Archives by: Gary Hoag

“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:36-40

“St Brendan once asked Ita what were the three works most pleasing to God, and the three works most displeasing to Him. St Ita answered, ‘Three things that please God most are true faith in God with a pure heart, a simple life with a grateful spirit, and generosity inspired by charity. The three things that most displease God are a mouth that hates people, a heart harboring resentment, and a confidence in wealth.’ St Brendan and all who were there, hearing that opinion, glorified God in His chosen one.”

St Brendan and St Ita in Celtic Daily Prayer (New York: Harper Collins, 2002) 766.

Consider the simplicity of St Brendan’s question and the content of St Ita’s answer. Having faith in God with purity, living simply with gratitude, and extending grace-filled generosity to others pleases God. These three reflect loving God and loving our neighbor.

And on the flip side, what displeases God are a mouth that hates people, a heart that harbors resentment, and faith in wealth. These sound like three defining traits of the world around us. They reveal a lack of care for others and failure to trust in God.

God, reveal any impurity to our faith, teach us to live simply and generously. Cause your love to flow from our hearts and lips as we trust you rather than wealth to sustain us. In your mercy hear our prayer and work by your Spirit so our lives please you we ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.

The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. Amen. Revelation 22:21

“Ciaran founded the monastery of Clonmacnois on the banks of the Shannon River in late 544. Less than a year later on 9 September 545, he died unexpectedly at the age of 33.

Ciaran went to the island of Aran to commune with Enda. Both of them saw the same vision of a great fruitful tree growing beside a stream in the middle of Ireland. The tree protected the entire island. Its fruit crossed the sea that surrounded Ireland and the birds of the world came to carry off some of that fruit.

Ciaran turned to Enda and told him what he had seen. Enda, in turn, said to him: ‘The great tree is you, Ciaran, for you are great in the eyes of God and of all humankind. All of Ireland will be sheltered by the grace that is in you, and many people will be fed by your fasting and prayer. Go in the name of God to the centre of Ireland, and found your church on the banks of a stream.'”

Ciaran of Clonmacnois (512-545) and “The Vision of the Great Tree” from Wisdom of the Celtic Saints by E.C. Sellner as recounted in Celtic Daily Prayer (New York: Harper Collins, 2002) 765-766.

I love that the final verse in the New Testament is simply a prayer that the grace of the Lord will be with all of God’s people.

When the grace of God was on Ciaran, he accomplished the vision God gave to him and to his mentor, Enda: to establish a place where people would be sheltered by grace and fed by fasting and prayer. He built it, then passed into the presence of God. His short life was not a waste. He did his part.

What about each of us? What vision has God given you? How might you be a shelter of grace for others and feed them with fasting and prayer in the time given you?

This is a powerful word picture. Our generous service can shelter people from the storms of life by grace. Our sacrifices in fasting and prayer can impact countless lives. Through these spiritual practices, they are fed with what they need and that which will satisfy them.

What would it look like for you to discern your vision with a mentor and then go after it? Your generosity could reach levels only known by God.

Then Jesus said to His disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. Matthew 16:24

“As church and state in the Roman empire got married after the toleration edict in 312, heroic virtue was exchanged for compromise with the world, and the inevitable result was insipid mediocrity. Men and women, finding no challenge in the cities, began to flock to the Egyptian and other deserts. This was a bold encounter with the realities of existence, a challenge to all accepted norms in society, a facing of the shadow side of the human personality, and ultimately confrontation with objective evil.

The Desert Fathers were essentially solitaries, expressing their love for their neighbors by total self-oblation to God, by continuous prayer, and by handcraft work for the poor. Their lives reveal an extraordinary humility, gentleness, tenderness, sensitivity, and compassion . . . and a firm grasp of Bible teaching seems to have been based on the principle that you don’t ignore what you don’t like.”

Martin Reith in Celtic Spirituality as cited in in Celtic Daily Prayer (New York: Harper Collins, 2002) 755.

Those who ignore what they don’t like in the Scriptures don’t follow Jesus but rather their own preferences. If that sounds shocking, perhaps ask yourself if it is true about you.

Our Lord Jesus Christ bids us to come and die. He challenges us to trust that the life He offers is better than anything we can contrive. But do we really live like we believe Him.

In the USA, I grew up in a context where there was little challenge to my faith. Now, the greatest challenge comes not from outsiders but rather comfortable Christians.

They don’t want to talk about the ‘radical’ aspects of the faith, which in their view, don’t relate to everyone. It seems like they ignore what they don’t like.

Today I want to honor a friend I saw this weekend, Travis Shelton. He speaks openly and boldly about the challenging financial aspects of the faith, and he coaches people to live differently.

People are listening to his voice crying out in the desert. Many log into his podcast. When we align our faith and finances, Travis would say with the Desert Fathers, we find freedom!

Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. Then it was said among the nations, “The LORD has done great things for them.” Psalm 126:2

“There has probably never been a time in history when the majority of people were seriously seeking God. Our Bible sets before us the idea that God may use a minority to serve the majority. It is because of the faithfulness of the few, not the many, that the Christian faith has come down the ages to us and we have the chance to know God in this way. It has always been so. If God has called us and we want to respond to Him, then we must be faithful to our own vision, whatever the many think. But we must do it with open hearts and open arms, not safeguarding our fewness, our specialness. And we must do it in healthy laughter directed at ourselves, because really it is so ridiculous to think that God has chosen us for anything at all, even though it is true.”

Kate Tristram in Celtic Daily Prayer (New York: Harper Collins, 2002) 732.

Sweet meetings in Seattle. Deeply spiritual and profoundly strategic.

Funny to think that a group of eight have helped launch a mission sending gateway that has mobilized dozens of Chinese and Mongolians for Christian mission.

Yesterday was a full day, but the dinner at the end was filled with laughter.

Personally, as my season of service has drawn to a close, I can’t believe God gave me the opportunity to do this work with such a great group of people.

Maybe you have experienced a similar feeling at the end of a time of service?

As I reflect, I need open hands and open arms because this work has never been mine. It belongs to the LORD. All our work belongs to Him.

All we can do is sigh to realize the gift that it is to be on God’s team.

News of this reached the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he arrived and saw what the grace of God had done, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts. He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord. Acts 11:22-24

“By far the greatest thing a man can do for his city is to be a good man. Simply to live there as a good man, as a Christian man of action and practical citizen, is the first and highest contribution anyone can make to its salvation. Let a city be a Sodom or a Gomorrah, and if there be but ten righteous men in it, if will be saved. Simple, old-fashioned Christianity did mighty work for the world in that it produced good men. It is goodness that tells, goodness first and goodness last. Good men even with small views are immeasurably more important to the world than small men with great views.”

Finan in Celtic Daily Prayer (New York: Harper Collins, 2002) 707.

I’m in Seattle at meetings with good men (and good women). They are encouragers like Barnabas. I like how Finan describes good men as people who bring about salvation for cities.

It’s a cool picture, and happens not because of their power but their humility. They don’t save it with their strength but rather their discipline to follow God’s standards.

It’s a good feeling to wrap up a board commitment and pass the baton to good people. Their mighty work, I pray, will build upon our founding service and bless many.

As our being precedes our doing, Finan is right on to say that the first and best contribution we can make is to “be” a good person where God has planted us. Let’s do it.

“In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” Acts 20:35

“Be respectful to the worthy, merciful to the poor. It is no sin to have wealth, but it is sinful to be attracted to wealth. It is the love of money, not money itself, which is the root of all evil.

Aidan, diring one Easter with King Oswald, was himself ill at east with the feast set before them. Just then a servant arrived to say that many poor people had arrived at the castle asking for alms.

Oswald with a wave of his arm ordered their own meal to be taken away and fed to the people outside, and the silver plate broken and distributed between them.

Aiden was so overcome that he exclaimed, ‘May the hand that did this never perish.’ Any society or civilization may best be judged by the way it treats its weakest members.”

Aiden and King Oswald as recounted in Celtic Daily Prayer (New York: Harper Collins, 2002) 676-677.

What an amazing scene! The king not only distributed the feast to the poor seeking alms, he has his servants break up the silver plate to resource those in need.

It is vital to understand alms as going to the destitute, that is, people who could not help themselves, but whom we get to assist to demonstrate our Christian faith.

Two elements of this scene touch me. Oswald sacrificed his meal and converted a costly asset into aid for people in crisis. Imagine the impact on Aidan and others looking on.

Today I fly to Seattle to complete nearly seven years of service as a founding member of board that mobilizes Christian workers to serve as missionaries from Asia to the world.

I sit around a table with people like Oswald. They could feast in self indulgence, but instead they sacrifice and convert their wealth into eternal riches through giving.

Their living and giving inspires me. Let’s all resolve together to see the basic necessities and the wealth we possess as tools for showing God’s love to the needy.

Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Philippians 4:5

“Be gentle in generosity, untiring in love, just in all things. Bede speaks of Bishop Colman and his predecessors, Aidan and Finan: The sole concern of the teachers of those days was to serve God, not the world, and to feed the soul, not the belly. The religious habit, therefore, was held in great respect at that time, so that whenever a cleric or monk appeared he was welcomed gladly by everyone as a servant of God. Even if one was discovered passing on the roads they would run up to him and bow their heads, and were glad to be signed with the cross by his hand or blessed by his lips; and they paid close heed to such men’s exhortations. On the Lord’s Day they gathered eagerly in the church or monasteries, not to get food for their bodies but to listen to the Word of God; and if a priest came by chance to their village the people at once came together, eager to receive from him the word of life. The priests and clerics themselves visited the villages for no other reason than to preach, baptize, visit the sick and, in sum, to care for the souls…”

The Venerable Bede on Colman, Aidan, and Finan of Lindisfarne in Celtic Daily Prayer (New York: Harper Collins, 2002) 675-676.

There is wisdom in following in the footsteps of these saints.

We must “be gentle in generosity, untiring in love, just in all things.” We must be people who “serve God, not the world, and to feed the soul, not the belly” so that we remain fruitful in all things. And we must be people who “care for the souls” of people by giving them the “word of life.”

Let’s pause and remember the setting.

Colman, Aidan, and Finan lived in the 500s-600s, when the people did not have Bibles. They were living conduits to dispense the Word that was being copied by monks by hand. So “attending church” in those days was getting the bread of life to feed the soul and not just fellowship.

Common folk did not have Bibles in those days.

In present day if you want to pursue this way of service, I recently endorsed a great book. Stewardship for the Care of Souls by Nathan Meador and Heath R. Curtis. Nathan is a friend and Daily Meditations reader. Consider Nathan and Heath as modeling how to care for souls like Colman, Aidan, and Finan.

Check it out.

God shall likewise destroy thee for ever; He shall take thee away, and pluck thee out of [thy] tent, and root thee out of the land of the living. Selah. The righteous also shall see, and fear, and shall laugh at him, [saying,] Behold the man that made not God his strength, but put confidence in the abundance of his riches, strengthened himself in his avarice. But as for me, I am like a green olive-tree in the house of God: I will confide in the loving-kindness of God for ever and ever. I will praise thee for ever, because thou hast done [it]; and I will wait on thy name, before thy godly ones, for it is good. Psalm 52:5-9

Bede says of Aidan: “He cultivated peace and love, self-discipline and humility. His heart had the mastery over anger and avarice, and was contemptuous of pride and vainglory. He spared no effort in carrying out and teaching the commands of heaven, and was diligent in his reading and keeping of vigils.”

The Venerable Bede of Aidan of Lindisfarne in Celtic Daily Prayer (New York: Harper Collins, 2002) 674.

Either we place it in an abundance of riches, which in a word is avarice, or we place our hope in the loving-kindness of God. Aiden’s reputation was rooted in the latter.

Practices that strengthened this way of living included reading the word, prayer at the divine hours (vigils), teaching the commands of Christ and cultivating peace and love, self-discipline and humility.

What will be said about you and me? God make us like the green olive trees that bear fruit for years and flourish for the good of others and for your glory. Amen.

Those who trust in their riches will fall, but the righteous will thrive like a green leaf. Proverbs 11:28

“Never be greedy, but always be generous — if not in money then in Spirit. Bede describes the lifesytle of Colman and His Community on Lindisfarne:

They owned no wealth apart from their livestock, since any money they received from the rich was at once given to the poor. They had no need to save money or provide accommodation in order to receive the rulers of the world, who only came to the church for the purpose of prayer and to hear the word of God.

King Oswy himself, whenever the opportunity allowed it, came with only five or six thanes [that is, fellow landowners], and went away after completing his prayers in the church. Even if it chanced that they had a meal there they were content with the simple daily fare of the brothers, and asked for nothing more.”

The Venerable Bede on Colman and His Community at Lindisfarne in Celtic Daily Prayer (New York: Harper Collins, 2002) 672.

What would people say about your lifestyle and mine? Would they say were were never greedy and always generous?

The community rule that guided Colman and others at Lindisfarne focused on simple living, even when royalty visited. This is a good lesson for all of us. To treat the poor as Christ and to treat those with worldly status simply as brothers and sisters.

When we exhibit such a lifestyle, our actions speak louder than words and they show people a pathway for generosity in a greed-filled world.

Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Psalm 73:23-26

“You are a Father, all powerful and infinitely wise and good and tender. You say to us as your children, so frail we are and hardly able to walk expect with our hands in Yours, ‘All that you ask I will give you if only you ask with confidence.’

If we ask You for dangerous playthings You refuse them in goodness for us, and you console us by giving us other things for our good. If we ask You to put us where it would be dangerous for us to be, You do not give us what is not for our good, but You give us something really for our welfare, something that we would ask for ourselves if our eyes were open.

You take us by the hand and lead us, not there where we would wish to go, but there where it is best for us to be.”

Richard Foster in Celtic Daily Prayer (New York: Harper Collins, 2002) 652.

Today’s post resets our perspective on God’s goodness toward us, which when we focus on it, shapes our generosity toward others.

Notice that when we desire dangerous playthings or to go to dangerous places, He does not beat us up but gives us and guides us to goodness.

This is why the Psalmwriter elsewhere says that surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life because God pursues us with these traits.

So, what about us? Will we allow others to chase what is dangerous or will we pursue them with goodness? When we do the latter we imitate the goodness of God.