Enough about me. This is for [y]ou.
More on Me Here
e-mail me
What should i Link to?
Archives
The Feast of Saint Patrick Happy Saint Patrick's Day!
Labels: passion year
posted by John David Walt | at 3/17/2009 03:00:00 AM | 1 comments
Monday, May 12, 2008
Pentecost is upon us!
Pentecost is upon us again-- a season to pray and ponder and more deeply welcome the mysterious third person of the Trinity: The Holy Spirit. Below is the ancient hymn, Come Creator Spirit. Last year I read through Raniero Cantalamessa's book of meditations on the hymn by the same title. I'm thinking of doing that again. For now-- I encourage you to spend some time this week with the prayer.
Are any of you reading and praying in particular ways through the days after Pentecost? If so, I'd welcome hearing about what you are reading and learning.
Come, Creator Spirit,
visit the minds of those who are yours;
fill with heavenly grace
the hearts that you have made.
You who are named the Paraclete,
gift of God most high,
living fountain, fire, love
and anointing for the soul.
You are sevenfold in your gifts,
you are finger of God's right hand,
you, the Father's solemn promise
putting words upon our lips.
Kindle a light in our senses,
pour love into our hearts,
infirmities of this body of ours
overcoming with strength secure.
The enemy drive from us away,
peace then give without delay;
with you as guide to lead the way
we avoid all cause of harm.
Grant we may know the Father through you,
and come to know the Son as well,
and may we always cling in faith
to you, the Spirit of them both.
Amen.
Labels: Come Holy Spirit, passion year, practicing the story
posted by John David Walt | at 5/12/2008 09:54:00 AM | 1 comments
Friday, February 15, 2008
Lent, again Lent, again
Small Baptist church
Edge of the city
Family farms were gone
Ever widening streets
Car lots and early stage
Of strip malls
Good people
Almost “country folk”
My mom’s people
They knew the Bible
They loved it
They tried to live it
No creeds or rituals so
They believed
Lent was bad, almost evil
Empty routine of
False religion
Catholics and Lutherans
Maybe some others so
Far from faith
Home is not so distant
Four or five hours down the freeway
Decades later, now about four
Yearly ashes to my forehead
The joy of sorrow
The smudge of death
The touch of some pastor
I hardly know
What was once forbidden
Now is my food, my life
I worry for a moment that I may later see
Someone I know at the
Store who won't understand
Six weeks Wednesday at noon
Sitting with Glenn
Sometimes others join us
A hymn or two
Short sermon
Some good, some not
Prayer
Lunch in the basement
Church cookbook casserole
Creamy salad
Cookies or cakes
Water or tea
Neither of us drinks coffee
Talk of family and sports
Maybe the sermon
Church friends and politics
Work updates
We say our goodbyes
Giving up something, maybe
Remembering, anything to help
Holy Week, the beginning with
Sword ferns posing as palms
Maundy Thursday
It took a long time to
Understand the “Maundy”
Good Friday,
It’s trite,
But who ever thought to
Call it “good?”
The dark, quiet and waiting
Easter and
It’s over
Day of joy
Get my life back, again
Not sure I want it
At this cost
The seasons end
I hope it will come again
Next year
Or maybe, I hope
I’ll be here next year
To remember that
It happened
Jesus suffered
And I live
Jim Schmotzer
Lent 2008
hat tip to Steve Moore for passing this one on to me.
Labels: passion year, poetry
posted by John David Walt | at 2/15/2008 07:09:00 AM | 2 comments
Sunday, December 02, 2007
A Prayer as Advent Opens An Advent Prayer for Attention and Anticipation
Almighty God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, giver of the Holy Spirit, we bless, honor, adore and bow low before you. Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, you who lead your people like a flock. You who are enthroned on the cherubim, shine forth. (Psalm 80:1) From ages past noone has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who works for those who wait for him. (Isaiah 64:4)
Come Holy Spirit and inaugurate Advent in our midst. Come and open up the book of a new year of our Lord. Lift our hearts to long for your coming and loose our longing to imagine your Kingdom.
We confess—Advent, the season of holy anticipation, has become for us a sign of anxiety. Like Martha, we busy ourselves with so many things, preparing for a celebration of our own design. We confess—our attention has become distraction. Our hearts, minds and souls are divided as we literally surf the channels of our consumeristic culture. Yet, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand. (Isaiah 64:8) Begin anew this Advent to shape us. Make us like Mary to sit at the feet of our Lord Jesus and discover the only necessary thing: your Presence. Restore us, O God; let your face shine, that we may be saved. Shape these days of Advent into a season of undivided attention; of holy anticipation.
As we sing of peace on Earth and good will to all people, open our ears to hear the mournful songs of a war-torn world; the unquenchable cries of ordinary families like our own whose losses are beyond our ability to comprehend. As we prepare to wrap the countless gifts our children will open on Christmas morning, open our hearts to the countless children for whom Christmas morning will be yet another day to survive. Lead us to respond to you in remembering them who will otherwise receive nothing, who are orphaned, whose parents are dead, distant or imprisoned. Open our eyes to see those neighbors nearest to us who are lonely, afraid, sick and suffering. We confess, our lifestyles have become enclaves of escape from the pain and suffering that surrounds us. Yet, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand. (Isaiah 64:8) Let this year be different, Lord. Shape our attention in these days of Advent into a lifestyle of love for neighbor and the needy.
Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, you who lead your people like a flock. You who are enthroned on the cherubim, shine forth. (Psalm 80:1) O that you would tear open the heavens and come down, so that the mountains would quake at your presence. (Isaiah 64:1) As we remember and celebrate the birth of the baby in Bethlehem, let us not forget that the King is returning. We confess we have made ourselves at home in a World that is not our home. We know a time is coming when the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light; when the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. We know the Son of Man will come on the clouds with great power and glory and he will send out his angels to gather his elect from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven. (Matthew 13:24-27) Stir in our hearts a holy anticipation for the World to come, and an undying urgency for the world that is passing away. By your Spirit make us watchful and wakeful. For you, O LORD, are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand. (Isaiah 64:8)
Come Holy Spirit and inaugurate Advent in our midst. Come and open up the book of a new year of our Lord. Hear us as we pray:
Our Father, who art in heaven. . . . .
Labels: passion year, practicing the story
posted by John David Walt | at 12/02/2007 09:35:00 PM | 3 comments
Friday, June 15, 2007
Holy Spirit= THE Gift
Anybody out there studying the Holy Spirit with me in these days after Pentecost? I am learning that at the same time He is my subject, He is also my teacher.
I shared this brief story in my sermon the other day. "At my graduation from the seminary, I asked then President, Maxie Dunnam, to write a charge in my bible. At the top of the charge he wrote these words,
John David, I charge you, to keep the gift of the Holy Spirit stirred up within you."
In my reading today, Father Cantalamessa speaks of the Holy Spirit as the Most High Gift of God. He writes:
For the present, it is enough that we keep in mind that the Holy Spirit infuses in us not only "the gift of God," but also the ability and the need to give ourselves. From the Spirit we "catch," so to say, the very qualities of what he is in himself. The Spirit is "self-giving," and in whomever he touches, the Spirit creates a dynamism that leads that one, in turn, to be a self-giving gift to others....
The very same observation must be made concerning "gift": Coming to us, the Holy Spirit not only brings us the gift of God, but also God's self-giving. The Holy spirit is in very truth the fountain of living water that, once received, "wells up to eternal life" (John 4:14), which is to say that it squirts up and splashes onto anyone who happens to be near.
What are the implications of thinking of the Holy Spirit as THE gift. How might this enliven our awareness and embolden our faith. Remember, "faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." (Hebrews 11:1).
What does it look like to "keep the gift of the Holy Spirit stirred up with in you?" What practices evoke this reality?
COME HOLY SPIRIT!
photo: Mary Kathryn and my birthday date.
Labels: Come Holy Spirit, passion year
posted by John David Walt | at 6/15/2007 08:38:00 AM | 1 comments
Saturday, June 09, 2007
Holy Spirit Reading
In this season of Pentecost, I am reading Father Raniero Cantalamessa's "Come Creator Spirit: Meditations on the Veni Creator." It is his commentary on the ancient hymn by the same title. This is a brilliant, masterful and very accessible work. What I love about Father C. is that he is simultaneously theological and poetic and thoroughly immersed in the Word of God. I'll try to flow out some quotes and thoughts in the coming weeks. For starters-- here' the hymn. It would be a good prayer to get lost in.
Come, Creator Spirit,
visit the minds of those who are yours;
fill with heavenly grace
the hearts that you have made.
You who are named the Paraclete,
gift of God most high,
living fountain, fire, love
and anointing for the soul.
You are sevenfold in your gifts,
you are finger of God's right hand,
you, the Father's solemn promise
putting words upon our lips.
Kindle a light in our senses,
pour love into our hearts,
infirmities of this body of ours
overcoming with strength secure.
The enemy drive from us away,
peace then give without delay;
with you as guide to lead the way
we avoid all cause of harm.
Grant we may know the Father through you,
and come to know the Son as well,
and may we always cling in faith
to you, the Spirit of them both.
Amen.
Labels: Come Holy Spirit, passion year, quotes, theology
posted by John David Walt | at 6/09/2007 12:54:00 PM | 3 comments
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
Come Holy Spirit (my sermon for today's Chapel)
COME HOLY SPIRIT. June 6, 2007. Summer Chapel Session I. Asbury Theological Seminary. Wilmore, Kentucky. John David Walt, Jr. copyright
In the Church calendar—which I prefer to call the Passion Year, we are living in the days following Pentecost. The great irony for me is the way the calendar speaks of these days. On the one hand, there is this extravagant celebration of the day of Pentecost—the mighty wind blows, the fire falls down, the Gospel is miraculously proclaimed in other languages followed by extraordinary signs and wonders all over the place. Now on the other hand—the calendar almost immediately seems to shut down the party and declare a season called. . . . . . anyone know???? Yes, ordinary time. If there is one thing the season after Pentecost is not, it is ordinary. And perhaps this is the great problem of the Church. We think of Pentecost primarily as a historical event rather than a present reality. When it comes to the Holy Spirit we have sound doctrine, but weak practice.
There are four primary realities in the Christian life—four fundamentals if you will. They are the Word, the Spirit, the person and the community. The place where we see these realities come into perfection of focus is in—you guessed it—the life of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
God the Father sent the Spirit to the young virgin Mary who himself conceived in her the Son. The Holy Spirit was with Jesus profoundly throughout every day of his childhood and youth and yet one day he comes to the Jordan River and everything seems to change. He goes under the water and we see this apparition, this manifestation that looks like a dove, descending and landing on him. It’s the Holy Spirit. But wasn’t he already full of the Holy Spirit. How does that work? Was all that just for show? Or did the one who was full of the Holy Spirit just become even more full. Super-charged! Stoked! Enflamed! A more biblical option: anointed.
I love how his early witnesses spoke of him: This from Acts 10.
37You know what has happened throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached— 38how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.
I love how Luke, the writer of the Acts of the Holy Spirit, also known as the book of Acts, recounts the work of the Holy Spirit in his Gospel account. After his baptism, we read, “Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. 40 days later, we read, “Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside.” Next he goes to the hometown Synagogue in Nazareth and he reads this text: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
So far so good. But now this: “Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the [acolyte] and sat down.” Luke tells us “The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, and he began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
The Word become flesh—in the Person of the Son by the power of the Spirit dwelling in the midst of the community.
You see, if we want to learn about the Holy Spirit, we must turn to Jesus. I love how Father Raniero Cantalamessa calls Jesus “the great Poet of the Spirit). And yet if we really want to learn and understand Jesus we must turn to the Holy Spirit.
After the Scripture reading, Jesus then proceeds to preach a six sentence sermon after which the the people promptly escort him to the cliff to throw him off. Watch what happens next. Isaiah 61 happens—He casts out a demon (in the synagogue), rebukes the fever in Peter’s Mother-in-Law, Healed everyone who was sick in the fishing village of Capernaum, begins to build his own community of disciples, cleanses a leper with a touch of his hand, forgives the sins of a paralytic and empowers him to walk, recruits a tax collector, rebukes the religious establishment, preaches the most famous sermon in the history of the world, heals a Roman Soldier’s servant from a distance of 10 miles, raises a widow’s son from the dead, eats with sinners, calms a raging thunderstorm with a three words, casts hundreds of demons out of one man into a large herd of pigs, heals a woman bleeding sick for twelve years through the touch of his clothing, raises a twelve year old girl from the dead, Feeds ten or twelve thousand people with five loaves and two fishes, and has a small group meeting with Moses and Elijah.
All this and we aren’t even half way through the Gospel. We come to Chapter 11— where finally his disciples begin to ask him how this works.
5Then he said to them, "Suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight and says, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, 6because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.' 7"Then the one inside answers, 'Don't bother me. The door is already locked, and my children are with me in bed. I can't get up and give you anything.' 8I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man's boldness[e] he will get up and give him as much as he needs.
9"So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
11"Which of you fathers, if your son asks for[f] a fish, will give him a snake instead? 12Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"
I’m not a Holy Spirit scholar, but I am an avid student and while I have much yet to learn, I have learned a few things already. (As an aside, here’s some free advice and encouragement. Give yourself to serious, immersive study of the Holy Spirit while you are here. My own practice is to focus in an immersive way on the Holy Spirit in the summer months in what for me is a season of Pentecost. This time I’m reading Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa’s Come Creator Spirit, a fantastic commentary on the ancient hymn to the Holy Spirit.) There is a mysterious sense in which the Holy Spirit can be with you completely and yet there is still room for more. Let me test this learning on you: The Holy Spirit has limitless capacity and at the same time you have limitless capacity for the Holy Spirit. As I wrote that sentence, I wondered if I had just committed heresy. I called my mentor and resident theologian on the Holy Spirit, Maxie Dunnam. I read him the claim—“the Holy Spirit has limitless capacity and at the same time you have limitless capacity for the Holy Spirit.” There was a long pause. I cringed. Maxie spoke in his authoritative voice, “That’s absolutely true!”
The big mistake we make with respect to the Holy Spirit is in the way we think of him like an it and consequently speak in the terms of transaction and commodity. The Spirit is not a substance or a force-field. He is a person who moves like the power of the wind and with the intimacy of breath. And though he is with us, he can always be more with us. Though we are filled with him we can always be fuller.
“If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in Heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
Let me close with the admonition that we must grow in our practice of Pentecost. It starts with a very simple prayer. It’s perhaps the most powerful prayer of the Church. You know it.
COME HOLY SPIRIT!
Write it on your doorpost, bind it to your wrist, write it on your forehead, doodle it in all your textbooks and notebooks, on bathroom walls, . . . . . . you get the point.
COME HOLY SPIRIT!
At my graduation from the seminary, I asked then President, Maxie Dunnam, to write a charge in my bible. At the top of the charge he wrote these words,
John David, I charge you, to keep the gift of the Holy Spirit stirred up within you.
I am learning to pray this prayer at all times in all places, COME HOLY SPIRIT! It’s like setting the sail on a ship. It’s like taking a deep breath. You will find yourself this summer in hospitals full of sick people desperate for healing, with grieving families desperate for comfort, among lost people desperate for salvation, with demonized people desperate for deliverance, with hungry people desperate for food, with religious people desperate for control, with rich people seemingly desparate for no apparent reason. Learn to whisper the prayer, sing the prayer, shout the prayer, to signal the ascended Lord in the heavens with the prayer—COME HOLY SPIRIT.
Nowhere is this prayer more necessary and needful than in the home with the family. As we crossed over the celebration of Pentecost this year, our family learned the fruit of the Spirit. At each meal we begin by chanting, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.” And then with exuberance we pray, “COME HOLY SPIRIT!”
This is the prayer at the heart of the prayer at the heart of the Church—the Great Thanksgiving. We call it the Epiclesis: “Come Holy Spirit and be poured out on us gathered here and on these gifts of bread and wine and make them be for us the Body of Christ that we may be for the World the Body of Christ redeemed by his blood. Come Holy Spirit and make us one with Christ and one with each other in ministry to all the World until Christ comes in final victory and we feast at his heavenly banquet.
Labels: Come Holy Spirit, passion year, theology
posted by John David Walt | at 6/06/2007 01:12:00 PM | 2 comments
Sunday, February 26, 2006
Epiphany Closes
Epiphany ends at a high place on a high note and with a temptation to camp out. But the valley of vision calls-- the 40 days of Lent are upon us. So within the span of a few short days we move from "on earth as it is in heaven" with an inbreaking vision of glorified humanity in Christ down to the dust of the earth. . . . . . as in from dust you have come and to dust you shall return. Humus, or soil. See the connection to humility. Now think of the ONE who didn't consider equality with God something to be grasped, but HUMBLED himself and became obedient. . . . even to death on a cross. . . . . therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name.
so this HUMBLE ONE, took the disciples up to a "high mountain" where he was TRANSFIGURED before them. The HUMAN one viewed in his DIVINE status. EPIPHANY. Only visions like this can sustain us in the WAY OF THE CROSS.
Labels: passion year
posted by John David Walt | at 2/26/2006 09:50:00 PM | 0 comments
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
Epiphany--getting our groove back together I happened across a great quote yesterday on the trailer of Jim Hampton's (Asbury Youth Ministry Professor) email.
"Hope is the ability to hear the music of the future; faith is having the courage to dance to it today." Peter Kuzmic
This is the work of worship in the season of Epiphany. We must find our way to a vantage point-- a high lookout-- where we can gaze across the vistas of God's Kingdom. We must look up and see the star and then train our eyes on the horizon to catch a glimpse of the obscure wise Kings, unlikely subjects making pilgrimage to worship the peasant child-Royal. We must recalll the "sign" a "baby wrapped in strips of cloth and lying in a manger" and remember the wandering sheep herders who in God's economy merited angelic visitation and divine invitation. Has it occurred to us that poverty was the sign of Divinity. It brings new dimension to the haunting question of the judgment, "Lord, when did we see you?" We must re-visit the crowded temple courts and scan the crowds for the obscure Galilean family making their way to the pigeon counter while cradling their infant child. Only two "saw" them that day, Anna and Simeon, who prophesied. We must make the trek through the wilderness to the waters of the Jordan in order to hear the voice of one crying in the desert--Prepare the Way of the Lord. And we must strain our ears to listen for the Voice, who speaks over the one hidden in the heart of the Father from before the foundation of the World, "This is my Son. My Beloved. With Him i am well pleased.
All of these witnesses, obscure as they were at the time, heard the music, saw the vision and began to learn the dance. The trouble for us is that we can see them now, in the plain light of day and yet miss the point altogether. This is the nature of Epiphany. It is to finally see what we have been looking at for so long. Epiphany happens when the Obvious begins to break forth like the dawning of a new day.
Epiphany is a kind of hearing that becomes seeing. It is a learned way of listening that becomes a visionary way of living. It is to move from the objective observation of texts to an active participation in the holy dialogue of "on earth as it is in heaven."
The challenge is all of our ears are plugged up with our own music. Literally and figuratively, the ipod (of which I own one) is the controlling symbol of our time-- everyone creating their own customized playlist, listening to their own preferences and dancing to their own beat. Another profound symbol-- literally and metaphorically-- is the reality that many churches in our land, both large and small, made the decision to forgo Christmas Day Sunday Morning Corporate Worship in order for people to celebrate the holiday with their families at home. Don't hear this as a shame oriented jab, but rather a reality that bears some significant reflection in a non judgmental post-mortem kind of way. In other words, we can learn something from it. Confession: i didn't go to church on Christmas morning either. Why didn't I?
These are certainly reflections in rough draft and may not be comprehensible at all, but they lead me to ask these kinds of questions: What would it mean for us to really listen for the Music together, to see the Vision together and to begin to dance the Dance together?
"Hope is the ability to hear the music of the future; faith is having the courage to dance to it today."
Labels: passion year
posted by John David Walt | at 2/21/2006 09:34:00 AM | 2 comments
Friday, February 17, 2006
Imagine the View from Here I am part of a strategic planning task force here at the seminary. I lead one of the sub groups who is asking the strategic questions about the people we teach and train here-- our students. Given the charge we have been issued, it's been a struggle. This morning I was reflecting about our task when I remembered something that happened to me when I worked in Washington D.C.
I served as a Legislative Aid in the Office of Senator David Pryor. Legislative work is non glamorous stuff most of the time, keeping you more in the bowels of Capitol Hill than in the congressional chambers. It's true. Congressional staffers in D.C. spend most of their time actually underground, walking back and forth between the office buildings and the capitol. In retrospect, legislative work looks more like a bunch of gophers tunneling around at high speeds than sophisticated negotiations over tea.
If I am honest, any job I have ever had, despite high flying titles and strategic job descriptions, has looked like this. Day to day work is often a grinding process, an ever increasing sequence of small details. It's why we use phrases like "I'm buried" to talk about a lot of our days at the office. Too long in that mode leads to the inevitability of losing sight of the vision.
One day in the middle of a typical afternoon on "the Hill" my schedule was interrupted with an invitation to come to the grand Capitol rotunda. We arrived to find a young Congressman from Oklahoma and a small group of people. He indicated he was going to give us a tour. A tour? That's the last thing I needed or wanted at this point in the week. I thought I had seen it all. That's when he took us over to the side of the grand room and through a door that looked like a part of the wall. It was pitch black so the Congressman turned on his flash light. He then led us up a narrow, winding, scaffolding-like staircase that seemed to be endless. It became apparent from the trajectory of our climb that we were actually scaling the rotunda of the United States Capitol building above the interior ceiling and yet underneath the outer dome. After about an hour of climbing, we came to a small padlocked door. Now we understood why a United States Congressman escorted us. Only they are entrusted with the keys to this lock. As opened the lock and pushed open the door, the bright light of the afternoon pierced our eyes. We walked through amazed to find ourselves standing on the very top of the rotunda of the United States Capitol Building. By law, this is the highest point in the District of Columbia. From here we could see miles across the city and beyond to the neighboring states. All of the grand monuments and memorials were not only visible but formed a kind of constellation across the landscape, narrating a story among themselves that couldn't be glimpsed from the ground. In fact, in our underground legislative existence you could forget their storied presence entirely. We walked around the small enclosed open air circle for half an hour, in a kind of awe-struck gaze. Then it was time to make our descent back down through the gates into the grind.
I have never forgotten that moment nor the view it afforded. It brought a greater sense of awe to the menial nature of what by all accounts was a meaningful job. Beyond that it gives me a metaphor that lends meaning to my present job. This is the essence of strategic planning isn't it? I find myself wondering how our task force is going to accomplish this large task between 10:15 and 11:45am on five or six Friday mornings over the next three months. To jump from 50 hastily processed emails to 10 returned telephone calls to three other pressing meetings with urgent agendas into a 1.5 hour slot in which we are charged to develop a strategic plan for an institution purporting to carry the banner of Jesus Christ in the World. . . . . . it seems insane. And then I remember that unplanned afternoon excursion to the top of the free world and of my forever changed perspective.
Where is that place for us today and how do we get there? For you?
Labels: passion year
posted by John David Walt | at 2/17/2006 08:42:00 AM | 5 comments
Monday, May 16, 2005
Pentecost: Two Kinds of People Pentecost-- the final sign. It's got me remembering the M. Knight Shayamalan movie, Signs. Perhaps the crux of the movie comes with this word from Graham Hess (played by Mel Gibson) to his brother Merrill as they are pondering the phenomenon of the lights in the sky.
"People break down into two groups when the experience something lucky. Group number one sees it as more than luck, more than coincidence. They see it as a sign, evidence, that there is someone up there, watching out for them. Group number two sees it as just pure luck. Just a happy turn of chance. I'm sure the people in Group number two are looking at those fourteen lights in very suspicious way. For them, the situation isn't fifty-fifty. Could be bad, could be good. But deep down, they feel that whatever happens, they're on their own. And that fills them with fear. Yeah, there are those people. But there's a whole lot of people in the Group number one. When they see those fourteen lights, they're looking at a miracle. And deep down, they feel that whatever's going to happen, there will be someone their to help them. And that fills them with hope. See what you have to ask yourself is what kind of person are you? Are you the kind that sees signs, sees miracles? Or do you believe that people just get lucky? Or, look at the question this way: Is it possible that there are no coincidences?"
As I have read through Acts 2 this past week this verse has captured my attention and reflection:
12So they were all amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, "Whatever could this mean?" 13Others mocking said, "They are full of new wine."
Two kinds of people. . . . . . right?
Labels: passion year, quotes
posted by John David Walt | at 5/16/2005 10:53:00 PM | 3 comments
Wednesday, March 09, 2005
Resurrection Eggs We've been rehearsing the Easter Story with our children through these 40 days of Passion through the use of "Resurrection Eggs." A pretty creative idea, Resurrection Eggs, are a dozen plastic colored eggs in an egg carton; each containing a small trinket (i.e. plastic donkey, leather whip strip, white linen cloth, small rock, etc.) to help narrate through the Story. It's a lot of fun because it gives the children (really the parents!) something to hold onto as the Story unfolds. The final egg--you guessed it-- is empty. We have a lot of fun saying "And on the Third Day the women came to the tomb and it was EMPTY!!!
Last night Mary Kathryn (2.75) asked for "two more minutes" with the eggs after we shared it together. So far she's been pretty quiet through the telling. David (4.75) is the more vocal participant and serves as a co-commentator; doing "color" so to speak. With her little chubby hands, Mary Kathryn began to open each of the eggs again, taking out the trinket and then carefully putting it back in and closing the egg. She had them completely out of order as she tried to capture the essence of what they stood for with passioned inflection in her voice. But interestingly she made a consistent refrain prior to opening each egg-- she said, "And On the Third Day"
It's nice theology, really. We can't talk about the donkey ride or the Upper Room or the soldiers gambling or the spear in His side or the cross or any of it on the Egypt side of Easter. (get what I mean?) In other words-- the journey of Lent happens in the Light of "And on the Third Day." He is Risen--already-- though in us not yet completely. That's what the journey of Lent is about.
Labels: passion year, theology
posted by John David Walt | at 3/09/2005 10:19:00 AM | 5 comments
Tuesday, November 30, 2004
The Practice of Availability & Obedience Here am I the servant of the Lord. Let it be with me according to your Word. (Luke 1:38)
This prayer of Mary is one I am trying to pray through these days of Advent. I am hearing the call to pray and fast and yet differently. It seems more like simple watching. . . intentional breathing. . . keener attentiveness. Seasons like this are few and far between in my life. Advent it seems is a call to Attention. The Gospel text for this week is from Matthew-- Jesus warns
"Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. 24:42
Things too deep to articulate are happening within me and teh inability to articulate them makes me feel ignorant. For awhile I thought that was humility but now I am sure it is ignorance. Humility is knowing a lot but not thinking highly of yourself. Ignorance is knowing you don't know a lot. I sense a next phase of education coming-- not in the conventional sense-- but in the classroom of the Spirit. As in, "the Spirit will teach you."
I must first learn what it means to show up for class. To be able to truly say, "Here am I the servant of the Lord." That's what it means to show up. It's the practice of radical availability.
That is why I am trying to fast. I am so bad at it-- so please give the Holy Spirit permission to prompt you to pray for me.
Labels: passion year, theology
posted by John David Walt | at 11/30/2004 06:38:00 PM | 0 comments
Saturday, November 27, 2004
The Practice of Treasuring and Pondering More and more I appreciate the presence of Mary in the Christmas story. Despite being at ground zero of the whole cataclysmic event she displays an amazing sense of being present in the moment. Following what must have been a horrific birth in a barnyard come a band of sheep herders (not exactly who you would want dropping by the hospital for a visit) with a wild story about angels. Luke, in chapter 2, offers Mary's response:
19But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.
What would it look like to treasure up something and ponder it in my heart? I don't think I do that much. I think it would look like stillness and feel like slowing and seem like freedom. The idea affords another great practice for the days of Advent-- Treasuring up pondering in the heart-- the inmost place of being.
It reminds me of another phrase-- for where your treasure is there will your heart be also.
I've been pondering this scrap sent me by Steve Moore recently. It is from William Law's "A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life," 1729:
Let every day, therefore, be a day of humility;
condescend to all the weaknesses adn infirmities of your fellow creatures,
cover their frailties, love their excellencies,
encourage their virtues, relieve their wants,
rejoice in their prosperities,
compassionate their distress,
receive their friendship,
overlook their unkindness,
forgive their malice,
be a servant of servants,
and condescend to the lowest offices
to the lowest of mankind.
Labels: passion year, theology
posted by John David Walt | at 11/27/2004 02:16:00 PM | 1 comments
The Practice of Reversal Late this morning I made my way out into our garage to do some pre-winter cleaning. It is both disgusting and convicting to have so much stuff we don't need out there. And then to contemplate another truck load of stuff headed our way this Christmas. More than ever, I want to reappropriate Christmas. It strikes me as completely inane to continue in the consumeristic matrix. Why do we just keep getting and giving more and more stuff? Wouldn't it be great if we opted out of all that buying and owning and instead pooled our monies into a huge anonymous fund, wiring it as a surprise to thousands of orphanages around the world on Christmas morning. This would get us closer to Mary's prayer (Luke 1)
52He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.
53He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty.
54He has helped his servant Israel,
remembering to be merciful
Christmas could be a time of inventing a new practice: reversal.
The Bible defines rich far below the threshold of Forbes Magazine or VH1's Fabulous Life. Once I heard Billy Abraham cite John the Baptist's definition of being rich as "two coats." If I were pastoring a church-- and someday maybe I'll get that assignment-- I've got some fun ideas. Early in Advent we would invite everyone to bring a coat to church to give away. Once everyone was safely locked inside the building we would give them two choices. They could come to the alter and leave behind 1. The coat they brought to give away, or 2. The nicer coat they were wearing, leaving them with the old coat to take home and wear. Option 2 reveals the practice of reversal. What a living reminder! All winter long as the old coat got worn, its wearer would think and pray and rejoice over some poor person being blessed with their nice new Gap winter coat.
It would be interesting to see what other imaginative ideas of the practice of reversal a congregation could dream up.
What if for one month we practiced reversal in giving. We would give 90% of our income to the Kingdom and keep 10%.
Back to the garage. Our son, David (4), obviously inspired by my "stuff reorganization" began to go through a lot of his stuff. Donning a Santa Hat underneath his crash helmet, he rode his scooter around the driveway. Each lap he would pick up one of his toys and give it to me, shouting Ho Ho Ho. I overheard him out in the street at one point shouting in his best Santa vocal in the cadence of the closing words of "The Night Before Christmas," "Forgiveness to All and to all a Good night."
Reversal.
Labels: passion year, theology
posted by John David Walt | at 11/27/2004 01:30:00 PM | 2 comments
Today...