“Didn’t I tell you!!!”

Remember how many times you told someone how wonderful something was going to be because you had done it and they hadn’t?  Then they experienced it and they were overcome with the joy of it and you got to say, “Didn’t I tell you…”.  The great “didn’t I tell you!” joy.  Few joys are like that.  I have that experience all the time.  The reason is all the great experiences I have been gracefully given.  And when we’ve had a great experience what we want more than anything is to share it with others.  (There is a sermon in there).  Such is the woodfire kiln.  It is perhaps the greatest liturgical act available to those at Union.  It is like seeing Chartres Cathedral or the Grand Canyon or sweetly kissing your hurting lover’s wound.  When she is in mid-fire and the door is open and the fire is lazily meandering in a 22’ horizontal swirl or when she gets to 2400+° and the door is opened, and it knocks you back and the roaring light leaps out and engulfs you in brilliance…and God is so real…and He whispers “wait until I unwrap you completely and you behold the heavens.” And then we will hear the ultimate, “Didn’t I tell you!”

P.S.  For those who have eyes and ears to hear, come by the wood kiln tonight and meet God.

The Liturgy has begun. 

The Good Shepherd Longing Song

Good morning, Father, Christ my Savior, and my Dear Holy Spirit who gives me the “mind of Christ”. It is You, Christ, and you alone who saves me, not my faith.  I cannot cling to my faith but to you, for even my faith will fail me often and I am left shivering and undone.  But in all things, sorrows, deep pits, long aways, there is you with me, there is You, Father, holding me and mine in your hands of which nothing, not even my unbelief can snatch me away.  Oh, Jesus, it is you and you alone who securely keep me when all else assails me, even my own doubts, you, and you alone save me.  Often even, it is your Word that saves me from my unbelief, from my fears, and my constant waywardness until I feel lost again…then it is Your Word, “living and active” which is your voice again reassuring me that my security is your concern, your responsibility, your duty and you, above all else, are faithful.  I know your voice, the voice of the Good Shepherd, and that voice is often your spoken Word, “sharper” than even my doubts, sharper than a “two-edged" sorrow, "piercing my soul, spirit”, even the marrow of my doubting body, saying, always saying, I am Yours and nothing, nothing, not anything in heaven above or earth below, can take me away from you and your love which will eventually carry me to heaven to be with you and mine already there. 

Rising Stones sculpture site.

   

Bring in the Clowns

The balloon incident.  It is the latest instance of how critical our Presidency is.  The media has long since evolved into an impotent, uninformed, untruthful, cheerleader of every idiocy of social, economic, security, and sexual deviancy that can be imagined.  How ignorant can a whole segment of those representing one of our most basic freedoms, freedom of the press, be?  They continue to rapidly lower the bar.  There is now little honor among the press.   

And so the balloon(s) become one more ironic balloon to bat around in the game of “keep afloat”.  Keep floating lies, deceptions, and the pageantry of fools while America fades, slowly tripping off stage.  Countries are macrocosms of families.  We all know how difficult family management is, the enormity of the task, and the need for great wisdom.  Relate that to America and the need for wise, shrewd, intelligent leadership and you can see how the balloon(s) were allowed to float away.  Bring in the clowns.  The balloons are drifting away.    

 

Here Comes the Son

Light is one of the greatest gifts and one so needed.  For thousands of years, fire was the only answer.  Such kindness, light, warmth, safety, utilitarian, and in the end it became an enduring comforter, a role it still enjoys.  The quest for more efficient light was solved 144 years ago with the invention of the light bulb.  But there was and remains one light, the light for living, which remains our greatest need.  We continue to refine light for our physical space but light for living well, living in peace with our neighbor, living kindly with the earth, living worthily, and living successfully in the complexities of life remains often dark.  Who will save us from this darkness?  Who will provide us with this light for life, light for living?