belonging

Pentecost Last - Year B

my presence
is not only from this world
but is very much
in and for and with
this world

no need to fight
over this
I simply am
and so are you
to such we testify

belonging to this world
eventually
we will tell the truth
listen to each other
mature together

ahh, morning dawns
bright or foggy
dry or glistening grass
witnessing
look life is here
 

Revelation 1:4b-8

Pentecost Last - Year B

Revelation 1:4b-8

Sometimes we find ourselves saying more than we know. In a conflictual setting we sometimes only know we want to replace some negative with a positive rather than moving on to a new paradigm. This happens here in the description of Jesus in verse 5. If nasty old Babylon/Rome has a king/emperor and priests and sacrifices and we want a change, we will change kings and priests and sacrificed elements but not do away with the categories.

Here it would have been enough to indicate that Jesus was a “faithful witness” of the expansiveness and immanence of G*D’s presence without going on to such statements as “firstborn of the dead” and “ruler of kings”.

This would keep the focus on the importance of witness (The United Methodist Church added a fifth category to a member’s vow just last year - In addition to connecting with a congregation and denomination by way of “prayer, presence, gifts, and service”, is “witness”, within and beyond said church). Jesus’ witness to G*D’s presence leads to encountering the world from a perspective of grace and peace that transcends any present difficulty. This is categorically different than miracle and power.

We sometimes let what have become religious phrases roll off our tongue as though we knew what we were saying. If we paid more attention to the witness aspect of Jesus we might then rephrase what follows:

To him who loves us and frees us from sin by modeling abundant living and shows us how to live together by loving both G*D and Neighbor as we love Our Self, to him be thanks and service forever and ever. Amen.
 

Psalm 132:1-12

Pentecost Last - Year B

Psalm 132:1-12

G*D needs a rest. Too much wandering around outside of Eden and coming up with new responses to these very creative humans packed to overflowing with cosmic energy.

G*D needs a rest. Too many promises to too many people. Too many expectations. Too many covenant revisions and new creations.

G*D needs a rest. Perhaps a Temple will be restful (until rousted by warriors from the outside and curtains ripped from the inside). Perhaps setting up a bloodline will be restful (until squabbles arise between potential heirs and those who prevail set up unstable conditions to suit only themselves).

G*D needs a rest. For such a time as this you have a lullaby to sing and a task to pick up. In due time you will need a rest. Then both G*D and you can rise refreshed to welcome one another and all others to health and wholeness.
 

2 Samuel 23:1-7

Pentecost Last - Year B

2 Samuel 23:1-7

In looking back, David cuts through the good and absence of good to summarize a road better taken even though it is not In looking back, David cuts through the good and absence of good to summarize a road better taken even though it is not descriptive of his own journey. If you were to look back over your life, what would you distill from it? Would someone who knows you well recognize you in the maxims you see as critical or foundational? Even if your distillation of wisdom doesn’t exactly fit your own life, is it generally true over a longer time than your life and in a context of a series of cultures?

It is very tricky to divine meaning from the various journey points of a life. We keep getting caught in in the specifics of what appears to be cause and effect. How do you discern fair governance in David’s relationship to Bathsheba and Solomon? Are these details extraneous to some larger picture?

To sharpen your thinking about psychohistory, remember to browse, again or for the first time, Isaac Azimov’s Foundation series from 50 years ago. The always intriguing Wikipedia has discerned three disparate responses to the series, which leaves room for yours: “In Learned Optimism, psychologist Martin Seligman identifies the Foundation series as one of the most important influences in his professional life, because of the possibility of predictive sociology based on psychological principles. He also lays claim to the first successful prediction of a major historical (sociological) event, in the 1988 US elections, and he specifically attributes this to a psychological principle; Paul Krugman, winner of the 2008 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, credits the Foundation series with turning his mind to economics, as the closest existing science to psychohistory; and Osama Bin Laden, the leader of the Al Qaeda terrorist organization, may have been influenced by the novel in its formation as a method to expand Islamic fundamentalist influence, even extending to the name 'Al Qaeda', a translation of the word 'Foundation' into Arabic which otherwise has no natural direct counterpart in the language.”

How do you see actions in your personal life and the lives of individuals around you limiting the duration of a coming “dark age”, to be a sun rising on a foggy day?

John 18:33-37

Pentecost Last - Year B

John 18:33-37

We have moved during this Pentecost season from John 15:26, back in June, to John 18:37, this fourth week of November.

We moved from a promise to send a Spirit of truth to help folks “testify” on behalf of Jesus, who, now, himself, testifies to a truthful life.

We moved from an understanding that those who receive a Spirit of truth will be sought to be killed and the killers will consider that they are doing what is good or expedient to Jesus being in exactly this same position.

In both instances we have moved from promise and expectation to a specific model of internal and external congruity, not measurable by those not on the same page and certainly not about the power of kingship.

It is this journey between possibility and reality that we have been on, trying to make that transition in our own lives. How did you do? Are you further along this year than you were a year ago? As you reflect upon this season of Pentecost and Ordinary Opportunities, note a specific or two that has been encouraging to you. This is also a favorable time to note what needs to be worked on this coming year. We have finished one perspective on this journey, Mark’s, and will turn to Luke to look at the work still needed and to find insight and practice opportunities helping us progress another step closer to wholeness.
 

Idol Talk

Pentecost +24 - Year B

Idols come in all sizes. Some are Temple-sized. Some are family-sized. Some are assurance-of-salvation sized.

Usually we are inconvenienced by idol talk to such an extent that we cannot identify that we are in an idolatrous mode. Should we come to the conclusion that we are relying on an idol for our identity, we will probably make a choice between suicide or ditching the discredited idol.

Week by week, if we wanted to investigate, the lectionary could identify idol identifiers and hope beyond idols. It depends on what questions we are willing to ask.

This week, some helpful ways of identifying a bit of our idol-thinking are:

• hanging with a crowd that only thinks the way I think
  
• asking irrelevant questions about timing and mechanisms
  
• worry about details (negative) of any other way than our status quo
  
• asking big “Why?” questions as complaint not investigation
  
• running ourselves into the ground emotionally and physically
  
• making bargains with the unknown to get what you want
  
• knowing we are the chosen and letting those others go

Some helpful ways of beginning to reduce our idolatries are:

• remember similar times (Temples are also promised to be rebuilt)
  
• remember it is the youngest usually picked by G*D, not the first-born
  
• remember, when bumping down a stair, to keep a silly old G*D with you
  
• remember we once didn’t know how to provoke folks to good and others can learn to join in this joy

It’s usually too much to ask about repressed idols. Our remembrance is often too disconnected from our circumstance. Perhaps, though, we could play G*D and be present with others, as some others have been for us, in asking questions about behaviors and their consequences.

Worried?
Really!
Sorry.
Options?

Hebrews 10:11-14, (15-18), 19-25

Pentecost +24 - Year B

Hebrews 10:11-14, (15-18), 19-25

It is verse 18 that offers a better approach to sacrifice than a mega- or metasacrifice. If forgiveness operates, sacrifice becomes moot.

Using this approach we might then work toward a priesthood of all based on forgiveness. In this way we would affirm that every priest, day after day, offers, again and again, forgiveness of both form and content. It is not that forgiveness takes away sin, but it does obviate the need to continue repeating it or substitute sacrifice (formalized forgiveness without its presence) for it.

If forgiveness applies to the privileged of G*D, the predestined, who’s to say that G*D has not privileged or predestined everyone. For the moment presume Arminius did better in this particular than other followers of Calvin. Now we can jump to the Wesleyan renewal movement with its practices and social structures that would help individuals attend to preparing to greet ‘the Day’ as an occasion of joy, rather than sorrow. [last sentence modified from The Wesley Study Bible]

Good news - forgiveness is available. We don’t have to go through some sacrificial system, but can jump right to being proactive in being a forgiver who thus provokes love and good deeds. This is evangelistic enough to spend time together encouraging and being encouraged. Hmmm, forgiveness as a church growth (root-deepening) principle.