Open Invitation from Isaiah the Prophet (2nd part)

Isaiah 55.6 “Seek the Lord while he may be found, call to him while he is close at hand.”
Isaiah is the poet and prophet whose life work seems to have been issuing invitations on behalf of God. Many of us who have been on the road of faith for years can be tempted to think we have ‘found’ God, and no longer need to seek Him. True enough, in one sense. But we will always find ourselves in hard places, or times when hope is low and light is dim. He is near, call upon him; seek God because if you ask you will receive, if you seek you will find, and if you knock —doors open.

Isaiah 55.7 “Let the wicked forsake his ways, and the evil their thoughts: let them return to the Lord, who will take pity on them, and to our God, for he will freely forgive.”  
This verse isn’t about other people; it’s about us. Read it alongside these words: “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (I Jn.1.8-9) Forgiveness is always God’s preferred option.

Isaiah 55.8-9 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
We can never out-think God. Whatever is happening in our lives God knows more about it than we ever could. Our horizons are limited, our line of vision restricted. But God sees the end from the beginning. Faith is to trust when we can’t see, and to go on hoping in the God whose thoughts out-think us, and whose ways are always faithful. In the death and resurrection of Jesus, God’s thoughts display heaven’s wisdom in finding the One way of salvation we would never have thought of.

Isaiah 55. 10-11 “As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”
Isaiah is the poet and prophet not only of invitations, but of promises. He describes a cycle of blessing under which all who seek God flourish. Rain and snow, the watering of the earth, the sowing of seed and the baking of bread – God’s promises are like that. Life-giving, dependable, a continual cycle of blessing and flourishing. God’s words are sent for a purpose, – and they are words of blessing, creation, fruitfulness and life.

Grace and peace,

Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation 

Open Invitation from Isaiah the Prophet

Isaiah 55.1 “Come for water, all who are thirsty; though you have no money, come, buy grain and eat. Come, buy wine and milk, not for money, not for a price. 

Three times we are invited – ‘Come’. Sometimes we are so concerned to exalt the power of God and his sovereign call, we forget that God’s love doesn’t compel our love. He invites us to come to Him for all that we need. Money, our capacity to pay our own way, doesn’t matter. God already offers what we need—if we come.

Isaiah 55.2 “Why spend your money for what is not food, your earnings on what will not satisfy? Listen to me and you will fare well, you will enjoy the fat of the land.”

Sometimes we don’t know what’s good for us. We think we do, but we make wrong choices. We yearn to be satisfied with our lives, content, safe, and nourished. Isaiah warned the people of God that they can only be satisfied by the Creator who made them. Instead of pursuing ‘what is not food’, pray “Give us this day our daily bread.”

Isaiah 55.3 “Come to me and listen to my words, hear me and you will have life. I shall make an everlasting covenant with you, to love you faithfully, as I loved David.”

When Jesus poured wine and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood”, he had in mind verses like this. Through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, God has made an everlasting covenant to all who come in faith and trust. Once again, this is the God who says, “Come to me, and listen to my words.” This is the God whose love has the strength of an everlasting covenant. We have God’s word on that!

Grace and peace,

Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation 

Called to Say Yes

We are called to say yes.
That the kingdom might break through
To renew and to transform
Our dark and groping world.
We stutter and we stammer
To the lone God who calls
And pleads a New Jerusalem
In the bloodied Sinai Straights.
We are called to say yes
That honeysuckle may twine
And twist its smelling leaves
Over the graves of nuclear arms.
We are called to say yes
That children might play
On the soil of Vietnam where the tanks
Belched blood and death.
We are called to say yes
That black may sing with white
And pledge peace and healing
For the hatred of the past.
We are called to say yes
So that nations might gather
And dance one great movement
For the joy of humankind.
We are called to say yes
So that rich and poor embrace
And become equal in their poverty
Through the silent tears that fall.
We are called to say yes
That the whisper of our God
Might be heard through our sirens
And the screams of our bombs.
We are called to say yes
To a God who still holds fast
To the vision of the Kingdom
For a trembling world of pain.
We are called to say yes
To this God who reaches out
And asks us to share
His crazy dream of love.

Edwina Gateley

Grace and peace,

Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation

Ordinary chitchat is not the stuff of intimacy, but regular contact is because, as the chitchat is going on, something deeper is happening (for good or for bad) under the surface.

Imagine you live in proximity to your mother and you make a commitment to visit her three times a week. Over the course of a year, that means you will be visiting her about 150 times. How many times, among all those times, will you have a deep conversation with her? A dozen times? Five times? A couple of times?

This is also true of our prayer lives and our relationship with God. If we make a commitment to sit in private prayer every day for half an hour, how many times might we expect that we’ll feel a deep movement of soul, a stunning insight, or an affirmation that really warms us? A dozen times a year? Five or six times a year? Perhaps.

Most of the time though our prayer time will be a lot like those visits we make regularly to our mothers. We will treasure those times when something special breaks through, but those times will not be what’s really important. What’s really important will be what’s growing under the surface, namely, a bond and an intimacy that’s based upon a familiarity that can only develop and sustain itself by regular contact, by actually sharing life on a day-to-day basis.

In describing one of the deep movements within mature prayer, John of the Cross writes: “At this point, God does not communicate himself through the senses as he did before, by means of discursive analysis and the synthesis of ideas but begins to communicate himself through pure spirit in an act of simple contemplation in which there is no discursive succession of thought.”

Think about that the next time you are talking trivialities with your mother – or get bored in prayer. Log that time together and relish the sweet moments when they surprise you.

Grace and peace,

Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation

This prayer has carried my cries across this past week, offered by Rebecca Stringer, formerly at PasCov, now Pastor at Wellspring Covenant Church in Hawaii:

God of Shalom, hear our prayer. ⁠⁠
⁠⁠
You once likened yourself to a mother hen who wanted to gather her baby chicks to herself to protect them from danger. Will you not do that now? ⁠⁠
⁠⁠
We remember the story of Hagar in scripture-- a woman from a vulnerable people group who was desperate to save her son and herself. Running for her life, she was joyfully surprised when you showed up in the desert, provided her with comfort and care, and revealed yourself to be the God who Sees.⁠⁠
⁠⁠
In your eternal kindness, See now and save the vulnerable! Whether in Kabul, or in rural Afghanistan, or in the rubble of Haiti's towns, protect all who need a safe place. Preserve life. May all who need protection, resources, comfort, medical attention, courage --escape- find what they need supplied for them even in unexpected places. True to your good character, may you show up for a million Hagars in a million places, even when it seems impossible.⁠⁠
⁠⁠
God of justice, thwart the plans of all who who exploit their power over the vulnerable. Cause them to fall into their own traps. Bring chaos to their plans and subvert their schemes. May those who live by the sword find their weapons of warfare insufficient and ineffective to bring about the change they seek. Help them pursue better ways of being and doing in the world.
⁠⁠
God of comfort, bring comfort and your courage to those who are shattered and in shock. Whether in Afghanistan, or Haiti, or in countries around the world hurting for their sisters and brothers, may your Holy Spirit pray and intercede when there are no words left to say. In the name of the One who came so there could be life-- life everlasting, Amen.⁠⁠

Grace and peace,

Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation

Beauty is an invitation to experiencing the Creator’s love and majesty. When was the last time you beheld something beautiful and just relished the moment as a gift of love from God? This spiritual practice is available to us in every moment and merely requires attention and intention to be blessed.
 

Beauty is God's bait.
She sets it out and waits
for you to notice.
You pause and gaze,
and, God hopes, linger a bit,
rapt, while she stares at you
because she loves seeing
your face like that.
 
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light

 

Grace and peace,

Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation 

 Laundry may seem an odd element in the realm of religious worship, but poet and author, Kathleen Norris has a talent for weaving seemingly disparate fragments of life together to see them as naturally connected. In her The Quotidian Mysteries: Laundry, Llturgy and “Women’s Work”, she points out that "women's work" such as laundry, cooking, and cleaning, done repeatedly, on a daily basis and seemingly never to completion, can be approached in the same manner as liturgy.

If seen as endless and dreary repetition, these domestic rituals become mindless activities to be gotten out of the way. When considered in terms of their enormous life-giving importance, the feeding and clothing of a family and maintaining of a household can be undertaken in the contemplative spirit. They become, like prayer and worship, acts of love that transform us and, in turn, the larger world around us.

“O Father, light up the small duties of this day’s life: may they shine with the beauty of Thy countenance. May we believe that glory can dwell in the commonest task of every day.”
— Saint Augustine

Grace and peace,

Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation
 

The practice of gratitude is begun simply and yields sweet fruit so quickly!

Three Gratitudes

 Every night before I go to sleep

I say out loud

Three things that I’m grateful for,

All the significant, insignificant

Extraordinary, ordinary stuff of my life.

It’s a small practice and humble,

And yet, I find I sleep better

Holding what lightens and softens my life

Ever so briefly at the end of the day.

Sunlight, and blueberries,

Good dogs and wool socks,

A fine rain,

A good friend,

Fresh basil and wild phlox,

My father’s good health,

My daughter’s new job,

The song that always makes me cry,

Always at the same part,

No matter how many times I hear it.

Decent coffee at the airport,

And your quiet breathing,

The stories you told me,

The frost patterns on the windows,

English horns and banjos,

Wood thrush and June bugs,

The smooth glassy calm of the morning pond,

An old coat,

A new poem,

My library card,

And that my car keeps running

Despite all the miles.

And after three things,

More often than not,

I get on a roll and I just keep on going,

I keep naming and listing,

Until I lie grinning,

Blankets pulled up to my chin,

Awash with wonder

At the sweetness of it all.

  Carrie Newcomer

Grace and peace,

Anita Sorenson

Pastor for Spiritual Formation

Ordinary love, anonymous and unnoticed as it is, is the substance of peace on earth, the currency of God’s grace in our daily life.

Tish Harrison Warren  Liturgy of the Ordinary

Your presence, and your absence matters to everyone in the church. We are better together; we need each other. Whether you show up online or in person at church, our community leans on each other for access to God’s grace through the love we share with each other. So many of you have spent the last 16 months doing the shopping for others who are more vulnerable or who welcomed assistance with groceries. Some have gotten others to a more tech-savvy place where access to services on Zoom is now possible. Several make regular phone calls, send letters, check in frequently with other PasCov folks so that a thread of connection is not random but a sure thing that can be trusted. Many are faithful and avid people of prayer and hold the many expressed and unexpressed needs shared with our listening, loving Lord. Conversations are going on constantly about how to use our finances well for Kingdom purposes, how to protect and care for everyone who uses our facilities and shares our campus space as we regather and occupy the buildings again. Ministry teams have adapted and pivoted (more times than you’d imagine) to the changing Covid environment. Food has been organized and distributed to an enormous number of households regularly, insuring that hunger does not overwhelm families in need. 

This is the church, everywhere there is need, loving, loving, and loving again. Ordinary love changes the world.

Grace and peace,

Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation

“I slept through the night!” That was my text this morning to my girls and my dear (sleep-challenged) friend who has been praying along with me for better sleep. Since the pandemic, and exacerbated by the time change, I have had disrupted sleep and longed to have a full night without waking up multiple times. So, this morning brought a joyous text and gratitude.

When our days were boundaried by the rising and setting of the sun, the rhythm of rest flowed naturally. But with the advent of electricity, the internet and the smartphone, night is the same as day and productivity rules. The boundaries given to us by God can be resisted and finitude and limits can be dismissed. Even when we do not want to resist rest, our bodies may struggle for release to the sleep it requires for health and good functioning. Our bodily limits are the chief daily reminder that we are but dust. We inhabit a frail, vulnerable humanity., and many things interfere with our enjoying proper rest.

Each night when we yield to sleep, we practice letting go of our reliance on self-effort and abiding in the good grace of our Creator. While we sleep, God is at work forming and transforming his people, and accomplishing his work in the world, his world. HE is the mover and maker of our lives and spiritual health. When we do not sleep, we recognize how essential it is to our well-being. Resting, sleeping, slowing down are all Sabbath, indicators that we recognize that we are finite, weak creatures who are abundantly cared for by our strong and loving Creator.

Guide us waking, O Lord, and guard us sleeping;
That awake we may watch with Christ,
And asleep we may rest in peace.
Amen.
(From Book of Common Prayer)

Grace and peace,

Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation