While I was in seminary I worked at the Wolcott Baptist Mission. (The picture in this blog is of that little church. The children used some clay from the grounds to form and fire this sculpture for me). This was the best thing God could have ever done for me. It was my first church located in a valley about 25 miles west of Kansas City, Kansas. I was director, pastor, and fellow worker to a migrant community that moved into that area in the spring and throughout the fall to harvest melons, radishes, and cabbages.

To better understand the process I too would work in the field. Now I should pause and say that is really a lie. I did no work! I would attempt to labor alongside the kids but there is no way what I did could ever be described as work compared to those I hoped to serve. I would have to stop often, and sometimes crawl my way along watching them all leave me behind as they had a quota to keep. But they put up with me, were kind to me and for a brief time God blessed our efforts together. Most of all I learned some things about me!

Cesar Chavez said, “When we are really honest with ourselves, we must admit that our lives are all that really belong to us. So it is how we use our lives that determines what kind of men we are. It is my deepest belief that only by giving our lives do we find life. I am convinced that the truest act of courage, the strongest act of manliness is to sacrifice ourselves for others in totally nonviolent struggle for justice. To be a man is to suffer for others. God help us to be men!”

As you travel this path today look for injustice…maybe just maybe you have been closing your eyes. Ask for God’s forgiveness and look around seeking opportunities to labor alongside another in order to bring about change both in the situation and in yourself. Ask today for our loving Savior to guide your hands, your feet, to heal sore backs, to direct your stumbling feet. May my Jesus help you to bring healing to another today. Amen.

Do you remember April 30th 1975? I do. I was preparing to get married in June, to graduate from college and to enter Seminary. But…little did I know that when on that day North and South Vietnam were reunited it would have such ramifications for me personally.

That I would go on to reach out and help thousands of Hmong and Laotian refugees seeking to cross the borders into Thailand and then into America and hundreds of those same people would be my responsibility. That by the time ten years had passed I would get to know personally many of the men and women who struggled for freedom and were impacted by that day. Yes I do remember.

Psalm 144:12-15 “May our sons be like plants well nurtured from their youth: and our daughters like sculptured corners of a palace. May our barns be filled to overflowing with all manner of crops: may the flocks in our pastures increase by thousands and tens of thousands; may our cattle be fat and sleek. May there be no breaching of the walls, no going into exile: no wailing in the public squares. Happy are the people of whom this is so!: happy are the people whose God is the LORD!”

Dear God I have come to this realization, this reality, this fact! If our days do not begin and if our days do not end with You our efforts are in vain. So…this day my God bless our efforts to be a people of peace. As we travel this path let us lift another up, bring a refugee in, hold a veteran’s hand, just be there for those whose eyes have seen the terror of war. O God be merciful upon us today, this day. Amen.

I was sitting with two of my grandchildren while they licked spoons covered in frosting. Grandma was icing a cake and this was their first experience of getting those delicious sweet leftovers. They had a great time getting it all over them, the floor and…me.

Sitting there in warmth, comfort and enjoying the peace of family. But as we all know this is not true for everyone. Today is April 27 a time remembered as “disappeared.” A day when the mothers of Argentina gathered to grieve over missing children, the result of war. Some put the number as high as thirty thousand.

Jim Wallis has stated,  “People who believe in war leave all behind, prepared to die: what price are we prepared to pay to be a people who believe in peace? Those who keep faith to the end will know their weakness the best. God, grant me the courage; help me, that I may plant seeds of peace.”

Today as you tuck your children or grandchildren in bed give thanks for their lives. Ask God to keep them safe also the children of our world. Those that go missing, those who are sold into the sex trade, those who are abandoned and lost because of violence, or drugs or economics. Ask God to give you the courage to be a person of faith, a person of courage, a person of peace.  Look around you and seek to bring peace to your community. I truly believe God will not put up with our world’s abuse of His “little ones” much longer.

On this path dear Savior show us where to serve, how to shelter, how to bring peace to those hurting. Amen!

I’m sick. Got a sore throat, runny nose, cough and just can’t get any rest. The phone keeps ringing, got some meetings to attend, the office manager is home feeling bad, the grandbabies are sick too and grandma wants to know when “I’m coming over?” All I do is stare at the paper on my desk wondering how I’m going to ever get a sermon written, Bible studies prepared and counsel those who come through the door. Point? I feel awful.

But…I had to smile when I read some writings from a sixteenth-century bishop Francis de Sales this morning where he states, “We often say that we are nothing, that we are misery itself and the refuse of the world, but we would be very sorry if anyone took us at our word or told others that we are really such as we say.”

Lord thank-you for allowing me to feel awful because it forces me to depend on You. Also keep me from feeling sorry for myself when others are struggling with so much in this world. Prejudice, disease, homelessness, martyrdom and all I have is a dripping nose, big deal.

Psalm 139:1-2 “LORD, you have searched me out and known me: you know my sitting down and my rising up; you discern my thoughts from afar.” May our God and Savior watch over you as you travel this sometimes bumpy road today.

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I was watching my wife holding our twin grandchildren while they were sleeping. Which reminded of the wonderful ministry of Catherine Doherty and how she wrote, “The duty of the moment is what you should be doing at any given time, in whatever place God has put you. You may not have Christ in a homeless person at your door. but you may have a little child. If you have a child, your duty of the moment may be to change a dirty diaper. So you do it. But you don’t just change the diaper, you change it to the best of your ability, with great love for both God and the child…you have to realize that there is always the duty of the moment to be done. And it must be done, because this duty of the moment is the duty of God.”

Christ of the empty tomb give us the strength to follow this path of the little way. To serve, to share, to bring the hope of The Cross to the lives of others today. As we labor, as live our lives let it be done with joy knowing our sins are forgiven and our tomorrows secured. Allow us to trust You for mercy enough today. Amen

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I was in the garden praying when I glanced up at the pine next to a waterfall. Which caused me to think about Brother Juniper a companion of Francis of Assisi and sometimes called a “fool for Christ.” He was known for giving away all his stuff things like clothes, food, all his possessions to the poor. Tradition notes that Brother Francis was known to laugh and state how he wished for a forest of Junipers.

As you travel this path how are you doing? Are you paying attention to those in need that surround you today? Have you held a hand, written a note of comfort? Have you stopped and bowed your head and lifted another in prayer? Have you paused in your hectic day to just laugh and jump for joy at the love of our Savior…for you?!

No? What is stopping you? Are you too busy? Then dear brother and sister in Christ you are too busy. Our Savior did not even withhold His life so we could celebrate this day in service. May our God remind us how precious this moment is and how we have the opportunity to share His love with another. “Come, let us bow down and bend the knee: let us kneel before the LORD our Maker.”

See you on the path…

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Last week my middle daughter was taken in for an MRI. There are some other tests to be done but the good news is that the MRI came out clean. But don’t you hate the ……………waiting? I sure do. Maybe some of you are waiting right now for test results, for a relationship to change, for a new job. So, let’s pray.

Almighty God, Loving-Caring-Healing-Supporting Savior hear what we are praying today! We thank You for Your presence Your acceptance Your comfort that You actually know my name.

All around me are people who care…let me know and feel that reality. People who strengthen my faith when I stumble when I get sick of waiting-who share the ministry of Your Word when I can’t speak.

Today we pray for renewal for healing of body of circumstances and I praise You for the victories we have seen in the past. Lord…be with those who call on You today. In those dark and quiet moments of their lives. Help us to stand together as believers as a community. No one should go alone into those lonely spaces without You.

Today fill us with strength with confidence that You are the God today, tomorrow and always. Even when we don’t understand, even when waiting, frustrated and hurting. Christ of the Cross and yes the empty tomb hold us up today! Help us bear this burden today! Give us the courage to seek after answers to our hurts and questions to trust You for enough mercy for today. Hear this prayer Lord. Thank You Lord in Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

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Nearly every morning I go into our sanctuary for contemplative prayer. It is dark, cool, and quiet. I can center myself and have some quiet time with my Savior. What the early church Fathers called otium sanctum, or “holy leisure.”

But…not today. The garbage truck went by, then the street cleaner, then a fire truck and then a whole squad of children laughing on their way to school. How am I supposed to give myself over to spiritual things if surrounded by the noise of life? Thomas Merton said, “Perfection is found in the purity of our love for God, and this pure love is a delicate plant that grows best when there is plenty of time for it to mature.”

How was I supposed to grow with my Savior with all this NOISE?! But then it happened. That moment when you realize we are called to serve in the midst of life. To find solitude and strength with our Savior in spite of the racket. We can do this. At that moment it grew quiet and I was able to once-again pray. (Honestly I don’t think it was any quieter life was still all around. But within me there was peace).

“If I stand, let me stand on your promise: when I fall, let me fall on your grace.”

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My daughter made two worship banners for the front of our pulpit in order to celebrate the liturgical year some years ago. I’ve used the purple Alpha and Omega numerous times. Then this past Easter I was getting ready to fold and put away when I noticed the other side. She had embroidered a beautiful cross in gold. I had never seen it! Year after year and I never paid attention.

Okay here is the deal don’t be like me! Pay attention! Mechthild of Magdeburg, a thirteenth-century mystic cried out, “I cannot dance, Lord, unless you lead me. If you want me to leap with abandon, you must intone the song. Then I shall leap into love, from love into knowledge, from knowledge into enjoyment, and from enjoyment beyond all human sensations. There I want to remain, yet also to circle higher.”

What am I getting at? God has already written the songs, created the universe, pleaded with you to have a relationship but you and I get so busy we don’t pay attention. We are only concerned about our problems our needs and we miss the obvious…God’s love for us.

Alabare! Alabare! Alabare a mi Senor: Praise to the Lord! Praise to the Lord! Sing praises now, forevermore.

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I was leaning on the counter in our office. I looked down and there was an impression of my handprint. Which caused me to think about all we do with our hands. We lift them in prayer, we hold a child’s hand, we serve with them, we comfort with them.

John Chrysostom a fourth-century mystic from Constantinople wrote, “Prayer is the light of the spirit, and the spirit, raised up to heaven by prayer, clings to God with the utmost tenderness. Like a child crying tearfully for its mother, it craves the milk that God provides. Prayer also stands before God as an honored ambassador. It gives joy to the spirit, peace to the heart. I speak of prayer, not words. It is the longing for God, love to deep for words, a gift not given by humans, but by God’s grace.”

My God we clasp our hands in desperate prayer, we open our hands with generosity in order to help another. Take my hands Savior and walk with me today as I travel in the dark and the light places of this our world. Amen.

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