The Preacher preached a particularly good sermon today... all about the Transfiguration, which I felt pretty sure I knew quite a bit about, and understood fairly well. Right!! Turn me upside down and shake well......
Apparently the Transfiguration is all about US rather than Jesus. What????

The Preacher told us that Jesus already knew everything that God was going to do and say. So the Transfiguration was no surprise to Him. The face shining like the sun and the robes appearing a brilliant white is about how WE see Jesus for what HE really is.....

I guess even when I think I understand a passage of scripture, sometimes I don't have the full story. My thinking and understanding can always be "transfigured".......... hmmm

The Road Less Travelled

Well, you can't get much less  travelled than the travel through this blog for the last while. I have committed to return to my writing as I continue to try and figure out my place in the world, and what I am being called to do.  Stay tuned......

The Woodcarver

...taken from "The Active Life" by Parker Palmer

Khing, the master carver, made a bell stand
Of precious wood.  When it was finished,
All who saw it were astounded.  They said it must be
The work of spirits.
The Prince of Lu said to the master carver:
“What is your secret?”
 
Khing replied: “I am only a workman:
I have no secret.  There is only this:
When I began to think about the work you commanded
I guarded my spirit, did not expend it
On trifles, that were not to the point.
I fasted in order to set
My heart at rest.
 
After three days fasting,
I had forgotten gain and success.
After five days
I had forgotten praise or criticism.
After seven days
I had forgotten my body
With all its limbs.
 
“By this time all thought of your Highness
And of the court had faded away.
All that might distract me from the work
Had vanished.
I was collected in the single thought
Of the bell stand.
 
“Then I went to the forest
To see the trees in their own natural state.
When the right tree appeared before my eyes,
The bell stand also appeared in it, clearly, beyond doubt.
All I had to do was to put forth my hand
And begin.
 
“If I had not met this particular tree
There would have been
No bell stand at all.
 
“What happened?
My own collected thought
Encountered the hidden potential in the wood;
From this live encounter came the work
Which you ascribe to the spirits.”

walk......

"Create in me a clean heart, oh God"

Today I began my Lenten self-examination by walking the labyrinth. This ancient spiritual tool has guided many on their journey. I found the experience to be very moving and meaningful. If you have not experienced the labyrinth walk, I encourage you to give it a try.

Lent.....

“Beware of practising your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.” Matthew 6:1

With the approach of Lent, we are called again to turn our thoughts inward. Piety is a funny word. It is hard to define in simple terms that anyone can understand. The simplest of definitions will define piety as religious devotion and reverence to God. I don't find this definition to be much clearer. St Thomas Aquinas defined piety as a deep sense of respect for God and the church. So I assume then, that practising our piety is the way that sense moves us to draw closer to God and the church. A common and I believe quite useful practice for Lent is to complete daily Bible readings. You can find numerous calendars of readings for Lent online. We are urged during this season to “give something up.” But, more importantly, we should be thinking about “taking something on.” Take on a daily reading of scripture to help you draw closer to your God.

Hope....

Today as I was driving home from some errands I came up a hill and noticed in a field off to the side, a tractor. My first thought, temporarily forgetting that we have had more snow this winter than for several previous years, was that the tractor was working up the ground in preparation for planting. Then, reality kicked in, and as I drew nearer I could see that the tractor had been left out there last fall and the bottom half was completely buried in the snow. I felt rather foolish at the ease with which I forgot that we have, in my opinion, far too much snow. My enthusiasm and desire and hope for spring gets stronger each day, now that the days are getting longer and the sun stronger. I believe that hope is a wonderful gift from God.

In Romans 15:13 we read “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.” Our God is a hopeful God, and God's hope for us is that we will choose to be hopeful in return. You see, a person who has hope has a reason to live. A person who has hope has a reason to reach out to others. A person who has hope has been hugged by the Holy Spirit and strengthened to do God's work.

My hope for you is that you are also hopeful, and that you are moved inspire hope in others.

Let That Be Your Last Battlefield..

There was an episode of the old TV series Star Trek that had the above title. In the episode, the Enterprise picks up two survivors of a war-torn planet who are still committed to destroying each other aboard the ship. The two are unique in that they are each black on one side and white on the other. But the colors are on the opposite sides on each of them. One of them is a “slave” and the other is a “master”. The crew of the Enterprise are surprised at the war between the two, since on the show, racial differences are non existent on earth. The crew do not see the two as different, since they are both white and black. Their difference lies in the fact that their colors are on different sides, and to the two that makes a huge difference.
As a society today, we often find differences between ourselves and others. We are not the same color, or we don’t share the same religion, or we live in different areas, or we don’t share the same beliefs. I wonder when or if we will ever get to the place where the crew of the Enterprise was on that episode. They saw the two aliens as the same. They saw the two as the same, both black and white. Imagine how much we could accomplish if we stopped seeing ourselves as different from others, and started seeing all of us as children of God.