Pneuma (Nooma)
Sunday, March 3, 2013
Second Week of Lent
http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/030313-third-sunday-lent.cfm
Exodus 3:5, 14-15
God said to Moses, “The place where you stand is holy ground.” Moses said to God in the burning bush, “What will I say is your name?” And God replied to Moses, “I am who I am … this is my name forever for all generations.”
“I am who I am” is a rough translation of Yahweh, or YHWH. In its original Hebrew language this word is unpronounceable.
However, when you try to say it, the sound is like the sound of your breathing. It is like, with each breath, you are sounding out the name of God.
In Nooma 14, Rob Bell says, “In the Bible, the word for ‘breath’ is the same word as the word for ‘spirit.’ In the Hebrew language, that is the word ‘ruah.’ In the Greek language, it is the word ‘pneuma.’ One scripture says that when God takes away the ‘ruah,’ the breath of all living creatures, then they die and return to dust. But when God sends the ‘ruah,’ the Spirit, they are created. Breath … Spirit … same word.
“You are a sacred creation of God. The divine breath is flowing through you, and it’s flowing through the person next to you and it’s flowing through the person next to them. You are on holy ground. There is a holiness to the people around us and how you treat them. Jesus said that whatever you do for them, you have done for him.”
As the divine breath, the holy spirit flows through us, we breathe in and we breathe out. From the beginning of time every one of us has breathed in and breathed out all the moments and days of our lives. Every one of us, whether pagan or Jew, Christian or Hindu, Muslim or Mormon, has breathed in and out over and over all our lives. Mother Teresa breathed, and Adolf Hitler breathed. They both breathed in and out, over and over.
We have all of us breathed the name of God, even as God has breathed his spirit into us. We are all brothers and sisters in this way. There is no Muslim breath. There is no Hindu breath. There is no Christian breath. There is only … YHWH, in and out, over and over.
Rob Bell continues, “May you come to see that God is here right now with us all of the time. May you come to see that the ground you are standing on is holy. And as you slow down, may you become aware that it is in ‘Yod,’ ‘Heh,’ ‘Vav,’ ‘Heh’ that we live and we move and we breathe.”
In this breath, YHWH, we have our being. Quiet my mind and soften my heart that I may hear the sounds of your spirit deep within me, rising up and resting, rising up and resting. In every moment you are here.
http://www.christiancounselingservice.com/archived_devotions.php?article_id=1155
Prodigal father
Saturday, March 2, 2013
Second Week of Lent
http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/030213.cfm
Psalm 103:1
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name.
And these sweet, rounded beckoning words are just the top of the pie. All the readings today are rich with blessing and the prodigality of God. A few synonyms for prodigal: lavishly abundant, profusely extravagant, hugely generous.
Taste and see the goodness of the words today:
“Who is there like you, the God who removes guilt but delights rather in clemency.”
“You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.”
“The Lord pardons all your iniquities, he heals all your ills. He redeems your life from destruction, he crowns you with kindness and compassion.”
“As the heavens are high above the earth, so surpassing is his kindness toward those who fear him.”
“As far as the east is from the west, so far has he put our transgressions from us.”
“While his son was still a long way off his father caught sight of him and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him and kissed him.”
His father said, “Let us celebrate with a feast, because this son of mine was dead, and has come to life again. He was lost and has been found.” Then the celebration began.
One of my favorite Vineyard teacher/authors, Bill Jackson, says of God’s insistent love for all he creates, “Nothin, nothin, nothin’s gonna stop it!” We are surrounded by clouds of witnesses to God’s endless love.
The Greek word “Christ” means “anointed.” In the Christ mystery, matter and spirit co-exist. Jesus became that unity. But the footprint of God is on everything. Matter and spirit are entwined with each other in all of creation.
In the prayer titled “St. Patrick’s Breastplate,” Patrick sings in his fifth century Irish brogue, “Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right, Christ on my left, Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ when I arise, Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me, Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me, Christ in every eye that sees me, Christ in every ear that hears me.”
Blessed coming in and blessed going out are we, O Lord. Your grace rises up to meet us, and we are loved.
http://www.christiancounselingservice.com/archived_devotions.php?article_id=1154
RE-SPECT
Friday, March 1, 2013
Second Week of Lent
http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/030113.cfm
Genesis 37:19-20
Joseph’s brothers said of him, “Here comes that master dreamer! Come on, let us kill him.”
Matthew 21:37-38
Jesus said to the chief priests, “The landowner sent his son, thinking the tenants would respect his son. But when they saw the son they said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and acquire his inheritance.’”
In the long run it became obvious that neither Joseph nor Jesus were selfish. Joseph found ways to bless his brothers in spite of their betrayal. Jesus died for his.
Why would these good-natured, gentle souls be so misunderstood? True, their words inflamed their listeners at times. Joseph seemed not to comprehend that the dreams he spoke of cast him in a superior role to his brothers. Jesus regularly spoke bluntly and clearly about the hypocrisy and selfishness of the Jewish leaders.
But neither group listened beyond their own self-interest. His brothers missed Joseph’s heart – his ingenuous, child-like, generous heart. The Jewish Pharisees and scribes missed Jesus heart – his love, his compassion, his wisdom.
I am likely to do the same thing unless I “respect” the words I hear. “Respect” finds its roots in the Latin verb respicere, to “look back at,” to take a second look.
My first response to a surprising or critical statement is often self-protective. But I do get a second chance, if I wait for it. On the second thought, I often see how painful truth really does know my heart and love me.
Killing the messenger seems to be a regularly occurring disaster for the human race. i want to do less of this senseless murdering and learn to use the wonderful gift of taking a second look.
Open my eyes, Lord. And when you open my eyes, open my mind. And when you open my mind, open my heart. Life does not revolve around me. Your perspective is better than mine. Oh, yes, better. Way better. In my weakness you are strong.
http://www.christiancounselingservice.com/archived_devotions.php?article_id=1153
Confident humility on the downward path
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Second Week of Lent
http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/022813.cfm
Jeremiah 17:9-10
The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? The Lord alone probes the mind and tests the heart.
Luke 16:19-21
Jesus said to the Pharisees, “There was a rich man who dressed in purple garments and fine linen and dined sumptuously each day. And lying at his door was a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who would gladly have eaten his fill of the scraps that fell from the rich man’s table. Dogs even used to come and lick his sores.”
The pope will resign today. Benedict XVI, formerly Cardinal Ratzinger, formerly Father Josef, formerly (perhaps in his childhood) Jupp or Pepi will henceforth be called the Pope Emeritus. He was the 265th pope since Jesus’ death and resurrection. He is the first Pope Emeritus.
I think about how strange it must be during Lent for a priest, or a pope, to be “dressed in purple garments and fine linen and to eat (relatively) sumptuously each day.” Two films about the papacy, The Shoes of the Fisherman and We Have a Pope, send their papal protagonists disguised into the public. There are days when they “just can’t take it anymore,” when they feel their humility being replaced by hypocrisy, when they recognize their Lazarus position even if others do not.
Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Actually, that is NOT in the Bible.* Instead, Jesus says, “Whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant. Whoever wants to be first must be your slave.” Then, when Jesus invites us to take up our crosses like he took up his, he shows us the next step. We move down, not up. Greatness is never triumphalism. It is crucifixion.
The heady air of resurrection glory entices me into some kind of servanthood. (If I serve now, then someday I will be great, and be happy. I just have to wait out these miserable dog-licked days.) But just as those cinematic popes knew they weren’t triumphant and infallible saviors, so I must also know I’m not intended to abase and despise my true self.
Truly the ego heart, the ego mind, is deceitful above all things. But crucifixion does do emptying very well. Helplessness finally teaches my old mind to rest from its self-protective maneuvering. In this ego vacuum, finally the Lord’s “probing and testing” bear fruit.
God isn’t probing for cancer, though. I think he is stirring me up to love and good deeds, beguiling me back into the river of humanity, where I can stop drying up and start sharing all I’ve been given. Then comes the resurrection glory. Then comes the joy.
We are blessed who hope in you, Lord, like trees planted near running water, like willows dipping in the stream, caught in your current, caught and transformed by your love.
- Lord Acton, a 19th century Catholic British historian, said “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” He also said, less famously, “There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it.” And less famously still, ““The strong man with the dagger is followed by the weak man with the sponge.”
http://www.christiancounselingservice.com/archived_devotions.php?article_id=1151
Into your hands
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Second Week of Lent
http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/022713.cfm
Matthew 20:26-28
Jesus spoke to his quarreling disciples, “Whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave, just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve.”
Worshipping Jesus easily distracts me from following him. Gazing at him on the cross reminds me of what he’s done for me and all of us, and I fall on my knees in gratitude.
Jesus himself, however, asks me to be aware of the Giver as well as the gift. This “love of God for God’s sake” seems impossible when I’m thinking about me. So Paul’s paean to Jesus in Philippians 2:7 becomes a model: “He made himself nothing by taking the nature of a servant.”
I don’t think we’re left in the dark about how to do this. Doesn’t Jesus show us how? Jesus models a simple synthesis of contemplation and action, of worship and work. Pray in silence, waiting for God, every morning every day. And then help an old man across the street. Ask a stranger if I can pray for her. Look up. Look up. And then look right into the eyes of the one I’m with.
By definition, I cannot “empty” myself. The false self can’t kill the false self. Einstein said that we can’t solve a problem using the same kind of thinking that created it. This is a basic truism of scientific exploration, and of spiritual growth as well.
What I can do is put myself in position to be emptied, by spending time with God, with the Trinity. And then move into the Presence of others.
In this way I discover patience, a singular fruit of relationship with the Holy Spirit. Patience, as defined by Albert Haase, is “the deliberate, measured response of an accepting person to a situation as it unfolds on its own.”
And then the foot-washing becomes as natural as breathing.
Into your hands I commend my spirit. You will redeem me, O Lord, O faithful God. Let the words of my mouth, the meditations of my heart, be acceptable to you. Establish the work of my hands.
http://www.christiancounselingservice.com/archived_devotions.php?article_id=1152
Jesus’ rebuke
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Second Week of Lent
http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/022613.cfm
Isaiah 1:18
“Come now, let us reason together,” declares the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as whilte as snow. Though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.”
Matthew 23:3-4
Jesus spoke to the crowd about the Pharisees: “They preach but do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens hard to carry and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they will not lift a finger to move them.”
In The Divine Conspiracy, Dallas Willard explicates (at length) Jesus’ sermon on the mount as a “curriculum of Christ-likeness.” When Jesus asks me to follow him, he promises to show me how to be like him.
Following Jesus, as Jesus followed his Abba, is a reasonable thing to do. It is also difficult. Sometimes others look to me for direction. They might say, “What do you mean, let go and let God? How?” I see confusion, fear, and anger in their eyes, because there is a heavy burden on their shoulders, and they don’t know how to move it.
None of us should settle for emotional moments, or rationalized explanations, or other quick fixes when it comes to living life like Jesus. In the afterglow of salvation and redemption, we have plenty to do. True, much of our activity involves slowing down, getting quiet, becoming patient, waiting, learning the art of gratitude. But sustaining this is very hard work.
Simply accepting the gift of grace from God begs the question: What is “accept?” What do I do when I find myself resisting the gift? How well do I know the Giver? What kind of relationship do we have with each other? What do I know about the Giver? How do I know what I know?
The Holy Spirit assures me, offers rest for my troubled mind, and reminds me of the all-encompassing love God has for me. I am grateful. In God’s acceptance of me, I become more accepting too. Holy osmosis.
That is something I can share with my friends, and they with me, as we pass along and pass around the bread we’ve each been given for the journey.
Lord, when I hate discipline and cast your words behind me, do not be silent. You are not like me; instead you want to make me like you. Let me offer you my praise. Make my way steadfast. May I look upon the salvation of my Lord. (Psalm 50)
http://www.christiancounselingservice.com/archived_devotions.php?article_id=1150
Light on the path
Monday, February 25, 2013
Second Week of Lent
http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/022513.cfm
Luke 6:37
Jesus said to his disciples, “Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned.”
I don’t know about yours. I do know that my mind is a crowded city of tangled back alleys and dead ends, with very few thoroughfares. It is a maze, not a labyrinth, and exploration is difficult, frustrating and eventually terrifying. I often don’t see what is coming just around the next corner, and then suddenly I am filled with judgment, or even condemnation.
Of course these statements of my false self aim themselves at others, for a moment. Then they turn back on me. Paul’s words echo again, “What a wretched man I am.” The corners where I’m caught smell so familiar: poor-me-martyrdom, self-righteousness, resentment, ungodly sorrow, “cheap” grace, resignation. So much self-protection, but I am protecting nothing at all except my own image of myself. Mirror upon faulty mirror.
Introspection like this doesn’t end easily, and it doesn’t brighten up much when the sun comes out. The back alleys are covered up with old memories and patterns, and they block the sky. When I start traveling down these littered lanes, I get confused, then scared, and finally lost.
If this is anything like what happens to you, no wonder we think we need a rescue from the sky. God sees things very differently from me. I have one viewpoint, but he sees everything from everywhere. He is All in all.
But most of the supposed Rescuers from the sky turn us into something other than what we are. We become puppets, or little children not allowed to grow up, or independents entirely on our own. We are as likely as ever to be lost, even when we think we’re found.
Jesus doesn’t rescue like other “gods.” Not from the sky, and not by and by. He comes to me where I am, and he looks into my eyes. He is not afraid. He asks me to join him in the walk. “Follow me,” Jesus says.
So God enters our mumble-jumble-macaroni-tangled world and becomes us, and then invites us to become “part of him.” The Orthodox call this “theosis,” all of us call it salvation. A mysterious way appears in the maze of my caught-up thinking. It wasn’t there before … or rather, it was always there and I was blind.
In this new sight, acceptance replaces judgment. No hurry, God is good. Patience with others, and especially with myself, takes root. All things work together, in me and all around me, in us and all around us. We are all God’s lilies.
Lord, your voice is faint and then it’s clear: stop walking and stand. Wait. Look at me, and follow me, and come to know yourself. There is no fear here in love. I will show you how.
http://www.christiancounselingservice.com/archived_devotions.php?article_id=1149
Starry, starry night
http://lighttalk.via-verlag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/191-Van-Gogh-Starry-Nights-1.jpg
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Second Sunday of Lent
http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/022413.cfm
Genesis 15:1, 12
The word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision. “Do not be afraid, Abram, for I am your shield.”
As the sun was about to set, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a great and darksome horror fell upon him.
In the Torah, God tells us “Do not be afraid” 19 times. In the entire Bible, he tells us, “Do not be afraid” 184 times. In 1978 Pope John Paul II began his papacy with the words, “Do not be afraid. Open wide the doors to Christ!”
http://loadpaper.com/large/Deserts_wallpapers_165.jpg
We are still afraid, afraid even of opening the doors to Christ. Will not what happened to Abram, happen to me? A “great and darksome horror”? That is surely what my false self, my ego, thinks, and in a way, it is right. There is no resurrection before death, only after. And death does not come lightly.
But God does not abandon Abram into a nightmare of no return. This amazing chapter of Genesis begins with blessing and ends with blessing. Abram is God’s chosen one, as are we.
God’s safety is a completely different thing than the “safety” I have created for myself. God’s is real. Mine is not. But God requires what is sometimes called “abandonment to divine providence.” And that, for my ego, is terrifying. It means certain death.
And certain resurrection.
http://laurajul.dk/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Modern-starry-night.jpg
Lord God, your hand holds me and your wing covers me, and you will never let me go. You choose to have a personal relationship with me, breathing in and out with me, and I am safe with you. Far more safe with you than I am with myself. You are my light and my salvation.
http://www.christiancounselingservice.com/archived_devotions.php?article_id=1148
Why not take all of me
Saturday, February 23, 2013
First Week of Lent
http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/022313.cfm
Matthew 5:44
Jesus said, “Love your enemies and bless those who persecute you.”
Children of the Heavenly Father see the sunrise everyday, unless (like today) the rain we need to live is falling. Jesus points out the obvious: God does not withhold these gifts from anyone. There is no condition put on his love. So we can be the same.
Certainly with others, but not just with others. Within myself, I can love my enemy instead of persecuting him. God does, and so can I.
I justify myself too often. I also tend not to act on my good intentions, especially when I intend to serve others in sacrificial ways. I avoid regularly scheduled prayer, even when I say how good it would be for me. I don’t fix breakfast for Margaret very often. And on the other hand, I complain about my own failures instead of giving them up to God. I am just scratching the surface here! Luckily, I want to keep this under 350 words 🙂 …
These “enemies” of my righteous self do not respond to blame or punishment. They will not be cast out for more than a night; they returneth in the morning. Like Paul, I cry out, “What a wretched man I am! How shall rescue me from this body of death?”
Jesus does not remove my wretchedness; instead he loves it – not because it is wretched, but because it is me. I matter more to him than what I do matters to him. I am a “being,” and never a “doing” to God.
Jesus tells me to do likewise, to love this shadow side of me, this “enemy.” I can embrace it, hold my wretchedness gently in my hands, and finally give it comfort. Be made perfect in this, he says. In Luke’s version of the Sermon on the Mount, “perfect” becomes “merciful.”
I become perfect when I get to know all of me, when I am willing to touch my own sores and not turn away, when I give all of me up to God. Even when God does not approve of what I do, he loves me. I do not have to approve of what I do in order to love all of me. As that distinction moves from my head to my gut, my eyes clear and I see how much love there already is in me, for the enemies within and without.
Putting me out of my misery, Father, is a shortcut that you never take with us. You do not make part of me a scapegoat for the rest. As for myself, I am learning your way with me, Lord. Let it be unto me as you have said.
http://www.christiancounselingservice.com/archived_devotions.php?article_id=1148
Humbled man of God
Friday, February 22, 2013
First Week of Lent
http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/022213.cfm
Matthew 16:19-20
After Peter recognized Jesus as “Christ, the son of the living God,” Jesus said to Peter, “I will give you the keys to the Kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
Keys to the Kingdom. Binding and loosing. These famous words of Jesus to Peter hold their grip through the centuries. They are poetic, powerful, and hopefully ennobling.
As his own life unfolded, Peter seemed unworthy of Jesus’ trust when he claimed not to know who Jesus was. As Jesus went to the cross, he was overwhelmed with shame, but he must have trusted his brothers to help him carry that weight. Then Jesus returned from death and offered Peter his redemption. In the story (John 21) Peter is giddy with love as he recognizes Jesus and runs toward him waiting on the beach.
But this time there’s no walking on water. Peter is humbled by his failure, and Jesus helps him accept himself as he is, not as he wishes he could be. Out of this comes the power. Out of this comes the poetry. Jesus embraces all of Peter and shows him how to do the same, with himself and others. Now he is ready to bind and loose, because he himself was bound and now is free. Jesus showed him how to turn the key.
All things work together for our good, Lord, and you point us to this wondrous encounter with grace like you pointed Peter. As we sit beside you at the fire and you cook our dinner, your simple questions unlock chains and make us free. And as we are freed, we too are made fit for service.
http://www.christiancounselingservice.com/archived_devotions.php?article_id=1147
davesandel 
