Consider how unhappy they are who do not think of all this, who live as though they were created only to build and plant, to heap up riches and amuse themselves with trifles.

Humble yourself in that hitherto you have so little thought upon all this.  Alas, my God, of what was I thinking when I did not think of Thee?  What did I remember when I forgot Thee?  What did I love when I loved Thee not?  Alas, when I ought to have been feeding on the truth, I was but filling myself with vanity, and serving the world, which was made to serve me.

Turn to God. Thou, my God and Savior, shalt henceforth be the sole object of my thoughts; no more will I give my mind to ideas which are displeasing to Thee.  All the days of my life I will dwell upon the greatness of Thy Goodness, so lovingly poured out upon me.  Thou shalt be henceforth the delight of my heart, the resting place of all my affections.  From this time forth I will forsake and abhor the vain pleasures and amusements, the empty pursuits which have absorbed my time; the unprofitable ties which have bound my heart I will loosen henceforth, and to that end I will use such and such remedies. [spiritual disciplines]

Thank God, Who has made you for so gracious an end.  Thou hast made me, O Lord, for Thyself, that I may eternally enjoy the immensity of Thy Glory.  (p.19-20)

At the end of your meditation linger awhile, and gather, so to say, a little spiritual bouquet from the thoughts you have dwelt upon, the sweet perfume whereof may refresh you through the day. (p.18)

--St. Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life.  First published in French in 1609.

Almost immediately after the Montgomery bus protest had been undertaken, we began to receive threatening phone calls and letters in our home. Sporadic in the beginning, they increased day after day. At first I took them in my stride, feeling they were the work of a few hotheads who would become discouraged after they discovered that we would not fight back. But as the weeks passed, I realized that many of the threats were in earnest. I felt myself faltering and growing in fear.

After a particularly strenuous day, I settled in bed at a late hour…and was about to doze off when the telephone rang. An angry voice said, “Listen, nigger, we’ve taken all we want from you. Before next week you’ll be sorry you ever came to Montgomery. I hung up, but I could not go to sleep. It seemed all my fears had come down on me at once. I had reached the saturation point.

I got out of bed and began to walk the floor. Finally, I went to the kitchen and heated a pot of coffee. I was ready to give up. I tried to think of a way to move out of the picture without appearing to be a coward. In this state of exhaustion, when my courage had almost gone, I took my problem to God. My head in my hands, I bowed over the kitchen table and prayed aloud. The words I spoke to God that midnight are still vivid in my memory.

‘I am here taking a stand for what I believe is right. But now I am afraid. The people are looking to me for leadership, and if I stand before them without strength, they too will falter. I am at the end of my powers. I have nothing left. I have come to the point where I can’t face it alone.’

At that moment I experienced the presence of the Divine as I had never experienced him. It seemed as though I could hear the quiet assurance of an inner voice, saying,

‘Stand up for righteousness, stand up for truth. God will be at your side forever.’

Almost at once my fears passed from me. My uncertainty disappeared. I was ready to face anything. The outer situation remained the same, but God had given me inner calm.

Three nights later, our home was bombed. Strangely enough, I accepted the word of the bombing calmly. My experience with God had given me a new strength and trust. I knew now that God is able to give us the interior resources to face the storms and problems of life. Let this be our ringing cry…that there is a great benign Power in the universe whose name is God, and he is able to make a way out of no way, and transform dark yesterdays into bright tomorrows. This is our hope for becoming better [people]. This is our mandate for seeking to make a better world.

---Martin Luther King, Jr., Strength to Love (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1963), p.119.

"Calling people together, therefore, means calling them away from the fragmenting and distracting wordiness of the dark world to that silence in which they can discover themselves, each other, and God. Thus, organizing can be seen as the creation of space where communion becomes possible and community can develop."

--Henri Nouwen, The Way of the Heart

For more information and resources Pastor Scazzero’s website is emotionallyhealthy.org. To hear the presentations from Denver Seminary's Spiritual Life Conference, click here.

Second, thanks to the Student Council the daily 10 minute liturgy of fixed hour prayer has returned at 9:15am and noon in the chapel.  Here is how Ruth Haley Barton describes these “Divine Hours,”

“This affinity for fixed-hour prayer came as a surprise. Up to this point I had been highly suspicious of what those in my evangelical tradition would have called 'rote prayers'— written prayers that we all feared would foster the vain repetitions that Jesus warned about. I was convinced that spontaneous prayers were the only real prayers because they came from the heart; only people who weren’t very spiritual and didn’t have much to say to God needed to rely on prayers that were written by someone else! Or so I thought. But I have discovered that there is another option: to pray the great prayers of the Church and to really mean them!

"Many Protestant traditions departed from fixed hour prayer in 'protest' of the
excesses of Roman Catholic Church and the spiritual numbness that the reformers were trying to distance themselves from. But it turns out that in distancing ourselves, we actually lost a rich avenue of prayer that is rooted in Scripture and in our very own tradition. Variously called 'fixed hour prayer', the 'daily office', or 'the Divine hours', these prayers are deeply Biblical. They express great spiritual truth and deep human longing in stirring language that has the potential to shape the soul. The Psalms, the Old and New Testament prayers (called Canticles), and the Lord’s Prayer all express the universal human experience of the soul reaching out to God. There is no better way to learn to pray and to actually pray!”  (“Sweet Hours of Prayer,” Christian Reflection: A Series in Faith and Ethics, Center for Christian Ethics, Baylor Universtiy, Vol 32, 2009)

Invite all to God’s feast of furious love. Do as the Master commands, “Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in here the poor and crippled and blind and lame.” (Luke 14:21)

Bring them starving. Bring them bleeding and broken. Drag them to the banquet, wretched and raggedy as they are. Sit them at the table, though they mourn and weep, necks bent and heads hung low.

Go in love. Go with love. Go because of love.

How else will they know our good God?
How else will we?

“By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:35)

--Claudia Mair Burney in Brennan Manning, The Furious Longing of God, 136.

We recognize that the person whom we have encountered speaks to our innermost being, supplies our needs, satisfies our desires. We recognize that this person gives life meaning. I do not say a new meaning simply, for we realize that before we encountered this person life had no real meaning. We recognize that this person has revealed to us not only himself, but our own true self as well. We recognize that we cannot be our own true self except by union with this person. In him, the obscure is illuminated, the uncertain yields to the certain, insecurity is replaced by a deep sense of security. In him we find we have received an understanding of many things which baffled us. We recognize in his person strength and power which we can sense passing from him to us. Most certainly, if most obscurely, we recognize that in this person we have encountered God, and that we shall not encounter God in any other way. (Quoted by Brennan Manning, The Furious Longing of God, 67-68)

Pity is one of the noblest emotions available to human beings. Self-pity is possibly the most ignoble. Pity is the capacity to enter into the pain of another in order to do something about it. Self-pity is an incapacity, a crippling emotional disease that severely distorts our perception of reality.

The antidote is well-known, if not well practiced. It's prayer. Prayer is an act that is sensitive enough to be in touch with self-pity but strong enough not to become absorbed by it. The initial impulse to pray often comes from self-pity. But in prayer, our self-pity meets up with a stronger, healthier energy and, in the process, gets transformed.

Psalm 77 falls into two nearly equal but contrasting parts-verses 1-10 and 11-20. The first section is unmitigated and obstinate self-pity. The second section is vigorous and gracious compassion. It's pity, but pity that is thoroughly unselfed.

Dead-ended as self-pity is, prayer doesn't forbid it. Any place is the right place to begin to pray. But we mustn't be afraid of ending up someplace quite different from where we start. The psalmist began by feeling sorry for himself and asking seething questions. He ended up singing an old song proclaiming God's might and grace.

Don't worry about the words that start you praying. Just don't let them become a dead end. Let them lead you to higher ground, where self-pity is transformed into worship.

(Conversations:  The Message with its Translator, 856)

In one of those happy Spirit-led connections, I stumbled upon a New York Times article last week "A Life Lived on the Side" ( http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/26/arts/music/26sont.html?pagewanted=1&emc=eta1) which described the life of Larry Fuller a jazz "sideman." Here are some quotes from the article from which I will let you draw some gospel connections for your own jazz-shaped faith:

Mr. Fuller, a trim man with a shaved head whose stubby fingers fly deftly over the keyboard, smiled graciously. A needy ego is of no use to a sideman, who makes a living in another artist's shadow and gets only parenthetical billing, usually with his instrument appended to his name ("Larry Fuller on piano"). But it is always nice to know that people are tuning in to him, Mr. Fuller said, as it reaffirms his core belief that "you can never underestimate what people hear even if you are just backing somebody up."

Like many a sideman with considerable talent, Mr. Fuller, who also composes and arranges, worries about maintaining his musical identity and aspires to lead his own trio someday. But for now, he said, especially after a difficult period in his personal life, it is enough to "serve the music" that he has revered since he was 13...

...his philosophy: play every note with conviction, honor the bandstand and treat the music as sacred.

"Larry has a reverence for the music that I find refreshing," Mr. Pizzarelli said. "He's incredibly respectful of the gig."

"Front people need to be a little more outgoing and demonstrative than Larry, who just sits there and does his thing.  But I push him to take the next step. He's got the résumé, he knows the music, he's got the talent."  Mr. Fuller himself is in no hurry. He said that he is not a born entertainer, and that he lacks the gene for self-promotion. "I've always figured the music would take care of me if I approach it with conviction, honesty and diligence," he said. "And there's some kind of beauty in that."

I can't resist making one connection-there is joy and freedom in being a "sideman" or "sidewoman" with humility and conviction in the shadow of Jesus while allowing Him to be the "frontman" for the kingdom music that, indeed, will take care of us.  And there is eternal beauty in that.

William Law, A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life
"And if you will here stop and ask yourself why you are not as pious as the primitive Christians were, your own heart will tell you that it is neither through ignorance nor inability, but purely because you never thoroughly intended it."  (p. 57)

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together
"In the Psalter we learn to pray on the basis of Christ's prayer.  The Psalter is the great school of prayer.  (p. 47)

"Let the one who cannot be alone beware of community.  ...Let the one who is not in community beware of being alone.  (p. 77)

Robert Mulholland, Invitation to a Journey
"The very personalized spiritual disciplines to which God calls us are an integral part of the classical spiritual disciplines of the Christian tradition:  prayer, spiritual reading, liturgy.  These classical spiritual disciplines of the body of Christ form the scaffolding, the structure, the support network within which we then exercise the distinctive, personalized disciplines into which the Spirit of God leads each of us as we journey toward wholeness in Christ." (p. 104)

Marjorie Thompson, Soul Feast
"A rule of life is a pattern of spiritual disciplines that provides structure and direction for growth in holiness.  ...the purpose of a rule is to help us grow in holiness.  (p. 146)

John Ortberg, The Life You've Always Wanted
Historically, when Christians sought to order the events of ordinary life around growing in Christlikeness, they would develop what is called a "rule of life."  Various monastic orders each had a rule. This was not simply a set of laws. The latin word for rule is regula-that is, something that is done regularly. A rule involves a rhythm for living in which we can grow more intimately connected to God.  (p. 197)

Adele Calhoun, Spiritual Disciplines Handbook
"To live a sane and holy rhythm that reflects a deep love for God and respect for how he has made me.  A rule of life offers unique and regular rhythms that free and open each person to the will and presence of Christ.  The spiritual practices of a rule provide a way to partner with the Holy Spirit for personal transformation."  (p. 35)

"One of the early Christian rules for life is found in Acts 2:42...a simple statement of the regular rhythms we choose in order to present our bodies to God as our 'spiritual act of worship.'  (Romans 12:1) ...a way we partner with God for the transformation only he can bring.  (p. 36)

Until the love of God that knows no boundary, limit, or breaking point is internalized through personal decision; until the furious longing of God seizes the imagination; until the heart is conjoined to the mind through sheer grace, nothing happens.  The idolatry of ideas has left me puffed up, narrow-minded, and intolerant of any idea that does not coincide with mine.

The wild, unrestricted love of God is not simply an inspiring idea.  When it imposes itself on mind and heart with the stark reality of ontological truth, it determines why and at what time you get up in the morning, how you pass your evenings, how you spend your weekends, what you read, and who you hang with; it affects what breaks your heart, what amazes you, and what makes you happy.

The revolutionary thinking that God loves me as I am and not as I should be requires radical rethinking and profound emotional readjustment.

--Brennan Manning, The Furious Longing of God, p.75

Lord of such amazing surprises
      as put a catch in my breath
            and wings on my heart,
I praise you for this joy,
       too great for words,
             but not for tears and songs and sharing;
       for this mercy
            that blots out my betrayals
                  and bids me begin again,
                         to limp on,
                                to hop-skip-and-jump on,
                                       to mend what is broken
                                             in and around me,
                                                   and to forgive the breakers;
       for this YES
             to life and laughter,
                   to love and lovers,
                         and to my unwinding self;
       for this kingdom
             unleashed in me and I in it forever,
                   and no dead ends to growing,
                         to choices,
                               to chances,
                                     to calls to be just;
                   no dead ends to living,
                         to making peace,
                                 to dreaming dreams,
                                     to being glad of heart;
       for this resurrection madness
             which is wiser than I
                   and in which I see
                         how great you are,
                               how full of grace.
                                     Alleluia!

Ted Loder, Guerrillas of Grace: Prayers for the Battle, Innisfree Press, Inc. 1984.

Going all the Way

Every year at this time, we have the opportunity to "go all the way" in reliving the events of Jesus' last days here on this earth. Like the first disciples we have the opportunity to choose, as best we can, to deepen our friendship with Christ by communing with him and learning from him as we walk each step of the way. At the beginning of this week we might ask, How will I be intentional about staying awake with Christ through all the events of this week? In the midst of leading others through Holy Week, where is that very private place where I can be present to Christ's suffering, learning the very personal lessons he has for me?

As we are intentional about seeking ways to walk with Christ through the events of this week, we are responding to his deep and consistent desire to be with those he loved-particularly during the time of his agony. This is an act of love and friendship with Christ. It is the gift of being present during the hardest and most unnerving part of his journey; we do it because he asks those he loves to remain near him and to stay with him, awake and alert. This is the gift of ourselves, which is the truest gift we have to give.

Let us pray together as we enter this Holy Week...

Lord Jesus Christ, prepare our hearts to walk with you the rest of the way. Help us to find ourselves in this part of your story and not run from the pain and the unanswerable questions contained within it. Draw us to sit with you at the Last Supper where you shared your heart so tenderly with your friends and also faced your betrayer honestly and without malice.

Help us to stay awake in the Garden of that Dark Night, as you wrestle with the death and dying that must take place in order for God's will to come forth. Give us the wisdom to know, as you did, when it is time to lay down our life so that some day we can take it up again.

Give us the grace to endure the pain of witnessing your humiliation and rejection so that we can more gracefully endure our own.

Help us to be as gut-wrenchingly honest as you were when you cried out, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"

Grant us the courage to let go when it is time.

Grant us the patience to wait with you in the silence of death until you call forth the resurrection.

Amen.

(By Ruth Haley Barton who is co-founder and president of the Transforming Center, a spiritual director, teacher and retreat leader.)

Palm Sunday...a day of paradox...mixed messages...

• The disciples were rejoicing ...Jesus was weeping.
• Those who exclaimed "crown him!" would soon be yelling "crucify him!"
• The king is introduced...riding humbly on a donkey.
• God comes...God not recognized.
• A whole city is stirred...but only a few hearts.
• They laid down their cloaks...but not their lives.

This Holy Week what could be worse than not recognizing the time of God's coming, or as one translation puts it, "the moment of God's visitation" to us? As we walk this journey with Jesus to the Cross, we can know that he walks the journey of our lives with us. He visits us in the "moments" of our day. When we miss him, he weeps over us. When we notice and respond, we experience his peace and fullness, grace upon grace.

There are several "moments" offered to us this week that allow us to enter the mystery and drama of redemption: Maundy Thursday where we remember the Last Supper and the "mandate" to love one another; Good Friday where we focus on Jesus pouring out his life for us, dying that we might live; Holy Saturday, the in-between waiting time between death and resurrection; and, finally, Resurrection Sunday when we celebrate and embrace the victory of our Lord over sin, death, and Satan. I pray that none of us misses any of these moments of God's visitation.

I hope you can make this opportunity part of your observance of Holy Week. Thanks so much to Scott for making it available to us.

You can also join us for 10 minutes of prayer at 9:15 and noon each day in the chapel as we enjoy the ancient form of praying the hours--entering God's day with dependence and worship.

"Applause, everyone.  Bravo, bravissimo!  Shout God-songs at the top of your lungs!" (Psalm 47:1 The Message)

"God celebrates. He invented delight, joy, and celebration. And one way we enter into the divine life of the Trinity is through celebration. Whether solemn or exhilarating, formal or spontaneous, celebration can enlarge our capacity to enjoy and serve God. ...[It is] the desire to take joyful, passionate pleasure in God and the radically glorious nature of God's people, Word, world, and purposes. Celebration is a way of engaging in actions that orient the spirit toward worship, praise and thanksgiving. Delighting in all the attentions and never-changing presence of the Trinity fuels celebration." (Adele Calhoun, Spiritual Disciplines Handbook, p.26-27)

To our students: Have a restful, renewing, and joyful celebration this Spring Break!

...Our heart longs for satisfaction, for total communion. But human beings, whether it’s your husband, your wife , your father, mother, brother, sister, or child, are all limited in giving the level of love and acceptance we all crave. But since we want so much and we get only part of what we want, we have to keep on forgiving people for not giving us all we want. So, I forgive you since you can only love me in a limited way. I forgive my mother that she is not everything I would like for her to be. I forgive my father because he did the best he could. This is of enormous importance right now because constantly people look to blame their parents, their friends, and the church for not giving them what they need. Many people are so angry. They cannot forgive people for offering only limited expressions of an unlimited love. God’s love is unlimited; our love is not. Any relationship you enter into—in communion, friendship, marriage, community or church—will always be riddled with frustration and disappointment. So forgiveness becomes the word for divine love in the human context.

Community is not possible without the willingness to forgive one another “seventy-seven times” (Matthew 18:22). Forgiveness is the cement of community life. Forgiveness holds us all together through good and bad times, and it allows us to grow in mutual love.

As people who have hearts that long for perfect love, we have to forgive one another for not being able to give or receive that perfect love in our everyday lives. Our many needs constantly interfere with our desire to be there for the other unconditionally. Our love is always limited by spoken or unspoken conditions. What needs to be forgiven? We need to forgive one another for not being God!

- Henri Nouwen, Spiritual Direction: Wisdom for the Long Walk of Faith, p.119-120

In that dismal culture Julian boldly stood against the brooding pessimism with a buoyant, yet well-grounded hope. She corrected misperceptions about her "courteous Lord" with statements such as, "He did not say: You will not be troubled, you will not be belaboured, you will not be disquieted; but he said: You will not be overcome." And again, "...for it is his will that we know that all the power of the enemy is shut in the hand of our Friend."

She was no flighty "Pollyanna" pretending that pain and evil weren't a threat. But her experience with Jesus gave her a settled faith that resurrection is the backdrop for crucifixion, that suffering is the prelude to glory, and that pain is an opportunity for redemption.

In her words, "And at the end of woe, suddenly our eyes will be opened, and in the clearness of our sight our light will be full, which light is God, our Creator, Father, and the Holy Spirit, in Christ Jesus our savior. So I saw and understood that our faith is our light in our night, which light is God, our endless day. (Howard Baker, The One True Thing, p. 42)

Dame Julian's words are reminiscent of two paradoxical promises that are embedded in Jesus' prayer in John 17:1) In this world we will have tribulation; 2) We will have fullness of joy. Indeed, her words help us embrace the paradox of joy in the midst of heartache and struggle.

Pastors, insisted Gregory, must live a higher life, one that combines both action and contemplation. If we want to know why, we need only to look at the life of Jesus: he ate and drank with sinners by day, performed miracles of healing and fed the multitudes. But throughout the night, he prayed on a mountain.

To Gregory, the lesson was clear: service and prayer are the two essential sides of a redemptive and productive ministry. By living an active life, full of works of neighbor-love; expressing the virtues of faith, hope, and charity; growing in the fruit of the Spirit, one arrives at more intense and joyful contemplation.

The question remains: How do we achieve true contemplation in the midst of busyness? Gregory recommended a number of specific practices:

Read and study Scripture.

Cultivate humility and other virtues, such as discernment.

Recognize your own sinfulness and God's holiness-and allow yourself to experience the resulting "fear of the Lord."

And step away from your busyness at times, withdrawing from exterior distractions into interior contemplation.

This was always the most important spiritual discipline for Gregory. You must "turn away from the distractions of knowing about things to the serious, even frightening, task of reflection on the inner self."

But never, of course, should you remove yourself from the life of active charity to others. That was Gregory's temptation as a newly elected pope, yearning for the old peace of the cloister. But through a papacy remarkable for its intensive activity (his over 800 extant letters deal with every imaginable sort of administrative matter), he came to disagree with his culture's elevation of the monastic life above all others.

--Excerpted from Chris Armstrong, "When Details Get You Down," Leadership Journal, February, 2009.

Let us continue to pray for one another, for our Seminary leadership, and for our Seminary Board to have the spirit of Christ as we follow and lead in these challenging and opportune times.

I have been asked to reflect on my five years in the presidency at Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary...Yet at the very heart of my reflection on my service lies this one major conclusion... I was wrong. I was wrong in my understanding and preconceived notions of leadership in Christian ministry. I was wrong in my expectations of others and myself. And I was wrong in my motivations, which may be the hardest thing to admit.

...My problem was not with preparation, motivation, or even with a sense of true calling and a sincere desire to serve God with the best of my skills and abilities. The problem lay solely with my pre-determined understanding of what Christian leadership is really all about.

Five years ago, if you had asked me for a Scripture that epitomized the leadership ideal, I would likely have pointed you to Nathan's directive to King David, "Whatever you have in mind, go ahead and do it, for the Lord is with you." (2 Samuel 7:3) I could identify with David as ‘God's man at God's time' and I believed that God would pour out his wisdom and favor if I could be such a man. After all, there were kingdoms to conquer and people to be led. There were great things to be done for the Lord and no vision was too limited and no goal too small.

Now, five years later, I would point to a different verse. In speaking of Jesus' incarnation, Paul tells us, "he made himself a man of no reputation, taking on the very nature of a servant." (Phil 2:7) The verse does not say that Jesus became a man of bad reputation, or questionable reputation, but simply of ‘no' reputation. That is, reputation, image, prestige, prominence, power, and other trappings of leadership were not only devalued, they were purposefully dismissed. Jesus became such a man. Not by default or accident, but by intention and design. And it was only in this form that he could serve, love, give, teach, and yes, lead.

In reflecting on these past five years, I have come to believe that true Christian leadership is an ongoing, disciplined practice of becoming a person of no reputation, and thus, becoming more like Christ in this unique way. In his reflections on Christian leadership, Henri Nouwen refers to this as resisting the temptation to be relevant. He says, "I am deeply convinced that the Christian leader of the future is called to be completely irrelevant and to stand in this world with nothing to offer but his or her own vulnerable self." Five years ago I rejected this idea outright. In doing so, I was wrong. Today I see and affirm this important notion that lies at the heart of godly leadership. (Excerpted from  "Becoming a Leader of No Reputation," Journal of Religious Leadership, Vol. 1, No. 2 (Fall 2002), pp. 105 - 119.)

R. Scott Rodin is President of Rodin Consulting of Spokane, Washington and part of the John R. Frank Consulting Group of Seattle, Washington. R. Scott Rodin is the former president of Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The full article is available at http://www.christianleaders.org/JRL/Fall2002/rodin.htm and I enthusiastically recommend it.

Lent is supposed to be the time when we think of Jesus in the wilderness. And the wilderness belongs to us. It is always lurking somewhere as part of our experience, and there are times when it seems pretty near the whole of it. Most people's wilderness is inside them, not outside. Our wilderness is an inner isolation. It's an absence of contact. It's a sense of being alone-boringly alone, or saddeningly alone, or terrifyingly alone.

This Lent, unlike the ecclesiastical charade, this sense of being isolated and therefore unequipped, is a necessary part, or a necessary stage, of our experience as human beings. It therefore found a place in the life of the Son of Man. Because he is us, he too did time in the wilderness. And what happened to him there shows us what is happening to ourselves. Here, as always, we see in his life the meaning of our own.

...This then is our Lent, our going with Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted. And we might apply to it some words from the the First Epistle of St. Peter: Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal which comes upon you to prove you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice, in so far as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.

Christ's glory is his full and satisfying communion with all that is. It is the opposite of being isolated. You don't have to wait for this until you die or the world comes to an end. It can be yours now. Accept your wilderness. From the story of the Son of Man realize what your Lent really means, and then angels will minister to you as they did to him.

Ancient is the season of Lent, when the Christian is encouraged to think of her death and the sin that caused it---to examine herself, to know herself so deeply and well that knowledge becomes confession.  But ancient, too, is the consolation such an exercise provides, ancient precisely because it is eternal.

It is this: that when we genuinely remember the death we deserve to die, we will be moved to remember the death the Lord in fact did die---because his took the place of ours. Ah, children, we will yearn to hear the Gospel story again and again, ever seeing therein our death in his, and rejoicing that we will therefore know a rising like his as well.

From Reliving the Passion by Walter Wangerin, pp.21-22

"...and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf." ---2 Corinthians 5:15

How might you, in some small yet intentional, specific and devoted way, live for Jesus in these 40 days leading up to the celebration of His Risen Life?  Ash Wednesday is February 25 this year.

Part of your practice might be the ancient tradition of "praying the hours."  On campus you can join with other students at 9:15 and noon each day in the chapel for this form of prayer.

If you had to bet everything you have on whether there is a God or whether there isn't, which side would get your money and why?

When you look at your face in the mirror, what do you see in it that you most like and what do you see in it that you most deplore?

If you had only one last message to leave to the handful of people who are most important to you you, what would it be in twenty-five words or less?

Of all the things you have done in your life, which is the one you would like to undo?  Which is the one that makes you happiest to remember?

Is there any person in the world, or any cause, that, if circumstances called for it, you would be willing to die for?

If this were the last day of your life, what would you do with it?

To hear yourself try to answer questions like these is to begin to hear something not only of who you are but of both what you are becoming and what you are failing to become.  It can be a pretty depressing business all in all, but if sackcloth and ashes are at the start of it, something like Easter may be at the end. (Frederich Buechner, Whistling in the Dark)

The Lenten season begins on Ash Wednesday (February 25 this year) and lasts for 40 days, not counting Sundays. My favorite devotional for Lent, you ask? Walter Wangerin's, Reliving the Passion because it immerses the reader/pray-er in the Greatest Story in a personal and intimate way.

Like a double helix rendered elegant by complexity and splendid by authority, the amalgam of gospel and shared meal with the discipline of fixed-hour prayer were, and have remained, the chain of golden connection tying Christian to Christ and Christian to Christian across history, across geography, and across idiosyncrasies of faith. The former is known as the food and sustenance of the Church, the latter as its work. The Divine Hours is about the second part of this double strand, the work; it is a manual for the contemporary exercise of fixed-hour prayer."  (Phyllis Tickle, The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime, p.vii.)

Thanks to the initiative of the Student Council, the Denver Seminary community has the opportunity to observe the ancient tradition of fixed-hour prayer twice daily.  Students, faculty, and staff are invited to gather in the chapel at 9:15am and at noon to enjoy this form of prayer together.

In a column for Christianity Today, Philip Yancey writes:
As I read accounts of the New Testament church, no characteristic stands out more sharply than [diversity]. Beginning with Pentecost, the Christian church dismantled the barriers of gender, race, and social class that had marked Jewish congregations. Paul, who as a rabbi had given thanks daily that he was not born a woman, slave, or Gentile, marveled over the radical change: "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus."

One modern Indian pastor told me, "Most of what happens in Christian churches, including even miracles, can be duplicated in Hindu and Muslim congregations. But in my area only Christians strive, however ineptly, to mix men and women of different castes, races, and social groups. That's the real miracle." ("Denominational Diagnostics," Christianity Today, November 2008)

But this year I have started out trying to live all my waking moments in conscious listening to the inner voice, asking without ceasing, ‘What Father, do you desire said?  What, Father, do you desire done this minute?'

It is clear that this is exactly what Jesus was doing all day every day.  But it is not what His followers have been doing in very large numbers.

Practicing the presence of God is not on trial. It has already been proven countless thousands of people.  Indeed, the spiritual giants of all ages have known it. Christians who do it today become more fervent and beautiful and are tireless witnesses.  Men and women who had been slaves of vices have been set free.  ...The results of this effort begin to show clearly in a month. They grow rich after six months, and glorious after ten years. This is the secret of the great saints of all ages. 'Pray without ceasing,' said Paul, 'in everything make your wants known unto God.' 'As many as are led by the spirit of God, these are the sons of God.'

We are practicing a new freedom, not a new bondage.  We fix our eyes on Jesus...

I pray these inviting words from Jesus will set the tone for the semester for all of us:

Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me-watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly. (Matthew 11:28-30, The Message)

Rest...recover...rhythms...grace...live...freely...lightly=keeping company with Jesus.

This vibrant poetic passage looks at what seem to be opposites--birth and death, planting and reaping, crying and laughing--and rather than contrasting them, it incorporates them. It says that these are the realities of life that God puts together in HIS time, not ours. God invades our experience, whether that experience is joyful or sorrowful, and fills it with his presence, infuses it with his grace, and gives it meaning. We prefer the joyful experiences to the  sorrowful ones, but the gospel brings them together and says, essentially, that to God it doesn't make any difference. The time you are in, whether it is birth or death, laughing or weeping, is God's time. He can bring his presence into each and every experience of life. And with his presence, his peace.

I hope you will join me in this prayer for the new semester:  that each student, faculty, and staff will not only live, but thrive, in the constant conscious awareness of the presence of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Thou hidden source of calm repose,
Thou all sufficient love divine
My help and refuge from my foes
Secure I am while thou art mine
And lo! from sin, and grief, and shame
I hide me Jesus in Thy name

Thy mighty name salvation is,
And keeps my happy soul above:
Comfort it brings, and power, and peace,
And joy, and everlasting love:
To me, with Thy great name, are given
Pardon, holiness and heaven.

Jesus, my All in all Thou art
My rest in toil, my ease in pain
The healing of my broken heart,
In war my peace, in loss my gain,
My smile beneath the tyrant's frown,
In shame my glory and my crown,

In want my plentiful supply,
In weakness my almighty power,
In bonds my perfect liberty,
My light in Satan's darkest hour,
In grief my joy unspeakable,
My life in death: my All in all. Amen.

---Thou hidden source of calm respose by Charles Wesley, 1749

Thanks to Dr. Keith Wells for this contribution.

The Christmas story is familiar to everyone. Christmas cards and other modern renditions give us glimpses of flawless Mary in pristine wrinkle-free clothing, a steady and unperturbed Joseph in an equally immaculate robe, a cheerful stable with clean straw and friendly animals, and the arrival of shepherds in newly laundered snow-white tunics with dirt-free sandals on their feet. It is a romanticized version of course, and can cause problems for our own spiritual growth if we take it too seriously.

Luke's version is different: Mary isn't even officially married to Joseph yet she's pregnant; they have to travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem, a distance of forty miles through the Samaritan and Judean hills; Mary goes into labor in Bethlehem, but there is no proper room for her; she gives birth-never an easy process under the best of circumstances-and has to lay her first-born infant not in a cradle, but a feeding trough; in the middle of the night shepherds burst in upon them, shepherds who smell of woodsmoke and sweat and sheep, still shocked over what they have seen in the sky (not likely welcome intruders considering that shepherds were considered rough and dangerous).  

The true Christmas story seems like something of a mess. If we put ourselves into this situation, we sense pretty quickly it is no glittering Christmas card. It is real life. In our lives things, even important things, do not always or even usually happen exactly when and where we want them to. There can be a tendency, when things do not come together smoothly, to wonder what has gone wrong with our prayers or our relationship with God. This is why the true story of Christ's birth is far more helpful to us than the parody we immerse ourselves in every December 25. This account in Luke is indeed the birth of God's Son, a birth anticipated for thousands of years, a birth announced by angels in a blaze of light, a birth unquestionably superintended by God himself. And what do we find? A child born out of wedlock. A rough journey. No room to breathe. Noise. Confusion. The pain of childbirth unalleviated, but for Joseph, by familiar faces. Strangers breaking in out of the night. Yet God's will is done.

If God brings about his Son's birth in such a dark and convoluted fashion-or so it appears to our eyes-may we not expect his will to be worked out in our lives, from time to time if not frequently, in a similar fashion?  

                       --The Renovare Spiritual Formation Bible, Luke 2:1-20 note

Have a wonderful break celebrating God's work in the real Christmas story and in your real story.

Werenfried van Straaten

Jesus identified his own message with what he called the coming of the "reign of God" or the "kingdom of God," whereas we had often settled for the sweet coming of a baby who asked little of us in terms of surrender, encounter, mutuality or any studying of the Scriptures or the actual teaching of Jesus. Sentimentality, defined as trumped-up emotions, can be an avoiding of and substitute for an actual relationship, as we see in our human relationships, too. We...must admit that there is a constant temptation among us to avoid... the Word of God for private and pious devotions that usually have little power to actually change us or call our ego assumptions into question. The Word of God, however, confronts, converts and consoles us, in that order. The suffering, injustice and devastation on this planet are too great now for any infantile gospel or any infantile Jesus. Actually, that has always been true. "Jesus is Lord!" of all creation! This was the rallying cry of the early church (Philippians 2:11, Acts 2:36, Romans 1:4, etc.). It is to this adult and cosmic Christ that we are saying, "Come, Lord Jesus" (Revelation 22:20), which are the final words of the Bible. This makes our entire lives, and the life of the church, one huge "advent."...Remember Advent is always--until the end of days.

The wonder, mystery and beauty of this Advent season is captured in just a few words by Madeleine L'Engle's poem "After Annunciation":

This is the irrational season
When love blooms bright and wild.
Had Mary been filled with reason
There'd have been no room for the child.

(For the history buffs, you can see an "Advent History" pdf document on urbanskye.org)

Thanksgiving, thanksgiving. All must be thanksgiving.

It took thirty-eight thousand Levites to give thanks to God in David's day; every morning and every evening the shifts changed. Four thousand were needed just to carry the hacked carcasses of cattle, and another four thousand were needed to sing about it. The place reeked of blood, was soaked in blood. The priests stood around gnawing and chewing and giving thanks. They did not cross-stitch their gratitude on samplers to frame and hang on the wall. They wrote their thanks in blood on the doorposts every year.

Thanksgiving is not a task to be undertaken lightly. It is not for dilettantes or aesthetes. One does not dabble in praise for one's own amusement, nor train the intellect and develop perceptual skills to add to his repertoire. We're not talking about the world as a free course in art appreciation. No. Thanksgiving is not a result of perception; thanksgiving is the access to perception. -- From And the Trees Clap Their Hands by Virginia Stem Owens

May this Thanksgiving season find us all fully aware of our God's greatness and goodness...and find us spectacularly grateful.

The film is called "The Third Wave" which is about four independent volunteers, who after the 2004 Asian tsunami disaster, meet up by fate at the Sri Lankan airport and go off to volunteer. A two week journey turns into a year long adventure as they find themselves in charge of running a refugee camp for over 3000 people.

This is their story which explores the depths of human behavior with mankind at its very best and at its cruelest. Everything changes when the worlds' tsunami money doesn't materialize and the village slowly begins to turn on them forcing them to break every rule in the disaster aid books.

 The Film was celebrated at this years 2008 Cannes Film Festival by Sean Penn and Bono at a special Presidential Jury Screening and also a few weeks ago at the Tokyo international film festival, Tribeca film festival, Sydney festival, Monaco, L.A and many more including at the United Nations on Dec 10th.

It is set for a small theatrical release in January of 09.

It was also chosen by Will Stoller-Lee and the Priddy brothers to showcase at the recent Windrider film series screened for the seminary college recently in Colorado Springs and also at the Anglican seminary college in Toronto a few months ago followed by long question and answer time and discussions

I am the director of the film and am also a christian and the message of the film is unconditional love and that "everyone is needed."

Please tell your friends or church or class or anyone u know in Denver about it. The message is for everyone. The Third Wave is a deeply moving film which will resonate deep within your soul.

"The Third Wave is truly a must see for ourselves, our children and everyone we know. For anyone that has two good legs and a dollar in their pocket. It inspires the very best in us, just when we need that the most and comes as close to answering our purpose in life, more than any other film in my recent memory." Sean Penn's Quote on the film

Tickets can be reserved on the Denverfilmfestival.com website.

The screenings will be at the Starz Film Center in Denver on Saturday NOV the 22nd at 430pm and also on Sunday NOV 23rd at 1:15pm.

A question and answer time will follow by the filmmakers and volunteers. The film's editor is a hometown boy from Denver and also one of the main volunteers is from Colorado.

• Are you willing to be shunned by your family?
• Are you willing to lose your job or be kicked out of school?
• Are you willing to bring your offerings to God rather than to false gods?
• Are you willing to be beaten, persecuted, and go to prison for the name of Jesus?
• Are you willing to go back to your village and family and introduce them to Jesus?
  

If so, welcome to the family!

This reminds me of the famous Bonhoeffer line: When Jesus calls someone, he bids them to come and die. May we have the passion, courage, and commitment to follow Jesus as do these teenagers in Nepal.

--John Henry Newman's Prayer which was prayed daily by Mother Teresa and her workers

Place your heart in the figure of the divine substance!

And be transformed in your whole being into the image of the Godhead through contemplation!

So that you may feel what His friends feel as they taste the hidden sweetness which God has reserved from the beginning for those who love Him.

Happy, indeed, are they to whom it is given to share this sacred banquet, to cling with all their heart to Him.

Whose beauty all the heavenly hosts adore unceasingly,

Whose love inflames our love,

Whose contemplation is our refreshment,

Whose graciousness is our joy,

Whose gentleness fills us to overflowing,

Whose remembrance brings a gentle light,

Whose fragrance will revive the dead,

Whose glorious vision will be the happiness of all the citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem.

--A Letter to Agnes of Prague from Clare, who was the lifelong friend of St. Francis of Assisi. She founded an order of Franciscans known as the Poor Clares and was so influential that popes, cardinals, and bishops sought her advice.

Prayer and theology are inseparable. True theology is the adoration offered by the intellect. The intellect clarifies the movement of prayer, but only prayer can give it the fervour of the Spirit. Theology is light, prayer is fire. Their union expresses the union of the intellect and the heart. But it is the intellect that must "repose" in the heart, and theology must transcend it in love.

‘If you are a theologian you will pray truly; and if you pray truly you are a theologian." (Evagrius)

~ Olivier Clement, The Roots of Christian Mysticism, p. 183-4.

This quote leads me to a foundational question: Do I want to cultivate a ministry that will eventually suck the life out of me; or do I want to build a life out of which authentic ministry will inevitably flow? (See John 15)

One: Hear our prayer.
All: Grant us peace.
One: From the arrogance of power
All: Deliver us
One: From the myth of redemptive violence
All: Deliver us
One: From the tyranny of greed
All: Deliver us
One: From the ugliness of racism
All: Deliver us
One: From the cancer of hatred
All: Deliver us
One: From the seduction of wealth
All: Deliver us
One: From the addiction of control
All: Deliver us
One: From the idolatry of nationalism
All: Deliver us
One: From the paralysis of cynicism
All: Deliver us
One: From the violence of apathy
All: Deliver us
One: From the ghettos of poverty
All: Deliver us
One: From the ghettos of wealth
All: Deliver us
One: From a lack of imagination
All: Deliver us
One: Deliver us, O God
All: Guide our feet into the way of peace
One: We will not conform to the patterns of this world
All: Let us be transformed by the renewing of our minds
One: With the help of God's grace
All: Let us resist evil wherever we find it
....
One: Today we pledge our ultimate allegiance... to the Kingdom of God
All: We pledge allegiance
One: To a peace that is not like Rome's
All: We pledge allegiance
One: To the Gospel of enemy love
All: We pledge allegiance
One: To the Kingdom of the poor and broken
All: We pledge allegiance
One: To a King that loves his enemies so much he died for them
All: We pledge allegiance
One: To the least of these, with whom Christ dwells
All: We pledge allegiance
One: To the transnational Church that transcends the artificial borders of nations
All: We pledge allegiance
One: To the refugee of Nazareth
All: We pledge allegiance
One: To the homeless rabbi who had no place to lay his head
All: We pledge allegiance
One: To the cross rather than the sword
All: We pledge allegiance
One: To the banner of love above any flag
All: We pledge allegiance
One: To the one who rules with a towel rather than an iron fist
All: We pledge allegiance
One: To the one who rides a donkey rather than a war-horse
All: We pledge allegiance
One: To the revolution that sets both oppressed and oppressors free
All: We pledge allegiance
One: To the Way that leads to life
All: We pledge allegiance
One: To the Slaughtered Lamb
All: We pledge allegiance
One: And together we proclaim his praises, from the margins of the empire to the centers of wealth and power
All: Long Live the Slaughtered Lamb
One: Long Live the Slaughtered Lamb
All: Long Live the Slaughtered Lamb

--Excerpts from the "Jesus for President" liturgy.

In Christ we have everything...
If you want to heal your wound, he is the doctor.
If you are burning with fever, he is the fountain.
If you are in need of help, he is strength.
If you are in dread of death, he is life.
If you are fleeing the darkness, he is light.
If you are hungry, he is food: O, taste and see that the Lord is good!
Happy are those who take refuge in him (Ps. 34:8).

---Ambrose, On Virginity, 16, 99.

...And if you will  here stop and ask yourself why you are not as pious as the primitive Christians were, your own heart will tell you that it is neither through ignorance nor inability, but purely because you never thoroughly intended it.

...And when you have this intention to please God in all your actions as the happiest and best thing in the world, you will find in you as great an aversion to everything that is vain and impertinent in common life, whether of business or pleasure, as you now have to anything that is profane."

William Law, A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life, pp. 52, 57.

"When The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was first published in 1950, it became an instant bestseller. Hundreds of children wrote letters to C. S. Lewis, and with the help of Warnie, he answered nearly every one. Lewis never forgot what it was like to be a child. He remembered wrestling with his questions and thoughts and feelings-and how he felt adults ignored or dismissed them.

Lewis always responded to his fans with thoughtful letters of his own. He thanked them for the drawings they sent of their favorite characters. He answered their questions about Narnia and writing and life in general. Sometimes he gave them simple but profound spiritual advice. Less than a month before he died in 1963, he penned the following letter. It turned out to be a fond and fitting farewell to all of his devoted readers:

Dear Ruth,

Many thanks for your kind letter, and it was very good of you to write and tell me that you like my books; and what a very good letter you write for your age!

If you continue to love Jesus, nothing much can go wrong with you, and I hope that you may always do so. I'm so thankful that you realized the "hidden story" in the Narnian books. It is odd, children nearly always do, grown-ups hardly ever.

I'm afraid the Narnian series has come to an end, and am sorry to tell you that you can expect no more.

God bless you.

Yours sincerely,
C. S. Lewis."

http://www.christianitytoday.com/tc/2005/006/1.30.html

Rules for Self-Discovery

---A.W. Tozer, That Incredible Christian, pp. 101-102.

We love because He first loved us. (I John 4:19) We have communion because He is continually knocking on the door of our hearts. (Rev. 3:20) We pray as response to God's many initiating words to us in the Scriptures, in creation, in the Word made flesh, in our circumstances.

In all of these ways God is constantly initiating, guiding by His Spirit, speaking through His Word and Spirit.  Jesus himself confessed that he did nothing on his own initiative (John 5:30), but only did what he saw the Father doing (John 5:19) and only spoke what he learned from the Father (John 8:26,28).

How did Jesus see and hear the Father? The Gospels reveal a Jesus who would often withdraw to the wilderness to pray (Luke 5:16), who would spend an entire night in prayer (Luke 6:12), who both taught (Matthew 6:16-18) and practiced (Matthew 4:2-4; John 4:32,34) fasting.

God is speaking, initiating, and being present to us. Are we individually and as a community listening, noticing, praying, and fasting, as Jesus did, in order to hear the Father's voice and see His hand at work? How else will we know what He desires to do in us and through us?

This is not a time for taking the initiative or for taking charge, but neither is it the time for taking for granted that we are doing and being His will. Rather this is the time for waiting upon the Lord, for from Him alone is our salvation. (Psalm 62) This is a time for seeking, for praying, for fasting, that we may see and hear what the Father is up to.

What is the invitation that you are hearing from your Good Shepherd? How are you being called to pray, to fast, to repent, to obey? "Let the one who has an ear hear what the Spirit says to the churches." (Rev. 2:7,11,17,29; 3:6,13,22)

As the surge of His Spirit bubbles up from deep within us and we, as a community hear his voice, may we have the courage and strength by the grace of God to trust and to obey....and, possibly, to be set on fire.

Dr. Gordon McDonald called us yesterday at Common Ground to be attentive to our national (and international) economic crisis and its repercussions upon people; then to consider how we may respond as representatives of Christ to those around us. As part of this call, we were exhorted to repentance and renewal. Let us hear from the LORD through His prophet Hosea, who spoke in a time of Israel's great wealth and idolatry:

HOSEA 10

The downfall of a wealthy and arrogant nation...
10:1-2: "Israel is a luxuriant vine that yields its fruit. The more his fruit increased the more altars he built; as his country improved, he improved his pillars. Their heart is false; now they must bear their guilt. The Lord will break down their altars, and destroy their pillars."

The call to seek Him and the promise of blessing...
10:12 : "Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap [His] steadfast love; break up your fallow ground; for it is time to seek the Lord, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you." (NRSV)

Notes for reflection...

The "fallow" ground is that which has been left unseeded. It is also translated from the Hebrew as "fresh," in other words, ripe for planting and harvest. The phrase "it is time" is also translated from the Hebrew as: "of a time ideally present." To "sow for oneself righteousness" seems a daunting task, yet the verse actually ends with the promise that HIS righteousness is what will be poured on us. To "sow" then, could be interpreted as us allowing our hardened hearts to be softened toward the LORD, seeking Him, and so ready and willing to receive what is only His to give. It is the paradox of our Christian life: just as we strive to have more faith; yet the LORD desires that we ask to receive more faith from Him. As was shared in Chapel yesterday: "But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well" (Matt 6:33).

IT IS TIME.

Thank you Jackie for these heartfelt insights. If the Lord is putting something on your heart that needs to be shared with our community, please pass it on to me. We are continuing in this season of prayer, fasting, seeking, and listening for what the Spirit may be doing, wanting to do among us. As you are led and are able, please devote some time regularly for prayer and fasting, for seeking and listening. Gather together in small groups to pray, discern, and discuss what you are hearing from the Word and the Spirit. Together let us be vigilant concerning the work and word of our Lord.

It was an amazing evening. The Seminary Chapel was packed out. People were standing around the walls and sitting outside the doors. This was not a Denver Seminary crowd (although a number of students and quite a few Asians from the Seminary were in attendance). A group of young people were sitting near us; the young woman next to me said she had read The Heavenly Man twice. I told her that my niece (from whom we had first learned about Brother Yun) so wished that she could be here, that it would be like meeting Jesus or one of his disciples. "Oh, Yes!!" the young woman exclaimed excitedly. She and the others with her were part of a group from a large church in Colorado Springs who had visited China. She was so encouraged that so many had turned out for the event. "God has saved 7,000 for himself," she declared, her eyes glowing with joy. I piped up, "Yes, like God said to Elijah."

The room was not just full of people, it was full of the Holy Spirit. I thought to myself, "I never would have believed it possible!" It has been more years than I can remember since I've known such a powerful sense of the Spirit's presence.  But I should not limit God so. If Brother Yun had one central theme, it was that Jesus is alive and will do whatever he pleases to do. Mighty miracles are an easy thing for the Lord to do, and when he determines to do a thing, he does it.

Well no, that was not the central theme. Another theme was also central to his message, namely, that we absolutely must have wholehearted, unconditional love for, and trust in, the Lord Jesus. No matter what.

The best part of the evening for me was when Brother Yun recounted a time he was imprisoned and had been tortured and very badly beaten. He had been taken back to his cell and he lay there, wanting to die. The guard taunted him, saying he was crazy and would never get out of there alive (which certainly looked to be the case). Then the Lord brought to Yun's mind a verse from Scripture (I forget what it was), and he was heartened and emboldened by this truth of God's Word. So he determined that he would defy the guards and his circumstances and commence to praise the Lord. They thought he was crazy? So, he would act crazy! He began to sing Psalm 63 as loudly as he could. And at that point in his talk, Yun commenced to do just that. The translator was quiet as Yun sang through the whole psalm. I couldn't take my eyes off him. He was just pouring out his heart before the Lord, as though he were back in that prison cell. There was no sense of self consciousness. He was not trying to impress anyone. He had no singing voice to speak of. But oh, it was beautiful. It was like stepping into the anteroom of heaven.

Both Brother Yun (which is pronounced somewhere between yun and yoon) and his translator (a middle-aged Finnish man, who also had been imprisoned in China), were so patently earnest, real, and zealous for the Lord. It was obvious that they didn't just talk the talk, as they say. Their testimony was the real thing. It was Paul and Peter and Jesus. For two hours the audience was riveted to the podium. I found all this spiritual reality wonderful, but also rather difficult to bear, and I couldn't help weeping slightly throughout the whole time (used up quite a few tissues blowing and blotting). I felt quite silly, when I stopped to think about it, which wasn't often.

You don't need power point and anecdotes and endless references to American popular culture, you don't need to limit the length of the message to 30 minutes lest people lose interest, you don't need loud music with subwoofers and proudly prancing "worship" leaders on stage. You don't need any of that, if you can just have the presence of the Holy Spirit. And his presence in fullness is possible only when the Word of God abides in hearts that are sold out to Jesus, live or die, come hell or high water. 

R.M.G.

All I would ask of each of us is to seek the Lord in prayer and fasting in regard to His will for us individually and corporately. Could we together follow Jesus' instruction in Matthew 7:7 to ask, seek, and knock? "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; and knock, and it will be opened to you."

Tuesday's Common Ground will be a time of "open worship" in the Quaker tradition where we simply listen for and respond to the movement of the Holy Spirit. Would you specifically pray that in that hour the Holy Spirit might speak clearly to us as a community? Of course, I am praying that many of you will be able to be a part of that time and the vessels of His voice.

This is not a time of trying to "make something happen" or to "stir up" revival through human means or to coerce anyone in a direction toward which they are not called by the Spirit. It simply a season to seek, listen, ask, and respond to our Lord the Spirit.

AS YOU HAVE THOUGHTS, SUGGESTIONS, CONCERNS, VISIONS :-), IMPRESSIONS FROM THE LORD, ANSWERS TO YOUR SEEKING, ETC. PLEASE PASS THEM ALONG TO ME AND I WILL COLLECT AND POST THEM (with your permission).

Now a few quotes from Brother Yun:

Before I traveled to the West I had absolutely no idea that so many churches were spiritually asleep. I presumed the Western church was strong and vibrant because it had brought the gospel to my country with such incredible faith and tenacity. Many missionaries had shown a powerful example to us by laying down their lives for the sake of Jesus.

On some occasions I've struggled while speaking in Western churches. There seems to be something missing that leaves me feeling terrible inside. Many meetings are cold and lack the fire and presence of God that we have in China.

In the West many Christians have an abundance of material possessions, yet they live in a backslidden state. They have silver and gold, but they don't rise up and walk in Jesus' name. In China we have no possessions to hold us down, so there's nothing preventing us from moving out for the Lord.

...The pursuit of more possessions will never bring revival. ...The first thing needed for revival to return to your churches is the Word of the Lord. God's word is missing. [Brother Yun memorized a chapter a day from the Bible shortly after he began following Jesus.] Sure there are many preachers and thousands of tapes and videos of Biblical teaching, but so little contains the sharp truth of God's Word. It's the truth that will set you free.

Not only is knowledge of God's Word missing, but obedience to that Word. There's not much action taking place. ...You can never really know the Scriptures until you're willing to be changed by them.

All genuine revivals of the Lord result in believers responding with action and soul winning. When God truly moves in your heart you cannot remain silent. There will be a fire in your bones, like Jeremiah, who said, "His word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot." Jeremiah 20:9
                ---from THE HEAVENLY MAN, p. 295-297

We will formally begin a call to renewal next Tuesday in Common Ground with a time of "open worship" which is a form of worship in the Quaker tradition. After a couple of worship songs we will wait in silence for the Spirit's promptings-one may be prompted to read a scripture, another to witness to God's grace and power, another to pray, someone else to give a challenge, and so it goes....or we may sit together in silence waiting upon the Lord. It is up to the leading of the Holy Spirit.

Stay tuned...more to come...as He leads....

Howard

"O Almighty God, give to thy servants a meek and gentle spirit, that we may be slow to anger, and easy to mercy and forgiveness. Give us wise and constant hearts, that we may never be moved to intemperate anger for any injury that is done or offered. Lord, let us ever be courteous, and easy to be entreated; let us never fall into a peevish or contentious spirit, but follow peace with all people; offering forgiveness, inviting them by courtesies, ready to confess our own errors, apt to make amends, and desirous to be reconciled. Let no sickness or gross accident, no employment or weariness, make us angry or ungentle and discontented, or unthankful, or uneasy to them that minister to us; but in all things make us like unto the holy Jesus. Amen."

2. Great writing helps us to see clearly what we have always felt vaguely.

3. Beauty evokes the exquisite ache of nostalgia for God.

4. Contemplative spirituality is simply living wide awake.

5. The contemporary church is hobbled in its mission to the world by the absence of contemplatives and mystics in her midst.

6. The purpose of contemplation:  to unite the whole person with the Trinity.

7. The spiritual life cannot flourish without deep intellectual foundations.

8. Mystical theology is systematic theology writ large.

9. The ferocity and torrential love of the trinitarian God cannot be apprehended by concepts.

10. God is the person whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere.

11. Be kind-everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.

12. Title of a short story describes many in our culture:  six characters in search of an author.

13. Liturgy is an act of personal protest that "renarrates" the world, that tells the only story that life can cohere around, the only center that holds.  It is the Gospel in compression, high-density.

14. In the Eucharist something happens, but we dare not articulate what.

Thanks to Ian Morgan Cron for leading us.

Our guest speaker for the two days will be Rev. Ian Cron who earned a Master's in Counseling at Denver Seminary and received a Master's in Divinity from New York Theological Seminary. He recently began doctoral studies at Fordham University (The Jesuit University of New York). He is an ordained Anglican priest and the founding pastor of Trinity Church in Greenwich, CT.

An accomplished songwriter in Nashville and New York City, he has two CDs of original work, "The Land of My Father's," produced by Grammy Award-nominated producer Rob Mathes and "Sacred Hunger," produced by three time Grammy Award-winning producer Phil Naish.

His first book Chasing Francis: A Pilgrim's Tale was published and released by NavPress in August of 2007. He is presently working on a book about Thomas Merton and contemplative spirituality. He and his wife of 19 years, Anne, live in Old Greenwich, CT with their three children: Cailey 17, Madeleine 14, and Aidan 11.

My hope and prayer is that many of you will be able to participate in all of the events of the conference and that all of you will enjoy at least one. Here is the schedule:

Monday 11-11:50amSpiritual Life Conference Session 1: "Learning to See"
Monday 12-1pm Brown Bag Lunch, Executive Board Room, Everyone Welcome!
Monday 7-9pm Spiritual Formation Event in the Chapel. Public invited.
Tuesday 11-11:50am Spiritual Life Conference Session 2: "Streams of Love"

Crossing over
Into the unknown,
Crossing over
From a secure land
To one whose roads
I have never walked.

Companion and Guide,
You are my transition coach.

You say to me:
"Cross over the bridge.
Go ahead, come on over.
It's sturdy enough.

Don't look down, though,
Or you might get terrified
And never walk across.

Don't look back too long
Or you will lose courage
And want to stay
Right where you are.

Hang on. Keep going.
That's what bridges are for,
To get you to the other side.
Trust me to protect you."

For all of us in transition
Who have bridges to cross,
Bless us, God of the journey,
Gift us with the desire to go ahead.

Help us to trust
That the bridge will be strong
And the risk will be worth it.

-Joyce Rupp, Out of the Ordinary