A story from one of my favorite poets, Naomi Shihab Nye:
Wandering around the Albuquerque Airport Terminal, after learning my flight had been delayed four hours, I heard an announcement:
“If anyone in the vicinity of Gate A-4 understands any Arabic, please come to the gate immediately.”
Well — one pauses these days. Gate A-4 was my own gate. I went there. An older woman in full traditional Palestinian embroidered dress, just like my grandma wore, was crumpled to the floor, wailing.
“Help,” said the flight agent. “Talk to her. What is her problem? We told her the flight was going to be late and she did this.”
I stooped to put my arm around the woman and spoke haltingly.
“Shu-dow-a, Shu-bid-uck Habibti? Stani schway, Min fadlick, Shu-bit-se-wee?”
The minute she heard any words she knew, however poorly used, she stopped crying. She thought the flight had been cancelled entirely. She needed to be in El Paso for major medical treatment the next day. I said,
“No, we’re fine, you’ll get there, just later. Who is picking you up? Let’s call him.”
We called her son, I spoke with him in English. I told him I would stay with his mother till we got on the plane and ride next to her. She talked to him. Then we called her other sons just for the fun of it. Then we called my dad and he and she spoke for a while in Arabic and found out of course they had ten shared friends. Then I thought just for the heck of it why not call some Palestinian poets I know and let them chat with her? This all took up two hours.
She was laughing a lot by then. Telling of her life, patting my knee, answering questions. She had pulled a sack of homemade mamool
cookies — little powdered sugar crumbly mounds stuffed with dates and nuts — from her bag — and was offering them to all the women at the gate. To my amazement, not a single woman declined one. It was like a sacrament. The traveler from Argentina, the mom from California, the lovely woman from Laredo — we were all covered with the same powdered sugar. And smiling. There is no better cookie.
And then the airline broke out free apple juice from huge coolers and two little girls from our flight ran around serving it and they were covered with powdered sugar, too. And I noticed my new best friend — by now we were holding hands — had a potted plant poking out of her bag, some medicinal thing, with green furry leaves. Such an old country tradition. Always carry a plant. Always stay rooted to somewhere.
And I looked around that gate of late and weary ones and I thought, This is the world I want to live in. The shared world. Not a single person in that gate — once the crying of confusion stopped — seemed apprehensive about any other person. They took the cookies. I wanted to hug all those other women, too.
This can still happen anywhere. Not everything is lost.
This is the world I want to live in; this is the church I want to be in the world. The shared world. A sacred canopy of trust.
Grace and peace,
Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation
"Give us this day our daily bread" is one of those lines in the Lord's prayer that, for me, is a mnemonic device to make sure as I lead a congregation in saying it my mind doesn't skip a track. In the center of a prayer about the hallowing of God's name, the coming of the Kingdom, the forgiveness of sins and scary temptations there is a loaf. God's will is done and his Kingdom comes when people have daily bread. Daily bread, a phrase that sounds straightforward in English but which translates a word used nowhere else in Greek literature. The classicists and linguists have had a field day suggesting its meaning, but the more settled view is that it means 'bread for the coming day'. So, if I pray it in the morning I'm thinking of today; if I pray it at night, I'm looking to tomorrow. Either way bread enough for one day—and this prayer reflected a society in which people were paid daily. Think about it, if you're sick and can't work, how do you eat?
Jesus knew about bread, and about hunger, about the rich and the poor, the powerful and the vulnerable. "Give us this morning bread for the day...Give us tomorrow bread for the day..." The same Jesus looked on a hungry crowd and multiplied five loaves and two fishes into an ad hoc food bank. That act of extravagant mercy is defining of the church, bread for the hungry, rest for the weary, a place to sit down and be nourished, space to be human. "Jesus took bread and blessed and broke it" and so the Eucharist was handed to the church in broken bread gratefully shared. No, the church isn't a food bank, it is a mountainside with loaves and fishes; and it is a community which resists the iron systems of economic discrimination, which calls in question cash value by demonstrating the genius for generosity.
Give us this day our daily bread, Lord.
Grace and peace,
Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation
Breathe on me, breath of God:
fill me with life anew,
that I may love as you have loved
and do as you would do.
Breathe on me, breath of God,
until my heart is pure,
until my will is one with yours
to do and to endure.
Breathe on me, breath of God;
fulfil my heart's desire,
until this earthly part of me
glows with your heavenly fire.
Breathe on me, breath of God;
so shall I never die,
but live with you the perfect life
of your eternity.
Grace and peace,
Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation
More Doors in Scripture
Acts 16:25-26 “About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly a strong earthquake shook the foundations of the prison. At once all the doors flew open and everyone’s chains came loose.”
“For freedom Christ has set us free.” (Gal. 5.1) I wonder if Paul was remembering that night in Philippi when he wrote those words. Charles Wesley likewise, “My chains fell off, my heart was free, I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.” When Jesus comes chains fall off, and doors fly open!
1 Corinthians 16:7-9 “I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord permits. But I will stay on at Ephesus until Pentecost, because a great door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many who oppose me.”
“If the Lord permits”. Christian life isn’t about always getting what we want. Sometimes the Lord opens doors and in saying yes, we have to say no to other things. Obedience to God’s call is the only way to serve God effectively. “Trust and obey, for there’s no other way, to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.”
James 5:8-9 “Be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near. Don’t grumble against each other brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door.”
James is a no-nonsense apostle. He knows that grumbling is an inner form of judging others. The judgmental spirit is like friction that wears away the woven fabric of a community. The Lord is near. God knows our hearts, inside out. The opposite of grumbling is gratitude. Grumbling, is when we pay too much attention to other people’s faults, and too little attention to our own inner critical spirit. The Judge is standing at the door – of our home, office, church, heart.
Revelation 4:1 “After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, "Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this."
The open door is a window. Revelation gives us a glimpse into the worship of heaven. We hear hymns, reverberating around the throne, giving glory to the Lamb of God. That door standing open, is like us standing at the door of a crowded auditorium, hearing the most glorious music vibrate through our souls. And we are invited to join in, our voices blending with theirs in the biggest ever scratch Messiah!
‘You are worthy, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honour and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they existed and were created.’
Grace and peace,
Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation
Revelation 3:20 “Behold I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door I will come in and eat with them, and they with me.”
Jesus has never been a gate-crasher. God is not sheer force banging on the door of our lives. God is love. Not sentimental, hand-wringing love, but the strong, patient love that has existed eternally in the heart of God. The one who knocks on the door of our lives, comes in the humility of God, seeking our answering love. And the hand that knocks bears the scars that are the proof of that love.
Revelation 3:8 “I know your deeds. See, I place before you an open door that no-one can shut. I know you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.”
God is our strength, and there is an ever-open door into God’s presence. All around the world Christians face opposition, persecution, all kinds of closed doors. The door that no one can shut is the door into the presence of the God who is “an ever present help in time of trouble.” We don’t always have strength, but we do have God’s words of promise, and he knows our deeds, and our hearts.
John 20:6 “A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.”
Read that again. Locked doors can’t keep Jesus out. Normally we lock doors to stay safe, to keep us in. The disciples were scared, demoralized and finding safety in numbers. Their real safety was the discovery that Jesus was loose in the world, their world. Faith in the resurrection isn’t just believing in the empty tomb; it’s believing that just as the rock-solid door of the grave gave way to the Risen Christ, that same Lord comes to us no matter how strong the barriers of our fears.
Grace and peace,
Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation
LOVE DEEPLY
Do not hesitate to love and to love deeply. You might be afraid of the pain that deep love can cause. When those you love deeply reject you, leave you, or die, your heart will be broken. But this should not hold you back from loving deeply. The pain that comes from deep love makes your love ever more fruitful. It is like a plow that breaks the ground to allow the seed to take root and grow into a strong plant. Every time you experience the pain of rejection, absence, or death, you are faced with a choice. You can become bitter and decide not to love again, or you can stand straight in your pain and let the soil on which you stand become richer and more able to give life to new seeds.
The more you have loved and have allowed yourself to suffer because of your love, the more you will be able to let your heart grow wider and deeper. When your love is truly giving and receiving, those whom you love will not leave your heart even when they depart from you. They will become part of your self and gradually build a community within you.
Those you have deeply loved become part of you. The longer you live, there will always be more people to be loved by you and to become part of your inner community. The wider your inner community becomes, the more easily you will recognize your own brothers and sisters in the strangers around you. The wider the community of your heart, the wider the community around you. Thus, the pain of rejection, absence, and death can become fruitful. Yes, as you love deeply the ground of your heart will be broken more and more, but you will rejoice in the abundance of the fruit it will bear.
Henri Nouwen
The Inner Voice of Love
Grace and peace,
Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation
Listen. Observe. Notice. Be Alert. These are the doorways to ministry.
Grace and Peace,
Pastor Anita
Did I offer peace today?
Did I bring
a smile to someone's face?
Did I say words of healing?
Did I love?
These are
the real questions.
Henri Nouwen
Grace and peace,
Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation
Ephesians 3:19 “And to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”
To know what surpasses knowledge, to understand the incomprehensible —that can only happen if God expands the horizons of our hearts and draws us ever more deeply into the mystery. We’ll never understand until we are in heaven. Till then we wonder at and worship the one with amazing Love!
Ephesians 3:20 “Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us…”
I don’t know about you, but I can ask a lot of questions, and I have quite a lively imagination. But they are not enough to outdo the One who is able to do immeasurably more than anything I can think of. We aren’t asked to be followers of Jesus in our own strength. Yes, at times it’s hard going, and we pray for strength, faith, help with hard decisions, and help for those we love—Remember, “He can do immeasurably more, and his power is at work within us.” We’re not on our own. We are in Christ, and He is in us, and as our Risen Lord it is his power that’s at work within us, renewing and reviving.
Ephesians 3:21 “To Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever.”
This whole passage is like an illuminated manuscript that places the love of God in Christ against a shining gold foil background. And that dazzling gold highlights who God is towards us: Love. Love beyond our grasp but within our reach. Love that baffles the mind, but which the heart recognizes. Love deeper than any needs we could ever have. Love beyond our imagination, but nearer than our own hearts.
So, we make Paul’s prayer our own: May Christ dwell in our hearts through faith, and may we be rooted and established in love, filled to the measure of the fullness of God.
(Part 3)
Grace and peace,
Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation
Ephesians 3:17 “So that Christ may dwell in your heart through faith.”
By faith in Christ we are made one with the Savior, drawn into the very life of God. Christ dwells in our hearts, the risen life of Christ is within us and strengthens us in our inner being. But more than that, Christ is in us and we are in Him, so that “our lives are hidden with Christ in God.” (Col 3.3) Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!
Ephesians 3:17-18 “And I pray that you being rooted and established in love may have power together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.”
Rooted is about being a tree with strong anchorage and full nourishment from deep roots. Established is about foundations, straight, true, sound, solid, and our foundation is the love of Christ. You can’t ever fully grasp the depth dimensions of God’s love in Christ; as well stand beneath Niagara with a bucket, or a thimble! Just stand under the deluge!
(Part 2)
Grace and peace,
Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation