Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Dear God,

I got a call from Channel 6. They want to do a story about Souper Sunday. Soliciting cans of soup for hungry people. The producers are meeting this morning to determine a time. Maybe Wednesday or Thursday.

Our big moment, telling people how much we care about the homeless and hungry. And we really do. 175 years of caring! 175 years of mission work! 175 years of Jesus walking among us reminding us to "love one another as I have loved you."

In a minute's time what do you say but this? We're working for God by caring for our neighbors! We care!

Imagine God on the news! Telling his story. How exciting is that! We're going to get the church "ready" today. Blue and white streamers, a goal post made of soup cans. We're inviting our Nursery School kids to bring soup too. We are teaching our children to care for the least, the last, the lonely. Jesus said something about that. We're just doing the work. Only God can stir a heart to action! Our goal is 1000 cans, God's is probably much larger! We're working together, God and Bethel!

There's a lot of joy in the air. And why? Because we're doing something significant! Because we are living our faith and loving others while we live it. We're really in tune with God right now. And that brings a special kind of bond among Christian worker bees. Our hearts beat in joyous rhythm because God is in us, because we are in God. Together we can multiply love in the world, the agape kind, unconditional, utterly giving.

I remember a few years ago when a pyschologist I know came to visit me at the church. I had invited her to lead a couples retreat. As soon as she sat down on the couch in my study, she described a dark spirit in the church. A wise, intuitive woman, she picked up on the "darkness" lurking in our Christian home. She said she felt a heaviness when she walked through the door. She was right on. We were experiencing a heavy darkness at the time. Our burdens were evident. Walking inside, you could feel it. You didn't even have to know what was happening inside. It was that apparent. I wonder what she would describe today. No doubt she would be blinded by the light shining in us!

I have become ever more aware of the power of transformation. When we think we cannot possibly change, a subtle alteration takes place and the process of transformation commences. The tiniest event can shake us up, move the "pieces" around, and God can walk among the cracked pieces to re-form us. Light can break in where dark doors had remained shut and its warmth can bring new life to us. We suddenly find ourselves welcoming the light, warming our spirit, giving us hope. We see God because the light shines on our path and we find our way. We begin moving again. And we witness our own reconstruction. And all this is God's work. No, there are no signs to say, "I did this. Signed, God" Or are there?

We have been transformed. God has reconstructed, reformed, reinvented us. This is revealed every Sunday morning at our greeting time. We see our change, our newness of life. We observe God's mighty work. We breathe prayers of gratitude, knowing we simply could not have changed ourselves alone. We needed a spiritual power to alter ourselves, one by one, then many. God still has much to do in us. Our transformation is not yet complete.

But the fact remains. God wants to transform us into something more wonderful and new. God wants to take the parts and parcels of us, mix them up, bring in some new stuff and remake us, more perfectly beautiful where glory is the mystery ingredient. Like in the garden the first time around, God has a lot to work with, an amazing amount of beauty, hope, and living water. Sprinkled together, the Potter can fashion something out of this world (because it is). Brilliant and dazzling we become part of the heavenly scene and others will join us. "Build it and they will come." A screenwriter once wrote. It is true. We've been building an eternal landscape where people will walk, finding God at the end of the path.

What more could we possibly hope for?
What more could we possibly desire?
To meet you at the end of the path!
Our doorway is an opening
to the path of God.
Every time the door opens,
God is at the door to greet us.
Smiling, laughing, welcoming.
Babes in arms, teens, singles,
moms, dads and the elderly
all are ushered in.
God's house is ablaze,
radiant with bright color.
Tongues of fire,
that's how Pentecost is described,
tongues of fire
above the heads
of all who gathered in Acts.
It's simply the light of God
shining upon his people.
Tongues of fire at Bethel.
Hallelujah!

Eternally grateful, Andrea