Basic Needs

“We should remain within the limits imposed by our basic needs… For once we are carried a little beyond these limits in our desire for the pleasures of life, there is then no criterion by which to check our onward movement…”

Source: Nilus of Ancyra

Spirit Filled Economy

The early Christians did not share their resources out of obligation, guilt or in obedience to a new rule called “equality.” They shared their goods out of a tremendous experience of joy and spontaneous offering. They had experienced the Holy Spirit in their midst, and their response was to share everything they had….
Behaving differently about money is a visible consequence of the Spirit’s presence—a very hard word for people who would rather stay in the upper room with the Spirit and never come down in the street to live out the new economy that the Spirit has created.

Source: The Call to Conversion by Jim Wallis

Disciplines for the journey

There comes a time when we want to quit and take up the next thing, but it is important to stay with the discipline through the periods when we lose interest.

This is important to note, because nothing warrants the name discipline which does not evoke resistance, which means an opposing force comes into action. It is a force which has the potential of sweeping out of sight any good intentions. This is another time to name the enemy and define the goal.  If the discipline is real there will be a goal, for disciplines should not exist for their own sake. Their only value is that they enable us to get to the place where we want to go. They are quite useless if they are not related to our goals. It is, of course, equally foolish to have goals and no disciplines. The goal we have been speaking of here is the one of getting our live rooted in God, so that they are not blown and tossed about by every wind.

Source: Journey Inward, Journey Outward by Elizabeth O’Conner

Belonging to you

Being part of a church is saying to a specific group of people that I am willing to be with you. I am willing to belong to you, I am willing to be the people of  God with you. This is never a tentative commitment.

Engagement with others in depth is always difficult within the church, which is probably why so few try it and why there is so little genuine Christian community in the world.  In other groupings we choose those we want to be close to and those whom we want to hold at a distance, which means that any relationship in depth is on the basis of human affinity and the standards set for friendship.  The church is the only place where this does not happen. A person is not received into the membership of the church because she is a certain type or because he has arrived at a certain place in life, but because he is following Christ. We do not do the calling. Christ does the calling, and this very threatening because the people he calls are the people with whom we are to have intimate belonging. This gives us a strange assortment of people to be with.

Source: Journey Inward, Journey Outward by Elizabeth O’Conner

Invitation

Oh do you have time

to linger

for just a little while

out of your busy

and very important day

for the goldfinches

that have gathered

in a field of thistles

for a musical battle,

to see who can sing

the highest note,

or the lowest,

or the most expressive of mirth,

or the most tender?

Their strong, blunt beaks

drink the air

as they strive

melodiously

not for your sake

and not for mine

and not for the sake of winning

but for sheer delight and gratitude—

believe us, they say,

it is a serious thing

just to be alive

on this fresh morning

in the broken world.

I beg of you,

do not walk by
 without pausing

to attend to this

rather ridiculous performance.

It could mean something.

It could mean everything.

It could be what Rilke meant,

when he wrote:

You must change your life.

Source: Red Bird: Poems, by Mary Oliver

War & Simplicity

“Wars are generally fought for material things; they’re not fought over ideals.  After we get into them, we are told we are fighting for ideals.  We are fighting for oil and tin and rubber and markets, and as long as we insist on a standard of life that is so high above all the rest of the world, we’re going to have to pay for our standard of living with a lot of blood.   I think we ought to re-examine the fact that Jesus was a pauper, and we should be committing ourselves to a very humble, simple way of life.” 

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Source: Clarence Jordan, Koinonia Community

Participating in the work of God

The assumption of spirituality is that always God is doing something before I know it.  So the task is not to get God to do something I think needs to be done, but to become aware of what God is doing so that I can respond to it and participate and take delight in it.

Source: The Contemplative Pastor by Eugene Peterson

Prayer & Action

Contemplation is in no way opposed to action. In fact, our sense is that truly effective, responsive action in the world needs to be undergirded and informed by contemplative awareness.

Also, although silence and solitude play a role in the contemplative life, contemplation does not mean withdrawing from the world. On the contrary, it is a responsive, participative presence in and with God, oneself, one’s neighbors, and all creation.

Being present and open to God in each moment, living from the ground of that Love, is a much-needed path in our world today. Contemplative living helps us see our world with clear, loving eyes and helps us find a new way of being in that world. For over 30 years, Shalem has offered support for living a contemplative life–a life grounded in awareness, appreciation and love.

Source: Tilden Edwards, Shalem Institute

An Authentic Calling

Identity, giftedness, and occupation are ingredients of a calling. But how do we know when a call is really of God and not something we created on our own? The call of God is always consistent with God’s saving purpose. Is this an authentic call? If this pilgrimage means that we are to share in the saving work of God that began with Noah, that we are to share in the saving work of Christ described in the New Testament, then the call is authentic indeed. The distinctive mark of a calling is not the nature of the work but the purpose of the worker.

The most remarkable sentence in the Bible is found in the Genesis story of Abraham and Sarah. God called Abram to go from Haran “to a land that I will show you.” I’ve been to Haran. It was a terrifying move God was asking of Abram and Sarai. The ruins indicate that Haran was a large and sophisticated city on the edge of a desert. God’s call to Abram and Sarai went against their identity as a wealthy urban couple. That call to a new occupation in an unknown place was outrageous. That call to live a gypsy life in the desert was unthinkable.

Abraham and Sarah were the first people to understand that there was one God; they were the first to be called by this God, called to be a blessing to all the families of the earth. Abraham and Sarah represent a new beginning for all of us in the traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. We are indeed blessed by those first pioneers. In a sense our call is part of their call, to go “to the land that I will show you” (Gen. 12:1). The most remarkable sentence in the Bible begins this way, “So Abram went…” (Gen. 12:4). As a result, we are all blessed and called to be a blessing.

Source: Called for Life: Finding Meaning in Retirement, by Paul C. Clayton

The Long View

It helps, now and then, to step back and take a long view.

The Kingdom is not only beyond our efforts,

it is even beyond our vision.

We accomplish in out lifetime only a tiny fraction

of the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work.

Nothing we do is complete, which is a way of saying

that the Kingdome always lies beyond us.

No statement says all that could be said.

No prayer fully expresses our faith.

No confession brings perfection.

No pastoral visit brings wholeness.

No program accomplishes the church’s mission.

No set of goals and objectives includes everything.

This is what we are about.

We plant the seeds that one day will grow.

We water seeds already planted,

knowing that they hold future promise.

We lay foundations that will need further development.

We provide yeast that produces far beyond our capabilities.

We can not do everything,

and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.

This enables us to do something, and to do it very well.

It may be incomplete,

but it is a beginning, a step along the way,

an opportunity for the Lord’s grace to enter and do the rest.

We may never see the end results, but that is the difference

between the master builder and the worker.

We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs.

We are prophets of the future not our own.

Amen.

Source: Archbishop Oscar Romero