Word for Today

From Psalm 27:

⁸My heart speaks your message— "Seek my face."

Your face, O LORD,  I will seek.

From Genesis 15:

 ⁵ God brought Abram outside and said, "Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them." Then he said to him, "So shall your descendants be."  

Wouldn't you love to get lost in this star scape, lying on your back in the middle of a mountain meadow on a moonless summer night?

I wonder what the star scape was like when Abram looked at it. God was giving a promise to a childless man (childless from one perspective!). The promise was that Abram would be the father of many. Children are divine blessings. I don't suppose God and Abram lied down on their backs in order to gaze at the stars that night, but the mental picture is nice!

I hope this image stirs your heart a little. The psalm above mentions something about a message that the human heart knows. As if a dialog is happening between the heart and the mind:

Heart: "Seek the face of God."

Mind: "Yes! I will."

I pray for that kind of harmony between my heart and mind. I also pray for the driving passion that comes from the heart, which is created to seek God. I pray for you and me to seek God's face. Together.

Read about this picture here

Pastor James Aalgaard

www.wanderingnorwegian.blogspot.com

St. Paul Lutheran Church

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Word for Today

From Psalm 91:

¹You who dwell in the shelter of ^| the Most High,

who abide in the shadow of ^| the Almighty—

²you will say to the LORD, "My refuge ^| and my stronghold,

my God in whom I ^| put my trust."

This is a monastery called Metéora in Greece. It's an Orthodox monastery that was begun in the 11th century, shortly before the invention of cargo helicopters. Someday it would be a blast to visit this place. I would hope for a smog-free day.

Take another quick look at the Bible verse above. Do you think the psalmist was thinking of a place like this? To be suspended above the rest of the world and her problems seems nice. Maybe it would actually work to disengage like that.. for a time. Then thoughts and worries would span the crevasses that we created, and we would find ourselves right back in the midst of the world that still wants and needs us.

Where do we go to find God? Do we go to a high elevation? How about an exotic (read 'warm') place?

I take my cue this morning from the little phrase "shadow of the Almighty." Wherever there is a shadow, there is the Almighty watching over. Can you find a shadow near you? If so, then claim right now the protection of the Almighty.

The season of Lent is about drawing shapes around shadows, studying them, feeling their chill. But remember this, shadows can only exist with the Son nearby.

Pastor James Aalgaard
St. Paul Lutheran Church

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Word for Today

From Exodus 34:29

"As (Moses) came down from the mountain with the two tablets of the covenant in his hand, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God."

From Luke 9:29

"while (Jesus) was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white."

Lene Vestergaard Hau, a Danish-born physicist, has developed a method for slowing down light. (Thank you Radiolab for a wonderful radio program). She uses sodium as her medium, cooling the substance so that when it's a supercold atomic gas, light itself will slow to 17 meters per second. That's quite an accomplishment when you recognize that light's natural speed is 186,000 miles per second! Light can take on wave-like properties and particle-like properties. There is so much to discover in light. It bears information. It's movement is efficient. It brightens our darkness.

This Sunday is the Sunday of the Transfiguration. Jesus goes to a mountaintop to pray, and his appearance changes. He captures light. He harnesses the light of the world. He glows with hope and possibility. If I were with him on that day, I would have joined Peter who said, "Let's hang out here for a while. I will start setting up the tents."

But this moment in time, or out of time, can be a light that brightens the darkest moments of our lives. From the mountaintop, Jesus goes down then up to Jerusalem, where he becomes enveloped by darkness, thus becoming the Light of the World. This is THE hidden will of God and our source of life.

Makoto Tojiki loves to use light in his art. Instead of commenting on it, I think I will just let you gaze and wonder yourself!

Blessings!

Pastor James Aalgaard
St. Paul Lutheran Church

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