Sometimes it feels as if I spend my days as if they were structured like that game I played as a child. It was a plastic square with other little plastic squares inside. The object was to move the squares around until you formed the full picture you could only glimpse in the smaller pieces. It was a game that I must have played in the backseat of the car when we were driving places because that is the visceral memory that always comes when I remember the game. Playing the game and the movement of the car become one. Blur……

I remember it as a nearly impossible game….which probably says something about my learning style, my personality type. But that sense of needing to move one thing only to have all others move and never really getting to the "wholeness" says something to me about the need for sabbath time in my life. Wayne Muller says:"Sabbath dissolves the artifical urgency of our days, because it liberates us from the need to be finished."

"Sabbath requires surrender. If we only stop when we are finished with all our work, we will never stop-because our work is never completely done. With every accomplishment there arises a new responsibility. Every swept floor invites another sweeping, every child bathed invites another bathing. When all life moves in such cycles, what is ever finished? The sun goes round, the moon goes round, the tides and seaons go round, people are born and die, and when are we finished? If we refuse rest until we are finished, we will never rest until we die."

With those odds……I think I’ll rest today.

I don’t think much about what in our tradition we call "the end times". Some people I know like the Left Behind series of books that tells of the final days of humanity’s time on Earth. I don’t tend to see the world or the Holy in the way these books do.

But lately I’ve been thinking about those early Christians who had known Jesus or known about him. Their  expectations of what might happen after his death, "the end times", became a driving force in the creation of the early church and in how they lived their daily lives. I’ve been thinking about those folks more because I have been creating an online Bible reflection opportunity based on the Book of Acts. It will be called Acting Class and you are all invited to participate…..how’s that for shameless promotion? Watch the website for upcoming information.

Wayne Muller writes about these early Christians and their sense of time. They clearly believed  Jesus was returning to Earth in their lifetime and it caused them to live in a certain way, often with a certain sense of desperation.  We can take on that same kind of desperation in our living but we call it progress.…that time when all the lists will be accomplished, peak efficiency will be realized, and we will finally have time to sit back, rest, and do, what?.The pursuit of progress can lead us to over work and a path that is so focused on the future that we forget we are in the present.

"But we must ask this question:What if we are not going anywhere? What if we are simply living and growing within an ever-deepening cycle of rhythms, perhaps getting wiser, perhaps learning to be kind, and hopefully passing whatever we have learned to our children? What if our life, rough-hewn from the stuff of creation, orbits around a God who never ceases to create new beginnings? What if our life is simply a time when we are blessed with both sadness and joy, health and disease, courge and fear…and all the while we work,pray,and love, knowing that the promised land we seek is already present in the very gift of life itself, the inestimable privilege of a human birth? What if this single human life is itself the jewel in the lotus, the treasure hidden in the field, the pearl of great price? What if all the way to heaven is heaven?"

Muller believes Sabbath challenges the theology of progress by reminding us that we are already and always on sacred ground. His words help me to breathe deeply, pay attention and savor the grace held in the beauty of this day…………………….

At our Sacred Journey worship service in the Art Gallery, we begin each Sunday worship service with blessings. People who are having a birthday,anniversary, new job, any special life event come to the center of our circle and all those present extend their outstretched hands toward them and sing the words"God grant you many years." Adults and children alike are always anxious to come to the center and be blessed. My personal favorite is the blessing of those 5,6 & 7 year olds who have lost a tooth or those who have finally reached double digits!

Blessing….it is a powerful act for both those who bless and those who receive. In Sabbath, Wayne Muller  tells of the Sabbath practice, before the meal, of placing hands on the children present and giving them a blessing. He writes of his friend Ethan who says"The candles and the wine are sweet, but when I put my hand on my daughter’s head and bless her, and offer a prayer for her strength and happiness, I can feel all the generations of parents who have blessed their children, everyone who has come before, and everyone who will come after."

Have you blessed anyone today? You may not even know it, but someone may have blessed you. Many times as I drive along I see a car pulled over with an engine problem, I offer a blessing. I always offer a blessing over the lives of those vulnerable animals I see along the road. When I visit in the hospital, I offer silent blessings toward rooms where people keep watch over their loved ones.

I have a friend who used to tell hilarious stories of his mother blessing him with holy water she kept in old Avon bottles. Each morning as he left for school she would sprinkle him. Of course, at the time he really didn’t like it. As he remembers now, he may feel differently as he thinks about what she was really offering him……blessing, hope for protection, love.

Muller suggests that we can walk through our days offering blessing to our family, colleagues, friends, and even strangers. He says we can do this quietly, secretly. Walking by people on the street, in the hallway, on the bus, we can focus our attention toward someone and silently offer the words "May you be happy. May you be at peace."

Sounds like a good plan to me. Care to try?

Several times in these daily musings I have mentioned the book Sabbath:Finding Rest,Renewal and Delight in Our Busy Lives by Wayne Muller. It is one of the books that I return to over and over. Do you have a book or two that you periodically reread parts of because you are seeking to reclaim some feeling ,bit of wisdom,inspiration? This is a book that centers me and helps me remember what it means to be human…..and that I am not God. So I thought that over this week I would pull out some particular pieces that feed my soul and bring sanity to my days and share them with you. I hope you find these bits helpful and healing.

Muller is an ordained minister, therapist and founder of Bread for the Journey,an organization that supports the efforts of local people serving the needs of those in need in Mill Valley, California. He makes this statement is the opening paragraphs:"Our culture invariably supposes that action and accomplishment are better than rest, that doing something-anything-is better than doing nothing. Because we do not rest, we lose our way."

I have taken these words to heart so many times. I don’t know about you but even on my day off or on vacation it takes me hours, sometimes a full day to slow down enough to be fully present to the gift of rest.This busy-ness is a behavior that I have cultivated.Trust me, it is not genetic.  I come from a long line of folks who can sit endlessly on the front porch and glide,rock,sit in silence and watch the traffic pass. I am always blessed to be in their presence and to slow down to their pace.

"Without rest, we respond from a survival mode, where everything we meet assumes a terrifying prominence…..Every detail inflates in importance, everything seems more urgent than it really is, and we react with sloppy desperation."   Sound familiar?

The Creator placed within the Universe the rhythm of rest….Sabbath. Over the next several days, I invite you to consider the gifts of Sabbath….what they offer our world, our faith,our relationships, our communities, our lives.

As Gandhi said: There is more to life than merely increasing its speed.

One Protestant denomination uses the phrase "God is still speaking" on signs and banners outside their churches. It is a compelling statement, one meant to not only affirm a held belief but to tell those who see the words something about this particular church. What does that statement express to you?

When I see the banner at the entrance of any particular church, it tells me that this is a place that accepts that God is at work in our daily lives in ways that lift us above what can be the malaise of institutional religion. The statement declares the God that is as much "verb" as "noun". The statement tells me that this is a congregation that may be equally as comfortable with the questions of faith and life as with the answers. It implies relationship and movement, creativity and hope. It is bold in the affirmation of God’s presence in the nitty-gritty,often messy details of our lives.Not a silent, far off God but a walk-with-you-through-the wilderness God.

You can probably tell by my words that I like the statement. It reflects my own beliefs, my own experience. It expresses the way in which I love to read the scriptures….not so much as history but as an opening through the ancient text to  hear God’s word for today,for my messy life, for my inner-doubting Thomas.

How is God still speaking in our world? Have you seen it lately? Have you heard it? How is God still speaking in your life? Are you listening?

"Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking;if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you and you with me." Revelation 3:20

God is still speaking…….have a blessed weekend.

Last night as I drove home from church, I nearly had to pull over and just look at the moon…did you see it? It was an immense bright yellow with a brilliant arc of light that surrounded it. As I drove across the High Bridge, the Mississippi River below me, the moon was so close it felt as if I could reach out and touch it.

The experience reminded me of a book the women’s book group at church read called To Follow the Moon. It is a story set in 17th century England and one of the central characters is Basuba, a midwife who is the keeper of the ancient wisdom. Throughout the book she gently passes that wisdom down to the younger people. The beginning point of that wisdom is to admit that she doesn’t know everything and that learning is a life-long experience. "I will keep on learning ’til I die, and I still will be far from knowing everything. It’s part of the Mystery; we each know some things and are blind to others. That makes us seek the holiness of each other. I’m ready to learn from Moon about change. Moon changes every night. She grows larger ’til she’s full and then smaller ’til she disappears. And then she does it again."Seeing last night’s moon,I went to my book shelves, found the book, reread those words.

This Sunday we will celebrate the Confirmation of several young people and their entry into a fuller relationship within the church. I have to admit to being confused and sometimes frustrated with confirmation, how it can sometimes feels like graduation instead of one phase of the Moon of their lives, and ours. I am mystified that some people will not come to church because it is Confirmation Sunday. How might Confirmation be different if we affirm and re-affirm how as a faith community we are all in the business of keeping on learning until we die? That we are all a part of the Mystery……that we know some things….and may always be blind to others. And here is the really important part…that throughout the learning, the searching, the knowing, the inability to see, see must seek the holiness of each other.

Seeking that holiness,held in the Mystery….being with one another throughout the phases of growing larger,fuller in our faith and also during the times when our faith is small and almost non-existent…..isn’t that what it means to be the Kin-dom of God? Waxing and waning comes at all ages. It is important that we hold on to one another.

I believe I have mentioned that outside my office window is a very large oak tree. All winter I have watched what I believe is a squirrel’s nest made from dead oak leaves. I have seen at least one squirrel-can you actually tell them apart?- taking morsels of food to the nest.I had hoped to see if there were babies in there or if the nest was just the winter cabinet for abandoned food the squirrel(s) wanted to keep safe. Yesterday I noticed that the nest had lost its full form and now looks like a few straggly leaves that just forgot to fall during the proper season. So, I either missed something…..or nothing. Who knows?

The giant oak is now busy forming leaves which will entertain me through the summer and into the autumn, reminding me of the gentle movement of time. But while it is slowly greening up it is being overshadowed by its neighbor the crab apple tree. Brilliant hot pink blossoms light up the backyard of the parsonage. They scream "Look at me! Look at me!" Like a young girl dressing up for prom, pink petals drape the branches for a brief, beautiful walk in the world. For these short days the pink dances outside my window and distracts me from the mundane of white paper, silver paperclips, gray carpet, even grayer walls.I want to be able to express my thanks for the beauty of it all……

Sorry….Mary Oliver again…."When I am among trees, especially the willows and the honey locust, equally the beech, the oaks and the pines, they give off such hints of gladness. I would almost say that they save me, and daily. I am so distant from the hope of myself, in which I have goodness, and discernment, and never hurry through the world but walk slowly, and bow often. Around me the trees stir in their leaves and call out "Stay awhile." The light flows from their branches. And they call again, "It’s simple,"they say, "and you too have come into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled with light, and to shine."

I am  filled today with gratitude for the trees…for show-off-pink…for the poet who can express with words for me what my heart feels, oh so beautiful, and the reminder to go easy and to shine.

I met a man yesterday who said,"I love change!" Wow…not something you hear very often. He is an interim pastor so loving change is a very good thing in his line of work. His work is to come into a church that is in the midst of change, resisting change, grieving change, desiring change. How wonderful that he truly loves what most of us fear. He spends his days listening to people’s stories, helping them cope with and triumph through the inevitable……. change.

Change is difficult. It asks for patience. It requires giving up control. It begs for creativity. It insists on letting go. It demands faith. It implores us to listen…..to others, to ourselves.

But change is also the way of the Universe. We know now that the Universe is expanding which means it is changing all the time, becoming something different than it was…not yet what it will be. The way of the Universe is also the way of our lives, our relationships, our communities, our nations, our churches. We are all on a path that is changing….we are becoming something different than we have been….and we are not yet what we will be. Thinking of change that way is very exciting to me…..how about you?

How are you changing? What are you being asked to change in your life? What are the things you need to get rid of so change will happen? What are the things you need to acquire so change will be realized?

"The plow has savaged this sweet field…Misshapen clods of earth kicked up…Rocks and twisted roots exposed to view. Last year’s growth demolished by the blade. I have plowed my life this way…Turned over a whole history…Looking for roots of what went wrong…Until my face is ravaged, furrowed, scarred. Enough. The job is done. Whatever’s been uprooted, let it be…..Seedbed for the growing that’s to come. I plowed to unearth last year’s reasons-The farmer plows to plant a greening season."  Parker Palmer

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want..….Yesterday the scripture for morning worship was the 23rd Psalm. They are familiar words….words that have history for so many. These words filled with images which are in some ways unfamiliar to our modern, urban experience…sheep, rod, staff, shepherd…..have the ability to create a nest in which we can rest. At least that is what I observed yesterday.

He makes me to lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters, he restores my soul.

Sunday mornings often begin with an almost frenetic energy. People rush in late thinking they had more time in the morning than they did. They greet friends they haven’t seen all week or even longer. There is a jockeying for seats. We celebrate birthdays, anniversaries. We can be well into the hour long service before the energy in the room fades to calm. Yesterday was no different.

He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and staff-they comfort me.

But as we began to read these words many had memorized in Sunday School the energy in the room began to shift. Heads began to nod. Ah, yes. I know this. These are my words. This is my story, my history. These are my people.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows.

We have so few words these days that unite us. There are so many texts written to polarize, to divide, to agitate. But yesterday these ancient words written by someone unknown, using images unfamiliar, did just that. The individual lives that rushed into the room, calmed, rested, were held in the lap of the Divine, a whole people of God.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long.

Blessed be!

"Who made the world? Who made the swan, and the black bear? Who made the grasshopper? This grasshopper, I mean- the one who has flung herself out of the grass, the one who is eating sugar out of my hand, who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down– who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes. Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face. Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away. I don’t know exactly what a prayer is. I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass, how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields, which is what I have been doing all day. Tell me, what else should I have done? Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon? Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"

This poem by Mary Oliver called The Summer Day was on my mind this morning. As the meteorologists predict a "Chamber of Commerce Weekend", I began to think of what needed to be accomplished over the next three days. More windows need washed, the laundry is always waiting, I need to clean out some drawers, what is that growing in the refrigerator anyway? Books to be read…piles to be picked up…errands to run…..dinners to cook…..the list goes on.

Here is my prayer: Dear God, help me to kneel down and take time to look at the brown pile of  hundreds,perhaps thousands of ants moving feverishly about in the driveway.What are they doing, anyway? Dear God, cause me to stop and see the inner beauty of the tulips, the intricate details so often overlooked,overshadowed by the brilliance of the outer petals. Dear God, open my eyes to the hostas pushing up with patience and loyalty in their appointed places. Oh, you loyal friends. Dear God, help me to feel the freedom the children in my neighborhood know as they run wildly, laughing, playing, skin happy to be free of so many layers of clothing. Remember, remember. Dear God, make me pay attention! Please…

Dear God, help me to abandon my to-do list and fall down and pray, my heart bursting with awe and gratitude. After all, doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?

Have a prayerful weekend………