Internetting God....

This past week the internet went out at our offices. For almost three days we had no connection to the world wide web or anything that goes with being online. This was not a week to be internet-less; three services, a major wedding, multiple meetings and messy church, not to mention getting our regular office work done. Needless to say it was a frantic week.

But being without the internet, a setback though it was, was a much needed deep breath in an otherwise busy-making summer schedule. I found myself outside watering the plants, catching up on some much needed reading and getting around to making a parish video that I have been putting off for a while (that video can be viewed here). Looking back at those three days of not being "connected" I think I was even more connected, connected to my immediate surroundings and the things that have been left to temporary neglect.

I don't want to say or suggest that God caused our internet to go out, God has more important things to do than fry our router, but it was a God given opportunity to realize that sometimes the things most important are not always out there somewhere but right in front of your face.

In reflecting on this past week I thought of the many times in the Bible that God had to get the attention of someone called to ministry. God often has to get our attention and it is not usually with lightening or burning bushes but in simple, subtle ways.

How many subtle nudges from God do we miss in our drive to be productive? In the age of smart phones, ipads and wireless everything how difficult would it be for us to disconnect from these devices and listen for the voice of God? At the risk of being accused of being anti-technology I suggest a time to "disconnected".

With luck, my goal is to take Thursday afternoons as my "technology blackout". To take time to turn off the computer, put away my phone and to listen to where God is calling.

I invite you to take some time to let the technology rest. You may find yourself surprised.

‘Do not fear, for I am with you; do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’ Isaiah 41:10

Finding God in Tomatoes

I have to begin with a confession: I do not like tomatoes. I don't mean I tolerate, or if given the choice of eating tomatoes or not I just choose not to eat them, I mean I go out of my way to avoid anything that remotely looks like a tomato! I have a healthy dislike for tomatoes!

Having said that this summer I planted an organic garden in my limited backyard for the first time to get my hands dirty. This was not a difficult task since Home Depot sells a "grow kit" with instructions no less. So I diligently followed the instructions, connecting part A

to part B and screwing in part C. etc. I even bought seedlings that came with instructions: plant x inches apart, water daily, provide lots of sun. Tomatoes were on sale and I know they are a staple of any garden, even though I don't like them one bit. But into the ground they went. I thought I did a pretty good job.

Until the tomatoes started growing, and growing and growing some more. I realized that my tomato plants were mutants, the flora version of the Frankenstein monster! They took over the garden! The little tomato plants that were supposed to be no higher than 24" are twice that size. The poor egg plant, pepper, rosemary and oregano plants are barely hanging on with the little space they have left. And it would appear that ever branch of the tomato plant (bush? tree? shrub? not sure) has blossomed, so instead of a few tomatoes that I could pawn off to a few friends I can possibly start my own pasta sauce cannery.

I expected a few tomatoes, I got a few hundred tomatoes (well not yet but soon enough). So you are wondering where is God in all this? Well I suspect that God is a lot like my mutant tomato plants. We expect just enough from God but instead we are richly blessed with more

than we can conceive. I find that God shows up in the unexpected and God is always surprising me in ways I would never imagine.

If only we as people of faith could be a lot more like my tomatoes, surprising others with our generosity, with our love, with our abundance. We tend to think that there is always a limited supply but the reality is that with God there is more than enough, much, much, much more than enough.

We serve a God of abundance, not of scarcity, maybe it's time we started living like it.

Care for a tomato?

Matthew 13:1-8 That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the lake. ²Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach. ³And he told them many things in parables, saying: ‘Listen! A sower went out to sow. ⁴And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up. ⁵Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. ⁶But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away. ⁷Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. ⁸Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.