Earth’s crammed with heaven,

and every common bush afire with God.

But only he who sees takes off his shoes;

the rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.

–Elizabeth Barrett Browning

A meme compared and contrasted European and American attitudes about time away from work.

The European out-of-office email reply read, “I’m away camping for the summer. Please contact me in September.”

The American out-of-office email reply read, “I have left the office for two hours to undergo emergency kidney surgery but you can reach me on my cell at any time!”

The lines between home, work, and play have blurred. We make ourselves overly available 24-7-365 via calls, voicemails, texts, emails, and social media. People risk not being totally present in any time or place.   

The Lord calls, but we have our earbuds turned up. We encounter burning bushes but miss the theophanies because our eyes are fixed on digital screens.

The contemporary church introduces prayer with the litany, “With every head bowed, every eye closed, and every phone silenced.” The good Lord knows, we won’t turn them off.

Gordan Dahl wrote, “We worship our work, work at our play, and play at our worship.”

May God grant us the grace to unplug.

Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner taught me valuable life lessons as a child. The cartoon characters’ Saturday morning antics revealed:

• When you run off a cliff, keep moving your feet and don’t look down.
• Gravity is a real DELETED BY CENSOR.
• Parasols are poor protection against falling boulders.
• The Acme Corporation sells all gear necessary to catch a fast adversary.
• Coyotes have more lives than cats.
• Cannon balls sting but cause no permanent harm.

Most of all, the Coyote taught me to keep trying no matter how many times I failed.

Beep, beep!

The Atlanta Office of Solid Waste Services visits our home every Friday. Last month I placed the roll carts at the curb early in the morning. I returned later to find one standing on the sidewalk and the other flung across the yard.

I shared the photo on Facebook with the caption, “I’m not sure what happened here this morning.”  The post elicited various theories, including:

• They couldn’t get along
• Those darn squirrels
• My money is on some driver texting
• Clearly the recycling bin was taking out the trash
• There was a spider
• They had a fight and the green one lost
• Black bear
• You evidently have a rogue trash can there
• Clearly a fight to the finish
• Battle of the Bins
• Rock‘em, Sock‘em Trash Cans
• Anger issues
• Thunderdome: Two cans enter, one can leaves

Although I like the notion of sentient trash cans or scheming squirrels, the real answer is obvious: alien abduction by Little Green Men. They mistook the olive-colored trash can as one of their own.

Call Mulder and Scully. The truth is out there. I believe.

Our family joined Costco in 2010. I’m not sharing the frequency of my visits, but the megastore sends “Get Well” cards if I miss two weeks in a row. I typically visit the wholesale retailer on Fridays as the doors open for business.

Warehouse club insiders carefully study Costco numerology and symbolism. A tag ending in .99 denotes a normal price. Prices ending in .39, .49, or .69 indicate special deals. Clearance items are marked with a .97.

The dreaded “Death Star” marks discontinued items. Asterisks in the upper right-hand corner of price tags signal products’ imminent demise. Consumers should stock up on favorite items before they go to that great box store in the sky.

The author of Ecclesiastes recognized the world’s transient nature. There’s “a time to be born and a time to die.” We mistake the temporary for the permanent, taking for granted life’s passing blessings; but everything and everyone bears an asterisk on the tag.

The Psalmist prayed, “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” The past is history, and the future is mystery. Enjoy today’s present.  

.97

Saint Augustine and John Wesley among others have been credited with the statement: “In essentials, unity. In nonessentials, liberty. And in all things, charity.”

In essentials, unity.

There are central beliefs and practices that cannot be compromised without abandoning the Christian faith. Most agree with this assertion; but people define the word “essential” differently. The core is quite small for some, encapsulating a few essential beliefs. The core is quite large for others, encompassing voluminous dogma.

In nonessentials, liberty.

Everything is not equally important. There’s essential and nonessential, central and peripheral, foundational and marginal. It can be important to me without it being important to you; and it can be important to you without it being important to be. We can agree to disagree while keeping the main thing the main thing!

In all things, charity.

We can disagree about what is essential and nonessential; but let us agree on the fundamental Christian ethic of LOVE. Jesus told his disciples in John 13:34-35:

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

If we truly believe what we say we believe, then we’re going to spend eternity together. Maybe we should learn to love one other better in the meantime.

The bishop appointed me as the senior pastor of Northside Church in June 2017. A colleague shared some sage advice about serving in Buckhead.

“Most churches have a rhythm of busy and slow seasons, which provides periods of rest and renewal; but ministry in a metro area never stops. It’s like rafting Class-5 rapids in an ever-flowing river. You have to create respite times periodically by paddling to shore.”  

My fellow pastor provided wise counsel but didn’t provide sufficient details. Serving in Buckhead is like rafting Class-5 rapids in an ever-flowing river in an underinflated raft without a paddle or life jacket while people shout instructions from shore; and the roar around the bend may or may not be a waterfall!  

I just described most of our lives. We live in a hectic, harried, hurried, 24/7/365 world. The modern age ensnares us with digital chains of cell phones, social media, streaming content, emails, texts, and calls. It has become increasingly difficult to find times of rest and recreation; and if we don’t seek them out diligently, then they will never be found.

The 20^th century theologian, Ferris Bueller, said, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it!”

We all need to take time off, and the verb “take” is key. If we don’t deliberately make the time to take the time, then the time will flow forever downstream.

God grant us the grace to go with the flow and rest on the shore.

The Northside Church August worship series possesses an unusual title: Oxymorons of Faith. An oxymoron is a figure of speech that combines contradictory words with opposite meanings. Examples include jumbo shrimp, fresh frozen, even odds, and ill health.

The back-to-school sermons tackle four ecclesiastical oxymorons: Blind Faith, Minor Miracle, Servant Leadership, and Inactive Church Member. We use these common phrases at church without recognizing their contrary natures.

Holy Scripture and Christian theology maintain a dynamic tension between opposing concepts. Jesus declared that the kingdom of God was here but not yet. Paul preached a gospel of grace but appreciated the function of law. James believed that faith without works is dead; but Paul wrote that works without faith is dead.

Humans seek to resolve tension by collapsing the ambiguity of both/and into the certainty of either/or. Choose: heaven’s kingdom is either here or not. Practice grace or law. Embrace faith or works.

The harder course maintains a tension between opposing principles. God’s kingdom has come, is coming, and will come into the world. Law defines the boundaries of human behavior, and grace declares the bounty of divine grace. Faith adopts us into God’s family, and works instructs us to live as heaven’s children.

Oxymorons of Faith: Coming to a Church Near You!

Sister Carmen Bernos de Gasztold was a Benedictine nun and gifted writer who lived from 1919 to 1995. She wrote two books giving voice to God’s animals titled “Prayers from the Ark” and “The Creatures’ Choir.” This summer I am sharing once again more of her pensive poems.

Lord,

let me live as I will!

I need a little wild freedom,

a little giddiness of heart,

the strange taste of unknown flowers.

For whom else are Your mountains?

Your snow wind? These springs?

The sheep do not undersatnd.

They graze and graze,

all of them, and always in the same direction,

and then eternally

chew the cud of their insipid routine.

But I–I love to bound to the heart of all

Your marvels,

leap Your chasms,

and, my mouth stuffed with intoxicating grasses,

quiver with an adventurer’s delight

on the summit of the world!

Amen.

Sister Carmen Bernos de Gasztold was a Benedictine nun and gifted writer who lived from 1919 to 1995. She wrote two books giving voice to God’s animals titled “Prayers from the Ark” and “The Creatures’ Choir.” This summer I am sharing once again more of her pensive poems.

To build,

Lord,

that is a vocation!

I speak of my passion,

architecture.

Of course

one should build on a rock,

but what fillips is there

in doing anything easy?

My element is to struggle–

it is water that allures–

and tells me

to build a safe and steady house

on the moving stream

of a river–

moving as life does, swiftly–

what an adventure!

With patience and ingenuity

one can do anyting.

But I am one

who loves to swim against the current,

to build

something lasting–

and all my own work–

at the very core of life.

Oh yes, Lord,

if You would give me

some of Your living water,

I would build

Your paradise for You!

Amen.