CONNECTIONS

“God doesn’t play dice.” — Albert Einstein

During this New Year many of us will reflect on how we can become a better person.  We will think on eating less or perhaps exercising more.  We will strive to be a better individual. I would like us to think on another way to focus our efforts: look at the people in your life you have become disconnected from and try to reconnect.  Much of the success of Facebook is due to using the internet to connect with people and interests that are a part of our lives.  If God used Facebook we would constantly be getting “friend” requests!  The focus of God has always been to get us to live our lives connected with all of creation - connected to family and friends, connected to our church and the diocese, connected to the world and those suffering in it.  In order to live a purposeful life one must be connected to the whole of creation!  That is when we experience the peace, love and joy that Jesus and later Paul describes.

We all start out connected, quite literally, to our mother; we then spend our whole lives trying to find separation and our “selves.”  We strive to find our meaning and purpose in life.  What makes me different and special?  What are my gifts and talents?  American culture emphasizes individuality above all else.  The American Dream is uniquely geared to the individual being the best they can be.  Sometimes, living our dreams comes at the expense of something or someone else.  However, it’s ironic that the journey of finding our “selves” inevitably leads to reconnecting with God and those people with whom we previously shared our lives.  In finding the self, we find God and others, because we were created with the intention of being individual parts of a greater whole.  Even God is connected with other aspects of being - God as the Trinity! 

Many of us spend our whole lives trying to be self-sufficient and secure, only to learn at some point that there is no such thing.  It’s an illusion.  Paul’s description of the “Body of Christ” (I Cor. 12) is so appropriate because from it we can glimpse the larger picture and understand just how we are all connected.

I heard recently that as many as 67% of college grads are now moving back in with their parents.  The tone of the report was very negative, but then I began to wonder if this was really such a bad thing.  A century ago, most people and their own families lived in community with their parents - either in the same house or very close by.  At the time of Jesus, the entire family lived in the same attached housing complex.  Even today, all around the world, families live with families and are connected with their communities; Americans are the exception.

When we see the tragedies of violence in our country, notice how the “broken” person is always “dis-connected” in some flawed way.  God created us to be connected.  When referencing the Gospels it becomes readily apparent that Jesus really didn’t care much about social norms, governments, laws, or who was right or wrong.  What he cared most about were relationships.  He reconnected people to God and to each other; his whole ministry can be summed up in that endeavor.  When the rabbis of his day tried to corner him by asking which of the 600 laws in the Torah was the most important, Jesus simply stated to love God and love one another; this was the most important thing above all else in the eyes of God.  He then added that on these fundamental laws (of the Creator) hang ALL the laws and ALL the prophets! 

Connections… Everything in the universe, the whole of God’s creation is connected.   The more I experience this life the more this truth becomes apparent.  Our strength lies in being connected with each other.  My hope is that we may all come to know this truth in our lifetimes.  God Bless You All and Have a Peaceful, Loving and Joyful New Year!

Your faithful servant,

Carmen  

Joy to the World!

Christmas is not the Distractions

In Dr. Seuss' beloved Christmas Tale - The Grinch exclaims, "Oh the Noise, Noise, Noise...the one thing I simply can't stand is all the noise"!  Sometimes the Holidays can feel just like that.  It's easy to be overwhelmed by all the "noise" surrounding the Christmas season and the sensory overload that goes with it - Pictures with Santa, decorations, presents to buy, meals to plan, gatherings to attend.  For some this can be overwhelming to say the least.

As we see throughout the Bible God is not in the noise.  When God comes to the prophet Elijah he comes as a whisper in the silence.  Although Elijah first looks for him in the earthquake and fire - God is not there!  It's easy to look for God in these places because the loudest noises grab our immediate attention...it's human nature (survival mechanism) to tend to the fires first...and when there are many fires  to put out there is certainly no time to see or hear God in our busy lives.  This is life as we know it - the commercial version of Christmas just seems to magnify this fact.

I attended a talk given by Rob Bell where he mentioned that to truly see God one must slow way down.  There are burning bushes all around us but most of us are moving way too fast to see them.  God is in our lives and God is speaking to us.  So what are we to do about this dilemma?  God knows we live in the "real" world and for many of us we are firefighting day-to-day.  Our lives are filled with noise!  Even during the creation of the world God stops and rests... a way to gain perspective, a chance to step back from it all and see that it is indeed all good! 

That's why one of the greatest gifts God has bestowed to us is the gift of Sabbath...a day of rest.  A day to stop the routines; and for some of us a day to stop the madness so we can see and hear God all around us.  Sabbath is not designed for God - it's for us.  A chance to reboot and become grounded once again in what's most important in our lives: our relationships (with God and those closest to us).

There's a song "I Need A Silent Night" by Amy Grant that goes like this

I've made the same mistake before
Too many malls, too many stores
December traffic, Christmas rush
It breaks me till I push and shove

Children are crying while mothers are trying
To photograph Santa and sleigh
The shopping and buying and standing forever in line
What can I say?

I need a silent night, a holy night
To hear an angel voice through the chaos and the noise
I need a midnight clear, a little peace right here
To end this crazy day with a silent night

December comes then disappears
Faster and faster every year
Did my own mother keep this pace
Or was the world a different place?

Where people stayed home wishing for snow
Watching three channels on their TV
Look at us now rushing around
Trying to buy Christmas peace

I need a silent night...

              May you come to find God in the silence and see God in all the burning bushes that are right there besides you.  This Advent season challenge yourself to slow down and prepare to receive the gift of Christ in your life.  Open the gift of Sabbath for you and your family this Christmas Season - for it brings true peace in you and true peace on earth as we prepare to receive God’s greatest gift to us – God’s love coming into the world in the form of Jesus.

Merry Christmas & Shalom!

your faithful servant,

carmen 

Christmas – The gift is in the giving!

Much of the Holidays are surrounded with the giving and receiving of gifts.  Giving and Receiving are ingrained into the very way of our existence.  You can’t just breathe in for instance.  You can’t just receive without giving.  When I was in Israel the locals would say that the Dead Sea is “dead” because it only receives from the rivers around it.  It gives nothing back!  Jesus sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury.  Many rich people put in large sums.  A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins.  Then he called his disciples and said to them, “truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all the others.  For all of them have given from their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had.”  Jesus had no interest in judging the people, only in observing this women’s heart.  She was giving from a certain mindset, not just a way of thinking but more importantly a way of being!  She gave from a different reality - that of the kingdom of God.

The Biblical way of generosity goes something like this:  EVERYTHING we have is a gift; even the means to earn a living is a gift!  Every breath we take and every talent we have are all gifts from the grace of God.  So giving is the natural act of sharing these gifts with our community in the kingdom of God.  Jesus actually talks more on the subject of possessions vs. anything else – WHY; because Jesus knows our hearts.  He knows we often serve our “stuff”.  He wants us to put God first in our lives and to live from that reality.  Paul tells us that it is better to give than to receive.  In the Greco - Roman culture giving was seen in a reciprocal way.  One gives with the expectation of later receiving something in return – an if/then mindset!  Our culture operates in much the same way.  At Christmas many of us give a gift expecting one in return.  Some of us even look at God as a kind of vending machine: we put in our time, money or prayers and we want something from God in return.

In order to be a giving person we must first live into that reality.  It is in the very act of giving that we become generous - not in thinking about it or by looking at our finances.  Our Rituals: like stewardship, advent, Christmas…and every Sunday are opportunities for us to enter into a practice which shapes our hearts and conversely shapes our reality!  When our hearts reveal that everything we have is a gift, then giving becomes natural.  It’s not ours to hold but ours to share.  This is how we connect with one another - this is how we connect with God!  Generosity comes from the heart - It is never about money!  Emerson said “Jewels and Rings are not gifts but apologies for gifts.  The only true gift is giving a portion of thyself!”  God wants the same thing.  God wants us, our hearts, even as He reaches out with all that God has in the person of Jesus.  God’s being lives into the reality that it is more blessed to give than to receive!

There is more than money involved in this story of Jesus and the woman in the Temple.  It is a principle of life, it’s the kingdom of God made manifest – it is the face of God’s Grace.  All I am is His.  God owns it all. There is nothing in my life that does not first belong to Him.  When we give to others in selfless acts and when we share communal love with one another we come to see that the kingdom of God is within reach - within us.  This is where God is - Emmanuel - God with us.

Jesus models this heart of giving by giving all of himself for us.  Each Sunday when we enter the church and we give of ourselves - to each other and to God.  We offer presents upon the altar.  We share in the sacrificial feast - given in love to a community of love.  When experienced this way, each Sunday too becomes the act of giving and receiving – as natural as breathing in and out.

Here we come to realize that God is, was, and will be with us always in the giving of oneself!  We remember each Sunday and we remember each Christmastime.  This peace...this stillness...this feeling of being at One with all of creation.  This is the real gift we give to our children and to one another.  Just as this is the gift that God gives to each one of us.  This is Christmas!  Right here is Emmanuel - Right here God is truly with us.

Merry Christmas!

Your faithful servant,

carmen

Christmastime is Love

Christmastime is that beautiful time of the year where many of our strongest memories reside.  As children, December is remembered as an almost magical time when our deepest desires have the potential to become reality.  As children everything seems larger than life...the world seems to stand still.  There is excitement in the air, there is peace, there is love.  As families and communities we re-create this experience for one another at Christmastime - Trees, Lights, Presents, Food, Family, A Baby - Hope!

Many of us prepare all month (if not sooner) for this Holiday.  As Christians we also prepare all month for this Holyday.  During Advent we prepare our hearts, minds and bodies for the coming of the Lord - We look for that day when God will be with us - Emmanuel!  The goal is that the Holiday and Holyday become entwined somewhere along the way.  It's easy for us to get so caught up in the preparations that we lose the real miracle of this Holy Day Season.

The decorations are there to distract us from our day to day existence - our routines, our jobs, our labels and the day to day stresses that seem to endlessly bombard us at times.  These are the things we believe our lives are about.  The decorations are there to snap us out of the hypnotic quality of the world.  The presents we share reminds us that it's not about us, but about giving and sharing what we have with others.  We focus on others by giving of our time, our resources and our selves - our love, God's love, poured out into the world.  The family feast shared becomes a sacred and communal act of love that is shared.  During this time we share our love with those we love and those who love us, and perhaps even with those outside our own families.

These elements combine to bring families and people together at a much deeper level than we see in our day-to-day way of life.   They also bring us in communion with God...through Christ being with us in Spirit.  When Christmas is experienced this way, it becomes magical and otherworldly - sacred and holy.  Being in communion with God and each other we receive a glimpse of heaven, the kingdom of God here and now!   Our children, without the filters of our daily burdens and routines, immediately grasp the "spirit" of this season and at once feel connected to their loved ones and to the unseen parent who is reflected in the joy of those around them.  Our children inherently connect to the Christmas Spirit (the Spirit of Christ) made manifest in the world at this time.

We come to realize that the overwhelming love of God is experienced when we see our lives as the real illusion.  When we give to others in selfless acts and when we share communal love with one another we come to see that the kingdom of God is within reach...within us.  This is where God is - Emmanuel - God with us...always!

Each Sunday when we enter the church - the decorations distract us from our daily routines.  We leave our earthly ties outside.  Here we give of ourselves - to each other and to God.  We offer presents upon the altar.  We share in the sacrificial feast given in love to a community of love.  When experienced this way, each Sunday too becomes holy and sacred.  This is when we see God in the mass, in our neighbors and in ourselves.

Here we come to realize that God is, was, and will be with us always - Emmanuel!  We remember each Sunday and we remember each Christmastime.  This is why people who spend Christmas alone sometimes feel disconnected and deeply troubled.  They see themselves as apart from this communal love that's all around them.  They fail to realize that God is with them too.  At Christmas we must reach out and reconnect with those who seem alone at this time. 

This peace...this stillness...this feeling of being at One in love with all of creation...this feeling of unconditional love and giving to one another - this shalom is the real gift we give to our children and to one another.  Just as this is the real gift God gives to each of his children.  This is Christmastime!  Right here is Emmanuel - Right here is God with us - his children.   Shalom!

your faithful servant,

carmen

 Job

Addressing Troubled Hearts

     Dear friends, my heart is troubled today.  As it should be!  I worry not for those who are troubled but for those who have become desensitized to the pain and suffering in this world - Those of us who no longer see or hear the cries of those in need.  Having a troubled heart and the tension that goes with it is good…it proves you are alive and connected with God and creation.  Systematic Racism, Immigration, Refugees and what your response is towards them…exclusion or inclusion.  Fear or love!

     I had an interesting conversation with a co-worker who was against taking refugees into this country.  Ironically her parents were refugees from Germany after World War II and were sponsored by another American family.  So we talked and what started as a conversation that we were on opposite sides of soon became one of mutual understanding.  She wasn’t opposed to “sponsoring” refugees she was opposed to the government taking them in.  Then it dawned on me that both sides of the argument were wrong and right!  The conservatives want no refugees and the liberals do…but here is the problem on both sides – both sides want the government to act.  That is a real problem because it distances us from the problem!  No government can legislate compassion…that happens in the heart and is a very personal thing.  This country has gotten it wrong many times in the past.  With Slavery, Racism and right across the bridge in Philly which has laws against feeding the homeless right outside of the liberty bell…a country which has always proclaimed liberty for all peoples.  The statue of liberty, the symbolic entry point into this country reads:

Give me your tired, your poor, 

Your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free, 

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore, 

Send these, the homeless, tempest tossed to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door.

Author: Emma Lazarus

     Ironically the homeless are not welcome outside the liberty bell.  How appropriate that the author’s name is Lazarus which means God is my help!  Lazarus is the only person’s name given in the parables by Jesus.  Jesus gave this homeless man a name when he was invisible to those around him in life.  Yet the rich man has no name in the story.  You see God knows each of their names…it’s personal.

     My colleague didn’t want the government to act; she wanted her people to act.  It’s easy to say that we have our own homeless and suffering right here.  Then do something about it…feed them…learn their names.  Where is your heart leading you?  Be present and enter into another’s suffering and you will see God in the other and they will see God in you.  Make no mistake, however, that nothing you do out of love is ever without risk!  But that’s what will change your heart and that’s what will change the world.  Each of us must take responsibility and accountability for acting out against injustice and oppression and for easing the suffering of another.  And we do this by going into the world and learning people’s names, by sharing their stories and by making compassion personal.  God doesn’t care about governments - they will come and go.  God cares only about each one of our hearts - for that is eternal!  God knows each of their names, will He know yours?!

     We don’t love to earn God’s love - we love to demonstrate it!  My troubled friends - lift up your lamps into the dark places of the world and shine forth the light of Christ for others to see!  Shalom!

Your faithful servant,

carmen

http://heartofdiscipleship.com/index.html

Thanks Giving

"The secret of my success is that at an early age

I discovered I was not God." - Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

Dickens said “There is always something to be thankful for”.  Sometimes though we get caught up in the day to day “stuff”!  Thanksgiving is a day filled with many great holiday memories… for me that would be of food, family and football.  Originally, however, it was a day to give thanks for safe passage and for the harvest.

When you think on those first Pilgrims you realize that they were an oppressed people which were seeking freedom and looking for the land of milk and honey.  Their trust was placed firmly with God.  This is very similar to the story of Exodus where an oppressed people were seeking freedom from Egypt…both were looking for the promised land, overflowing with milk and honey, and both were trusting in the same God to deliver them there. It wasn’t so easy however, both groups of people gave in to fear and doubt at times, both facing starvation not used to their new environments.  God provided through Moses to the Israelites and God provided to the Pilgrims through the openness of the Native Americans to share their food and knowledge of the land with the first settlers.  The food was abundant but the settlers not knowing their new found environment found scarcity and fear, facing harsh weather and starvation.  Our early settlers found help in the Native Americans and gave thanks to God for their survival, as well as their new found neighbors.  This month we celebrate our abundance and yes ….our excess!  In America the Holidays take on a much more materialistic and individual nature as opposed to celebrating and giving thanks for our reliance on God and our neighbors. 

The land still flows with milk and honey… only now it’s processed!  With so, so much, many of us still feel that we don’t have enough…many of us still feel scarcity.  In our current economic situation one can easily feel the squeeze of this scarcity mentality, the fear of not having enough! In times like these we especially need to remember that we are connected and dependant on God and one another whether we like it or not.  Alone we are nothing!

When you sit down for your Holiday meal try to note the connections with the world.  Where did the turkey come from?  The Earth…the farmer….the feed…the butcher etc.  What is needed to take your car to your families house…imagine if while preparing your meal the electricity were to go out…Imagine what would happen to our lifestyle if we removed electricity from the equation…all this stuff is assumed, and as such taken for granted!

When looked at in this way… with all that we have been blessed with… at this place and at this time….the glass isn’t half full…. it’s overflowing…That is to say that we are truly blessed and we really do have so much to be grateful for.   Most all of us right here and now live in the top 1-10% of the entire world through no effort of our own, but by just where we were born and by God’s grace.  Most of us have never gone to bed hungry unless by choice.  The earth was created by God in abundance, but in order to live this abundance together we must SHARE it with one another. 

A couple years back I spent the day with my wife at the Dachau concentration camp in Germany. I saw the film taken by the American’s that liberated the camp at Wars end.  The piles of emaciated bodies will be forever etched in my mind!  In horror and with a sense of despair…I asked myself how could this have happened…then a small inner voice showed me the connection.  The German people were oppresses after WWI, they were blamed for everything and were made to pay reparations which bankrupted the country, leaving them with nothing and no self esteem.  They lived in isolation and fear.  They needed hope and unity but instead of turning to God and their neighbors they put their salvation in a man and his ideals…what appeared to be hope became a nightmare instead!  Fear…Scarcity…Isolation…through these things all manner of evil can arise in the world unchecked!  Thank God the world rose up and responded!  Today in the shadow of that camp three lights burn in the darkness… Jewish, Protestant, and Catholic memorial chapels symbolize that God’s light never goes out for those who put their trust and faith in him rather than in any man!

So today as you look at the news and notice the issues that affect our world note the isolation, the scarcity and the fear that is portrayed to us…Amidst these global issues: the economy, climate change, poverty, war…we still have so so much to be thankful for.  Let us remember where we come from. And with humble and appreciative hearts let us put our trust where it belongs…in our Lord and our God.

And the gift of God’s Grace freely given to us…OUR ABUNDANCE…is then to be freely shared with those who have less… for only in communion with God and our neighbors are we ALL truly blessed.

Happy Thanks Giving!

Your faithful servant,

carmen

The Heart of Discipleship

Fear and Trust

How do we even begin to slay our giants?  Sometimes it seems like we are all alone in facing our Goliaths.  The challenges of today are so daunting that we easily become faint of heart.  We throw up our hands and cry out – Why?  Where is God right now?!  Unemployment overshadows the hope of paying the bills and putting food on the table.  Homelessness continues to create fear and challenges community systems. Church denominations are divided in seeking Christian unity.  Cancer taunts our friends and family.  Broken relationships strain our marriages and family dynamics.  Discipline problems and bullying threaten the education and self‐worth of our children.  The list goes on and on and on.

How, as disciples, can we have faith in God?  You know in Hebrew there is no such word for faith…no need for it!  They all knew God existed!  The word relates to trusting!  That’s the question - How can we really trust God?  Isn’t trust the basis for ALL relationships?  So how do we trust God with all the things we face each and every day that can stop us DEAD right in our tracks?

God chose an unlikely partner.  God chose one who appeared to be weak.  God chose one who stood in God’s strength – not the strength of their own perceived power, self-reliance and self-righteousness, not the strength of ego and pride.  David stood up in this moment to the Philistines in order to bring God’s triumph and peace to his people. …and he did it with a small smooth stone.

Stones are significant in Scripture.  Stones were often markers of God’s presence and action; helping God’s people to remember what God had done in their lives!  Sort of like monuments today.  God had been calling Israel to be living stones to show the world that God was right there in their midst…and here this lowly shepherd boy reaches for a small stone to remember and to know that God was with him; that he was not standing against all the chaos and evil in the world alone - but rather God was there too.

How are we called to be standing stones - reminders of God working in and through our lives?  Do others see in us the love of Jesus being poured out into the world?  Do we witness how God has worked in our lives…sometimes as large as a monument… sometimes as small as a pebble?  But no matter how big or small - God is there…although sometimes we may not see it.  God is not far far away but acting in the world in ways we can only imagine.  And in sharing our stories - we come to show others that they too might come to believe and trust in the living God –especially when facing their own giants.

It’s interesting that the scriptures time and time again say do not be afraid…365 times!  Which is not to say that there are not fearsome things in the world…rather God chooses to tell His children - as a mother would whisper into the frightened ear of a child that I am right here with you through it all.  Through trusting God we come to know peace - even though there are real things to fear, they need not paralyze us, they need not have dominion over us; they need not own us - because we are not alone in this… are we?

Fearsome things ARE in our lives each and every day…but they don’t have the last word.  Whether you are facing a giant, facing a storm, or are in a place of suffering or brokenness or paralyzed by gripping fear…the important thing is that however and wherever you are… you will not be alone…right there in the midst of it all - God will be with you.  Shalom!

Your faithful servant,

carmen