From My Nature Journal: Ho-ho-hum...

Martin Luther said in the 1500’s, “The greater God’s gifts and works, the less they are regarded.” Such could be said of God’s astonishing creation gifts and works, to which, if I remember correctly, Luther was referring at the time. People would do well to pay better attention to creation, both its beauty and its care; therein they might find possible avenues toward greater peace with God, others and themselves. And that’s to say nothing of greater spiritual purpose, well-being, delight and joy.

The greater God’s gifts and works,

the less they are regarded…

~~ Martin Luther, 16^th Century

But the same could be said of God’s salvation gifts and works. Fewer and fewer in our western culture, which was founded upon the ethics of the Bible if not the Scriptures themselves, regard God’s incarnation highly, or for that matter, much else having to do with Biblical ethics or salvation history.

I’m usually not a doomsayer or pessimist, actually find the proverbial pony in the room of horse manure quite regularly. But I keep running into things that trouble me at worst, or simply mystify me at best, about our cultural depravity. This morning while checking the news online, I clicked a story about Pope Francis, whom I try to follow;  I like the man, don’t agree with everything he says, but still like him and pray for him. While reading the article, though, some video popped up featuring an unmarried same-sex couple in a sexual escapade, the dialogue complete with the f-bomb. What? I did not ask for this! I’m just trying to read the news. I turned away, but not before my incredulity kicked into highest gear. What is going on here? It’s no wonder a good portion of the world looks askance on the cultural exports of the West, let alone declares holy war against it.

Jesus, in a parable about two men who died, one who went to heaven and one to hell, tells of the one in hell pleading with ‘Father Abraham’ (the parable’s stand-in for God) to send a messenger back to his five brothers to warn them of their danger. In the parable, Abraham says it would be futile; they would disregard both the messenger and the message, remain unimpressed, ‘…even if one were to rise from the dead’ (Luke 16:19-31). Jesus sure got that right.

So, I know I have a choice here, one I am finding I need to make more and more often: I can remain in my incredulity about people’s disregard of God’s various gifts and works. Or I can do something else: I can be God’s person, during Advent and every other season, and seek to fairly and lovingly represent him even in the midst of that disregarding world and the worst that it can offer; and I can share my high regard for the works of God, both his creation works and his salvation works, as long as God gives me voice. Henri Nouwen puts it well:

The central question is: Are the Christian leaders of the future truly men and women of God, people with an ardent desire to dwell in God’s presence, to listen to God’s voice, to look at God’s beauty, to touch God’s Incarnate Word and taste fully of God’s infinite goodness?

Will you please join me in the latter choice?

~~ RGM, December 15, 2015

From My Nature Journal: Creation Doxology

OK, OK, I know the Doxology is something perhaps best not to mess with. I mean, most of the Christian world sings it, almost as if it might have dropped straight out of the heavens like the Coke bottle in The Gods Must be Crazy. But I confess, I have messed with it. Twice. But before I share my mess, let me give a little background.

What do you know about the Doxology?  Of course, the Greek word simply means ‘praise words,’ and there are many ‘doxologies’ penned and voiced over the millennia. But I’m thinking of the simple song sung in many traditional and contemporary settings. What do you know about it? Have you thought about that? Who is its author? When was it written and what was the context of its writing? Do you have an idea? (While you think, listen to a couple fine guitar renditions here by Michael Gungor and Gary Lowry, the first more jazzy and very fun to watch, the second more classical.) Many think the text must come from the Bible, or that at minimum it’s one of those ancient songs of praise that goes back a millennium or more. If not that, certainly at least the music must have been composed by one of the great western chorale or oratorio writers like Handel or Bach. But neither would be true. Both text and tune were borne out of relative obscurity.

The text is from the last stanza of a charming eleven-verse poem written by a 17^th Century Englishman, Thomas Ken. Ken was an Anglican priest and instructor of boys at Winchester College, Oxford. He lived at a time when it was considered sacrilegious, or at best tacky, to write new lyrics for sanctioned church hymns, especially if they were not verbatim from scripture. So he wrote this poem -- included in a collection titled Manual of Prayers for the Use of the Scholars of Winchester College, 1674 – with strict instructions that the songs be used only in the students’ rooms for private devotions. This particular poem is entitled Awake My Soul and with the Sun, intended for morning devotions; it is a delightful little poem, filled with instruction for devout living; find the complete eleven-verse text here, worth checking out. But I find it more than curious that a song written to be celebrated privately has now become one of the most well known songs in Christendom! What a sense of humor (and patience) God must have!

And the tune, at least the one most often used? Its composer was even more obscure than Ken. He was Joseph Mainzer, a little known miner turned priest, who, in spite of challenging political life circumstances that caused him to move from Germany to Brussels to Paris to England, was gifted in creating simple tunes that could appeal to the masses because they were so easily learned.

With that as context, maybe I now find less reticence to mess with it, and more confidence in sharing my mess here! I find from my notes that I wrote verses 2-5 below several years ago, while flying somewhere over Iowa on my way back from work in Chicago! That surprised me! I’m not sure what inspired me to do so at such a time, but I guess it just goes to show that one who finds nature an important spiritual pathway can zone out of his surroundings, no matter how incongruous, and tune into another place of meditation while he seeks God! Either that or just how crazy creation lovers are…

Here it is, Creation Doxology:

Praise God from Whom all blessings flow.

Praise Him, all creatures here below.

Praise Him above, ye heavenly host.

Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

Praise the Creator. Father’s plan:

Imago Dei -- woman, man.

For His good pleasure all are made --

Earth, beast and sky -- the heavens laid.

Praise Christ for Whom the stones cry out,

Trees raise their hands. All nature, shout!

Creation, wait expectantly

On tiptoe or on bended knee!

Praise Spirit, our Emmanuel:

Wind, breath, and life. God’s life to tell,

Calls all to mind, moves as it wills,

Creative wind our spirit fills.

Praise Trinity, the Three-in-One,

God’s Holy Spirit, Father, Son.

All nature sings as Light appears

Telling the beauty of the spheres.                                                

Praise God from Whom all blessings flow.

Praise Him, all creatures here below.

Praise Him above, ye heavenly host.

Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

God’s blessings be yours this Advent day.

~~ RGM, from an earlier entry in my nature journal,

Adapted for my blog December 10, 2015

POTM...*: Way Better than the Miracle on 34th Street

(*Photo of the Month)

Last month here in New Mexico, I did something I hadn’t done in years – I baptized a newborn baby. These many years as an administrative exec in the Covenant denomination have not allowed that blessed opportunity very often, which was so frequently mine as a local pastor years ago. But now I’m serving in transitional ministry back in a local church; so imagine my delight to be asked by members to officiate their daughter’s baptism! To make matters even better, this coming Sunday we are doing three baptisms by immersion in the church, two on new confession of faith. I feel like I have died and gone to heaven.

Baby Ruth was born back in June nearly eight weeks early, at a slight three pounds and thirteen ounces. Since then she has grown amazingly, to the point where she now seems to me on par with others her age, a lovely and dimple-smiley little one who charmed the worshipers the day of her baptism. During a visit several months back, her father showed me a photo I fell in love with; I asked for a copy thinking I might use it on my blog some day. When I came across it this week it arrested me, and spoke loudly that it was to be this month’s photo of the month.

For one reason, it reminded me of the miracle growing inside my second daughter, her first child. Sarah keeps an app on her phone that tells her how large her and BJ’s baby has grown in comparison with a fruit or vegetable: this week s/he’s a sweet potato. Now, I have seen some enormous and some small potatoes of the sweet variety, so I’m not sure how this particular app figures these things out. But what do I know? I just accept it and chuckle. The day Sarah told us, two and a half months ago, the baby was but a pecan…

But of course, there’s another reason why the photo has struck me, why I’ve found myself snatching views of Ruth this week and contemplating her incredible beauty and the wonder of her existence. We are thinking much these days about another baby, born also in something of emergency circumstances, but without the same sanitary hospital appurtenances, to an unwed teenaged mother and a mystified surrogate father in humble, obscure and unheralded conditions. Yet, all the world over, this child’s birth is celebrated this coming week. Faith in this baby, “…born a child and yet a king…” according to the Advent carol Come Thou Long Expected Jesus, has become the center of my life and that of countless others.

So I commend this child to your consideration, he who would become the Prince of Peace -- for the world, for me, for Ruth, for you.

Merry Christmas.

~~ RGM, December 19, 2014

QOTM...*: Ruth Haley Barton

(*Quote of the Month)

With a nod to Gene Autry (whoopie-ti-yi-yo…), I’m ‘…back in the parish again.’ In the ministry call I’ve recently completed, Christmas and Easter were actually a slower time of year: administrators don’t tend to get many calls when pastors and churches are extremely busy. But this year it’s different; I’m doing transitional ministry work in a church in New Mexico among a wonderful group of people we’ve come to love, so am doing Advent preaching and leading a Christmas Eve worship for the first time in nineteen years. It feels great and I am as happy as can be!

But it also feels extremely busy! I’ve been trying to snatch some moments of quiet and solitude in the midst of the frenetic pace, of which, I confess, most is our very own doing. So I’m reading again through Ruth Haley Barton’s Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership, and I come across this quote in chapter three the night before last, underlined from the first time I read the book:

Just as the physical law of gravity ensures that sediment swirling in a jar of muddy river water will eventually settle and the water will become clear, so the spiritual law of gravity ensures that the chaos of the human soul will settle if it sits still long enough.

~~Ruth Haley Barton              

The quote zinged (zung?) straight to my heart, and so, along with certain scriptures, I’m meditating these last thirty-two hours on these words as well. It also seemed a good quote to share today through this blog for your blessing as well. Don’t we need this reminder again and again? I sure do.

So, given the pace, I’ll keep this short and sweet today. But one more thing before I go: if you’ve the chance and are outdoors this weekend in unfrozen conditions, grab a jar with a lid before you go, stop alongside some waterway, dip the jar low into the stream or lake bed near the shore and scoop up some water and mud. Then bring the jar home, find a quiet place at some point in the next several days to sit and pray, shake up the jar, and set it down before you. Sit there long enough to let it settle while contemplating the gifts of God. Be blessed.

~~RGM, December 13, 2014