From Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton

Greetings from our Presiding Bishop!

Before you enter your Christmas Gatherings, take a moment to appreciate the gentle yet powerful message of this Advent/Christmas greeting!

Blessings, Pamela

Holy Saturday -- Holy Mystery

After a day or two Yahweh will bring us back to life; on the third day God will raise us up and we shall live in his presence." (Hosea 6:2)

From Rohr:  "Limen" is the Latin word for threshold.  A "liminal space" is the crucial in-between time--when everything actually happens and yet nothing appears to be happening.  One cannot just jump from Friday to Sunday.   There must be Saturday!"

Sometimes the most amazing things happen beneath the surface.  Now that we have x-rays and ultra sounds there is almost no place on the body that cannot be "seen" to discover what is going on.   We have even watched embryos become fetuses becoming children ready to emerge.  I have seen "time lapse" streams of those images produced so we can see the entire gestation process in a few minutes.

However, no xray or ultrasound can show you what is going on in your soul today.  It may be as mysterious and as surprising as the Resurrection.  It may be hidden in the midst of common or ordinary patterns and relationships.

You can pause and look and discover what is beginning to burst into new life.   Pray, reflect and appreciate what the last 40 days have provided.

It is finished. And it is good.

Today is a day of varied emotional tempos. The rhythm of heartbeat will change as we approach the cross as it approaches us. As the human heart of Jesus beat its last, God's heart wept and intersected time and space.

I pray that your day provides multiple opportunities for you to take your pulse...

You, precious Child of God, have the blessing of life before you this day. Accept it with praise and joyful thanksgiving. Because of that Friday when His heartbeat stopped, there is a pulsing rhythm which is love, and life and light that guides your heart, mind and soul through each day...until your heart beats its last and you, too can say:

Father, into your hands I commend my Spirit.

Isn't that good?

Jesus said "I am going away now. Take care of one another. I will be back"

"Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, 'Where I am going, you cannot come.' I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

John 13: 31-35

Maundy Thursday....kneeling at the feet of the other....foot washing...the Lord's Supper...the Stripping of the Altar....

Tonight is a tender and poignant night. It can agitate the hardest heart...it can make us squirm as we face the reminder that Almighty God, Creator of the Universe, spent His last night with His disciples teaching them about His capacity to lower himself to the place of lowest esteem.

If you take time to read all of John 13 you will open yourself to the scene where Jesus speaks (and models) boldly...clearly...directly about humility that is grounded in love. So often when we serve others we do so from a place of comfort and abundance. We give to others from our abundance of time, talents, or financial resources. Clearly this is a good...and wonderful...and purposeful thing to do.

But Jesus went further than giving from abundance. He served and loved from total surrender and humility. He served by placing himself lower than the one he was serving.

Several years ago my 87 year old mother in law lived in our home. She needed assistance bathing. Every few days I offered to serve her as her "spa attendant". Day after day I knelt before her, allowing my hands to serve as her hands....caring for her in ways that she used to accomplish independently and privately.

Christ met me during those "spa" times... I never would have seen myself capable of serving my mother in law in that way with grace and compassion. Drive you around? Take you shopping? Help prepare some meals for you? Easy!

Kneel before you and extend the hospitality that crosses the boundary of self esteem? Not so easy....

But Jesus, you go before me, showing me how to do that...inviting me to serve and love others not from my strength and abundance...but from your love and compassion lavished upon us as you lowered yourself at the feet of others.

For reflection:

What do you notice about today's scripture lesson?
Are there things that you are being asked to do that draw from your humility rather than from your strength? How do you respond when that happens?

The bridge of faith

From Pastor Randy's sermon on March 22

Faith is not a matter of getting what we want from God.  It's a matter of whether (we trust that) God  is reliable enough to see us through even those times when we do not get what we want. The challenge of faith is not whether Jesus favors us with personal miracles. The challenge of faith is whether Jesus' presence in us and ours in him, in life and in death, is sufficient to draw us to God forever.

          In much the same way the church bears witness by remaining faithful to the Gospel through thick and through thin. Dietrich Bonhöeffer, the Lutheran martyr, once said that when Christians face a crisis, their most frequent question is, "How can I successfully extricate myself from this situation?"  But that is wrong, he said. The faithful question for Christians to ask is "What does God require of me in this situation?" To ask the faithful question is to surrender our personal goals, perhaps even our own life as we have come to know it. To ask the faithful question is to allow ourselves to be cast into the ground and to lose your life for the sake of the Gospel. 

Since the beginning of Lent I have witnessed many situations that have brought the question "What Does God require of me in this situation.?"  Life has a way of taking us to the brink of our ability to effect any change in what is going on.  We reach those times when we tell ourselves "that's all that can be done."  It may be medical, emotional, or legal.  It could be relational or physical.   

What areas of life have taught you about your limitations?  When have you faced a hope or desire that reveals the chasm between what is humanly possible and your prayer for the future?  

Only faith can bridge that chasm.  Faith provides and illuminates the path from what you can do on your own to what God can do for, with and through you.  

Loneliness

It can happen anytime anyplace.

It can happen in a crowd, at a family gathering, even in worship.  It occurs when I realize that something is happening (or is not happening) that amplifies feelings of isolation, being discounted, ignored or misunderstood.  It happens when the words "you don't belong!" are screaming in my head.

For most people it is not a prevailing condition.  But most of us have experienced it.  This week at our Wednesday Evening discussion we were encouraged to revisit a time when we felt lonely.  So I did, and this is what I have learned.

I was never successful at thinking my way out of loneliness.  Oh sure, I could come up with strategies or options or alternatives or just whiteknuckle my way through the situation.  I could grit my teeth and vow to avoid the situation forevermore.

But as I have observed those places where I have felt lonely I realize that the pain of the experience is centered deep in my heart.  My mind wants to blame or justify or rationalize.  The mind may serve to obscure what is happening by denying its depth.  Often the thinking function ends up pointing a finger of judgement either at myself or at others saying:  Who cares?  This doesn't really matter. You don't matter. ("you" can refer to me or to the others) Get over it.

There is another way -- same body pose.  The other, more transformational way, is to say "I am lonely, right now.... and it hurts.  I yearn for comfort.  I want to be known, recognized and loved."

Move away from thinking.  Be lonely.  (God already knows that's what's going on with you.)  Trust the words we hear in scripture again and again and again.  "Fear not, I am with you!"

Loneliness is a deep spiritual yearning.  At its rawest center, humans cannot cure loneliness.  But God's Love in Christ does -- what God promises, God does.

Handling our lives

It's always going on -- all at the same time.  Lent and Spring.  Dying and living.  Past, Present and Future.  

The way we "handle" the variability and contrasts of our daily experiences often reflects the way we have been "handled" by others.  I'm sure we all have heard -- if you have generally been loved, you are likely to become a loving person.  If you have been subjected to violence, you may be prone to violence.  If you have lived among grateful, joyful people, you are likely to be infected with gratitude and joy!  

At pivotal times in our lives, the images of hands often are used to express what is going on:  

The adult is cupping the infant's hand, most likely standing in loving awe of the miracle of new life.  

The bride and groom join hands, a mystical moment to many, that points to a shared life of (hopefully) joy and promise.  Our hands are the instruments and the tools that reflect what we value.  They participate directly in what we see as the purpose of the moment "at hand".  

Hands leave imprints of so many kinds upon our memories, our possessions, our hearts and our minds.  I have even heard some people in the church refer to an event as one carrying the "fingerprints of the Holy Spirit" all over it.  

Here is one of the last pictures taken of my Uncle George and Aunt Joan as a couple.  The face and body are not that revealing -- the hands, though, testify to the way they handled life together.   

On the deathbed the intimacy and devotion endured -- open hands enfolding one another.  It is an expression of peace and lasting connection.  Joan's hands still may have years of work to do.  They will always, always bear the imprint of her hand upon Georges, with George's hand upon hers.