In Matthew chapter 25, Jesus talks about the Son of Man on the throne of glory with all the nations gathered around.  Just imagine the picture of that with people from every nation!  Jesus  gives the vision of his blessing for inheritance of the Kingdom and it has to do with those who are hungry, thirsty, those who are strangers, those without clothing, and those in prison.  Who did anything for any of these persons?  If anyone helped any of them then it was the same as doing it for Jesus.  Or if no one helped, then no help was given to Jesus.  That was the dividing line for inheriting the Kingdom of God.  So, is this the picture?

(photo from “Homemaking Tips”)…pup cakes?  Well, not exactly the picture, but what if we saw the face of Christ in every person?

Helping persons in need is the same as doing it for Jesus! THIS is the Kingdom!  The face of Christ is present in every person, and the Jesus in me loves the Jesus in you!  Together we are the body of Christ and we are ONE in this great love.

“Lord, when did we see you hungry?”

(Photo from “Like Breath and Water…Praying with Africa” by Ciona D. Rouse) . A quote with the photo says, “Mali mothers handed their fragile babies to me to hold, to feel the weight of their starvation.  The smallness sits heavy upon my heart.”  The words continue to echo loudly for me…”the WEIGHT OF THEIR STARVATION”!

One day a few years ago I saw this photo in the newspaper and it just would not leave me alone.  I cut it out and glued it in my journal.

Later in that same journal I sketched my own self portrait.  I was not looking at the photo of the woman, but in my heart I was feeling the “WEIGHT OF HER STARVATION”.

Pondering….

When have you done something for Jesus?

What might you do for “one of the least of these” on this Lenten Journey?

Let us look for the face of Christ!

nk

This is a painting by Gerrit van Honthorst (1590-1656) entitled “Christ before Caiphas”.  The religious authorities are out to catch Jesus in doing something “against the law”, and this takes place before his crucifixion.

Our question for today is from Luke 14:3, a different scene, but still Jesus is with the lawyers and Pharisees who were watching him carefully.  Jesus had just healed a man on the Sabbath, the day of rest when the religious rulers proclaimed that no “work” was to be done.  Jesus asks the question of them before they can ask it of him.  “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?”.  They kept silent.  (Good question Jesus!). He goes on to put it into perspective…”Who wouldn’t try to get their ox or a son out of a well if it had fallen into it on the Sabbath?” The question then for us might be, is every “religious law” meant to be kept?

This drawing done in the 17th c. by Rembrandt portrays the piety that was present in many of the Pharisees in Jesus’ day.  We must put ourselves in this story as listeners of the question Jesus asks, “Is it lawful?”  When do the laws need to change?  What is our attitude in abiding by certain laws, or ensuring that others do or don’t keep the law?

I remember as a child that my church did not allow children to receive Holy Communion before they were confirmed.  One Sunday when communion came around I had not yet been confirmed, yet my heart felt compelled to take this meal and I wanted it!  My head said, “Why not?”  SO…I took it, even though I was not supposed to!  ( I know…those of you who know me are not surprised).  Now the question might be, “Can children be refused grace because they do not yet fully understand?”  Or, “Do all of us as children of God come to understand more fully in the process of receiving grace?”

This is my grandson wearing his new bow tie in the church building on Easter Sunday surrounded by the people of God.  He seems to be asking the question “Is it lawful?”.  This is Easter, a special religious day, and he wants to do it right!  I don’t know exactly what “IT” is, but I think we must first ask ourselves where does love enter the picture?  Is it about the law, or is it about love? What will the children most learn by our reaction?

Pondering…

When has your understanding changed in regard to how you thought something SHOULD be?

Let’s ask Jesus to open our eyes to more love in this Lenten Journey.

nk

 

As Jesus was walking through the countryside with his disciples, he was teaching them…

 

He said that he will be killed and after three days he will rise.  The disciples didn’t understand and were afraid to ask him.  When they came to the village of Capernaum, they gathered in a house.

(Painting by David Blossom)

Jesus asks his friends this question, “What were you discussing on the way?” They kept silent because they had been arguing about who was the greatest!  Jesus then said”If anyone would be first he must be last of all.”  In case they didn’t yet get it, he put a child in front of them and told them that if they received the child they would be receiving him.

I wonder how the disciples were feeling at this point?  Were they surprised that Jesus knew what they were talking about?  Were they embarrassed or ashamed?  Did they now have more questions than ever?  The child?  Were they still afraid to ask?  Did they wish they could go back and travel the road again with Jesus, this time asking more questions?

This is a good question for us during our Lenten journey.  What sort of things are we talking about?  If we were to replay our conversations for the day, what would we hear?  Where was our focus?  What was our attitude?  What about Jesus hearing our discussions?  Are we afraid to ask questions of Jesus?

(Prayer by Macrina Wiederkehr, “Seasons of Your Heart”

Pondering…

Can we pay attention to the words that come out of our mouth today?

What question would you ask Jesus?  Perhaps you have several.

nk

 

This painting can be found in the book “Ladder of Angels” by Madeleine Engle.  The artist is Galia Malol, age 10,  from Jerusalem.  The question for today is found in John 4:9.  Jesus is tired from a long day’s journey.  He encounters a woman at a well in Samaria and says, “Give me a drink”.  Her question of Jesus is “How is it that you a Jew asks for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?”

The woman knows that a man who is a Jew would not be associating with her for two reasons…she is a Samaritan and she is a woman.  But there are things Jesus seems to know about her that she does not realize he can see (thus the blue lips from eating the cupcake??), or perhaps a truth she does not even realize herself.

Finally she goes back to town as a witness proclaiming, “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did.  Can this be the Christ?”  I am struck by the fact that this woman realizes the love of Jesus because he KNOWS her!  Perhaps love in this story is expressed and understood in knowing and being known.  Someone knows the deepest truths about her and loves her unconditionally.  I think about people in my own life who I feel have known me most deeply.  My Dad is one of those people.

Don’t you love his smile?  My Dad was a very fun loving, risk taking sort of guy who I think related to me and understood me  more than anyone else when I was growing up.  When I tried to hide some of the truths about my escapades by telling half-truths, he always seemed to be able to see through it all and confront me with the truth.  This resulted in my feeling embarrassment and /or shame, yet not as much condemned as understood and deeply known.  I felt somehow that perhaps he was more like me., that maybe he had been where I was, and he just KNEW.  He loved me anyway.  Deep down, we both knew we were really alike.

The story of the woman of Samaria has intrigued me.  I have found myself somehow in her shoes.  I think it has to do with the fact that one feels very loved when the deepest truths about them are known and confronted, yet they feel loved and understood in spite of their less than perfect self.  I am truly blessed by the people in my life who know me, understand me, and love me anyway.  Lent is a time for the truth.  Jesus came to save us from our failure and sin. He knows and He loves!  His love is redeeming.

Thoughts to ponder….

Who is it that knows you?

Is there a time when Jesus met you at the well?

nk

 

It is an interesting day of Lent around here.  There is a garage sale going on at the church and my husband is outside in the backyard with several of his suits and a brush.  He is not trying to remove any “lint” on them. He is literally “dusting them off” to give away.  He says, “You can sorta tell it’s time when a suit has a vest to it!”  Oh my gosh…as I am watching the dust fly out of that vest while he is pounding it with the brush, I am thinking, “Did he really wear that?”  He then proceeds to tell me that all those suits are in really great shape.  “I just wasn’t very hard on them”, he says proudly.

Meanwhile, the security system guy is here to connect our new windows.  Now my husband comes out of his closet carrying the security box and proclaims, “The guy says they don’t make these anymore!”

Next come the golf shoes…

I especially like how he dated them.  Looks like they were “in the rough” a little more than the suits!

Yes, it’s a Lenten kind of day around here!  “You can’t put new wine in old wineskins”, Jesus says. (Matthew 9:17)  Jesus is bringing new wine on this journey of Lent we are on.  Cleaning out the old is important and necessary.

In the third chapter of the book of John, Nicodemus, a religious leader, is told by Jesus that he must be born again to see the kingdom of God.  Nicodemus asks a question of Jesus, “How can a man be born when he is old?”  Jesus responds, “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.  So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

We are on our faith journey of Lent.  I think I hear a breeze blowing around here today! And somewhere out there mighty winds are blowing, bringing about new birth…

This is a photo taken by the Hubble Space Telescope of mighty winds creating a massive star birth called N 159 taking place 170,000 light years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud. How can something be born when it is that old?  Ah, the wonderful mysterious ways of the mighty winds of the Spirit captured in a click of the camera!

Pondering thoughts…

Is there something old you might clean out to be ready for the new?

How might you hear the wind of the Spirit awakening the Mystery around you and within you?

(Have a great weekend.  Take a look at the stars if you can.  I’ll be back here Monday morning)

nk

The story of Bartimaeus the blind beggar comes from Mark 10:46-52.  Jesus and the disciples were entering Jericho when Jesus heard a blind man crying out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.”  Calling Jesus “Son of David” meant the blind man understood Jesus to be the Messiah, the Savior, which most of the crowd and even disciples did not totally understand yet.  So ironically the blind man, the only one who can’t see, is the one who actually sees.

When Jesus calls him to come, the blind man throws off his cloak, and leaps up.  Since blind beggars use their cloaks to collect any offerings tossed their way, Bartemaeus was surrendering what he had by tossing it aside to come to Jesus. Then Jesus asks the question, “What do you want me to do for you?”  He responds, “I want to see.”  Jesus says, “Your faith has made you whole.”  The word here in Greek for “made whole” means salvation.  Bartemaeus receives the gift of salvation through eyes of faith.

I saw this sculpture in a monastery in Turin, Italy.  It is one of the most dramatic portrayals of Jesus’ gift of salvation that I have seen.  All we have to do to receive this gift is believe.

During this journey of Lent we will be hearing the questions Jesus asks of us.  In “Letters to a Young Poet”, Ranier Marie Rilke says,

“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue.  Do not now seek the answers which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them.  And the point is, to live everything.  Live the questions now.  Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.”

We look to Jesus with eyes of faith, even when we can’t yet see….and we live into the question. Once when I was on a personal spiritual retreat, I found this picture in a magazine and cut it out to glue into my journal.

Something about this picture brought tears to my eyes.  It seemed to be something I wanted, but I didn’t fully understand why.  All I knew was that it had something to do with the light and warmth, and intimacy radiating from inside the small cabin.  With eyes of faith, I live into the question Jesus asks, “What do you want me to do for you?”

Something to think about…

How would you answer Jesus’ question?

Look again at the sculpture of the crucifixion scene.  What does it have to do with what you want Jesus to do for you?

nk

 

Today is Ash Wednesday and we begin our faith journey during this season of Lent.  Today is a day of preparing ourselves for the forty days leading to Holy Week and Easter.  It is about becoming empty so that we can be filled.  It is a day for realizing we are nothing without God.  All that we are and all that we have is a gift from God.

Today we become empty so we can be open to what God wants to give us.  Being open is a prerequisite for spiritual growth.  In her book “The Finding Stone” Christine Lore Weber writes this, “All of life is a beginning.  I need an open, spontaneous, joyful attitude that knows it does not know.  I need an emptiness in me….I need to find the part in my soul still empty, still able to be surprised, still open to wonder.”

A good image is for us to enter Lent as empty bowls.  Sue Bender in “Everyday Sacred” writes about the Begging Bowl.  “All I knew about a begging bowl was that each day a monk goes out with an empty bowl in his hands.  Whatever is placed in this bowl will be his nourishment for the day.  I don’t know whether I was the monk, or the bowl, or the things that would fill the bowl, or all three.”  (And I would say that’s a great question!)

I want to share with you two special bowls I have chosen as Begging Bowls for this Lenten Journey.  The first is a bowl from Siena, Italy.

I eat my fruit every morning out of this same bowl.  It is a replica of a portion of a marble inlaid floor in the cathedral called the Duomo in Siena.  Here is a photo of the Duomo.

If you look closely you can see the floor outside the front of the Duomo is also inlaid designs.  I love that the bowl contains the essence of something so beautifully created in the 13-14 century.  It reminds me that God is Creator and brings the gift of creativity and all creation.  I am God’s creature and God continually creates anew in me.  I am open to receive.  My second bowl is my Grandmother’s…

I love the color of this big bowl.  I love that my grandmother’s hands made peach cobbler for dinner in this bowl when they had no other food.  It reminds me of her life during the Great Depression and how her faith relied on God to provide.  Each day this Lent I want to trust God to provide.

Our question today is “What are you seeking?”  Jesus asks this question of his disciples in John 1:38 as he sees them following him.  Their answer is a question and is profound, “Where are YOU staying?”.  Jesus says, “Come and you will see”.  It was not about WHAT.  It was about WHO, and the person is Jesus.  We too are seeking Jesus in this faith journey of Lent.  We present ourselves as empty bowls ready to be filled and Jesus says, “Come and you will see!”

Something to think about….

What bowl would you choose for this journey of Lent…and why?

How will you become open?

nk

Hello! I want to let you all know that I am beginning a daily post here on my blog for the season of Lent this year.  We will begin this Wed., Feb. 10, and continue Monday through Friday each week until we get to Holy Week. Then there will be a post everyday through Easter on March 27.

If you are already a follower you will automatically receive an email notice of every post.  If you wish to become a follower for this season just click on “FOLLOW” on the right column of the blog and you will begin to receive a notice as each new post occurs on the blog.  Otherwise just enter the blog each day as you wish.  Please share this with your friends who might want to join in this journey of Lent as a daily devotion together by following the blog.  The focus will be “Jesus and the Question”. You will be amazed at how often Jesus taught by asking a question.  These questions will deepen our understanding and our relationship with Christ as we realize who He is and how we might grow in Love.

There may be something you are giving up for Lent, but this may be something you want to “take on” for Lent as you and I seek to deepen our relationship with Jesus.  We will start this Wednesday and I look forward to being with you in our journey of faith together!

nk

It was late at night when I nestled into bed and before I could think too much about the day, I heard a train whistle blow.  I love that sound!  It is always alluring to me when I hear that distant long blast in the dark stillness of the night.  But this particular night it seemed to touch a deep unanticipated loneliness within me and held me close, as if I were wrapped up in the warm blanket of a memory.  I think I began to realize for the first time the significance of the train for me.

I was carried back to a time when I was about 8 years old.  We lived in San Angelo, Texas and my grandparents lived in Indiana.  Aunt Dot took my sister and I on a journey to Indiana by train.  It was my first time to venture out without my parents, and to travel in anything other than a car.  It was exciting and daring.  “All aboard!” We climbed on, found our seats and rode all day and all night long.  My nose was pressed to the window, my eyes continually searching the landscape as an ever expanding world passed by.  So much to see and absorb!  I never knew the horizon could be so big! The night lights of approaching towns were as captivating as the daytime scenes of countryside, small villages, and bustling cities.  I don’t remember eating or sleeping.  I only remember searching for anything I could see.

Early the next morning we pulled into St. Louis.  This was a large center for the intersection of trains.  Many of the train cars we were pulling were transferred as other cars were added on.  So we went through a time of moving forward, backing up, jerking again and again, as we heard and felt the cars bumping and being latched or unlatched.  It was like being in a huge mix master, and quite fascinating to experience.  Finally we headed out, anxiously anticipating the crossing of the great Mississippi River.

It was fun to learn how to spell that word, and now we were actually going to travel across by train!  How in the world was that going to happen?  What did happen was something I would never forget.  The train tracks made a bridge and were under the train, but when I looked out the window I could not see them.  It seemed that we were suspended high up in the air, moving across that expanse of water and over all the boats and barges below.  It was both frightening and wondrously miraculous!  In that moment I was struck with a new and important perspective….something was holding me up that I could not see!  I could only trust.  That innate understanding is an important perspective in our journey of faith.  The unseen God holds us up in such a way that we are able to know and believe what we cannot see.  We can’t fully explain it…we just KNOW.

Now on this night, the train whistle carried me into that memory and I was there again, and I knew what is always true….God is holding us up.  Now I have a deeper understanding of why the sound of the train is so special to me.  I pulled the covers more snugly around me, then one last memory….

When we arrived at our destination I could see my Grandma, tall and lean, standing outside the station waving, anxiously waiting to wrap me up in her long arms.  I could feel them already!  Love is present.

nk

 

It seems that often our lives are so full and we race through our days in such a way that it all runs together and becomes a blur.  It’s not so much that we have to inspect every detail looking for imperfections, but rather that we take time to notice the little things that can mean so much.

My grandson who will soon turn three loves his little flashlight.  It is just the right size for his small hand and allows him to inspect small places.  He is fascinated with every discovery, especially because so much of his world is still so new to him.  Here is a glimpse of a moment on Christmas morning when he had just received his new flashlight….

Oh my gosh!!  What we let our grandkids do to us!  ( He told me to take a deep breath. Dr. Batman got it a little confused with listening to my lungs!)

I certainly don’t want to spend my days with a small flashlight in my hand.  But it might be a good thing at the close of each day to reflect on what was special about that day.  If we were to be still for a moment and let the moments of the day surface, it is most likely  we would discover it was the small things that meant the most.  It may have been a hug, a glance from across the room, a certain word spoken.  Or perhaps the way the morning sun fell across the landscape as it did for me this morning.

Today was such a beautiful day!  I went for a walk this morning and a red bird suddenly appeared above me in a barren tree so that he was in clear view.  He stared at me and chirped away with such a wide range of inflection it was as if his voice was dancing.  Whatever he was saying as his head bobbled about, it was quite emphatic!  I could not move!  He went on for awhile, pausing only occasionally to ruffle his feathers a bit.  I kept wishing I had my phone to snap his picture but no doubt that would have ruined the special moment.  It was only to be captured in my mind and heart.  I was just so grateful that in my brisk walk I was able to receive the gift of a CLOSER LOOK.  It brought a whole new perspective to my day!

I invite you to pause for a closer look.

nk