. Let anyone with ears to hear listen!’

Meditation:

This little light of mine,
I’m gonna let it shine.
This little light of mine,
I’m gonna let it shine…

This simple song is surely in a close race with “Jesus Loves Me,” for the distinction of first song learned in Sunday School. People who have grown up in church tend to know “This Little Light of Mine”. Because it is a Sunday School song, it may be considered sweet, but not too weighty. This isn’t “Lord, Keep Us Steadfast in Your Word,” after all.

But what a wonderful message this is! In a Lutheran baptismal service, a representative of the congregation lights a candle and gives it to the one baptized (or the parents, if the baptized is a small child). As the candle is given, the representative says, “Let your light so shine before others, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father in heaven.” The congregation, as the embodiment of the Body of Christ, calls upon the newly baptized person to shine, shine, shine, so that God may be glorified.

God has “lit us up.” We all have a light within us, and we’re called to illuminate the world with it. Jesus reminds us that just as we wouldn’t put a lamp under a bushel basket, neither should we hide our light from the world.

--How can you “let your light shine before others?” What special light has God given to you?

Prayer of promise:

Holy One,
Thank you for filling me up with the light which comes from you. I promise to let my light shine, to illuminate the world with works of justice and charity. I will not hide my light, but will make it a blessing for all to behold. Amen

Seeing the Flower

A Prayer of Single-mindedness:

Gracious God,
As I prepare myself for meditation, I open my heart and my mind to you. Give me vision which sees the path you would have me walk. Give me knowledge which understands your commands. And give me understanding which places your Word upon my soul. Amen

Reading: "Flower Insights" Thich Nhat Hahn

There is a story about a flower which is well known in the Zen circles. On day the Buddha held up a flower in front of an audience of 1,250 monks and nuns. He did not say anything for quite a long time. The audience was perfectly silent. Everyone seemed to be thinking hard, trying to see the meaning behind the Buddha’s gesture. Then, suddenly, the Buddha smiled. He smiled because someone in the audience smiled at him and at the flower. The name of that monk was Mahakashyapa. He was the only person who smiled, and the Buddha smiled back and said, “I have a treasure of insight, and I have transmitted it to Mahakashyapa.” That story has been discussed by many generations of Zen students, and people continue to look for its meaning. To me the meaning is quite simple. When someone holds up a flower and shows it to you, he wants you to see it. If you keep thinking, you miss the flower. The person who was not thinking, who was just himself, was able to encounter the flower in depth, and he smiled.

Meditation:

This is a quintessential Zen Buddhist story. Among the things to be learned from the Buddhist way is the necessity of just being in a moment. Sometimes not thinking is the way to go.

--How can you turn off your mind once in a while and just see the flower?

--Can you practice, this week, such moments of “mere experience?” Find an object that pleases you, and just enjoy it. Do something you enjoy, and just enjoy it. Don’t worry about other things you could or should be doing. Just be.

A Prayer of Joy:

Creator God,
Your world is beautiful! Help me to see the flowers, the hills, the other beauty which surrounds me. Give me moments of peace, and moments of tranquility, so that I may appreciate the earth which you made. I thank you for it all. Amen

Prayer of Hope:

God of Compassion,
Sometimes life is really hard on us. Help me to remember that you are with me in difficult times, and that you are working with me to heal my pain and brokenness. Give me patience in the present, and hope for the future, for you are the creator of life, and the source of all hope. Amen

Reading: An Iroquois Prayer

We wait in the darkness!
Come, all ye who listen,
Help in our night journey:
Now no sun is shining;
Now no start is glowing;
Come show us the pathway;
The night is not friendly;
The moon has forgotten us,
We wait in the darkness!

Meditation:

Sometimes it feels like we’re “waiting in the darkness,” doesn’t it? When we’re having trouble in our lives—problems with relationships, physical difficulties, job stress, and other things which weigh us down—it can feel like we’ll never emerge. This prayer emphasizes that sense of darkness which can feel endless, into which no light seems to break. “The moon has forgotten us,” the people declare.

Underneath the prayer, though, is a sense of great hope. We know that even though the night can seem very dark, the moon has not forgotten us. The light will reappear in the morning. The moonlight will return on the next night, or the night after that.

We are not alone in our darkness, either. Even when we cannot see others, in that “dark night of our soul,” they are there with us. Even when we lose hope and faith, God is with us. God never loses us.

--Who walks with you when you wait in the darkness?

--How can you reach out to God in hope, when you feel lost in darkness?

Prayer for Healing:

God of Light,
Stir me to hope and healing. Comfort me, for I feel pain, and sometimes the pain is overwhelming. Come to me even when I do not turn to you, and I will return. I will seek you in the darkness, while I wait. Amen

Who Is My Neighbor?

Prayer of hope:

God of All,
I pray this day in hope for the world. I pray for the people of the nations, all of the people of the world. I pray that we would learn peace, tolerance, and justice. I pray that we would hold one another to your command, to love you and to love our neighbors as ourselves. Amen

Reading: Luke 10:25-37

25Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. ‘Teacher,’ he said, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ He said to him, ‘What is written in the law? What do you read there?’ He answered, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.’ And he said to him, ‘You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.’

But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor?’ Jesus replied, ‘A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, “Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.” Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?’ He said, ‘The one who showed him mercy.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Go and do likewise.’

Meditation:

Chances are, you’ve heard this story before. Even if you haven’t heard the story, you’ve heard the phrase “Good Samaritan.” It has become shorthand for the stranger who does a good deed. Preachers like to point out that this understanding does some disservice to the original story, because the identification of the Samaritan is oversimplified by it. Samaritans weren’t strangers to the folks listening to Jesus; they were the despised “other.” Generations of enmity had poisoned the relationship between Samaritans and Jews, who shared the same contested land which modern day Jews, Muslims and Christians share today—that troubled stretch on the far eastern edge of the Mediterranean.

Although our understanding of the phrase “Good Samaritan” does do away with the racial and ethnic undertones of this story, it does keep the emphasis squarely where Jesus seems to intend it. The lawyer wants to know how he can identify his “neighbor.” From the parable, it is clear that Jesus isn’t so much interested in how to identify the neighbor. He’s interested in how to be a neighbor. The neighbor is the one who shows mercy. And neighbor-ness is a two way street. We become neighbors by showing mercy to one another.

-->Can you imagine a world in which we all try to be neighbors to one another, by Jesus’ definition? How might the world change if we tried to “outdo one another in showing mercy?”

-->Spend some time meditating on the two sides of being a neighbor. How can you show mercy? And how can you receive the mercy of others?

Prayer of healing:

Comforting Spirit,
You know the places in my life in which there is pain. You know my deepest fears, and my greatest joys. Lay your presence upon me like a blanket. Help me to know that you are with me. Help me to turn to you in moments of pain and fear. I give you thanks for the wholeness which is possible in knowing you. Amen

Withdrawal Moments

Prayer for calm:

Lord,
Quiet my breath. Calm my nerves. Still my busy, busy mind. Settle me down, so that I am able to think, to pray, to simply be with you. Open me up to the wonder of your presence, into which I venture now. Amen

Reading: Mark 5:30-33

The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught. He said to them, ‘Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.’ For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them.

Meditation:

Jesus is very busy in Mark’s gospel. He’s moving from one place to another, one event to another, one healing to another exorcism to another miraculous happening. It’s a rather frenetic account, really. Mark uses the word “immediately” more than the other gospel writers combined.
Yet peppered throughout this busiest of gospels are moments like the one in the reading above. “Withdrawal Moments,” we might call them. Jesus withdraws by himself to pray. Jesus withdraws to a mountaintop, taking a couple of disciples. Or, as is the case here, he withdraws with all of the disciples, so that they can rest and eat.
We all need that, don’t we? Those moments away: moments of rest, relaxation, renewal. We need to recharge our batteries.
But notice what happens in this story. Jesus and the disciples withdraw in a boat, and the crowds circle around and get to their destination first. “No rest for the weary,” the saying goes. This happens about half the time when Jesus tries to get a moment away. He’s thrust into action. In the case of this story, he tries to get a private dinner with his disciples, and instead they will wind up providing dinner for five thousand (the feeding story follows immediately upon this one).
Don’t you hate when that happens? You get yourself a nice dinner, and maybe a movie. You eat dinner, set up your pillows and blanket on the couch, maybe make a little popcorn, pop open a box of movie candy (Raisinettes seem to work well)…and the phone rings. Or the doorbell. And the Withdrawal Moment is lost, for a few minutes, or even the whole evening.
Withdrawal Moments are precious. Even more so because they are hard to find, and hard to keep boundaries around. It takes practice, and good effort, and sometimes even the ability to ignore a ringing phone to really rest and renew.
Try it this week. Really find some withdrawal time. Do a devotion. Have a nice dinner. Watch a movie. You don’t have to get Raisinettes, but I really would recommend it.

Prayer of Hope

Blessed God,
Help me to find the time and space to refresh and renew myself this week. Remind me of how much I need a Withdrawal Moment. I thank you for making me a person capable of caring for others. I pray that I will also remember to care for myself. Amen