Have You Heard The One About...?

I was thinking today about how we "hear" things about people or world events and then adopt that as set in stone. We hear that so-and-so is having marital problems, so we assume it to be true. Someone says that Mr. Whatsis did some jail time and we avoid him like the plague without even verifying the facts. I guess it's human nature or something.

The story about John The Baptist strikes me the same way. I can see the people of his time whispering behind his back about his clothes, his diet and his smell when he passed by. Some of those people came to hear him speak out of curiosity, after hearing about him. Did they stay for the message, I wonder? Did they hear the words of encouragement to "hang in there, the Savior's coming"? Or did they just see this weird guy and then go on about their business? And then of course, Jesus came along. He was different, too. But we know people talked about him, what he did, who he hung around with, the off-beat messages. We know people talked about him even after he died. They are still talking about him.

Are you?

The Guest at The Table

America celebrates Thanksgiving this Thursday. If you're reading this, you most likely know this is so. You are probably one of thousands who are thinking of preparing food, thinking of cleaning the house, thinking of the little last minute ironing of the tablecloth, thinking that if you don't stop thinking you'll never get any sleep. It's a busy time, even if you are not hosting a dinner for far flung relatives.

I like thinking of dinners past. The times we gathered in the living room of my grandmother and grandfather's house, with all the leaves of the table inserted and the table groaning with food. The first time my brother-in-law fried a turkey and again the countertop laden with more food choices than one single human could possibly eat! Thanksgiving seems to be the time when our endless bounty overflowed in the delectable dishes spread out before us. But a tradition that has been kept from one year to the next, before we load our plates with all the temptations gustatorial, is when we either stand or sit around the table holding hands and thank The Lord for our blessings. It's never a very long prayer, or very eloquent by some standards. But I have always felt that the presence of The Lord around our table, laughing with delight at our foibles and antics is central to the celebration.

I hope you will invite The Lord to your table this year, as we invite him to ours. I know he would rejoice at the invitation, even if you didn't iron the tablecloth.

Time After Time

I heard a song the other day that I have heard lots of times before. I know it so well, that I've memorized the lyrics. The version I heard was sung by Carly Simon. The melody was sort of dreamy.  The name of the song is, "Time After Time," and no it's not the rock song. It's just a short little song with wistful words. 

Along with the fact that I heard this song, the evening before I had watched that movie with Whoppie Goldberg as a nun leading a choir. Remember that one? They took some 60's girl band songs and tweaked the words to reflect the nun's devotion to God. Remember, "I Will Follow Him," and how it took on new meaning when the nuns sang it? So here I am listening to Carly Simon sing, "time after time, I tell myself that I'm so lucky loving you," and I think that I'm so lucky that God feels this way about me! We've been told how much He loves us and how He gave us Jesus and I mean how much more loved, blessed, LUCKY, can we be?

And the last stanza seems appropriate as well, "and time after time, you'll hear me say that I'm so lucky to be loving you!" Because it's certainly reciprocal on my part as well as His! Can you think of other songs that would work this way? Not just hymns (although there are some wonderful ones), but songs that could be translated differently? I'll have to think of some!

The Light inThe Morning

I am not and never, probably, will be an early riser. I do not wake up in good cheer first thing in the morning. Even when I know the day will be full of exciting or wonderful experiences, my waking mood is less than enthusiastic. This morning was no different, I woke up earlier than I needed to for some reason. I lay in bed wondering what got into me. And I rolled over and looked out the window. The sun was beginning it's slow but sure ascent and the sky was such a stunning shade of blues and pinks and mauve, that my mood seemed somehow an affront! How could anyone look at the sky this morning and not want to greet the day? And then I thought, I am alive to see this! Another dark night has passed and the morning has come through to deliver me from its hold!

Did Easter look like this morning? Did someone marvel at God's blessing of a new day which showed itself in such glorious splendor? I can only imagine it was so. For today, I will rise from bed and instead of making my way bleary-eyed to the breakfast table, I think I will ponder the wonder of the fact that I did wake up to be greeted this way, while I sip my morning tea.

Autumn Time

The leaves are beginning to fall in our yards. Football is on the TV on any given evening. There is a slight dip in the temperature in the evenings as well. We begin our yearly routines as we either take our children back to school or watch as it happens to the kids in the neighborhood. We rake leaves, we put away the lawn chairs and we reminisce. Autumn makes as look back at the year gone by. What do we see? If I might suggest, let us look back with a new lens. Let us see where God was in our midst this past year. Maybe it's been a tough year for you, full of stress or peppered with sadness or grief. Do you see God in the middle of this? It's hard sometimes to envision His presence when it seems there are troubles all around. It's easier to see the blessings, the abundant joy, the glorious mornings and star laden nights when your heart is full. But when your heart is troubled, God seems remote and distant. My mother always reminded me that God doesn't move, we do. I have prayed much harder and listened more intently when my heart is "heavy laden", then when my heart is light. Can you see God-with-us?

Let's welcome the fall weather with a renewed spirit of finding God in our daily lives where ever we may be.

Words to Live and Rhyme By

If you weren't there last Sunday, you missed our talented Pastor recite in rhyme his sermon. It was really well done and with his permission I have included the words. We are so blessed to have such a great guy with us and can even rhyme if given the chance!!

A Sabbath Poem by Jeff May

The summer, she's passing
Church attendance has been lapsing
Now we turn to shorter days
When the boats come off the bays
Time grows weak for sun and leisure,
Is this the end of fun and pleasure?

Refrain:
Perhaps Sabbath is more than just rest
It's time to note that we are blest
God stopped the work that 7th day
To give creation freedom's way
For though we live within sin's bent
We are called and claimed and sent.

Shall we grieve our life hereafter,
Our souls bracing for less laughter?
Turn the page on roasting weiners
Boardwalk vendors, wallet cleaners?
When iPhones no longer capture leisure,
Is this the death of all we treasure?

So note the end of summer's haze
The longer nights, the shorter days
And when our tans begin to fade
Will our hopes too be mislaid?
Shall we all make melancholy
Get back to work, forsake the holy?

Refrain

So let us pause amid our memory,
Turn and think 'bout what we carry
What we've learned about our rest
Look and savor all the best
In rest and joy and friendships true
In all these things we are made new.

So learn this truth on Sabbath-taking
Savor sunset, morning coffee making
Take the time in this vacation
Note the rhythm of creation
Listen close; creator's beat
Love's melody: Oh, so sweet.

Refrain

We say that Sabbath is on Sunday
Like it is only meant for one day
Show up at the holy place
Prayer and Kyrie and grace
Then go in peace and serve the Lord
And all week long faith be ignored

So what if Sabbath is more, and more
Like things that make the heart strings soar
Times that build our hearts as one
To take creation's sacred work begun
You may be bent, but you are holy
Sins forgiven, straightened wholly.

Refrain

It's not so much a day of week
It's time to hear the holy speak
God's gracious gift for weary soul
Restored, renewed, is now made whole
Abundant life is Sabbath's aim
Life in the Spirit, each day's claim.

Where is God in All This?

It is a humid, hot day in ol' NJ. If you live in this neck of the woods, it's to be expected. It is almost never hot and dry. Hazy usually accompanies the hot and humid descriptions. It is usually in these long, uncomfortable, mosquito-laden days, we sit in front of the fan, or if we're lucky the air conditioner and begin to ponder things. Why are we here? What is the meaning of our existence? What was God thinking when he came up with mosquitos?

Unfortunately, I cannot answer a single one of those questions definitively. I've pondered them myself. I've read numerous books looking for answers to those global questions of eternal truths. I've even prayed about them, from time to time. Haven't gotten an answer so far. But this I do know, God is IN all this. The Almighty is not a puppeteer nor an absentee landlord. He doesn't sneer from the lofty majestic heavens and cause some catastrophe to befall humankind. He isn't striking down sinners left and right when things don't go "His" way. That isn't my Heavenly Father! I hope to heavens He isn't yours either! God is with us in all things, no matter the calamities we seem to work ourselves into. He is with the sorrowing widows, the repentant thieves, the confused and bewildered children of his world. We have been given free choice and that comes with great responsibility. And sometimes those choices are so outrageously wrong, we marvel at how someone could come to decide upon them. But our God is right there, smack-dab in the chaos and confusion. In the sick and needy. And even int the hot, sultry mosquito days of summer. God is with us! I can still wonder why he created some of the things He did, but to know he walks beside me as I ponder is worth the discomfort of a few itchy bumps on a summer day.