Tag: Light

Put Together With Light

The leaves on the Aspen trees outside my window are turning yellow. This is not a rare or disturbing phenomenon. The tree is not dying. What is happening is the predictable effect of photosynthesis, the process by which plants convert water and carbon dioxide into oxygen and sugar. The word means “put together with light.” Chlorophyll gives plants their green color and helps make photosynthesis happen. As summer ends and autumn arrives, days become shorter and there is not enough light for photosynthesis. So, during autumn and winter, the trees stop producing food. They rest and live off the food they stored during the summer. The green chlorophyll disappears from the leaves and other colors are visible.

Soon, the leaves will fall to the ground and add nutrients to the soil that will benefit the tree when spring and a new era of growth arrives. This annual process of change is necessary in order for the tree to thrive.

Human life also involves change. But we do not have to regard ourselves as “victims” of change. Unlike trees, which do not have the privilege of deciding how to manage change, humans have choices. We have options! The greatest options involve intangibles such as attitude, inspiration, perspective, and spirit. After all, the inner life of a child of God is different from that of a tree. The kind of light we “put together” with the elements of our lives is a different kind of light, one we can seek in any season. Enlightenment is the human equivalent of photosynthesis.

We regard our Creator as changeless. Creation, on the other hand, is made alive by change. Of all God’s creatures, humans have the most options for managing change in purposeful ways that impact the unfolding story of creation. When we are able to work with changes that impact our lives, they are more likely to become springboards that propel us into the next stage of growth. Learning to live creatively with change allows us not just to survive but to thrive.

So, in the light God gives, let us relish opportunities to explore changes that are thrust upon us and to purposefully initiate changes that will promote life and growth. In learning from change we expand our lives and become more fully human. By exercising our faith in God to guide and protect us through transitions, “we who are wearied by the changes and chances of this life” will find rest and refreshment in God’s eternal changelessness.

Be present, O merciful God, and protect us through the hours of this night, so that we who are wearied by the changes and chances of this life may rest in your eternal changelessness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. – BCP, page133

October 14, 2015
Sermon at Christ Church Cranbrook ~ November 4, 2012

All Saints' Sunday B

Listen to the Sermon for November 4, 2012

Read the Sermon for November 4, 2012

November 5, 2012
Strategies for Summertime Spirituality

The month of May is almost over. Memorial Day signals opening of swimming pools, buzz cuts for boys, weekday outings to museums and zoos, homemade ice cream, watermelon season, an upswing in agricultural enterprises, and the beginning of summer vacations. We also start the summer slump in churches across America, with a decline in attendance and anxious messages from church treasurers about cash flow because offerings go down when the people are not there.

Our culture has declared how things are supposed to work between Memorial Day and Labor Day and that’s that. The Church tends to conform to the culture. Whatever happens during the rest of the year, in the summer, we are both in and of the world.

On several occasions, I have tried to counteract the summer slump and had little success. Call me a die hard, but I’m going to try again. Any success at all is better than none when it comes to reminding God’s Holy People what our relationship with the world is supposed to be.

St. Paul put it this way, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God – what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:2). Jesus called his followers to be light and salt and leaven in the world (Matthew 5 and 13). Light, salt, and leaven are agents of transformation – light dispels darkness, salt adds flavor, and leaven causes the dough to rise. When the agents of transformation are present, things are no longer the same. Through our prayers and our lifestyle, we are God’s change agents.

With that in mind, I have a few suggestions for how to enjoy summertime while still fulfilling our sacred purpose.

• Maintain the spiritual discipline of worship. If you are home on Sunday morning, your presence in worship with your community of faith helps keep the emphasis on God, both for you and for your fellow worshipers. When you are there, you are making a statement – a witness – that God’s reign in your life is not suspended just because it is summertime. Vacationers may be visiting your church while you are out of town. You may also use the time in worship to contemplate the different things you are doing/seeing/experiencing during the summer. What about those mountain majesties where you hiked? What might God have had in mind when creating the orangutan you saw when you took the children to the zoo? What kind of divine purpose is being worked out in the harvesting of hay, which kept you working from sunrise to sunset yesterday?

• Find a church in which to worship while traveling. In addition to maintaining the discipline of worship while you are in a different place, you may discover new friends, new ideas, and elements of diversity you have not known before. Maybe you can bring something back that will enrich the life of your own community of faith. The churches you visit will have an opportunity to extend their hospitality to you and hear about the church you love back home. If you have children or youth who will be traveling with you, ask them to get on the internet and find a church where your family can worship “wherever you may be.”

• Don’t send your pledge on vacation. The operational costs of your church continue even when you are not there. In warmer locations, the costs increase significantly because of the need for air conditioning and watering. There is no legitimate reason why church leaders should have to experience anxiety over cash shortfalls in the summer (or anytime of year for that matter). Make it a matter of faithful stewardship to bring or send your contribution before you leave on vacation. Or, if you forget, you may still mail a check or use online banking to get your gift to the altar while you are away.

• Get involved in ministries you don’t normally have time for. If summertime affords you a little extra free time or a slower pace, use some of that time to serve Christ and the Church. Maybe there’s a need for Vacation Bible School leaders, workers for a home repair ministry, or someone to do some maintenance around the church. Is there a mission trip, retreat, summertime conference, or bible study you would otherwise decline due to the busyness of your life? Does your summer schedule allow you to attend a weekday service that you can’t attend at other times of the year? God would like to spend more time with us and have more of our attention. Summertime may open up some possibilities for that to happen and blessings will flow into our lives.

• Whatever you do, think God! Be intentional about your spiritual journey. Begin and end your days with prayer, so that, in all the cares and occupations of our life, we may not forget God, but remember that we are ever walking in God’s sight. Look for signs of God’s hand at work in the world around you. Habits that affect the rest of your life can be formed during a three-month period. Don’t let a hiatus become a habit!

May 24, 2012
When you see the Light, head toward it!

It was one of the darker nights of the year and I was driving along a road in deep East Texas. The road was one with which I was unfamiliar and full of curves and bends and hills. At about the time I became aware that I had missed a turn somewhere and was headed in the wrong direction, I discovered that I was very low on gasoline. I had gone to far to turn back, but I was frightened to drive on because my engine might stop on that dark and lonely road any moment. I decided to drive on and search for some sign of civilization where there might be fuel and someone to point me in the right direction.

The more I drove, the more concerned I became. Just when I thought my engine was about out of fumes, I saw the glowing red light of an airplane beacon atop some structure in the distance. I felt certain it must be in or near a town with a filling station. If I could get there, I could fill my car with fuel, seek directions, and head on with confidence toward my destination. As I followed the beacon, I came to a road I recognized and managed to coast the last few hundred feet to a gas pump. I filled the tank and I got directions so that I could complete my journey in safety and in peace.

If you've ever experienced something like this, you surely understand how out of control my anxiety was that night. And, you also understand what a welcome sight that beacon was, with its promise of fuel and guidance.

Whenever something like this happens in the course of living – when we are alone, lost, and almost out of resources – we feel frightened, apprehensive, and alone. But then, on the distant horizon there is the bright beacon of God's love, the light of God's grace, the glow of God's promise. We see it through the darkness and our faith draws us forward to a place of peace and security.

John 3:16-17 speaks to us of that beacon of Love Divine. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him." The Word Made Flesh is for us and with us, wherever we may be!

When the night is dark, when the road is scary and unfamiliar, and when you are running on fumes, look for the Light. Turn to him. Trust his good news to be truly good for you. Let him help you find your way forward as you continue the journey in peace, knowing that you are completely secure in God's immeasurable love!

March 15, 2012
Be the light

At the Great Vigil of Easter, the Paschal candle will lead us with our candles in procession into the dark nave. The pews, altar, pulpit, and font are there in the darkness but we cannot see them until they are illuminated by the lights we bear. The darkness must surrender to the Light.

In an encounter with a man who was blind from birth (John 9:1-41), Jesus’ disciples saw someone whose blindness they assumed was punishment either for his sins or the sins of his parents. Jesus enlightened them by saying they were wrong on both counts. When Jesus healed the man they understood.

The blind man was accustomed to a world of darkness. When Jesus healed him, he could see for the first time. There was also an inner illumination; He understood that Jesus was the Messiah.

Other people didn’t believe it was the same person but someone who looked like him. Their point of view and frame of reference obscured their vision.

The criteria of established religion prevented the Pharisees from seeing and believing what was before their eyes. They suffered spiritual blindness. They were supposed to be enlightened, but this incident revealed them as “the blind leading the blind.” The man born blind had more vision than the Pharisees.

I remember watching The Christophers television broadcast as a child and a line from their theme song, recorded by Perry Como in 1952, "If everyone lit just one little candle, what a bright world this would be". The mission of The Christophers is to encourage people to use their God-given talents to make a positive difference in the world.

When our lives are illumined by the Light of Christ, we become lights. The Light of Christ shining in us disperses the darkness – as a parent saying bedtime prayers with a child, as a host providing Room in the Inn for a person with no home, as an ethical business person, as a friend giving encouragement.

In the words of St. Paul to the Ephesians, “Once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children of light– for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true” (Ephesians 5:8-9).

March 31, 2011