Lamentations 3:22-24 Great is Gods’ faithfulness and His mercies are new everyday.

 Psalm 73:26

My flesh and my heart fail;

But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

I am so very thankful for the grace that is offered to the world in Jesus. Without the love that God has for His creation we would be without hope. Joy in His love protects us and allows us to live with a grateful heart for the  good that is within us. Holy Spirit the giver of life who proceeds from the Father and the Son is our teacher, He offers the guidance of God to all who  listen to  Him. He is the very heart of God who lovingly shows us the way home. Because of the Father’s compassion  and  mercy  we are not consumed. Carla

Lamentations 3:22-24

22Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed,

Because His compassions fail not.

23They are new every morning;

Great is Your faithfulness.

24“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,

“Therefore I hope in Him!” (NKJV)

This verse seems to contradict all that had been written up to this point (2:1–5). Yet the very fact that there was a prophet left to write these words and a remnant left to read them show that not every person in Jerusalem had been consumed. The fact that there was a remnant at all was due to the mercies and compassions of God. 

Even in His wrath (2:1–4), God remembers to be merciful.

Every day presents us with a new opportunity to discover and experience more of God’s love. 

Even in the midst of terrible sorrow, Jeremiah looked for signs of mercy. 

Great is Your faithfulness: Here is the heart of the Book of Lamentations. The comforting, compassionate character of God dominates the wreckage of every other institution and office. God remains “full of grace and truth” in every situation (Exodus 34:6, 7; John 1:14).

The Lord is my portion: This expression is based on Numbers 18:20, in which Aaron was denied an inheritance in the land but was told instead that the Lord Himself was his portion and inheritance. The same idea is also found in Psalm 16:5; 73:26; 119:57; 142:5. 

Hope is not a wishful thought, but a confident expectation in the Lord. The NKJV Study Bible

The loyal love of Yahweh does not cease, The speaker appeals to Yahweh’s covenant love to justify his hope.

The Hebrew term used here for Yahweh’s covenant love is chesed. This phrase could be referring to the eternal nature of Yahweh’s chesed or to chesed as the essential quality of Yahweh’s nature that allows Him to restrain His wrath and justice from bringing a total end. Some English translations follow the ancient Aramaic versions here, which read “The kindnesses of Yahweh never cease”; others follow the traditional Hebrew text, which says “Because of Yahweh’s mercies [or great love], we are not consumed.” Deciding which reading to follow is part of the task of a field of study known as textual criticism. The difference between what the Hebrew reads and what the Aramaic translators may have read is only one letter. The poetic parallelism with the rest of the line (which reads literally, “His mercies never come to an end”) supports following the Aramaic reading.

Yahweh is my portion refers to the Israelite’s land allotment. The priests and Levites had no land portion because Yahweh was their portion (Numbers 18:20).  Faithlife Study Bible

Psalm 16:5

O LORD, You are the portion of my inheritance and my cup;

You maintain my lot.

Psalm 78:38

But He, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity,

And did not destroy them.

Yes, many a time He turned His anger away,

And did not stir up all His wrath;

Zephaniah 3:5

The LORD is righteous in her midst,

He will do no unrighteousness.

Every morning He brings His justice to light;

He never fails,

But the unjust knows no shame

Where do we go—what choices do we make—in a world fractured, or frightened, or empty?
In what ways can I say, “No”, to indifference?

On the anniversary of 9-11, I am so grateful for the stories. Or ordinary people stepping up, stepping in, making a difference.

And this one comes to mind.
I can tell you this; showing up—and saying “No” to indifference—is a choice that would have been celebrated by Fr. Mychal Judge. When the towers were hit, FDNY Chaplain Father Mychal Judge, chose to suit up, and go where he was needed. He went into the upheaval. To save a life, it cost him his life.

Knowing his sacrifice, it is worth reading these excerpts from his Last Homily, delivered at a Mass for Firefighters on Sept. 10, 2001. “You do what God has called you to do. You get on that rig, you go out and do the job. No matter how big the call, no matter how small, you have no idea of what God is calling you to do, but God needs you. He needs me. He needs all of us. God needs us to keep supporting each other, to be kind to each other, to love each other... We love this job, we all do. What a blessing it is! It's a difficult, difficult job, but God calls you to do it, and indeed, He gives you a love for it so that a difficult job will be well done... Turn to God each day—put your faith, your trust, your hope, and your life in His hands. He'll take care of you, and you'll have a good life. And this firehouse will be a great blessing to this neighborhood and to this city. Amen.” Thank you, Fr. Judge.

Parker Palmer talks about retaining a sense of meaning in our later final years. “I no longer ask, what do I want to let go of, and what do I want to hang on to? Instead, I ask, what do I want to let go of, and what do I want to give myself to. The desire to hang on comes from a sense of scarcity and fear. The desire to give myself comes from a sense of abundance and generosity. Those are the kinds of truths I want to wither into.” Amen. Sabbath Moments

Deuteronomy 31:8 We do not walk alone!

 Deuteronomy 31:6 Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the LORD your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you.”

It is  hard to live without fear in a world that seems to have lost its way. Our trust in God and  joy in our salvation is our strength.  Through the power of Holy Spirit we are strong for good in our families, in our communities and in our nation. We were created for these good works which He has prepared for us. In the Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we need to trust that they can do what we cannot. In prayer and supplication to God, who hears our prayers, we are safe and can walk without fear. The battle for good has already been won. We do not walk alone! Carla

Deuteronomy 31:8

And the Lord, He is the One who goes before you. He will be with you, He will not leave you nor forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed.” (NKJV)

The principal reason for God’s judgment on His people was their continual idolatry. They abandoned His grace and willingly embraced the evil religious practices of the Canaanites. The NKJV Study Bible

Biblical Law—Public Law

In many nations of the ancient Middle East, the king carried the laws in his head, as they were his personal possession. He did not publish them until he was ready to give up his throne. Thus a person could be arrested for breaking a law he had never known. The laws were kept secret, even when a person was put on trial for breaking them. Other peoples of the ancient Middle East obeyed laws because they were enforced by the royal establishment; disobedience meant punishment. But God’s people were to obey His Law because they loved Him. The NKJV Study Bible

Holding to the covenant means nothing less than exclusive loyalty and devotion to Yahweh as Israel’s only God. Faithlife Study Bible

Exodus 13:21

And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so as to go by day and night. 

Joshua 1:5

No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life; as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you. 

Hebrews 13:5

Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” 

Genesis 28:15

Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.”

When I’m weary in my spirit, I confess that I click my ruby heels, hoping to be transported to a gentler and saner OZ. And in the past, I’ve talked about wrestling with depression, which only exacerbates this notion that we need to make sense of everything before we care, assuming that the job is to find answers or solutions. When life is uncertain it is easy to live inconvenienced. (Making matters worse because we assume that uncertainty is a bad thing. Meaning that we don’t trust our internal resources.)
You see, this is where we go off the rails. When we focus only on what we’ve lost (scarcity), we are unable to access what we have (sufficiency). And when I see only scarcity, I miss the fact that every single one of us has been gifted with the “music” of creativity, abundance, heart, love, passion, gentleness, helpfulness, caring, kindness, tenderness, restoration, and a shoulder to lean on. This is the paradigm of internal sufficiency.

When you meet someone new, the preferred starting question is, “What do you do?” Which is—ironically—not really about walking your dog or tending your garden, but about your “job”, or your “career”. As if that’s our tether.
So. Let’s pause here. It is worth noting that in the context of our work (or job), to live wholehearted, authentic and from the inside out, is about the difference between a career, and a vocation. A vocation is a calling; a service, or ministry, or passion that spills from what is already inside, regardless of mood, or pleasant circumstances, or the need to avoid struggle.

So, what’s the secret?

Remember that in every encounter with people, Jesus helped change the paradigm. “You are more than the sum of your circumstances. He saw the music—the artist—inside.”

I do know this: it is easy to lose sight of the artist that resides inside every one of us. Whether lost or buried or stuck or forgotten or dismissed or ignored... or “stolen.”

When we tag or label or describe ourselves, “artist” is seldom used.

Where I was raised, artist was a phase you went through (a dream), you know, to grow out of, to move on to something more useful and sensible—in order to get a “real job”.

What is this artist? It is the place in our spirit that births… creativity and enchantment, imagination and play and wonder, and attention and risk and investment, with a whole heart.

My friends, thank you for the gift of being you. Thank you for the small and gentle ways you spill that gift—yes, the music—with the people and in world around you.

More than ever, we need sanity and restoration. Be gentle with yourself this week, and let your music—and your compassion—spill. Sabbath Moments

Psalm 103:8-13 Lord have mercy!

Psalm 103:8-13

The Lord is full of compassion and mercy, 
slow to anger and of great kindness.

He will not always accuse us, 
nor will he keep his anger for ever.

He has not dealt with us according to our sins, 
nor rewarded us according to our wickedness.

For as the heavens are high above the earth, 
so is his mercy great upon those who fear him.

As far as the east is from the west, 
so far has he removed our sins from us.

As a father cares for his children, 
so does the Lord care for those who fear him.

Galatians 6:2-3 There is power released in remaining humble….God’s!

Romans 12:3 For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.

All of the Law can be fulfilled in the commandment given to us by Jesus…to love your neighbors as yourself. We are to treat others as we want to be treated. Let Holy Spirit do the rest! We see in part that which Father knows in full and He sees the heart we do not. Carla

Galatians 6:2-3

2 Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. 3 For if anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. (NKJV)

The law of Christ, Paul uses this phrase to challenge the misguided understanding of the law held by his opponents. Instead of adhering to the agitators’ view of the law, believers should keep the law of Christ—which probably represents Jesus’ interpretation of the Mosaic law. Even if Paul does not have Jesus’ teaching in mind, the phrase certainly involves love of neighbor (5:13–14; Matthew 19:19; John 13:34).

Paul is encouraging humility—a proper view of self in relation to God and others. Arrogance and pride can deter people from serving others. Such behavior harms everyone—both the community of believers and the prideful individual. Faithlife Study Bible

The law of Christ referred to here is probably the summation of the law: “Love your neighbor” (5:14; Matthew 22:39; John 13:34, 35). The term fulfill suggests that choosing to bear another Christian’s burdens (or restore another Christian from burdensome sin, verse 1) is precisely what Christ expects of all believers. The Greek word for burdens refers to something beyond the normal capacity to carry, as opposed to a “load” (verse 5), which is what a person could be expected to carry.

Anyone who concludes that he is something special, through shortsighted self-comparison with those who seem to have fallen, truly deceives himself. Instead of examining and judging others, a Christian should always examine his own work to see if he is closely following Christ’s example (1 Corinthians 11:31; 2 Cor. 13:5). The NKJV Study Bible

1 Corinthians 3:18

Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. 

Romans 15:1

We then who are strong ought to bear with the scruples of the weak, and not to please ourselves. 

1 Corinthians 9:21

to those who are without law, as without law (not being without law toward God, but under law toward Christ), that I might win those who are without law; 

2 Corinthians 12:11

I have become a fool in boasting; you have compelled me. For I ought to have been commended by you; for in nothing was I behind the most eminent apostles, though I am nothing. 

My good friend The Rev. Dan Matthews (former Rector at Trinity Church Wall Street and St. Paul's Chapel) told me the story about Mike and Jim, the parish property managers.

Opened in 1766, Manhattan's oldest public building in continuous use, St. Paul’s Chapel not only survived the blast and fallout (astonishing in that it sits across the street from Ground Zero), it eventually become the rest station, where volunteers took shifts as cooks, masseurs, podiatrists, and counselors for first responders. Cots were provided for exhausted rescuers. Many slept on the wooden pews (still marked and scarred from boots and equipment to this day).

On the Friday after the attack, the nation was asked to observe a moment of silence. Mike and Jim asked Rev. Matthews if they could ring the bells at St. Paul's just before the noon hour, as a call to remembrance. Although a noble gesture, it wouldn't be possible given the debris in the vicinity, the fact that part of the chapel had been quarantined and the reality that the bells were disabled. Undeterred, they decided to go ahead with their plan, making their way to the top of the bell tower.  On the way, amidst the debris they found an old steel pipe. When they reached the top, Mike told Rev. Matthews that he used that piece of steel “to beat the hell out of that bell.”

Looking out at the scene below, they could see that every worker at ground zero had removed their hard hat, and turned to face the bells. Mike said, “It hit me, that even when things get their worst, I know that there is still hope.”

William Sloane Coffin’s affirmation, “It is hope that helps us keep the faith, despite the evidence, knowing that only in doing so has the evidence any chance of changing.”

In a world where so much can go wrong, we are tempted to forget (or do not see) the moments where so much can go right. Despite the debris, moments when we can find the courage to make our way to the bell tower, where Leonard Cohen reminds us to “Ring the bells that still can ring. Forget your perfect offering.”

What do we do when the unimaginable happens? 

It is the great irony, and heartfelt beauty: Our strength and resilience does not come from a show of force or bravado, but in the freedom to be tough enough to be soft.

We are prophets—of steadfastness, justice, compassion, and mercy—when we do not hide our woundedness.

In St. Paul's, one reporter overheard a firefighter say, “When I come in that door, I'm covered with blood sometimes, and they hug me. They love me, they take care of me, they treat me as a real human being. And then they feed me, and they massage me, and they give me adjustments. These are my people. This is my place. This is where I come to be with God.”  Sabbath Moments

Hosea 10:13 We will reap what we sow.

 Job 4:8

Even as I have seen,

Those who plow iniquity

And sow trouble reap the same.

Our hope lies in Jesus, that in Him and in His righteousness, and not ours we can be healed. Wicked men in high places seek to destroy what God has created. In Him there is no male nor female, Gentile nor Jew, slave nor free. We are all one in Christ. Jesus came as a template of how we are to live our lives. Until His coming we only saw in part that which He knew in full. We are to love God above all and treat others the way that we want to be treated. Those who love Him will love others. Divine love  covered a multitude of our sin and tore the veil that separated us from our holy God. Every person born deserves the respect and dignity that is inherent in the spark of God that resides in each of us. We are blessed by God to be a blessing to others. God told Abraham that all nations will be blessed by his faith. We are the children of Abraham. Fear God not man. Carla

Hosea 10:13

You have plowed wickedness;

You have reaped iniquity.

You have eaten the fruit of lies,

Because you trusted in your own way,

In the multitude of your mighty men. (NKJV)

The process of repentance and restored blessing outlined in verse 12 contrasts sharply with reality. Israel had planted the seeds of sin and reaped the inevitable consequences. Fruit of lies likely refers to the people’s lack of loyalty to God (verse 4). The NKJV Study Bible

Hosea 9 and 10 continue the prophet’s poetic account of Israel’s spiritual history, focusing on the religious unfaithfulness and moral injustice that characterized their most prosperous period since King Solomon. The prophet looks back on Israel’s sin and lack of repentance, and he warns of imminent judgment. Faithlife Study Bible

Galatians 6:7–8

Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. 

Psalm 33:16

No king is saved by the multitude of an army;

A mighty man is not delivered by great strength.

Hosea 7:3

They make a king glad with their wickedness,

And princes with their lies.

We went to the outskirts of Bourke (Mother Teresa writes), where all the Aborigines were living in those little, small shacks made of tin, and old cardboard. I entered one of those little rooms and told the man living there, “Please allow me to make your bed, wash your clothes, to clean your room.”

He kept saying, “I'm alright, I'm alright.”

“But you will be more alright if you allow me to do it.”

Then he allowed me, and at the end, he pulled from his pocket a little old photograph of his father. I said, “You are so like your father.”

He was overjoyed. I blessed the photo, gave it to him, and it went back into the pocket near his heart.

After I cleaned the room I found in the corner a big lamp, full of dirt. I said, “Don't you light this lamp, such a beautiful lamp?”

He replied, “For whom? Months and months nobody has ever come to me. For whom will I light it?”

So I said, “Won't you light it, if the Sisters come to you?”

And he said, “Yes.”

So the Sisters started going to visit him for only about 5 to 10 minutes a day. They started lighting that lamp. After some time, the man got into the habit of lighting the lamp himself. Slowly, slowly, slowly, the Sisters stopped going to his shack (although they used to go every morning). I forgot completely about my first visit, and then after two years he sent word, “Tell Mother, my friend, the light she lit in my life is still burning.”

We are fortunate people. We do not live in shacks made of tin and old cardboard. But each one of us knows what it is like to let the light go out, or to leave the lamp unlit, or to bury the lamp (for any number of reasons, whether it be fear or shame or being just plain stuck) in the corner, under the debris of disillusionment and disconnection.

I don’t tell this story as a motivational tool. As if there is an obligation to “be kind.” I tell it as an affirmation and a reminder (mostly to myself) that within each of us there is a light. And that this light—of hope, dignity, delight, passion, justice, beauty, grace—still shines, regardless of the dirt that covers it. Yes, there are times we forget (and throw our hands into the air). However, there are also times when a simple act of kindness, or gift of compassion, rekindles the light in our own spirit. This gift we give to another, becomes a gift we gratefully receive. In the story, both—the giver and the receiver—are liberated.

 “Sabbath Moments” Terry Hershey