Man Behind the Curtain

Again the LORD spoke to Ahaz, "Ask a sign of the LORD your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven." But Ahaz said, "I will not ask, and I will not put the LORD to the test." And he said, "Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also? Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. He shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. For before the boy knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you dread will be deserted." (Isaiah 7:10-16)

The promise-sign of a virgin who births a child was given in response to Ahaz's timidity to ask God for a sign. In the Lord's apparent irritation ("how you weary me with your reservation!"), He provides an enigma that Israel's conflict will be over. This episode, like that of Jacob's wrestling, tells me that the Lord is sometimes waiting for us to be bold, brash and even as importunate as the widow who annoyed the judge in Jesus' parable. It is as if to show that approaching Oz in boldness will not reveal a disappointing man behind the curtain, but a surprising God who, in righteousness, mercy and might is ever for us and with us. Immanuel.

First snow, Winter's kiss

My pity for those who only have three words for snow, that is, snow, damnedsnow and Wisconsin. For those who wonder, I think of Minnesota as merely Wisconsin in extremis, and Michigan's UP as Wisconsin with a line through it. Happy Winter. Blessed Christ-mas.

The Last Hour

I think the most amazing words in the Christian faith are these: "Father, forgive them because they don't know what they are doing." In Luke's gospel these words appear just before the exchange between Jesus and the two thieves who were crucified with Him.

A brief detour: In the parable that is often titled 'The Unmerciful Servant', Jesus warns against the fatal hypocrisy of accepting mercy for one's debts while withholding that same mercy from others indebted to us.

When we read Jesus' last encounter with mortals before His death, we quickly identify with the thief who recognizes Jesus' innocence and the injustice done Him, and come away glad we are not like the thief who derided Jesus out of his own bitter suffering. He, we think, deserves what he gets! No mercy for him. No confession, no mercy. No mercy, and how soon we have forgotten Jesus' appeal to His Father just a scant few lines up the page: that His Father forgive those who persecuted and crucified Him - why? - because they did not recognize what the were doing or to Whom they were doing it.

We identify with that mob in the general as we piously assert our culpability as members of the race for whose sins Jesus suffered an unjust and cruel death: the mob Jesus pitied not for their helpless state in original sin, but for not recognizing Him and the meaning of His sacrifice. We humbly accept reconciliation with the Father bought at so great a price. Then we turn around and dissociate ourselves from the specific thief who specifically did not recognize this salvation and to whom Jesus made no specific reply.

Why did Jesus say nothing to the second thief, while promising Paradise to the first? He did not say nothing. He addressed that thief - with the mob and the rest of us - by offering mercy to us all before uttering the promise to the one. Was the thief then forgiven, in spite of himself? In that last hour, what merciful intercession would the Father have not granted His obedient and suffering Son?

All Hallow's Compline

Lord.
At this time each year, in which we remember
those we love whose struggles and joys
in this life are exchanged in the
beatific bounty of eternity, I remember
a son loved, loved and lost in a brief space of knowing.

Your tabernacles and palaces, so oft regaled, cannot,
at least in the limits of my imagination, contain
the affection that accompanied the farewells bidden
at his leaving. They do not encompass grief or
accommodate sorrow as a fit lodging. And so my sorrow has
no refuge to which to flee and my grief has
no shadow in which to hide.

They are earthbound in the extreme,

While the tabernacles and palaces where he now roams are
infinite and eternal. The gulf cannot be bridged

Except in my praise which visits your holy places
for a brief space and in that brief space shares place
with those who there roam.

And so, in scarce visitation, I remember my lost son.
In my praise I join again all those I have loved and
lost to hallowed courts.

Ephesians

I've always read Ephesians with a bias for looking at what it says about being a Christian - either the Christian's place in Christ, or the ethical implications of being one. That is a true reading, but, perhaps, inadequate. Another perspective of the book resonates with Milton's Paradise Lost in its depiction of the place of Christ at the center of all things. With that focus, Paul exults in the exaltation of Christ by God and the believers' peripheral (though significant) responsibility to join in His glorification.

It has been said many times, but only because it is many times forgotten, that the reason for ethical concern in the first place is to participate in Christ's glorification - not just to obey slavishly for the sake of obedience itself. A standard of obedience is too low a standard, though a good starting point. The objective to glorify Christ in all things cannot be achieved in our life on this earth - which is why, I think, we settle for obedience. If I fail at obedience, which has the tempting disadvantage of always seeming feasible, I mark myself a failure and condemn myself reflexively before God or others can. Therein I pay my price. But to glorify Christ in all things is already patently impossible. It does not carry the seduction of possibility. So my prospects in that game are always to fail, if only by degree. No one failure is worthy of condemnation - they all are. And in that, I can accept grace because I have to. I simply cannot beat the house.

The Closet

When you died
the box in the closet fell off the shelf.

And the contents I had neatly packed away
spilled out, facing me with histories and
pieces of myself long ignored,
though never forgotten, chief of which is how
much I am like you and how proud
of you I was, occasional differences
notwithstanding.

The box was so full, the contents pressed
against the door until it opened a wee
crack. I explained the house was settling,
but that wasn't true. The door
nudged wider open... I said there was
nothing there, only mice, which was a falsehood.
Finally the hinges tore off and all the
memories and mess were in the
middle of the floor.

Everyone gasped.
And left the room.

I was left to deal with the broken door
and the scattered pieces of events
that had been kept hidden from sight
by myself.

But the closet was finally clean.

Prayer

For your peace, we call out to you.
Lord, hear our prayer
For your justice, we call out to you.
Lord, hear our prayer
For your mercy, we call out to you.
Lord, hear our prayer
For your joy, we call out to you.
Lord, hear our prayer

Father,
We thank you for gifts and privileges we do not deserve, but that you grant us out of your goodness and abundant love.
Help us to be generous with each other in the same grace you have shown us. We call out to you.
Lord, hear our prayer

Father,
We thank you for governments that protect, families that nurture, communities that bring us together, and your Church that announces the gospel of life in Jesus, the Christ.
Help us to strengthen these institutions through which you work, and sustain us when they fail us. We call out to you.
Lord, hear our prayer

Father,
We thank you for showing us your glory and majesty in the worlds you have made, for the earth-garden in which we take pleasure, and for our very being, body and soul, which bears your image.
Help us as stewards of your good works to be faithful in our work to return to you, with increase, your glory and our delight in you. We call out to you.
Lord, hear our prayer

Oh, God.
We confess we have sinned against you in deed, word and thought. We have fallen short in bringing you glory. We have hurt others and ourselves and have offended your righteousness.
Trusting the efficacy of the blood of your sacrificed Son, Jesus, we repent. For the sake of His wounds, we ask you to forgive and restore us. We call out to you.
Lord, hear our prayer

God.
By nature, our souls are contaminated with pride, greed, ego and unlawful desire - unbridled and out of control. Our motives are false; our hearts are deceived and deceitful. We are without excuse or hope.
For the sake of the bruises in Jesus' own body, cleanse us in our deep parts and purge this unwholesomeness from us. Wash us and we shall be clean. We call out to you.
Lord, hear our prayer

Mighty God.
We suffer disease of the body and soul. We are vulnerable to attack, decay and death. When we want to be strong, we are reminded that we are dust. We suffer, and those we love and now name suffer...
Oh God, by the stripes laid on your beloved Son, we pray for healing. By the abuse he took, we pray for peace. For ourselves and for those we love, we call out to you.
Lord, hear our prayer

For your justice, we call out to you.
Lord, hear our prayer
For your mercy, we call out to you.
Lord, hear our prayer
For your joy, we call out to you.
Lord, hear our prayer

In thanksgiving for your gifts and mercies, we return our gifts to you for your work, that you may receive glory from us and in all nations now and forever.

In Jesus' Name we pray.

Degreed

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.
- 2 Corinthians 3:17-18

Agaze of the image in view
Am reminded the promise of you
To make of me sculpture and hue
In likeness in labor in lieu.