New Year, new look

Listen, I'm like most everyone else:
I charge out of the gate all set to take control of most things in life and then somewhere along the way I get tripped up.

To be honest I have lots of potholes;
I pastor a church, I have a wife, we have two kids (three and five), we own two cars, we own a house.....the list goes on.

Yet in the midst of all this, first and foremost I am a follower of Christ and I believe (rightly so I contend) that how I see myself in him (and he in me), will effect everything else in my life.

We don't need a hall of mirrors to tell us what our false-self looks like.

We need the God-head to reveal to us our true and his desired nature.

The Bible says we are to do it this way...by doing a continual inventory of our lives:

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

Romans 12:1-2 The Message 

Great, been there, tried that, memorized the verse...

The problem is application, not what God is asking you to do. There are some folks who have nailed the application and it boiled it down to "

-->The Examen of Consciousness"

Here is how it goes:

...You must understand that you are helpless to change yourself. This is not a self-help tool but  rather a tool that will help yourself. It can be done anytime, anywhere but you must be in a place to still your inner voice for 10-15 minutes. Do not linger longer than this. That will turn into adoration or confession both of which are good for the soul but not the goal if the self-examen.

1.   Recall that you are in the presence of God.

2.   Spend a moment looking over your day with gratitude for this day's gifts. All of them, large and small.

3.   Ask God to send you His Holy Spirit to help you look at your actions and attitudes and motives with honesty and patience.

4.   Now review your day. This is the longest of the steps. Recall the events of your day; explore the context of your actions. Search for the internal movements of your heart and your interaction with what was before you. Ask what you were involved in and who you were with, and review your hopes and hesitations. Many situations will show that your heart was divided—wavering between helping and disregarding, scoffing and encouraging, listening and ignoring, rebuking and forgiving, speaking and silence, neglecting and thanking.

5.   The final step is our heart-to-heart talk with Jesus. Here you speak with Jesus about your day. You share your thoughts on your actions, attitudes, feelings and interactions. You might like to finish your time with the Lords Prayer.*

We do not need a house of mirrors.

Yes, I will indeed try and resolve to live a more ordered and structured life which I pray will spill into all aspects of my day-to-day living. But crave solid food, not milk. Go beyond external change, strive for deeper things. And always and everywhere never forget that you are loved with a never-stopping, always-and-forver-love by God. That is called grace.

Happiest of days beloved,
Bryan+

*for the full text I invite you to visit  http://norprov.org/spirituality/ignatianprayer.htm

 

it is what it is and its broken

It is what it is...

There are few things I hate in this world;
1) sin
2) this statement

I spent the last two hours with one of my pastor friends in town. We both have young kids, adore Jesus, and are convicted to not allow what it is to be the "new normal". We walked, prayed, repented, praised, asked for super-natural gifts for ourselves and each others' churches and listened.

As followers of Christ we are called to live out, to the best of our ability, what it is going to be in the New Heaven and the New Earth

It is going to be:
beautiful, whole, healed, joyful, Holy, thankful, light, alive....always

What it is now is:
broken and decaying sporadic appearances of the above.

Need proof? Of course not.

But do not despair, just get busy.

John Wesley offered these tips:

Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as ever you can.”

 

Let it be so.  

Yes it is what it is, it ain't what it should be, it's going to be something we can't fathom. 

remembering days of daisy chains

A friend of mine commented the other day commented how grateful he was  that I have been naming the things that have been haunting our collective souls and is so doing allowing us to grieve.

We have found many scapegoats and demons which to rage against but be aware that there is but one mastermind behind the entire event. No, it was not God.

God has desired will and permitted will.

God's desired will was that all living and non-living things he created would never experience decay or destruction. We were created as immortal beings. We were made "very good".

Rocks were not made to fall on people and water was not designed to drown nations. They were made "good".

Floods, landslides, cancer and murder are the ill effects due to God's permitted will of giving us free will. Death and decay were intruders in the garden, thus the rage against it on the cross. The pride of Angels and of Men has led to suffering for one of three reasons;
Our sin...(we are the reason we are suffering)
another person's sin...(they have sinned against us)
or we live in a sin-sick natural order..(waters that were for life bring death)

Grief is the first step towards healing, so let us heal a little more.

Today please allow me to name another tear in the fabric of our hearts, in that by so naming it we can ask the Healer to repair the damage.

Our children are  growing up in a land desperately bereft of innocence. Kindness is random and acts of beauty have become senseless. Yes, it is there...but it is so fleeting that when we see it we celebrate it. Why? Because it is not our "normal". Images and stories of innocence and kindness goes viral because they are so rare.

No, we cannot blame the media for sensationalizing evil. Evil does not need to help to go viral. It is viral.

As the father of young kids I am heart sick about this, but not Hopeless. It causes me to pray all the more earnestly "maranatha, come Lord Jesus."....now, today. Make all things new...always and forever.

I am faced with the death of innocence for my children. I will grieve for it as I do for all things that die...well and deep but not without Hope.

Some will surely say cannot go back in time. Others will say 'the good old days" were not really "good old days". This may be true of television...but not of God.

God has a plan to reclaim the days...

He has promised it to us that one day he'll come back and  make all things New again.

It seemed like a dream, too good to be true,
    when God returned Zion’s exiles.
 

We laughed, we sang,
    we couldn’t believe our good fortune.
We were the talk of the nations—
    “God was wonderful to them!”
God was wonderful to us;
    we are one happy people.

And now, God, do it again—
    

 bring rains to our drought-stricken lives
So those who planted their crops in despair
    will shout hurrahs at the harvest,
So those who went off with heavy hearts
    will come home laughing, with armloads of blessing.

 Psalm 126

 

my greatest act of protest

I have marched on the White House, the UN,  the Capital and outside the US Embassy of foreign soil.

I have picked coffee for the Sandinista Government at the height of the Contra War six miles from the fighting.

I have held signs, made phone calls and sent letters.

I have been accused of abandoning the faith and have held my head up as I was slandered.

But in the last 24 hours I have engaged in the two boldest acts of defiance yet in my life:
I celebrated the Eucharist at church on Sunday, 
and  I placed by five-year-old daughter on the school bus today.

Sunday as I held the bread high above my head, I proclaimed to the Universe and to Satan that Love has won, that the Evil that fell upon Sandy Hook has been crushed, and Christ was and is and will be victorious.

Hebrews  10:34 reads that the world has "plundered our possessions" and we witnessed that last Friday. As I broke the Host I proclaimed that Christ has plundered Hell  and taken back what was stolen that day. Forever.

This morning I lived out the reality of that theological truth; I placed my daughter on the school bus.

Up until that moment I had felt physically ill. The bus was early, she turned and kissed me quickly, shouted "I love you", ran up the steps and blew me kisses out the window. I had no time to cry, worry, or even pray again. The Master has my daughter. He alone has the words of Life, power over death, and breathed the stars into existence. He will take care of her body and her mind.

So my greatest acts of defiance were in reality my greatest acts of trust I suppose. I trust more today, and I am more constrained to proclaim the Good News of Jesus' plundering of Hell and to battle injustice every time it rears its ugly head.

To God be the glory.

a healing rose in Connecticut

Beloved,

As tragedy strikes, allow each other to "not be ok". Don't be too quick with a tissue, nor even a hug at times. It may feel uncomfortable to you. You want to stop their pain because it makes you feel bad and it is hard to watch a person in distress but let them be.


To often we act as a drain plug to grief.

I need you all to understand that the church where I minister lies a good twenty minutes away from Newtown. We have no direct losses in our parish, but the town does.

Last night after the conclusion of our candle light vigil a woman walked up into the gazebo and crept around all those who had spoken and offered prayers. She placed a single red rose on the top of the wreath. She told me it was given to her from a person from Newtown. She worked there as a dental assistant. She had been taking care of those kids for 10 years. Then she began to shake.

She had such a look in her eyes, and there amid all of the busyness I was able to ask her the anointed question "how are you" ... she could not speak. I gave her some time to talk. It felt like eternity. Her body language spoke for her.

"Not very well" I said. "That's ok. May I pray for you?" She simple nodded and embraced me, holding on very tight.

I prayed for her dreams, and that God would be as close to her as her next breath. I could feel her breath again. She trembled and then silence.

As I think this morning she was much like the woman who grabbed Jesus' garment, sneaking around the pastors, the "important people" to place a flower and perhaps find healing in her pain...I am no Jesus, but I thank God that the Spirit had me turn and ask "may I pray for you?"...would you like to be well.

These are the ones to look for. The silent ones who feel they need to steal a healing. These are the ones with the faith to be made well. These are the ones who think they are too much of a bother to ask...

 Christians, here is your task. Go to them, find them, keep your eyes open, and ask if they want to be well. Then for Heaven's sake do not hold back the Balm of Gilead! This is Advent! The World became Flesh and dwelt among us! He did not come to live in our churches! He came to heal, rule, and set captives free!

mail man of the Gospel

This creed was in my mind as a young child...

"Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds"

My brother and I had fun with it, fueled by the Pony Express and Wells Fargo shotgun toting cowboys in old westerns. To pop a few bubbles it was around long before the UPS.

"It is said that as many days as there are in the whole journey, so many are the men and horses that stand along the road, each horse and man at the interval of a day’s journey; and these are stayed neither by snow nor rain nor heat nor darkness from accomplishing their appointed course with all speed."

—Herodotus, Histories (8.98) (trans. A.D. Godley, 1924)

There is something intrinsically honorable in it, it resonates a truth. It makes us take pause.

The last time I was deeply moved by the men and women of the postal service was in 2001. Anthrax was being sent randomly through the mail. I was working at Starbucks at the time and one of my regulars, Ron, was a postman as was my good friend Jim. I would pray for them daily. They both, and all their other coworkers were fearing death, day in and day out, from a white powdery substance that my be in any one of the hundreds of thousands of pieces of mail they handled.

After the attacks the postal service added this:
"We are mothers and fathers. And sons and daughters. Who every day go about our lives with duty, honor and pride. And neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night, nor the winds of change, nor a nation challenged, will stay us from the swift completion of our appointed rounds. Ever"
( 2001 Comprehensive Statement on Postal Operations (1.A-1)

Today, as Advent continues and the readings get frighting I will take this charge, tweak it, and live it.

 We are mothers and fathers. And sons and daughters of the Most High God. Who every day go about our lives with duty, honor and pride. And neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night, nor the winds of change, nor a nation challenged, will stay us from the swift completion of our appointed rounds. Ever" 

God and the creeping rocks of Death Valley

God is bedrock under my feet, the castle in which I live, my rescuing knight. 

My God - the high crag where I run for dear life, 

hiding behind the boulders, safe in the granite hideout. 

Last night I when I came home from a zoning meeting I read an article about the moving rocks of Death Valley.

Wikipedia states:
"Sailing stones, sliding rocks, and moving rocks all refer to a geological phenomenon where rocks move in long tracks along a smooth valley floor without human or animal intervention. They have been recorded and studied in a number of places around Racetrack Playa, Death Valley, where the number and length of travel grooves are notable. The force behind their movement is not confirmed and is the subject of research.

The stones move only every two or three years and most tracks develop over three or four years. Stones with rough bottoms leave straight striated tracks while those with smooth bottoms wander. Stones sometimes turn over, exposing another edge to the ground and leaving a different track in the stone's wake.

Trails differ in both direction and length. Rocks that start next to each other may travel parallel for a time, before one abruptly changes direction to the left, right, or even back the direction it came from. Trail length also varies – two similarly sized and shaped rocks may travel uniformly, then one could move ahead or stop in its track."

This is what we saw first-hand last night. Not in the desert of California, but in the high school of Watertown! The Rock which is taller than us moved. We saw the trail, we didn't touch a thing..but it happened at God's pace and God's way. 

God can move painfully slow, but God moves. God has placed us in our building and our tower is fighting for us...we are just showing up.

Our rock has been moving all of us ever slowly, to place us where he wants the entire universe to be.  He is making all things new, putting all things right. At times the movement is subtle like the stillness after the rain, other times it is as loud as the silence of the empty tomb.


Beloved, God is moving! This is the message of Advent!

Do not despair my friends.

If God can move the rocks through Death Valley he can certainly move you through the Valley of Death!

God is bedrock under my feet, the castle in which I live, my rescuing knight. 

My God - the high crag where I run for dear life, 

hiding behind the boulders, safe in the granite hideout. 

 

waiting on my bff

so is this what Advent is about?

Will bff Jesus be able to defeat all that is wrong with creation?

bff Jesus will restore all righteousness? Really?

Israel waited for hundreds of years for this?

What are you waiting for?

facebook is my righteousness

All I have to do is not scroll down and I'll be good to go?! Sweet!

 I just have to add a comment to that photo-shopped picture of Jesus in the clouds or the angle next to the car-crash victim?

You mean the cross wasn't really needed at all?

The Lord does not have to be my righteousness?

I guess there are error translations! It should read;

"If you post on your wall and click on the like you shall be saved?"

Romans 10:6 The Facebook Translation

Sounds like oversimplification, but sadly too many understand work of salvation much deeper. If I believe in Jesus, if I profess him has Lord and Savior I am right with God. 

Are there fruits in your life beyond your Facebook Wall that God has laid claim on you? The soul who professes with its lips The Lord is my righteousness do so from the very depths of their being. They have opened themselves and understand that the Holy Spirit searches all things and that the fullness of God's judgment must be fulfilled. This soul strives to live a holy life, knowing that one day we will be asked what we did with the gift of faith we were given. Did we worship God? Did we strive to conform to his image? Did we pray as desperate people? Did we proclaim release to the captives?

Or will our sole defense be our Facebook Wall?

 

Keep Christ out of Christmas! Please!

I am starting a new movement to keep Christ out of Christmas.

Why?

Jesus is much more than "the reason for season". God, as he rightly claims to be, cannot be worshiped on only one day.

I will fight to keep Jesus out Christmas in my house, and ask him to be the reason for the other 364 days of the year.

Hear me; I LOVE CHRISTMAS! I love all of it! But...

Will you join me, all of you who each year get upset that decorations are going up "too early" and that the holiday has become "too commercialized"?

What if we lived what we claimed on Christmas for the rest of the year?

Would we send out cards to our friends in June reminding them that the Messiah has come for them?

Would be buy a gift for a friend and attach a note saying "Christ gave his life for me, this is just a reminder of the free gift he has to offer?"

Would we sings glad tiding of great joy everyday of our lives?

Would be pass our candy canes and teach people that we are washed clean of all our sins by the blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ?

Would be make it a priority in our lives that those who live in darkness, who have not been told of this Lovely-always-and-forever-never-stopping-loving God exists?

Would weep and sing Silent Night alone in our bedrooms, holding a candle, proclaiming that indeed the world can sleep in peace, for the Savior has come!

I will not allow my Lord and Savior to have prominence one day. My God is far to big for that.

He has charged us to storm the very gates of hell and release the captives.

He did not come to do battle with toy companies, the music industry and Hollywood.

He came to do battle with Satan, and reclaim his beloved children.

I refuse to keep Christ in Christmas (only). I will place him at the forefront everyday of my life.

Join me?

powerball tricks

Luke 19:11-27 

The Story About Investment

While he had their attention, and because they were getting close to Jerusalem by this time and expectation was building that God’s kingdom would appear any minute, he told this story:

“There was once a man descended from a royal house who needed to make a long trip back to headquarters to get authorization for his rule and then return. But first he called ten servants together, gave them each a sum of money, and instructed them, ‘Operate with this until I return.’
“But the citizens there hated him. So they sent a commission with a signed petition to oppose his rule: ‘We don’t want this man to rule us.’
“When he came back bringing the authorization of his rule, he called those ten servants to whom he had given the money to find out how they had done.
“The first said, ‘Master, I doubled your money.’
“He said, ‘Good servant! Great work! Because you’ve been trustworthy in this small job, I’m making you governor of ten towns.’
“The second said, ‘Master, I made a fifty percent profit on your money.’
“He said, ‘I’m putting you in charge of five towns.’
“The next servant said, ‘Master, here’s your money safe and sound. I kept it hidden in the cellar. To tell you the truth, I was a little afraid. I know you have high standards and hate sloppiness, and don’t suffer fools gladly.’
“He said, ‘You’re right that I don’t suffer fools gladly—and you’ve acted the fool! Why didn’t you at least invest the money in securities so I would have gotten a little interest on it?’

 

“Then he said to those standing there, ‘Take the money from him and give it to the servant who doubled my stake.’
“They said, ‘But Master, he already has double . . .’
“He said, ‘That’s what I mean: Risk your life and get more than you ever dreamed of. Play it safe and end up holding the bag.
“‘As for these enemies of mine who petitioned against my rule, clear them out of here. I don’t want to see their faces around here again.’”

If you could really change the world by "giving away a lot of the winnings" you're wrong...we've given more than a percentage of 500,000,000 to charity. Is it any different?

The only thing that can change the world is your life and devotion to God and his creation.

Everything else is a really great illusion

God loves short people...

I have  confession;
I lied and deceived the government.  Years ago, while renewing my drivers license, I stated that I was 5'7" while in fact I am 5'5".

I wanted to be be taller, if just for four years.

There, I feel better...no, it still cracks me up!

But I have come to embrace and love being short for many reasons.

I don't have a "Napolian Complex".
It has never bothered me rock climbing because I have an enormous reach with my arms.
I always find my size pants because the majority of the free world does not wear them.

...and I have to stand on my tippy toes to see the person read the Gospel in church.

Yep, I do. Why?

I want to see the person who is speaking about Jesus. To me hearing the stories of him are no different that seeing him...he is real, he is alive, he is speaking to me.

Once I even stood on the back pew to see over all the heads.

We stand on our toes to watch a game or a parade.

We'll stand on our toes to kiss our beloved, to look out or into a window...

I stand on my toes to hear of my King. 

Then Jesus entered and walked through Jericho. There was a man there, his name Zacchaeus, the head tax man and quite rich. He wanted desperately to see Jesus, but the crowd was in his way—he was a short man and couldn’t see over the crowd. So he ran on ahead and climbed up in a sycamore tree so he could see Jesus when he came by.

When Jesus got to the tree, he looked up and said, “Zacchaeus, hurry down. Today is my day to be a guest in your home.” Zacchaeus scrambled out of the tree, hardly believing his good luck, delighted to take Jesus home with him. Everyone who saw the incident was indignant and grumped, “What business does he have getting cozy with this crook?”

Zacchaeus just stood there, a little stunned. He stammered apologetically, “Master, I give away half my income to the poor—and if I’m caught cheating, I pay four times the damages.”
Jesus said, “Today is salvation day in this home! Here he is: Zacchaeus, son of Abraham! For the Son of Man came to find and restore the lost.”

Luke 19

Friends, Jesus promised he will be back...are you gonna just stand their flatfooted? 

This King wants to eat with us, live in not only our homes but our bodies!  He knows we were crooks, liars, addicts, craving lust, cheats, self-righteous and still he wants to be with us!

Come down from there, join us short people...he came for you too.

what a follower of Christ looks like in slow-motion

http://gizmodo.com/5963508/watching-a-cheetah-run-in-slow-motion-is-still-pretty-damn-fast

Abraham didn’t focus on his own impotence and say, “It’s hopeless. This hundred-year-old body could never father a child.” Nor did he survey Sarah’s decades of infertility and give up. He didn’t tiptoe around God’s promise asking cautiously skeptical questions. 

He plunged into the promise and came up strong, ready for God, sure that God would make good on what he had said. That’s why it is said, “Abraham was declared fit before God by trusting God to set him right.” But it’s not just Abraham; it’s also us! 

The same thing gets said about us when we embrace and believe the One who brought Jesus to life when the conditions were equally hopeless. The sacrificed Jesus made us fit for God, set us right with God.

Romans 4:20-25

Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we’d better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how he did it. 

 Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls! 

Hebrews 12:2

snake oil is getting tastier

"Ask rain from the Lord
    in the season of the spring rain,
from the Lord who makes the storm clouds,
    and he will give them showers of rain,
    to everyone the vegetation in the field.
 

For the household gods utter nonsense,
    and the diviners see lies;
they tell false dreams
    and give empty consolation.
Therefore the people wander like sheep;
    they are afflicted for lack of a shepherd."

Zacharia 10:1-2

Time was you could spot a snake-oil salesman a mile away. They came riding into town with a wagon full of elixirs, a slick line or two, and a really quick tongue. 

In hind sight we, at this stage in time, laugh at all of the suckers who were taken. How could they be so stupid? 

We are just as duped. We  run to the first shiny wagon with the smooth voice that pulls into town on our TV's, computers, and MP3s. 

The hawkers are no longer poor. They are millionaires. 

They are no longer carry a bamboo cane and wear a bowler hat. They are well dressed. 

They no longer strangers. We have made them cultural icons.

Like little kids who in the heat of summer we salivate, beg, cry and run to the first truck we see offering a what all adults know is no good. 

They tell us things that make our heart race, our desires full, our lusts fulfilled. They help us find our happy place. So we pull out the cork and drink to the dregs...but

Like a one night stand the next day our lives are still our lives and the world hasn't really changed...

If we are headed to a bright new day where is the rain? Where are the crops? 

Where is the universal joy? Where is the care for the widow, the orphan? 

Why do we kill our babies and our old for the sake of "convenience " or the others out of hate?

If you are running after the cart. Please stop, just for a moment, and consider drinking from Living Water. That's one of the names given to Jesus. He's also called the Balm of Gilead, and the Bread of Life. 

Why do we have to keep trying new oils, new ways, new plans? Because they all fail. Period. 

Don't get duped. You'll be called stupid. 

That's OK.

You will healed...and some are even cured!

resident alien day16-17. Gaga, ducks and Gideon

Being a resident alien brings a sense of living in a state of near-constant tension. It is not debilitating but can be empowering. It burns in the eyes of those who's scales have dropped.

The tension is often spoken visually. Right and wrong, pain and glory...

Deep within the heart of a person who is pressing into the love of God is a voice that often finds difficulty expressing itself.

It shifted me this morning...and God began to speak.

It started oddly enough with an image I had seen of a building explosion last night on the news. It turned to be a large strip club and emergency workers were saying it was an act of God that it exploded at 5:30pm...after the daycare center right next to it had closed for the day. No children were hurt...

Really?

Sex was plied day in and day out right next to the center. Both were open side-by-side day-by-day.

While parents were dropping off children in one building to learn and thrive the children of other parents were being used for sexual gain and exploitation.

I wonder if any kid asked about the signs on the building next door, or if the parents ever thought about what they were doing, or if the zoning board felt it odd, or the city who made money off of sex...

Sick and enraged I found myself guilty of not doing anything. I had given up my sense of power. I had denied God in my life...

Who is powerful in this age?

Forbes just told us that Lady Gaga wields more power than the Queen of England.

So I prayed..and God led me to the Duck Farmer.

He refused to sell his property. He alone stood up.

He looks very odd...his move is in the middle of the highway now. It will be a dangerous place to live when the highway is opened. How will he get out? How will be sleep? Will his house get hit?

The duck framer reminded me of the power I yield.

I am a mighty warrior of God, just like Gideon (see Judges 6). I refuse to live in a wine press while invaders steal my children and take my land.

We all are stirred when we see a single person standing in the way of evil.

Aren't we called to do the same?

resident alien day 15; Thanksgiving Day Prayer

A Sabbath Song

What a beautiful thing, God, to give thanks,
    to sing an anthem to you, the High God!
To announce your love each daybreak,
    sing your faithful presence all through the night,
Accompanied by dulcimer and harp,
    the full-bodied music of strings.

Psalm 92:1-3 

For the record my family and I never try to put forth any pretenses.  

We do not claim to be "holier that thou". 

We admit our failures to others. 

"I am sorry" is a common phrase in our house. 

Yet...

We do boast. 

But we boast in the Lord. 

We have seen great joys, and great sorrows. 

We have birthed, and we have buried. 

We have had plenty, and we have had little. 

But in it and through it all, God is;

supremely lovely 

supremely good

supremely able

supremely merciful

simply supreme

And so it is that God has taught and helped us through our friends to sing the songs of the resident alien. 

Today I am thankful for more than I could ever list. 

I am simply thankful that I am alive. Period. 

When I was an enemy of God 

and a tormentor of his followers, 

God did not let me go down to the grave. 

Beloved, here is a true and trustworthy saying....

God is Supreme. 

resident alien day 14: aliens have no assuptions

Living life  as a resident alien, one who belongs to God and not the world, requires us to be  inflexible in dedication but flexible in implementation.

We live by God assumptions, not our own. We assume certain truths and model our lives around them; 

We are assume and are inflexible our in Biblical and Creedal beliefs. We stand on the truths of faith as handed down. We are inflexible in our  belief that the human sin-condition is still the same, and that Jesus was the one atoning sacrifice for all time.

We assume that apart from Christ, we are helpless to save ourselves.

These truths will not change. God is the same yesterday, today and forever.

We assume we are to be flexible in how these truths are applied to the world. Changes in social structure, technology, and media tell us that how we deliver and proclaim God's grace needs to be adaptive. To often our programs and agenda's become our idols. We are called to daily die to our agenda and desires and be open to the movement of the Holy Spirit. Anything less than this James, the brother of Jesus, calls satanic.

Do you want to be counted wise, to build a reputation for wisdom? Here’s what you do: Live well, live wisely, live humbly. It’s the way you live, not the way you talk, that counts. 

Mean-spirited ambition isn’t wisdom. Boasting that you are wise isn’t wisdom. Twisting the truth to make yourselves sound wise isn’t wisdom. It’s the furthest thing from wisdom—it’s animal cunning, devilish conniving. Whenever you’re trying to look better than others or get the better of others, things fall apart and everyone ends up at the others’ throats.

Real wisdom, God’s wisdom, begins with a holy life and is characterized by getting along with others. It is gentle and reasonable, overflowing with mercy and blessings, not hot one day and cold the next, not two-faced. You can develop a healthy, robust community that lives right with God and enjoy its results only if you do the hard work of getting along with each other, treating each other with dignity and honor. James 3:13-18

Yesterday God exposed my assumptions, and His. 

I left my house at 7:30am assuming an easy drive to a warehouse in New Jersey to deliver items we had collected and to be home around 2pm in time to go to my daughters Thanksgiving pageant. 

We were sidetracked all day because trucks cannot drive on the parkways
We delivered our items to the basement food pantry in a church
I missed my daughters show 
I pulled in just before 10pm. 

We assumed an agenda. God assumed we would be faithful.

Our little band of alien misfits finally arrived at our destination only to have the chief of police look into your truck and announce they were not taking any of the items we had collected.  We prayed, and our contact made some phone calls and we ended up in at his church. He is a deacon at a Catholic church with 1,200 members and here we were, a little band from a church of 60, part of a denomination that had split many years ago from Rome. 

We stocked their empty pantry shelves with diapers and cleaning supplies that folks who need help cannot buy with food stamps.  John, the Franciscan Friar who runs the pantry could not stop talking about how thrilled the families would be to see all of the diapers and wipes we had brought.  A husband and wife had just "happened" to stop at the pantry to see if they had enough stock to open tomorrow. While we were there a woman who attends the church just "happened" to stop by with a number of bags of food that she could not donate anywhere else because of so many donations coming in from around the tri-state area.

We piled up bag after bag of clothes, mostly new, into another room. Such a spirit of joy came upon us that folks sat on top of them for pictures.What at first looked like a problem in the back of the truck had become a source of comfort.

Before we left the deacon wanted to show us his church. It was immense. I felt dwarfed. I told him of our church, of how we have been meeting in homes, parking lots, schools, senior centers, other churches and schools. I told him we were part of the new Anglican movement, and that his Pope had been blessing us and supporting us. It was a holy moment for me.

As we stood on the sidewalk preparing to leave I asked the deacon to please pray for us for our trip back home. He showered a blessing on us, thanking God for us and our work. Invoking protection and love to cover us and proceed us. It was a unification of a fractured Bride...and the unity came about due to a hurricane named Sandy.

I turned to load up and it finally struck me. We had ended up at a church named "Assumption".
Indeed, this is how God assumed it would be.

brocalli

resident alien day 13; alien babies and gay marriage

I have alien children.

They have neither green heads nor big eyes. They were not found in a desert in Nevada. They do not try to phone home.

They are living in America as resident aliens. They were "born" as such, as are all people who are baptized into the Christian Faith regardless of denomination; Baptist, Church of God in Christ, Anglican, Catholic, Episcopal.

Those who are baptized as adults have an advantage in that they have a voice to claim their true citizenship, but those who are baptized as infants are no less aliens. They have been given to God, just as Hannah had done:

"Every year this man went from his hometown up to Shiloh to worship and offer a sacrifice to God-of-the-Angel-Armies. Eli and his two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, served as the priests of God there. When Elkanah sacrificed, he passed helpings from the sacrificial meal around to his wife Peninnah and all her children, but he always gave an especially generous helping to Hannah because he loved her so much, and because God had not given her children. But her rival wife taunted her cruelly, rubbing it in and never letting her forget that God had not given her children. This went on year after year. Every time she went to the sanctuary of God she could expect to be taunted. Hannah was reduced to tears and had no appetite.

Her husband Elkanah said, “Oh, Hannah, why are you crying? Why aren’t you eating? And why are you so upset? Am I not of more worth to you than ten sons?”
So Hannah ate. Then she pulled herself together, slipped away quietly, and entered the sanctuary. The priest Eli was on duty at the entrance to God’s Temple in the customary seat. Crushed in soul, Hannah prayed to God and cried and cried—inconsolably. Then she made a vow:

Oh, God-of-the-Angel-Armies,
If you’ll take a good, hard look at my pain,
If you’ll quit neglecting me and go into action for me
By giving me a son,
I’ll give him completely, unreservedly to you.
I’ll set him apart for a life of holy discipline."

Our infant-baptized-God-gifts are to be raised up in the ways of God until they can claim by the gift of faith through the power of the Holy Spirit that they are His. These little ones are no less residents of a foreign land than we are. 

Yesterday my littlest alien-baby spent the day with me collecting food, clothes, cleaning supplies and money for victims of Hurricane Sandy.  It did not matter what color they were, what their home country was, nor their sexual orientation. My alien babies know that God causes the sun to rise and the rain to fall on everyone and that national disasters affect us all because the world is broken due to sin. 

On the way home from a lovely dinner last night, my oldest alien-baby who just started kindergarten pipes up from a way-past-bedtime back seat; 

"hey dad, can girls marry girls and boys marry boys?" 

I took a breath, prayed, and my wife and I each had that look. 

My emotions were not caught up in "us and them" , "right or wrong", or any sense of frustration. 

I was flooded with the sense that here, in the back seat of my wife's Honda CRV, after driving home from someones house who is on the forefront of battling human slavery in Connecticut, after my youngest daughter nearly passed out in her lunch since she was so tired after running back and forth to two trucks loading up material aid for total strangers, after we had spent a day as a family, each of us loving the least, and past over in our town and nation, I was about to drop a bomb on my little kid...

The world is going to tell you that you are wrong

The world is going to tell you that you are hateful

The world is going to call you all sorts of names

You, little child, will be persecuted

God gave me great love in that moment; for my daughter and for the world. 

"Why do you ask honey?

Oh, "....." told me in kindergarten today that boys can marry boys and girls can marry girls

Oh, and why did he tell this to you? Who told him? 

His dad did...

Olivia, sometimes the world does things and says things that we understand aren't right in the eyes of God. Sometimes we get called names and get excluded from things. 

We understand that God made men and women for each other and that men should marry women only. The laws of our state say that this isn't true. I know it's confusing, but we are to follow God. Hey bud, if your friends tell you things that you know aren't right, just say, we feel differently and love them. God's people have to follow God's rules.

Remember how much God loved Nineveh, and how Jonah was really upset with them? God wanted Nineveh to stop, but he told Jonah to love them anyway. And hey, great job asking dad about something that confused you. You can always ask me, all the time. "

So I looked at my wife, and she winked at me. 

If you read this and you disagree, please have the respect for my kid I have for yours, and for you. 

It breaks my heart that my kid who has such a big loving heart for everyone is going to be harassed, confused, and told she is phobic, hateful, and a slew of other things when all she does is love God and everyone around her...

I guess I shouldn't worry so bad. She is a veteran of persecution. She is only five.

She was told God was fake and she was stupid for believing in him way back when she was three. That's when we first taught her to love those who hate you, just as Jesus did.

resident alien day 12...living on the edge

It's been a couple of days since I was last able to sit write. It has been very busy indeed.

This past Saturday I was at our annual meeting for the Anglican Church of North America. We were impressed upon to live life on the edge, not so much expressively as positionally.

As resident aliens we are called to live on the fringes of society. Do we?

Take a look at your contact list in your phone. Are you pouring into the lives of folks who look as different from you as East is from West?

The Messiah spent his time with those on the edges of society; women, children, prostitutes, terminally ill, mentally ill, dead. Do we?

When was the last time you sat down and talked with a prostitute sharing the love of Jesus?

When was the last time you sent an email out to your friend who shunned by her family?

When was the last time other than a holiday or when your church planned the event that you sat down with a homeless person to share a meal and conversation?

Why do we have such an aversion to the edges? We crave them in brownies, but not in our churches?

Why?

Resolve this day to live on the edge for the love of God.

Levi gave a large dinner at his home for Jesus. Everybody was there, tax men and other disreputable characters as guests at the dinner. The Pharisees and their religion scholars came to his disciples greatly offended. “What is he doing eating and drinking with crooks and ‘sinners’?”

Jesus heard about it and spoke up, “Who needs a doctor: the healthy or the sick? I’m here inviting outsiders, not insiders—an invitation to a changed life, changed inside and out.”

resident alien day 9...meeting Princess Meg after Sandy

Resident Aliens go places they never expect to go, like Freeport, Long Island after hurricane Sandy. It was a 3 hour drive from my house to an area I had never stopped at before, but had driven by many times to and from the East End of Long Island years ago. I met Meg the Alien.

I spent the day there working on Margret's house. Meg is a 72 year old Jamaican whose friends call her "Meg". She told me she was named after Princess Margarette so I called her "your highness" all day. I had come more prepared to talk to folks than work since I've been through times in my life of desperation. I started to swing my hammer and Her Highness would walk past me always busy, offering me food and drink.

When the flood came the canals across the street brought three feet of water into her house. Most of her personal items downstairs had to be thrown out. What she had left from downstairs had been piled up in one road. We spent the day removing the lower four feet of drywall and insulation on every wall of the lower floor then spraying the mold that had begun to grow.  We pulled up the flooring as well, every square foot, and hauled it out to the front curb for all the world to see...waiting for the bucket loaders and the dump trucks dispatched by the city to haul every ones memories to a mass grave.

But Her Highness kept smiling all day long...and singing. When it was time to break for lunch the group gathered and sang a Methodist Hymn as a blessing and thanks giving. Her Highness sang the loudest, praising God and thanking him for everything. While we ate I asked her about the water;

"Well" she said in thick accent,

"In the beginning God made the earth and the water separate, and we been taking away from the water and making into land for a long time. God just wanted to make it water again."

When you run into an alien you just know it. One of two things happen; they bless you or you think they are freaks. 

I was blessed by a Princess Alien named Meg.

Oh, how could we ever sing God’s song

    in this wasteland?
 

If I ever forget you, Jerusalem,
    let my fingers wither and fall off like leaves.
 

Let my tongue swell and turn black
    if I fail to remember you,
 

If I fail, O dear Jerusalem,
    to honor you as my greatest.

Psalm 137-4-6

resident alien day 8...drive through dinners

My friend dropped this bomb one day in an ethics class in seminary;

"our theological condition drives our ethical imperative"

In real-person-speak this says;

"you are saved now lived saved"

Last night my wife and I picked our kids up after a parent-teacher conference for Olivia. The teacher asked me to bless her room (which I did), we grabbed Subway and they ate in the back of the car and were the youngest visitors ever to a Watertown Zoning and Planning meeting.

We met two couples from our church, our landlord (who has still not charged us rent for 5 months) and our friend who is the Methodist Pastor in town.

We asked if we could have a special condition change in zoning, one women on the committee who knows of our work well really supported up, and they encouraged us to proceed next month with a petition. When our landlord came clean on record and said he had been allowing us to try out the space rent-free for the past five months I heard "I wish I didn't hear that"...and laughter so I pipped up "I"ll grant you absolution which I did. After that others asked too, which I did.

We left the meeting and gathered for prayer outside the meeting room doors, held hands (with our landlord and Methodist Pastor friend) and thanked God.

My kids drove home and watching Charlie Brown Thanksgiving...being reminded that many died and risked their lives to give us freedom to worship God, and that He was the author and protector of our faith.

Now as I type, I am struck that last night we were continuing the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving Story, and they were continuing the story of Mary and Joesph fleeing to Egypt, and they were continuing the story of.....all resident aliens

It's 4:30 am and I have drive to Long Island to help out victims of Hurricane Sandy.

I don't like here. 

resident alien day 8...auto pilot faith and salvation

I've gotten to that point, and I pray you have too that my lips part with the words "open my lips oh, Lord, and my mouth shall proclaim your praise"

I have developed the routine when my feet do not hit the floor until I ask God to; 

1)create in me a clean heart

2)fill me with his Holy Spirit

3)  restore the joy of the day I understood I had been transferred from death to life for all of eternity. 

My first thought as I enter in a state of semiconscious is "thank you" for the breath in lungs...

This has happened because I have put effort into my participation with the work of God in my life. 

Can anyone say this is bad? You cannot! This is happening without me being able to stop it. 

I have entered the zone of the resident alien. 

Of course during the day I still have to obey the rules of my homeland and this is not easy. The rules and the perks of this place seem pretty good. We are not tempted with things we don't crave. That is the basic idea behind a temptation. 

So we train, and train, and train. And fill, and fill, and fill. And thank God for doing what we could not do ourselves, obtain our salvation apart from Christ. 

Auto pilot faith  is not the evil thing this Post-Reformation world makes it out to be! It helps us focus when the world tempts us with dual-citizenship. It helps keep our eyes on the nationality line of our true passport. 

They saw it way off in the distance, waved their greeting, and accepted the fact that they were transients in this world. People who live this way make it plain that they are looking for their true home. If they were homesick for the old country, they could have gone back any time they wanted. 

But they were after a far better country than that—heaven country. 

You can see why God is so proud of them, and has a City waiting for them.