Emmaus Iconography | Burn with Shame or Blaze with Glory

 

"Road to Emmaus" by Ivanka Demchuk, 2021 A.D.

 

You reveal the meaning of my story

That I, who burn with shame, 

Might blaze with glory.

+ Malcolm Guite,
Emmaus 1

Ukrainian Ivanka Demchuk's artistry is influenced by the techniques and aesthetics of iconography. The stark contrast of warm hues of red and gold against the fierce white remind me of Malcolm Guite's warm and fierce sonnet, "Emmaus 1," in which he writes:

And yet You know
My darkness within,

My cry of dereliction is Your own,

You bore the isolation of my sin

Alone, that I need never be alone.

Now You reveal the meaning of my story

That I, who burn with shame, 

Might blaze with glory.

Shame tells us our story is over,
leaving us cold.
The Savior tells us
our story is resurrecting,
transforming us like
the blaze
of a burning bush
from the inside out.

Luke begins the Emmaus story "on the first day."
Ronald Rolheiser reminds us,

"for (Luke),
that does not just refer to Sunday,
the first day of the week,
but also to the day of the resurrection when,
for Christians, the world starts over.

For Luke, 'the first' day here
refers back to the first day
of the original creation.
Time is beginning anew.
This is the new 'big bang.'"

Behold, Jesus is making all things new, including us. Let that ignite you from the inside out with a blaze that warms you to His holy presence even in the fiercest and starkest moments of life. 

Enter the holy wild.

Listen to the Voice 

in the wilderness. 

Turn Your Eyes upon Jesus.

This is the paradox of grace:

the sovereign Lord of all creation

comes in both

a blaze of glory and

a gentle touch.

+ N.T. Wright

Bonus Post:

+ Tattoo Special | Resurrection

Christ be with you,

Rev. Mike "Sully" Sullivan

Email Pastor Mike | Website | Visit Us | Support Us | Facebook Us

Holy Lent | Setting this Season Apart with the Only Holy One

Holier than Thou w/ Jackie Hill Perry

"If God is holy, 

then He can't sin.

If God can't sin,

then He can't sin against me.

If He can't sin against me,

shouldn't that make Him

the most trustworthy

being there is?"

+ Jackie Hill Perry,

Holier Than Thou Intro

Last year, the theme the Holy Spirit continued to bring me back to was holiness, which means "set apart, sacred." It's a good theme to keep in mind for any year and for any season, including Lent.

How am I to see this moment in time as holy, potentially kairos, set apart? And how am I to be set apart in the midst of the gift of living today? These are questions worth exploring for a lifetime.

One beloved sister who helps me focus afresh on what holiness means is one I have listened to many times throughout the past decade: Jackie Hill Perry (JHP). There's something often hallowing about Jackie's words that makes me lean in and need to listen (not just want to listen). Jackie, her husband, Preston, and friends with 2819 Church and the Acts 242 Conference (ex. here's Pastor Philip Anthony Mitchell's message, "God Is Holy, Holy, Holy"), have helped me return to the characteristic of God mighty angels can't help but sing in His presence all the time.

Holiness has been a theme of Jackie's for the past few years (and most likely years before) since she released, Holier Than Thou: How God's Holiness Helps Us Trust Him. If you would like to listen to Jackie rather than read this post, here is a podcast link and a sermon link:

+ Holier Than Thou TCC Sermon 

+ Holier Than Thou J3P Podcast

But if like me, you want some words in front of you to read, chew on, marinate in, and potentially memorize during this Lenten season, here are some excerpts from Jackie's published work, including a powerful foreword by none other than Rev. Dr. Charlie Dates.

Holier Than Thou

Foreword by Charlie Dates

pg. xii-xiii

Every era needs its own prophet of holiness; a kind of living invitation to marvel in the beauty of God's holiness, and in the holiness of His beauty.

(And) None of us come to love God deeply, to see Him clearly without first having an awakening to our internal depravity which can lead to a fuller appreciation of God's holiness.

We need a grander vision of God

even if the window from which

we see Him is small.

The complex enigma

which is God's holiness 

is literally indescribable.

Truth is, words will not do.

God must be experienced.

That, friend, 

is a frightening proposition.

Few people,

from Moses to D.L. Moody,

could barely contain

the awful joy

after such an encounter.

When A.W. Tozer wrote that "God is looking for men and women in whose hands His glory is safe," he must have been thinking about a captivated saint like Jackie.

Holier Than Thou by Jackie Hill Perry

Holier Than Thou

Introduction 

pg. 8

Lasting transformation is a spiritual consequence of "beholding the glory of the Lord" (2 Corinthians 3:18).

That's why we're here:

to behold.

To set our sights

on a higher love.

God's holiness is essential

to His nature
and fundamental

to His being.

His holiness is what makes Him good,

and loving, and kind, and faithful.

Without holiness, God wouldn't be

beautiful, and so because of it,

He is eternally attractive.

Holier Than Thou

Holy, Holy, Holy

pgs. 19-20, 44-45, 51

To go deeper into what Scripture means when it testifies that God is holy, let's glean from Isaiah's vision of Him. In the sixth chapter of the book titled after the prophet's name, written in it is the song of the seraphim. About God they say to one another, "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory!" (v. 3). Notice the word used thrice. It isn't "love, love, love" or "good, good, good" but "holy, holy, holy."

Why is that important? Well, in Hebrew language and literature, the use of repetition was common practice. Jesus used it often by beginning His lessons with the words "Truly, truly." By this, His listeners knew that all that was to follow was significant and true. Rarely in Scripture do you see this literary device used to the third degree, never do you see it used to the third degree to address an attribute of God except here in Isaiah and in Revelation 4:8 ("Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty").

holierthanthoubook.net

Holier Than Thou

Holy Justice & Vision

pgs. 101, 103, 113, 118, 146-147

If we are brave enough to actually believe that God is who He says He is, we are left with one choice; worship. But if we want to be the center of attention, the source of our joy, and the final authority of our lives, then in our minds, God cannot be holy; He must be just like us. A sinner.

One form of God's judgment is to simply give us what we want. J.I. Packer's framing of this is helpful: "Scripture see hell as self-chosen ... All receive what they actually chose, either to be with God forever, worshiping Him, or without God forever, worshiping themselves."

He is (somehow) rich with kindness towards those who have never deserved it. To the just and unjust, He has given them a daily life filled to the brim with laughter between friends, love between lovers, a womb to carry a new life, food and culture and entertainment, a diversity of delights. He hasn't withheld such joys from any of Adam's children. They are available to all including ones that will never give Him their hearts in return. 

"The issue is not why does God punish sin but why does He permit the ongoing human rebellion? It is customary or usual for God to be forbearing. He is indeed long-suffering, patient, and slow to anger. In fact, He is so slow to anger that when His anger does erupt, we are shocked and offended by it." We are the guilty ones to which God must judge, but He has not given us what we deserve ... A mercy.

God can be trusted

with our cares 

because a holy God

cannot be an 

apathetic God.

The Holy God has

life in Himself,

forever aware 

of what we need

before we even ask.

In Christ, we will

find in God

everything we need.

If we need salvation, He is "mighty to save" (Zephaniah 3:17). If resurrection, He is "the resurrection and the life" (John 11:25). If peace, He is "the LORD" who can "bless His people with peace" (Psalm 29:11). If compassion, He is "the LORD ... a compassionate and gracious God" whose mercies are "new every morning" (Psalm 86:15; Lamentations 3:23 NIV). With God comes all that the mind needs for wisdom, all that the heart needs for love, all that the body needs for satisfaction, and all that the affections need for joy.

Since Scripture declares

that we were not only made

by Him but for Him

(Colossians 1:16),

it should be no surprise

then that we will never be whole

without Him.

More than that,

if everything good exists

because of Him, 

then there is nothing

that exists that is 

better than Him.

Closing Song:

God, You're making me better.

You're making me better.

And You choose to do it

however, whenever, wherever.

+ Jackie Hill Perry 

I Just Wanna Get There

holierthanthoubook.net

"Pursue peace with everyone,

and holiness —

without it no one will see the Lord"

(Hebrews 12:14 CSB).

Bonus Quote

You never go away from us,

yet we have difficulty in returning to You.

Come, Lord, stir us up and call us back.

Kindle and seize us.

Be our fire and our sweetness.

Let us love. Let us run.

+ North African St. Augustine of Hippo

More Holy Considerations:

Holy, Holy, Holy w/ Psalm 99

Getting in Shape & Living New Life

With the Holy One Who Is Wilder

Holiness Flows to Bring Healing, Hope

Beauty in the Beast w/ Saints
What Our Sin Evokes in Jesus' Holiness

Many blessings of peace and presence,

Rev. Mike “Sully” Sullivan

Email Pastor Mike | Website | Visit Us | Support Us

Lent | In The Face of the Deep, The Holy Spirit's Work is Wild

The Holy Spirit by Cal Ogelsby, 2014 A.D.

The Spirit's work
in the life of His people
is often a wild work,
a desert work.

He knows and loves the places
that seem empty to us
as much as
He knows and loves the places
that teem with life.

He calls us to the wilderness
to work in us in ways
that could not be done well
(perhaps not done at all)
were we not drawn away ... 

+ Paul Pastor
The Face of the Deep

I continue to return to The Face of the Deep by Paul J. Pastor to reflect and meditate on the Holy Spirit who welcomes us into the holy wild. This book has not only been a great companion when I first read it during a silent retreat at the Abbey of the Genesee, but also a needed re-read during Lent.

This post will include favorite pull quotes from the chapter entitled:

 "The Wind of the Wilderness: 

The Spirit of the Desert." 

The Wind of the Wilderness

The Spirit of the Desert

Let all teachers hold their peace;
let all creatures be silent in Thy sight;
speak unto me Thou alone.

+ Thomas a Kempis
The Imitation of Christ
pg. 165

Be Led to Sacred Silence

in a Place Apart

When I have hiked into the true wilderness, it is the depth and quality of the silence that enters my soul and leaves me changed. When I meet people – and there are many – who say that their most profound encounters with God are in nature, it is this sense of quiet they usually want to remember. It is the sacred silence of a space, silent not because of the absence of sound, but silent because of the effect it has on the soul. A holy silence of the interior, prompted by a sacred simplicity on the exterior. A reminder that the true silence of the Holy Spirit is presence as much as it is absence. It is entering a place apart. … I began to know the rough roar of silence as the voice of the Spirit. He was leading me, mysteriously, to a place apart. + pg. 167, 169

The Spirit Whistles
in the Wilderness Wind

If the Bible were a movie and if places were characters, "the wilderness" would hold a starring role. It's a recurring setting, all the way after the expulsion of humanity from the garden in Genesis, to the "wander in tears, forty years" of Israel's desert time, to the visions of Ezekiel, to the famous temptations of Christ, and Jesus's well-known habit of wandering into desert places for prayer. The wilderness is a place of contradictions, a place portrayed in Scripture as an empty place yet full. The wilderness is cruel and bare, yet a setting for kindness and miraculous provision. The wilderness reveals things often by obscuring them. The wilderness welcomes God and the people of God by – sometimes concretely, sometimes abstractly – meeting evil. More than anything, the wilderness is the background that most clearly highlights the high, good strangeness of the Holy Spirit, who, so often in Scripture, whistles like a wind among the rocks of the desert. A cloud by day, a fire by night. Faithfully leading. Faithfully obscuring. 

The Wild, Affirming,

Driving Desert Work

The Spirit's work in the life of His people is often a wild work, a desert work. He knows and loves the places that seem empty to us as much as He knows and loves the places that teem with life. He calls us to the wilderness to work in us in ways that could not be done well (perhaps not done at all) were we not drawn away, brought away, thrown away, finding ourselves on a lonely trail. This was Jesus' experience. Directly after the soaring high of His baptism in the Jordan, the joy and affirmation of the Father speaking His belovedness over Him, the Dove of heaven seemed to distend and whip apart into a lionlike whirlwind, launching Christ into the first great trial of his adult life. In Mark's account, he writes: " ... And the Spirit drove Him into the wilderness. ... " The Greek word translated here as "drove out" is a rough one, from which we get our word ball, and as you would expect, it means to throw, fling, send flying, hurl. It is not gentle. Like a Major League Baseball pitcher sending a fastball straight through the strike zone, the Spirit in Mark's Gospel downright hurls Jesus (the Beloved, remember) into the wilderness. + pg. 171 

Danger, Scarcity, Abundance ...
All a Work of Love

The Spirit is not playing around. Nor is Jesus – who, in the more detailed accounts of this story elsewhere, is fasting, hungry and thirsty during this time in the desert. He is besieged with temptations in the wilderness – the temptation to work miracles on His own behalf rather than the Father's; the temptation for immediate acclamation and acceptance by the people who would eventually reject Him, screaming for his crucifixion; and the temptation for an easy path to world power rather than the death-road, the God-road to the eternal Kingdom promised to the seed of David. All His suffering and all His overcoming are kept between the lines in Mark's Gospel. I like that. All that we are given here to make sense of Christ in the wilderness is the duration (the ancient "forty" of Noah's flood, of Moses on the mountain, of the wandering years of Israel in the desert), the Devil, the beasts, and the angels. A long time. Danger scarcity, abundance. The wilderness. And this, like every work of the Holy Spirit, was love. + pg. 171 

Silence with Jesus

is a Very Good Place to Start

I sat with my spiritual director, Father Stephen. He asked me to describe my relationship with Jesus. I was silent for a minute, fumbling around inside my head until I came across the right words. "It's as if," I began, "Jesus and I are sitting together in a dark room. He's not saying anything. I'm not saying anything. I look at Him. He looks back at me. We're together. But silent. Quiet. Like we're each waiting for something. He was quiet for a while himself. I sat, adjusted my chair. I wondered if I should continue to talk, to fill up the room between us with words. I didn't like the silence. I wanted to speak or for him to speak or for Jesus to speak. Anyone, really. He breathed deeply. "Silent?" he asked. "Silent." "Well, that's a very good place to start." + pg. 172

Can't Understand
Without Slowing Down

In her classic Walking on Water, Madeleine L'Engle wrote: When I am constantly running there is no time for being. When there is no time for being there is no time for listening. I will never understand the silent dying of the green pie-apple tree if I do not slow down and listen to what the Spirit is telling me, telling me of the death of trees, the death of planets, of people, and what all these deaths mean in the light of the love of the Creator who brought them all into being; who brought me into being; and you. It's a beautiful truth, but a wilderness truth, a desert truth. A truth of windy silences – to somehow believe that to understand ourselves, to understand the great breath of creation, we must first walk backward, back along the trail, back through the deaths of things large and small, slowing life and heart and mind, all the while listening for the voice of God, all back, back, back, to the edge of the deep, to the starting place of being. That hazy place where the Spirit summons us up from the waters of beginning and whistles love and joy, creating and sustaining. "It's good that you are; how wonderful that you exist!" We must know the Spirit's desert road, the trail away from the roars of man and nature. ... It is time for the wilderness. Somehow, with the Spirit, we must learn to enter a place apart. For all its difficulty, it is a very good place to start. + pgs. 172-173 

The Spirit Tears Us Up

with Blessings ...

This Too Is Love,

If We Can Accept It

The sacred silence of our interior becomes the void, the good and empty place into which the Spirit can speak. ... He leads us into desert places ... He pounces, tumbles us in the sand and grit either roughly or gently. Away from the noise He carries or flings us, from the dullness of full belly and full brain. ... He tears us with blessings, tears us open sometimes till the red blood flows out so thick and abundant that we fear our life is leaving, that our bones will be left behind us when we wander on. And for all this, He makes no promises other than His love. If we can believe it, even the bitterest wrestling with the Spirit out in the desert is for our good, the good of His beloved. We must sometimes suffer wounds before we can be bound again, better made and wiser than before, bearing the scars of wilderness as witnesses to the nearness of God. This too is love, if we can accept it. + pg. 174 

It Is the Wind of the Spirit
That Seeks to Polish Us
with the Sand of the Wilderness

It is the wind of the wilderness, dry and cutting if necessary, that blows our own thoughts out of us and the Spirit's knowing into us. It is that wind that will eventually allow us to see though our eyes be closed and hear though our ears be deafened. It is the Holy Spirit, the wind of the wilderness, that flings us into the desert like rag dolls, cradles us out there like children, feeds us like the ravens above Elijah's creek. It is the wind that seeks to polish us with sand, to let the erosion of the grit reveal our truest contours. To see what we take with us out of nothing. What we leave with the nothing. But for all this, who wishes for the wilderness? For some it has a romance before and after we are there and its own glass-like beauty that shimmers when we're in it, but for any beauty we may find, we still quail and quiver. The wilderness is where the Spirit takes our masks away, where our own hearts are flayed, where the faces of devils and angels, once obscured by rocks and birds and lust and thirst, stare at us, challenging us to blink before they do. + pgs. 174-175

If We Can Not Say

Thank You to the Desert Yet,

Then It Is Likely

We Are Still in It

What are we to make of a Spirit – the Spirit of the same Jesus who knew the pain of wilderness so well – who not only accompanies us into the desert but throws us into it? If it is true that He is the wind at our back, blowing us into places abandoned by men, places hard to live in and dry, places of thorn and curse and cruelty, places of the sun by day and the catamount or wild dogs by night, then what are we to say to Him for such treatment? "Thank you"? I mean no presumption, and I speak this in faith. If we cannot say thank you for the desert yet, then it is likely because we are still in it. The wind of the wilderness, ever seeking your good, does not expect your gratitude when you have not eaten for forty days. "What are you doing here?" The ancient question hangs, as it did for Elijah, over the mountain, over the hot bedrock of the desert. But we might as well ask it of the Asker. And who knows if we will receive an answer that human ears can understand? He only promises love. No answers. Not ease. Only love. + pg. 176

A Favorite Story of Abundance

There is something that awakens inside the soul when one realizes that in God's view of the world there is no such thing as scarcity. Let me tell you one of my favorite stories of abundance. I will try to tell it as it was told to me by my friend Randy, a Keetowah Cherokee: In the 1950s, Canada's government was consolidating rule in the Arctic by forcing the native Inuit peoples onto settlement reservations. One old man, a grandfather, resisted. He did not want to live in the white people's houses. He did not want to eat their food. He did not want to lose his culture. His family, concerned that he might do something rash in his yearning for the old freedom, took away his weapons, his tools, his precious knife – all that he needed to live off the land in the frozen, blustery tundra. Or at least they thought they took everything away. They could not take away his knowledge, his way of seeing things. And his way of seeing was the most important thing he had. One dark night, as the wind shrieked around his place, the grandfather stepped out into the blizzard. He was empty-handed, but only for a moment. He defecated into his hand, molding his own "waste" into a keen blade as it froze, spitting on it, wetting and sharpening the bloodletting side with saliva. It froze solid and sharp. He took the knife and killed a dying dog, skinning it to make coat and harness. He used its rib cage for a sled, its flesh for food. He hitched up a healthy dog, and with a flourish of his blade, the grandfather disappeared into the white desert. ... The grandfather was strong in the old ways of seeing things – that is to say, seeing the world, for all its dangers, as a place (in its own desolate way) of abundance. + pgs. 177-178

Even the Desert Places

Whisper Back the "Very Good"

of Their Maker

For all appearances to the contrary, there is no such thing as scarcity where the Spirit is concerned, even in the wilderness, even after the forty-day fast. The bare clarity of the desert may corner us, reduce us, winnow us, take us next door to death, even, but if the process is allowed to work, we will see, gradually or all of a sudden, that we have never been alone, that there has never been utter silence, that tools and food and fire and comfort and meaning and the kindness of God can be everywhere, even here, for those who can see things as the Spirit sees them. ... Abundance can look like barely enough sometimes, sometimes like scarcity itself – five loaves and two fish before a hungering multitude. ... After all, in spite of the hunger and thirst, who, among all those whom God led into the wilderness, starved there? Who died of thirst? For the wind of the wilderness, there is no such thing as scarcity, no such thing as emptiness. In spite of any curse and harshness, even the desert places whisper back the "very good" of their Maker, who rustles the sage and dances among the rattlesnakes. + pgs. 178-179

The Difference is Seeing

The difference of the desert is the difference of the seeing. If we think the Spirit is cruel to blow us into the windy and desolate places, then we have not yet understood this. We need such barrenness much more than we think. ... The wind of the wilderness blows where it wishes. The Spirit's presence can be as arid and contradictory as the desert – but always in the service of love. + pg. 179

The Wilderness is Empty of Words

It Is Full of Meaning

At some point, every person's path leads into the wilderness. Into the desert, to be quiet for a time, or perhaps to rage and to curse God where only ravens and silent angels can hear. Sometimes we wander there; sometimes we walk with purpose. We look for the path. Sometimes it is clear. At other times the sands cover even our own footprints. Sometimes it is a place emptier than empty; sometimes we glimpse a silhouette under the cleft of a rock or a cloaked figure moving parallel to us down a far ravine. The wilderness is empty of words; it is full of meaning. It is silent yet howls until the head pounds. Sometimes it is an experience of such profound suffering that others wonder how you make it. Sometimes it is so simple and personal that others wonder why you don't just "get over it." In any case, being thrown into the wilderness is an act of love. There are no promises whether you will live or die. But even there, in the deepest desert, the Spirit can lead you to wells of living water. + pg. 180

The Desert, Like All Places, 

Is the Dwelling of the Holy Spirit

Though He may cast you there, He will fling Himself alongside you, rough as sackcloth, gray as ashes, and good. He does that so that in the emptiness, like so many before us (like Jesus Himself), we might find fullness; in the absence, presence; in the scarcity, abundance; in fasting, a feast spread in the presence of our enemies. In the roar of the wind in both ears, the joyous shriek of the Dove of creation, that ghostly white wind of the wilderness, you might hear Him asking the ancient question: What are you doing here? He knows your answer already, but it is no matter: you have been kindly hunted, brought or carried or thrown here because it is you who must answer Him. 

+ pgs. 180-181

Links to other Lenten posts:

+ Ache for Meaning

+ Memento Mori 

+ I Hope to Lose 

+ Facing Death

+ Look at the Birds

+ Meet Us in the Mess

Christ is all,

Rev. Mike "Sully" Sullivan

Email Pastor Mike | Website | Visit Us | Support Us | Facebook Us

Our Church Speaks | Moses the Black in Ethiopia, "Holiness"

Fr. Paul of Abernathy of St. Moses the Black Orthodox Church in Pittsburgh

 "You fast,

but Satan does not eat.

You labor fervently,

but Satan never sleeps.

The only dimension

with which you can 

outperform Satan is by

acquiring humility,

for Satan has no humility."

+ Moses the Ethiopian,

330-405 A.D.

As the season of Advent begins this weekend, Emmaus City Church is seeking to soak in stories of people throughout the past millenia who have followed Jesus, using Our Church Speaks: An Illustrated Devotional of Saints from Every Era and Place as our resource. As these dear sisters and brothers throughout time and space sought to reflect the humility and holiness of Christ, so do we in the upcoming year ahead:

"Pursue peace with everyone,

and holiness —

without it no one will see the Lord."

+ Hebrews 12:14

Here are some recent highlights:

+ Paul Miki, "God's Samurai" 

+ Absalom Jones, "Free" 

+ Agnes Tsao Kou Ying, "Stand" 

+ Óscar Romero, "Courageous"

+ Pandita Mary Ramabai, "Just"

+ Julian, "All Shall Be Well"

+ Martyrs of Sudan, "Longsuffering"

+ Sundar Singh, "No Quit"

When we handed these books out to our congregation, this is part of the note we included inside each one:

This might seem at first
to be a peculiar Advent devotional. 
But saints often are peculiar people
who stand out in a particular time and place. 
In fact, the times when saints shine
the most are times of darkness.
They give glimpses of Jesus’ Light,
which darkness cannot overcome.

Advent begins in the dark. 
And we, as part of Jesus’ Church,
are called to live as Advent people 
who anticipate Jesus’ coming
into our darkness today to overcome it. 
Ultimately, our hope rests in the God of Advent
who drew near to us in Jesus’ first coming
and will come again
to take away the darkness forever
and be our eternal Light.

That hope is what saints have embodied
as our sisters and brothers across time,
ethnicities, Christian traditions,
nationalities, and more.

As we step into this next year,
our prayer is that we will shine 
all the more with the holy light
of Christ in us and through us. 
And we pray that we
“being rooted and firmly established in love,
may be able to comprehend with all the saints
what is the length and width,
height and depth of God’s love.”
After all, “the Father has enabled us
to share in the saints’ inheritance in the light.

He has rescued us from 

the domain of darkness and
transferred us into the Kingdom
of the Son He loves.”

This post features an excerpt from Our Church Speaks so that you might also walk some of this journey with us with reflection, prayer, and anticipation for how the Light of the world might shine in your life during this season.

Moses the Ethiopian in Our Church Speaks

Moses the Ethiopian

Monastic & Martyr

Moses the Ethiopian (also known as "Moses the Black") is among the most prominent ancient desert fathers, cherished for his dedication to humility and peace. He was born in Ethiopia and joined a band of seventy-five violent outlaws in the Nile valley of Egypt. This band of thieves terrorized the local populace, and Moses, distinguished by his towering figure and violent nature, soon became the robbers' leader. While being pursued by the authorities, Moses hid in a monastery with Egyptian monks. There, he observed the peace of Christ through the witness and discipline of the monks. Moses repented of his violence and lawlessness, was baptized, and became a member of the monastery.

In his early years as a monk, Moses found it difficult to completely leave the habits of his hold life behind. One day, Moses found several robbers stealing from the monastery. He overpowered them and dragged them to the chapel by force, where they too repented and became members of the monastic community.

Moses became frustrated with himself 

and with his lack of progress in

attaining the holiness of life he sought.

His spiritual father, Isidore,

invited Moses to join him on

the monastery roof at dawn.

Together they watched the sun

creep to the horizon.

"Only slowly do the rays of the sun

drive away the night

and usher in a new day,"

said Isidore to Moses.

God was at work in Moses,

slowly refining the once-violent outlaw

into a powerful figure of peace and

godly holiness.

In time, Moses became a respected monastic leader, known as Abba Moses (Father Moses), and many of his teachings were recorded and preserved. "If we took the trouble to see our sins we would not see the sins of a neighbor," Abba Moses taught. Abba Moses also said, "Do not be at enmity with anybody and do not foster enmity in your heart; do not hate one who is at enmity with his neighbor — and this is peace."

When Abba Moses was an old man, violent raiders laid siege to his monastery. Moses forbade the monks from defending themselves but told them to flee for safety rather than take up weapons to fight. Abba Moses remained behind and was murdered by the bandits as he stood with his monastery in peace.

Scripture

"We ask you, brothers and sisters, 

to respect those who labor among you

and are over you in the Lord

and admonish you,

and to esteem them very highly in love

because of their work.

Be at peace among yourselves.

And we urge you, brothers,

admonish the idle, 

encourage the fainthearted,

help the weak,

be patient with them all.

See that no one repays anyone

evil for evil,

but always seeks to do good

one to another and to everyone.

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing,

give thanks in all circumstances;

for this is the will of God

in Christ Jesus for you."

+ 1 Thessalonians 5:12-18

Meditation: 

Rise of a New, Urban Monasticism

The monastic movement

emerged in the third century

in response to the cultural decline

of the Roman Empire and 

the need that many Christians

were sensing for a new kind of 

dedication to holiness of life.

This new movement would

invite the participant into a

life of submission, peace, discipline,

community, virtue, love, labor, and prayer.

The monastic movement saw itself as

something of an antidote to the

licentiousness of the empire.

While it is not possible to know whether contemporary Western society is truly in decline or merely experiencing a dip before another rise, it is true that many followers of Jesus today are sensing a renewed need to dedicate their whole selves to holiness in Jesus. For this reason, counterintuitive as it may seem to many, there is a renewed interest in monasticism among the younger generations. But the monastic impulse of today differs from its historic form in several key ways. First, it is noncloistered. Monastics do not withdraw from their cities; they are embedded within society. Second, its commitment is limited, not permanent. In our highly mobile society, monastics are free to come and go. Third, it is bivocational. Monastics usually hold some sort of part-time or full-time job in the marketplace.

If the new monasticism is embedded within cities, limited in commitment, and bivocational, then what makes it monastic? The answer is that the new, urban monasticism is a community of Christians who share a rule of life and who are seeking to help one another grow in Christlikeness. What makes this different from a "normal" congregation? The honest answer would be, not much — except that most congregations do not invite their congregants into this depth of spiritual formation. 

Moses the Ethiopian, before his conversion, was about as unmonastic as a man can be. It is a testament to the power of sharing a rule of life within a community of believers that he was transformed from a violent outlaw into a man who peacefully gave his life away to violent outlaws. This kind of deep transformation is only possible through the Holy Spirit, and it requires community and personal discipline. These are the tools by which we partner with the Holy Spirit in our own transformation.

This new, urban monastic movement of our time is simply the latest form of seeking this partnership with the Spirit of Christ.

Prayer

O God, Your blessed Son became poor for our sake and chose the cross over the kingdoms of this world. Deliver us from an inordinate love of worldly things, that we, inspired by the devotion of Your servant Moses, may seek You with singleness of heart, behold Your glory by faith, and attain to the riches of Your everlasting Kingdom, where we shall be united with our Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

+ Our Church Speaks,

pgs. 114-116

The Celebrity & The Saint

The celebrity demands,

"Look at me!"

The saint whispers,

"Look at God."

The celebrity says,

"Try to be like me,

but you'll never be like me."

The saint says,

"Why would anyone want to be like me?

Who has God made you?"

The celebrity is ever ascending,

climbing the tower of Babel

to the double-platinum throne.

The saint is ever descending,

saying, "Please have my seat, I insist."

The celebrity offers you everything

you want but can never have.

The saint offers you the thing you fear

but will redeem your soul.

The celebrity is a Ferrari

screaming down the highway

with music blaring.

The saint is the freshwater creek

beside the highway

that almost nobody ever notices

and is nearly impossible to hear

over the roar of traffic.

Yet the water murmurs

as it wanders over stones

and around oak roots.

It is not silent.

+ Ben Lansing & D.J. Marotta,
Our Church Speaks

Bonus Eastern Orthodox Story:

+ Rev. Milad Selim Journeyed 

from Iraq to Serving

St. George's in Worcester

Bonus Advent 1st Collect:

Almighty God, give us grace
to cast away the works of darkness,
and put on the armor of light,
now in the time of this mortal life
in which Your Son Jesus Christ
came to visit us in great humility;
that in the last day,
when He shall come again
in His glorious majesty
to judge both the living and the dead,
we may rise to the life immortal;
through Him who lives and reigns
with You and the Holy Spirit, one God,
now and forever.
Amen.

+ Tish Harrison Warren

 Advent: Season of Hope,

pg. 60

Additional Advent Resources:

Advent Story of God

Bold & Courageous 1st Advent Hymn

The Paradigm Shattering Incarnation

Mary. Christ. Mass.

Christ Comes to You in the Chaos

Experience God-With-Us in Your Fears

The Lord's Coming, Now, Before, Again

Next Post:

J.S. Bach, "Beautiful Artistry"

Many blessings of peace and presence,

Rev. Mike “Sully” Sullivan

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