Through Ben’s Eyes October 26, 2009

A few weekends ago, we went to the cabin in the mountains of northern Pennsylvania with my husband’s family. We took the grandchildren for a walk to pick up fall leaves. It was a gorgeous October afternoon– a bit past the peak of fall colors, but still full of beauty.

My son, Ben, was the slowest of the walkers, so I hung back with him as he chose leaf after leaf after leaf for his “treasure bag.” After I watched him choose what appeared to me to be very ordinary dead leaves, with brown spots and without much color, I decided to ask him a question. “Ben, why are you choosing those leaves? They don’t have much color and they have ugly brown spots on them.” To which he replied, “Mom, God made these, too!” He twisted his face as if to say, why can’t you see what I’m seeing, Mom, because it’s so obvious!

It’s something we’ve heard a thousand times in Christian circles, that beauty is everywhere and we just need to learn to see people and things the way God sees them. But as I was sharing this story with my spiritual director and bemoaning my inability to do this well– to see with God’s eyes and appreciate all the gifts in my life, large or small, she responded in a surprising way.

“Kris Anne, it is already in you to do this. You have the eyes to see, and it’s only your unwillingness to believe in the light within you that is keeping you from blossoming into all the potential that God has placed within you. Think about your mom. You have told me before that she had little worldly beauty, yet she was beautiful to you. You loved her hands and her eyes, her spunk and mischievous wink. You know true beauty. The Spirit has given you great power… you just don’t believe that yet.” The truth struck me head-on.

I wonder sometimes if we, in the same way, underestimate God-in-us as faith communities. Do we have faith to believe that it is already in us, as the Body of Christ, to see with God’s eyes and to act in God’s power to bring the Kingdom into visible expression? Do I believe in the Spirit at work in my own church community… or, as our shortcomings and struggles rise to the surface, do I underestimate what we’re capable of?

The Hope of Easter February 21, 2009

I wish my brain were not so completely fried at this moment, or I would write much more about NT Wright’s book, Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church. But the truth is, I just completed my seven-page paper and need to get some sleep before my all-day class tomorrow. This book is one that every pastor and really, every Christian, should read. We have gotten way off-track in our theological orientation toward “saving souls from hell for heaven,” rather than working alongside the Spirit to bring in the Kingdom!

I am not suggesting (nor is NT Wright) that heaven and hell do not exist, but when Jesus was raised from the dead, the Kingdom broke through on earth and it continues to break through… when Jesus returns at the end of this age, Heaven and Earth will be joined… all creation will be redeemed and made new, all things will be set right once again, our bodies will be raised and transformed (and we all will face judgment… all of us). This world is NOT headed for disaster, but for new creation!  “May God’s Kingdom come, may His Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven!”

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As I often do, a few key quotes:

“The power of the gospel lies not in the offer of a new spirituality or religious expeirence, not in the threat of hellfire (certainly not in the threat of being “left behind”), which can be removed if only the hearer checks this box, says this prayer, raises this hand, or whatever, but in the powerful announcement that God is God, that Jesus is the true Lord, that the powers of evil have been defeated, that God’s new world has begun… how can the church announce this [good news]? If it’s actively involved in seeking justice in the world, both globally and locally, and if it’s cheerfully celebrating God’s good creation and its rescue from corruption in art and music, and if, in addtion, its own internal ife gives every sign that new creation is indeed happening, generating a new type of community, then suddenly the announcement makes a lot of sense” (p. 227)

“The large-scale hope of the whole cosmos is the great drama within which our little dramas are, as it were, the play within the play.” (p. 80)     SURPRISE, it’s not all about us! (that’s me talking, not NT)

“Every act of love, every deed done in Christ and by the Spirit, every work of true creativity– doing justice, making peace, healing families, resisting temptation, seeking and winning true freedom– is an earthly event in a long history of tings that implement Jesus’ own resurrection and anticipate the final new creation and act as signposts of hope, pointing back to the first and on to the second.” (p. 295)

“When the church is seen to move straight from worship of the God we see in jesus to making a difference and effecting much-needed change in the real world; when it becomes clear that the people who feast at Jesus’ table are the ones in the forefront of work to eliminate hunger and famine; when people realize that those who pray for the Spirit to work in and through them are the poeple who seem to have extra resources of love and patience in caring for those whose lives are damaged, bruised, and shamed– then it is not only natural to speak of Jesus himself and to encourage others to worship him for themselves and find out what belonging to his family is all about but it is also natural for people, however irreligious they may think of themselves as being, to recognize that something is going on that they want to be part of.” (p. 267)

“When [God] corners us and finally takes us in his hand– we find to our astonishment that he is infinitely gentle and that his only aim is to release us from our prison, to set us free to be the people he made us to be. But when we fly out into the sunshine, how can we not then ofer the same gentle gift of freedom, of forgiveness, to those around us? That is the truth of the resurrection, turned into prayer, turned into forgiveness and remission of debts, turned into love. It is constantly surprising, constantly full of hope, constantly coming to us from God’s future tos hape us into the people through whom God can carry out his work in the world.” (p. 289)

The Labyrinth September 1, 2008

Grass, leaves, dry ground

Stones and winding path

Sun on my face, gentle breeze through my fingers

The crunch beneath my feet

Birds chirping, sirens sound four blocks away

Shoes off, bare feet on the path

Turn toward the center, down a little hill

Shady spot beckons

Keep walking, now turning away from the center

Children laugh, bees buzz, a dog barks

Back up the hill and around another bend

Now in the center, time to pause

The way back out, still winding

Sounds of life all around

But I’ve been to my center

I am still there

I’ve walked all the turns in the path

And I am ready now

Weeds around my heart April 8, 2008

The warm sun beckoned us outside after lunch today.  The kids ran straight for the swings. I followed behind, and before long I was distracted by the wild strawberry weed and grass in the flower garden next to the swingset.  I knelt down and started to pull.

If you know anything about wild strawberry weed, you know that you don’t just pull one weed at a time. This is a vine-like plant that winds its way all around the flower bed.  Thankfully, the roots are pretty shallow, so it’s not impossible to get it out, unlike dandelions and thistles.  It is, however, difficult to be rid of wild strawberries for good. In the nine years we have lived at this house, we have ALWAYS had this type of weed.  It is everywhere… in every flower bed… all around our property.  No matter how often we pull it out, no matter how careful we are about following the vine wherever it goes in the soil and getting every root, it is eternally present. And very annoying.

As I listened to the laughter of my children and pulled these stubborn weeds, I thought about Jesus’ parable of the seeds and the sower.  Weeds choked out some of those Kingdom seeds that were planted.  How sad! I wonder what wild weeds are choking the God-seeds in my heart and soul?  And what weeds are choking our churches– wealth, power, busyness, comfort, entertainment, even family? What stubborn distraction or addiction or sin has wrapped itself around me, around us, sending roots down all over the place, refusing to go away?

I wonder if I am more wild than pruned. I wonder if there are weeds choking me, that I am not even aware of, or that I am more attached to than I realize.  How painful would it be to allow my Lord to pull those viney things?  Wild strawberry weed does not produce much fruit.  God, I do not want to be choked by weeds! Holy Spirit, make me willing to be pruned and weeded.  Make our churches willing! Pull, go ahead and pull.