Easter Upside-Down

I wonder what Easter's like in Austrailia or South Africa,
when instead of happening in springtime
with budding trees and bushes,
and tulips and daffodils poking their green shoots through the warming earth,
what if, instead, it is the beginning of Fall
with leaves falling off the trees
and winter preparation just around the corner.

Most of our Easter metaphors are about new life
and how we can see it popping up around us every day.
The days are getting longer and the temperatures are warmer
and the message of new life in Christ
is especially tied to nature's awakening in the world around us.

But what if those cues were absent
and we had to rest our belief in new life
on only in the resurrection story?
What if the drama of Jesus' last days were the only thing we had?

We take so much for granted by living on the top half of the planet.
Our experiences shape the story that the world hears
and we don't even give it a second thought.

But what if we put ourselves in their place?
Is this what it's like to be left-handed,
always trying to fit our reality into someone else's truth?

Maybe this year I will celebrate and upside-down Easter...
I wonder what that would look like?

(c) Deb Luther Teagan, March 2017

So many unfinished projects

I sit in my chair surrounded by
so many unfinished projects...

A shawl for a friend whose heart sometimes beats too fast and sometimes too slow...
a baby blanket waiting for either a purple or blue border to be applied...
a scarf and wrist warmers for me in a yarn too rich and yummy to be resisted...
bags and boxes of yarn whose purposes have yet to be revealed...
papers and sermons to be filed...
books to be put away...
laundry to be folded...
episodes of television that sit on my DVR unwatched because I don't want the magic to end.

I have always thought of my life as an unfinished story,
with so many moves to houses big and small,
so many friends, all coming in just the right season,
and so many jobs, both paid and volunteer, that gave me joy.

My life is so different from the one I imagined
that it has become hard to even look into the future to see what comes next.
My comings and goings were decided by the needs of the Bishop or the Air Force,
because true love often takes us down uncharted roads,
and we made whatever came work
better than we ever imagined it could be.

But soon, much sooner that we expected,
we must look around that corner to the next thing...
and ask ourselves the inevitable question,
"What do we want to be when we grow up?"

Because come July 1,
Air Force life will be no more,
and who knows,
we may become those blasted retirees
who park their shopping carts in the middle of the Commissary aisles,
leisurely shopping, just for something to do.

Or maybe not.

So many unfinished projects...
I keep wondering why I'm not more panicked at the thought of this brave, new world.
And then I remember what I've been telling military spouses for more than 20 years...
God is down every road.

(c) Deb Luther Teagan - March 2017

We Are Not God

We are not God

They say that many preachers only have one sermon in them.

I want mine to be Grace.

Many Christians speak for God in angry tones that crush and berate -

Words of judgment and condemnation, of exclusion and superiority.

But the God I know speaks in hushed tones of love -

Words of comfort and peace, of reconciliation and forgiveness.

We say “In God we trust,”

that we want our land to be a reflection of God’s vision for humankind,

so why do we make laws that take away healthcare from the old and poor,

ignore the harsh realities of inequalities for students with disabilities,

let people go hungry or sleep in spiked doorways,

stand up against those who only want to pee in peace,

refuse to make marital abuse a condition for divorce, or

define strangers as “other” and work hard to turn them away?

If grace is not the driving force of our faith,

Then the clanging cymbal of self-interest will obscure any opportunities

That others have to hear the message of the Gospel –

To know who Jesus is.

God is love!

God is love!

God is love!

The greatest sin is that we are not claiming God’s love as our own.

We need to get with the program if we are going to live up to the legacy that

We are created in the image of God.

Beloved children, all -

In need of love and grace, all -

In need of comfort and forgiveness, all -

In need of the wisdom to take ourselves off of our self-imposed pedestals -

In need of a mission and ministry to lift us all from the darkness of sin and the depths of depression.

And what we will not give

We cannot receive.

We are not God.

But created in his image, we are called to be givers and receivers of grace

In peace.

Deb Luther Teagan – March 13, 2017

One Page Sermons in Verse - the beginning

One Page Sermons in Verse

My best work comes late at night or early in the morning
when sleep is hovering
and it feels like too much trouble
to find a pen and paper
and turn on the lights.

And the thoughts are so good and so clear
that I am totally sure that I will remember them forever.
But sleep impinges on my memory
and they float away like wispy clouds
or leaves in a quiet stream.

So many of my best works are lost
and only snippets remain in the works I eventually sit down to write.

But maybe they are not really lost,
for I know
and God knows
and, in fact, what I learn about the two of us
in those moments
is far more important
than anything I could share with anyone else.

(c) Deb Luther Teagan - March 2017