Hospitality ~ Enough

I’m still pondering, and living, in the empty space and with the question of how much is enough…  This is prompted in part by a laptop that still won’t turn on (what is full right now is my home with my oldest daughter returning from college 🙂 and bringing her laptop with her,) declining energy with each passing day, and Christmas gifts that aren’t getting completed because I had so carefully avoided the malls and big box stores and was going to be creative but I need a computer connected to a printer to complete them.  Do I have enough fill-in-the-blank for this season?  Christine at Abbey of the Arts asks similar questions in her comments to Lucy’s post on Vessels; I’m guessing there are a few other kindred souls wrestling with the same issue during this season.

What do we need more of?  What do we need less of?  How do we know when we have enough?  And how is hospitality offered by the One who holds enough in Her hands and heart? 

My grace is sufficient.

As I’m writing this I’m listening to my one of my favorite Advent CDs “Behold” by River’s Voice, two of my favorite musicians, and the words I’m hearing are:

                                         “where else would God but right here?”

Ahh… somehow, in the Mystery of God’s way, these days are enough, and grace really is sufficient, and hospitality is arriving in familiar and fresh ways.

Hospitality ~ Empty Spaces

I had given casual thought to the relationship between hospitality and brokenness or emptiness but these past days have been a fierce invitation to live into this relationship.  Being without a computer for a week (that’s another story, it seems there’s always a story…) has brought on a sense of dis-connect, a type of brokenness and emptiness all its own making.  While I miss the sense of feeling connected with others ~ especially savoring the wise words and questions in this Holy Season that I so look forward to at my favorite sites ~ the lack of a computer has offered a gift if I choose to receive it: empty space.

This gift takes me down a path I may not have chosen otherwise: emptiness, brokenness, darkness, without-ness.  The invitation is there, I have only to cross the threshold.  And I am discovering that there are layers to this threshold, layers of emptiness and brokenness to live through.  Perhaps this is what John the Baptist spoke of when he said, “Prepare the way.”  What if prepare isn’t about pulling out all the Christmas boxes from the attic or basement in order to get the house just right or about baking up a storm but rather it’s about emptying, being without, getting rid of, all in order to make room?  Could it be that it’s in the empty spaces and brokenness where there’s room for Emmanual to be born?

So, just a simple photo this thyme, and a quote from Jan Richardson’s delightful and rich book Night Visions: Searching the Shadows and Advent and Christmas (unfortunately it is out of print for this season with hopes for more next year, fortunately I was able to purchase the last copy which was said to have some minor damage that I have yet to find.)

                            

        

                                                              

“You hollow us out, God,

so that we may carry you,

and you endlessly fill us

only to be emptied again.

Make smooth our inward spaces

and sturdy,

that we may hold you

with less resistance

and bear you

with deeper grace.”

                               

May the Mystery of blessedness in empty spaces and brokenness abide with you.

Hospitality ~ Creation

 

In this season of Advent, the theme at Pine Island Presbyterian Church is Hospitality.  So in this space I’ll wonder on screen with words, images, and verse how hospitality may be offered… to the stranger, to ourselves, to the Holy One, by the Holy One.  I’ll begin with Creation ~ looking for signs and ways of hospitality, welcoming, new life…

The people who have walked in darkness have seen a great light…

                                    

“Let earth receive her King…

While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains, repeat the sounding joy.”

     

 

…and a branch shall grow out of his roots.

      

 

... by the tender mercies of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us…

                            

                           

“Love the guest is on the way.”

Community Spirit

We may live in a small community but we have spirit!  Tonight many of us gathered to cheer on the lighting of the big tree downtown and see the other lights that have been put up for our enjoyment.  I learned that I don’t have a steady hand when taking photos with my insulted mittens ~ but the wind chill was 15 degrees!  So some of the photos have a “special effect” look to them…

  The Christmas Tree at the main intersection of town.

                 

There are trees decorated by businesses or groups ~ here’s a couple of them:

      

Notice that the legs of the reindeer are those of a walker, and you can’t see it but the tree stand is in a commode!

                    

Other lights around the park:

    The first year we lived here I wondered what frogs had to do with Christmas (even if they do croak “Jingle Bells” over the load speaker) but then I realized that they are on the platform along the river…

                    

Also along the river is a papermill, no longer in operation.  I wish I had a good camera, and steady hand, to show clearly the brick building with a candle in each window ~ time to use your imagination:

                                   

I wonder how community spirit is shared in other corners of the world…

“Fuzzy Edges”

Join Christine’s Poetry Party, “Full Moon Rising” here:

there’s a certain beauty in

a full moon with unclear edges.

with mystery, it invites us

with fuzzy edges

to live more fully

our own stories

of waxing

and waning

to their shining fullness.

“Come, Ye Thankful People, Come”

Come, Ye thankful people come, Raise the song of harvest home.

Creator of all seasons, Giver of autumn: with grateful hearts we offer our thanks for the gift of life itself, for each of the earth’s seasons, for each day, for each hour, for each breath we take.

All is safely gathered in, Ere the winter storm begins.  

O Holy One, You invite us to a life of paradox.   In this season we both gather up what has been planted  and we are called to let go, to release our need for control.   Thank You for the farmers harvesting their crops and for the trees losing their leaves ~ both which invite us to this paradox of faith.   

God our Maker, doth provide, For our wants to be supplied.  

God of Abundance, indeed You provide in familiar and mysterious ways.   We offer these words of gratitude for Your provisions…    

Come to God’s own temple come, Raise the song of harvest home.  

In all times, in all places, with all people, You are present.   Wherever we are, we are in Your temple and for this we offer our thanks.    

All the world is God’s own field, Fruit unto his praise to yield.  

We marvel at the ways You bring us together, the stories we each  bring from places near and far, the experiences that have shaped  our lives and now add fragrance to our lives.  We praise You for  Your fields everywhere and offer our prayers for all Your people  living and working in each corner of the world, seeking to share  the message of Your love and grace.   

Wheat and tares together sown, Unto joy or sorrow grown.  

It is by Your grace that wheat and tares grow side by side,  both the joys and sorrows filling our lives.  In this season  of Thanksgiving, with an emphasis on family, we name those  who live in times of despair and sorrow right now, asking for  Your abiding love and comforting grace to be present with them…   

First the blade, and then the ear, Then the full corn shall appear.  

Over and over the natural world reminds us of Your wondrous ways.   Quiet our hearts, O God, when we are anxious about the future.   Give us pause to wonder at the miracle of the seasons and  the cycle of growth of all living things.   

Lord of harvest, grant that we Wholesome grain and pure may be.

You call us Your beloved and desire that we draw closer to You.   This day we ask Your blessing on our fellowship, our sharing,  our seeking, our desires that we may grow in our likeness of You.   This, and all prayers, we offer in the name of the One who fully lived Your love.  Amen.

 

(Adapted from the one of my favorite Thanksgiving hymns, “Come, Ye Thankful People, Come.”)

                                                                         

 

It’s Still About Thyme

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Pine Island Presbyterian Church

It still seems to be about thyme.  Pine Island’s beginnings go back only thirteen years, when a group of folk gathered for prayer and study to discern if there was a call and need for a congregation in the Mattawan area.  The core group met faithfully for many years.  Three years ago the “Pine Island Fellowship” was charted as an official congregation.  And today another important milestone took place: the congregation called its first Installed Pastor.  That’s Presbyterian lingo for permanent, regular.  It was a strong, joyful, unanimous affirmative vote.  Evelyn has been the Designated Pastor, serving the congregation half-time for two years.  Now she will serve two-thirds time, another encouraging move forward.  It’s taken thirteen years to arrive at this day.  It’s all about living in God’s thyme, and about in whom we put our faith more than how much faith we have.

Our congregation is offering prayers of deep gratitude and thanks for this milestone in our life together and for the gift of our own “Installed” and appreciated pastor.

May you have your own reason, however big or small, to offer a prayer of thanks this week.

 

Thyme and Trust

 

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Pine Island Presbyterian Church

 

It was on Croyden Ave, in front of the apartments, while NPR was telling that General Musharraf had made a decision about general elections, as I was driving to Ann’s where I would get a ride to worship, that this thought just washed through and around me and I felt at peace:   things   take   thyme, their own thyme, and they do so for reasons we may never understand.  I’ve been here before  but this thyme there was a deep, deep acceptance.  Look back in history – humanity can take a long thyme to make significant changes.  Forty years of wandering in the wilderness.  Two thousand years and we’re still trying to grasp the essence of Jesus’ life and words.  The many years it can take for a single family, congregation or community to make healthy changes.

                                              

Then in worship, we hear of the prophet Haggai, in the context of the temple having been destroyed, trying to bring some good news to the people, saying on behalf of the Lord, “Once again, in a little while…”  In a little while in the eyes of the Creator can be a very, very, long thyme in the life of humanity.  Things take thyme.

                       

So, I give myself permission to slow down some more.  Rest some more.  Let go some more.  Trust some more.  Wondering if I’ll slow down so much I will come to a complete stop.  If I’ll then puddle up in the recliner.  And then to trust yet again, that in God’s thyme, new life will arise from the puddle.

               

“Faith is mostly about trust and knowing who to trust.”  These were the words of hope I carried with me from Sunday.  Like the unfinished building on the Worship Arts Table, life is a process, and, thank goodness, we’re not in charge.  We can make choices, we can seek wholeness and healing, but ultimately it is God who provides the growth.  In God’s good thyme.

                           

Room for One More

Sunday, November 4

Pine Island Presbyterian Church

The circle was widened and one more was included into the story this past Sunday.  Two Sundays ago we were invited to consider Eutychus‘ place in the circle of God’s love.  This time it was someone more familiar: Zacchaeus.   He hangs out in a tree, thinking he’s disguising himself but Jesus sees him anyway, calls him by name, and says he wants to spend time with him.  With him – the corrupt tax collector.  One more unlikely soul is invited into the circle of God’s love.  We may or may not be corrupt but there’s likely a part of ourselves, however small, that we’re not proud of, and we too are called by name and invited into the circle.

     “Will you come and follow me if I but call your name…

      Will you love the ‘you’ you hide if I but call your name?

      Will you quell the fear inside and never be the same?

      Will use the faith you’ve found to reshape the world around…”

      (from hymn: Will You Come and Follow Me)

You too are called by name and included in circle.  Who else will you invite?

 

“Open”

Join in Christine’s Poetry Party #7 here: “Hidden Rooms”

                                                            

   

                                           

                  “Open”

It can be said that the

   longest distance is              

   the space between                

   our head and our heart.                   

We search diligently for

the key to shorten that distance:

      in the isles of self-help books,

      in the office of a therapist’s office,

      in the tomes of novels and analyses,

      in the pews of a community of faith,

      in the posture of prayer and attentiveness.

Perhaps the key lies in our own hands,

   opening our palms to the One

   who bestows life in all it fullness:

      Surrender.