Tag Archives: Christ

Mary’s Womb

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Mother

Mother (Photo credit: racineur)

Oh, how I praise the Lord, How I rejoice in God my Savior!” (Luke 1:46-47)

Mary’s Womb

There was nothing in her circumstances that should have lead Mary to feel this way. She was soon to be pregnant out of wedlock. What would the man she loved and had given her heart to think? As that little round bulge became more obvious how would the women of the village react? How would her life in this village be changed by the gossip, slander and innuendo?

Yet there is nothing of these worries in Mary’s words! “Now generation after generation will call me blessed” she bravely proclaimed. I suspect that the generation who heard these words did not think her blessed. I imagine that, outside of Elizabeth and Joseph, they thought her an idle dreamer at best, or at worst, delusional. There was so much room for Mary and Joseph to fail. But they did not. This is, perhaps, why God chose them.

It is not the wealthy or powerful whom God needs. He does not need either of these things we humans value. He made the entire universe! He knows each star by name and His power is that which holds the sub atomic structure of the universe in place so that there is order instead of chaos. But God did need something which he found in Mary and Joseph. He needed people who could imagine the world through His eyes. He needed those who could understand that the things we see are not real, but rather temporary trappings of this world. In a moment they shall all be burned up and will be no more. But there is a new world and a new universe dawning. It is the Bride of Christ, the New Jerusalem. Its’ golden streets consist of those whose faith has been tried and tested in fire and purified. This new Eternal City consists of Mary, Joseph and their descendants.

This world has secularized Christmas because many no longer see Christ in it. We do not see Christ in it because the Church has become blind to Christ in some ways. The world does not need indignant Christians who stand upon their soapbox and lament that Christmas tinsel is on sale before Halloween. It needs holy, mature Christians whose faith will give birth to the Living Christ within them. We desperately need Christians who will kneel beside the cradle of their hearts having sacrificed their dreams just as Mary did. This is what will allow Emmanuel, God with us, to shine with such brilliance that the tinsel of Christmas will seem as the cheap imitation it is.

Oh Living God, may Gabriel not go away empty handed when he comes to bring good tidings of great joy to us. May he find in us an empty womb, emptied of pride and self, of hopes and dreams, so that our hearts may be shaped only, always, by His image. We pray that as He is finally born in the stable of our hearts, He will not be marred by the selfishness of our dreams, nor sullied by our insistence upon our own way. Oh God we pray that by Your great power and outstretched arm You might remove all within us that would taint the beauty, the holiness of His birth. For tonight is that night. We are each the expectant Mary. The angels of heaven, the servants of God sent to do His bidding await the fullness of Christ formed in each of us. Oh the unimaginable splendor of this moment of Divine Grace! May we never allow it to be cheapened by allowing that sacred space within us to be occupied by anything but His holy Presence. This we ask, with all the faith we can muster through the risen, resurrected and soon coming Triumphant King. Come Lord Jesus, our hearts await! Amen.

Plummeting Meteors

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Photo of a part of the sky during a meteor sho...

Photo of a part of the sky during a meteor shower over an extended exposure time. The meteors have actually occurred several seconds to several minutes apart. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Plummeting Meteors

It occurs to me that our lives are somewhat like plummeting meteors. We too are but a bright streak across the night sky burning for the briefest of moments, and then we are gone. Some burn a bit longer, but most are never even discernable. We last not long enough for the world to even be aware of our existence. We are souls streaking through this thing called life.

The good news is that we have been given a remarkable gift from the Creator of earth, sea and sky. From this One who rules the limitless expanses and who established the very principles which govern our plummet through the atmosphere, we receive the gift of suspended laws. No longer shall we burn up in a moment and disappear. Gravity, friction, incineration and impact upon the floor of death are no more. The fraction of a second that was once our lives now stretches into endless life…..

This is the power of Christ. This is the unmerited gift of grace given to every believer. For a world in need, it is faith in Christ which suspends the laws of the universe and releases death’s inescapable pull. We are no more the burning streak destined to disappear in a fraction of a second, but rather, we will free fall into an eternal life that never ends. Amen

Getting Started

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Stained glass at St John the Baptist's Anglica...

Stained glass at St John the Baptist’s Anglican Church http://www.stjohnsashfield.org.au, Ashfield, New South Wales. Illustrates Jesus’ description of himself “I am the Good Shepherd” (from the Gospel of John, chapter 10, verse 11). This version of the image shows the detail of his face. The memorial window is also captioned: “To the Glory of God and in Loving Memory of William Wright. Died 6th November, 1932. Aged 70 Yrs.” (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I began to follow this living Christ in 1972.  Standing alone in the field behind my barracks in San Antonio I looked up and said to God, “I am not leaving this field until I have what they (the people I had met several months earlier at a Monday night Bible study) have.”  In that very moment He was there, within me and I knew it.  This was a new and fresh step in a marvelous, the most wonderful journey any human being can undertake.

But this is a winding road.  The scenery can be breathtaking and heartbreaking in the same moment.  Along the way there have been wonderful companions and stunning surprises.  One constant through those years has been that I often “see” a new truth in the form of a metaphor.   Jesus called them Parables.  We are told that He never spoke to the people without them.  Now a pastor for more than 20 years I have discovered time and again I “see” some truth I am struggling to explain to another in such terms.

In October of 2007 while in Scotland following a wedding of a dear family friend I was staying in a home and one evening I was overwhelmed with the urge to write.  I have journaled my entire Christian life but this was different.  I felt as if it was a command.  But God does not drive but rather leads His children.  He is the Great Shepherd.   Filled with excitement and anticipation, for I know God is Light and only Goodness, I struck pen to paper.  In that moment I felt as if I had closed an electric circuit and power previously unseen flowed from an unseen to a visual world.

Since that moment I have sought to carefully preserve the moments of my life when He speaks in order to lead others to His Light.  Often after a conversation I have scribbled down notes in the notebook in my back pocket or even a napkin on the table after dinner.   What I will place here are these Parables which I believe as long ago are gifts from above intended to guide us safely through this world to our true Home above.

I have been given the gift of a dear friend who has offered to help select and edit these and for this I am profoundly grateful.  None of us lives life alone.  We are surrounded by a vast array of companions in our journey some seen others unseen.  At just the right moment I have been,  I believe, invited by the Father to share these things with others.  All gifts from the Father of Lights and Goodness are intended to be generously shared.

As I begin this part of my journey I invite you, as fellow companions to come alongside.  Whatever you find upon these pages which may profit you I hope you will share as you are led with the hope that it will bring clarity, guidance and hope as we continue ….