Bread for You

"I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."

- Romans 8:38-39

Creation Care

“Let children walk with Nature, let them see the beautiful blendings and communions of death and life, their joyous inseparable unity, as taught in woods and meadows, plains and mountains and streams of our blessed star, and they will learn that death is stingless indeed, and as beautiful as life.”

- John Muir
from A Thousand Mile Walk to the Gulf

"You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord."

- Leviticus 19:18

One passage from Leviticus that doesn't get enought attention.
paz.

A Home

Since many if not all of us are who peek at this blog are fortunate to live in homes and worship in a beautiful church I thought you might enjoy this post. paz.
God, may all of your children find shelter. Amen.

The Soul of a Building

Excerpt from 1 Kings 7:1-12

"Solomon was building his own house thirteen years, and he finished his entire house."

Reflection by William C. Green

The housing market is a leading indicator of the state of the economy and our quality of life. What about churches - "houses of God"? Is our quality of life also tied to those?

Many church properties are deteriorating; some need to be torn down, others remodeled, others maintained at high expense. New church starts sometimes abandon the thought of constructing a church at all and worship informally in other ways.

The Bible says God wants to live in our hearts and not "in houses made by human hands." But it doesn't say God should not be worshipped in such houses. New, old, remodeled, or located on other property, the place of worship affects the quality of spiritual life. We are not souls unaffected by physical reality. Think of a family that has no place to call its own and moves from one place to another or lives in a shelter, as many do. Souls need a home.

While it's easy to think Solomon went overboard in the construction of his home - a palace that even included the Temple of God - the physical detail of its construction is significant. It was meant to be an outward and visible sign of an inward and invisible grace—the definition of a sacrament. Colors, floors, ceilings, beams, panels, light, smell, craft, figurative art, and decoration ignite the soul. We ourselves are homeless without them.

Whatever our own house of worship may it be a sacrament - a place that embodies the grace of God.

Prayer

May the work of our hands praise you, God. Amen.

Why We Share

Luke 6:30-36
Jesus said, "Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you."

Reflection by Molly Baskette

Once I was walking through Harvard Square, that epicenter of smartness and power, and also, you might not know, an epicenter of homeless folks in greater Boston. Perhaps they are hoping some of the privilege will trickle down? Still waiting...

I encountered a homeless woman, and gave her a dollar. She said, "Thank you for noticing me." Not: thanks for the buck. Not: thanks for the means to eat, or live. But: "Thank you for noticing me."

It would be easy to sentimentalize this encounter, and use it to justify not handing out money, but handing out smiles or eye contact or a holy blessing instead. It is important to treat homeless folks like the whole human beings, the equals that they are. The trouble is, the woman still needs to eat.

My theology of how to handle panhandlers is still evolving. I used to argue that when Jesus said, "Give to all who ask," he didn't say what we should give - we could give attention, we could give Odwalla bars, we could give indirectly to a homeless shelter so that we could be sure our gift would go to the right things - health care, food and shelter and not drugs.

But isn't it a bit condescending of us, to presume to know who will drug and who will eat, with what we give? And frankly: none of what we have is ours anyway. All our dollars are a gift from God, held in trust by us for a little while.

C.S. Lewis famously said, when a friend scolded him for handing out money to beggars, indicating that they would only drink it, "Well, if I kept it, that's what I would do with it."

I still carry Odwalla bars in my purse and my glove compartment, and small Gatorades for hot days. But these days, when I run out of bars - or if I meet a woman - I give a dollar, to honor her, and to honor the request Jesus made of me.

Prayer

God, change my heart around the homeless and the broke, that I may truly believe what my good mind knows is true: that there but for Your grace go I.

Padraig O Tuama at Revolution NYC by Sojourners Blogs

Padraig O Tuama at Revolution NYC by Sojourners Blogs

Creation Care

Bread For You

HEALING OUR VIOLENCE

If you’re living from the true self, you’re going to live from connection and communion with God, with everyone, with everything. You’re not going to be judging, dismissing, or complaining, even in your mind. Such people change the world. The true lightning rods of God’s energy in the world, the true instruments, get their “who” right—before they try to figure out “what” to do about evil and violence. They wait for communion, wait until they are reconnected to Being, wait until they are conscious. They don’t operate out of the unconscious, which is always reaction, which is always the small self protecting itself and promoting itself. We are love, and we are made for love, and our natural abiding place is inside of divine love. As St. Catherine of Genoa said, “My deepest me is God!” - R. Rohr

Each thing and every person must act out its nature fully, at whatever cost. It is our life’s purpose, and the deepest meaning of “natural law.” We are here to give back fully and freely what was first given to us—but now writ personally—by us! It is probably the most courageous and free act we will ever perform—and it takes both halves of our life to do it fully! The first half of life is discovering the script, and the second half is actually writing it and owning it. - R. Rohr

Adapted from Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life