An Elder Pilgrim's Reflections

Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. (from Ps.103:1-8 ) Thomas Merton, American Trappist monk, writer and theologian, once asked himself a question he immediately answered:   How does an apple ripen? The apple, by simply being in the sun, fulfills its purpose of ripening, The apple doesn't try to ripen faster, it simply allows the sun to do its work.   There is nothing it can do to ripen itself. It can’t do workouts, tighten its muscles and then suddenly be a red, ripened, juicy apple in the morning. The apple just hangs on the branch in the sun, naturally ripening, where it receives its daily nourishment. This is the basic plan for how Christians ripen in their relationship to God. The difference is that Christians don’t naturally ripen in their relationship to God, we have to place themselves where we can be nourished. The beginning place of nourishment I find most helpful is the Guide to Prayer For All Who Walk With God. The daily walk in the...

  “ “I have come to bring fire on the earth,  and how I wish it were already kindled! (From Luke 12:49-56 ) As I write this post, the sky is hazy with smoke from the Canadian wildfires. Currently, the Canadian government reports over 700 wildfires burning, primarily caused by human activities, lightning strikes, and climate change. The majority of the active fires are labeled "out of control," meaning they are not contained, spreading the smoke, causing the world's worst air quality.  For me it's like Abraham looking towards Sodom and Gomorrah watching smoke rising from God’s destroyed land  Jeremiah wrote about God's fire as destructive while Malachi 3:2-3  wrote about it as refining, both bring about change As a rabbi, Jesus, knowing the scriptures, wants to set a refining fire of change. As the Son of God, Jesus asks that God’s kingdom disrupt the world bringing it to perfection through a refining fire.. This perfection means no oppression, greed, or idolat...

"But know this: if the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, the owner would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” (from Luke 12:32-40 ) I regularly watch Grantchester; a murder mystery set in 1950s England. The main characters are a local detective and an Anglican priest who, as a team, solve mysteries set in the town. Two aspects of Grantchester impress me. First, the simplicity of the 1950’s police communications done by a landline phone and not cell phone. Second, the simplicity of daily life with little television and fewer possessions allowing the characters to focus on their vocation of detective and priest. This simplicity is more than a nostalgic return to the “good old days”. Instead, it’s a Shaker type of simplicity where austerity allows freedom from distractions to focus on worship and community. Today’s distraction-filled world has seemingly countless activ...

But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ (From Luke 12:13-21 ) Robert Frost’s poem, The Road Not Taken , is among my favorite of his. In the poem a traveler comes to diverging roads and needs to decide which to take. One road doesn’t look as though it’s been used as much while the other looks well used, so the traveler ponders, which shall I take? It’s difficult for the traveler to make a decision not knowing where each path leads. The traveler makes a choice recognizing that in the future the choice may have been wrong, but it’s impossible to go back and change the choice. This is he sense of the parable of the Rich Fool, which choice does one make? Here’s a rich land owner with an abundance of whatever crop and so a choice must be made. The choice made is to build a larger barn to store more crops. Celebrate! Eat, drink, and be merry! This choice is made based on greed ...

"If you, then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (from Luke 11:1-13 ) At a healing group I led, someone asked for prayers for a friend whose child a severe cold. We all prayed for recovery of the child. The next morning about 10 a.m. the person called me asking if the child’s cold was healed. I replied that I didn’t know because I hadn’t called the mother yet. In today’s culture of instant response, the question was understandable. In Jesus culture, someone knocking at your door in the middle of the night broke all rules of basic hospitality, and personal dignity. The disciples were asking Jesus to be taught how to pray. Jesus tells a parable about persistently knocking until the door is open. Is persistence the lesson? Persistence may imply God is reluctant, unaware, and needing harassing by our prayers before God will do what we want. Must we bang on heaven’s doors to get...

"Be mindful of your mercy, O Lord, and of your steadfast love, for they have been from of old. Do not remember the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to your steadfast love remember me, for the sake of your goodness, O Lord!" (from Psalm 25:1-10 ) Israel’s King David, a skilled warrior known for defeating Goliath, also led numerous other victories, expanding and securing the kingdom’s borders. Politically, he united Israel’s tribes, established Jerusalem as capital, and created a strong central government. Despite his successes, he made serious moral mistakes, like the Bathsheba affair and killing Uriah. David's trials included Tamar’s betrayal, Absalom’s revolt, and his death in battle. Nathan, David’s prophet, confronted him about the sin, and David repented. God’s punishments consisted of a series of family tragedies, including the death of his infant son and conflicts with his children. Our life journey isn’t King David’s, but that doesn’t me...

“Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things,  but few things are needed—indeed only one.  Mary has chosen the better part,  which will not be taken away from her.” ( from Luke 10:38-42 ) There’s a famous legend about Martha told after Jesus’s resurrection. Martha becomes a traveling preacher ending up in a small French that, unfortunately, has a chronic dragon problem. Martha slays the dragon which wins the whole town over to Christianity. In the same legend, Mary, on that same trip, starts a monastery in the wilderness. In this legend, they both complete their assigned roles in Christian history: Martha acts and Mary studies. Martha represents an active faith, while Mary represents a contemplative faith. Martha shows Jesus hospitality while Mary sits at his feet listening. They represent different parts of Christian discipleship and both are seen as positive characters. They are both doing good things. There is no villain in this story. T...