Aloha Friday Message – August 3, 2012 – Answering the Challenge

August 3, 2012

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Read it online here.

Last week, this challenge was in our message:  Make a list of all the things you’re good at that you really love to do and that other people tell you they notice. Anything that makes all three of those criteria is a gift you are sharing. Then, continue the list with the things you’re good at and really love to do, but nobody ever notices you can do those things. Those are gifts you have been given but have not shared. Time to get busy heapin’ those gifts on everyone you can find! Then make a list of those things that you’re really good at, but don’t really enjoy all that much. Those are the gifts you stuck on the mantel or hid in the attic. It is time to open them up, take them out for a spin, and make better use of them.

Today I’m going to take a bit of a shortcut. I want you to try looking at something that will give you a little insight into how God has prepared you to glorify him in your world – your sphere of influence. There is a Spiritual Gifts Test that you can take online. Now, before you jump over there and get started, let me say a couple of things about online tests.

First, they are very generalized. They are designed to give you a hint about your life-content, not an exact reading of what you’re made of. As such, they can be pretty subjective – answers may change based on the way you feel, or the amount of sleep you got last night. Here are my scores for a recent visit to http://mintools.com/spiritual-gifts-test.htm

 

Exhortation – 14

Giving – 2

Leadership – 12

Mercy – 8

Prophecy – 15

Service – 10

Teaching – 13

You can see that activities like Teaching, Exhortation, and Prophecy are things I think I can do and in which I am interested or find enjoyable. Prophecy, though, isn’t one of those things people talk to me about, and I’m usually uncomfortable about starting off a statement with something like, “Thus says, the Lord God!” I’m equally uncomfortable with the cookie-cutter emails that state, “I talked to God today and he told me to tell you your trials are over! Everything will be resolved in your favor. By four o’clock tomorrow afternoon, you will hear from someone who has been on your mind 24/7 …” To me, that’s dangerously like being a false prophet.

If I go to look at how these various gifts are used, I can see a list that presents some concepts to me which I can consider. Some of them may be clustered with other things that make me think, “I never thought of that like this before.” There is a pretty thorough list (http://mintools.com/ministries.htm) that really does help me think about these things more clearly. And that is the point.

This may not be a career- or life-changing moment. You may be fully aware of your gifts and what God wants you to do with them. But you also just might learn something, and that could make a change in your life. It’s pretty obvious I’m not the guy to come to for donations. That role is reserved for The Minister of Finance at our house (guess who?). So let’s see what happens with this one I’m still a little uncomfortable with. If I click on Prophecy, I go to a page that has a big, long list of ministries. On that list, if I look for Prophecy, I find two links under it – outreach and speaking. Those, in turn, take me to additional pages where I can learn more about each subject. And all of the links do this, so that one you start, you can follow a fairly long chain of links that frankly make me think a little bit. Maybe I’ll come back and explore, you know?

That’s what I’d like you to do today. Explore. Sit around with God, open your heart and mind to his presence, and let things unfold in your heart and mind. Approach it with some caution – don’t be too literal (quit your job, put on a gunny-sack, and picket City Hall), and don’t be to skeptical (spend a couple of minutes at it and then decide it’s a waste of your time). Give it your best shot for a while. Then, close the site and think about it for a few days. My guess is that sometime in the near future, you’ll think about it some more and eventually it will lead you to a new and refreshing way to serve – a way that give you that kind of joy we saw in Snoopy last week!

This is only one resource, and only something to help you think about your role as a servant of God and a steward of God’s Gifts. Other readily-available resources are your Pastor, your Ministries Director, your church Council, or family and friends who are themselves happily engaged is a ministry. God is calling you, now. Take a few minutes to find out what he might want from you. God bless you as you give this a try!!

Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever — at your service, Beloved.

Share-A-Prayer

Δ  For an end to terror, violence, abuse and neglect, and war; and against the harm caused by others against us …

  • Let us pray to the Lord
    • Lord hear our prayer

Δ  For orphans, widows, the wounded, the innocents, and all who suffer because of these evils …

  • Let us pray to the Lord
    • Lord hear our prayer

Δ  For the will to do small things with great love …

  • Let us pray to the Lord
    • Lord hear our prayer

Δ  For the grace and courage to step forward to serve the Lord with gladness amongst all his living creatures …

  • Let us pray to the Lord
    • Lord hear our prayer

Almighty God, our El-Shaddai, teach us to love you aright, and to do all that you have empowered and inspired us to do through your Holy Spirit. May we always seek to honor your will in every act of service we bestow upon others in your name. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Please visit our Prayer Requests page to read about or make your own Prayer Request.

Aloha Friday Message – July 27, 2012 – Keep on Heapin’ on!!

July 27, 2012

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Read it online here.

Aloha nui loa, Beloved. Last week we continued our examination of gifts. In that message I said that this week we would be looking more deeply into what goes into good stewardship. Before delving into that there is another subject I would like to touch upon. The recent event in Aurora, Colorado is something that is going to be in the news, and in our minds and hearts for weeks and months ahead. The sheer audacity of such an act traumatizes our personal sensibilities. However, it also elicits from us things that are the antitheses of revulsion and terror.

We learn and recognize that there are people who have the capacity to perform remarkable heroic acts of self-sacrifice, of bravery, or of compassion. We also learn that there are many, many more people like them – good people – than there are people who can do such horrific damage. We learn there are people whose generosity is so remarkable that they give deeply and do not count the cost; they send money, they send letters and cards, they buy candles and teddy bears and flowers and all sorts of gifts to memorialize the persons injured. There are people who have such compassion for those who have lost so much that their tears and sorrow engulf them, sometimes even to the point of incurring personal injury like PTSD as well. We see communities rally together to strengthen and encourage one another – in this case even to the point of stirring up sentiments of national unity. All of this goodwill, compassion, kindness, generosity, courage, sacrifice – all are good gifts, and all come from God. All of us have these gifts. All of us have the gifts. All of us have these gifts. NOT all of us GIVE these gifts.

The good gifts we have do come from God. When we use those gifts, we honor the Giver of All Good Gifts. Every gift comes with a purpose. All gifts come with the same purpose. Really? How can that be? We saw that there are so many Good Gifts that they are too numerous to count. Last week we listed Nine Gifts and Nine Fruits. But, there is an even greater number of ways to express those gifts and to bear those fruits. The purpose of all these gifts is that we should use them. Let’s pick one and see what it means to use your gift. Let’s pull from the middle of the list: #5 the Gift of Healing.

If you have the gift of healing, God has blessed you with an openness to the supernatural power which comes through the Holy Spirit and miraculously brings healing from a physical, mental, or spiritual infirmity. In Ephesians 4:11-12 Paul is talking about Christ and the Spirit when he says, “It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” Your gift is not for your personal use. Your gift was given to you to give to others; not just to share with others, you must give it to others. Jesus himself commanded this when dispatching the disciples (see Matthew 10:8) Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.

If you gave a gift to your best friend and s/he left it in the box and put it in a drawer or in the attic or a closet, what would you think? Would you be offended? Suppose your gift was something edible. Do you think you would be less offended if s/he unwrapped it, put it on the mantel, and left it there? Perhaps your gift was a unique handmade article of clothing. What if s/he unwrapped it, thanked you profusely for your artistry and handiwork, and then never wore it? What if nearly every gift you gave to someone you loved was never used?!?!? Would you be discouraged?

Beloved, our gifts are given for the benefit of others, not for our benefit. Using our gifts, giving our gifts, even sharing our gifts is how we benefit from the gifts we are given. They are not ours to hoard. They are not ours to ignore. If you have the gift of singing, but are embarrassed to do it solo, join the choir. (In my book there are two singing groups in the church. One leads the music – the song-leaders – and they provide the musicianship to get the music into the hands of the choir. The choir is everyone else at church that follows what the musicians present.) If you have the skills for it, join the song-leaders. And as they say on TV, “But WAIT! There’s MORE!!

I have only talked about using your Good Gifts from Above for the benefit of God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up. Your gifts have as much value – and sometimes perhaps greater value – in the secular world, too. Your gifts can be blessings to anyone and everyone within or without the Body of Christ, the Church. And the cool thing is that we’ve already seen that the more you give, the more you receive. Jesus himself said “Consider carefully what you hear,” he continued. “With the measure you use, it will be measured to you–and even more.” (Mark 4:24) So if you really heap it on in the church and then really heap it on outside the church as well, you’ve generated two heaps of return-on-investment. And here’s the amazing thing. When you really heap it on often enough it becomes your way of life, and you are no longer aware you’re really heaping it on; to you it’s just business as usual. Others will see what you are doing and say, “That’s a heap of heapin’ on! Where does s/he get all that?” And then it is your turn to say, “It comes from James 1:17!”

Do you know this guy? This is kind of what it’s like to be the giver. It is just such a KICK! And, Dearest Beloved, it goes on from now until Eternity.

THAT is what I mean by “what goes into good stewardship.” Good stewardship begins with recognizing that you are incredibly gifted – well, it would be incredible if none of us believed it happens all the time, but we know it does, so we believe we have extraordinary gifts directly from the Holy Spirit. And we believe they are given to us so that we can give them to each other. We have seen that if we give them as freely as we received them, the gifts never diminish, never grow stale, never lose their effectiveness as long as we keep passing them on, passing the forward, passing them into the lives of others. It is an exciting life to be a steward of God’s gifts! So here is what we should do.

Make a list of all the things you’re good at that you really love to do and that other people tell you they notice. Anything that makes all three of those criteria is a gift you are sharing. Then, continue the list with the things you’re good at and really love to do, but nobody ever notices you can do those things. Those are gifts you have been given but have not shared. Time to get busy heapin’ those gifts on everyone you can find! Then make a list of those things that you’re really good at, but don’t really enjoy all that much. Those are the gifts you stuck on the mantel or hid in the attic. Time to open them up, take them out for a spin, and make better use of them.

Now, when your church has its next ministry drive, you’ll be ready to go. You’ve got your list(s) in hand, you understand your gifts and what to do with them, and you are ready to start heapin’! Brothers and Sisters! Why wait that long? START NOW! It’s way more FUN to be dancing for joy than it is to be prancing for time to pass. Give later and you’ll feel better-off later. Give now, and you’ll feel fantastic right now! C’mon! Let’s get that list cranked out! The JOY of the LORD is waiting for you!!

 

HALLELUIAH!

And this late-breaking prayer request from MBN member, DG: My father-in-law Gene Gilpin is in the hospital not doing well.  He has two blood clots, one in his brain and one in his lung.  He is also bleeding internally where they just removed a cancerous tumor in his large intestines.  I am worried about his salvation. Please take a moment to pray for him for the next several days that he will know the Joy of Salvation.

Aloha Friday Message – July 20, 2012 – Whose gift is that?

July 20, 2012

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Read it online here.

Romans 12:6a – Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly

1 Corinthians 12:4-7 – There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men. Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.

1 Corinthians 12:28 – Here are some of the parts God has appointed for the church: first are apostles, second are prophets, third are teachers, then those who do miracles, those who have the gift of healing, those who can help others, those who have the gift of leadership, those who speak in unknown languages.

Galatians 5:22-23 – … the fruit of the Spirit is Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Generosity, Faithfulness, Gentleness, [and] Self-Control

1 Corinthians 12:7–11 – To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8 For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.

The Gifts of the Holy Spirit

  1. The Word of Knowledge
  2. The Word of Wisdom
  3. The Gift of Prophecy
  4. The Gift of Faith
  5. The Gifts of Healings
  6. The Working of Miracles
  7. The Discerning of Spirits
  8. Different Kinds of Tongues
  9. The Interpretation of Tongues

“None of those gifts  or fruits sound like the kinds of things I can do.” If that is what you are thinking, then you may not have found a way to perceive and be aware of your gifts. Recently I attended a class with other Kauaians in the Kauai Catechetical Conference. “Catechetical” comes from the word catechesis which is oral religious instruction usually given in the process of preparation for baptism or confirmation. I strongly support the concept of Ongoing Adult Catechesis for the Laity. The presenter in the sessions I attended was Sharon Chiarucci, the Director of the Office for Parish Resources for the Diocese of Honolulu. Before I go any farther with this I want to say to my Protestant Evangelical friends, “Yes! All of this sounds a lot like what you and I grew up with and continue to expect in our own faith communities. There is nothing uniquely Catholic about this. This is the way it is – or is supposed to be – across all Christendom.” I am beholding to Sharon for the fresh insights she shared on a simple way to discern one’s gifts.

When you think of the things you might be able to share with your faith community, begin by thinking about the things you are good at, the things for which you have developed a passion over the years. For example, I love scripture study, I’m comfortable in front of groups, I have the “gift of gab” like all my siblings, and all of these things come together in being a Lector – a person who reads passages of Scripture during the liturgy. There are also skills that come together for folks who enjoy teaching Sunday School or Religious Education (back in the “old Days” it was “C.C.D.” – Confraternity of Christian Doctrine). The original CCD was founded in 1562 in Rome for the purpose of giving continuing religious education and was aimed mostly at children. Many churches of all descriptions have what I’d call on-going education for adults. In some cases though, it is increasingly difficult to get adults involved in these faith-based learning opportunities. The opportunity to grow in Faith is a very special gift because it is a gift that allows you to grow in service. When you look at your skill-set, what kinds of things do you enjoy most which might have a meaningful connection to your faith community?

Christianity is Community. Sharing is the way the Church started, remember? “And all those who believed were together and everything they had was communal.” (Acts 2 2:44) This was an effective way to keep things organized. As the early church grew, the need for infrastructure also grew. One of the first executive decisions made by the Apostles was the appointment of deacons to help administer the distribution of what was held in common. The deacons were chosen for and among the people of the church. The Apostles told the whole community to choose “seven men of good standing, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint to this task.” The selection criteria were designed to find potential servants who could be effective in what they do. If you have something you love to do and you use it effectively, there’s a pretty good chance you have identified one of your gifts.

As the seven men chosen as deacons set to work, others noticed the effect they had on the community and responded to their work with acknowledgement and acceptance. When you offer to present your gifts for the betterment of the community, God blesses that offering by choosing for you something that you can do well and which you love to do. He stirs up in you the desire to serve his church effectively, and he brings glory to his church and to his provident care through the esteem given for the effective works accomplished.  Let’s look at just one of the Gifts of the Spirit for a moment to see how that might translate into an opportunity for stewardship. Let’s look at the first one in the list above – the Word of Knowledge. How is that expressed in your community?

Some of the activities that fit into this gift category are teaching, preaching, technology and science, leading and/or participating in educational conferences or retreats, writing, home-schooling, religious education, and working on the pastoral council. One Gift having many (and many more) applications.

Let’s look at one other gift – Intercessory Prayer. Paul was constantly interceding for the fledgling churches he and the other apostles had founded. This could be usefully expressed in your community through group intercessions (prayer meetings), healing-prayer team, prayer walking/driving, as a parent praying for children (yours and/or others), as part of a prayer chain or circle (like the MBN!), as a sponsor for baptism or confirmation or marriage or ordination, and as a community activist prayerfully leading your neighborhood to a better life.

It is important to understand that God does not limit us to seven Fruits and nine Gifts of the Spirit. There are dozens if not hundreds of Gifts, and the fruits we nurture through the use of our gifts also number much higher than nine.

Recognizing your gift is an excellent beginning. Once it is identified, you will easily understand its origin – God. And, Beloved, since only Good Gifts come from God, the gratitude you feel will help you to acknowledge God’s unchallengeable generosity in giving you the richest imaginable gifts and elicit your uninhibited willingness to share that gift with others. The more you get the more you give because the more you give the more you get. That’s God’s economy, and totally the opposite of human economies. This willingness to share is your stewardship of God’s gifts. When you respond to God’s generosity by returning to him a portion of your time, talent, or financial riches, your stewardship complements and enhances the gifts shared by others so that all things are held in common for the good of all.

 

Next week we will take a closer look at what goes into good stewardship.

Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever — at your service, Beloved.

Share-A-Prayer

As mentioned Tuesday, please continue to pray for John as he recovers from surgery for testicular cancer yesterday – 7/19/12

E.C. – healing for feet and knees; confirmation and expansion of spiritual gifts. Healing and health for G & C as they battle through G’s cancer and C tries to hold things together.

T.O. and a score of others who are parents, or siblings, or spouses, or children of some of our Moon Beam Network family who are living in serious addiction. Last news from T.O.’s family and friends: On the street, out of work, destitute, strung-out, tweaked-up, facing away from God.

CO – “Thanks for the prayers! I passed my test!”

 

Aloha Friday Message – July 13, 2012 – PLEASE SHARE

July 13, 2012

1228AFC071312 – PLEASE SHARE THIS

Read it online here, please.

Hebrews 13:16: Do not neglect to do good things and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

1 Timothy 6:18: They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share,

Luke 6:38: Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”

Aloha nui loa, Beloved. Last week we considered Gifts. The list of things we have in our lives that come from God is incredibly long. I purposely included things that people might consider as anything but a gift – like disease, pain, and oppression. How can these be gifts if they are rooted in suffering brought about by sin and made part of our lives by The Prince of The Air – Satan? These things which are so often difficult to endure become gifts when we make them gifts, especially when we make them gifts to God. The Apostle Paul points the way on this when he said (see 2 Timothy 2:10) Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory; and Peter said (see 1 Peter 2:19) For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. And again, Paul – in Colossians 1:24 says: Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church. And Paul also teaches that with every suffering comes a blessing: For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.

So here we see that when God allows suffering in our lives, we can transform that suffering into a gift by offering it to him either on our own behalf or on behalf of others. This in itself is a Gift of Grace, an extraordinary gift that helps us identify with Christ and with his closest followers throughout the centuries, the Holy Martyrs who have suffered death in, with, and for him. For those who are prepared and called for this kind of Gift, their way of sharing it is to give their own lives completely, and in exchange they receive the complete Life of Christ including eternal life with him in eternal glory. What a privilege to exchange such Gifts with God! Not all of us are prepared and called for this kind of exchange. Most of us are prepared and called to exchange gifts with one another; it is what I call the Abraham Effect: God prepares us for the things he expects from us. One of the things high on the list of what he expects from us is to share his gifts to us. Complete this sentence: “Whatsoever you do to the least of these ….”

I’d like to challenge your thinking on that just a little bit by adding one word. The word is even. “Whatsoever you do to even the least of these ….” Here’s what I am thinking: God didn’t mean for us to give our gifts to only the least, only the poor, the orphaned, the widowed, the disenfranchised, only the marginalized, the sick, the starving, and the oppressed or imprisoned. Those are the ones God expects us to bless with our generosity. It’s not hard for us to nod in agreement and respond, “Well, sure, we understand. He means for us to give our gifts to all of those less fortunate than we.” Ah, Beloved! That is a trap! “How can that be a trap?!” It is a trap because it excludes giving to those who are equally fortunate as we are, as well as those who are more (even way more) fortunate than we are. It’s a challenge to exceed expectations, to do the unexpected.

Our gifts are not unidirectional. They are to be given up, down, across, through, over, under, inside, outside, and “every which way inlcuding loose.” God gives Gifts to all people; all his human creatures are gifted. Those who are gifted with the Baptism of Life in Christ are gifted with adoption to be sons and daughters of God. That is absolutely a gift that requires us to share what we have because it is a Gift of Love and we are commanded to “love your neighbor as yourself.” It doesn’t say “baptized neighbor,” or Christian (or Muslim, or Jewish, or Sikh, or any other religious handle); it says simply and beautifully “your neighbor.” That could add up a lot of sharing! We all know that there are people who can and do share that much – everything, right up to and including their earthly life. Some of us believe that those who gave up their earthly life extremely well are also ready, willing, and able to share their heavenly gifts of Life with us.

So, how do we know the boundaries, as it were, of our sharing? For some of us it is quite simple; the radius of our sphere of sharing is mighty close to zero. When I say “mighty close” I mean something that is for all practical purposes immeasurable, something so small only God can see it like the-distance-between-two-electrons small or one picosecond long (that’s one-one-trillionth of a second.) For people who share in those ranges, God alone can judge the extent of their fulfillment of the obligation to “love one another as I have loved you.” They, like us, were prepared and called to share, but they refused the preparation and/or refused the call. They are what we call evil, but that’s as far as we are allowed to judge them.

You, on the other hand, have most likely not refused the preparation for sharing whatever God has given you. You have learned to be a decent earthling, to be responsible, to work, to be charitable, to do some good deeds now and again. You have learned some scripture, gone to church, kept your marriage vows, donated clothes and household items to the Goodwill, and never cheated on a test. You even go the speed limit as often as possible. You have been prepared. You have accepted the preparation. Have you accepted the call?

That is a good question. Your answer depends on at least two things: [1] Do you recognize your gifts? [2] Do you recognize your call? Next week we’ll look at seeing and understanding your gifts. I recently learned some exciting information about that process of discernment, and I am eager to share it with you.

Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever — at your service, Beloved.

 

Share-A-Prayer__________

  • For Christians, and for people of all faiths, who are being persecuted for their faith, especially in Algeria, Nigeria, Iraq, Iran, China, Cuba, North Korea, Afghanistan, Somalia – especially Darfur, Syria, Egypt, and in so many places around the world. Beloved, people are dying for their faith. We should be supporting them in prayer, at the very least, and taking steps to help them in whatever other ways we can. Is this your Gift? Is this your Call? I invite you to download and peruse The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom Annual Report – 2012.
  • TW: peaceful hospice
  • Pray with tender love for everyone with cancer, and please add special care in prayer for MBN members.
  • For those who live in chronic pain ranging from persistent aches to agonizing suffering: Pray that they will find relief for their pain and solace in their gift of endurance.
  • Please continue your fervent prayers on behalf of the families and friends of the poor souls locked into horrific addictions. Bind those spirits and cast them out. Pray for the social and medical help needed to sustain recovery.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Praise Report from Fr. Chuck Faso!!

 

Good News: My doctor from Northwestern called this morning with the results of July 9th Bladder surgery: NO cancer found in the bladder.

Treatment: In two weeks I will begin the six week treatment – BCG: once a week at the Hospital for two hours to stimulate the immune system

Further Updates: Go to my website www.frchuckofm.org and click on “What’s Happening?”

 

Aloha Friday Message – July 6, 2012 – Exchanging Gifts

July 6, 2012

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Read it online here.

Beloved, where are your gifts? Where have you put them? They are yours after all and you should know what you’ve done with them. And if you do know where they are, are they where they belong, or have you put them somewhere and hoarded them away? If they are not hidden, then you should know from whence they came. Do you have gifts you cannot see or find and therefore you do not use? Where are your gifts, and why do you even have them? They were given to you; who would take to take them away? Are they not yours, once and for all?

Where are your Gifts? Beloved, they are strewn throughout your life like wildflowers in a meadow. They are everywhere and anywhere you look. Can you recall the song of a bird, or remember a Bible verse? Can you sing, or play an instrument, speak words of wisdom, calm a crying child, stand up against the Devil? Do you live in pain every moment of every day? Have you a cancer, a birth defect, some chronic but not fatal disease? Do you know how to be generous, or to love your annoying neighbor? Can you be gentle with a spouse or parent with dementia, or firm and adamant with a spouse’s or a child’s chemical dependency?

Where have you put your gifts? Are they hidden away in the closet of your heart so you alone can enjoy them? Are they draped around your daily life to be decorations on your uniform? Or are they perhaps in the hands, and hearts, and minds of family and friends? Might they be shared and reshared among the marginalized, the dispossessed, the orphaned, the widowed, the oppressed, and the starving? Do your gifts go out from you in service to your family, your church, your community, your nation? Are you risking your life for your country, for your faith, or for the poor?

Where did your gifts come from and how were they delivered to you? Are your gifts an inheritance of wealth, an abundance of talent or skill? Are they in your genes, or in your nature? Were they nurtured into you or nurtured out of you? Do your gifts testify to your heritage, your faith, or your stubbornness? Do you have gifts you do not want, or do not use, or do not understand?

Why do you have gifts? Or do you even have a single gift you can recognize and name as your own? Do you define your gifts, or do your gifts define you? What possible good is there in being in possession of such gifts? Who are you, and why are you gifted? David, the man after God’s own heart, said this:

12 “Both riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power and might, and in your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all. 13 And now we thank you, our God, and praise your glorious name. 14 But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able thus to offer willingly? For all things come from you, and of your own have we given you.” So David says that everything we have has come from God. Everything we give to God is what he has given us, but only slightly changed. It is changed by our willingly giving it back to him. Willingly given, it becomes a sacrifice of thanksgiving and praise. Unwillingly given, it becomes an insult to God and an indictment against our soul. Everyone is gifted from God – every one of us.

Every good gift and every perfect gift ...

Doubtless you are familiar with the phrase “an attitude of gratitude.” Gifts are part of human life; we give gifts on special occasions, and we receive gifts on special occasions. God’s gifts are not attached to any occasion, nor are they occasional. They are constant, abundant to the point of being overwhelming, and actually multiply when we give them away, or when we make use of them as God intended when he gifted them to us. Using them in gratitude for having them is called STEWARDSHIP. Here is what Peter has to say about that:

10 – As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace … (1 Peter 4:10) and in James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. God can’t help it, I suppose would say, if he is way too generous. Just because he happens to be crazy-in-love with you, he simply will not stop flooding your life with gifts! So why is it that we are often so reluctant to acknowledge these gifts (and thereby honor the giver), and fickle in wanting to share them? Think of all those questions at the beginning of this. Is any of that really important to know?

Romans 12:6-8 can give us some insight into this avalanche of questions: 6 Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; 7 if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; 8 the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, 6 with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness. So, we have these gifts them that they should be given – shared – with others, and the sharing is best when it is absolute, when everything we have is given.

Is your gift one of ongoing suffering? Then you are also gifted with the grace to glorify God by uniting your suffering with that of others in the world who suffer because of the injustices perpetrated against them; plus you can unite your suffering with Christ and share in the depths of his redemptive compassion. Is your gift deep-seated emotional wounds inflicted by someone you loved and who should have loved you better? Then you are also gifted with the grace to forgive, completely and unconditionally, every hurt you bear – body, mind, and spirit.

Is your gift one of irrepressible joy? Then you are also gifted with the capacity for empathy, understanding, and wisdom for those whose life is best characterized as miserable. Is your gift a gift of healing, or preaching, of good counsel? Then you are also gifted sometimes with sickness, remorse, or stupid mistakes; from all of these you learn the value of your gifts. In your day-to-day life, do others notice you share love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, and/or self-control? Then your life is fruitful, and you are chosen – yes chosen by GOD, by God HIMSELF! – to have, to hold, and to gratefully share every gift with anyone and everyone.

I give you thanks and praise

That is the motivation for your attitude of gratitude. Everything that you are, everything that you have, and even everything that you do not have – all of that (and so many more gifts and blessings every moment of every day that you cannot possibly count them all without a place in Eternity to number them!) Scriptures say is from God. To be unable or unwilling to show gratitude for such bounteous benevolence is to be the most miserable of all of God’s creatures, one who lacks that attitude of gratitude. However, Beloved, having attained such an attitude, we are the most blessed of all of God’s creatures when, in good stewardship, we share every gift without counting the cost or expecting the return.

 

Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever — at your service, Beloved.

 

Aloha Friday Message – June 29, 2012 – Another Kind of fire

June 29, 2012

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Read it online here.

Matthew 3:11 – “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”

I have received several messages and posts from friends, family, and MBN members in Colorado. These unprecedented events have destroyed so much already and they are going to destroy still more. Here is a map (http://activefiremaps.fs.fed.us/lg_fire2.php) depicting where the fires are:

This is a terrible event. Certainly our hearts go out to those whose properties and the dreams that went with them truly just went up in smoke. And there is all the damage done to the beauty of nature in the mountains and valleys where this fire has burned. It will take decades – maybe a decade of decades for the land to recover.

We certainly also pray that no lives will be lost, but we know that in this, the earliest fire season in memory, there have already been lives lost, and we grieve with those families .

There are so many things going on in the world today that involve losses. I’m going to show you another map. This one shows places in the world where armed conflicts are happening. Here the fire is not forest fire, but gunfire.

 

The regions in black show areas with greater than 1,000 deaths per year. The areas in blue show areas with 10 to 1,000 deaths per year.

That is also a wildfire of sorts, a fire of evil-gone-viral as humankind strikes out against one another. Much of it is allegedly done in the name of religion, and yes, you are correct. That’s not the first time we earthlings have gone on a killing spree in the name of religion – including Christians. Here’s a breakdown of the populations of Christians around the world based on recent census numbers. I wish it were true, I wish it could be said  that wherever Christians are prominent, the conflicts that result in a great number of deaths do no happen. Compare the two maps, and you will see that it might hold true in several parts of the world, but not in all parts.

It is in these parts of the world, the parts where at least half of the population asserts, “I am a Christian,” that we must pray for another kind of Fire – the Fire John preached and Jesus delivered.

We are created by God to be stewards of this world which is his creation. As disciples of Christ, we make the conscious choice to allow our lives to be changed by the presence of the Trinity in our lives. We celebrate the beauty and wonder of all of creation from the tiniest subatomic particles to the vast expanse of the universe, from the simplest act of love to the magnificent act of redemption. Each of us is called by name to take up our God-given roles in this world, a role as the grateful and redeemed citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven. We anticipate, accept, and carry out the responsibilities of that calling through our church, our community, and even out into the world we neither know nor see. The worldly obstacles we face in carrying out that mission of stewardship can inhibit us; that is true, but living in the Way of Christ gives us opportunities and strengths the World does not have. We have a Fire that comes from the Eternal Light.

As we take up our stewardship in our communities, let us also look beyond “our own back yard.” Look for ways you can be the hands, the feet, the eyes and ears, and – most importantly – the Heart of Christ. The Fire of your love for God in Christ Jesus can be multiplied by your love for those who are suffering from wildfire, gunfire, and every destructive force we earthlings encounter daily. Fill your heart, your words, and your actions with the Fire of His Love. There is the kind of fire that will truly Light up the World!

Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever — at your service, Beloved.

Please, pray for all the persons suffering from any kind of fire – wildfire, gunfire, health issues, faith issues, family issues – and pray for an increase in the Holy Fire of the Spirit.

 

Aloha Friday Message – June 22, 2012 – Sincerely yours …

June 22, 2012

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Read it online here.

Luke 3:2-6 – During the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the desert. He went throughout (the) whole region of the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah: “A voice of one crying out in the desert: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths. Every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill shall be made low. The winding roads shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.'”

E pili mau na pomaika‘i ia ‘oe a me ke akua ho’omaika’i ‘oe! (May blessing always be with you and may God bless you!)

Today I am thinking about John the Baptizer and Repentance. Jesus’ relative – cousin perhaps – John the son of Zechariah and Elizabeth is one of the most unique personages in the Bible. He is often referred to as The Precursor in Biblical studies. I’d like to look a little at his background, and then go into the meaning of repentance. So, what about John?

We know he was about six month’s older than Jesus, and that Mary, at least, knew John’s parents, and that John’s parents knew Mary, her parents, and her husband and child. In the imaginative photo above the persons in the foreground are Jesus with his mother, Mary. He has injured his hand on a nail n the door being built by his father Joseph (on the right) and a hired-worker (on the left). The woman in the center is Mary’s mother Anne. She is trying to use something like pliers to remove the nail as Jesus kisses his mom to show he’s OK. To the right, and just walking past Joseph is John. He’s wearing what appears to be a loincloth made from an animal hide. Joseph is examining Jesus’ hand and John brings a bowl of water to wash it. The story reinforces the idea that perhaps the two families had some intermittent contact with each other. As the boys grew older, Jesus went on to learn from his foster-father Joseph, and John eventually moved out into the desert from which he reappeared around age 30 – not long before Jesus began his ministry.

John’s birth was miraculous in the fact that he was born to parents who had long before given up the idea of having children and resigned to living with the stigma of being childless. Zechariah was taking one of his twice-yearly turns at presenting incense behind the Second Veil in the Temple. While there he was surprised by an angel who foretold John’s birth. Zechariah expressed disbelief at the possibility of such an event and was therefore condemned to be speechless until the naming of his son Yoḥanan, a name which many scholars identify as meaning to quicken or to make alive. This applies both to the miracle of his birth to his aged parents as well as to his role in the earliest moments of Jesus’ ministry.

Did you know that John, Mary, Zechariah, and other persons in this episode of Jesus life (including Jesus) are all mentioned in the Qu’ran? John and his father are viewed as Islamic prophets. In the church of Christ of Latter Day Saints, John is credited with appearing along the Susquehanna River near Harmony River Township in Pennsylvania. Festivals celebrating John’s birth go back centuries and appear in many rites in the Abrahamic religions. In the Eastern Orthodox churches, there are half-a-dozen separate Feast Days celebrating events in John’s life from his conception to his beheading. His is referred to as The Forerunner in that Rite.

John is credited by some mystics as a soul who never lied, and perhaps was in a constant state of grace. This derives from the passage where Mary and Elizabeth meet (the Visitation), and the child in Elizabeth’s womb lept for Joy as Elizabeth (and the child) were filled with the Holy Spirit.

There are many other fascinating facts, legends, and conjectures about John the Baptizer. Please spend some time looking into his life and is role in history. He taught the Baptism of Repentance, and Jesus also preached repentance. We’ve talked about Repentance several times before. There’s a link you can use to go back and check out other posts dealing with repentance.

The word used by John and Jesus for repentance is μετάνοια, – metanoia. It is a change of heart, a change of mind,  or a change of direction as in a one-eighty turn. A closely-related word is μετανοέω – metanoéō. Both come from the same root meanings meta – above, beyond, higher; and noein to think from nuos – mind. So, metanoia is to move beyond where are hearts and minds are to a new paradigm, a new way of thinking and feeling and seeing everything in life.

Repentance is something we all need. We know we need it when we feel guilty. The Bible tells us to confess our faults to one another as part of offering our prayers – and our worship – in faith. Guilt and Repentance are inextricably linked. There is no need to repent if there is no sense of guilt; but that presumes we have a sense of guilt. These days it often seems that the only thing we feel guilty about is feeling guilty. We feel badly when we are guilty and frequently deny having done anything wrong so we will not have a sense of guilt or look guilty to others. When we do something that is clearly wrong, we explain it, we excuse it, but we do not seek expiation. We expect that we can keep our misdeeds secret from others – including God – but at the same time we know that God knows what we did and certainly we know what we have done, so if two people already know about it, we surely don’t want others to know. So, we lie about it, we cover it up, we pretend it’s only human nature, only the growing-up process, only experimentation, only a bad habit we sort-of-eventually-hopefully will replace with a good habit. HA! And all the while we just keep sinning away as if whistling in the graveyard really worked.

So when we are talking about repentance and guilt, we can’t really get there without talking about sin. What is sin? “Well, I don’t know what it is per se, you know; but I know it when I see it.” “And you know it when you do it you hypocrite!” We self-righteously condemn sinners, including ourselves, when we say we don’t know if such-and-such is a sin. Of course we know it’s a sin! How? We feel guilty! What, then, does SIN mean? What Biblical words can we use to identify it? In the Old Testament is  – חטאה chatta’ah {khat-taw-aw’}. In the New Testament it is ἁμαρτία hamartia {ham-ar-tee’-ah}. In both cases the word means to get off the path, to lose the way, to wander off the right path. Another word used is ἔνοχος enochos {en’-okh-os}, under penalty, worthy of punishment, guilty.
SIN is what we do wrong that we cannot completely deny or excuse because it offends the most basic instincts of goodness in us. John and Jesus said we must repent, turn around, have a metanoia. How in the WORLD do we do that?  They, and God, and all the prophets, and both the Old Law and the New Law, the Old Covenant and the New Covenant have only one word to answer that question:

LOVE

And so, once again, we are brought back to our Identity Formula seen previously:

LIGHT ≡ GOD ≡ LOVE ≡ TRUTH ≡ WAY ≡ LIFE

We may believe we can lie to our hearts and minds about our sins, but we also know we cannot lie to God about them. And HE will know that we repent, how we repent, why we repent, what we repent, and he will also know when our repentance fails. Even THEN, he is still ready – in fact delighted – to forgive us. Repentance has no usage limit unless it is insincere. Insincere repentance has a ZERO usage limit; it’s not good for anything or any one. Sincere repentance is not all that difficult – especially when you do it frequently – like every time you realize that your last repentance didn’t take hold.

Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever — at your service, Beloved.

chick

Aloha Friday Message – June 15, 2012 – Letting the cat out of the bag

June 15, 2012

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Read it online here.

2 Corinthians 5:6-9

We are always courageous, although we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord – we walk by faith, not by sight. Yet we are courageous, and we would rather leave the body and go home to the Lord. Therefore, we aspire to please him, whether we are at home or away.

 NRSV: So we are always confident; even though we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord — for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we do have confidence, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.  

 We have four cats – Lady Miriam is the alpha cat and goes by the name Mimi. She has appointed herself to be The People Watcher. Hercules is the tall, slender, regally handsome pussycat. Incredibly strong yet completely gentle and quietly cowardly; he nearly falls apart every month when it’s his turn for grooming. Zoë is our Portuguese Princess Cat, small, delicate, spoiled, but also smart and very ladylike. Frankie is … strange. He is fat, sleek, dense as a winter London fog, and loves to wrestle. It is the wrestling that makes the other three cats clean his clock several times a week. We have four cats because we adopted four kittens. As kittens they were loads of fun, but then – like children – they grew up and weren’t so much fun anymore. I want to tell you a story about Frankie and Zoë when they were kittens.

You know kittens love to explore everything, sniff everything, poke everything – especially if it’s new. And if it is something you can hide in it is especially attractive. If you can sit inside a box, you have your own little world reserved just for you. One afternoon, Zoë had found just such a treasure. It was one of those shopping bags with the stiff paper handles attached at the top to both side of the bag. It was just her size, too; maybe a base 6 X 10 inches and about a foot high. It was sitting on a dining room chair.

Zoë has always been a very private “person.” She loves to open the kitchen cabinet doors and hide behind the pots and pans so she can get her beauty rest without being bothered by anyone – especially Frankie! To get into this shopping bag, she had to get up on the dining room table and adroitly jump into the bag (she jumps like a girl). She was quite pleased with herself, and settled down for a nap. Quite some time later, Frankie noticed the bag when it rustled a little as Zoë repositioned herself. Frankie watched for a while, but then his curiosity got the best of him. With surprising stealth, he went from the floor to an empty chair, and onto the table top. He crept over to the bag, and something made him to decide to drop in on Zoë who was sleeping soundly in her private bedroom.

In the space of about 1.5 seconds several events made for lasting memories for cats and humans alike. Frankie took aim at the floor of the bag. He landed on Zoë. Zoë was startled awake and in full fight-or-fight mode. She opted for flight and jumped to get out of the bag. That caused Frankie to fall over inside the bag. As Zoë jumped, her head went through one of the stiff paper handles, but got stuck on her shoulders. She landed on the floor certain the Devil had her in his grasp. When she landed, she took the bag with her, and the bag took Frankie.

Zoë headed down the hallway with Frankie still in the bag. There was a lot of bumping, crashing, cat-screeching, and the sound of claws trying to get traction on the varnished hardwood floor. About 2 seconds later, Frankie came tearing back through the hallway wide-eyed and terrified. He couldn’t find a good enough place to hide in the dining room – where the Devil had gotten him too – so he scooted his considerable bulk under one of the recliners in the living room. I hurried down the hall to see what had happened to Zoë. She was up against our bedroom door and still wearing the bag. She was trembling and panting and still in a panic. I took the bag off and then made matters worse for her by laughing at her. Crucita and I laugh about that story every time we think about it. Frankie is still afraid of bags. I don’t think he will ever understand how he got captured and rocketed down the hall by some invisible force after Zoë jumped out of the bag. Zoë is circumspect about bags. She will look at them, sniff them, but will not go inside them. She is comfortable napping in the open even if Frankie is napping nearby.

Looking at today’s scripture passage, I’d like to make a couple of connections with this story. First, Paul is talking about being at home in the body, about being earthbound by being alive in the flesh. We long for heaven and to be with Jesus, yet we have things to do here and most of us are not in any hurry to die although we don’t necessarily fear death. We know our true home will be in Heaven with The Trinity and the angels and saints called from this life to be with God. This is world is not our home. That brings to mind one of my favorite Gospel Choruses

This World Is Not My Home

This world is not my home I’m just a-passing through

my treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue.

The angels beckon me from Heaven’s open door

and I can’t feel at home in this world anymore

O Lord you know I have no friend like you!

If Heaven’s not my home then Lord what will I do?

The angels beckon me from Heaven’s open door,

and I can’t feel at home in this world anymore

Another connection with the kitten’s adventure is the word courageous. When I think about that word it speaks to me of being fearless, daring, in control and self-confident. In fact, most translations use the word confident rather than courageous. The word Paul used was θαῤῥοῦντες [tharrountes] . This is a special kind of confidence. It means to be of good cheer, to be filled with certainty in our hopes. It means we can say “beyond the shadow of a doubt” that what we believe and expect to happen most definitely will happen. We have absolute assurance in Christ’s power and promise. We know we have a home with him because he told us he was going ahead of us to make it ready for us (John 14:1-4). We can be so confident in this that we do not have to have physical proof that it is a reality; we do not have to “see it to believe it.” We walk toward this heavenly home in faith, believing it is true because we believe in Jesus’ promise to be for us the way, the truth, and the life. No matter what kinds of blessings, or terrors, or adventures ,or sorrows, or dreams, or any other experience we have in this life, everything about Heaven is so awe-inspiring and wonderful that we eagerly anticipate getting there sooner than later. Along the way we know we can enjoy the presence of Jesus in our lives as earthlings because we know he has conquered death, outwitted the Devil, and filled our hearts with Peace and Joy. Even if we have terrifying moments when it seems like the Devil himself has strapped himself to our back, we can be confident that we will find all the help and comfort we need by relying on his promises and living in his Word.

My cats have a different kind of assurance, and simpler kind of confidence. They have a home they share with us. They know there are cat-cookies in the kitchen drawer, fun things in their toy box, and fresh litter, fresh food, and fresh water always right where it was yesterday and will be tomorrow. You and I don’t have a life that simple; or do we? I know who Jesus is, and I believe in what he tells us. In 2 Timothy 1:12 Paul tells Timothy, “I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day.” I know with absolute, joyful, expectant confidence that there is a place for me, and for you, and for everyone who enters in through The Way given to us by God’s only begotten son. I know I am a son to God because God is a father to me. To quote my friend Brendan Case, “God is not like a Father to me. He IS my father!” For that reason, and a few thousand other equally-powerful reasons, I know I’m just a-passin’ through. The angels do beckon me from heaven’s open door. I am at home in the body, at home in the Kingdom, and soon enough I will be Home with my Father. I am eager to meet you there, Beloved! I don’t ever wish to lose track of you here, but won’t it be grand to meet again there?!?

Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever — at your service, Beloved.

Praise Report: Fr. Edwin Fontanilla is visiting in Kapa‘a again. It was  two years ago that we learned his home parish – St Joseph the Worker in Santiago Bauang La Union near the west coast of Luzon – had experienced a very damaging flood and the church needed some major rebuilding. This request has been on the Morning Intercessory Prayer list ever since: † Fr. Edwin Fontanilla & St. Joseph the Worker’s Parish – rebuild the church, – blessings, thanksgiving, and praise; success in his work. The damage has been repaired, and a new grotto was placed in the site where much damage had been done. Thank you for your prayers.

Please continue to pray for all the places and people experiencing those terrible fires, horrible weather, and scores of other “natural disasters.” Pray, too for everyone suffering because of terrorism, and war, and famine, and disease. Implore God’s merciful intervention in all the places where there is suffering. And pray for one another, Beloved!

New Prayer Request: GW – cancer treatment is really having serious side effects including low red blood cell count requiring transfusions. Pray for strength and courage, and for the side effects to ease up while the cancer gives up

Aloha Friday Message – June 8, 2012 – “I know him!”

June 8, 2012

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Mark 14:26 – Then, after singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

Last week I went on and on and on about the Trinity. The week before that I went on and on about the Holy Spirit and Pentecost. This week I’m going to go on talking about GOD, but this time perhaps with less information and a lighter tone.

This verse is the last verse of the Gospel for this Sunday which used to be called Corpus Christi but is now called The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. I’m not going to touch on the obvious topics there – the mystery of transubstantiation, the Real Presence of Christ, the preeminence of the Eucharist. I’m going to talk about that last verse in the reading from Mark. They sang a hymn.

That was the verse I’ve read a hundred times or more without seeing it. Suddenly toward the end of last week as I was getting ready for today’s message, I heard … “Jesus COULD SING!” I don’t know why but that never occurred to me before. I had certainly heard many times the completeness of Jesus’ humanity. We often speak of him as being fully human right down to the point of facing temptations like ours. Except of course he didn’t sin like we do.

I remember sophomoric discussions about whether he shouted and jumped around when he hit his thumb with a hammer. And if he hit his thumb with a hammer, did he just heal himself right away and go on working? Could he get a tummy-ache from eating too many little green apples, break his arm, or be allergic to pollens? Did he ever have a toothache? Did he go to the bathroom? Did he ever use his “super-powers” in a fight with a bully, or when someone’s pet goat died? These are all sophomoric – irreverent, irrelevant, immature, and flippant – because the answer is right there in the clause “fully human” and in the life and death we have recorded in scripture.

Jesus could sing, bleed, hurt, get sick, be tired, feel sad, tremble with fear, jump for joy, and love people just as we do. He would not be jealous, spiteful, irreverent, disloyal, nasty, or cruel. He could be the best of all of the good things we can be, but he could not be the very least of all the bad things we can be. I know of no scripture or tradition that ascribes these negative aspects of humanity to Jesus. Please look at the verb I used in that description – that is “would.” He was tempted like us in all things, “yet was without sin.” He had to choose not to be jealous, spiteful, irreverent, disloyal, nasty, or cruel; and all his choices were perfect. He still felt pain when he hit is thumb or stubbed his toe, or got a splinter, or did any of the myriad things that we do that result in physical injury. Think of the Cross. No, he didn’t dodge pain. I feel he’d do the same with sickness – just battle his way through a cold, or hold his breath for hiccups, or get the shivers on a cold and snowy winter night. And he could sing.

What is it that you might learn about Jesus that would help you identify more with him, feel closer with him? I remember a story I read when I was maybe a fifth-grader. It was about a little girl who had a wooden doll named Ruth. The Roman soldiers came galloping through her village scattering the villagers. As she ran to get out of the way she fell. Her mom snatched her out of the way just as the cohort reached the place where she fell. The doll slipped out of her arms. An iron-shod hoof stepped squarely on Ruth’s face. Moments later, when the dust had settled, the little girl went back and found the ruined doll. She began to cry.

Then a man’s had rested on her shoulder and the man’s voice said, “Here, let me have a look at that.” The girl handed the man Ruth. He sat down and said, “Hmmm, I think I might be able to fix her up a little. Would you like that?” Through dirty tears the girl nodded. The man borrowed a knife from his father who was walking with him. He started whittling around the hoof mark. Within a few minutes, the evidence of the damage was gone and Ruth had a new face with a beautiful little smile – a smile just like the little girl’s. He handed the little girl the doll, gave her a hug, and returned to the road to continue his journey to Jerusalem with his parents. About 5 years later the little girl saw him again. He was riding into the city on a baby donkey, and people were shouting “Hosanna!” When he passed by her, she held up Ruth for him to see. He winked at her and wiggled his fingers to say hello to Ruth.

Have you met Jesus in a way that made him really accessible to you? Have you heard his quiet whisper on the mountaintop? Did you see him playing with his dog in the park? Have you given him a plate of food at the shelter? Did you see the light radiating from the Communion cup? Did you hear his prophecy in a song on the radio? Did you hear him sing? Did he offer you loving correction and guidance in the heart of your friend? Did he bake you a batch of your favorite cookies? Did he show up at your door with a casserole when your dad died? Did he ride with you through the storm or away from the forest fire? Could you hear the nails piercing his wrists? Did someone see Jesus in you when you did these things for them? Then Jesus was present

We can’t keep putting Jesus “over there” in the church or “Up There” in Heaven or “back there” in time. He’s always “right here, right now.” Stop. Look. Listen. Feel. Touch. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord. He never ever goes away no matter how good things are and no matter how bad things are. He’s always revealing himself to you “every moment of every day.” And on those days when you feel like you have moved so far away from him that he can’t possibly know where you are, he speaks a promise to you:

“Fear Not, I am with you. Do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” Isaiah 41:10

Jesus had all the body parts any man has, plus all the feelings, all the susceptibilities, and all the good things in every human life. He just didn’t have sin. But: For you, for me, for us he became sin and died to take all our sins away. And that, perhaps, is what is the most important and most striking about the ways we can identify with him. I did the sin. He did the reparation. Do you remember the song “When He was On the Cross, I Was On His Mind” which was popular around 2007 and earlier? (Jesus can sing harmony, too.) That is another thing we have in common with Jesus. He knows our sins because he paid for every single one of them. Once for all because he loved us that well, well enough for him to lose everything so we could gain everything through his loss.

Now that is something to sing about.

Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever — at your service, Beloved.

Share-A-Prayer

Praise Report: Thanksgiving and praise for the wonderful progress made after knee surgery – a double for DB and a single for GC – but all three knees are doing so well! Praise God for the healing he provided out of his Goodness and in response to our prayers, and also praise God for the special skills of physicians, surgeons, nurses, and technicians who played their part in the healing.

Praise report: JC is home for summer break and looks and sounds wonderful. Whereas there are still some remaining pieces of the tumor that sidelined her, and still some powerful headaches, things are all-in-all much better!

Prayer request: JE is back in the hospital for yet another abdominal surgery – this time gallstones. I believe that’s upwards of four-dozen operations all sandwiched between constant pain and astounding faith. Please pray that JE recovers quickly from this particular surgery and can get back to healing the original problem – a botched abdominal hernia repair many years ago.

Please remember

TW now in hospice,

TH SC TO CC and many more still hoping for financially stable and suitable work

FO, TM, MJ, CS, CW, GW, and again many others dealing with cancer. Ask God for strength enough to make it to complete remission

All the families torn apart by addiction, violence, poverty, and illness

Pray for your pastors and everyone who plays a leadership role in your life, including our elected and appointed officials at all levels of government. Pray they will govern with morality, compassion, integrity, wisdom, and justice.

Look for ways to identify with Jesus this week. He’s been waiting for you to notice him.

Aloha Friday Message – June 1, 2012 Trinity Sunday and Sweeps

June 1, 2012

Thank you for helping us test our blog site! If you had any problems reaching this post please let me know at [email protected]. And now our weekly message.

1222AFC060112 Trinity Sunday

Read it online here.

Deuteronomy 4:39 – This is why you must now know, and fix in your heart, that the LORD is God in the heavens above and on earth below, and that there is no other.

Isaiah 43:10-13

You are my witnesses – oracle of the LORD – my servant whom I have chosen

To know and believe in me and understand that I am He.

Before me no god was formed, and after me there shall be none.

I, I AM the LORD; there is no savior but me.

It is I who declared, who saved, who announced, not some strange god among you;

You are my witnesses – oracle of the LORD.

I am God, yes, from eternity I am He;

There is none who can deliver from my hand:

I act and who can cancel it?

Matthew 28:17 – And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted.

Aloha nui loa, Hiwahiwa! This Sunday is Trinity Sunday, a day when we turn our attention to the remarkable mystery of God in Three Persons as One Being. Lots of grand analogies have been written – I even took a shot at it – but today I want to talk about not believing in the Trinity – or in God, or Christ, or the Holy Spirit. I want to think about doubting that any or all of this whole Trinity-thing might be true. My own personal experience tells me that what I have held as truth in faith and Faith in Truth must be right. Empirical (observed, pragmatic, realistic, firsthand, and verifiably objective) proof may be hard to come by, some say, but there are enough of us who hang onto this mystery that the holders-on themselves could be experiential proof. Why should anyone believe in God just because God says he is believable?

There’s a ‘kind of interesting’ website that goes through eight steps to prove that God exists, and the concept that drives the logic in their proof is that there are certain universal things most of the world accepts as unconditionally true: Logic, math, morality, physics, and stuff like that. I suppose that might be useful for guiding atheists or antitheists to some sort of acceptance of the Truth of God, but really now, what do you and I think? Did you ever wonder if your prayer is just you talking to the inside of your head? Have you ever felt that your worship just goes out into the middle of some vast void and fizzles out? If it’s not you that thinks those things, do you know or have you known someone who thinks like that?

Here’s the thing. If you, as a human being, take on any part of the “Is God Real” question, you ultimately end up buying into the entirety of the Mystery of Faith. We can see, for instance, the power of faith in a person who utterly depends on God for every sustaining factor in his/her life – from getting groceries and paying the rent to healing the deaf neighbor’s child. We look at someone like this and say maybe one of two things (maybe there’s more; I cannot say). We say, “What a remarkable person of Faith, so in touch with the Will and Spirit of God. What a blessing to have them with us!” Or we might say, “What a fraud. Those ‘charismatic leaders’ who claim to be prophets and healers are not only fakes, they’re dangerous!”

Beloved, the problem with these things is that they are based on the actions, the perceptions, and the arguments of other people. There could be no recognizable form of logic if it was not a widely-held belief that it exists. Math is always there, always was, even before it is discovered, recognized or learned; the same hold true for music. And for innumerable fields of science, and philosophies related to morality (try tracking down and understanding a “deontological ontology”), and lots of other ways of putting God in a box where we can study and understand him.

Someone has written previously that a man seeks to know what is in the mind of God and a woman seeks to know what is in the heart of God. There seems to be no end to the discussions about what may be found in each part of God’s existence. Dearly Beloved, we are made of parts. God is not. God’s mind is his heart, and his heart is his hand. His hand is his voice, and his voice is his eye. God is integral. God is ONE. God is Holy. God is immortal, omnipotent, omniscient, and a complex list of additional superlatives. IF he isn’t, what’s the point of being God? And how could God be known if he was not all those things?

I accept the teaching in John 14:6, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” I sort of get the argument that, before Jesus came, the express-lane to heaven so vigorously espoused by many religious thinkers and writers was a bit more difficult to find, to explain, or to justify. And I also sort of get the explanation that no matter what religion you practice, any and all good comes that into your life or is done by yourself is only there because of Jesus – as it comes through him to us and goes from us through him to God. That’s how we end up with so many visions of what Heaven will be like. Are they all wrong? Is only one right? Are the all right? None of that seems to make any sense.

Here’s what my heart and mind tell me: Whether you’re talking about Intelligent Design and Irreducible Complexity or Random Systematic Evolution and Natural Selection or “In the Beginning, God…” it all comes down to “How do I know God exists?” I personally see and feel the evidence of His existence which he has placed before me. I recall a time at Huntingdon College during my Junior Year when for the first time I saw a radiolarian through a microscope. The one I saw looked a lot like this one:

One type of radiolarium

One type of radiolarium

 

This is a living microscopic protozoan. Well, it was alive once. The one I saw was fixed and stained on a microscope slide. There were others like it on the same slide, and other radiolarians that were quite different. There are so many different kinds of these things that one wonders how they were ever given names. And there are people who devote their lives to finding, studying, and classifying these amazing microscopic critters that end up as part of the plankton soup that runs the oceans. When I saw it, I recall saying, “I don’t see how anyone could look at this and not believe in God.” Now someone else can look at the same critter and say, “I don’t see how anyone can look at this and not believe in Intelligent Design.” Or even, “I don’t see how anyone can look at this and not believe in the power of evolution.” What’s the common factor in all of those statements of belief? Give yourself a few seconds here to think up an answer.

<<<<<<PAUSE>>>>>>

Yes, you are correct. None of those statements say, “I don’t see how anyone can look at this and not realize it created itself.” Did it evolve? Some think so. Did the “id” of Creation make it? Perhaps. Did God do that? Probably; but, I only say probably because it is only one radiolarian. When I know there are bazillions of them just within a mile of the coasts of Kauai, and then think about how many are in the entire width, breadth, and depths of all the saltwater oceans of the world and have been there since the time oceans first existed, I see something bigger and better than Intelligent Design, or Evolution; I see Creation, and that is the beginning of the dawning light. Remember I said, “If you, as a human being, take on any part of the ‘Is God Real’ question, you ultimately end up buying into the entirety of the Mystery of Faith” earlier in this post? That’s one first-part and there are about as many ways to find a first-part idea as there are radiolarians in the sea. The evidence for God and his Creation are everywhere. From the inside of my body, to the entirety of the ocean to the immensity of the universe. The evidence is there. God is not the Universe (nor is it the other way around). God is in the Universe and in everything that is in the Universe (including you and me), but he is separate from everything in and of the Universe.

Paul was explaining to the church in Rome (and of course, us as well) how “the righteous shall live by faith.” In that explanation he also shows us something of how we can not only perceive God’s righteousness but also we are shown that he is there and he is God: Romans 1:18-21 – The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.

So it begins: Creation happened. There is a creator. The creator is known because he made himself known in, to, and through his creation. As we know him, he has revealed himself to us in creation, and in scripture. Those revelations are documentable objectively-perceived realities (I can hold, read, and understand a Bible). God says in those revelations that he is One God as three persons. There is, in our scripture, “Irreducible Complexity” combined withSpecified Complexity that overwhelmingly confirms that God is God-in-Three-Persons. The more you look at it, the clearer it gets.

But you have to look at it. Unless you blindly accept anything about everything, you have to look at the evidence. When I do that, I see God, I hear God, I get glimpses of his heart and mind, and all of that is so overwhelming that I end up just praising God by saying “God. God. God. God. God. God!” I know that my Redeemer lives. And this Sunday when I say with the Whole Church, “I believe in one God,” I will know how and why I believe. In fact every creature – good or not – in all of creation will be saying that God is. Yes, HE is. Here’s what James said about it: (James 2:19 NLT) You say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God. Good for you! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror. I do not need to tremble in terror in the presence of God. I do tremble with Joy, and Awe, and Reverence, and … certainty that there is a Presence in whose presence I can and do tremble, but I do not doubt!

Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever — at your service, Beloved.

 

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