My Blog

Category: Meditation

  • Last Supper ~ Revisited

    While at the Diocese of Kansas Gathering of Presbyters last week at the Spiritual Life
    Center in Wichita, I saw The Last Supper depicted in some small
    porcelain figurines around a small table on a shelf near the
    Refectory.  Someone (probably one of my colleagues) had rearranged the
    figures in an interesting way.  Instead of Jesus being seated in the center and all the disciples gathered around him, Jesus was positioned at the corner of the table, extending bread-filled hands outward, while the disciples were all centered on themselves.  There is an epiphany here!

    Last Supper Revisited

    Do the disciples of Jesus have a tendency to mistake deliberation for mission?  Are we too busy with our meetings to offer the Bread of Life to the world at our doorstep?  Are we too focused on feeding ourselves to be useful to our Lord in feeding the multitudes?  How can we who receive him become a sacrament to a world in need?

    Ron

  • An Autumn Epiphany

    This morning I spent time in iChat with a young friend whose world has been turned upside down.  A widow at twenty-five, alone in a cold city far from home, she wonders if the long future ahead of her will only bring more disappointment and she questions God's purposes.  She would not be normal if she didn't have those fears and doubts.  She is too smart to settle for simplistic answers to life's complex riddles.  I suggested a wonderful church and a wise woman who is a priest there.

    When she was ten years old, someone took a photo of us in front of the Altar of the church where I was her pastor.  I've kept it near the chair where I read my paper and say my prayers every morning.  If all the prayers I've prayed for her during these fifteen years were deposits in her account, she should have an impressive balance.  They are not deposits in that sense, but they are examples of the ways God uses the people in our lives to create intricate, complex structures, systems, and networks to work for our welfare in mysterious ways and at times when we are completely unaware.

    Later in the day, I visited a retired priest who is in the hospital.  He told me that he had a lot of experience in dealing with the pain of others, but not much in dealing with his own pain.  He's been there through the years for so many people and now he needs to lean on us.  I pray that God will use us as a source of grace and comfort for him.
    IMG_1368
    Leaving the hospital, I saw a bird's nest carefully attached to the limbs of a tree near the entrance.  I've passed it numerous times before but have never noticed it because it was hidden by the leaves of the tree.  It is autumn now and the leaves have fallen away, revealing this masterwork anchored there by a pair of birds to make a safe home for their young ones.

    Seeing this nest and reflecting on my time with these two friends in need, this thought came to me:  Those sturdy gracious structures that nurture and protect our fragile lives are often hidden in verdant times, to be revealed to us only when the sky turns gray, the winds blow cold, and the days grow short.

    If the Creator of all things makes such abundant provision for baby birds, how much more is in store for us!  We must never forget that by the grace of God there are others who are hidden from our sight but who are quietly working on our behalf, loving us through their prayers and hopes.

    Ron

  • The Best Things in Life

    Bumper Sticker Theology

    "The best things in life aren't things."

    I saw this bumper sticker yesterday on a car that was driving along Broadway in Galveston, where, a year ago, "things" pulled from homes and businesses were piled high on the curb after Hurricane Ike.  People, relationships, values, purpose, beliefs, visions, and all the "best things" increase in significance when we are liberated from our possessions.  It doesn't have to take a calamity.

    Ron Short Signature

  • Holy Conversations

    What comes to mind when you hear the expression "Holy Conversation?"  Do you think of sanctimonious people talking about loving Jesus?  Do you think of participation in a Bible study or prayer group?  Do you think of a conversation with a spiritual director?

    A "Holy Conversation" might be any of those things.  However, I'd like to suggest one other way of thinking of a conversation as "holy."  A "Holy Conversation" might be any purposeful conversation we have with another person in which we mutually strengthen, uplift, and encourage one another in a relationship with God. Conversations among
    the followers of Jesus are nothing new!  Jesus had some
    things to say about the tone and content of such conversations.

    The disciples were having a conversation with one another as they followed Jesus toward his base of operations in Capernaum.  Actually, it was more of an argument than a conversation.  That's what Jesus called it; an argument.  "What were you arguing about on the way?" he asked them.Jesus Children-11

    They were silent because they had been arguing about who would be greatest when Jesus established his reign.  Those who were closest to Jesus just didn't understand the kind of ruler he intended to be.

    Jesus didn't scold them.  He gently turned the argument about power, privilege, and authority into a  "Holy Conversation" about servanthood.  He not only talked to them about servanthood, he demonstrated what it looks like.  "Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, 'Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.'” (Mk. 9:36-37)  The King of the Universe became the servant of a child!  See?

    That's what what can happen when a conversation turns "holy."

    Ron

  • How Salty Are You?

    SaltPA_228x372 Jesus said, "Salt is good; but if salt has lost its saltiness, how can you season it?  Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another." (Mk. 9:50)  Commenting on this passage, Robert Schuller once said, "Christians need to be just salty enough to make others thirsty."

    The point of this passage and of Dr. Schuller's commentary is that a relationship with Jesus Christ provides a quality of spirit for us that we can't get anywhere else,  that causes other people to know something profound has happened to us, and draws others to the source.  Something about Jesus has rubbed off on us and it is obvious.  Not obnoxious, but obvious.  One might describe it as something so desirable and valuable that we'd go out of our way to find it and spend any amount to obtain it. When we have it, it adds flavor to our lives and the lives of those around us.  When it is not there, something is missing.

    Because of our faith, we bring an important ingredient to the world and to the culture in which we live.  Instead of simply being consumers, we are called and gifted to be contributors.  We influence the way things are instead of simply "going along to get along."  Our life in Christ makes us salty and our saltiness gives flavor wherever we go.

    I've known some salty Christians in my life.  My grandfather was one of them.  In his retirement, he made several trips to the corner store every day to buy groceries.  He walked.  When I was visiting my grandparents, he would usually invite me to go along.  I enjoyed those walks but wondered why he didn't just get organized, make a list, and get the shopping done in one trip.  Then, one day a friend who lived on my grandparents' street told me at school that she always looked forward to seeing my grandfather because he would stop and talk.  She said he always took an interest in her and made her feel happy.  His multiple walks to the corner store were not arranged for practicality, but for fulfilling his calling to touch the lives of people along the way.  My grandfather was a salty Christian!  I hope I can be as salty as he was.

    How salty are you?

    Ron Short Signature

  • Forgot the Password?

    Have you ever forgotten the password to an online account you've set up?  Your own, personal, unique, secret password that allows you to have access to important information, services, or products?

    It's very annoying and usually inconvenient.  Never happens when we have plenty of time to remember, does it?

    But what's more important are those passwords that allow us access in relationships with others, with our inner being, with God.  When we enter times in which we can't remember those passwords, we experience lonliness, anxiety, and loss.  Those times are worse than annoying and beyond inconvenient.  If only we could remember and be allowed in again!

    I'm reminded this week that Jesus had such a time.  In the Garden and on the Cross.  What happened to the password to his relationship with his disciples, who drifted off to sleep, deserted, and betrayed him?  How about the password to his inner purpose that caused him to ask that it be removed from him?  Why did God forsake him in his darkest and lonliest hour? 

    What profound lonliness, fearfulness, lostness. 

    "Let this cup pass from me. 
    My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? 
    Is there any sorrow like my sorrow?
    Is it nothing to you?"

    If only the password could be reset!

    Is that what Easter is about?  Jesus, help me to remember my passwords so I can get back in.

  • Advent Balance

    Advent_i

    The following message was first published on November 29, 2007.

         It’s Advent.  Advent is hard to observe in our culture, isn’t it?

         The Church tells us it is a period of preparation for the Feast of the Incarnation, Christmas.  Our faith tradition encourages us to make it a reflective time during which we identify with those who waited long centuries for the appearing of God’s anointed one.  The liturgy for the Sundays and weekdays in Advent direct our attention to the wonderful gift that has come to us in Emmanuel and the promise that he will come again at the end to establish his victorious reign over all things.

         Yet,
    here we are again with all those sights and sounds and smells that tell
    us it is time to be the world’s most accomplished consumers.  Our
    culture encourages us to believe that the things we need and the things
    our loved ones need to make their lives complete can be bought for a
    price, and quite possibly must be acquired if life is to be worth
    living.  The liturgy of advertising and shopping mall directs our     attention to the near frenzy involved in getting there while supplies last.

        I’m not really suggesting that we should not buy gifts or support our local merchants who work so hard and rely so heavily on sales at this season.  I enjoy going to the mall and listening to the music in the stores.  I like to shop for presents and believe it is a good thing to be thoughtful and generous with others as God in Christ has been thoughtful and generous with us in offering us his very life.

         What I am suggesting is that the spiritual dimension of the season can easily be overshadowed.  We need to find a balance and the Church can help.  Go to the mall, after you’ve gone to church.  Buy gifts, after you’ve left your gift at the Altar.  Spend time shopping for the perfect gift, after you’ve spent time in communion with the most perfect gift, Christ the Savior.  Have a wonderful, peaceful, and blessed Christmas!

    How silently, how silently, the wondrous gift is given!
    So God imparts to human hearts the blessings of his heaven.
    No ear may hear his coming, but in this world of sin,
    Where meek souls will receive him, still the dear Christ enters in.

    "O Little Town of Bethlehem"

    The Rt. Rev. Philips Brooks (1835-1839)

  • Upward Bound

    Bandelier_national_monumentLast week I participated in a continuing education event in Santa Fe, New Mexico sponsored by the Episcopal Church Building Fund entitled “Upward Bound” and led by The Reverend Charles N. Fulton III, Ms. Mary May, and Ms. Sally D. O’Brian.  Our instructors were fantastic.  It was a watershed week for me and an outstanding group of colleagues from around the country as we explored skills for congregational leadership.

    On Wednesday afternoon, we had some free time. Several of us ventured out to Bandelier National Monument, a forty-five minute drive from Santa Fe. There we explored the ruins of native American cliff dwellers and reflected on what their life must have been like.  The Anasazi people, ancestors of modern Pueblo people, built thriving communities there about 600 years ago. Several thousand Ancestral Pueblo dwellings are found among the pink mesas and sheer-walled canyons. The sites in Frijoles Canyon near the Visitor Center were inhabited from the 1100s into the mid-1500s.

    This community, like those that existed in places such as Chaco Canyon and Mesa Verde, had an orderly life, storage facilities for the fruits of their agriculture, trade with others as far away as Mexico and Central America, and places for corporate worship.  We are not certain how their civilization ended or why.  But it did.  The conditions that were necessary for its continuation changed and the people were not able to remain in this location.

    It made my colleagues and me wonder about the future of our own communities, cultures, and civilization.  As we seek to provide strategic leadership for the future, we seek wisdom and understanding from the past.

    Just because things change does not mean everything has to disappear into the mists of history.  Our Creator has equipped us with memory, reason, and skill so that we can make strategic and timely adjustments as things change.  It is a part of God’s unfolding plan for creation and we get to play a major role in that plan.  Creation continues and human beings have the opportunity to be co-creators with God in the process that ultimately leads to the fulfillment of all things.  What a remarkable and awesome privilege!

    The Anasazi cliff dwellers mysteriously disappeared.  Yet, today we continue to appreciate the life they lived and the contribution they made to human history.  There are elements of their life that are timeless aspects of every successful human community, such as their ability to cooperate in pursuit of a common objective, systems of communication and commerce, planning for the future, sharing and mutual support in both good and difficult times, and worship of a supreme being.  Each generation leaves its own unique mark.  As we work together in the building of our community, let us hope that someday others will look back upon our era and our values with a similar appreciation.

    Upward_bound_classmates

    Colleagues from Upward Bound

  • Anglican Prayer Beads

    This summer, when we were in central Colorado, I learned of a jasper mine that had been in the area and had not been worked in several decades.  I was reminded of a set of Anglican prayer beads I had made from jasper, turquoise, and silver beads.  Minerals like these come from mountains like these.  Human beings have the gifts that are necessary to transform raw material into many things that serve humanity, including my prayer beads. 

    We are stewards of these treasures from the earth as well as the creative gifts that we have been given by our Creator God.  What we do with all the gifts is important to God and to the universe we are privileged to inhabit!

  • Lessons from Geese

    Geese
    “Open our eyes to see you hand at work in the world about us.” We can find epiphanies in every corner of the universe. For example, consider the epiphanies that come from GEESE.

    Download lesson_geese_.pps

    Be sure to turn on your speakers and click on the pictures to see the next slides.