Category: Meditations

Suggested Scripture: Luke 16:19 – 31.  It is strongly recommended that you read this portion of Scripture in its entirety to gain a clearer image of the meditation that follows.
SCRIPTURE FOCUS: Luke 16:19-21: There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.

This story told by Jesus may well offend our refined and carefully polished sensitivities. We never take well to lines of demarcation so rigidly drawn as to reveal our social differences. Jesus considers it essential to emphasize it in His day, and God knows the message demands amplification in this our day!
It was a social custom, in the town of my childhood, that when a person died, a particular church bell would toll the age of the deceased. I distinctly remember being sent to inquire ” for whom the bell tolls.” This custom was undoubtedly a tradition brought by our English ancestors. It is the subject of a moving poem by the English poet, John Donne: ” Ask Not For Whom The Bell Tolls, It Tolls For Thee.”

“No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
Each man’s death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.”(2)

In the penetrating story of ” The Rich Man And Lazarus” told by Jesus, He means for us to hear the somber funeral bells toll.

On the first occasion, the bell’s tolling announces the death of a town’s resident, whose name is Lazarus. Imagine this scene on that day when a resident arrives to make the inquiry, ” For Whom Does The Bell Toll?” ” Lazarus,” comes the response. ” Who?” replies the inquirer. “Lazarus,” comes the cold, detached response. ” Never heard of him! Who is he?” Oh, he is that old beggar, who was always around town begging for a bite to eat. I suppose he finally  starved to death!”
It is NOT INCONSEQUENTIAL that Jesus gives him the name LAZARUS, meaning, ” God Has Helped.” Lazarus never owned much of this world’s goods. But Jesus recognizes him as a human being whom He graces with a name, and thereby identifies the humanity that they share; Jesus, the Saviour, and Lazarus, the beggar!

The funeral bell sounds throughout the town once again. Scarcely is it heard above the din in the streets! The expressions of sorrow are profuse. The town’s ‘rich man ‘ is dead! Indeed, if there is anyone in this story deserving of a name, is it not the’ rich man’? But, Jesus suggests that by this man’s failure to recognize the common humanity he shares with all, unwittingly he gives eloquent expression to his desire to be an island unto himself. It is not his wealth that lies at the root of his undoing. It is his attitude towards himself, towards others, and most especially towards God! Looking through the windows of his mansion, all that the rich man can see on his border is a bothersome bump with no name; a blip that is marring his landscape. He does not see a fellow human being; a child of God’s creation. Empathy towards the beggar does not stir him in the least, to remember that ” But for the grace of God, the roles could have been reversed, as one day they are destined to be.

The more somber tones of the funeral bell, on the occasion of ‘the rich man’s demise, are but echoes of the bell tolling earlier in heaven for the death, of an immortal soul. I suspect that the bell previously sounded many years before.

I am deeply troubled at present by the rampant wholesale-condemnation of immigrants, that is reaching epidemic proportions worldwide, and is finding such virulent expression in our social media.

Many of these immigrants wear different style clothing from ours and hold to different ideologies from ours, and can tell of hardships we can never even imagine. Whether you like what you see or not, or whether you understand their religious expressions or not, they are not undeserving of respect and pity. They are not to be treated as unwelcome blips on our borders; they are not islands unto themselves. They are God’s Children, and just like you, they have souls that hope and dream. It’s time to make the tolling bells cease, and it’s time to bid the bells of Heaven and earth ring out in songs of jubilation. Let us build bridges, not walls! Let us strive to connect the many Islands that are fragmenting God’s beautiful earth! Believe that God will fulfill His promise to make one of all nations. The Book of Revelation unveils God’s vision of ‘The New Heaven and The New Earth:” Between the city street and the river was the tree of life. It produced twelve kinds of fruit, each month having its own fruit. The leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and His servants will serve Him.”Amen, So let it be!              (Rev.22:2-3)

A PRAYER TO FOLLOW THIS MEDITATION

O God of compassion,
make our hearts acutely sensitive to understand what Your feeling of Compassion towards us humans, demanded of You! ” God so loved the world, that He sent His Only Begotten Son.”Forgive our willful blindness and our lack of faith, that dares us to accept a new definition of ” the world,” into which You unleashed the Power of Your love to redeem. Forgive the tamed reality of our love, now appearing like a domesticated pet that is led around where it feels comfortable. Teach us to know that our limited understanding of ‘love’ will never change anything, but before the ” Cross Of Christ,” nothing remains unchanged!
Save us, in this day from becoming so accustomed to the sound of bells tolling out other people’s pain and sorrow, that we are thankful that we are separated from the actual event, as though we lived like an island, disconnected from it all! “If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin,”  (1 John 1:7-10).

” May the Christ who walks on wounded feet, walk with you to the end of your road;
May the Christ who serves with wounded hands, teach you to serve each other;
May the Christ who loves with a wounded heart, help you to love each other;
When you go out, may you see the face of Jesus in everyone you meet, and may everyone you meet see the face of Jesus in you.” Amen. (3)

HYMN: When I Needed A Neighbor!https://youtu.be/y0AVOs-V_BE

EDITORIAL NOTES

1. The Scripture references in this post are found in the New International Translation, (NIV)

2.For whom the bell tolls a poem
(No man is an island) by John Donne                                                                    http://www.famousliteraryworks.com/donne_for_whom_the_bell_tolls.htm

3. The italicized portion of the Prayer is a traditional Celtic prayer.

4.PHOTO: ” Row Houses” in St. John’s, Newfoundland.

Suggested Scripture Reading: John 9: 1 -41

Scripture Focus: John 9: 25 Whether he is a sinner or not, I do not know. One thing I know. Whereas I was blind, but now I see.

Frustration. What is it? What is its origin? Why are humans so subject to its iron grip? And most importantly; Is there any escaping it?
Here is an appealing episode in the life and times of Jesus of Nazareth. It is a promising revelation for minds, inquiring about the true identity of this Man who has recently come among them. Jesus opens the doors of Heaven to make known to earth-bound creatures, the imminence of Heaven’s power to solve earth’s impossibilities; like opening eyes which were destined never to see earth’s beauty, or sadly, to see first hand the evidence of earth’s pain. We, along with the other characters in the narrative are taken to the very threshold of participation in an impressive victory performed by Jesus.

Without warning, there is a rude interruption in the ecstasy of the moment. Frustration, with her illegitimate brood known as fear, cynicism, timidity, and rigor mortis of the soul, demand entry into every soul present.

The initial onslaught of ‘frustration’ comes from a source, from which the young man was expecting jubilation, over the victory of sight won for him by Jesus, namely, from the leadership of a community of faith. ‘ What if the religious aristocracy could be enlisted to diminish or to destroy this so-called miracle of restored sight? Then two challenges facing the religious community would be dealt a fatal blow. On the one hand, the challenge was to give a reasonable explanation for this” MIRACLE,” in a day that had long since ceased to believe in miracles! On the other hand, the challenge was to deal with this “Jesus of Nazareth” who was stirring chaos in the Synagogues throughout the region.

Heart-wrenching frustration is threatening the solidity of the young man’s fortress! A tender soul, just barely out of the shadow of perpetual darkness, is the victim of frustration and her evil crew. What does one do, and where does one go, when the religious community turns its back upon a person who is in the ecstasy of some positive experience of God acting in his life? And as stunning as it seems, it is a tragic reality to this present hour. “Frustration’ still finds committed allies in pulpits and pews! Some announce from the pulpit their shrunken image of God and boast of their abandonment of the Christian ethos. Sadly, from many in the pews a supportive ” AMEN ” echoes. Little wonder the church, once vibrant with the life of the Spirit is creeping along at snail pace!

But to return to the narrative!
Not yet is ‘frustration’ finished with its malicious intent to stifle the sounds of praise from a grateful young man, whom God has touched with a miracle of restored vision. Therefore, the leaders begin to pressure the people, who have watched this man grow from birth, to provide substantiating evidence in order to further develop their scheme. What a blow to a heart, newly born into the excitement of the world of sight, to listen to his own neighbors and friends deny him! Too strong a commitment to the truth concerning this boy’s health status had the potential of implicating others into something undesirable. So why get involved? So the neighbors choose the safest path of non-committal. ” We are not sure of this man’s identity,” they concocted. This fellow looks much like the one who traveled the streets of our community for years, but we can’t be sure it is he. They make every effort to assuage their guilty conscience. “What is going on here in this community now is not normal. We never saw anything like this before! Who knows where all this is going to end? It’s better to stay out of it!” They cowardly convince themselves.

If a community chains itself to a narrow definition of ” normalcy” or ” the usual” it will never experience ” the new Heaven and the new Earth” Scriptures promise.

Frustration now attacks the last remaining stronghold of hope for the young man!
” The Jewish leaders did not believe the man had been born blind, so they sent for his parents. ” Is this your son, whom you say was born blind? If so, how can he now see? Notice the deliberate attempt of the recognized authorities to confuse the minds of the innocent. “Is this your son?” they asked. ” Is this the one you say was born blind?” frustration smiles her devilish smile, as fear causes the parent’s hearts to tremble. The parents see immediately where this is heading. To be seen to lend any credence, whatsoever, to their son’s avowed miracle at the hands of Jesus, would lead to expulsion from the religious community. “That this is our son, we know; that he was born blind, we know but, how he now sees, or who has opened his eyes, we do not know. He is of age, ask him!.” This time it is the angels in Heaven who laugh! “Give God the glory, young man,” came the self-righteous command of the leader,” we know this man, Jesus, is a sinner!” The young man listens for a moment, to what sounds to him like a mournful wind  blowing in leafless trees; then in a voice trembling with excitement he announces: ” WHETHER HE IS A SINNER OR NOT, I DO NOT KNOW; ONE THING I DO KNOW, ONCE I WAS BLIND, BUT NOW I SEE!”
Frustration and her brood slink off into the darkness to await the arrival of the next victim. And  Jesus takes the young man’s hand and together they go to welcome the dawning of a new day!
There is no other antidote for the paralyzing effects of frustration upon any soul, but to permit the spiritual gift, which God already gives us in Jesus Christ, to fill the soul to overflowing! Then shall I arise and shine, for my light has come.

PRAYER TO FOLLOW THIS MEDITATION
O God, not until the sky grows dark,
thus heralding the end of day,
do I see the Evening Star, shimmering in all of its glory!
It is not until Your hand touches all that I treasure here on earth does my heart sincerely whisper its gratitude for the awesomeness of Your Everlasting Light, and the steadfastness of Your Unconditional Love.

Teach me to number my days, that I may apply my heart unto wisdom: for the eternal Day Star from on high imparts His glorious light each moment. In my darkest hours of frustration may I dwell in the blaze of Your sunlight, that my witness to Your victory may richer, fuller be. For the sake of Your Love for us in Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen.

HYMN:  AMAZING GRACE                         Andrea Bocelli

https://binged.it/2FYVXSa                             (Click on this link)

EDITORIAL NOTES

1. It is recommended that you read the entire chapter of John: 9 in order to gain a fuller understanding of the story and of the meditation that is based upon it.
2. Photo: Taken this summer (2018) The beautiful Joe Batt’s Arm, Fogo Island, Newfoundland.

Genesis 15:6
Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.

Matthew 17:20
Jesus told them. “I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible.”

When you encounter a person, who is like a shelter from a fierce wind ; when you meet someone, who with speech that is punctuated with bitter sobs, tells you the story of an encounter with The One who changed tragedy into triumph; On the day you become aware, through facts relayed by a fellow pilgrim, that vast resources beyond all that appears to be, lie waiting for anyone who will believe, then on that day lift your eyes and rejoice, for on that day you see victories belonging to Faith. When God-consciousness takes the place of human consciousness, then is the world on the verge of a new and lasting rebirth.
The Old Testament personage, Abraham, owns the designation  “Father Of Faith.” Abraham, surrounded as he is by the verities of his historical setting, dares to lift his eyes and sees God.

The world is loud in its proclamation that no one transcends the laws that govern the natural world. However, Abraham sees ‘Eternity’ unshackled, in the ‘Face of God.’ Unspeakable treasures are waiting for him, just beyond the veil of the things that are. Accordingly, God’s promise to Abraham, that he is destined to be ”the Father of many nations’, might have been dismissed without further thought, since there was no heir and Sarai, Abraham’s wife was past childbearing age. Fate laughed in ‘ the Face of Providence,’ but in that same ‘Face, Abraham saw what was yet to be. Fate and Providence are often in conflict at the heart of many unsolved dilemmas of this world!
Abraham shows us Faith that inspires. To this very day, when we observe something of its kind, there is longing for the germ of that noble way of living, to be the possession of all, and thereby fulfill God’s initial plan to distinguish the human race from all other species.
Faith is that attitude that dares to look beyond the smug complacency of the world’s fatalistic conclusions and seeks for and finds God. Faith turns a deaf ear to the roar of the crowd, demanding that ” It is futile to try!” You may be left standing alone, but ever secure in the knowledge that the Eternal God is with you. That is what Faith is!

Abraham experiences the strain of a corrupt religion that is gaining momentum throughout the world of his day. Even some members of his own family likely abandoned the faith of their forebears, like Noah. Abraham never left Jehovah for the idolatry of Ur. He and Sarai were willing to stand out as different from that idolatrous community. If we are to develop genuine faith, we need a similar spirit. We too must be willing to stand alone and to be different.
The demand for faith is the hallmark of the Old Testament! It’s prophets, priests, and kings make its claim their mantra. The effulgent rays of their faith light the pathway of many of its participants, right to Bethlehem’s manger, where there lies before the world the very epitome of faith become flesh!

Given that the life of faith finds such a remarkable expression throughout the Sacred Word of the Old Testament, how much more available is the ability to live the life of faith, in the Company of the One who is the very essence of faith. Jesus demonstrated throughout His life the victories of faith and finally at the moment of His death announced one final victory of Faith’s eternal reward: “Father into Your Hands I commend my spirit.” Herein is Faith herein is Hope, herein is Abundant Life!

Somewhere there is recorded a story of an elderly parishioner, who towards the end of his life sought his minister to help him prepare for the final journey. He informed the minister of the difficulty he experienced when he knelt beside his bed to say his evening prayers.” I sometimes fall asleep there on my knees”, the troubled man, confessed. The minister, a seasoned suppliant himself, felt the old man’s deep distress. ” John,” he offered,” why not place a chair beside your bed, and imagine Jesus sitting there beside your bed. John, talk to Him like you are now talking to me. Tell Him your longings, your sorrows, your sad times and your times of happiness, and the blessings for which you are genuinely grateful. Tell Him everything and listen to Him speak to you.” Sometime later, the minister made another pastoral call and was delighted to see that John had taken his suggestion. ” Yes,” John, eagerly relayed, “I practice His Presence every day, and especially at bedtime. You know, I am as sure of His being there beside me, as I am of you being there now beside me.”
It was sometime following that John’s distraught daughter came to inform the minister of his passing. ” I so regret that I wasn’t present with him when my dad died she said. He was obviously in need of something. He was reaching for something on the chair “.’ No, my child”, responded, the man of God,” not something, your dad was reaching out his hand to Someone.” Tenderly the minister related the story surrounding the empty chair that for some time occupied a place beside her father’s bed.” You see your dad through simple faith when the time was here, stretched out his hand to hold the hand of His Friend, and together they passed through the gates of death into the place prepared for him. That is righteousness born of faith.

A PRAYER TO FOLLOW THIS MEDITATION
Open my eyes with the touch of Your Hand, so that I may see, how much I really need You, O Lord.

I do thank you for the gift of hearing, which permits me to listen to the caroling of the birds and the thunderous crash of the sea against the headlands of home. Thank you for the sound of a baby’s cooing, and the sound of words that reveals a loved one’s feelings of appreciation and love.

But Please, dear Lord, touch my ears so that I may hear, You speak to me of Your Eternal Love for all the members of the human race. Let me hear You say once more, as you look upon my effort to do my part to bring Heaven and earth closer together,” God saw that it was good.”

Lord, touch my heart that it might have a deeper capacity to hold more of You! Then in all that I see around me here on earth, will be lost in the brilliant light of Your Face everywhere I look. Then the only sound I will hear will be the sounds of love, like a symphony that is being played, under the direction of the only perfect conductor of life’s harmonies.
Lord, open my eyes to see,
My ears to hear,
My heart to Love,
So that in Faith, I may help fulfill Your dream of a Heavenly World Where Your Will is done as it is in Heaven.  And all for the sake of Your Love for us and the World! Amen.

Hymn: My Faith Looks Up To Thee

https://youtu.be/oGKLmThF2to

EDITORIAL NOTES

1. The Scripture references are from the New International Version of the Bible
2. PHOTO: Taken at our summer cottage, ( SHALOM)  at Michael’s Harbour, Newfoundland.

ADVENT

Romans 8:  18 -24 For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: For what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?

Scripture Emphasis: Psalm 65:5 You (God) are the hope of everyone on earth. Even those who sail on distant seas.

The words of David in Psalm 65, are addressed to the Almighty. They are not the utterances of some religious recluse. They come from the red-hot crucible of living. The Psalm reveals a soul that has been overwhelmed by sins and now, witnesses to the faithfulness of God, to answer his uttered prayers. On the foundation of those convictions, he makes this proclamation:

“God, You are the hope of everyone on earth,
Even those who sail upon distant seas.”

David  here makes the not so veiled suggestion:” If He did it for me, He will do it for every child born of woman and man!”

Now there are but two conclusions one can reach concerning David’s proclamation. Either it is hyperbole, an exaggeration, a simple case of poetic license; Or this is a profound theological truth that becomes: the glory of the lighted mind.”

” O glory of the lighted mind,
how dead I’d been, how dumb, how blind!
The Station Brook to these new eyes is babbling out of
Paradise. The waters gushing from the rain are singing:
” Christ is risen again.”(1)

If it is hyperbole, that” God is the hope of everyone on the earth”, then life on this earth is best described by William Shakespeare’s Macbeth:
(Act II, Scene I). “Out, out, brief candle! Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”. (2)
It’s either that or else; it is the most glorious truth that a human being can hold on to until life’s brief candle goes out, and God ushers him into the brilliance of a new day’s dawning.
“God, You are the hope of everyone on earth,
Even of those who sail on distant seas.”

But what is to be said of those, in our increasingly secular society, who think it the hallmark of intelligence to announce to the world their absence of belief in God and Jesus Christ? There have always been those who boast about living by a Stoic Philosophy like that  William Henley expresses in ” Invictus.”

” Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.”(3)
William Ernest Henley

Does that misguided assertion alter life’s equation which David elucidates, having Old Testament Wisdom alone?
” God, You are the hope of everyone on earth,
Even those who sail on distant seas.”

There is no mention made of any opportunity for any human’s assertion of either belief nor unbelief! David does not make the state of human understanding, the contingent factor for the activity of the Divine! God’s command: Let there be light” is not dependent upon whether or not a person believes it! The person may draw the shades to continue his desire to experience the darkness, but that does not change the universal truth of light ‘s existence.
“You, God, are the hope of everyone on earth,
Even those who sail on distant seas.”
David’s words convey the truth of universal inclusivity of everyone on earth, and ‘hope’ is the common binding force.

This thought may indeed have roots in the Theological doctrine of IMAGO DEI; the belief that from creation, God shares unique qualities of human nature which allow God to be made manifest.” The faculty of reason enables one to become most God-like when that person develops a capacity to partially grasp the nature of God’s ultimate reality.” (4)

The proclamation of David has its genesis in the Old Testament and relies upon Prophets and Priests for its transmission throughout the earth. As necessary and as revealing as that truth remains, it cannot compare to the enunciation made in the New Testament of the same fact. In the New Testament, “The Word Becomes Flesh and dwells among us.” It is through a vital and living relationship with Jesus Christ that God’s gift of ‘HOPE, ‘given at birth emerges from the deep places of one’s being to enter into our consciousness, and enables us to share in God’s hope for the world.
Twilight and evening bell,
And after that the dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell,
When I embark;
For though from out our bourne of Time and Place
The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
When I have crost the bar.(5)

           PRAYER TO FOLLOW THIS MEDITATION

When we consider the quality of  HOPE which  You have secretly hid deep inside these bodies of ours, we bow in awesome wonder, O God.

We are mere vessels of clay, subject to frailness and death!  What an invaluable treasure You choose to store in so frail a vessel. Hope is the very ethos of Your Heavenly Abode, and You hid its germ in us as a signature gift before we arrived here ! Father, we believe that the hope that springs eternal in the human breast, is Your way of using us as Your Co-workers, to work together to have Your Will done here on earth as it is in Heaven! Your Hope, Father, on that very first Christmas Day, was that the world would see in Jesus, Your Hope for the world’s future.

He came unto His own, but they did not receive Him then. A Cross looms alongside the manger, but Hope, Father Your Eternal Hope, and now ours are resurrected. And this very night millions of us will ask You to make this Christmas Night the occasion when there  will thunder throughout this weary world a heartfelt: ” Welcome  Blessed is He who Comes again  in the Name Of our God.” WELCOME, Jesus, to this world! Take Your Power and reign! Amen.

HYMN : O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

https://youtu.be/7xtpJ4Q_Q-4

EDITORIAL NOTES

The translation of Scripture used in this post is New Living Translation.
1. From ” The Everlasting Mercy’ by John Masefield e Oxford Book of English Mystical Verse > 337. From ‘The Everlasting Mercy’
2.The Tragedy of Macbeth
Shakespeare homepage | Macbeth | Act 5, Scene 5
3.William Ernest Henley, in ‘Invictus’ From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
4.Reference “IMAGO DEI” http://www.religionfacts.com/imago-dei
5.From ” Crossing The Bar” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45321/crossing-the-bar

‘IN THE CIRCLE OF HIS EMBRACE’

Scripture Concentration: It is strongly suggested that you spend some time studying the following scripture passage before proceeding to read the meditation.

Luke 7:11-17 Soon afterward, Jesus went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went along with him. As he approached the town gate, a dead person was being carried out the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the town was with her. When the LORD saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, “Don’t cry.” Then he went up and touched the bier they were carrying him on, and the bearers stood still. He said, “Young man, I say to you, get up!” The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother. They were all filled with awe and praised God. “A great prophet has appeared among us,” they said. “God has come to help his people.” This news about Jesus spread throughout Judea and the surrounding country.

This incident in the life of Jesus has truths that lie as deep as the deepest ocean. In the end, these truths cannot be perfectly understood by us, just because they are grounded in God’s personal love addressing a particular human crisis, and forever lie beyond our full understanding!
This incident points to what lies at the very heart of the Gospel; God’s longing to address each individual’s’ need in His world. God ever reveals His unthwarted effort to show His Love. This Love will lead individuals away from the darkness of despair and into everlasting light; away from their littleness of mind and heart and into the liberation of people escaping from the tomb of death.

If there is but one person to whom God’s love reveals itself in this hour, let there be celebration in the community of faith;  for it means one more light is shining, thereby lessening the intensity of this world’s many varieties of darkness.

Let’s examine the challenging truths Luke’s story presents.
The stricken widow of Nain neither saw anyone nor heard anything, the day of the funeral. Through her tears, she could barely see her son’s coffin and the only sound audible to her ears was the beating of her heart. She has walked this desolate road before; she has bathed its dust with her tears. She is a widow. But on the occasion of her husband’s death, her young son was holding her hand.
At this precise moment,  Luke tells us, Jesus sees her. And feeling within Himself, how broken she is, Jesus determines that her procession towards her own personal grave must be His immediate concern. It is natural to wonder, just how much more, one human being can endure! First, her husband’s death, followed by the death of her son, and the excruciating horror of facing life’s challenges alone.

It is here that His Followers find the challenge to minister in the Name of Jesus Christ. There are thousands of people stumbling their way towards their own personal graves, with broken hearts, unfulfilled dreams, and uncontrolled habits. Again one wonders, just how much more one person can endure; but the more crucial question is, ‘Will there be someone to step forward to stop their funeral procession?’  Will someone be there to bid them not to weep? Will someone bring to them a glimmer of renewed hope?

The next feature of the story is equally important, and presents another challenge for ministry in the Name of Jesus Christ; it is Jesus’ concentration on this woman’s personal need that consumes His immediate attention. Other people present at the scene, no doubt, were experiencing a myriad of problems, with differing degrees of darkness! But for the moment, it was for Jesus,” a one on one situation!   ” When Jesus saw her, His heart went out to her, and He said,” Don’t cry.”He saw her unique experience with darkness, and He ordered a new dawn for her.

I fear that in this age of multi-tasking the value of ‘ a one on one’ ministry is misunderstood. There are often people who are in need of a new dawning, and are met with the skeptical conclusion, that the situation is impossible! If we can demonstrate to our own souls that we do sincerely desire to make a difference, then we start by seeing one person’s tears and endeavor to make them our own. Then tomorrow, in the  Master’s Name, you may effectively deal with two more. Work until the sky glows red with the beauty of the dawn, and the promise is fulfilled: ” Tears may last for the night, but, joy comes with the morning!

“Religion, if it is to survive, must be personal,” writes Viktor Frankl in ” Unconscious God.” Greater care is needed in today’s world to make certain that, ” The Word that became flesh and dwelt among us, must never be permitted to become only words again.

1. Brother, sister, let me serve you
let me be as Christ to you;
pray that I may have the grace to
let you be my servant too.

2. We are pilgrims on a journey,
and companions on the road;
we are here to help each other
walk the mile and bear the load.

3. I will hold the Christlight for you
in the nighttime of your fear;
I will hold my hand out to you,
speak the peace you long to hear.

4. I will! weep when you are weeping;
when you laugh I’ll laugh with you;
I will share your joy and sorrow,
till we’ve seen this journey through.

5. When we sing to God in heaven,
we shall find such harmony,
born of all we’ve known together
of Christ’s love and agony.

6. Brother, sister, let me serve you;
let me be as Christ to you;
pray that l may have the grace to
let you be my servant too. (1)

The final feature of this story that challenges His Follower’s ministry in the Name of Jesus Christ is this. Jesus halts this mother’s personal procession towards her own grave and her son’s grave, as well, by giving them each someone to love, and some meaningful work to do. Luke puts it: ” Jesus gave him back to his mother.”

There are many on life’s journey who are broken on the wheels of circumstances beyond their control. They stumble from one meaningless day to another! Our ministry is to show them, Love, in the name of Jesus Christ, and by the Grace of Christ show them that their search for a more fulfilling life can only be discovered by faith in the One  who halts one’s funeral procession with His words: ” I am the Resurrection and the Life, anyone who believes in me though he/she were dead, yet shall he/she live

PRAYER TO FOLLOW THIS MEDITATION

O God, creator of all Compassion                                                                           Make me more compassionate towards all people, and towards the wounded earth. When people’s hearts are filled with compassion, then will we all see clearly that our sisters and brothers everywhere are meant to share in the riches of this earth, their home and ours.

However, to pray to be proprietors of compassion must be followed immediately by a request that You show us what to do when our initial prayer for compassion is answered!

Father, there is no one of us who has not seen the pain-pinched faces of little refugee children and the faces of their terrified and pleading parents, standing at our sovereign borders, begging for asylum. Father, How is compassion released into that setting? Can we pray: “Give us this day, our daily bread and remain helpless to relieve those without food or shelter? Father, Is it Compassion that forces us momentarily to feel their need?

But why is it that before anything can initiate deeper consideration, our logical, rational minds force a conclusion: there is nothing we can do! In the end, our compassion seems to wither like the fall leaves which too soon disappear.

Father, reveal to us again, how faith and compassion are inextricably bound. On one occasion when hungry crowds were in  need of food, Jesus, Your Son  said to his thunderstruck disciples, ” You feed them.” Their reaction then was to be as alarmed as we are by any such suggestion to provide for them. Please help us, Father, to address the dilemma that is presenting now? It is FAITH that keeps COMPASSION alive.

Give to us the faith that prays ” Father Into Your hands do we commit our spirits. Lighten our darkness, and grant us a deeper  Victory of Faith!     All for the sake of Your Love . Amen

Hymn: Here I am Lord

https://youtu.be/EcxOkht8w7c

EDITORIAL NOTES

1.Hymn: ” Brother, Sister, Let Me Serve You”

.http://www.pateys.nf.ca/cgi-bin/lyrics.pl?hymnnumber=635

2. PHOTO: ” SHALOM, Michael’s Harbor, Newfoundland

Suggested Scripture: Psalm 132: 1 – 18                                                                                                            John 8:12 – 20

Text Emphasis:  Psalm 132: 17……….Here (in my Dwelling Place) I will set up a lamp for my anointed one.

Psalm 132:17 “Here ( in my dwelling place ) I set up a lamp for my anointed one.

“Fear not, little flock, whatever your lot,
He enters all rooms, “the doors being shut,”
He never forsakes; He never is gone,
So count on His presence in darkness and dawn”.

Refrain:
“Only believe, only believe;
All things are possible, only believe;
Only believe, only believe;
All things are possible, only believe.”(2)

But what is the foundation of that ‘BELIEF, and where is that foundation laid? Can ‘Belief’ be dismissed as being just another academic pursuit, with a network of psychological roots in societal and familial influences, or is ” Belief” something more PRIMAL than that, something akin to the mystery of ‘a beating heart,’ or breathing lungs; something related to the mystery of LIFE itself?

Since earliest times human beings have wrestled with ‘beliefs,’ and how to express them in cognitive terms. Many theories, seeking to explain the unsolved mysteries of the natural world were unsatisfying. There were always new demands for further investigation.

The inclusion of ‘Deity’ in ancient Greek culture, as well as in the records of the Hebrew Prophets, very early, become a key component in the demands concerning ‘Belief. ” Belief” in the Olympian gods and the God of the Hebrew Prophets becomes indispensable in engaging with the unsolved mysteries of life.

Perhaps, then, we may not be too far afield, if in our inquiry into the genesis of “Belief,” we begin right there with a consideration of the God, of Whom the Hebrew Prophets concluded: ” In The Beginning God.” We may well discover that ‘Belief’ is a natal gift that binds humankind to God, to prepare them to live as His Children here on earth.

Many parents are completely surprised when their child speaks about God and heaven; often happening at the time when the child is just starting to talk. Is it unreasonable to conclude that such ‘tiny expressions’  of belief are not at all ‘ chance expressions’ but, may well be the tiny seeds that are meant by God to germinate into an expressive and revealing “BELIEF?”

A careful reading of Psalm 132 of the Old Testament may prove helpful in our inquiry of ” Belief.”

I acknowledge that far greater minds than mine have undertaken to enlighten others, concerning the mystery of God, and our belief about our relationship with Him. I offer no profound scholarly evidence in this matter. I submit only that which I believe to be true, and which has helped me in my faith’s journey!

It is noteworthy that Psalm 132 begins with the biographer of David, presenting him as trailing clouds of glory, into the presence of God. The biographer quotes David, “I will allow no sleep to my eyes, no slumber to my eyelids, till I find a place for the Lord, a dwelling for the Mighty One of Jacob.” We, therefore conclude that It is a previous encounter with God, that results in David’s cognitive response, in commitment and love towards God. It is equally God’s initiative that incites a similar reaction within the boundaries of distant communities. While in the fields of daily labor, there is felt a sense of urgency to respond to God’s Presence: “Let us worship at the Lord’s footstool.” (vs. 5-7)
It is thus made abundantly clear that the Holy One, Himself, is an integral part of this creation that uniquely bears His Image. And there is evidence that a spark of the Divine dwells in every human.

But there is yet more! Human beings never reach the state of being  ‘ finished products. ‘  As long as we are inhabitants ” of this vale of soul-making” we remain incomplete. Of all things in the created order, it is humans, alone, who remain in God’s workshop until the end.

The spark of the Divine within one’s spirit will always be subject to the fierce winds of opposition in the world. The spark could be subject to extinction if it were not for this one fact about God, made clear to David: ” Within My Dwelling Place, I have set up a lamp for you.” As it was for David, so it remains the truth concerning each one of us. The spark of eternity God gives to each child as a ‘Coming To Earth” gift, is from the lamp that God has set for us within  His Dwelling Place.

Every morning as we face a new day, the Divine Light Keeper replenishes the light within us, so that throughout our waking hours we may perform Heaven’s duty, to build the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth. Every evening, as the darkness claims the day, God tends to our lamp once more, so that in confidence and in peace we may lie down and sleep.

One day God will finally claim the spark that has served Him here on earth and will use it to supplement the light of our lamp that is always burning in our Father’s dwelling place.

A PRAYER TO FOLLOW THIS MEDITATION
O Jesus, Light Of The World,
Come, with Your searching rays, into my life this day.

Prepare me, that I may continue to build on the Foundation You have laid, for the fortress of Peace, in this noisy and frightening world.
Quicken my hearing, that I may hear the veiled threats of shrewd leaders, whose words and deeds move this world further away from ever resembling Our Father’s Kingdom.

Open my eyes, that I may see the evidence, that inside the restless, wandering crowds the promise is surviving still; that one day there will be ONE People, Under One God, Inhabiting One world, where justice and love reigns.

Open my mouth, so that I may overcome my timidity to speak the truth. Enable me to use my voice to amplify, with urgency, Your expression of the need for more laborers to come and join with us in the gathering of Your harvest.

Open my heart, so that with an enlarged capacity for faith, I may assure the world that:

Where there is hatred, Love will yet reign;                                                      Where there are tears, Joy will follow in the morning;                 Where there are injustices now, the star of Hope will never set;                Where there are people standing alone and afraid:  We will walk together as brothers and sisters towards God’s glorious Light.  And all for Your love’s sake, Amen.

HYMN:     BE STILL MY SOUL

https://youtu.be/pwkPsKe-39Y

EDITORIAL NOTES

1. To gain a deeper understanding of the meditation that follows, you are encouraged to begin with a careful reading of the suggested Scripture text.

2. Fear Not, Little Flock Lyrics by J. G .Dailey

3. Photo: “The Lighthouse” taken in ‘Friday Bay’ during a recent day on the bay, with Jody and Joanne Woolfrey, in Newfoundland.