MUSINGS FROM MOUNTAINS AND VALLEYS (Vol 1)

The Way Love Is

You are love in everything that is, and it belongs to the perfection of Your greatness that not even my nothingness is far from You, for You meet me in my imperfection and You act on me not from the distance of my failings but from the presence of Your perfection which is the way love is. From Meister Eckhart's Book of the Heart: Meditations for the Restless Soul by Jon M. Sweeney, Mark S. Burrows

This past Sunday in our after-church study one idea that seemed to resonate was that the God of Genesis 2 has not given us a perfect creation (howbeit a beautiful and bountiful one), but one that is very much in process. God gives humanity a garden, a job, a boundary, and each other. As Eckhart observes, God’s perfection is manifested in God’s all-present and all-encompassing love given to us “earth creatures” precisely as we are: always flawed and frequently confused. Yet when we receive God’s good gifts, we are free to live in harmony with God, nature, and each other just as we are “without shame.”

I am excited about the work before us at FCC and look forward to serving this community with you. But more important than any plan, my prayer for our church is that we are a place where Eden is restored and where all* can experience the reality of ” the new creation.” As God has planted this church in the beauty of this valley, let us strive to reflect and share with this community the beauty of the divine love and mercy given to each of us through Christ in the living presence of the Holy Spirit.

In last week’s sermon, I quoted the last line of Mark Twain’s The Diaries of Adam & Eve, where Adam standing by Eve’s grave declares, “Wheresoever she was, THERE was Eden.” For humans, paradise is temporarily lost as we will learn this week in Genesis 3 and beyond. But the Divine-Human drama is far from over. Apparently for God, Eden will always be where we are. And the Divine is willing to go to extreme measures to be with us. But that s

tory will have to wait for Advent.

*And by all I really mean everyone. I was going to list all the ways we differentiate each other but it says that “God so loved the cosmos” so that means everyone (including any aliens out there who have the good sense to stay as far away from earth as possible).