Give us this day our daily bread
Sixth Sunday of Easter. May 6, 2018
At his last meal on earth, in the upper room, Jesus said to his disciples, “As the Father loves me, so I love you. Remain in my love. Keep my commandments and you will remain in my love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy might be complete. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
– From John 15
On Thursday I spoke with a group of 30 young agricultural accountants about assertiveness and reflective listening. They had spent three days with each other and were enjoying their camaraderie. I took my shoes off, sat on the edge of the front table, and realized I had two different colored socks. That’s pretty typical for me. We all laughed.
On Friday during a not-so-chance meeting in a fine Atlanta, Illinois restaurant, an old friend prayed along with his sweetly nicknamed friend Grumpy for healing in my back. “The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed.” They prayed gently, with insistence, and then asked me to walk and try my back. No pain. Their assertiveness was a blessing in my life. God’s presence rested quietly on us.
And on Saturday we are waiting to meet Jack and Aly at Rural King. There will be a box, and there will be baby chicks, and we’ll take them home to their new home, which we have refurbished a bit – swept the floor and rearranged the furniture for our new foundlings. Red and yellow, black and white. They are precious in our sight. Eight of them, ready to eat us out of house and home. And eventually they will offer us their eggs, morning noon and night. “Sing to the Lord a new song.”
Because love is of God. And these ways, in these days, are the ways of love.
“Whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you.” Jesus will be moving on to crucifixion in twelve hours. The disciples will stand far off, cringing in fear and confusion. But soon enough Jesus’ words will ring again in their ears: “This I COMMAND you: love one another,” and their feet will quickly follow. They will find their way back to that same upper room, to each other, to learn and re-learn the ways of love and loss and love again. “I will be found by you,” God told Jeremiah (29:14), “and I will bring you back.”
And now … today. The sixth Sunday of Easter in the house of the Lord. The Giver of all good things is here, and his presence fills the room. He’s always home, but I am free to come and go, and do. For no reason, except one: I’m looking for what I already have. But I don’t need assertive relationships, or my softened, freed-up back, or even the magical mix of chicks and grandkids. It’s the Giver, not the gifts, that settles me forever into the peace of the Lord, into the house of the Lord forever.
Jeremiah 29 is a “letter to the exiles.” In it Yahweh makes it clear: “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” We were born with hearts made for love and giving and laying down our lives for friends. Jesus insists on that; he knows its true. This is the Way to the pot of gold. Neither left nor right, but here. Home again. Collect the $200, collect the healing, let the chickens lay their eggs. My father sits and smiles, keeps the light on for me, he knows how much he loves me.
Come on home.
 So I will, Lord. And in your beloved time I stay. Hearth, home, heart, there is nothing else to look for, nothing else to find. So beautiful the poet’s words, “and the end of our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time … the fire and the rose are one.”
 http://www.davesandel.net/category/lent-easter-devotions-2018/
http://www.christiancounselingservice.com/archived_devotions.php?article_id=1711
