this clutter of soup pots and books

My nightstand—it’s a wishlist and a reproach. There are so many things to do; but, usually it feels like
there’s no time to do anything well. If my day was a song, I often feel like it would be uber-nerd music,
where one musician after another goes off on a tangent until you've lost the through-line altogether.

I know many others share this deep longing to “...sanctify time, to consecrate the phases of our
day” (The Everyday Catholic’s Guide to the Liturgy of the Hours). In The Quotidian Mysteries: Laundry,
Liturgy and “Women’s Work,” Kathleen Norris likens housekeeping to a monk’s life, where repetition is
considered a great blessing and an opportunity for sanctification. (so, motherhood = jackpot) The thing is, I not only have the blessed monotony of daily chores, I also have the chief Makers of Messes to consider. Sure, I can montessori-share tasks with my children. But can our family hunger for God together? Can we sanctify our day?

Tree

It is foolish

to let a young redwood 

grow next to a house.

Even in this 

one lifetime,

you will have to choose.

That great calm being,

this clutter of soup pots and books—

Already the first branch-tips brush at the window. 

Softly, calmly, immensity taps at your life.

Jane Hirshfield

I love that the Catholic Church thinks of the Liturgy of the Hours as Part 2 of the official, public worship of the Church. That it’s a “we” not an “I” act. Parenthood can make our world shrink and I think that this can make it big again, for us and for our children.

Still it feels overwhelming. I need to know how other families are doing it, especially ad-lib-hot-mess-moms like me. I started reading Micha Boyett’s book, Found. Micha is a San Francisco mom who was influenced by  Kathleen Norris. She used to write a blog called “Mama: Monk” but now you can find her at michaboyett.com. This is from her book, Found:

“...Saint Benedict listed eight times, or ‘hours,’ for prayer in his rule...

When the bell chimes the hour for prayer, a monk heeds the call and

returns to God’s presence... I can make my life like theirs, I realize. I

think about my day at home with August, our liturgy of sorts: breakfast,

play, snack, play, lunch, nap, dinner, sleep. What if every shift in our

schedule was a call to prayer, a bell chiming my return to God?” (p.19)

On her blog, thewinedarksea.com, Melanie Bettinelli talks about how she does the divine office with her family. She reads morning prayer out loud, explaining the meaning of the psalms, hymns and antiphon to any child who happens to be listening and in the mood to ask questions. She says that when she does this, it is the best experience of lectio divina she ever has.

There are many forms of the Liturgy of the Hours—or Divine Office, Book of Common Prayer, Lutheran Book of Worship, etc. And, thanks to technology, we have greater access than ever. Just this morning I downloaded a great app called “Divine Office,” created by Surgeworks, Inc. I’m just beginning this practice, so I’m no expert. But I do know, as in Hirshfield’s poem, that immensity is tapping at my life and at the lives of my husband and children. I long for this reality to set the rhythm of my days. The Liturgy of the Hours has been a part of the Church’s worship since its beginning. So this will be my beginning each day, too. I
can pray with others, many others, with the language used to usher in each Hour, "God, come to my assistance. Lord, make haste to help me.”

This is My Father's World

Reflection on Genesis 20

Ever find yourself making the same mistake twice? Abraham finds himself in another situation where a powerful man is attracted to his wife, Sarai. Because of fear (and lack of faith) Abraham pretends that Sarai is his sister, not his wife. It seems the dubious strategy relies on the hope that if the powerful ruler doesn't think Abraham is married to Sarai, they won't kill him. This may seem stupid. But I remember doing some stupid things because I was afraid

Although this story is a repetition of the one in Genesis 12, the point in this story is that Abraham believed the worst about the world he lived in. He didn't think that God's power was at work amongst the pagans.

Abraham said, “I did it because I thought, ‘There is no fear of God at all in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.’ (Genesis 20:11)

But as the story goes, God was at work, even in the dream-life of Abimelech. Abimelech proves himself to have more integrity than Abraham. The author of Genesis is teaching us all that God is work beyond the boundaries we like to set up. We can live and move in the world, hopeful that God is at work, even in places that don't name His name.

This last week has been pretty awful, as far as global events go. There is tragedy and violence all over, and it can be tempting to despair, and live in fear. However, we can take great hope in the fact that 'This is My Father's World'.

Two Kings

Reflection on Genesis 14:17-24
by Josh McPaul

OK - this one is confusing, but stick with it. There is some good stuff here. Man, the Bible has got some good stuff.

After Abraham won the battle and freed his nephew Lot, he met two strange men. One was Melchizedek, the king of Salem (or the king of Peace). The other was the king of Sodom (a renowned city of wickedness). Both come out to celebrate Abraham's victory. Their way of celebrating Abraham's could not be more different. Both kings claim to bless Abraham, and both kings claim a kind of allegiance.

The king of Sodom offers Abraham a share in the booty of his raid. Sodom wants Abraham to share in the wealth as a fee for liberating the city. But Abraham is wary. He doesn't trust Sodom's intentions. He doesn't want people to suspect that he is fighting for money as a mercenary. In so doing, he would, in the eyes of others, become a servant of Sodom - a worker under hire. The glory would go to Sodom. What seems like a fair payment is actually enslaving Abraham's character and reputation.

The king of Salem, named Melchizedek seems to offer a worse deal. He 'merely' blesses Abraham. And then Abraham offers him ten percent of his wealth. Abraham goes away from Melchizedek poorer than before, after he had served Melchizedek! Yet Abraham finds a kindred spirit in a great king who will enrich Abraham's standing. What seems like a raw deal is actually an exaltation of Abraham. It is the king of peace who gives Abraham the true gift. 

When we serve God, it seems like we might get ripped off. We serve God, not for pay, but out of honor and allegiance. God owes us nothing. But, like Melchizedek, he offers a blessing that ennobles and elevates us. And we find ourselves in relationship with the true king. When we serve the world, even the payments we receive make us more enslaved to the world.

For a couple of thousand years, this story was just a mystery; until the author of Hebrews noted that Melchizedek, the king of peace, the priestly king, the one who deserves honor and praise, the one alone who can truly bless is a lot like another king of peace. (See Hebrews 7.)

May we serve this king, in whose service we are made free, and in whose debt we are made rich.

Foolishness and Redemption on the Small Scale

Reflection on Genesis 14:1-16
by Josh McPaul

Right now I am a little obsessed with a TV show called Srugim. It's an Israeli 'sitcom' from 2004. It follows a group of four, conservative Jews and their love lives. It could not be a smaller story, but I love it. The lives of these people are real and fraught and entangled with God. It's not the size of the story that matters... the shape of the story is what moves me.

Genesis 14:1-16 is one of those stories I am tempted to skip over. It's like reading an outdated newspaper in a little village in a country far away. The details are so small, so sordid and so disconnected from my life. Yet, these petty bandits posturing as kings and this pitiful hooliganism posturing as war just goes to show how tiny and vulnerable God's people were at this time. Chedorlaomer and his buddies were the big stuff in Abraham's day and their battles threatened to overwhelm the embryonic people of God.

God knows your enemies too. I know, I know... you don't have real enemies. But I know you have obstacles and burdens that would seem ridiculous to a distant descendent, but feel so real and powerful now. I do too. Like Abraham, all of our stories are small.

But what is the shape of this story? We see foolish Lot caught up in the mess of his day. And Abraham who has just seen his nephew make a foolish decision, saddles up with his men to go rescue Lot. Lot doesn't deserve it. Lot got himself in this trouble. Abraham goes to save him because Lot is family.

Our story has the same shape. We have all gotten ourselves into messes we can't get out off. Yet Abraham's descendent, in a small part of the world, on a pitiful tree, came to rescue us, not because we deserved. But because he loved us.

How Much Land Does One Man Need?

A reflection on Genesis 13 
by Josh McPaul

So... money. Money and family. When the two get mixed, it gets complicated real quick. The pressures of affection and greed push heavily on one another. God knows these pressures and the Bible speaks of them.

Over the next few weeks, while we preach through Jacob's story, we will be reading through Genesis and the tumultuous family story of God's first family. I love this story because it doesn't exist on a spiritual plane, but on the gritty, greedy, sweaty, swearing, tender and trying plane of human existence.

And in today's story we find Abraham and his nephew, trying to negotiate money and family. Abraham and his nephew Lot have grown wealthy over time. But now their wealth (in cattle) was starting to compete, and what had once been a mutually beneficial cooperation had now become competition. Wealth, a blessing from God, had become a new challenge, threatening to tear them up.

Back in the 1800s, when John Wesley started his 'Methodism' movement, there was a surprising development. Wesley preached discipline and frugality and pretty soon, those who followed him, not only became spiritually rich but financially wealthy. This posed a problem. The spiritual life of Methodists was defined by frugality - wealth seemed to provide a more difficult spiritual challenge.

Whether you are wealthy or not, there is a spiritual challenge and spiritual wisdom needed. We need God's wisdom at every point. Whatever questions you have about your money, in wealth and poverty, bring them to God.

Abraham makes a good choice. Instead of leveraging his position in order to get more money, he uses his position to give up power. The blessings of wealth do not automatically mean that he must get more. He freely makes the financially unwise choice and so becomes the master of his own wealth. Lot on the other hand chooses the financially wise choice, but it leads him down a path of accumulation which will destroy his family eventually.

Leo Tolstoy wrote a famous story called 'How Much Land Does One Man Need?' Pahom the peasant thinks that if only he had more land he could laugh in the face of the Devil. Money promises power. One day, he gets a strange offer. He can buy land for a small fixed price, and he can buy as much as he is able to walk around in a single day. But if he can't make a whole loop, he will lose his money. So he walks as far as he can, but as the sun sets he realizes he is too far out, and won't be able to make it back. He runs in a panic back to the start, and finally makes it just before the sun sets. He has made the loop, but in exhaustion he collapses, dead. He is buried in a 6ft. plot of earth - the amount of land every man needs eventually.

Wealth is a gift. But it complicates things, and it never solves things. Let us all pray for wisdom.

Hey, Check Out My Ebenezer!

A Reflection on John 3:5-15

by Aeryn Johnson

Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life."

We had been together eighteen months before my first boyfriend introduced me to his dad, a crackpot preacher who lived out near Bakersfield.   At this first and only meeting, his dad gave me his memoir to read in looseleaf pages.  It was typed in Courier and titled "The Wind Blows Where It Wills."  

I hadn't yet read much of the Bible, so this phrase seemed unfamiliar to me, as well as grammatically unlikely. The memoir's credibility was not furthered by the title of the opening chapter, "Here I Raise My Ebenezer."  Was this guy kidding? I didn't know what an ebenezer might be, but this declaration was altogether too vigorous for the circumstances, and I fervently wished its author would put his ebenezer away.

I never saw the man again.  The spirit is funny, though: the wind blows where it wills, and these days, I tend to wave my own ebenezer around with joyous abandon. (In case you're wondering, an ebenezer refers to the stone Samuel raises to remind everyone that God has helped them so far.) 

Like Nicodemus, I came slinking back around after everyone else had gone home to see if maybe I could catch Jesus alone.  He pretended he was just passing by on his way to do some cool rabbi thing, when really his heart was in his throat hoping he'd run into Jesus, and he could it was an accident, and then he could find out: Are you God?

Also, How do I get in?

Jesus doesn't give Nicodemus the answer he's looking for (do this, then this, then this other thing will happen, and then -- you're in!).  He tells Nicodemus: This isn't something you can control, buddy.

And then he takes pity on him and says, Look.  When you're snake-bit, you look up at that bronze snake, and be healed.  When you're life-bit, sin-bit, look at my body raised up, and be healed.  Look at this testimony, raised up in the desert.  

Recently a Pentecostal friend told me I didn't have the holy spirit because I didn't speak in tongues.  At first, I wondered if I really had missed something.  Then I remembered the snake on the stick, the corpse on the tree, and I remembered that what was done for me, was done without any prerequisites -- without requirements.  So I kept my eyes hard on that and kept on looking.  

I can hardly blame my friend for wanting the spirit to adhere to some kind of guideline, some kind of definition.  Each of us would like this whole thing to be a little tidier, to make a little more sense.

But thanks be to God that the spirit isn't like that.  Thanks be to God that it blows where it wills.  

My buddy Nicodemus and I will both raise an ebenezer to that.

Tomorrow's reading: 1 Corinthians 2:1-13

Waiting (What Feels Like) Forever

A Reflection on Romans 8:18-30

By Jana Melpolder

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

It’s hard to wait - to be patient and to be still. It’s frustrating when we are denied the things we want when we want them. It’s easy to get caught up in what we don’t have, and all too often we get caught up in comparing our lives to other people. 

But for the Christian, waiting is a significant part of what it means to follow Christ.

The worries and anxieties of this life will be nothing when compared to what God offers us as members of His family. In Romans Chapter 8 Paul describes this comparison by saying, “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us.” 

There will be moments and times in our lives where we are groaning and aching with what is currently going on with our jobs, our relationships, and more. We will be impatient and be anxious about what we don’t have. We need to be mindful of those times and remember that the difficulties in this life, although they are important, are nothing when compared to God’s bountiful blessings in store for us.

But this may be easier said than done. How are Christians supposed to cope with this tall order of waiting? Lucky for us, God takes care of that, too. The answer is prayer.

Paul continues in Romans Chapter 8, saying, “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit”.

Look to God to help you handle to stress of everyday problems that you face. God will give you what you need when you need it, and through all the sufferings, He will be there to guide you in prayer towards peace and resilience. God is a Father of peace, and it is His peace that we will enjoy into eternity.

Tomorrow’s reading: Acts 4:23-31