Monday, April 23rd, 2012
Peace Be With You
Yesterday morning, I had so much fun trying to explain to the children that Jesus would greet them saying ‘Peace be with you’ rather than something like ‘How are you today?’ Our Lord’s words reminds me very much of some of my Sudanese friends’ greeting ‘How is your family?’ Our words offer hospitality to those we meet. Jesus greets us with the deep peace that God brings and my friends greet me with concern for my children and husband.
I wonder who I might meet today? Who will God put in my path this sunny Monday morning? I pray that I will not be overly distracted by tasks and will notice them, greeting them with a smile, taking the time to pause and share the blessing of this day with them.
I wonder how many human exchanges are lost because we said hello as we kept walking by. Reminds me of the rabbit in Alice in Wonderland, ‘I’m late, I’m late for a very important date!’ How much, O Lord, of you do we miss?
I pray that I will calmly breathe in the wonder of creation blowing through the trees outside my office window. I pray that I will take time to walk along the river later today, hopefully before the sun hides behind the promised clouds. I pray that the people I meet today will experience in me the respect, care, and concern God wants us to share with one another.
What is your prayer this day?
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Monday, April 2nd, 2012
Holy Monday
Mary, sister of Martha and Lazarus, pours ointment over Jesus’ feet. Her heart is a mixture of love and sorrow. Pouring both over his feet, she shows us the way to express deep gratitude to the One who has redeemed us. Not all understand such expressions of vulnerability. ‘That money would have helped hundreds of hungry people!’ The ointment could have been sold for a price equivalent to a year’s salary. Nonetheless, Mary will always be associated with this generous expression of love for our Lord. We are tempted to carefully count the cost of our gifts, our discipleship. She does not. She offers us a model for discipleship. Mary is the one who sits and listens for the good news at Jesus’ feet, the very feet she anoints. Mary realizes the importance of time with God even though there is always much work to do in the kitchen and in the kingdom. Perhaps all we can say is that we are glad that Jesus knew such love, such adoration, before others reject and destroy him. Knowing the power of such tenderness, may we find it in ourselves.
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Thursday, March 8th, 2012
The Middle of Lent
How is your Lenten journey proceeding?
Are you allowing yourself the time you need to make this season one of enrichment for you? Perhaps things began smoothly, but the desired routine was interrupted somewhere along the way. If so, begin again … don’t give up. That is one of the aspects of Christian spirituality that I truly love. We begin again and again and again, not as failures, but as those who try to follow Jesus.
Sometimes we plan activities or types of prayer that do not really work in the way we had imagined. So what? Move on to something else. I enjoy many different types of praying. When I am feeling rushed or over-whelmed with my responsibilities I settle back into our good old BAS daily office of morning and evening prayer. Those simple, plain liturgies are rather like oatmeal for me. Sometimes boring, but always sustaining. Nonetheless, I know my relationship with God, therefore neighbour, depends on contemplative prayer. I often pray that I will pray contemplatively more often! Silly isn’t it? Rather than praying about it, I should simple do it! This month of March, we are offering weekly contemplative prayer times – Thursdays at Noon. Come try it out!
In good weather, I enjoy praying on a long walk, my body in a sound rhythm allowing my mind to open to God’s presence. Labyrinth prayer can be spiritually rich. Lectio Divina, the practice of praying through the reading of a bible passage, is another method of prayer that many people enjoy. I know some who describe delightful responses through meditating on a bible story. This year we have offered little booklets written by the famous Joan Chittister for daily reflection. Still a few left if you’re interested. They’re good all year ’round.
There are many ways to draw closer to God. Lent gives us the time and the reason to find our way along the spiritual path. Looking for some help or suggestions? Give me a call or email kvanallen.allsaints@bellnet.ca.
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Monday, October 31st, 2011
Disciple or Companion?
Monday nights this Fall we are having great conversation around a DVD series First Light: Jesus and the Kingdom of God. This week one of the featured scholars, John Dominic Crossan, explained that the men and women who followed Jesus were companions rather than disciples. The word disciple, he says, means student and teachers do not ask students to do what teachers do. Jesus engaged his followers in his ministry. They were Jesus’ companions. Jesus told them to ‘just do it’. Jesus, not Nike, crafted those words, Crossan offers. Just do it!
I was still thinking about that Tuesday afternoon as I prepared for the Deanery Fresh Expressions session exploring leadership and discipleship for the missional church. Discipleship. In the gospels, Jesus’ followers are disciples, but in the book of Acts, they are called apostles, teachers. I wondered about John Dominic Crossan’s portrayal of followers as companions. Disciples and Apostles or Companions?
One of my primary complaints about contemporary Christians is our proclivity to put Jesus on a pedestal so high above our daily life that his life becomes a glorious image rather than a life we are invited to engage in ourselves. Is Jesus a royal doulton figure, something you cherish and dust from time to time or is Jesus actively involved in shaping your life?
If disciples are students and apostles are teachers, who are the doers? I guess that would be us! Companions, we are! Companions in this journey towards God’s vision of the world, the kingdom. Throughout the day, we converse with the one who taught us to pray, to sit with the marginalized and rich alike. When confronted with those who accuse us unjustly, we are not alone. Jesus stands with us, just as he stood before Pilate. Someone once told me, ‘Never under-estimate the power of truth.’ Companions, let us walk with Jesus day by day. Surely we live in a different cultural milieu, but once again, Jesus is not a china figure to be valued from afar. Jesus is God in human flesh, Emmanuel today and always.
Pray, chat with the one with whom we sojourn. Shall we be companions? Friends, I think we are. Rather than learning so much about Jesus, let’s just do it! Live the way of the Lord.
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Wednesday, April 27th, 2011
Easter Monday Reflection
Easter: A Resurrected Lord and a Resurrected People
As I write this, I realize that Easter is old news for many people. Holiday is over. People are back at work. Easter baskets put away for another year.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Sunday morning churches throughout Windsor and Essex County proclaimed the Risen Lord!! With loud sound, young and old marching around our worship spaces, we sing the good news that Jesus has risen. The God in whom Jesus trusted, has shown us that evil does not have the last word. The oppressive powers that try to snuff out the light of the world, do not succeed.
Easter morning we affirm our faith in this radical way of living that is Jesus. Christians proclaim a resurrected Lord and commit to living as a resurrected people. As Bishop Terry Dance told us on Sunday, Jesus’ resurrection is our resurrection! This is serious business. Such a way was misunderstood or perhaps understood and greatly feared two thousand years ago. What will be the response in Windsor and Essex as we live this way here and now?
Trusting in God’s love with the radical trust Jesus had ought to enable us to treat others with dignity, fairness, and compassion. Such trust ought to give us the courage to stand up for those who are too weak to effect change themselves. Who are the voiceless today? Jesus healed the sick, the possessed and dispossessed because they had been rejected by a system that had wandered away from the heart of God. He heals a culture as much as he heals an individual.
As Jesus’ own, we do the same. I recall the transforming Do the Math Challenge offered by Pathways to Potential in Windsor. How can one raise a healthy family on high sodium, high carb diets that many who live in poverty are forced to accept? Community gardens, fresh fruits and vegetables will transform this injustice in our time.
Our lives do make a difference. The litmus test of faith, any kind of faith, is more than how many bible passages you can quote or how succinctly you can express theology. Faith is something incarnated, born out through our lives – how we live and how we treat each other.
Our Easter hope? Our old ways will pass away and the new ways of love and justice will be born in all aspects of human life. What ‘s the point of a resurrected Lord, if those who proclaim him Lord, do not also allow the transformation of their lives? Such transformation is the hope for the world.
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