Path to Freedom

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

This week theology and spirit are praying with the Lenten sermon given by the Archbishop of Canterbury.  The sermon is about freedom and the example of the truly free disciple is Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

Bonhoeffer wrote four prose poems shortly before he was executed in a German prison.  Each focused on a particular stepping-stone to freedom in Christ.  They move from discipline, action, suffering and then through to death.

These poems are autobiographical, but they also point to a pathway for all to take.  The pathway to spiritual freedom will not be easy, but it will be rich.  As we discipline ourselves by spending time in the scripture, our hearts soften toward God and others.  The actions that come out of that discipline are inspired by love.  And where there is love, there is joy and there is suffering.  We suffer when we see the pain that our beloved endures, even as we ourselves endure the pain of misunderstanding and ridicule.  Death allows us to finally let go of all that attaches us to the parts of our life that are not love.  Jesus reminded us that to ‘save our life, we must lose it’.  That is what Bonhoeffer is talking about here.

This seems to me a beautiful way to describe our Lenten journey.  Begun in discipline, undertaken in action and suffering, finally our new vision can see that which we need to release.  When the journey’s catalyst is love, the steps will be softened by desire.

I include the step of action here for you to ponder:

Daring to do what is right, not what fancy may tell you valiantly grasping occasions, not cravenly doubting - freedom comes only through deeds, not through thoughts taking wing. Faint not nor fear, but go out to the storm and the action, trusting in God whose commandment you faithfully follow; freedom exultant will welcome your spirit with joy. -Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Ash Wednesday

Yet even now, says the Lord,
   return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
   rend your hearts and not your clothing.
Return to the Lord, your God,
   for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love,
   and relents from punishing.

Joel 2

Some cultures are comfortable with an outward manifestation of mourning.  Some still tear their clothing and weep.   But most of us do not show what is truly in our hearts when we are suffering deep grief.  We try to ‘keep it together’. 

This approach to heart piercing emotion can be just as false, in its own way, as an overly outward expression of grief that may not be deeply felt.

Joel is encouraging Israel to go deeper.

Don’t just make a show of your repentance, actually repent!  Twice Israel is invited to return to the Lord.  This is the prophet’s call to conversion of spirit—a change of heart.

Open your hearts, Israel, and let the God of mercy love you.

While Ash Wednesday is filled with calls to repent, to fast and to weep about the ways in which sin has increased our disaffection from
God, it is really a call to deeper love.

God is calling us back to center.

God is inviting us to shed the outer trappings of sorrow and embrace the truth of our heart’s desires.

Some of us need to mourn.  Let us mourn with confidence in God’s loving kindness.

Some of us need to repent.  Let us turn around into the light of God’s mercy.

Some of us need to know that God delights in us, just as we are.

Let us dance to the music of God’s grace.

Whatever you need for Lent this year-turn around.

Turn, twirl, and pirouette.

Rend your hearts and not your garments!

Blessings,

Debra

Holy Wilderness

He sustained him in a desert land,
   in a howling wilderness waste;
he shielded him, cared for him,
   guarded him as the apple of his eye.

Deuteronmy 32

It has been true throughout recorded spiritual history (and probably non-recorded history) that we often find God when we are stripped bare and open to God’s appearance.  It is in these wilderness places of the heart, these deserts of the soul, that we are most likely to encounter the Divine.

Lent, as practiced by the Church, is meant to be a journey into wilderness through prayer, confession and abstinence.  Lest we find this description too bleak, we have only to look to the Song of Moses in Deuteronomy to remember that God journeys with us.  Moses sings of God’s gentle, sheltering care within the wild places.  God is a soft place in the hard rock of the desert.

I had my first experiences of God in what others might consider a wilderness, the countryside and mountains of Alaska.  For me the vast emptiness of landscape and the large grandeur of an unending sky spoke to the deepest parts of my soul.  My God was very big, and I was very small.  Dangers notwithstanding, the cold arctic moon revived my spirit and the clear arctic days sharpened my love of beauty.

Space to move around in, and space to think, created openness to revelation.  And this is what Lent is actually about, I think.  Making space.

Our Lenten observations can make space in our schedules.  Our confessions can make space in our consciences.  Our prayers make space in our hearts.

We need space.  We need soul room.  We need enough air around us to breath deeply of the Spirit of the Lord, and to imagine a new vision for our lives.

When we enter the wilderness of Lent with the expectation of encounter, we will be guided, like Jesus, to the reality of our identity in God.

This year there will be two opportunities to explore holy wilderness.  March 10^th and March 17^th the Center for Spiritual Development and Memorial Church will offer Quiet Days focused on the Way of the Wilderness.  For more information check out the
website.   http://www.saintjames.org/CSD/120213-lent.html

Released

The very night before Herod was going to bring him out, Peter, bound with two chains, was sleeping between two soldiers, while guards in front of the door were keeping watch over the prison. Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He tapped Peter on the side and woke him, saying, ‘Get up quickly.’ And the chains fell off his wrists.

Acts 12

The Book of Acts is filled with stories of peril and deliverance from prison to shipwreck, the disciples encounter many dangers to the mission they have undertaken.

It is easy to tremble a little when considering the tremendous courage of those early brothers and sisters of the faith.  And it is natural to read the story from their point of view. 

But wait, the scripture is about God, isn’t it?  The focus is God’s actions within the sphere of God’s people.  The miraculous story of Peter’s release tells us something we need to know about the Living Lord.

God desires our freedom.

Jesus stood in the congregation and announced a ministry that would release captives.

There are no walls, no obstacles, and no chains that are too high, too strong or too secure for God to break through and set us free.

My dear ones, this is very good news, because we are all captivated by something.  Few of us live a life of true freedom, without fear.

If God can enter a prison and break the chains that bound Peter, God can enter whatever your prison is, shine a light upon it and break your chains of captivity.

Will you let Him?

Blessings,

Debra