Month: March 2016

A gray forlorn sky slowly darkens.
As the birds stop singing and seek shelter,
silence spreads as if all creatures
were holding their breath.
Ominous dark clouds roll in.
A slow soft rain begins.
As the storm intensifies,
the morning is replaced by twilight.
Flashes of light break the darkness as the storm roars.
Now directly overhead,
the thunder endlessly pounces upon lightning.
The heavens open pouring water as if to drown the earth.
As I watch in dazed wonder,
water streams down the cross,
washing the blood away,
washing my sins away.

O Lord my God, Lamb of God
My Savior and my Redeemer
Please hear my prayer.

We are but dust,
while you are the only Son of God.

We are filled with arrogance and vainglory,
While your Father has given you absolute dominion over all things.

We scheme, bicker and squabble striving for supremacy, serving ourselves,
while you work as the lowest servant washing our feet.

Lord, your example has set the bar too high.
You showed that no service performed out of love is degrading or demeaning.

O Lord my God
Please fill my heart to overflowing with your divine love,
crowding out my baser emotions, leaving nothing behind but love.

Lord open my eyes
That I may see everyone as the person you planned for them to be.
Please give me compassion and understanding
helping me to love every person, placing their welfare above my own.

Remind me daily that I am called to be a Christian.
Remind me daily that I am called to serve.
Although there is no service or task that I can perform,
that would express the depths of love and humility that you have shown.

All that I can do is surrender myself to your will
as I strive to follow in your footsteps.
With your guidance, may I be recognized as your loving servant.
Mayhaps,  with time and your grace,
I may become one with you both here and in heaven.
Amen

Love One and Other!!!

Maundy Thursday
Maundy is from the first word of John 13:34…in Latin.

“Mandatum novum do vobis: ut diligatis invicem: sicut dilexi vos, ut et vos diligatis invicem.”
“I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.”

Love is the essence or the heart of the New Testament. We are to love God with all our being and to love our neighbors as ourselves. This is the fulfillment of all the laws and is  the fundamental basis of Christianity. We are known as disciples of Jesus, as Christians, by our love for our fellow man. Maundy Thursday commemorates  that time over 2000 years ago when our God showed his infinite love for us by sending his only Son to die for our sins. Jesus not only taught us about God, but also revealed his vast love for us by becoming a willing sacrifice for our redemption.

Maundy Thursday reminds us to live our lives with our actions based upon love.

The Water of Life

John chapter 7

37 On the last day of the festival, the great day, while Jesus was standing there, he cried out, ‘Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, ³⁸and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, “Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.” ’ ³⁹Now he said this about the Spirit, which believers in him were to receive; for as yet there was no Spirit, because Jesus was not yet glorified. NRSV

Reflection:

It is the great Hoshanna (Hosanna) or the Great salvation, the seventh day of Sukkot or festival of the booths. I am one of many celebrating in Jerusalem at the Holy temple. We all follow the high priest as he carries a golden pitcher out of the temple down to the pool of Siloam.

He fills the pitcher with water and leads us back to the temple. We walk around the altar seven times and then wave our palm fronds and sing Psalm 118 while our high priest pours water on the altar as an offering to God.

♫“ Save us we pray O Lord!
O Lord, we pray, let us thrive!
Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord!
We bless you from the house of the Lord” ♫

I hear the water splash from the pitcher onto the stone altar, then cascade to the floor.

In that instant I am in the scorching desert believing I will die of thirst… watching the Great prophet Moses strike the rock. Then I see and hear the blessed water flow. The water that saves my life.

As we finish singing a great voice cries out, ‘Let anyone who is thirsty come to me… let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, “Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.”’ I look around temple, and see a man teaching the crowd gathered around him.

His words resonate in my heart. They intertwine with thoughts of the water offering to God; the vision of the Prophet Moses, and the stone with the blessed water that saved me.

Like a moth to a lamp, this man, Yeshua, draws my soul nearer.

I thirst for his teachings.

I thirst for the blessed water that saves me.

I thirst for the great salvation.