Outer Grace

Queues, glorious queues, sucking out any Christmas spirit left! Howza bout grabbing these enforced moments of waiting to experience the "unforced rhythms of grace"...


Sitting in the traffic jam, turn off the radio and think on Gods grace given so freely.


Standing at the back of the checkout line admidst the bustle dwell on Gods grace that is sufficient for your need.

Inner Grace

There is another ancient prayer method, called Ignatian Prayer. It is simply about putting yourself in a Bible story. You take some verses, read them through and then sit back and close your eyes. Picture the scene, the movements, the noises, the smells. Where's Jesus? What expressions are on people's faces? Using your imagination, go through the story slowly in your mind as if you were one of the people right there. What words are being spoken? What is being felt? Anything could happen- from gaining a new perspective on an old story to Jesus speaking directly to you.

So.. this whole grace thing....we experience the grace of God daily, in the little things ... the big things... but we forget, too easily, eh? How about using St Ignatius's method to grab hold of the impact of grace, as expressed through Jesus...Below is one of the many stories of Jesus intimatley revealing grace.

John 8
Jesus went across to Mount Olives, but he was soon back in the Temple again. Swarms of people came to him. He sat down and taught them. The religion scholars and Pharisees led in a woman who had been caught in an act of adultery. They stood her in plain sight of everyone and said, "Teacher, this woman was caught red-handed in the act of adultery. Moses, in the Law, gives orders to stone such persons. What do you say?" They were trying to trap him into saying something incriminating so they could bring charges against him.
Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger in the dirt. They kept at him, badgering him. He straightened up and said, "The sinless one among you, go first: Throw the stone." Bending down again, he wrote some more in the dirt.
Hearing that, they walked away, one after another, beginning with the oldest. The woman was left alone. Jesus stood up and spoke to her. "Woman, where are they? Does no one condemn you?"
"No one, Master."
"Neither do I," said Jesus. "Go on your way. From now on, don't sin."

Inner Grace

This Sunday we light a cyber symbolic candle and remember the meaning of Advent (the visit of Jesus).
We wait and we marinate in:

The remembrance of Israel’s yearning for the coming Messiah, to save, forgive and restore them.

Our hope for the second coming of Jesus where everything will be restored.

The realisation of our own need for Gods grace, through Jesus.

God,

Stir in our hearts excitement about the visit of your Son.

Give us patience to wait.

Give us eyes to see you.

Give us an understanding of the grace you bring, through Jesus.

Amine

waiting...waiting...#2

Waiting isn’t always easy. And I’m not talking about the “waiting for the copy machine to warm up” kind of waiting.

In college, my friend was tested for HIV, and we waited together a week for her results. During that week, we prayed and we talked about “what if.” She told me about her dreams, her fears, the people she cared about, the things she’s always wanted to do, and she confessed to me her regrets. That week, she began to see life differently, more clearly. All the things she had thought were important weren’t so important anymore. Slowly, the falseness was being stripped away, and what was left behind at the end of that week was a truer person—one who wanted to plunge into every moment of life, no matter what, instead of sleepwalk through it.

At its best, Advent waiting transforms us in the same way. We aren’t confronted with the possibility of a life-altering disease, but we are shown a glimpse of “what if.” What if swords really became plow-shares, dead stumps grew into fertile trees, wolves and lambs, lions and children play together, and deserts bloom? What if the blind see, the deaf hear, the mute sing, and the virgin conceive? What if, just what if God became like you and me? When the world gets turned upside down like this, where death is life and where the divine is as close as breath, you can’t take anything for granted anymore.

When we approach our Advent waiting as a radical time of transformation—like the cold turkey days of an alcoholic who’s sworn off drink, and this time means it—instead of just a reason to change colors in the church, then Advent becomes more than just a liturgical hiatus until Christmas. If we let it, our Advent sobriety has the power to strip us of everything that we really don’t need. It calls us to slough off all the excess of our lives that keeps us from seeing who we really are underneath—an image of God in human skin. Advent commands us to take only what is necessary on the ark and jolts us awake from our sleepwalk so that we don’t ever again miss recognizing God-With-Us every day of our lives.

But unlike that week of waiting with my friend, Advent transformation isn’t born out of fear. It comes from joy because the promise has already been given. For those with the eyes of faith, “what if” has already happened. God is already with us. The reign is at hand. Heaven is already here. And nothing will break God’s promise.Our Advent mission then is to make the world look more like the heaven that we already see by faith. We do this by focusing on the essentials—the basic things every human needs in order to reflect the divine. The poor have to be cared for, the hungry have to be fed, the homeless have to be sheltered, and the sick need to be healed. Forgiveness has to be offered, those at war must stop, and peace must be our legacy.

And so during Advent, we abstain from the flurry of Christmas not as a penitential punishment, but as a way to train our eyes to see God even without the angels and trees, crèches and stars. We focus instead on the basics of light in the darkness, silence in the chaos, and stillness in the turmoil. It’s almost as if Advent calls us to faith in the Real Absence of Christ—to believe in Emmanuel even in our darkness, in God-With-Us even when we hear no answer, and in the Incarnation even when we feel nothing at all.

From "Work of the people" blog, read the whole thing here.

Outer Simplicity

What symbolic, um, thing, can you do today to say Your Going Simple, inside and out? Actions often stick a stake in the ground, eh? Saying "I mean it."
You could wrap up some of your favourite "extras"- gadgets, funky accesories and give them away, give them away, give them away now....
You could go minimalist in your fashion for advent- giving your excess clothes to the Sallies or boxing them up....
You could click on this sign below, press print and stick it on to your mail box....


If you catch someone slipping in another Christmas Deals Catalogue you can hit them with your new found revelation that inner and outer simplicity are siamese twins, that your loosing the junk in order to marinate yourself in anticipation of Jesus, and that the simple truth is found in Him Alone!!!! (Be prepared to hold a spontaneous revival meeting with all the neighbours that stopped to listen.)

Outer Simplicity

More simple stuff from Mr Foster.....
"The outer expression of simplicity must flow from the inner resources...There is an inwardness that is central to our task; without it all is lost...

We delude outselves, however, if we think we can possess the inner reality of simplicity without its having a profound effect upon the way we live; the tension must be maintained." (Freedom of Simplicity, pg10)

From Buy Nothing Christmas