Category: Kim’s Blog

Who knew that a python could find its way home? Experiments done with Burmese pythons in the Everglades have provided evidence that when a python is removed from its home territory it returns. Apparently one snake traveled 22 miles over the course of 9 months to return to where it was captured. [See the Tampa Bay Times, “Pythons’ homing skills leave scientists amazed” by Craig Pittman, March 19, 2014]

There are other animals that also make heroic journeys to return “home.” Salmon traverse the river of their birth upstream to lay eggs. Sea turtles swim hundreds of miles to return to the beaches of their birth to lay their eggs. Monarch butterflies make incredible journeys as do many birds in their migration patterns. Many animal species have this instinctual ability to return home.

In this Lenten season, we are thinking about growing closer to God and about growing in our spiritual journey. The stories in our scriptures tell us that we come from God. Our tradition also teaches that we return to God. So our pilgrimage in this life is really one of returning to God; making our way back to God. This is much like other animal species. Though our journey may not be geographical, yet, we, too, are returning home.

Unlike the python or the monarch butterfly, we do not have pure instinct to guide us on a direct path. Our spiritual journey back to God may take many twists and turns. We may very well get waylaid. We may take detours. Maybe many detours. And while we are in the midst of sorting out our way to back to God, God may very well find us, even if we did not know we were wandering! In the end, we all make our way home to God because there is no escaping the infinite scope of divine love.

This Lenten season is a good opportunity to take some time to reflect on where you are in your journey. How are you making your way back to God?

Prayer: We are grateful that we come from Love and return to Love. In between, we make our spiritual pilgrimage on this earth. We give thanks for the journey and all that we learn along the way. There are many who offer us help along the way. That is a blessing. May we trust love as our “homing” signal and seek to turn our lives ever more surely to the path of love. Jesus came from God and returned to God. May he be our guide. Amen.

This year March 20 marks the first day of Spring. A couple of weeks ago on “Prairie Home Companion,” Garrison Keillor was extolling that spring had finally come to Minnesota. Temperatures were no longer below zero. It was up in the 30’s. Everyone was giddy with delight. Having lived in Minnesota for 7 years, I can attest to the radical transformation that happens to the earth in such an extreme northern clime. It truly is magical and miraculous. People are practically drunk with elation at the greening of springtime.

Here in Florida the transition from winter to spring is not nearly as extreme. We have certain natural markers of the spring season like oak pollen. Has your car been covered with that yellow dust? And the light changes. But the transition here is subtle compared with “up north.”

The coming of spring is significant in many religious traditions ancient and modern. Humankind has seen divine revelation in the transformation of the earth from the dead, barren, gray-brown of winter to the riot of color and profusion of life that erupts in the springtime. Spring is a reminder of the radical newness and potential for transformation that is inherent in life. Throughout the centuries, Christians have seen the spring as a symbol of new life in Christ, of forgiveness, grace, and transformation.
The stunning conversion of the earth in the spring inspires wonderful images of God’s amazing, life giving power.

Here in the balmy south, we don’t experience the radical re-awakening of the earth. We don’t witness the drastic visual transformation from blanketed white to a palette of blue, green, lilac, pink, red, and yellow. It’s like going from a black and white TV to a color TV those few weeks when everything thaws and buds and blooms. The drastic change in the earth fuels dreams of radical growth; physical, spiritual, emotional, social, and intellectual. Could it be that our more subtle change of season leads to lower expectations for transformation and change and growth? Could our gradual, more subdued seasonal transition lead to more complacency, less promise of radical change?

To step up our hopes and dreams for a new world, to inspire our faith in the incredible power of Divine Love, maybe we, here in this mild climate, need to go out of our way to surround ourselves with reminders of all things spring. We can read poetry about springtime and view images of spring and take delight in flowers and greenery. Lent, though a stark time of introspection, is also a time let our hopes and dreams and expectations soar. It is a time to remind ourselves of all that is promised and delivered by God.

Prayer: We give thanks for this season of spring and its many meanings and associations. May this season of new life inspire new life in us. May this be a season in which we burst forth with new growth that brings life and beauty to the world. Amen.

My husband’s cousin announced on Facebook that she is doing some kind of 40 bags in 40 days de-cluttering program for Lent. The program she refers to is really more about spring cleaning than about Lent or religion. And, actually, spring cleaning has been part of Lenten discipline in some corners of the church. This involves the association between ridding your house of dirt and cobwebs, etc. and ridding your spirit of evil and sin.

In thinking about the 40 bags of clutter, I thought about how we are told that Jesus went into the wilderness for 40 days with little more than the clothes on his back. In fact, he never owned much more than that. There is freedom in that kind of material simplicity. Travel experts talk about heading to Europe for 2 weeks with 8 garments. It makes things easy to be so unburdened. But why consider this just for a trip? Why not think about living like this all of the time? Less to take care of. Less to tie us down. More time and energy to spend time with friends and family and contributing to the community. As someone who dreads putting the laundry away because the clothes won’t all fit in the drawer, this kind of simplicity has an appeal.

And while we are thinking about “traveling light” what about the burdens that we carry internally? The hostilities, regrets, broken dreams, hurt feelings, grievances, and so many other things, that weigh us down spiritually and emotionally. What freedom there can be in releasing that clutter! Jesus learns about this in the wilderness, too. How to stay focussed. How to release what holds us back from the freedom God is seeking to give us.

Hopefully in this Lenten season we can create some space in our lives by doing some de-cluttering – physically or spiritually or both!

Prayer: In the story of Mary and Martha, Jesus tells them that one thing is needful. Can it be true that we really only need one thing? May we accept God’s love to sustain us and help us to grow. May we trust that love to cast out the fear in our lives and everything else that holds us back from being filled with God’s love and light. May we accept the call to material simplicity as the gift that it is rather than as a sacrificial burden. “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.” We pray for the will to let grace free us from all that fetters. Amen.

One year when the drought was very bad here in Florida, the African iris plants in our yard bloomed like never before. We had more flowers than we had ever seen outside our front door. This surprised me because it was so hot and dry. I didn’t expect the plants to bloom with such profusion. When I mentioned this to my brother, he suggested that the adverse conditions motivated more blooms and hence more seeds because the plant was trying to make sure it did not die out. It was making a bigger investment in the future because of the current perilous conditions. The drought was bringing out the strength of the plant.

This happens in life, too. We know the expression, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” I spoke with someone today who is retired and she shared about her upbringing and earlier years. Her parents beat her and she was abused. She was married to an alcoholic who also abused her. She had a very difficult life on many fronts. In spite of this she raised four good children. She was widowed and is now happily married. She consciously chose to raise her children with love and no violence or abuse. She said that she made mistakes raising her kids but they were not treated in any way like she was. “I love my kids,” she said. Then she told me that her struggles and the difficulties she faced made her a better person and made her stronger.

In this Lenten season we remember the story of Jesus in the wilderness for 40 days. That time of hardship, challenge, and difficulty was intended to make him stronger.

We all face difficulties in life. We may reflect on the question, “Why is this happening to me?” “Why do I have to go through this?” It’s natural to ask those questions. But if we are interested in growing spiritually, we will go on to ask and wonder, “What can I learn from this?’’ “How can I become a better person because of this?” “How can I use this experience to help others or for the good of the world?” “How am I becoming stronger because of this?”

To be strong, a muscle has to be used. For us to be spiritually strong, we must be challenged and use our faith to inform our living. Perhaps a temptation we face is apathy or ease. Maybe we shy away from challenging ourselves to more closely follow Jesus and give ourselves for the life of the world.

Prayer: The journey through this life involves many challenges and problems and struggles. We pray for all who are in the midst of difficulties including ourselves. May the hardships we face help us to grow stronger in our faith. May our challenges lead us to trust in the power of divine love. May our troubles lead us into closer community with others. And may those times of stress and struggle help us to more deeply appreciate the goodness and joy of life. We pray in the spirit of the one who knew first hand the heartache of this life, Christ Jesus. Amen.

Today is St. Patrick’s Day. A day known for parades, celebrations at Irish pubs, the wearing of green, and the eating of corned beef and cabbage. St. Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland. Interestingly, however, he was not Irish by birth. He is thought to have been born in Great Britain about 387 C.E. and was a Roman citizen.

Patrick got to Ireland because he was captured by pirates and sold into slavery. He was forced to work as a shepherd. After 6 years in slavery, he escaped. After returning home to Great Britain, he converted to Christianity. While his parents were Christians, he had not been brought up with much religious indoctrination. After becoming Christian, Patrick studied and trained to become a priest.

After having escaped from slavery in Ireland, you would think that the last place he would ever want to go would be back to Ireland. But after he became a priest, he felt led to go back to Ireland to bring the people the gospel of Jesus Christ. And that is what he did. He went back to the land of his servitude. He offered to the people who had held him in slavery the life-giving faith of Jesus Christ. He went to Ireland, to his way of thinking, to rescue the Irish from paganism and save them through faith in Jesus Christ.

While Patrick attracted many people to the Christian faith in Ireland, he was attacked by the authorities. He was threatened. His life was at risk.

In the life of Patrick as we know it, we can see that he truly did try to love his enemy. He went back to Ireland out of love to share the Good News of Christianity. He worked for the good of the very people who had held him as a slave. In this, he truly embodies the gospel.

In Patrick, we also see how he took to heart the gospel teaching of Jesus that to save your life you must lose it. Patrick risked his life to help the people of Ireland. He endured hardship and vilification. He gave his life for the good of others.

For his time and in his way, we can see that Patrick was a person of great faith. He truly sought to embody the way of Jesus. He was committed to shining the light of Christ. He let Christ live in him. On this his saint day, perhaps a more fitting tribute than wearing green and eating corned beef would be to recommit ourselves to truly following the way of Jesus as Patrick did. May we, too, seek to love our enemies and give our lives to the wellbeing of the world.

A prayer attributed to St. Patrick:

Christ beside me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ within me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me.