This Week

Lent transitions, transforms.

From me-of-Ash Wednesday to we-of-Easter.

Two thoughts for this week.

First, from Mary Oliver's poem, Today

Today I'm flying low and I'm

not saying a word.

I'm letting all the voodoos of ambition sleep.

The world goes on as it must...

But I'm taking the day off.

Quiet as a feather...

Stillness. One of the doors

into the temple.

And lastly remembering the words Rabbi Heschel wrote again.  And again.

God is waiting for man to seek him.

...waiting for us to seek God together.

Hope this week is good for you, for us.

--tim

A Sermon from the Sea

A field trip in Lent last Sunday.

Midday services celebrated in the Church of the Holy Rolling Pacific Ocean at Stinson Beach.

The Word rolled onto the beach as a sermon in an icon served up from the deep in one of the Minister's native tongues.

After looking at this remarkable sight for some time I imagined the message translates loosely this way,

I Am with you

Here's the reprint of a sermon from the sea,

--tim

Finding God

First thing she said was in answer to my pigeon-Mandarin question.

We were among a gathering of medical staff at a Chinese government hospital.

Lunch-time in a dull gray government-appointed canteen. Stomach-of-duck and jelly fish were served.

From a group of twenty-some participants, the young lady plucked out a seat next to mine.

I asked what she did for the hospital.

"I'm a G.I. doctor," she said.

"Oh, that's impressive," I said. She looks, I'm thinking, maybe in her mid-twenties...

"I'm in my forties."

We smiled. Beijing water is spiked with something...

"Have you been to America?"

"I studied in Mississippi. Do you know where Mississippi is?"

"Sure," I said.  Deep south. In the Bible Belt...

"It's in the Bible Belt."

I nodded.  No words for this...

"I went for five months.  Now I'm Christian."

"Hao de. Me too."

The good doctor was all smiles and appeared quite happy, joyful.

"I'm baptized. In Mississippi."

I'm peddling software... In China...

Having an Exodus moment...

Hearing holy words this Lent from a communist government's gastrointestinal Christian physician baptized in Mississippi...

Thinking of Moses' words as he noticed the burning bush,

"I must go over to look at this remarkable sight,"

Finding God and miracles in the billions in Beijing this week.


--tim

Finding Miracles

On to the middle kingdom this week, lugging along a few thoughts for the ride.

In verdant pastures he gives me repose;

this one introvert in the billions in Beijing this week,

Beside restful waters he leads me;

to the scrum on the other side of Earth led in silent retreat,

he refreshes my soul.

On to trusting, finding miracles and God in the billions in Beijing this week.


--tim

Endurance

Cheated the other day.

Broke the fast.

Sneaked a peak at the TV at ten.

The newsman was in an ice fish hut.

His top story was about him.

This just in...he'd caught a dinky walleye in a frozen lake.

Lucky me letting silence slip to catch this news.

Some nights are hard to keep the fast. Especially mid-winter nights when the big news is it's well-below zero.

Lakes are frozen.

Fish still bite.

Good thing the large, dark Newfie lays by our front door.  She absorbs tonight's chilly draft.

She watches me watch the tube.

She's thinking,

The real news is you're not missing much, Man.

Paul's letter to the Hebrews (10:36) had the day's headline,

You need endurance to do the will of God and receive what he has promised.

-tim

This Guy in Church

Walked up to communion the other day behind this guy in church wearing a long cape draped down his back that said,

Repent

He held up a tall pole with his hands, on top of which was a sign, the size of those you see waving back and forth at political conventions that say Obama or Bush or Four More Years.

On the front of this guy's sign it also read,

Repent

and to expand on his point, the back of this guy's sign said,

Turn From Sin.

Wondered while walking up to communion about my sign if ever moved to do what this guy in church does...

What would my sign say?

Repenting...only when it occurs to me 

Or maybe Turning from sin...kinda

Probably (since never knowing when-to-say-when) my sign would say,

Four more years

But this being a walk toward New Jerusalem, maybe it'd be good to start my sign in a more simple way,

Todah rabah!

-tim

This Lent

Two thoughts.

First from Thomas Merton,

I need only to be nothing...to be at peace and poor and silent in the world...

And this from Abraham Heschel,

God is waiting for man to seek him.

Hope this Lent is good for you.



--tim