Reflection for August 31, 2011

My Life in Art

What makes up the painting of my life? The painters have been many and varied.

It started with the background color laid down by those who came long before me.

Outlines were drawn in by my parents. Bright colors were added by good friends and family in strokes broad and delicate.

Shadows and dark areas came from others.

To discomfort, sadness, loss, gain joy, and beauty I owe depth and texture.

Some came along and added stunning contrasts, others soothing neutral tones.

A Larger Hand seemed to have provided the overall composition.

I am not a passive canvas, but an active participant in this my life. At times I have been able to take a heavy dark line and transform it into a lighter, more balanced detail and other times have unnecessarily darkened a detail.

This work in progress has been made possible by many who have contributed in ways large and small. I thank them all.

Reflection for August 24, 2011

Reflection for August 17, 2011

To be alive

in this beautiful, self-organizing universe –

to participate in the dance of life

with senses to perceive it,

lungs that breathe it,

organs that draw nourishment from it –

is a wonder beyond words.

Joanna Macy

Reflection for August 10, 2011

Restless for Peace

JVR

Grieving woman,

Color falls with you,

Attracting birds of peace.

Reflection for August 3, 2011

Primary Wonder

Days pass when I forget the mystery.

Problems insoluble and problems offering

their own ignored solutions

jostle for my attention, they crowd its antechamber

along with a host of diversions, my courtiers, wearing

their colored clothes; caps and bells.

And then

once more the quiet mystery

is present to me, the throng's clamor

recedes: the mystery

that there is anything, anything at all,

let alone cosmos, joy, memory, everything,

rather than void: and that, O Lord,

Creator, Hallowed one, You still,

hour by hour sustain it.

--Denise Levertov

Reflection for July 27, 2011

Rev. Susan Chamberlin Smith of Trinity UCC of Deerfield, Ill

March, 2010 - Sermon

Which brings us to Jesus and the parable of fig tree, a parable which seems, at first glance, to be about a tree that does not produce. Like most of Jesus' parables, however, it isn't at all about what we see at first glance. This parable is about God's grace, not about the net worth of a fig tree.

First, a bit of background on fig trees. Fig trees are high maintenance plants. When producing, they produce two crops per year, but the variety most common in the Holy Land usually does not produce fruit until its third year. On top of that Hebrew law required another three years of fruiting before the fruit was "clean" for human use, which meant that a gardener had to tend the tree six years before a single fig could be eaten! In addition, fig trees require regular watering, and they deplete soil nutrients rapidly, thereby requiring constant fertilization. The canopy of the tree provides thick, dark shade under which nothing else, including grape vines, can grow. The wood of the tree is practically useless for any kind of carpentry... In short, a fig tree which is not producing figs is worse than useless, it is a resource-consuming nuisance. The fruit is its one and only reason for being, at least from a practical point of view.

So when the tree in the parable bears no fruit, it shouldn't surprise us that the vineyard owner in the parable says, "Cut it down! Why should we let it continue to occupy the ground to no purpose?" We can understand the frustration of the vineyard owner - all that waiting and still not a single fig to show for it. Fortunately for us, however, this is a story about the grace of God rather than the impatience of humanity. The gardener says, "aphes," "leave it alone" - the same word in Greek as "forgive" or "pardon."

This parable tells us that God is forgiving. Isaiah agrees, saying that God will" abundantly pardon," and Julian of Norwich, the 14th century mystic, proclaims that God has only one characteristic and that is love - a love so great that God really can't do anything except forgive our sins even before we commit them.

Reflection for July 20, 2011

it is time for me

to see the flaws

of myself

and stop

being alarmed

it is time for me

to halt my drive

for perfection

and to accept

my blemishes

it is time for me

to receive

slowly evolving growth

the kind that comes

in God's own good time

and pays no heed

to my panicky pushing

It is time for me

to embrace

my humanness

to love

my incompleteness

it is time for me

to cherish

the unwanted

to welcome

the unknown

to treasure

the unfulfilled

if I wait to be

perfect

before I love myself

I will always be

unsatisfied

and ungrateful

if I wait until

all the flaws, chips,

and cracks disappear

I will be the cup

that stands on the shelf

and is never used

---Joyce Rupp

"The Cup of our Lives"