The Incarnation

Scripture             John 1:1-5, 14       
Focus Verse        John 1:14a
And the Word became flesh and lived among us …

In the incarnation, God drew close to us in a specific and historical way.  We can know the Eternal God of the universe by walking with Jesus, the word made flesh.

But the incarnation isn’t just about a moment in a stable or even just the ~33 years that Jesus lived as “God with us.”  The incarnation is about a God who still wants to be present through those who follow Jesus, the incarnate Word made flesh.  We are not called to simply tell the story of the Nativity, we are called to live it.  

Reflection:  How does knowing that Jesus reveals God to us in such an intimate way invite you to allow God to transform you?  How do you walk with Jesus day by day?

As we contemplate the incarnation, I share with you a song that illuminates the reality that God is always with us.  If music is a pathway for you, listen to "Star Child," a song written by Shirley Erena Murray and arranged by David Haas and sung with a friend. The reality of our world is that there are many among us for whom the joy of Christmas has never been experienced but we sing, we pray, we hope that ... "This year, this year, let the day arrive when Christmas comes for everyone, everyone alive!"  May it be so!

Prayer: Breathing “The Jesus Prayer”       
Breathing in … Lord Jesus Christ
Breathing out … Have mercy
*pray by breathing this prayer repetitively until the prayer prays you. You’ll know the prayer is praying you when the words come to you at random times in random places.  You will simply feel the words on your lips, in sync with your breathing.  And you have begun the process of praying unceasingly through the power of the Holy Spirit! For more information about praying The Jesus Prayer, an ancient prayer form from the days of early Christian History, practiced by the Desert Mothers and Fathers, take this LINK ...

Jesus the Healer: He healed them ...

[When] God has been invited to reign in a life where self has been on the throne; 

God's kingdom has become more truly a reality in that life;

that person has entered the kingdom of God.  ~Albert E. Day

Welcome dear friend, to a series on the healing stories of Jesus. The root of the word healing in New Testament Greek, sozo, is the same as that of salvation and wholeness.  (UM Book of Worship)

I invite you to enter into a time of deep prayer with scripture as we explore the healing stories of Jesus.  Gather your journal if you have one, your bible and something to write with or simply use your computer, I've provided everything you need.

Take a moment to pause and stretch, scan your body and simply notice how it feels.  Acknowledge any aches, pains, distractions, anxieties, etc. and let them go.  Know they'll be waiting for you ...

Begin with a "Breath Prayer"

Breathing in ... Healing Jesus 
Breathing out ... Heal my soul
Repeat your breath prayer until you feel relaxed and centered

Pray for illumination of the text, use this one or pray what emerges from within you:  Healing Jesus, lead me as I read and pray.  Show me your healing presence in the text and in my life.  Amen.

1.  Lectio/Read:   Matthew 4:23-25 (NET) As you read, perhaps there is a word or phrase that will draw you to it.  Pay attention. Turn the word or phrase over and over in your mind.  Simply sit with your word or phrase and be grateful. 

Jesus went throughout all of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of disease and sickness among the people. So a report about him spread throughout Syria. People brought to him all who suffered with various illnesses and afflictions, those who had seizures, paralytics, and those possessed by demons, and he healed them. And large crowds followed him from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond the Jordan River. 

2.  Meditatio/Meditation

Read the text a second time.  You may find that the same word has energy for you, but you may also find that another word has become more alive with meaning.  Pay attention.  Where does that word speak into your life?  Take your word and write freely, in your journal or on your computer.  Don't think about what you are writing as you let God lead you deeper.

3. Oratio/Pray 

Read the text a third time.  Then read your own writing if you wrote anything.  Are there any connections you can make between what you read and the writing that flowed from your reading?  How do you respond to what God has shown you?   Take a moment to write again in your journal or on your computer as a prayer in response to what you have heard.   

4. Contemplatio/Contemplation 

Take a moment to pause.  Allow your breath prayer to emerge again.  You can use the same one from the beginning or perhaps a new one will emerge for you.  As you continue to pray, let the words fade away into silence. Spend time simply "be"ing with God. 

Allow your experience of praying with scripture to come to a close when you are ready to move on.  You can get a meditation app if you'd like to sink into the silence for an extended period of time.  You may not feel like it today but feel like you need it at other times.  The most important thing is to let the Spirit lead you and guide you into the presence of God.

Close with a prayer to send yourself into the world, use this one or pray what emerges from within you:  Healing Jesus, lead me as I live my life.  Walk with me and transform me into a healing presence in the world.  Amen.

Easter Moment 2012: The Holy Women

Icon "The Holy Women at the Tomb"
dates from the third century.
This 20th century writing by Sister Marie-Paul
 Farran, O.S.B. can be purchased online 
in several different forms at The Printery House
More Info:  Praying with Icons

Read Mark 16:1-8


When the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. They had been saying to one another, ‘Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?’ When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back. 

As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. But he said to them, ‘Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.’ So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid. 

They were afraid.  Jesus died ... Life will change.  What happens now?

I am afraid.  My dad has been ill for such a long time ... Life is changing.  What will happen now?

Last summer I was scheduled for an 8-day (+arrival &departure days) silent retreat at the Jesuit Spirituality Center at St. Charles College in Grand Coteau, Louisiana.  Just a short time before I was to leave, my dad went into the hospital yet again.  I shifted things around here and there ... finally my 8 days were trimmed down to 3+ days so that I could be with dad as long as possible.  Agony ... this is what it always is to leave, never knowing if I’ll see his sweet dancing eyes again ... or hear him call me "sugar."  You know, I’ve always hated that, but these days not so much.  Ahhh well, his eyes can manage a blink, a twinkle and a smile most days anyway.

As I unpacked my backs and my art supplies ... I reached into a pack of icon holy cards thinking to myself, "I'll put an icon on my prayer altar and let it speak to me."  When I pulled it out ... honestly, I was very disappointed for this icon did not appear to hold much invitation for me ... holy women at the tomb.   Hmmm, I could put it back and pull out another one, but I kindof felt like that was cheating … I don’t know, fate or the universe or maybe even … God :)  Either you are open to the surprises God has for you or you aren't.

I set up my prayer altar and crawled into my little bed and slept for several hours.  I don't know about you but my life is way too full and I am exhausted more than I am not.  Normally my first day of retreat is a day of “holy rest.”    When I woke later in the evening, I sat at my prayer altar holding my prayer card and cried and cried and ... cried some more.  Then I stirred myself up with laments and laments and .... more laments.  I found myself both rested and emotionally spent at the same time as I wandered the grounds and pondered and prayed under the great oak trees. Suddenly I noticed the little bookstore and walked in.  Books ... can be very distracting :)  Suddenly my eyes were drawn to several icons on a shelf at the back of the store.  Do you have any idea how many religious icons exist in the world?  Well, neither do I, there must be a gazillion I think.   And there sitting right on the shelf in front of me were those darn holy women!  I'm sorry, is that irreverent?

The holy women beckoned to me. I pondered quite awhile before I bought the icon and placed it gently in the center of my prayer altar. We sat together as I lit my candle in the twilight of the evening.  With night falling the gentle women lovingly whispered in my soul ... “Why don't you let us hold your grief for these few days?” 

I realized these holy women understood my grief for they lived it.  They experienced the pain and the anger and the grief and the sheer madness in the depths of their rampant fear, otherwise known as "terror."   And I was terrified that I would lose my dad.  I found myself unable to focus on God.  I was silent on the outside but I there was a storm raging within me.   "Why don't you let us hold your grief for these few days?"

Maybe ... I crawled into my bed, pulled the covers up over my head and slept another 12 hours.  When I woke up the next day, I looked over at those holy women and I felt there had been a shift in the night.  I'm not sure when the peacefulness fell upon me but I felt lighter, almost as if I could float away if I wasn't grounded in something.  And the women were silent and gentle and loving and accepting of me just as I was.   As the morning sun shined brightly through the window bringing a warm glow to my room and my soul, I wanted to take a walk ... I wanted to “find” God … and I’m laughing now because God never gets lost.  It is me that gets lost in life and circumstances.  Ahhh ... perhaps, dear Jesus, you've gone on ahead of me and are waiting for me to show up.  

I sat on the porch in a chair with my journal and my oils pastels at my side.  I sat for a very long time soaking in the silence and breathing.  Finally, I took up my bible and turned to Isaiah 55:13.  It is a beautiful verse to sit with in the silence. That day it was a balmy breeze sweeping across my autumn soul …

Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress;

instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle; 

and it shall be to the Lord for a memorial,    

for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. 

My mom died almost five years ago and my dad still misses her every day as he turns to tell her something and she simply isn’t there.  He sits idly by, waiting … waiting … waiting for the day their love story will continue in heaven.   As I read Isaiah’s little verse, suddenly love came alive for me and burst forth like the flowers of spring, resurrected life in poetry … meet my mom the myrtle and my dad the cypress ... they are an everlasting sign of God's love ... an everlasting sign of the resurrection … an everlasting sign that no matter where we are today or where we go tomorrow … 

The resurrected Jesus is waiting up ahead for us!

Amen!

Grace and Peace!

Holy Week Journey: The Sabbath

Christ taken down from the cross, detail of mosaic at the Stone of Anointing in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem © 2010 Rachel Ricci/seetheholyland.net, used under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ 

Jesus is dead  

In Jewish tradition the Sabbath day begins on Friday evening and ends on Saturday evening.   Jewish law mandated the dead body of Jesus be removed from the cross before the Sabbath day began ...   

Christ laid out for anointing, detail of mosaic at Stone of Anointing in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem
© 2010 seetheholyland.net, used under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ 

Jesus is dead  

A rich man named Joseph of Arimathea took his body, anointed and prepared it with spices, and laid it in his own private tomb ... 

Christ carried to tomb, detail of mosaic at Stone of Anointing in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem
© 2010 Rachel Ricci/seetheholyland.net, used under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Jesus is dead

Remember the Sabbath day, and keep it holy ... Amen.  

(Exodus 20:8)

Jesus died on the first day, 


Jesus rests in peace today, the second day which is the Jewish Sabbath

   (early church tradition says Jesus descended into Sheol to proclaim the gospel 

but the Gospels are silent on this issue ... It's a mystery :)

Jesus will rise on the third day


If music is a pathway to God for you and you have a rock and roll soul, I invite you to take this link to Shalom Aleichem ... which means Peace unto you ... by Dean Staker of Shabbat Resouled who performs original Jewish rock music :) on certain Friday nights at a Progressive Synagogue in the UK.   I find both the song and the images quite beautiful and soul-touching.   


One of the things we do when we lose someone is to remember them ... watch the montage of Jesus images and remember how Jesus has touched your life with grace and peace and love.  If Jesus has not yet touched you with healing grace, I pray that you will open your heart and welcome him to come and make a home within you.  The words that are being sung are not in English, so don't struggle to understand, just rest and keep the Jewish Sabbath holy.  

Shalom Aleichem, Yeshua.

Peace unto You, Jesus.  Amen.