"Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an overflowing stream."
Amos 5:24
God is telling the people, through the prophet Amos, that the sacrifices and rituals aren't doing it for God anymore. They may have been OK in the past, but what God REALLY desires is that the people treat each other better. God is surely saying that to us today, don't you think? It's not enough that we go to church. We need to BE church to each other--welcoming, embracing, comforting, healing. If we do sacrifice anything to please God, something must show up in the pocket of the poor and those on the margins. Amos said this many years ago and we are still just learning it (hopefully, we're learning it!) Richard Rohr said something the other day that really stuck with me. We are to love God and love what God loves--which is everything (Richard Rohr, Daily Meditation, 6/29). As we struggle to do that in our lives, God is happier than if we merely go to church and try to save ourselves. I watched a wonderful documentary called "Bobby Kennedy for President" on Netflix. After the credits rolled and the tears dried on my face I thought, we are in just as troubled space as we were in 1968! I was inspired to want to dig in and DO something! That is a hero, for all his flaws and missteps, Bobby Kennedy saw wrong and tried to right it, like in his famous phrase. Can I do that? Can I speak up, roll up my sleeves and work so justice rolls down like waters? It's a tall order, I know. God will show us the way! Love, heidi
Wednesday, July 1, 2020
Wednesday, June 24, 2020
John the Baptist
"What, then, will this child be? For surely the hand of the Lord was with him."
Luke 1:66
I know they are referring to John the Baptist in this passage, but I can't help but remember having the same thoughts when our kids were born. "What then, will this child be?" Now, that the Larsens are all grown up, I realize I couldn't have imagined the interesting lives they would grow into and the awesome people they would turn out to be. It all happens so fast, doesn't it? It seems like once they got into school it was just a flurry of school years and, suddenly, they are adults and picking up the check at the restaurant! Just like John the Baptist, I was an only child of older parents, so I can appreciate how the guy was under a lot of pressure to make the folks proud. But I love the way he did his own thing. He did it with passion and vigor until it was time for him to step aside and let Jesus take over. He wasn't the Real Deal. He was a precursor of the Real Deal but he realized he needed to decrease so Jesus could increase. Believe me, that is a hard lesson for an only child to learn, too! But, as parents of adults, we step aside so our kids can take the lead roles, don't we? Today, let's think about the hand of the Lord that was certainly on John and is certainly upon us, and our kids as well. From before our actual existence, God has loved us. Does knowing that help us plan our day? Hopefully, it encourages us to get out there and love others! Love, heidi
Luke 1:66
I know they are referring to John the Baptist in this passage, but I can't help but remember having the same thoughts when our kids were born. "What then, will this child be?" Now, that the Larsens are all grown up, I realize I couldn't have imagined the interesting lives they would grow into and the awesome people they would turn out to be. It all happens so fast, doesn't it? It seems like once they got into school it was just a flurry of school years and, suddenly, they are adults and picking up the check at the restaurant! Just like John the Baptist, I was an only child of older parents, so I can appreciate how the guy was under a lot of pressure to make the folks proud. But I love the way he did his own thing. He did it with passion and vigor until it was time for him to step aside and let Jesus take over. He wasn't the Real Deal. He was a precursor of the Real Deal but he realized he needed to decrease so Jesus could increase. Believe me, that is a hard lesson for an only child to learn, too! But, as parents of adults, we step aside so our kids can take the lead roles, don't we? Today, let's think about the hand of the Lord that was certainly on John and is certainly upon us, and our kids as well. From before our actual existence, God has loved us. Does knowing that help us plan our day? Hopefully, it encourages us to get out there and love others! Love, heidi
Wednesday, June 17, 2020
What can one person do?
"Love your enemies..."
Matthew 5:44
This is yesterday's Gospel, I realize, but I'm still chewing on it so please bear with me. There are years this Gospel has come around and I sit and ask myself if I even have any enemies. I try to work and play well with others and there are years I pronounce myself "enemy free!" Other times, like yesterday, I give it a really good think. We are so polarized in our country that it feels like I actually may have enemies. Those beyond the borders of my opinions can feel like enemies during times like these, when anger and emotions are running hot. It's easy to choose a side and then plant ourselves there--it's comfortable and has a nice view so I'm not budging. It's also easy to feel so overwhelmed by the magnitude of the problem that we feel helpless to do anything to fix it. These are the same problems our country has dealt with for centuries and they don't seem to be getting better. What can I, one person, possibly do?
Then I saw a news report about a woman, here in Boise, who was sitting on the patio of a restaurant, waiting for her friend to arrive. There were others dining on the patio as well, spaced out according to social distancing and all that. Suddenly a car drives by a the driver spews out a racial insult to the woman sitting on her own. Others looked up, alarmed, and she froze in her seat. The driver sped away. What happened next will be in my mind for a long time. What happened next was nothing. None of the other diners who had heard the word and saw the person the word was addressed to did or said anything to her. Now, this is Boise, where a few days before, many, many people had gathered in solidarity for a vigil honoring George Floyd. There are awakened people here in Boise (that's why I moved here!) but, at that moment, no one there said anything. The woman said the silence was painful. I have thought about this constantly since I saw it on the news. What would I have done? Dearest God, I hope I would have gotten up and gone over to the woman. I hope I would have stepped out of myself a tiny bit to acknowledge her pain right then. I hope I would have comforted her and let her know that it was a horrible thing that driver did. I'm always praising silence as an answer for many ills, but not in this case. In cases like these, we are called to speak up. It's time for us to ask ourselves honest questions. Yes, the situation as a whole seems overwhelming, but it can hit as close to home as a restaurant patio on a summer evening. It's a vast country-wide issue, but it can also be a person-to-person issue. I invite you to watch the news report (link below) and pray with this. One person can actually do quite a bit, if they just will. Love, heidi
Person-to-person
Matthew 5:44
This is yesterday's Gospel, I realize, but I'm still chewing on it so please bear with me. There are years this Gospel has come around and I sit and ask myself if I even have any enemies. I try to work and play well with others and there are years I pronounce myself "enemy free!" Other times, like yesterday, I give it a really good think. We are so polarized in our country that it feels like I actually may have enemies. Those beyond the borders of my opinions can feel like enemies during times like these, when anger and emotions are running hot. It's easy to choose a side and then plant ourselves there--it's comfortable and has a nice view so I'm not budging. It's also easy to feel so overwhelmed by the magnitude of the problem that we feel helpless to do anything to fix it. These are the same problems our country has dealt with for centuries and they don't seem to be getting better. What can I, one person, possibly do?
Then I saw a news report about a woman, here in Boise, who was sitting on the patio of a restaurant, waiting for her friend to arrive. There were others dining on the patio as well, spaced out according to social distancing and all that. Suddenly a car drives by a the driver spews out a racial insult to the woman sitting on her own. Others looked up, alarmed, and she froze in her seat. The driver sped away. What happened next will be in my mind for a long time. What happened next was nothing. None of the other diners who had heard the word and saw the person the word was addressed to did or said anything to her. Now, this is Boise, where a few days before, many, many people had gathered in solidarity for a vigil honoring George Floyd. There are awakened people here in Boise (that's why I moved here!) but, at that moment, no one there said anything. The woman said the silence was painful. I have thought about this constantly since I saw it on the news. What would I have done? Dearest God, I hope I would have gotten up and gone over to the woman. I hope I would have stepped out of myself a tiny bit to acknowledge her pain right then. I hope I would have comforted her and let her know that it was a horrible thing that driver did. I'm always praising silence as an answer for many ills, but not in this case. In cases like these, we are called to speak up. It's time for us to ask ourselves honest questions. Yes, the situation as a whole seems overwhelming, but it can hit as close to home as a restaurant patio on a summer evening. It's a vast country-wide issue, but it can also be a person-to-person issue. I invite you to watch the news report (link below) and pray with this. One person can actually do quite a bit, if they just will. Love, heidi
Person-to-person
Friday, June 12, 2020
Just like Elijah...
..."but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave."
1 Kings 19:12-13
I can easily relate to this reading today since I just returned from four days standing at "the entrance of the cave," like Elijah. I was sitting on the porch of my own little hermitage, however, at Marymount Hermitage. I heard the sound of sheer silence; I could hear the sound of my own heart beating at times! It was (and always is) a profoundly beautiful experience. What does God say, you may wonder, in all that time sitting on the porch? God says the same thing God always says, "I love you." God says it all the time, no matter where I happen to be, but I tend to hear it better at the hermitage, in the sheer silence. It is the song the birds sing, and the crickets chirp. The tiny little lizard sits in the sun with me on the porch and his little eyes blink the message to me. "God loves you." It's in the dance of the sage grouse, the male chasing the female down the road bellowing his crazy "come on now!" Everything there is relaying God's message of love to me, and I just bask in it. This message of love is so needed in our world today, but we need to hear it and then pass it on. So I'm passing it on here. God loves us more than we can ever imagine. God is with us in these days of difficulty and struggle. God props us up and gives us what we need to do the work. But, sometimes, it is good for us to just be alone with God and take in that message of love for ourselves. One of the books I read on retreat was "A Tree Full of Angels," by Macrina Wiederkehr, who just recently passed into eternal life. She wrote a little poem, part of which is here:
1 Kings 19:12-13
I can easily relate to this reading today since I just returned from four days standing at "the entrance of the cave," like Elijah. I was sitting on the porch of my own little hermitage, however, at Marymount Hermitage. I heard the sound of sheer silence; I could hear the sound of my own heart beating at times! It was (and always is) a profoundly beautiful experience. What does God say, you may wonder, in all that time sitting on the porch? God says the same thing God always says, "I love you." God says it all the time, no matter where I happen to be, but I tend to hear it better at the hermitage, in the sheer silence. It is the song the birds sing, and the crickets chirp. The tiny little lizard sits in the sun with me on the porch and his little eyes blink the message to me. "God loves you." It's in the dance of the sage grouse, the male chasing the female down the road bellowing his crazy "come on now!" Everything there is relaying God's message of love to me, and I just bask in it. This message of love is so needed in our world today, but we need to hear it and then pass it on. So I'm passing it on here. God loves us more than we can ever imagine. God is with us in these days of difficulty and struggle. God props us up and gives us what we need to do the work. But, sometimes, it is good for us to just be alone with God and take in that message of love for ourselves. One of the books I read on retreat was "A Tree Full of Angels," by Macrina Wiederkehr, who just recently passed into eternal life. She wrote a little poem, part of which is here:
"Alone
All-one
Alone with God
All-one with God
Now I understand
why Jesus went out
to the desert hills so often
alone..."
Macrina Wiederkehr, "A Tree Full of Angels"
Sunday, May 31, 2020
Pentecost...open the gifts!
"And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim."
Acts 2:4
Today is the feast of Pentecost and as I sat in the treehouse, this morning, I wondered what Pentecost has to teach us after this very difficult week in our country. What are the lessons of Pentecost that can help us now? I listened to Pray-As-You-Go and loved how they defined the language of Pentecost: Forgiveness, Love and Understanding. These are gifts that all humans can appreciate, and, indeed, desperately need right now. And the really nice thing about it is that these gifts are given to us in advance, so we can "re-gift" them to others. We don't have to come up with our own forgiveness, love and understanding at all! The Holy Spirit gives us the gifts first. Think about when you receive a gift--let's say someone leaves a wrapped present by your doorstep. The gift just sits there, not really helping you at all. You need to open your door and receive the gift, unwrap it and put it to use. The Holy Spirit gifts us with forgiveness, love and understanding, but if we just leave the gift on our doorstep, nothing within us will change. We need to recognize the spiritual gifts, open them within our hearts and re-gift them to others. I was doing Centering Prayer in the treehouse, after listening to this reading. The calm, still morning was startled by a breeze through the tree. I imagined it as the Holy Spirit coming to drop off a beautiful present for me to take in, open, and put to good use in my life. The gifts of forgiveness, love and understanding are invaluable gifts right now, as we are going through such difficult times. As far as I can see it, the Holy Spirit is coming none-too-soon! Let's all take a minute or two and breathe in the gifts of the Spirit in our own hearts. Accept the gifts and unwrap them. And, since the gifts are not just for us alone, let's pass them onto others in our hurting world. Come, Holy Spirit! Love, heidi
Acts 2:4
Today is the feast of Pentecost and as I sat in the treehouse, this morning, I wondered what Pentecost has to teach us after this very difficult week in our country. What are the lessons of Pentecost that can help us now? I listened to Pray-As-You-Go and loved how they defined the language of Pentecost: Forgiveness, Love and Understanding. These are gifts that all humans can appreciate, and, indeed, desperately need right now. And the really nice thing about it is that these gifts are given to us in advance, so we can "re-gift" them to others. We don't have to come up with our own forgiveness, love and understanding at all! The Holy Spirit gives us the gifts first. Think about when you receive a gift--let's say someone leaves a wrapped present by your doorstep. The gift just sits there, not really helping you at all. You need to open your door and receive the gift, unwrap it and put it to use. The Holy Spirit gifts us with forgiveness, love and understanding, but if we just leave the gift on our doorstep, nothing within us will change. We need to recognize the spiritual gifts, open them within our hearts and re-gift them to others. I was doing Centering Prayer in the treehouse, after listening to this reading. The calm, still morning was startled by a breeze through the tree. I imagined it as the Holy Spirit coming to drop off a beautiful present for me to take in, open, and put to good use in my life. The gifts of forgiveness, love and understanding are invaluable gifts right now, as we are going through such difficult times. As far as I can see it, the Holy Spirit is coming none-too-soon! Let's all take a minute or two and breathe in the gifts of the Spirit in our own hearts. Accept the gifts and unwrap them. And, since the gifts are not just for us alone, let's pass them onto others in our hurting world. Come, Holy Spirit! Love, heidi
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)