From our earliest days, as a species, art has been a means of expressing our reality and understanding our world.  Some of our most profound art, I believe, is some of the most primitive:  paint blown onto cave walls to create neolithic images of human hands.  They proclaim both the fact and mystery of our existence, our undeniable presence and extraordinary uniqueness in creation.  I believe art is one of the most vital of spiritual gifts; that art is the voice of the Spirit, speaking in and through us.  The first poem was uttered by the first cave dweller that wandered out to behold the wonder of the night sky in amazement:  Aaaaaah!  The primordial heartbeat, our first music.

 

Through art, we have been reaching toward the source of that divine inspiration ever since.  From the high medieval art of Michelangelo adorning the Sistine Chapel, to more contemporary expressions, art becomes our means of finding and making meaning out of our experience of being. 

 

Through art we reach toward the God who reaches toward us, longing to know and to be known.  Through art we shine light into the shadows, illuminating the truth … of us, in relationship with creation, and in relationship with God.  We discover the divine in our own humanity and in the natural world that surrounds us.  In worship in coming weeks we will be exploring ways in which artists have made sense and meaning out of major  elements and events in our Scripture and our theology.  And perhaps we’ll discover that voice of the Spirit in us that longs for deeper connection with God through all the joys and sorrows of life.  Join us, we’ll make our way together.

 

“ a house of prayer " - Isaiah 56:7

One constant that rises from the pages of both Hebrew testament and Christian witness is God’s call to prayer.  Individually and communally, in times of danger and despair, in times of joyful celebration, at the top of our lungs and in the intimacy of silence – God invites and encourages us to pray. 

It has been said there are as many ways to pray as there are people.  Entire prayers have  become traditions in the faith that we intone in unison.  And we pray extemporaneously, in the immediacy of the moment, as the Spirit moves us.  Some prayers are filled with words addressed to God, while others are literally prayed within us, by the very Spirit of God, when life takes us beyond words.  Prayer is as much felt as expressed; as much listening as speaking.

I must confess this divinely inspired act, this spiritual discipline that is prayer, is at once entirely familiar and supremely mysterious to me, and to a good many people I talk with.  Is the use and intent of prayer to change the circumstances of life, or to change the one in the midst of those circumstances?  Is it dialogue or pure presence, or both?   And what constitutes the answer to prayer that we seek?

Despite all our questions, God calls us to be a people of prayer.  Isaiah speaks God’s truth for the world: “My house shall be a house of prayer for the nations,” for all people. (Isaiah 56:7)  The Hebrew word “beyth” which is translated here as “house” may be better understood as household, or even family.  God is saying something foundational about people and about prayer.  First, the “house,” the temple, the church, is not a building; it’s people.  And second, this household of God is literally built of prayer.  Our identity and unity as people of faith is founded on and built of the intimate presence with God that is the gift of prayer.  And this household – this family – is open to anyone and everyone who wishes to enter into that presence!  

We are delving deeply into the mystery prayer during the month of June.  In worship and study, in reflection and practice, we will embrace this gift from God and grow deeper in understanding what it means to be God’s house of prayer.

Pr. Brad Highum

 

Keep Awake

 

“And what I say to you I say to all … Keep awake." - Mark 13:37

Jesus calls us to wakefulness, to watchfulness, to awareness.  There is a wonderful interplay in some of his teachings between being awake and being asleep.  We quickly realize it is figuratively, not literally, that he is speaking.  To be asleep in the Greek of the New Testament is “katheudo.”  It literally describes a posture:  laid out, horizontal, prone, flattened.  Euphemistically it means unaware, unconscious, dead to the world.  Its opposite – wakefulness – is “egeiro” … vertical, upright; the posture of agency and capacity; aware, alive!

 

On the Mountain of Transfiguration, the Gospel says the disciples accompanying Jesus were “weighed down with sleep; but since they stayed awake, they saw his glory, and the two men standing with him.” (Luke 9:32)  Far from groggy, his closest companions have been unconscious to the truth.  In this elevated place of vision they are able to see, to comprehend, to understand Jesus in the tradition of the prophets and the faithfulness of God to raise up deliverers.  They awaken to the reality of the One who has come into the midst of the world.

 

In the breaking of the bread, the Emmaus disciples awaken to the true identity of the One who journeys with them.  “Keep awake,” Jesus says; “you never know when the Master of the house will come.” (Mark 13:35)   Saul of Tarsus is struck blind on the Damascus road, only to have the scales fall from his eyes, revealing the Christ of God.

 

In chastising his dozy disciples, Jesus paraphrases Isaiah:  “Do you still not perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes, and fail to see? Do you have ears, and fail to hear?” (Mark 8:17-18)  He’s calling them to wake up!

 

This becomes our prayer in the Eastertide:  God give us eyes to see, and ears to hear!  Give us minds to comprehend the glory of what you are doing in Christ.  And give us hearts to embrace your calling upon us to live transformed lives in response.  We sing, “Open our eyes, Lord, we want to see Jesus; to reach out and touch him, and show that we love him.  Open our ears, Lord, and help us to listen.  Open our eyes, Lord …”

 

Together, we can embrace God’s calling to true life … awake, aware and actively living into the Kingdom God is revealing.  In times of joy, we can celebrate with one another.  In times of challenge and struggle we can encourage one another with the words of the prophet:  “No eye has seen, no ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him.”

 - Pastor Brad

 

Water + Spirit + Fire

“Oh, that the Lord would put his Spirit on !”   - Numbers 11:29
 
There comes a point in the wilderness wandering that leading the disparate people of this needy and  bickering tribal confederation overwhelms Moses.  He complains bitterly, to God and anyone else who’ll  listen.  It’s actually Moses’ father-in-law Jethro, a Midianite priest, who first advises him to appoint leaders from among the people to help bear this huge responsibility (Exodus 18:21).  God ordains this plan and calls Moses to gather the people at the tent of meeting, that God will come among them.  “I will put some that same Spirit that is on you upon them,” God says.  This blessing of the Spirit is an ecstatic experience and some of the anointed ones begin to prophecy, to proclaim the truths of God in the midst of the people.  This is disconcerting for some, even Joshua, who calls on Moses to make them stop!  Moses’ response?

 “Oh, that all the Lord's people were prophets,  and that the Lord would put His Spirit upon them all!"

His longing is poignantly felt to this day.  Too many followers of Jesus are woefully silent about the  lessings faith and daily presence with God bring to life.  Too many of us are reluctant to share the life- renewing truth and goodness God reveals to us in Christ.  A loud and legalistic minority have sought to  commandeer the public voice of the church and claim to speak for all.  And the response of growing numbers of people is to “steer clear.”

We lift this up as a centerpiece of our faith:  that the Spirit of God fills creation and abides in each of us, in all people.  In receiving that gift we are claimed by God, gathered and sent for the sake of the world.  Oh, that all of us would embrace this, Moses cries.  Not to become street preachers.  But that every one of us would live from the place of grace we’ve experienced and simply share that blessing with everyone we meet, in  everything we do and say.  It’s the most winsome invitation to faith we can offer the world.  I believe the people in Moses’ story could have prophesied at any time – could have proclaimed the goodness of God in the midst of the world at any time … that the God-breathed Spirit had been in them all along!  Perhaps they didn’t feel they had the right language.  Maybe they had never tried and were fearful of “the first time.”  The good news is that Abiding Love’s Evangelism Team is addressing those very concerns in a great retreat/ workshop called Evangelism Now.  We learn together how to share our faith story and to talk about our  spiritual community in ways that are natural and inspiring.  It’s coming up again in February.  Watch for it and plan to join us! 

Yours in God’s grace, 
- Pastor Brad

“a living stone” - 1 Peter 2:4

Stones figure prominently throughout the narrative of the Bible.  Noah, Abraham and Moses each build stone altars to God to commemorate God’s calling and deliverance.  Jacob erects stones to mark the place of God’s revelation and in witness to God’s covenant.  The torah – the wisdom and teachings of God – are inscribed on stone tablets; “chipped in stone,” forever.  Moses strikes a rock in the desert and life-giving water gushes forth.  Joshua calls the people to gather stones into a cairn to mark the crossing into the land of God’s promise.  A stone sits at the epicenter of both holiness and bitter conflict between the three monotheisms of the world.  Beneath the Dome of the Rock on the Temple mount in Jerusalem sits an expanse of stone … the rock upon which tradition holds Abraham prepared to slay Isaac; the rock from which Muhammad is said to have ascended to heaven; the place where the people believed God dwelt among them … the “Holy of Holies.”  The confession of Peter (petros = “rock”) is the foundation upon which Jesus will gather God’s church.  It is a stone, rolled away, that marks the threshold between death and life.  The Bible is full of stones.

In the Gospels, Jesus refers to himself as a stone:  one that the “builders rejected,” but which becomes the cornerstone – the foundation on which all else is aligned – or the keystone – the pinnacle that holds everything together (Matthew 21:42).  And we, too, are invited to understand ourselves a stones – “living stones,” Peter says – “built into a spiritual house.”

We have embarked on a mission:  Creating Space for Grace … in our church, in our world and in our own lives.  The image of stones provides a wonderful metaphor and emblem for our shared ministry.  Stones signify the revelation of God in Christ that invites us to live as Kingdom people in the midst of the world.  Stones mark the passage as we grow in faith.  Stones form the altar upon which we offer our gifts for the sake of the world.  And the grace of God is both the keystone which binds us together in love and the cornerstone which aligns our lives with God’s vision of unity.  Our traditional hymn affirms us as “God’s house of living stones, built for God’s own habitation.”  May God’s presence, in each of us and at the center of our community, inspire us to live boldly into this calling, to live sacrificially for the sake of justice and equality, and to live generously in serving and reaching out to a needful world.

Yours in God’s grace,

- Pastor Brad

 

“establish the work of our hands …” - Psalm 90:17

I have a lot of big ideas about Abiding Love.  I know you do, too.  It’s kind of automatic.  You look around at this community, the people, the resources, the talents and gifts and energy God has gathered together in this place and it’s like, “There’s nothing we can’t do.”  There are so many ways we can invite people to grow deeper spiritually in discipleship and service, together.  There are so many ways we can reach out to the surrounding community and the wider world, sharing God’s love as we work for the well-being of people, especially the most needful among us.

 

God has blessed this community extraordinarily with the clear expectation that blessings will flow forth from here in God’s great work of transforming the world. 

 

That’s not grand talk; that’s precisely what is happening.  And it’s extraordinary because it’s not characteristic of a lot of churches to think of themselves in these terms, even Lutheran churches, and even some of our neighbors.  It is certainly no cause for boasting.  Rather, it underscores a sacred responsibility.  “From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” (Luke 12:48)  Every blessing from God is a trust, invested in us SO THAT it might be shared with the world. 

 

So where do we go next?  What’s the next “big idea” for Abiding Love as a new chapter in our shared life is even now beginning?  It is the place of discernment we are in right now as an ecclesia, the church, the “called ones” of God.  This is a season for prayer and reflection.  It’s a time for dreaming and possibility thinking.  We pray, like the psalmist, “Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands for us; yes, establish the work of our hands.”  It is at once a prayer for God’s goodness and grace to guide our life of work and worship, as well as a prayer for that work to bear fruit in the world.  We want to be about what God is about; not for God to bless what we are doing, but for us to do what God is blessing!

 

In her book, The Future Starts Now, Kelly Fryer shares a very simple maxim as a guide to congregations in mission:  “Be who you are, see what you have, and do what matters to God.”   Simple, yet profound.  Simple, but not easy.  Let’s pray and dream together.  Let’s look honestly and authentically at who we are as a unique expression of God’s grace here at Abiding Love.  Let’s look at the amazing confluence of blessings and gifts that are gathered here.  And then let’s look at how we join God in transforming work that is already in progress, simply awaiting our heads and hearts and hands to make the dream come true.

 

- Pastor Brad Highum

 

"As you go ..." - Matthew 28:-20

I think that’s a better translation.  Often times we hear Jesus’ command at the end of Matthew’s Gospel – his Great Commission to all who will obey and follow – as a highly directed order.  I know it’s translated “Go ye, therefore …”  But some really good work has been done on the root Greek text, poreuomai, which favors a different expression.  This same word is used everywhere else to describe “making your way,” journeying, making the passage. “He went on his way rejoicing” (Acts 8:39). “And all journeyed to their own towns to be registered” (Luke 2:3).  It’s a subtle difference, but an important one.  What we hear Jesus saying is not “set out on a mission of conversion,” to win souls for the Lord.  It’s been heard and engaged that way a lot throughout history; often with brutal and tragic effect.  What I believe we hear Jesus saying is “make your way.”  Make the passage, make the journey of life, from now on, following in the way and the truth of God that I have revealed to you.  And as you go, invite others into that way and that truth that has transformed your life.  As you make your way, encourage others to make the passage with you.

I think it’s the right translation because it’s what I see Jesus doing.  As Jesus makes his way through the world, in everything he says and does he shows the love of God.  Whether it is embracing the untouchable, the outcast, the “other,” or confronting the abuse of power, refusing to back down, calling for repentance …a turning toward the truth:  he is always “discipling” the people around him.  After all, the disciple – mathetes – is the one who “lives into the teachings of the master.”   Jesus’ call to “evangelism” in the Gospel, is primarily to share the Good News of a loving and gracious God by living, loving and serving just as we have seen Jesus do, and inviting others to do likewise, as we make our way together.

We almost hesitate to use the word “evangelism” anymore because it’s so loaded with baggage.  But Jesus’ direction to us is not “if we have time,” or if we feel like it; it IS a commission.  But it’s a loving commission, an invitation to us to share the blessing of faith in the God who is saving the whole world in love.  It’s a simple request, but far from easy.  And I’ll take all the help and encouragement I can get in reaching out to a world that operates according to its own rules and reward systems. 

 

Our Evangelism Board has tackled this challenge in putting together an education and preparation program to help us fulfill Christ’s commission, God’s call upon our lives.  We’ll be offering it at the church for the first time July13-14 (a Friday evening and Saturday gathering).  Anyone who wants to join us is welcome.  You won’t be drilled in conversion tactics.  Rather, we’ll explore the power of our own faith stories and discipleship to be an encouragement to others.  We hope you’ll join us!

 

- Pastor Brad Highum