Category: Meditations

SHARING YOUR SELF FOR CHRIST’S SAKE 

  Scripture Reference:1 Thessalonians 2:8

” We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the Gospel of God but our lives as well because you had become so close to us “. (1)

This heart warming salutation of Paul acknowledging the arrival of Thessalonians desiring to learn of the way and the teachings of Jesus Christ, is exemplary for all who desire to promote the Mission of Jesus Christ.
The following brief excerpt of Pauline’s history reveals much about humankind’s creation and the ‘tie that binds the heart in Christian love”.
The spiritual differences between the Thessalonians, Paul and his Gospel team, appear stringent and distinctive.
Not that the Thessalonians are devoid of any religious thought or practices but they are worshippers of idols. An idol is ‘ representative of a god used as an object of worship’. Meanwhile, Paul and his missioners represent worshippers of the living God. Thus, two distinct ideologies share a common goal: to establish communication with Someone or something outside themselves in this world.

Humans are, then, creatures with dual citizenship!
Before we become residents of Earth, we are residents in Our Heavenly Father’s Home. Here, in our primal Home, God created and equipped us to become residents of this world. Consequently, in the deep recesses of every being there remains an unquenchable thirst for the true and living God.

Hear the poet William Wordsworth’s expression of this belief :
“Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
The Soul that rises with us, our life’s Star,
Hath had elsewhere it’s setting,
And cometh from afar:
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory, do we come
From God, who is our home:
Heaven lies about us in our infancy!
Shades of the prison-house begin to close
Upon the growing Boy,
But He beholds the light, and whence it flows,
He sees it in his joy”. (lines 58–70). (2)

Paul identifies two critical facts for the successful dispensation of this Heaven-appointed Mission to help others to own faith in the living God.

The Scripture under present discussion celebrates Paul’s success  in inspiring Thessalonians to become living witnesses for God, through Jesus Christ,His chosen son. That success demonstrates Paul’s sincere commitment to keep his communication lines between Heaven and Earth ready for immediate action, when God was ready to commission him to action!
irrefutably, this is the avenue God chooses to reveal to us  in turn our commission to be His co-creators in this life. On the day of your creation, God equipped you for the special task you are to address in this needy world ! Paul’s private communication link between the two realms of citizenship, Heaven and Earth was always on stand-by and so must ours be. 

God longs for this to become the identifying feature of everyone created ‘ in His Image’. Subsequently, God reveals one’s appointed place as His co-creator and equips them for the particular station in this world’s citizenry. God prepares His children for living as citizens of the world by instilling in them the same Spirit Jesus exemplified in the flesh. It was the same Holy Spirit in Paul and his cohorts as they toiled among the Thessalonians. There is a second ingredient in Paul’s success story of enlisting the Thessalonians in Christ’s ongoing Mission in the world. It was the emanating evidence of the presence and the undeniable power of the indwelling Christ in the lives of the missioners.   

” We loved you so much that we delighted to share with you not only the Gospel of God but our lives as well because you had become so close to us “

In this critical time of diminished faith when church steeples that silently announced with pride, the sacrifice and determination of our forebears to weave into their community’s fabric, the stories of life-giving trust in the eternal, are falling in disrepair, and the doors that have swung wide in welcome, for generations, are now being shuttered and barred!

It is never enough merely to tell the story. We must ‘ BE THE STORY!’ Be everything that encourages another in sunshine and shadow to keep looking up! Such must be preserved at any cost.

” Not only in the words you say,
  Not only, in the deeds confessed,
But in the most unconscious way, is Christ expressed!

Is it a beatific smile?
A holy light upon your brow?
Oh, no! I felt His Presence when you laughed just now.

For me ’twas not the truth you taught, to you so plain, to me so dim. But when you came to me, you brought a sense of Him.

So, from your heart, He beckons me; from your eyes, His love is shed
’til I lose sight of you and, see, Christ instead! (3)

A Prayer To Follow This Meditation

O God, You revealed Yourself to the world in Your Son Jesus. Grant that today’s world will reveal our conscientious effort to build the Kingdom of God Jesus demonstrated.

Father, the world has become more interested in developing technological skills than promoting the transforming power of Brotherly Love. Hear us pray for Your forgiveness, and grant us anew the power of Your Holy Spirit:
To seek You more powerlessly
To speak Your Truth more forcefully,
To BE THE Indwelling CHRIST  
to all you meet.
In His Name, we make our prayer. Amen
              

                               TEXT NOTES

1. The Scripture quotes in the text are from the NIV translation.
2. ” Ode: Intimations of Immortality” by
   William Wordsworth
   from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
   3 Author unknown

ABSOLUTE SURRENDER 

“As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers Simon, called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me, Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.”

At once, they left their nets and followed him.
Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James, son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father, Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.”
Matthew 4: 18-22  ( NIV)

Day in and day out, it had been a familiar routine for the four men Jesus now recruited to become His disciples. There was Peter and his brother Andrew and James and his brother John, who were all fishermen. Success in their trade demanded astute attention to detail. Early mornings and late evenings with a rollercoaster of unpredictable successes and failures in between. Still, the mysterious and neverending lure of the sea can never be ignored by those who, like the poet John Masefield, have contracted “Sea Fever”. For at least two of them, James and his brother John, there would be the additional concern for their father, who was no longer a young man and was most likely teaching his sons everything they knew about their trade. Did they never think of the day they would see their father joining the company of the old sea veterans, watching through misty eyes as their boat headed for the fishing ground without him? A feeling of helplessness would pervade such thought and always suggest it be a consideration for another day.
The occasion of our text, however, presents a different perspective.
We have been considering matters that challenge us constantly to seek answers from our local experts. But what happens next in this narrative takes us beyond all the physical analyses of our five senses to our inwardness. We must inquire personally about what is happening to us inwardly.
The immediacy of the response of the four fishermen to Jesus’s invitation to follow Him is unusual for worldings. Typically, we would seek examples of like experiences from the past before undertaking such an out-of-the-blue suggestion.

Could the occasion when Jesus attempted to recruit these four fishermen to become His disciples, God was already active. Perhaps even before their birth, God was preparing them for this very event yet to come to fruition! Throughout their life, they seemed to be preparing for this particular hour. Culture, religion, and their present history seemed likely catalysts for considering a career change! Undoubtedly, they knew the Jewish Scriptures of the Old Testament concerning their peoples’ living hope for a coming Messiah. Throughout history, the commonly accepted belief is that ‘God’s dwelling in the human spirit is the spring of Eternal Hope; as the early 18th-century English poet Alexander Pope expressed “, Hope springs eternal in the human breast. Man never is, but always to be blest”. Therefore, wherever God is, there is Hope. And changes necessary for the fulfilment of His purposes will come to be.

 From the beginning of creation, God destined us all to be His co-creators. With God’s promised help, we commit to removing the grim realities that prevent the world from being the perfect reflection of Heaven’s glorious kingdom that God intends.

The likelihood of the world reaching a status completely resembling Heaven will result when the human race willingly permits an absolute surrender of their being to the innate reality of God’s creation plan. The prevalence of ego consciousness in the world instils a sense of self-esteem and self-importance in us, which must become a personal conquest, as exemplified in Jesus Christ our Lord in His Absolute Surrender to God. Then shall a new day dawn with songs of thanksgiving that the prayers uttered by generations of Christian disciples are being visibly answered:

“Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as in Heaven.

Hymn: Freely, Freely

                       https://youtu.be/SFV0OVeKdlw?si=ZEX8Pzu5EZcHDT9M

A Prayer To Follow This Meditation

Conquering God,
The sound of Your command, “Be Still”, delivered to the fierce wind and raging seas, brought belief in miracles to overwhelmed disciples of Jesus caught in the storm’s fury.

Father, Please renew a triumphant belief in the miracle of Your conquering power in each of us. Inspire us to know that He who is with us is far more powerful than anyone or anything in this world. It is not until You conquer the self in each of us that the world sees God in human beings, thereby fulfilling its only Hope of its future glory.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

                                    Additional Notes

1. The photo is of the area in Brigus, Newfoundland, popularly known as “Middle Ridge”.
|2. The Biblical quotations in the text are from the NIV

On Bring A Channel For God

TEXT:
“While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”
Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” And immediately, the leprosy left him”. Luke 5:12-16

Additional Scripture Reading: Philippians 1: 20 -30

We must prepare to use every means to ensure that the Gospel remains ‘The Living Word.’ ‘The Word’ became flesh’ and dwelt among us’ must forever be the distinguishing quality of this glorious Gospel.
Therefore, we are to
-Approach it with a poet’s heart.
– Understand it with a philosopher’s Spirit.
-And imagine it with the unimpeded faith of a child. 

The New Testament is not a linear expression of historical data. The entire Bible is a unique expression of the vicissitudes of human development in relationships with the Divine.
Here, there is a moan of pain.
There is a song burst of victory.
This page is wet with the tears of a suppliant!
Here, the hills are alive with the sounds of worshippers singing.

This meditation calls for your participation. Bring with you the gift of your imagination. And then, please God, as a result, you will become another channel through which the Living Word will again come into the world, now waiting in longing and hope.

“Hello, my name is Jesse!
Luke doesn’t tell you that. I only wish he had!
You see, a person’s name is the most important thing about him. It is the one thing that is especially his own!
The last tragedy to befall anyone is for them to lose their name!
Tragic it is to lose your health.
Tragic to lose your family and your friends.
But when a man isn’t worth remembering by name, that is the worst tragedy of all.

I lost my name the day that it became evident that I had contracted leprosy. See these hands? They did not always look like this! Once, they held our newborn baby. My skin was as clear as hers! And with my finger, I felt her first tooth!
My dim, old eyes were not always this way! Once, I looked upon the face of the most beautiful woman in this world. I watched the embers of the day glow; I watched the white dawn chase the grey from the morning sky! Then people heartily greeted me: Good morning, Jesse; may the Lord, Jehovah, go with you today, Jesse”.Then leprosy! And they all appeared to be searching for something lost in the cobblestones under their feet, and a deathly silence stole the sound of my name on their tongues. To this very day, I am introduced to you as “a man covered with leprosy”. But I want to cry out,” Look again! I am more than what you see with your physical eyes! Like us all, there is an inwardness to each of us that is far more important and potentially more complete than what our outward bodies reveal.

Please, don’t overlook that I have an inwardness which this leprosy, nor will anything else in all creation ever destroy. During the dark nights of despair, when sleep refused me respite, I felt an indomitable hope that everything would one day be better.

This inwardness is the home of that HOPE that one day I would meet someone who would see beyond my leprosy. So that I could show the world there is more than what we presently experience. There has to be someone out there who loves us, who cares about who We are and What we may yet become.

That day, I met a man called Jesus. And His Spirit met with my Spirit. I knew He saw farther than my physical impairments to deeper longings and aspirations. I tell you, at that moment, I recognized the footfall of God inside me. Without further thought, I uttered: “Lord, if you are willing, You can make me clean”. He responded with love and compassion. ” I am willing, be clean”.

 For each of us, the consideration is not whether He is willing to free our shackled spirits but whether we are eager for that to occur. 

A Prayer To Follow This Meditation

Merciful God,
You long for us, like the Father, whose son, yielding to the tempting promises of a far country, assigned his beloved father to an unending watch for his return to nobler things.
You have much greater expectations for each of us than those realities in the world that persuade us to be satisfied and at ease amid greed, corruption and division.
Father, Your Son taught us to pray, “May Your Kingdom come; Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven”. Give us the Grace and the Courage to say again, ” I will arise and come to my Father. Use me as a channel of Your Peace and the conveyor of Your Love and Mercy to all I meet. Then live with this assurance that Our Father’s response will be, ” You are my beloved child, in whom I am well pleased, welcome, thou, into my Kingdom! We pray in the Name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, Amen.

Hymn: Make Me The Channel Of Thy Peace.

https://youtu.be/fYz14jEoaeU

Acknowledgements

The photo is of Porterville United Church Of Canada, on the Lewisport Pastoral Charge, Newfoundland. I am personally indebted to my friend Dennis Porter for this beautiful photo.

The Mystery And The Majesty Of Righteousness

Scripture Reading: 1 Corinthians 1:20-31

Text “Commit your way to the Lord,
Trust also in Him,
And He shall bring it to pass.
He shall bring forth your Righteousness like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun”.
(Psalm 37: 5-6)

Scriptures of both the Old Testament and the New reveal an intimacy between the human quality of belief and the divine qualities of Righteousness. That, in itself, is part of a mystery. Belief is such a wavering emotion and subject to change. Righteousness is such a fixed and certain reality that the twain, belief, and Righteousness should never meet. Belief is temporal; Righteousness is eternal.

Still, belief is like the seedling that grows into a large plant that one day provides a home for the birds, as discussed in the Parable that Jesus told. (Matthew 13: 31-32).
That parable teaches that even the smallest amount of faith (belief) can significantly impact the world.
Furthermore, belief is the pulse-beat of Judaism and, subsequently, by association, Christianity.
 Of Old Testament fame, Abraham earned Righteousness by believing God’s promises, and he became known as the father of many nations, thus underscoring the indispensable quality of belief.
( see Romans 4: 16 -25 ) 

But where did that ability to believe God’s promises come from? 

 Some people trace their belief in God to some arresting phenomenon in nature, like the magnificence of dawn or the crimson glow of the setting sun. At the same time, others attribute such belief to overwhelming psychophysical events such as the birth of a child or the death of a loved one.

But what if the initiative to believe is in the Creator’s hands? And therefore, belief is the recalling of prenatal experiences engraved upon the Spirit of each subject. And what if each of us were at Home with our Heavenly Father in that dwelling not made by human hands but eternal in Heaven”?
And what if the act of creating the human race is God’s intention for us to become His co-creators, whereby worldly deficits
are satisfied by people empowered and endowed by God with the required talents and wisdom to satisfy?
Is that not a reasonable explanation for Abraham’s inspiring faith?
Yet, there is more!
Interwoven throughout the Divine’s will to establish His kingdom on earth, God prepares the members of the human race to be His prodigy by the everlasting promise, “Certainly, I will be with you!”
Herein is the eternal pledge to maintain an expected relation with God and thereby fulfil the mission for which each one is born. Abraham’s undaunted insistence that God was intimately involved in his life reveals this life’s most precious reality. Here, the mystery between belief and Righteousness is displayed in the first verse of the Bible, ” In the beginning God.”

Righteousness is the flooding of the human Spirit with the fullness of God, initiated by His grace and includes the capacity to strengthen one’s belief.
As enlightening and grateful as we are for the moving account of Abraham’s faithful experience, We have an even more excellent demonstration of faith and Righteousness. The Eternal’s promise to be always with His chosen Kingdom Builders, is, since Abraham’s day, translated into flesh and has dwelt on earth among us.

“It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.”   (1 Corinthians 1:30 NIV)

So it is today, amidst the cynic’s eager testimony, that religious institutions have outlived their usefulness and that we have failed in our mission. Then it is time for an encounter with your Righteousness.

Let Him show you again the reason You were sent here to earth. “And God sees you and the void waiting to be filled, and yet He concludes It is still a good match! ” And lo, I am with you always!

       A Prayer To Follow This Meditation

Father, a holy hush falls over us as we search our vocabularies for words to talk to You about the mystery and the majesty of Your Righteousness. That’s because it is a subject more demonstrative of Heaven than of Earth. And to realize that You desire to share that unspeakable gift with us finite beings leaves us awestruck but silent.

At the time of our arrival at our new beginnings here on earth, we were like the tiny mustard seed which Jesus talked about. With Your loving and gentle touch, the smallest of seeds grows into a tree and a home for the songbirds, thus adding to the earth’s symphony of praise.

Righteousness is the mystery of You, our Heavenly Father, sharing Your fullness with us so that one day, we, too, may add to this world’s most beautiful symphony with the harmony of our lives. How precious to us is Your gracious word: “Beloved, now are we the children of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as He is.” (1 John 3:2)
“. Praise God through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Hymn: Joy To The World

https://youtu.be/mRr8ei8u_XM?si=JA0F9SmkW5uequNS

The Trumpet Sounds Within My Soul

“Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was, but being a short man, he could not see over the crowd.” Luke 19: 2-3

Zacchaeus was a very wealthy chief tax collector living in Jericho. On one occasion, when Jesus was to pass through town, Zacchaeus was determined to see who He was. The crowds on this occasion were massive, so Zacchaeus, driven by compulsion, climbs into a sycamore tree to fulfil his mission!

“But Zacchaeus, what unimaginable force lay behind a man of your position and notoriety to undertake such seeming ridiculous action? Scaling the heights of a sycamore tree, indeed”! Do you not hear the insulting vibes from the jeering crowds?”

 A subsequent condemnation of Zacchaeus by his fellow citizens was a summary statement concerning him: ” This man is no child of Abraham as we are; he is a sinner”. Zacchaeus knew only too well the pain of such exclusivity, based mainly upon his profession. But, as revealed later in this account, he would give virtually anything to be called “friend” by another human!

Undoubtedly, a power mightier than anything found in this world often visited the profound loneliness of this man’s soul. 

There is, available to every member of the human family, a capacity that turns ashes into roses and loneliness into a symphony of love. This capacity is what Zacchaeus found, or more precisely, It found Zacchaeus!

Truthfully, it matters not how one identifies this occurrence; it is undeniably a part of our humanness, an intervention by otherworldliness.

We are left to ponder the details of the seeming outside intervention involving Zacchaeus. Perhaps it started with his experiences of empty aloneness! It was so with Jesus while in the desert during His temptations. The record informs us that,t finally, angels came and ministered to Him. 

Day and night, night and day, whether in the tax booth or walking along the seashore with the lonely cry of the seagulls accompanying him, Zacchaeus was alone! Truthfully, it is often the long night watches, when sleep evades us, that God selects as His time of visitation. Or, as the African American Spiritual has it:

   “My Lord, calls me,
  He calls me in the thunder.
His trumpet sounds within my soul.
I ain’t got long to stay here”.

Before the present narrative begins, it is evident that ” The trumpet of the Lord ” sounded clearly in Zacchaeus’s soul. Now, its sound obliterates the sounds of mistrust and suspicion against him and any self-ponderance of what some might see as inappropriate behaviour disappeared like a morning mist. 

 In a candid statement, Luke tells us much in just a few words. Zacchaeus “wanted to see who Jesus was”. On this occasion, Zacchaeus notices the enthusiastic crowds, their faces glowing with delight and approval. He recognises almost every face in the present group, but in their closer company, he sees only faces reflecting hearts of stone.

And then, the outcome! The final part of the narrative. Let the trumpet now play a version of “The Hallelujah Chorus!” Zacchaeus no longer has to stay in the place of constant longing and ill-fated dreams. 

No more is Zacchesus besieged by thoughts of being equipped by God to share some innate goodness with his neighbours and friends who, until this moment, have rejected him. But listen, there is not to be anywhere found a human being who bears the likeness of God, who is not equipped to share some personal gift for the betterment of his race. 

Listen to the trumpet sounding in your soul and live as a child of God. Be eager to be inclusive, and see worth in all you meet. Be quick to love and slow to judge. Remember Jesus’ admonishment to the critics of Zacchaeu: Zacchaeus, too, is a child of God! 

 ( Luke 19: 9-10)

A Prayer to follow this meditation

My Father,
The sound of Your trumpet in my soul is an
  occurrence for which I am eternally grateful.

Sometimes, when the cares of this world weigh me down and threaten to overwhelm me, Your trumpet refocuses my soul to walk with You beside the still waters and into the green fields.

Sometimes, when words of faith are derided and made light of in the group, the temptation is to blend anonymously into the background. The trumpet sounds within my soul. Fear evaporates, and the Lord provides the opportunity to offer His defence in love.

Other times, I hear Your trumpet in the dark of the night when sleep refuses to interrupt the not-so-pleasant memories of my day’s performance. Then the trumpet’s sounding announces God’s calling time, and, before long, in complete reassurance, I fall asleep in Your arms.
Father, in Your merciful love, may I continue to hear Your trumpet’s guiding sound until I reach the gates of my heavenly home.
Through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Hymn: Where He Leads ME, I Will Follow

https://youtu.be/e9FqFC0WA-o?si=5F2H_zpPR8skoxEe

THE CALL FROM THE BOUNDLESS DEEP

Additional Scripture Reading: Luke 5:1 – 11

TEXT
“1 Peter 1: 13 Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming.”

This text is remarkable counsel from a man whose life in seasons past was moulded and shaped by the unpredictable forces of the sea. The unreliable sea was the only driving force Peter knew! He depended entirely upon that sea for his livelihood. He learned to deal with its disappointments and uncertainties. Every day his effort was to wrestle the sea’s treasure from its miserly grasp. He and his crew toiled all night more than once and took nothing. One morning, while routinely preparing to put back to sea, Peter was delayed in his effort by someone on the shore. Jesus inauspiciously flung the thought into Peter’s soul of ‘catching men’ rather than fish’. In a split second, Peter felt a new reality entering his soul. He heard an unfamiliar Call from deep inside himself for the first time.
The experience was utterly other-worldly for him.

Subsequently, one night in the vicious throes of the stormy sea, Peter, while in the company of Jesus, experienced the inexplicable power and sheer beauty of Faith in God. Jesus’ response to the storm’s mighty battering captured Peter’s attention. Then, slowly, it dawned upon him that Jesus was introducing him to something entirely different from the hidden dread of the boundless deep, which Peter knew all too well. And in complete ecstasy, Peter, at that moment, coveted this same experience for those he cared for most and for those he loved the best.
But too soon, the consideration of a career change from ‘catching fish’ to ‘ catching men’ grounded in complete abandon! The  ‘instructor in chief’ had met a cruel death at the hands of enemies at Calvary. For Peter, the Call from the boundless deep within himself was less enticing now. The familiar pounding of the sea offered a more private place to deal with feelings that ran too deep for tears. ” I am going fishing,” Peter announces to his co-workers, whose silent prayers seem answered by Peter’s decision. ( John 21: 3-6)
But how can anyone fathom with such decisiveness the mystery involved in the two calls from the boundless deep? Being a citizen of the world, Peter had responded, paying attention to the advantages so readily available to a fisherman. The other possibility, to be a fisher of men, recently issued by Jesus, came to a previously unheard region of Peter’s existence. It came to the unfathomed depths of Peter’s soul. It was an unspeakable experience of Faith in God that had no comparison whatsoever with being a fisherman. He would now catch men!  Perhaps, he and his companions might all become Fishers Of Men.

In his work “Crossing The Bar,” British Victorian Poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson uses the same metaphor to impart the mystery of human behaviour that awakens the soul to its destiny:

 CROSSING THE BAR
“Sunset and evening star,
 And one clear Call for me!
And may there be no moaning of the bar,
When I put out to sea,
But such a tide as moving seems asleep,
Too full for sound and foam,
When that which drew from out the boundless deep
Turns again home.

Twilight and evening bell,
And after that, the dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell,
 When I embark;
For tho’ 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”.

At the centre of the town, which I proudly call home, there is a pond fed at one end by two tributaries, and at the opposite end is the pond’s access to the sea. At high tide, the ocean waters move swiftly to share their volume with the pond. The pond appears to be drawing from the boundless deep of the ocean. At low tide, the flood water returns home to the boundless deep! The rising and falling of the fast-moving waters are too full for sound or foam.
In my youth, I stood for hours on the bridge that spans the tide, imagining the incoming surge to be the grace of God preparing us for the work awaiting us. The outflowing tide takes the needs, the sorrows, and the community’s pain to be lost in the sufficiency of God’s mercy and grace.

 Likewise, Faith is Peter’s discovery and final acceptance of the truth. Beneath the surface of every experience, there is always the sufficiency of God’s unconditional love and the reality of a Transforming Friendship. Thank God, the Call from the boundless deep, as uttered by Jesus, won its victory in Peter’s life. Peter’s initial decision to return to the fishing grounds resulted from heartache and disappointment. Subsequently, it vanished when the risen Christ made clear that Fishers of men is the result of Faith born of love. It is the ending of the timidity to express, before all others, unconditional love to the One who demands it. (see John 21:15) “The call from out the boundless deep” defines Faith. Drawing from out the boundless deep’ will prepare us “to see our Pilot face to face when we have crossed the bar”.

             A Prayer To Follow This Meditation

Our Father,
speak the word only, and our spirits will bear lasting allegiance to Your way. Indeed, You show us the way, the truth and the life.
Yet, words are impotent until the Spirit propels them deep into our being to invigorate our resolve to live for Thee.
Let us receive, as from Thy hand, the gift of this new day and affirm Thy power to make it worthy of being offered to Thee at eventide. We pray in the Name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Hymn: I Feel The Winds Of God

https://youtu.be/IEudmc1fLeo

NOTES

1. Scripture references are found in the NIV translation of Scripture.
2. The photographer is unknown to me. However, gratitude is expressed here for this beautiful picture of the Drum Bridge
( Draum Bridge) locally named.

         THE GLORY OF THE EXTENDED SELF

Matthew 25:40  ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ 

The ability to extend oneself beyond what is allowed by our physicality is a commonplace occurrence. Our children leave home. But who will deny the fact that they remain there? They are not physically present or available to the senses, but communications remain, even if seemingly from a different sphere. Spirit with Spirit still meet. Sometimes, years later, people surprisingly discover that they do things the way they observe in childhood. That suggests more of the extension of a self than the mere formation of a habit! 

Rudyard Kipling Gives expression to this thought:
“If I were hanged on the highest hill,
Mother o’ mine, O mother o’ mine!
I know whose love would follow me still,
Mother o’ mine, O mother o’ mine!
If I were drowned in the deepest sea,
Mother o’ mine, O mother o’ mine!
I know whose tears would come down to me,
Mother o’ mine, O mother o’ mine!
If I were damned of body and soul,
I know whose prayers would make me whole,
Mother o’ mine, O mother o’ mine” (2)

However, the reality of The Extended Self goes further than what family relationships demonstrate. The study of emerging communities by anthropologists and sociologists worldwide indicates the essential ingredients of shared selfhood. Farther still, any consideration of “The Extended Self” invites reflection of the relationship between humankind and the divine. What does it mean to be created IN THE IMAGE OF GOD”, as Scripture states?  

 In theological discourse, a distinctive feature of the Divine describes The Omnipresence of God. Since God’s power and knowledge extend to all parts of His creation, He is present everywhere. And humankind is distinguished from all other species of the animal kingdom by sharing this unique endowment with his Creator.

“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.” (Genesis 1: 26) God, who is Spirit, shares the miracle of the Extended Self through the Spirit of His human creation, as witnessed in both the Old and New Testaments.

Genesis 28:15, (NIV) Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go and bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” 

 Matthew 28:20b, I will be with you always, even until the end of this age.

 Colossians 2:5 “For though I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.” 

 Paul, the author, is here writing to Christians in Colossae, a small city in Asia Minor, while he is a prisoner in Rome. 

In many instances, the written word is an effective medium spanning the miles that separate individuals and provides mutual sharing of spirits. Then too, there is the extension of the self in matters of the prayers of the faithful. On such an occasion, there are three simultaneous actions occurring. God’s Spirit is meeting with the petitioner who intercedes with God concerning another person known to be in need, and at the same time, that person who is praying is extending himself to embrace the one in need through faith and love.

The extended self of Jesus throughout His physical presence on earth is the cornerstone in building the New Faith.

John 4:49 – 53 “The royal official said, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”
“Go,” Jesus replied, “your son will live.”
The man took Jesus at his word and departed. While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, “Yesterday, at one in the afternoon, the fever left him.”
 Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” So he and his whole household believed.”

And still, today, Jesus comes! And still today, hurrying and harried, multitudes cry out, “No room! There remains such an urgent need for the world’s throngs to make room for the Prince of Peace! And whenever that happens, amazing changes will follow. The indwelling Presence of Jesus prepares individuals to be extensions of Himself.  Only then will our response to human needs emulate the words and actions of Jesus, “Inasmuch as you have done it unto the least of these, my brothers, you have done unto me.’

From your eyes, He beckons me.
From your heart, His love is shed
Til I lose sight of you and see the Christ instead. (3)

                        A Prayer To Follow This Meditation

Merciful Father, look with pity upon what the modern Church has become. It is difficult to believe that this is the same institution for which women and men braved the wild seas, faced the horrors of savage beasts, and entered the very gates of Heaven singing Hallelujah! For me, to live is Christ! To die is gain.”

Now praise God, just in time to save one from ” the swamp of despair”, Hope springs eternal in the human breast”.I saw a beautiful yellow dandelion flower close to a giant snow drift, now greatly diminished. “Look, see me!, it announced, “Winter has lost its grip . I am the first of many beautiful things that God plans yet to be”. And echoing from a crowded church on Easter Sunday Morning, I heard the vibrant notes, ” Christ The Lord Is Risen Today, Hallelujah! And now life knocks upon every church door.

 Many modern-day folks seemed to have joined the company of the first disciples who, behind closed doors, fearfully tried to come to terms with a newly occupied tomb in Joseph’s garden. But, then, amid their disbelief and worn-out yesterday’s faith, Jesus stands in their midst with the offer of new resurrection life. 

So, please, God, number us with those first disciples who gladly accepted Your gift of Resurrected Life. For thereby, Hope springs eternal yet again. So, moving forward now into this new day dawning, let this be our daily Hope, that others lose sight of us and see the Christ instead. Help us by Your grace to realize that whatever we do for one of the least of these our brothers and sisters, we do it unto Christ. And all for His glory. Amen.
 Hymn: Take My Life

https://youtu.be/DZKGYSRHjpQ

NOTES

Photo: The late Bertram Roberts. A long-time family friend and known to me from early childhood. Mr Roberts was a faithful sexton at the Brigus United Church for many years. This is one of my favourite pictures capturing life and personalities from the Brigus of my childhood.
2. Poem by Rudyard  Kipling, MOTHER O’ MINE
https://www.bing.com/search?pglt=43&q=mother+o%27+mine.+rudyard+kipling&cvid=a9df238ff17447bc945e4d07549e25d1&aqs=edge.1.0l4j46j0l4.21704j0j1&FORM=ANNTA1&PC=HCTS
3. Author unknown.