Can We Cry Holy?

Faith comes to us in many forms… We believe differently… We pray differently… We call out to our God differently. It is soothing to know that in the midst of all of our differences that the commonalities are alive and well in our faith journeys. We believe… We pray… We cry out… We wait for an answer to our petitions… We thank and We evoke… We enact what we have come to know and what we say we believe and from that is what make present and call into being in our gathering together.

Our presence, health and strength are often the key as we recall in our own living the amazing. By our account, we bear witness to the movement of a God of many names and beyond naming. This same God is our protector, our shield in battle, the lifter of our head, our hiding place, our ever flowing fountain of justice, our way maker, our physician, our healer, our advocate, our father, our mother, our comforter, the unconditional lover of our soul… God is all that and more than words can contain!

I find myself less and less concerned about what people call God and more concerned that people know that they can call God. I lay my opinions about beliefs at the feet of grace and know that belief is not the point where the story ends, and recognize that it is a new beginning and a new telling of the greatest story in me and the many of you of who God, Jehovah, Allah, Buddha, the Virgin, The Goddess are for us. Every culture, environment, sect, community of faith has its own root system in place and draws from it for nourishment and strength. Today, I thank the Ruach Elohim - the creative Sprit of God whose breath gave life and parted the seas. I am grateful for the breath life that I experienced in the dawn of this day and for the knowing that a way will be made before me by the one who has been with me even before the days of this life.

When we believe, pray, cry out, worship, love, hope, dream, walk, rest, wait, thank and evoke that which is meaningful to us, we change the atmosphere to one where unfailing love prevails. May our different ways continue to feed us and our collective sameness draw us in from the margins of life into beloved community of peace and hope where we can stand together and in one voice cry Holy.

Hear & Feel the Rhythm of Your Soul

Sometimes, I hear and feel so many different rhythms in my existence. It is like being pulled in a myriad of directions and the chaos from that can be painful. To the unknowing, it can feel and sound like unorganized noise at it’s best. To the unwilling it can feel like waves crashing against your body and scattering the fragments that remain. My challenge this week is to be willing to know deeper this world that I am a part of and feel the rhythms, harmonies, melodies, lyrics of the symphony of living. This all brings to mind a book that I started reading a few years ago called Be good-to-yourself Therapy by Cherry Harman, here is my short list of things to do “when . . .”

· When we are hurting, summon the courage to tell the person who caused the pain. Keeping it inside only makes it grow into something we can not manage and can not easily overcome.

· When we can’t think straight. Take that very moment as an invitation to stop thinking and start feeling. The world can become a different place if we are willing to cease to follow our thoughts and take up new path that allows us to feel our way through.

· When everything seems all wrong, and we are overwhelmed and need to be comforted. Be willing to ask for it, look for it, welcome it and allow it to be. Let the
comforts we seek embrace us in our moments of weakness and triumph.

· Take the time to say something loving to someone… It may help to first say something loving to ourselves. Go ahead and give it a try; the expressing of feelings is not a commitment it is a step in a new and beautiful direction.

· When I feel anxious, I take a little trip to somewhere calm and beautiful in my mind. It is there that I find clarity, hope and peace in the simple things. From that place of stillness, I let myself know that in my head I have stepped into the amazing
future, closer to something big, scary and unknown and that my body has gotten
up the energy and courage to make it so. Then I come back to this present moment bring the power of hope and the confidence that reminds me that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

As we take this journey of moments, hours, days, weeks, months and years, remember to feel the rhythm of your living by monitoring the “pulse of your soul.” Listen for the “skipped beats.” Take the steps necessary to restore the rhythm and remain focused. Be well. Be blessed.

May the Blessing of Water - Wash Over Me...

This morning, I decided to slightly rearrange my office and purge a few things. In doing so, I found enlightenment in the pages of papers that I had written a few years ago when I first entered seminary. I immediately noticed how I have grown and how I remain the same. My thoughts and beliefs are broader and more substantial, my hope is deeper and my challenges are fewer in number. Change occurs within us sometimes without introduction and we don’t really notice it from a distance. Today, I am grateful for the change that allows me to hear the once silent voices in the world and notice their struggle. Further, I am blessed from the ever present movement of Spirit in my life and world, and I render thanks a praise for such.

I am currently studying liturgy and rite keeping in an Episcopal context. Sometimes I find myself lost in the void between my past and present faith journey and I am challenged to level the volume mix between the two to find something harmonious. Today’s enlightenment is in the fact harmony comes from the delicate blending of two or more dichotomous incarnations. Until today, my problem was that I was waiting for harmony to happen external of me; such that I overlooked the blending, stirring, emerging and evolving that was going on within me. Today I hear, see and feel the importance of what we call into the space that we deem holy and I am amazed at the beauty of the newness of God that I see there. I hear songs that I have known for much of my life with new ears, I read scripture that I learned as memory verses when I was a child and it comes to life before my eyes in spirit and truth as it has never done before and I examine the many points of application for all of this in our world and I feel like an overflowing vessel. I think to myself – Wow!

We have been studying the rites of Holy Baptism and the history of such and this journey of learning has allowed me to travel back in time the churches, basilicas and cathedrals of past centuries. I have had a chance to see everything from the magnificent to the primitive and allow each of those to speak to me. I have leaned new words like baptismal font and looked at this rite of initiation culturally, by period of time, tradition and geography to learn how closely we are all connected in these moments of growth, welcome and initiation to the journey of Christ and each other. My assignment was to examine the parts of the blessing of water for baptism. I realized as I studied that water for baptism is really water of life. From my own journey of faith which is the convergence of many paths I was able to borrow from the whole of my own experiences in this rite by infusion, immersion and sprinkling and the saw anew the power of shared belief in these moments. From that emerged this prayer for the blessing of water.

God of many names and beyond naming, we give you thanks and praise for this day and the blessings of baptism that transcend time and understanding. Incline your ear and hear the prayers of your people, who you have called by your name and according to your purpose.

Holy Scripture teaches us that for thousands of years, water has given new life to our land, revived us when the heat from the journey has caused us to be weary and cleansed the dust from our bodies. Today, we stand as empty vessels, before you our ever flowing fountain of hope.

For us individually and as a beloved community, water has been a symbol of life and restoration for us. In this moment we present this water back to you and give you thanks and praise for the path that it travelled to this moment. Through our acts of baptism you make this water holy.

You give us new life and you refresh us with the presence of your sweet Holy Spirit. Through this water, drawn from the earth that you created, may we be reminded of our baptism and the baptism of Jesus. Let this water wash away the old and welcome the new.

Abide with us and share the joy of all those who have been baptized. We render this prayer to You in the name of all that we call Holy and in the name of Christ our blessed redeemer. May this blessing of water, wash over us, cleanse us, prepare us and renew us.

May it be so – Amen!