The last of a five-series entitled "Life" ...
Psalm 104.24-35; Acts 2.17-21
Chapter 1
To have good eyes ...
good eyes - to see the wonder of the world.
Hollyhocks, poppies, and sunflowers,
reaching for the sky ...
reaching for the moons and suns of a billion galaxies.
They know something, and they sing about it when we're not listening.
They sing about it, and we have to listen, with cocked ear.
We have to pay attention.
Good eyes, to see
the birds and the bees ...
the ever-greening trees.
Love afoot in this often weary, broken, world.
A world of war and rumors of war.
Pestilence and death.
But still - there is love.
Plenty of love.
More than enough love.
Yes, I pray to have good eyes ... though much of what I see
saddens me, and maybe you, too.
And that's ok ...
it's ok to be sad.
God is sad, too.
About what has been lost, and how to find it again.
How to rebuild what even God washed away with the flood.
"I'll not do that again," said God.
It's a lesson God has not forgotten.
With the rainbow stretched across the heavens.
Brilliant with color and mystery ...
A rainbow of delight … delight:
For a wondering child, wondering why.
Why are there
rainbows in the sky after a rain, when the sun is just right,
and light is suddenly scattered into its variant colors.
Some of which can be seen, but not all of which can be seen,
… by my eyes.
But birds can see, and insects, too.
They have eyes, and they can see what I can't.
So, it's good to know some birds, I guess.
And maybe a few insects, too.
Maybe they'll tell me sometime.
Eyes, to see the world
A man who's knows all too well the inside of a prison,
from the wrong side of the bars,
knows what it's like to be watched, watched … endlessly watched, all the time.
All the time ... watched.
"But no one ever sees us," he says
"No one ever sees us.”
Chapter 2
What would it have been like to be in that upper room?
tucked away in the ancient city of Jerusalem, that fabled city of prophets and kings, where a good man died on an old rugged cross.
Men dying there all the time, crosses spread across the landscape.
Women and children, too, by sword and spear, and the trampling hooves of mighty steads decked out in burnished leather and polished silver.
A good man died on a hill that looks like a skull, it is said.
even the solders agree, that maybe, just maybe,
he was a good man, and shouldn't have died like this.
On a cross - naked, beaten, thirsty ... heaving for breath.
crying out, as they all do:
For this and that, and whatever else comes to mind
in the last violent moments of life.
"He cried out to his father," they said.
With words of forgiveness for this crime against humanity.
And then he said, loudly, "it is finished."
And that was that.
But we made sure, said the soldiers, so we jabbed him hard
with a spear, right up beneath the ribs, just to make sure.
Because we have a job to do, and we know how to do it.
We do it well.
We know how to kill
"This was a good man," they said.
Chapter 3
Of all the things, would you believe?
The women said, "The tomb is empty ... we saw an angel
the angel sends us to Galilee ... and there, the angel said, you'll see Jesus."
Of all things, would you believe?
this Jesus sent us back to Jerusalem.
To wait, to wait for power, because we have work ahead of us.
Lots of work, deep work, hard work.
To be his witnesses, he said, right here, right now, in the city that killed him.
And then, of all things, to the countryside and the surrounding towns,
Of all things, to Samaria, the last place a self-respecting
man would go ...
Of all things, would you believe? to the ends of the earth.
We hightailed it back to the upper room ... and there it came.
like the rush of a mighty wind.
Wind, hard, fierce, roaring and rumbling.
And the flames ... flames above our heads ...
Flames that didn't burn anything.
Like the bush Moses saw ... flames leaping high and fierce.
Burning nothing ... and the voice.
Of all things, the voice … our voice.
We had voices that day.
We could speak a thousand tongues.
A story to tell to the nations.
We hit the road.
A road cleared for us by the Holy Spirit.
A lot of people eager to hear.
And some didn't want to hear it at all.
But what else is new in this world of cabbages and kings.
In the last days, said the Prophet Joel, God will pour out the Spirit upon all flesh ... sons and daughters ... young men, old men ... even the slaves ... the Spirit comes to all,
for all, for everyone.
None are lost.
All are found.
The blind are given sight.
The deaf can hear.
Chapter 4
There is goodness in this world … God is everywhere.
In every cry of newborn child.
In the hum of a million bees dancing on nectar-filled blooms,
their legs heavy with pollen, life-giving pollen ...
Goodness abounds.
Let it be our prayer, that we have the eyes to see it.
The wisdom to stop in our tracks, now and then.
To really see the world around us.
To breath a word of thanks, before we hurry on.
Because we have something for the world.
A story to tell to the nations.
Some are Christians.
Some are Jews.
Some are Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus.
Some quote Confucius
Others, Marx and Engels
Some are straight, some are queer.
Some are in between somewhere.
But all are better, for what we offer.
And we’re better, too … by the voices of God
the many voices of the world ... the hum of the bees,
and the words of Shakespeare ... the brilliant hues of the morning sky,
the roar of an ever restless sea pounding on the shores of our mind … the laughter of friends, the longing of the human heart … stories of grace and hope … in the many, we are more ourselves, than ever we could be, without them.
Chapter 5
God ... Jesus ... the Spirit.
Dear people of God.
Never for a moment doubt the value of what we have.
And never for a moment condemn what others have.
They have treasures, too.
God is too good to make it too hard for anyone to hear the good news of God's love.
God is too wise to entrust the story, to only one religion, one region, one culture, one race, or one color.
For God so loves the world.
Chapter 6
To have good eyes ...
eyes to see the wonder of the world.
Hollyhocks, poppies, and sunflowers,
reaching for the sky ...
reaching for the moons and suns of a billion galaxies.
They know something, and they sing about it when we're not listening.
They sing about it, and we have to listen with cocked ear.
We have to pay attention.
Hallelujah and Amen!
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