I'm a dirty old man (it's not what you think)

“Study this story of the farmer planting seed. 

When anyone hears news of the kingdom and doesn’t take it in, 

it just remains on the surface, 

and so the Evil One comes along and plucks it
right out of that person’s heart. 

This is the seed the farmer scatters on the road.

“The seed cast in the gravel—

this is the person who hears and instantly

 responds with enthusiasm. 

But there is no soil of character, 

and so when the emotions wear off 

and some difficulty arrives, 

there is nothing to show for it.

“The seed cast in the weeds is the person who hears the kingdom news, but weeds of worry and illusions about getting more 

and wanting everything under the sun strangle what was heard, 

and nothing comes of it.

“The seed cast on good earth is the person who hears and takes in the News, 

and then produces a harvest beyond his wildest dreams.”

                                                                                                  Matthew 13:18-23 (Message translation)

I've been gardening for some years now. Like a Hobbit I have a passion for things that grow. I also have hairy toes but that is not the point. 

I love to watch God do his thing and his thing is this:

growth. steady.unstoppable.growth. 

I've been watching God do this in my life. Slowly, steadily, for many years the seed God planted in my heart has taken root. 

At times what was sown has felt like a cedar growing in the wind-swept crack of the highest precipice. Buffeted, exposed. Worn and twisted from the elemental forces.

Other seasons I have felt like a bed of cool moss hidden in the Old Growth Forests of the Pacific Northwest. Thick and wet and full. Hidden and indwelling.

I have been through many season in this garden. 

Today, this day, I am alive and well and growing. 

 What I shall be season from season is known only to God and so I trust. 

The Master Gardener is making his masterpiece. 

I will do my best to not resist the work. I am being crafted by Glory for Glory.

...so this is what I have found. 

I once was refuse.  

God's grace composted into good soil. 

I am old. I am a man. I am dirt. 

By his loving work.

waiting for the harvest

A few years back we decided to plant strawberries in our front gardens for ground cover. They spread quickly, are low maintenance, and unlike other options you can eat them.

This birthed the annual tradition of watching for the first ripe berry. Each day the kids (and I) creep around looking under leaves for the Great Prize. They haven't figured out that the berries seem to ripen first alongside the foundation where the heat is reflected.

It takes more than heat and sun to grow a strawberry.
It needs good soil and lots of water. There are lots of wild strawberries on the sunny trails I run but they are tiny little things...although just as sweet.

It rained last night here. A good, long, soaking rain. The berries out front look like they are going to explode. They always grow after a storm.

This, God reminded me today, is true of our inner-self.

We are formed by all of the seasons of our life; the glorious days in the presence of God, the breaking down of the soil within us, and the deluges as well.

Take  lesson from the strawberry today. Sit and be still. God is growing his fruit in you. He is using it all; the Son and the rain. He is the Master Gardener. He knows when you are ready for the Harvest. Stay in the garden beloved. Stay near the Foundation, the Rock. Jesus Christ.

 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. 

For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine,

 and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me.

 

“Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. 

Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. 

For apart from me you can do nothing.

                                                              John 15:4-5

punk rock and the birthday candle

One summer the Ramones came to the Pink Flamingo in the Hamptons. It was the year of my punk-rock-surfer-angst days.

I went to the show dressed in black with an attitude greater than my 5'5" frame. I pushed my way through the crowd into the mosh pit followed closely by my friend Matt (Matthew Whittington III) who was 6 foot two inches with a mile-high Mohawk.

I by attitude was backed up.

The music was blaring, we were moshing, and the bouncers were bouncing all the folks out the back door who tried to dive off the stage. I was hoisted overhead to crowd-surf much much like an inflatable beach ball at  Jimmy Buffet concert and then they tried to toss me on stage.

The bouncers grabbed my head, the pit grabbed my feet and a tug-of-war ensued with me as the rope (across a wooden barrier I might add).

The pit won.  I was pulled back to safety.

Do you have days like that?

This is what my life of faith is like to be honest.

I forget that I have an all powerful God who will go with me but I simply just go marching in. I can't help it, the dark just seems so dark these days that I'm desperate to run at it with something.

I feel as if I'm a birthday candle 

in the deepest of space

 

Today I'm reminded that I am really only a birthday candle deep darkness but behind me is the Light of the World....and the darkness cannot overcome it. 

 I was snatched from death by Jesus,  lifted up and placed on safe ground. 

 

I ask you today, how is your candle doing? Don't try to light up the world. God has that covered. But do take what you have and light up what you can for his glory.

The Goats of Forgivness

“When Aaron finishes making atonement for the Holy of Holies, the Tent of Meeting, and the Altar, 

he will bring up the live goat,

 lay both hands on the live goat’s head, 

and confess all the iniquities of the People of Israel,

 all their acts of rebellion, all their sins. 

He will put all the sins on the goat’s head and send it off into the wilderness, led out by a man standing by and ready. 

The goat will carry all their iniquities to an empty wasteland; 

the man will let him loose out there in the wilderness.

                             Leviticus 16:20

God is clear;

Judgement will be made. 

Rebellion can only last so long. 

The Day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. 

Do not let your hearts be troubled about this! 

God has made provision for the huge sum we all owe and can never repay. These sins were placed upon the head of the Jesus Christ who was led into death by the hands of men. 

God accepted his payment on our behalf and led him to His side forever. And we follow him into freedom.

Those who have been called by his name into His pen must call out to those yet to enter. He was clear that there were many in his fold yet to enter safety. (John 10:16)

Who are these "many"?

They are the rebellious ones, those who are run from God and are wandering in the wilderness, of whom were.

Do you call back out to them,
the ones with all the marks of wandering on them? 
The ones with the filthy coats matted from years of neglect? 

These are the ones Christ came to call.....

are you going into the wilderness for them as he did for you? 

Lord, give us hearts to understand how far you went for us. Teach us to leave our safe pens and enter the wastelands to call the innocent ones who have been led astray.  

Grant us the grace to call to them, not yell at them. 

For this is what you did for us.  

Let us simply do the same.

What is your responce to Harvard's black mass?

I love the human heart and soul and it's capacity to stand and speak up when evil is exposed.

It spoke against slavery.
I spoke against death camps.
It spoke against segregation.
It is speaking against many great evils that destroy the lives of the innocent today.
For this, I praise God.

Yesterday the world was exposed to a great evil that was going to be committed at one of America's most prestigious universities and the human heart it rose up.

I am very glad. But....

Why were you not as offended the day before, or the day before that one? Why not the march, the voices, the affirmations of Jesus as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords?

Why not?

Do you not think that Jesus was abased as deeply before? Are you so unaware? 

Public outcries are needed at times in the course of human events but the proof of the heart is exposed in the following days.

The Master said:

“These people make a big show of saying the right thing,
    but their hearts aren’t in it.

I ask you, all of you who claim Jesus Christ as your Lord and King, you men and women, you husbands and wives, you grandmothers and grandfathers, all of you one simple question;

What will you do today if;

you agree that Jesus is King, 

that evil is real, 

and that the world is a mess?

 "What can I do?" you may ask?
Do what you did yesterday. Each and everyday.

In love stand and proclaim Jesus as your Lord.
In love speak out against those who do evil.
In love tell others that you are a follower of Christ.
In love tell your family that there are those spreading lies about God.
In love worship Jesus in the mundane tasks of your everyday living.

The question today is the same after Sunday Eucharist;
 what will do you do about it once you leave the doors?

The war has been won on the Cross but the battle still rages. Jesus is seated at the right hand of God. His work is finished. You are not allowed to be passive.

"Let none of us grow weary in doing good. 

At the right time we will gather a crop if we don't give up"

             Galatians 6:9

 

responses to open letters, or more honestly a vent and a blessing.

So I get that there are lots of hurting people.
I have seen lots of it, trust me.

But I want to share a story of how to turn pain into joy.
If you are still reading this, well done.

When my son died tragically and suddenly in the hospital I told the doctors that I wanted to be the one to tell my wife when she came to after her emergency c-section. When she opened her eyes groggy from the meds she looked at me and I said the freaking worst sentence I have ever had come out of my mouth

"Honey, our baby died. I am so sorry"...

They began to work before her pain meds kicked in. She felt it. Her last thought and prayer (she has told me) as they wheeled her down the hall was "take my life God, save my child".

This is the prayer any mother will pray. It is a selfless prayer.

So I stood next to her as she lay there and I prayed a prayer that I am sure saved our marriage and perhaps more:

"Lord, we are here. We will hear the cries of babies and new life around us for days. 

Please be kind and do not allow our hearts to be hardened to their joy"

This is it.
When we can experience joy for others we are no longer living for ourselves. We are set free.

So, let me say that I am not saying your pain is not real.
I am not saying there are not scars and that the trauma of what happened to you.
I am not saying it does not at times well up in the least expected times.
It does for me and it hurts.
It sucks. 

I am saying do not harden your heart when others rejoice.

my crappy lawn and my sanctification

It started when a sub-contractor for the MDC came to replace the meter so they could take our money easier. The short story is that we had to have the water shut-off valve by the street replaced...this is another tale. 

They replaced my plot of weeds with what amounted to the "scrapple of lawn patches"ie the stuff that isn't really dirt.

I amended the mess with a higher quality of lawn scrapple, tossed down a high-end seed mixture in an attempt to fool myself, and watered it. Well, a few blades actually grew, bless their little chloroplast, but they were isolated in the wasteland.

This morning I went out to water my sandlot when I had a nudge to go to my composter  in my back yard and actually use the stuff I'd been making. Go figure.

This is when God started speaking, or rather I started listening.

I was shoveling dark, rich compost in my bucket and started to think about what God is doing in my life these days. God promised to make all things new, and he does it like a compost pile.

The Enthroned continued, 

“Look! I’m making everything new. 

                                                         Revelation 21:5

The new soil that God makes us into is the ground for this new life. The old soil won't cut it.  Notice how God says he not making all new things? He's taking our past and making it into his future. 

You’ll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew,
    rebuild the foundations from out of your past.

                                                      Isaiah 58:12

We need to offer up our past to Him who can make it new in much the same way we use the discarded material for the compost pile. What happens if we leave the waste on the counter? It rots, attracts fruit flies and will get us in trouble with the rest of our housemates! But if we put the waste of our lives  into Christ, we end up with fertile ground for the rich thing of God to take root and grow. 

“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? 

Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. 

I’ll show you how to take a real rest. 

Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. 

Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. 

I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. 

Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” 
                                                                          Matthew 11:28

Our lives are messy, just like making compost:

Our past gets changed in stages too and we need to work at it a bit. 

We need to turn things up the things that buried get air. Compost can die if it sits. Resentment can kill us.

...and it takes time. Lots of time. 

Some things turn into good things quicker than others. 
Don't force the change. 

So I ask, where are you in the compost of your sanctification? For me, I want to rush it. But God is teaching me to slow down. He has a plan. He is planting something new.  If you try to plant too soon, jump back in the pile for a bit. 

So I'm thankful this morning for my crappy lawn and my conversation with God

A final word;

Are you frustrated like me? Here is a little secret. 

A compost pile may look like nothing is happening but deep inside at the core is heat that is breaking the old down into the new. You can't see the heat, and most of the time is is buried deep in the pile but it is there. 

In you is the heat of the Holy Fire of God and it cannot be stopped. You will be made new. 

He promised. 

Every time you cross my mind, I break out in exclamations of thanks to God.

 Each exclamation is a trigger to prayer. 

I find myself praying for you with a glad heart. 

I am so pleased that you have continued on in this with us, 

believing and proclaiming God’s Message, 

from the day you heard it right up to the present. 

There has never been the slightest doubt in my mind 

that the God who started this great work in you 

would keep at it and bring it to a flourishing finish 

on the very day Christ Jesus appears.
      Philippians 1-6

Christians who are too busy to eat lunch

The lunch hour is dead....
Staples has reported in a market survey that 19% of the working population does not stop at all for lunch. Another market group reports that 48% of a firm researched eats in less than 30 minutes (read it here )

We are being given a load of this 

I would argue that it is stupid for ANYONE to be so caught up in whatever they are doing to not stop and slow down and eat. The health benefits far outweigh whatever you can think about doing in an hour (accept maybe surfing, but nothing else!)

What are we actually claiming with our actions?
1. We are so important that if we stop working the whole machine will stop
2. I am the only one in the planet who can do what I do

When God told his people to be still and know that He was God he did not mean while you were in the bathroom, or watching TV, or doing a puzzle or anything else you do to "unwind".

He said it while his people where up the Red Sea with no paddle, in the midst of life with all kids of craziness happening all around them.

Was God being impractical?
..oh, but he didn't have my job, or my boss, or my....
No, He is God.

Stop. Breath. Let God be God.
Take a good lesson from folks who know what it's like to crash and burn
"Let Go. Let God."

....and clergy, this is really for us first, or are you too busy too?