Fear Not

Our world is a marketplace of fear.  On this Halloween and in the closing days of a virulent political campaign, I wanted to remind you of the power of faith, hope, and love in the face of our deepest fears.

"And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love" (1 Corinthians 13:13, NRSV).

"There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear" (1 John 4:18)

Slaying Dragons
Fear’s toxic breath fills the air
Permeating every corner of life.
Gaining power
As Panic, Fear’s lackey,
Unleashes its menacing talons 
Attempting to choke out life in its grasp.

Despite its apparent strength
This invisible dragon,
The world’s one true foe,
Can be slain
Through the power of choice,
Freedom’s first fruit.

Do not fear;
Choose to live
In the face of the beast.
Steal its power;
Stifle its incessant noise;
End its tyrannical reign.

Fear no longer has a foothold 
On those who choose to live
Courageously,
With eyes of hope,
Full of faith.
Behold, the dragon now silenced.
                                  -- Brian Shivers

Lent - A Season of Letting Go

I hold on tight.

"A fighter always does."

So I have been told.

"Don't give up.  Show a little guts."

Many have urged.

I hold on tight.

To show courage.

Fight the good fight.

I cannot give up.

I am not WEAK.

I hold on tight.

Out of fear.

Frightened by that to which I cling.

If I don't hold tight,

I lose control.

I hold on tight.

My grip painful.

Hands tired; knuckles white.

I fear I cannot hold on.

I fear.

I hold on tight.

A new voice beckons,

"Let go."

I cannot.

"You must."

I hold on.

I must.

I can't...

let

go.

I let go.

Courage discovered

Life renewed

When I

let go.

Jesus says,

"For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it."  Luke 9:24

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."  Matthew 11:28-30

Be strong and courageous...

May this season of Lent become a season when you...

Let go of the fear;

Let go of the anxiety;

Let go of the shame;

Let go of the failures of the past;

Let go...

Transfiguration

This Sunday, February 19, is Transfiguration Sunday on the church calendar. This is the Sunday we focus our study and worship on the transfiguration of Jesus.

The Lectionary text comes from Mark 9:2-9...

"Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, who were talking with Jesus. Then Peter said to Jesus, 'Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.' He did not know what to say, for they were terrified. Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, 'This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!' Suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them any more, but only Jesus. As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one about what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead."

According to the World English Dictionary - "transfigure" means to "change appearance of somebody: to transform the appearance of somebody or something, revealing great beauty, spirituality, or magnificence."

God has a habit of transfiguring...

circumstance;

habits;

occurrences;

ideas;

plans;

thoughts;

actions;

lives

At times this transfiguration is obvious and fantastic like the Transfiguration of Christ in the passage above. More often, the transfiguration happens slowly and is difficult to witness while it is taking place. But the transfiguration is happening all the same.

To the church in Corinth, the Apostle Paul wrote these words,

"Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit" (2 Corinthians 3:17-18).

God has a habit of transfiguring.

You and I are being transfigured more and more into the likeness of the Christ day by day.

Celebrate your transfiguration as God works in and through you revealing great beauty, spirituality, and magnificence.

transfiguration

tragedy to triumph…

anxiety to peace…

trial to joy…

sorrow to serenity…

doubt to assurance…

sin to righteousness…

anger to forgiveness…

blindness to sight…

prejudice to love…

chains to freedom…

death to life…

from one degree of glory

to another

Sweeter then Honey

Psalm 119:98-103 - "Your commands make me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever with me. I have more insight than all my teachers, for I meditate on your statutes. I have more understanding than the elders, for I obey your precepts. I have kept my feet from every evil path so that I might obey your word. I have not departed from your laws, for you yourself have taught me. How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!"

In the early 70's there was a PSA (Public Service Announcement) campaign entitled "Time for Timer".  These minute-long cartoons were played during Saturday morning cartoons and after school specials.  Timer was this nondescript yellow character that sang songs about healthy snacks, the wonders of cheese and the importance of eating right.  All of his PSA's started the exact same way, "It's time for timer..."

The one I remember most is "You Are What You Eat."  Timer moved through the digestive system to remind children everywhere that in order to be healthy and to grow up big and strong they must eat right.  After all, "you are what you eat". 

I am not sure how effective the campaign was.  I mean, nearly forty years later, I still eat garbage. However, I do remember the ad campaign.  I guess it depends on your definition of success.

In Eat This Book, author, speaker and pastor, Eugene Peterson encourages his readers to read the Bible as if they were eating it.  He says, the practice of "spiritual reading" (also known as lectio divina) is "reading that enters our souls as food enters our stomachs, spreads through our blood, and becomes holiness and love and wisdom" (p. 4).  This echoes what the psalmist says in the passage above.  The poet writes, "I have not departed from your laws, for you yourself have taught me. How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!"  For the psalmist, the word of the Lord had become reading that enters the soul and transforms the life in the same way food enters the stomachs and transforms the body. 

Yes, reading Scripture can be difficult, but so can eating the right foods.  In the same way that we cannot expect an apple to be good for us simply because we like to think of apples or because we enjoy the way apples look or because we like they way an apple feels in our hands, we cannot expect the words of Scripture to be transformative simply because we like to think they are good or because we enjoy the way the words sound or because we like the way the book feels in our hands. It is important to engage the words.  We must allow them to enter into us.  Sometimes they may cause us indigestion.  However, the words of Scripture also have the power to transform us as they become a part of who we are.  After all, we are what we eat.

Happy eating during this season of Lent.

If you are struggling with where to start, try reading a Psalm a day.  If you would like to have something that goes with the season of Lent, try reading the book of John.  If you would like a little variety, try reading one of the lectionary texts of the day (to find these texts, check out this website http://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/).

Hope is the thing with feathers

Where do you find hope?   

Emily Dickinson once wrote,
"Hope is the thing with feathers

That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune--without the words,
And never stops at all,


And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.


I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me."

Where do you find hope?

In his letter to the church in Rome, Paul writes, "Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. " (Romans 5:1-5, NRSV) 

Where do you find hope?

It seemed as though winter would never end.  I had grown weary of the frigid temperatures, the biting wind and ever present threat of snow.  I was never more ready for winter to be over, and I would gladly tell anyone who would listen about how irratated I was with my plight. 

One late afternoon, I was walking in the parking lot with my hands in my coat pockets, shoulders hunched close together and my head down cursing the breeze that was attempting to chill me to my core.  How I longed for this dismal winter to finally be over!

Then it happened.  Hope took me by surprise as I neared my car.  The sight of it stopped me in my tracks, and I literally laughed aloud at the sight.  There peaking up through a tiny crack in the pavement was a small flower. There was hope.  Hope disguised as a bloom that had no regard for the impossibility of its surroundings or the harsh realities of its climate.  And there it is.  Isn't that what hope always does?

"and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us."

Where do you find hope?

The Marketplace of Fear

There are merchants all around us that deal in the commodity of fear.  You can hear the shouts of the shop keepers who try as hard as they can to lure us in to buy what they are selling.  They work long and hard, 24 hours a day.  They must!  Their life depends on it.  They must convince others that what they have to sell is of utmost importance.  These traders will spare no expense to market their wares.  And the prospective customers walk through the narrow streets of Fear's Bazaar with wide eyes, furrowed brows and shortened breath. We find our insecurities tickled and our anxieties heightened. We cannot help ourselves.  We hear their voices and begin to buy everything we hear.  Somehow the more we buy, the more we need.  The more fear that fills our shopping bags, the more we feel we need to fear.  The cycle goes on and on.  And fear and its marketers gain strength and confidence beginning to believe that their merchandise is what the world desperately wants and absolutely needs.

The message that we hear in Fear's Bazaar is nothing but lies.  Fear preys on vulnerability and knows exactly where our weaknesses lie.  

In the book of Isaiah, the prophet is writing to a people living in fear.  They have seen all of the destruction around them and the devastation within and are afraid.  The prophet writes into this fear and says, "But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt as your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in exchange for you. Because you are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you, I give people in return for you, nations in exchange for your life. Do not fear, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, and from the west I will gather you; I will say to the north, "Give them up," and to the south, "Do not withhold; bring my sons from far away and my daughters from the end of the earth— everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made." Bring forth the people who are blind, yet have eyes, who are deaf, yet have ears! Let all the nations gather together, and let the peoples assemble. Who among them declared this, and foretold to us the former things? Let them bring their witnesses to justify them, and let them hear and say, 'It is true.' You are my witnesses, says the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me. I, I am the Lord, and besides me there is no savior. I declared and saved and proclaimed, when there was no strange god among you; and you are my witnesses, says the Lord. I am God, and also henceforth I am He; there is no one who can deliver from my hand; I work and who can hinder it? Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel...Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert" (Isaiah 43:1-20, NRSV).

Or what about this from 1 John? "So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. We love because he first loved us" (1 John 4:16-18, NRSV).  

Fear cannot stand in love's light.  Love, the kind of love that will stare anything in the face until it blinks, has nothing to fear.  And the good news is that we are loved.  Rather, we belong to love.  There is nothing that can change that.

So, what do you say?  Let's stand in LOVE.  Let's shut down Fear's Bazaar.  The fear mongers will have to find another line of work.  LOVE wins.  

"And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love" (1 Corinthians 13:13, NRSV).

Slaying Dragons

Fear’s toxic breath fills the air

Permeating every corner of life.

Gaining power

As panic, fear’s insidious seed,

Spreads its inconspicuous roots

Choking out life in its twisted web.

Despite its apparent strength

This invisible dragon,

The world’s one true foe,

Can be slain

Through the power of choice,

Freedom’s first fruit.

Do not fear;

Choose to live

In the face of the beast.

Steal its power;

Stifle its incessant noise;

End its tyrannical reign.

Fear no longer has a foothold 

On those who choose to live

Courageously,

With eyes of hope,

Full of faith.

Behold, the dragon now silenced.

                                  -- Brian Shivers

For Freedom

As I have tried to stay updated on all of the demonstrations, protests and violence in Egypt throughout the last several days, I have found my mind wondering to the idea of freedom.  I confess that freedom is something that I take for granted.  The only time I give it much thought at all is when I am confronted by an injustice or a people's struggle for freedom.  This is one of those times. 

Freedom is such a HUGE concept.  What it means in one context may not be what it means in another.  What one considers freedom, another may consider an absolute impossibility.  I think this is what makes talking about freedom across cultural lines so difficult.  There appears to be no universal meaning of the word let alone a universal understanding of how freedom should or could be fleshed out. 


So, what does freedom mean to you?  How do you see it fleshed out in your world?  Where do you see its absence?


Here is a passage that haunts me when I allow the time and space for the words to take up residence inside me and walk around for a while.  In writing to the church in Galatia, the Apostle Paul writes these words, "For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery...For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself'" (Galatians 5:1; 13-14 New Revised Standard Version).  Another translation renders the first verse of this passage in this way, "Christ has set us free for freedom" (Common English Bible). 

Can you imagine that?  We have been set free from the bondage of sin and the law through that which Christ has done for us.  And for what purpose have we been set free?  For freedom's sake!  Consider this for a moment.  We have been set free so that we can experience freedom.  Yet, for some reason, we allow ourselves again and again to be shackled by the bonds of the law or a pattern of sin and shame.  We have grown comfortable with that which holds us captive.  It doesn't have to be that way.  God has acted.  We are free!  Truly free.  Let us live into our freedom with the God who has set us free for freedom's sake.

For Freedom

I am a prisoner

held captive by…

the past

the present

the future

shortcomings

dishonesty

failure

defeat

victory

the specter of someone I never was

the shadow of someone I can never be

memories

actions

words

the inability to forgive

the unwillingness to be forgiven

jealousy

anger

guilt

shame

who I am

who I wish I could be

I am a prisoner

Looking at my hands 

I see that I am holding the chains

Chains that bind my heart,

fetter my soul,

imprison my mind. 

Yet, it is for freedom’s sake

I have been set free

But I must drop the chains. 

Open my hands!

Open my hands!
                                                             --- by Brian Shivers

Genesis - A New Beginning

In the creation myths found at the beginning of the book we call Genesis (the word "myth" is being used here as referencing "a usually traditional story of ostensibly historical events that serves to unfold part of the world view of a people or explain a practice, belief, or natural phenomenon"), the ancient storytellers tell a dramatic tale of the beginnings of all things, and the creativity that was the source of the creating.  These stories are wonderfully colorful, epic, poetic and multi-layered. 

The debates have lingered throughout the millennia about whether or not these stories should be taken literally or figuratively.  Those on each side of the debate are equally convinced that they are right.  There are interesting arguments from each camp.  However, within the debate, the beauty and rich poetry of the creation texts can be lost.   

In the first of these creation stories, creation comes about in an ordered fashion.  This story tells us something about nature, something about God, as well as something about the relationships involved in the process.  The divine creative narrative comes to a climax with the creation of humanity. We read, "Then God said, 'Let us make humanity in our image to resemble us so that they may take charge of the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, all the earth, and all the crawling things on earth.'
     God created humanity in God's own image,
          in the divine image God created them,
               male and female God created them.
God saw everything he had made: it was supremely good" (Genesis 1:26-27, 31, Common English Bible).

Allow the beauty of this brief passage to soak into your being.  Read the words again.  Seriously, take a second and reread the text above.  The words that follow this aren't going anywhere. 

So, what did you hear in the depths of you as you read and reread these words?

You and I, your friend and your foe, your allies and your enemies, those who are like minded and those who are completely divergent in their thinking, those who are exactly like you and those who couldn't be more different - we, one and all, are created in the "divine image."  Can you imagine that?  And what if we are most beautifully representative of that divine image in our corporate complexity as well as our precious individuality? 

Then..."God saw everything (God) had made: it was supremely good."

Allow yourself the opportunity to see the other as one who was not only created in the image of the divine, but also as one who is "supremely good."  Then, allow yourself the GRACE to see yourself as one who also is created in the image of the divine, and is "supremely good."

This beginning changes everything.  May your day be a day filled with the goodness of all that God has created.

Breathing the Divine

Fr. Thomas Keating, Trappist monk, once wrote, "We rarely think of air we breathe, yet it is in us and around us all the time.  In similar fashion, the presence of God penetrates us, is all around us, is always embracing us, and it is delightful."

In Genesis we read these words, "On the day the LORD God made earth and sky - before any wild plants appeared on the earth, and before any field crops grew...the LORD God formed the human from the topsoil of the fertile land and blew life's breath into his nostrils.  The human came to life." (Genesis 2:1-7, Common English Bible) 

We rarely think of the air we breathe.  However, maybe we should.  The Divine breath is in each one of us.  We cannot get away from it.  It permeates the very blood that courses through our veins and the air that fills our lungs.  We cannot flee the presence of God any more than we can run from our own breath. 

Take heart.  God is with you.  God fills every breath you draw. 

Divine Breath

Ceaseless

Ever present

Change of seasons

Passage of time

Simplistic rhythm

Enigmatic process

Filling with life

Purging of death

Ceaseless

Ever present

Rising of the sun

Appearance of the moon

Proximity unnoticed

Necessity irrefutable

Providing life’s essence

Expelling its poison

Ceaseless

Ever present

Air we breathe

Sustenance we need

Intimacy overlooked

Impact undeniable 

Bestowing new life

Conquering sin’s infliction

Ceaseless

Ever present

Beat of life

Power to live

Heart’s desire

Spirit’s yearning

Loving with passion

Living within

                      --- by Brian Shivers

Let me know what you are thinking and DON'T FORGET TO BREATHE.