Claimed, gathered and sent

Embracing the Universe Living a spiritual life makes our little, fearful hearts as wide as the universe, because the Spirit of Jesus dwelling within us embraces the whole of creation. Jesus is the Word, through whom the universe has been created. As Paul says: "In him were created all things in heaven and on earth: everything visible and everything invisible - all things were created through him and for him - in him all things hold together" (Collosians 1:16-17). Therefore when Jesus lives within us through his Spirit, our hearts embrace not only all people but all of creation. Love casts out all fear and gathers in all that belongs to God. Prayer, which is breathing with the Spirit of Jesus, leads us to this immense knowledge. Share your thoughts on this reflection. These reflections are taken from Henri J.M. Nouwen's Bread for the Journey. Join our online book discussion of Reaching Out . Starts November 22nd. Visit HenriNo...

Last week felt like fall. It was in the air with the cooler days. We had to wear sweaters to enjoy our patio on those mornings. This week however is quite another story. It's been in the 90s nearly every day. Today it reached 97 degrees. As the seasons and the weather change, so do the seasons of our lives. For the past couple of weeks I have been struggling with fatigue--even when I've had a quiet and peaceful day off and plenty of sleep. I couldn't tell if I was coming down with something or what was going on. I'd make a few calls, do a little visitation and my energy was sapped. I knew it couldn't be my thyroid because I was taking my thyroid medicine. Well, it seems that thyroid levels ebb and flow also and now I'm on a higher dose of medicine. This all leads up to the time I had with my spiritual director this week. I was frustrated that during the times of extreme fatigue, I seemed to accomplish very little. My spiritual director reminded me that those...

This is the message I preached at Bethany Village yesterday. I preached it 4 times in slightly different ways. This was the last one I preached at evening vespers. 7:00 Vespers Sermon How do you imagine God to be? What do you see when you pray? We all have different images of God we see in prayer, which are especially meaningful to us. I used to live in the Holy Land . From my window, I could watch a young shepherd with his sheep and goats. He loved and cared for them. He even played soccer with one of the goats. For me, the image of the Lord as my shepherd in Psalm 23 or Jesus ’ declaration in John 10, “I am the good shepherd,” are very rich and meaningful. Perhaps when you’re lonely or fearful, it is God almighty, the creator God who is your comfort, your protector. Our hymns and songs are full of pictures of God. God walks and talks with us IN THE GARDEN or maybe you see Jesus as the Lover of your soul. Someone living by the sea will have different images that ar...

Parts of the lectionary readings from Tues. really got me thinking. I could not decide which reading to meditate on. Something in each one grabbed me. Ps. 149:4 regarding the Lord's pleasure in his people, Exodus 40:38 -- God's presence with the people through each part of the journey, and 1 Thessalonians 4:10-12 with its instructions on how to live incarnational lives. So these bits from the readings all seem interconnected. I had a great diagram of this in Word, but don't know how to add it here, so just imagine a cycle of the above in a circle: 1. God's delight in us. 2. His presence every stage of our journey. 3. Living an incarnational lifestyle--bearing witness of his presence in our lives, and then back to #1 bringing us full circle. Speaking of full circle, remember what we read from Acts on Sunday? Ah yes, the all too familiar story of Stephen's stoning. Martyrdom was the stage of the journey where Stephen found his Lord's presence. He bore witn...

How many of us remember the Kix ad with the tagline, "Kid tested, mother approved ?" I always felt good about getting Kix for my kids because it was basically healthy, low in sugar etc., not because of the cereal's motto, though I did as a mother approve. We see political ads ad nauseum at this time of year and we hear plenty of "My name is [insert your favorite (or least favorite) candidate's name] and I approve of this message." One does get some sense of credibility in hearing that statement. At least the candidate knows what's being said of him/her. One of this morning's lectionary readings was from 1 Thessalonians 2 where Paul is defending his ministry. As I was prayerfully reading this, what particularly struck me was these few words "approved by God." It is God's approval that Paul could look to in defense of his work, his concern: "pleas[ing] God who tests our hearts." And me? I have a rather high need for approval ...

Centered Life: Connecting Sunday to Monday on the Luther Seminary website has a short quiz to see how centered your life is. These are my results. How did you do? Imagine a life of belonging, identity and meaning centered in Christ that is: Awakened to God's presence in your life Called to live your faith in every situation Set free to contribute your unique gifts to God's work in the world Nurtured and supported by a community of faith Your profile: Awakened - 35 (7 mean) Called - 34 (6.8) Set Free - 34 (6.8) Nurtured - 35 (7)

Several of us at church have read and fallen in love with the book, The Shack . I am on the author's email list and just received this today. It feels good to spend some more time hearing about what Papa's up to. If you're unfamiliar with the book, you can get more information about it and even read the first chapter at The Shack website. May you continually know how "especially fond" Papa is of you. Picture from The Shack website.

Thanks to Clint and his link, I have found a site that is a treasure trove for those interested in spiritual disciplines such as fixed hour prayer, lectio divina, and the daily readings. For quite some time now, I have found such practices along with journaling to be useful in drawing near to God and hearing his voice.

Mark Daniels, at his blog, "Better Living Thoughts from Mark Daniels," had a great quote of the day posted: "We should pray with few words but with deep, meaningful thoughts. The fewer the words, the better the prayer. The more the words, the worse the prayer. Few words and deep meaning are Christian. Many words and little meaning are pagan." [Martin Luther] See Jesus' words in Matthew 6:7-8. This is from http://markdaniels.blogspot.com/

Once again The Lutheran has some insightful articles apropos for Lent. Check out "God Sightings." February 2008 issue Story by Carolyn Coon Mowchan Image by Michael D. Watson God sightings Make it your Lenten practice to watch for God's activity Where I live in the beautiful north woods of Wisconsin, restaurants still serve fish on Friday nights. I wonder if anyone thinks of sacrifice these days while eating walleye. I also wonder what people think about during Lent in 2008. All rituals can be empty or inspiring depending on clarity and earnestness. Here’s a suggestion: Let’s all give up mistrusting God for Lent. Wouldn’t that be worth a Hallelujah chorus or two? How would we even start trusting, you might be thinking? Theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer (famous for several things, including the term “cheap grace”) suggested that trust follows obedience. Likewise, obedienc...

God is faithful. He does not require of us more than he gives us strength for. The reality of daily life sometimes makes us wonder. Case in point: I am struggling greatly to catch up on school work from last week when I was in the hospital and began rehab. The factors which have increased the difficulty of doing so are working around physical and occupational therapy (twice I lost some work on a lab for biology), exhaustion from therapy and pain meds, as well as visitors like my wonderful husband as well as friends. Among the blessings of my stay at Kent Regency Rehab has been meeting physical therapists Ed, Hunter and Charlie, wonderful fellow travelers in the journey of faith. In our conversations, I have been reminded of Don Moen's song, "God W ill Make a Way." In an online search of the words for Charlie, I came across this YouTube of it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hOjYR8UZT8. Again I am reminded.

The New England Synod of the Women of the ELCA now has its own website!. There you will find links to events that you missed, current happenings, as well as up coming events. Check My del.icio.us list on the sidebar. The url is http://www.nesynod.org/Women/women.htm. It's a very user friendly and informative site. Please check it out.

Yesterday, I read on the Lutheran Zephyr's blog ( http://www.lutheranzephyr.com/main/ ) about a Journal of Lutheran Ethics article that is thought provoking. The title is "Spiritual Reinvention and the Andrew Greeley Principle." It is sobering, calling us to deeper relationship with the God who loves is. The link is: http://www.elca.org/jle/article.asp?k=769 .

The Journey goes on forever and ever Our journey with Christ does not end in a specific destination; it always continues in yet another direction. The spiritual journey is about taking a step, even when we are unsure where that will take us. An Hasid story asks the question, "When did the Red Sea part?" According to the Jewish storyteller, the waters separated not when Moses commanded them, not when he waved his staff over the waters. The waters parted when Moses put his feet in. Faith is a journey that is often formed in our weakness. So it is right that we seek safe places to ask questions that lead us forward...questions about death, about life, about Jesus, about tragedy and pain. This concept of journey as an on-going process was beautifully captured in a prayer attributed to Martin Luther sometime in the 16th Century: This life is not one of righteousness, but growth in righteousness..... Not health, but becoming...not rest but exercise. We are not yet what we should be...

There are many outside the church that see it/us as irrelevant. Take a look at what Sally Morgenthaler's thinking about it this regard. The url to her post is: http://blog.christianitytoday.com/giftedforleadership/2007/12/a_more_soulful_religion.html#more

Left-Hand Column Cases distinguish mental models from actual conversation. The Ladder of Inference show mental models formed if rungs are skipped. Both are tools “to uncover, test, and change your mental models and those of others” (Erickson, p. 8). The Lutheran Seminary in Philadelphia is my next stop after Regent; I thought. My confidence came from God’s past leadings. I deemed excellent public transportation essential for my husband. Preconceived notions came from trips up the Ladder of Inference. The Left Hand Column Case applied when asked why I chose Philadelphia . My unspoken belief was Philadelphia was superior to Gettysburg . Some of the church’s best theologians and musicians taught at Philly. Gettysburg has two academic options: grades or pass/fail, making some doubt the academic standards. “Instinctively making sense of a situation is a valuable survival skill … this process of inference also describes the structure of prejudice and stereotyping” (Erickson, p....

Each fall for 15 years, up to 100 people gathered every Wednesday night at Calvary Episcopal Church in Memphis, Tennessee, to explore the meaning of the Sacred Journey. Led by the Rev. Dr. Douglass M. Bailey, the participants in the class listened and talked about their own journey and the journey of others. The class affirmed the individual nature of each journey and each person's need to explore the questions that can shape their path. The people who journeyed together each fall learned about prayer, community, death and resurrection. They heard questions and reflections from others, and through them came to a better understanding of their own spiritual growth. We have included an overview of the Journey material here in hopes that some of the ideas may help you on your own Spiritual path. The questions are meant for you to ask yourself and those traveling with you. Use those that are meaningful to you as guideposts, pointing down a road you may not yet have explored. Journey wit...

Each fall for 15 years, up to 100 people gathered every Wednesday night at Calvary Episcopal Church in Memphis, Tennessee, to explore the meaning of the Sacred Journey. Led by the Rev. Dr. Douglass M. Bailey, the participants in the class listened and talked about their own journey and the journey of others. The class affirmed the individual nature of each journey and each person's need to explore the questions that can shape their path. The people who journeyed together each fall learned about prayer, community, death and resurrection. They heard questions and reflections from others, and through them came to a better understanding of their own spiritual growth. We have included an overview of the Journey material here in hopes that some of the ideas may help you on your own Spiritual path. The questions are meant for you to ask yourself and those traveling with you. Use those that are meaningful to you as guideposts, pointing down a road you may not yet have explored. Prayer Pray...

Each fall for 15 years, up to 100 people gathered every Wednesday night at Calvary Episcopal Church in Memphis, Tennessee, to explore the meaning of the Sacred Journey. Led by the Rev. Dr. Douglass M. Bailey, the participants in the class listened and talked about their own journey and the journey of others. The class affirmed the individual nature of each journey and each person's need to explore the questions that can shape their path. The people who journeyed together each fall learned about prayer, community, death and resurrection. They heard questions and reflections from others, and through them came to a better understanding of their own spiritual growth. We have included an overview of the Journey material here in hopes that some of the ideas may help you on your own Spiritual path. The questions are meant for you to ask yourself and those traveling with you. Use those that are meaningful to you as guideposts, pointing down a road you may not yet have explored. Journey wit...

Each fall for 15 years, up to 100 people gathered every Wednesday night at Calvary Episcopal Church in Memphis, Tennessee, to explore the meaning of the Sacred Journey. Led by the Rev. Dr. Douglass M. Bailey, the participants in the class listened and talked about their own journey and the journey of others. The class affirmed the individual nature of each journey and each person's need to explore the questions that can shape their path. The people who journeyed together each fall learned about prayer, community, death and resurrection. They heard questions and reflections from others, and through them came to a better understanding of their own spiritual growth. We have included an overview of the Journey material here in hopes that some of the ideas may help you on your own Spiritual path. The questions are meant for you to ask yourself and those traveling with you. Use those that are meaningful to you as guideposts, pointing down a road you may not yet have explored. The Journey...