The Adventure of a Lifetime: Pilgrimage to India

When I was about seven years old my mother signed me up for swimming lessons at the municipal pool.   I remember well how cold the unheated water felt at 7:30 AM.  I remember what seemed so simple for others was so difficult for me.  But, what I really remember is the day we had to climb up the slide and were told by the teachers to slide down into the blue waters below.  The scene this little boy made while perched atop that slide was not pretty.  I was holding up the line as I sat there trying to decide whether or not to let go and enjoy the ride.

Tonight I am in the final stages of packing things for a two-week trip to India.  I will be a member of a twelve-person delegation composed of United Church of Christ Conference Ministers and members of the United Church of Christ's Wider Church Ministries Board.  This is the 200th Anniversary year of the founding of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM).  This trip is one of several that have happened during the anniversary year.  We will be visiting sites in Delhi, Agra, Mungeli, Chennai, Madurai, Kanyakurmari, Colachei, and Mumbai.  I am traveling with trusted friends. 

This is, for me, the adventure of a lifetime.  Who would have thought that a parochial country kid from the hills of Missouri would be invited to travel to a land with so rich a mission heritage?  I remember how the missionaries would come to our little congregation to tell of their work in far-off lands.  "Mission Feast" was a big annual celebration in the church of my youth.  Now, I am going to see and experience the places where our mission partners are engaged in their ministries: schools, hospitals, a seminary, a vocational training program for unemployed youth, tsunami rehabilitation and housing projects, diocesan offices, and more.  Yes, the adventure of a lifetime starts on Tuesday morning at 4:30 AM when my travels begin.

But somehow, I cannot get the memory of that little boy, perched atop the slide at the municipal swimming pool out of my head tonight.  Learning something new, experiencing life, celebrating ministry, requires letting go.  The bags are packed.  Ministry in New Hampshire must, for a time, be left far behind.  My family has been encouraging.  I'm ready!

(Our group will be blogging from India.  I'll let you know where to find that blog once I have that address.)

Your Holy One

I take great comfort and delight in the oracles found in Isaiah 40-55, the section commonly called, "Second Isaiah."  Here is the assurance of salvation, deliverance, and homecoming for a people who have been held captive in a foreign place for a long, long time. 

Lately, as I am reading these texts, I have been reassured by the self-revelation of the God who appears in them.  The promise of deliverance and God's activity for every exile is a source of hope.  But it is the identity of God, who is revealed before and after these great empowering promises, that is a source of great joy.  I delight in this God!

Here's but one example of my meditation.  It is from Isaiah 43:14-15.

Thus says the LORD,
    your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
For your sake I will send to Babylon
    and break down all the bars,
     and the shouting of the Chaldeans will be turned to lamentation.
I am the Lord, your Holy One,
     the Creator of Israel, your King.
--New Revised Standard Version

The breaking down of all the bars and barriers that keep us caged--God's action that turns captors' taunting jubilation to grieving lamentation--this activity is framed by the revelation of God.  The Lord is "your Redeemer," "the Holy One of Israel" . . . . "your Holy One," "the Creator of Israel," "your King."  These are not honorific titles, granted without historical grounding.  These titles reveal a God who is high and exalted.  They also reveal that God is engaged in creative and redemptive activity.  This God knows about Babylon and can get there, too.  This God is sovereign and saving.

Reading literally, and taking this revelation to heart, I wonder about the move from "the Holy One of Israel" to "your Holy One."   Captive people of God, this is your Holy One.  Weary pastors of the church, this is your Holy One.  Grieving mothers and fathers, this is your Holy One.  It is a movement that brings God close to us in our own places of exile.  It is a move that brings the gift of resilient joy.

A Prayer for This Day
O Holy One, send for me today.  Draw me to your hope.  Free me by your love.  Carry me home.  Amen.

A Prayer for Our Community

This prayer was offered as an invocation at the 15th Annual Mayor's Community Prayer Breakfast on Thursday.  It was an honor to be invited to be part of that gathering and to witness the commitment that so many buisness, political, and religous leaders share to help Concord become a welcoming, compassionate city. --gms

Gathering God,

who calls us to live and work together in this community,

our hearts exclaim with the song writer in the scriptures:

“How very good and pleasant it is

when kindred live together in unity!”*

You bring us together. 

You call us to a common purpose:

to build up the city,

  to restore its broken places:

          to be a beacon of refuge and hope,

            to teach our children to dream big, bold dreams,

          to respect the wisdom of our elders,       

            to lift up those who have fallen, to feed the hungry,

                 to shelter the homeless poor—

          indeed, to build a community where all may live. 

This day is your gift.  May we receive it with great joy and gladness.  Give us the courage to work together for that which is good.  Strengthen us to love every neighbor, so that others may also say:

“How very good and pleasant it is

when kindred live together in unity!”

O God, we know there are many other tables to which you must attend this morning; but we ask now that you share your Spirit with us.  Be present with us.  May the breakfast we are about to receive be a sign of your amazing care.  Bless this meal and all those who have worked to prepare it—from the fields to the markets to these tables—and bless us, O God, to your service in the world.

With grateful and joyful hearts we offer our prayer. 

gAmenh

---

* Psalm 133:1, New Revised Standard Version

Being Here

I cannot say what caused the feeling.  Perhaps it was something that the pastor said in her greeting.  Perhaps it was the warm sunshine streaming through the sanctuary window.  Perhaps it was an extra hour of sleep as Daylight Savings Time ended.   I cannot say precisely what happened, but my spirit settled. 

"This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it."  This is the place.  This is the time.  This is the opportunity that I have to be present with God and with others.  It is good to receive the gift of the present and to live in it.

So often I have been caught between remembering the past and anticipating the future.  I have been preoccupied with memories of people and places long gone.  I have imagined a future which may never be as I have constructed it in my mind.  The present is the gift that God gives us all today.

Eternal God, help us to make the most of this day.  Teach us to really see the people who share life with us now.  Help us to be where you are--help us to be here.  May it be so!  Amen.