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Archive for December, 2013

A New Beginning

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , on December 31, 2013| Leave a Comment »

As this year comes to an end, we all have the opportunity for a new beginning in 2014. Yes, we have this opportunity each day, yet the coming of a new year gives us the added impetus to make positive changes. Marking time is a uniquely human characteristic that reflects the changing of seasons and the march of days. These natural changes reflect the cycle of birth, life, death and rebirth. As children of God in nature, we experience these same cycles and the opportunities for change that they represent.
 
May all the good of we encountered in 2013 be multiplied in each of our lives in 2014. May each of us overcome the bad that we experienced and turn it to good in the coming year. And may God’s love, grace, mercy and forgiveness surround each of us with joy, peace and hope each day of 2014.
 
Beginning anew,
Z gardener

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On Freedom And Predestination

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , on December 30, 2013| 1 Comment »

 
Witness the doctrine of Predestination which shows (truly enough) that eternal reality is not waiting for a future in which to be real; but at the price of removing Freedom which is the deeper truth of the two.
 
Free will is a part of how God created us to be. It is integral to our becoming the children of God we are created to be. After all, our relationship with God is a call and response. We get to choose how or if we respond. 
 
If we accept God’s call, then we are assured of our incarnation as children of God. However, we must choose to follow God’s will. We may also choose not to do so. These free choices will determine our destiny and our destination.
 
Choosing to respond,
Z gardener

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These Precious Ones

Posted in Uncategorized on December 24, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Father, on this holy day, as your true light dispels the darkness, shine into each of your precious one’s hearts the rays of hope this season brings. Fill every void, make whole every broken heart, unify every part in your creation and reveal the eternal communion of our souls. 

 
Father, remind us of every wonderful memory this season evokes, create in us today’s future memories of Christmas joy and join us now with all our beloved precious ones. Those who surround us, those from whom we are separated and those who watch lovingly over us from above as we sing;
 
“Joy to the world, the Lord has come. Let earth receive her King.”


Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and Season’s Greetings to all these precious ones.
 
Joyfully,
Z gardener
 
 
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On This Day

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , on December 23, 2013| Leave a Comment »

In this season of expectation, gratitude and exultation, let us put away the things of darkness and take up the things of light. Things like our family, home, health and a loving God who orders these blessings for our best good.

 
As for this scribe, on this day, twenty eight years ago, God answered the most fervent prayer with a squeal of delight and a simple “yes”. That night, on bended knee, this prayer was answered when my wife-to-be said yes to only question that mattered, “Will you marry me?”
 
Today; in gratitude for twenty eight years of answered prayers; in anticipation of many more such years and in exultation for the light she has brought into this life for her family and friends; this blessed husband and father offers his thanks for his answered prayer, and for our family’s ever-new life together, forever.
 
For all our friends, families and those we love and care about, may this season bring the answers to all your prayers. And may those answers lead each of you into the light of this season, and remind each of us to celebrate this light of peace, hope and joy that has come to the world.
 
 “Behold, I bring tidings of great joy.” The light of the world has come.”
 
In the light,
Z gardener

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On How to Transform a Minor Trespass Into a Major Sin

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , on December 18, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Screwtape shows how to transform a minor trespass into a major sin:
 
Success here depends on confusing him. If you try to make him explicitly and professedly proud of being a Christian, you will probably fail; the Enemy’s warnings are too well known. If, on the other hand, you let the idea of ‘we Christians’ drop out altogether and merely make him complacent about ‘his set’, you will produce not true spiritual pride but mere social vanity which, by comparison, is a trumpery, puny little sin. What you want is to keep a sly self-congratulation mixing with all his thoughts and never allow him to raise the question ‘What, precisely, am I congratulating myself about?’ 
 
The idea of belonging to an inner ring, of being in a secret, is very sweet to him. Play on that nerve. Teach him, using the influence of this girl when she is silliest, to adopt an air of amusement at the things the unbelievers say. Some theories which he may meet in modern Christian circles may here prove helpful; theories, I mean, that place the hope of society in some inner ring of ‘clerks’, some trained minority of theocrats. It is no affair of yours whether those theories are true or false; the great thing is to make Christianity a mystery religion in which he feels himself one of the initiates.
 
“And lead us, not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” The reference here is to spiritual pride, which we may fall victim to once we choose God’s way for our lives. It is deadly because this pride blinds us to our own self-righteousness, cutting us off from  repentance and forgiveness. Many good Christians fall victim to this sin by starting down the path described by the demon Screwtape.
 
When we trust too much in ourselves, our leaders or our institutions instead of God’s love, forgiveness, humility and patience, we suffer from the illusion of separation from God and his children. This illusion of separation is sin. It matters not whether we consider ourselves on the right side or the wrong side of this illusion. It is still sin, and allows us to divide ourselves from one another.
 
In God’s world we are not divided, but all are part of his family, the body of Christ. When we live according to this reality of unity, then we are living according to God’s will, in communion with God and all of his children. This communion, this indivisible unity of spirits is God’s will. When we live in this body of Christ, we are experiencing the garden God created for us. 
 
And lead us,
Z gardener

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On The Incarnation

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , on December 17, 2013| Leave a Comment »

The Second Person in God, the Son, became human Himself: was born into the world as an actual man—a real man of a particular height, with hair of a particular color, speaking a particular language, weighing so many stone. The Eternal Being, who knows everything and who created the whole universe, became not only a man but (before that) a baby, and before that a fetus inside a woman’s body. If you want to get the hang of it, think how you would like to become a slug or a crab.
 
It would take a lot of love for any of us to agree to become a slug or as crab…even a porpoise or an osprey! Yet, that is exactly what God did. He become one of us in every way. He agreed to suffer pain, fear and loss, just as we, his children must suffer them so long as we have physical existence. This love, this presence with us, this shared suffering manifested God among us, Emmanuel, the light of the world.
 
This love, this light is armor for or us. It is the “real” us and will dispel darkness for us whenever we put it on. Put on love today, wear your light so all can see; just as God put it on to become us, so we could see. That light and love will reveal our true selves as children of God; to us and to all whom we touch.
 
Be the light,
Z gardener 

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On Being Reborn

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , on December 16, 2013| Leave a Comment »

 
 
And now we begin to see what it is that the New Testament is always talking about. It talks about Christians ‘being born again’; it talks about them ‘putting on Christ’; about Christ ‘being formed in us’; about our coming to ‘have the mind of Christ’.
 
Put right out of your head the idea that these are only fancy ways of saying that Christians are to read what Christ said and try to carry it out—as a man may read what Plato or Marx said and try to carry it out. They mean something much more than that. 
 
They mean that a real Person, Christ, here and now, in that very room where you are saying your prayers, is doing things to you. It is not a question of a good man who died two thousand years ago. It is a living Man, still as much a man as you, and still as much God as He was when He created the world, really coming and interfering with your very self; killing the old natural self in you and replacing it with the kind of self He has. 
 
At first, only for moments. Then for longer periods. Finally, if all goes well, turning you permanently into a different sort of thing; into a new little Christ, a being which, in its own small way, has the same kind of life as God; which shares in His power, joy, knowledge and eternity.
 
It is in this spirit and reality that the Advent scriptures admonish us to “put away the things of darkness”, and “put on the whole armor of light”, that is Christ. This real and living Christ is the light that puts away the darkness in this world and in our thoughts, words and deeds. And it is this living Christ that gives us the hope, joy and peace that is the light in which we were created to live. 
 
So, meet the living Christ this Christmas. Walk with him each day by following his voice while abiding in his will. Then, watch his presence grow in your garden as his  love and faith sprout up in the Eden that was put here for the real “us” and our Christ forever.
 
Putting on the Christ,
Z gardener

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On Silence

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , on December 13, 2013| 1 Comment »

 [The demon Screwtape writes:] Music and silence—how I detest them both! 
 
How thankful we should be that ever since our Father entered Hell (though longer ago than humans, reckoning in light years, could express) no square inch of infernal space and no moment of infernal time has been surrendered to either of those abominable forces, but all has been occupied by Noise— Noise, the grand dynamism, the audible expression of all that is exultant, ruthless, and virile—Noise which alone defends us from silly qualms, despairing scruples, and impossible desires. 
 
We will make the whole universe a noise in the end. We have already made great strides in this direction as regards the Earth. The melodies and silences of Heaven will be shouted down in the end. But I admit we are not yet loud enough, or anything like it.
 
This noise is what the bible describes as “the fleshly existence” and the “carnal self”. It is our sensory perception and the physical existence in which that perception informs our consciousness. The overwhelming sensations of physical existence can drown out the subtle silences and timeless melodies. They were created for the metaphysical self in the superior spiritual realm where the true “us” exists with God. (Imagine trying to hear a soft violin during a rock concert.)
 
To hear past this noise, we must rise above the physical self to focus on, listen and hear the inner voice and it’s song that transcends this noise. The we can be our true best selves in the communion of silence with God in Eden.
 
Sounds of Silence, indeed!
Z gardener

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Good News

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , on December 13, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Good morning,

Sunday’s Advent daily meditation from our church could have been written for every family. I thought it would be good to share. Advent, is the time between Thanksgiving and before Christmas that we put away the things of darkness in our lives and put on the “whole armor of light” in anticipation of the birth of Christ, the “Light of the world“. It is a time of reflection, repentance and renewal.

In this season of anticipation and thankfulness, let us each remember with gratitude those precious ones who brought so much joy and love into our lives. They are still with us now, but in a different way. Like “tracks in the snow, the lantern showing the path or a door set open for us”, they still love us, help us and are waiting for us. They are there; just around the bend, where the snowy tracks end, in the warm lantern light, behind that open door. Let us each look with continuing anticipation to that time when we will be in that light with them.

Peace,
Z gardener

Advent Reflections from St. Andrew’s Cathedral
December 8
By Jody Burnett
Good news.
But if you ask me what it is, I know not.
It is a track of feet in the snow.
It is a lantern showing a path.
It is a door set open.-G.K. Chesterton

Over the past few days, I’ve heard from several of my friends and clergy colleagues in other parts of the country about how their churches this year will be offering “Blue Christmas” services, which are designed especially for people for whom the holiday season is particularly difficult. Some have suffered the recent loss of a family member or dear friend, and for the bereaved, an empty seat at the Christmas table – the absence of a cherished name on the family gift exchange list – can often amplify the feelings of pain and grief which take years, a lifetime even, to run their course. Others might find themselves alone – estranged or cut off for various reasons from someone in their family or from an entire community – and for them, the conspicuous lack of yuletide cards and invitations to festive gatherings can often lead to further isolation and more profound angst. And for most anyone, I would venture to guess – though not all of us feel so keenly vulnerable at such times – there are still things that stand in the way of us recognizing and accepting the pure gift of joy and wonder that is ours to claim this season. There are difficult memories or awkward dynamics or unresolved issues that can diminish the enthusiasm and sheer delight that we once knew, and that we may now see only in children as they first wake on Christmas morn. And yet, even in the midst of anxiety, sadness, and remorse, even if we or those we know have grown old and tired with sullenness or sorrow, the promise of Emmanuel – the assurance of God being right there with us through it all – might still help us to find hope in our hearts. And the belief that God, through Christ, can indeed make all things new might still cause us to see fresh possibilities for reconciliation and redemption in our lives and in this world. There is good news, indeed, during this holy time and season; there is a track of feet in the snow; there is a lantern showing us a path. God is calling us back to the rich, full, abundant life we all desire and deserve. I pray that we may all find the grace and confidence we need to continue moving in that direction.

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On Perfection

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , on December 11, 2013| Leave a Comment »

 
The command Be ye perfect is not idealistic gas. Nor is it a command to do the impossible. He is going to make us into creatures that can obey that command. 
 
He said (in the Bible) that we were “gods” and He is going to make good His words. If we let Him—for we can prevent Him, if we choose—He will make the feeblest and filthiest of us into a god or goddess, a dazzling, radiant, immortal creature, pulsating all through with such energy and joy and wisdom and love as we cannot now imagine, a bright stainless mirror which reflects back to God perfectly (though, of course, on a smaller scale) His own boundless power and delight and goodness. 
 
The process will be long and in parts very painful; but that is what we are in for. Nothing less. He meant what He said.
 
Living this truth is not beyond any of us, unless it is beyond our willingness to “let” God make us into this wonderful creature he created us to become. Only we can can stop this process, and only we can allow it through the exercise of our own will to do God’s will. To take the longer path, to endure the pain of needed lessons, to walk and not grow weary of the journey. Whatever we need is available when our will directs our decision to accept and become our destiny. Then, we are assured our birthright as children of God and as gods. Then, we will exist in the garden called Eden.
 
Letting perfection,
Z gardener

 

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