Look at what happened when the small group prayed after Peter and John were released from prison.

When they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness.   Acts 4:31


Repeatedly we hear that when the believers prayed that God be with them and strengthen them the result took them into places of the mind, heart and soul that were previously unknown.  The foundation of their life was Christ -- solid!  But that foundation shook the structures of their life.  The words they spoke, rooted in Christ, were activated with a boldness that gave them power and authority in His Name.  


Wow!  


That is still happening today.  


When we worship each Sunday and pray together, do we trust that the place in which we gather will shake? When we go out in His Name how do we pay attention to the Holy Spirit's nudges that guide and energize us?  


I invite each one of you reading this post to visit CRLC's new online resource,  Discovering Discipleship, which will be up and running in the next few days.  It is a place for you to visit in the days following Sundays sending words:  Go in peace, serve the poor!  Go in peace, share the Good News!  (or any number of sendings).  


The point is, Sundays and our worship experiences are the bookends for our ministry during the other days of the week.  We want to be intentional about discovering how God is guiding us through the world, because discipleship isn't always the first (or dominant) thing on our minds all seven days of the week.  


Discovering Discipleship postings will appear at least twice a week.  Come.  Be open to discovering the path God is placing before you as you "Go in peace". 

Where are you looking?

I was walking on the towpath section where there is a view of the bald eagles' nest.  Now that there are eggs in the nest it is guaranteed that the majestic birds will be in sight.  At the same time I was praying about ministry.  What or with whom is the next mission opportunity?

The eagles were there, across the river, perched in the heights of the rookery.  Distance has no power to diminish their display.  The sight elevates the heart, quickens the pulse and stimulates awe.  I watched them for a solid block of time.

Then something happened that broke the spell of magnificence and drew me back into what was happening in front of my nose.

Less than 6 feet from me a perky little bird (a song sparrow) perched on a small shrub.  He sang boldly.   He was so close I could look in his eyes.  I could watch his throat quiver with vibrating tones.  He allowed me to be with him until I moved on.  My time with him sings in my memory.  (this isn't "My" bird, but take a moment to listen to this chorus, which is like the one I witnessed)

The magnificent eagle remained distant -- I could gaze from afar, but I am quite sure the bird was totally unaware of my existence.  Fascination and engagement were one sided.  

The tiny, ordinary sparrow shared time and space with me.  I don't know what the bird was thinking of me but I know he saw me and was ok with my presence.  

Life, love and involvement are rarely about the spectacular situations.  My place for gratitude and service are most likely in the places that might be passed over as small, even trivial.  

The woods are abundant with wildflowers.  Perhaps due to the 80 weather we had in March, there is a luxuriant display of understory.  Without the forest canopy yet in place, the nooks and crannies have been drying out. Green blades and colorful blooms are boldly standing at attention. The cracked soil and dried leaves that have been pressed down by winter snow give way to spring eruptions.  

New life can't be contained -- at least not in nature.  It WILL find its way to its fullest expression. 

How about our new life in Christ?  

Now that we are on the other side of Easter Sunday 2012, how can we stretch and boldly blossom with something new and previously unavailable?  I don't know about you, but I don't want to live as though Lent, Holy Week and Easter 2012 were just a nice spiritual exercise.  I am ready to be different -- so please don't be surprised if I move through time, space and relationships as a new creation.  I may even take it as a compliment if I hear you say:  I never expected that from you, Pamela!  

How about you?  Where are the blades and blooms erupting in YOU? 

 Excerpt from Pastor Randy O'Donnell's Easter Sermon  

"The tomb is still empty today.  Despite all the barriers we construct, despite all stones that we roll in the way, despite all the wars that we rage, despite our personal shortcomings and barriers, despite how we mess up things, whether it be in our relationships with our family members, with our coworkers, with our neighbors, and with those whom we disagree or are even repulsed by, despite how we break things down, despite how we interfere, how we insult, how we destroy the tomb is still empty.  The sometimes hard reality to accept in our lives is that no matter what we do and what we don’t do, what we think and forget to think, the tomb is still empty.  We may bring baggage to God, we may offend God, we may even curse at God, but the tomb is still empty.  We may push things in the way of God, we may create new hoops to jump through, we may complicate things so much in our lives that we expect that God would really want to let us have it, and the tomb is still empty....

What happens when we try to contain God? When we think the tomb still contains death.  Whether it is things that we have done or left undone.  Whether it is the brokenness that I have caused others or they have caused me.  Anytime we begin to think that God cannot forgive us anymore, anytime that we think God cannot love us anymore, anytime that we think God has somehow given up on us; anytime we begin to think those types of things, in a very real way, we are trying to roll stones back in front of the tomb.  We are trying to fill up what God has forever emptied....

 What are we holding on to as we encounter the news of the empty tomb?  What in our lives are we trying to put in the way of God?  May we be bold enough to take our faith to the next level.  May we challenge ourselves to let go and let God.  May we open ourselves up to trust more fully in what God has done in the cross event of Jesus.  The tomb is still empty.  Christ is risen.  He is risen indeed.  Amen."

Christ is Risen!  Alleluia!  

Contrasts

Psalm 31:3-13


Yea, thou art my rock and my fortress; for thy name's sake lead me and guide me,  take me out of the net which is hidden for me, for thou art my refuge.  Into thy hand I commit my spirit; thou hast redeemed me, O LORD, faithful God. 


Thou hatest those who pay regard to vain idols; but I trust in the LORD. 


I will rejoice and be glad for thy steadfast love, because thou hast seen my affliction, thou hast taken heed of my adversities,  and hast not delivered me into the hand of the enemy; thou hast set my feet in a broad place. 


Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am in distress; my eye is wasted from grief, my soul and my body also.  For my life is spent with sorrow, and my years with sighing; my strength fails because of my misery, and my bones waste away. I am the scorn of all my adversaries, a horror to my neighbors, an object of dread to my acquaintances; those who see me in the street flee from me.  I have passed out of mind like one who is dead; I have become like a broken vessel.  Yea, I hear the whispering of many--terror on every side! --as they scheme together against me, as they plot to take my life. 


But I trust in thee, O LORD, I say, "Thou art my God."


-----------
Here we are on Holy Saturday.  Easter is champing at the bit.  Already some sanctuaries have been transformed from the darkness of Tenebrae to the banners of Easter Alleluia.  


Dark/Light. 


Silence/Trumpets. 


It is finished/He Lives! 


Here's the reality of the world -- Wars are continuing.  People are dying.  Evil is walking around, invading hearts and minds....  even today.  


It is sobering to realize that vast numbers of people are trapped TODAY in the grip of hopeless affliction.  The weight of oppression or the basic fact that human suffering is ongoing can cast a pall of darkness, even as many are already donning the New Life garb of Easter.  


We shouldn't ignore the contrast between what many are experiencing -- Death -- and what we are proclaiming -- the Cross defeats death.  If we ignore that contrast we miss the blessed privilege and responsibility we have as God's children to be both cross bearers and light bearers.  We can acknowledge the burdens of human suffering without allowing them to have the last say.  Sometimes we need to walk with suffering and ever so gently whisper:  Thou Art My God.  Sometimes we need to gently incline the head of pain toward the hope of Christ.  


What might you do today to fan the flame of hope or trust in the heart of someone who is in a pit of despair? How can your voice be one of gentle hope and encouragement to a person or place that may be blinded by darkness or sorrow?  


Link to my reflection on The Harrowing of Hell.

Isaiah 53:1-7

Who has believed what we have heard? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by others; a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity; and as one from whom others hide their faces he was despised, and we held him of no account. Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases; yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.

Holy Lord, Holy and Mighty, Holy and Immortal....

Lamb of God.  Silent.  Slaughtered.

If I think too much about this day I get so confused.

The contradiction between WHO you are and WHAT you did is enough to blow my mind and burst open my heart. Perhaps that is the bottom line in this mystery of faith.  My mind needs to be blown apart.  My inability to think rationally about the WHY enables me to FEEL what happened.

The truth is, my heart benefits from being burst by the power of your mysterious love.  In that slashing open of my heart YOU claim, save and sustain my life--again and again.

The bursting of the heart renders my body heavy.  Kneeling and prostration feel natural as I contemplate the Cross.  It is a day for authentic humility and gratitude (which are both Good) rather than sadness.  It is a day to become small, insignificant and dissolved in the presence of the Cross.

Nothing about ME matters on this day -- not really!  That is part of what is so good about this day.

And during supper Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. John 13:2-5

The social order was turned upside down and inside out when Jesus washed the disciples' feet.

At ANY meal of any importance there would have been a household servant available to perform this task of hospitality. The servant would simply have washed the feet and moved away to the next guest. The servant would be inconsequential to the guest, an invisible person.  There would be no relationship between guest and servant.  The act of service would receive would be quickly and easily forgotten.

But somehow that night, although a basin and bowl for footwashing was there, the "servant" was absent. Interesting, isn't it, that none of the disciples thought to take care of the task. It seems that they would never have thought of taking upon themselves the role of the servant.  The body language in the image (above) screams out "what is going on here?"

One of those teachable moments that echo throughout history:  that's what is going on!

Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things to Him, that He was from God and was going to God, rose to model to the group the way things need to be in the Kingdom.

Nobody, absolutely nobody, is greater than the other. Nobody is above the need to extend the most basic gestures of service, for it is in humble, sometimes very simple service, that the power of God's love is manifest.

This kind of loving service transforms both the servant and the one being served. Just as Jesus removed his outer garment to perform the task, there are many "outer" images and status symbols that must be shed to assume the role of a loving servant. Jesus is calling for serving relationships that dissolve hierarchy.

Jesus set aside what he KNEW about His power, and about the potential he had as the Lord of all. He modeled humility by focus performing the gentle, basic task that uplifts the OTHER.

It wasn't just about cleaning somebody's feet. It was about love.  It is about relationship, and about the kind of service that makes people totally new.

I wonder what Matthew, Luke, John or James were thinking as they saw the Lord kneeling before them, pouring water over their dusty feet, and then drying them with the towel wrapped around his waist. Perhaps they were unable to think anything at all.  I would imagine, though, that their hearts stood still to experience being served in such an amazing way.