The Weekly View

Sunday, July 12, 2020

Dear St Luke Community,

When repeated themes show up in life I usually sit up straight and listen with perked up ears because God is speaking, for better or worse. These past few weeks, it seems everywhere I look, I’m hearing about seeds and souls.

Meister Eckhart (Theologian, philosopher and mystic 1260-1328)  called the true seed within us as the living presence of God’s image implanted in the soul. “There is something in the soul which is only God.” he wrote. if that’s true, and I believe it is, then there’s also a collective soul that lives in our country, and it’s in dire need of tending.

This Sunday we’ll hear Jesus tell the parable of the sower ( Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23). We tend to think of God as the one who scatters seeds and ourselves as the soil. But what if we’re the ones who carry seeds and cultivate soil. What kinds of seeds do we lay if the seeds we carry within us are our reflection of the God within? Are the seeds we lay the things we say or the things we do? Do they have an impact on the world? If we can’t even raise our own children to be and do exactly what we’d like, then what control do we have over the kind of world we live in, or the people around us?

I have more questions then I do answers at this moment, but one thing is for sure; we are called to both lay seeds and to cultivate the ones that are gifted to us by God.

Which is easier said than done.

See you Sunday on Zoom,
Nicole

Sunday, July 5, 2020

Dear St Luke Community,

With the recent increases in Covid cases - county, state and countrywide - I imagine we are all feeling weary: weary for others and for ourselves. I’m reminded of one of my favorite pieces of writing from John O’Donahue in his Blessing for the The Interim Time, part of which says:

You are in this time of interim
Where everything seems withheld.
The path you took to get here was washed out;
The way forward is still concealed from you.
“The old is not old enough to have died away;
The new is still too young to be born.”
You cannot lay claim to anything;

I might suggest that we actually can lay claim to one (or three) things: God, Christ and Spirit. As people of faith, when we feel groundless, weary, angry, or in need, we look to God to carry us. 

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)

This interim time is not a time to look back and desire things the way they used to be, nor is it a time to start planning for a future that’s entirely unknown. This is a time to renew our faith, and to find strength so that we might affect change both within our own lives but also for the lives of those around us in need. 

The blessing by O’Donahue ends with the promise of a new dawn, suggesting that the longer we can endure the interim time, the more refined our hearts will be when that dawn arrives.

May it be so.

See you Sunday on Zoom,
Nicole

Sunday, June 28, 2020

Dear St Luke Community,

I’ve been thinking about humility lately. And I’ve been thinking about our ability to say:

• “I don’t know, but I’d like to know.”  Or,
• “I don’t understand, but I'd like to understand.” Or,
• "I don’t agree, but I'd like to understand more about why you believe what you believe.”

I’m not entirely sure why I’ve been thinking so much about humility lately. I’m sure the state of the country has much to do with it. Every day there’s more happening that makes me feel inadequate. As a white female pastor I feel inadequate to provide words of wisdom regarding Black Lives. As a relatively wealthy person in the US, I’m all too aware that my neighbors are suffering and any help I give won’t be enough. As a friend of a few people who have been directly affected by the cruelty of this virus, I have no leader to point to as a sign of hope.

And yet, to stay stuck in my own feelings of inadequacy, shame or guilt is not what Jesus calls on any of us to do. What Jesus calls on us to do is to take the lowest seat, or to come from a place a humility. To find our humility, individually or as a nation, is a kind of letting go of everything you think you already know about yourself. To discover humility is to open up your heart like that of a child’s, entering into discussions with curiosity and without judgment. To live in humility is to look forward to how God is doing a new thing and ask how you might be used by God in the process. We are in a wilderness period, not unlike the Hebrew people of long ago. And like any wilderness period, it’s both frightening at times, beautiful at other times, and requires a dependence on God so deep it requires constant humility. Which as it turns out, is a gift.

See you Sunday on Zoom,
Nicole