Luke 21:25-36

Year C - Advent ² or Needed Change ²

December 6, 2015

Luke 21:25-36

It was definitely not the best of times when Tiberius modeled reigning for Pontius Pilate, Herod/Philip/Trachonitis/Lysanias, and Annas/Caiaphas. Into another of the worst times came a word to John Zechariahsen.

This word was an action, baptism. This action spoke of repentance and forgiveness. This, also, was another season for these to be brought to the fore. Prophet after prophet acted these out in various ways in various times.

Again it was ruler contesting against prophet. Later we will hear how the prophet again lost; and again won.

So we look at today’s rulers and today’s prophets. Listen to one of today’s prophets organizing in his way and time: The new fusion politics.

1 Thessalonians 3:9-13

Year C - Advent ¹ or Needed Change ¹

November 29, 2015

1 Thessalonians 3:9-13

What joy! I get to restore whatever is lacking in your faith.

That seems like a strange construct but it is the context for the blessing with which this section ends.

May it be that any and every heart be strengthened in living meaningfully, even if that is done without my direct engagement with that meaning.

On this first Sunday of the modern 4-Sunday Advent we are alert (Luke) to fulfilled justice (Jeremiah) through humble and steadfast love (Psalm) that we might abound in love for one another (1 Thessalonians).

Psalm 25:1-10

Year C - Advent ¹ or Needed Change ¹

November 29, 2015

Psalm 25:1-10

“Steadfast love” is paralleled with both ”mercy” and “faithfulness”. This parallelism brings mercy and faithfulness together as a reflective pair.

A basic question about the quality of steadfast love is clarified when we are heard to ask, “Do I trust mercy to be my basic response to the actions of others?” Like it is clarified by the question, “Do I trust I will be treated mercifully when I have gone astray?”

If both or either response is, “No”, there is more work to be done on loving G*D and loving Neighb*r as Y*urself.

If both responses are, “Yes”, there is more work to be done on loving G*D and loving Neighb*r as Y*urself.

These are paths never traveled once. Like establishing habits, we trace them again and again as we enter new territory. It might be said that we must trace them again and again if we are to enter new territory.

A part of the reason we need to retrace them is that we are walking in partnership with G*D and one another. This is different than establishing a new personal habit in 21 days. It means that each of us walking together on a path are walking together, not marching, and we need to find out again what steadfast love means in each new context.

No amount of warning or promise will see us through all the adjustments needed to walk together over the long haul. Behind both warning and promise is something deeper than surface behavior and morality. That something deeper is sometimes called “steadfast love” or “mercy” or “faithfulness”. These go way beyond accumulating stars for our golden crown or being scared straight. They exemplify a creative partnership working to be better together.

Jeremiah 33:14-16

Year C - Advent ¹ or Needed Change ¹

November 29, 2015

Jeremiah 33:14-16

All the evidence is that we are in the midst of a surly day.

We look for evidence that a day is surely coming when the promise of justice and righteousness will spread across the land.

Anyone holding their breath for a transition from surly to surely may be well advised to temper that action. Not knowing a kairotic time when we see it easily leads us to our base-line optimism or pessimism but not to an acceptance of our responsibility and accountability to partner with all would be about doing justice through the mechanism of mercy or moderating righteousness by way of universal assurance of belovedness, not a particular morality.

So far we have heard warning and promise. This is similar to what we all need to progress to a next plateau in our life’s journey—support and correction. It is easy to get trapped by either end of these paradoxical polarities.

Given this first Sunday of a new attempt to be more merciful, what needs to be put in place in the next 12 months that we will feel we have moved one step closer to our goal and so can build on that the first Sunday of Advent next year?

Luke 21:25-36

Year C - Advent ¹ or Needed Change ¹

November 29, 2015

Luke 21:25-36

The "powers of the heavens" is old speak for Trouble-In-Our-Time-and-Space. If you attend at all to today’s media you will see “news” as a form of advertising trying to push you toward a knee-jerk response. It doesn’t matter if the fear is underarm odor, Syrian immigrants (simply the latest in a long line), or passivity toward war—that which is passed off as common knowledge has an agenda.

The Scriptures can be read through the same advertising eye. Look, a fig tree means the end is nigh. Look, new immigrants means the end is nigh. Look, a new enemy (always a terrorist) means the end is nigh. Anywhere you look you can find a reason to absolutely know the end is nigh.

OK. So what is new. Those who recognize that every generation has its travail are better positioned to not have their hearts weighed down with the worries of the day and to be able to avoid the traps trying to trick us into giving up on the goodness of creation or subtly pushing us toward a next war and war after that.

As we come to the edge of a new year our desire is to stand, simply stand, in the most meaningful place we can. For followers of Jesus this will most likely be at the juncture of the 3 Abrahamic traditions—Mercy.

What would it mean to stand with those of the Jewish and Muslim traditions to proclaim 5 or 6 times a day (or constantly) that G*D is merciful and to honor G*D with our whole being is to honor our Neighb*rs with that same mercy?

Blessings on starting our next year with this question of standing (a judicial category) that we might be able to measure our movement toward Mercy by this time next year.

Revelation 1:4b-8

Year B - Reign of Christ or Evaluation Sunday

November 22, 2015

Revelation 1:4b-8

One redeeming phrase here is: “a kingdom of priests”. This is like Meister Eckhart stating that the lowest person is included in those acknowledged to be rulers. When everyone is a ruler or a priest all the old categories fly out the door.

Of course we will find some distinguishing mark whereby we can discriminate against someone else so we are not the lowest. Nonetheless, this kind of including everyone in can help us identify both our personal prejudice and our corporate discrimination.

Remember even those who did Jesus in by word or deed are able to see a new way coming and join in. Conversion is an ever-present possibility. Obversely, everyone will have something to lose when a new way of being with one another enters the scene. The joy of conversion and the wail of loss will be equally evident, someday.

Until then claim your priesthood and forgive freely. Until then weep that you have turned your back on your priestly comrades and withheld your forgiveness. May we be at a better place as we evaluate how far we have come by this time next year.

1 Timothy 2:1-8

Year B - Thanksgiving

November 22, 2015

1 Timothy 2:1-8

We do like our orderliness. The Love Prevails group has even found that standing off to the side and holding a sign is seen by some as disorderly. Well, OK, the signs have disordered a mind or two as they call for change. But even the mildest of suggestions that things might be different will eventually upset the status quo.

This appeal to orderliness is particularly evident when a plea is made to pray for everyone and have that immediately followed by only one example: for kings that we might lead a quiet, peaceable life exemplified by surface godliness and dignity and their attendant passivity of no anger or argument.

This feels considerably different than an earlier appeal to strive for the presence of G*D (mercy). The status quo and mercy are much like oil and water, difficult to keep together without separating.

It is unfortunate that this is the beginning appeal (“First of all”). It really has nowhere to go from there. In particular, the only thanksgiving coming from this is for those already in power. A larger picture is needed for larger thanksgiving.

Psalm 132:1-12

Year B - Reign of Christ or Evaluation Sunday

November 22, 2015

Psalm 132:1-12

On this last Sunday of the Church Year our goal is revealed as Kingship. Jesus becomes the latest king in the line of David. This David claimed to have labored unceasingly, no slumbering, to get a throne for G*D and (well, maybe a little) for himself. Kings, after all, can use any G*D available to solidify their grasp on the reins of power.

Against this background what are we to do with the continuing drop in the polls regarding the church and church leaders. Once upon a time it and they were near the top—now not so much (see: http://www.gallup.com/poll/166298/honesty-ethics-rating-clergy-slides-new-low.aspx).

At the least, if power/kingship is going to continue to be the goal for the church, Advent better start us on a whole new track as the old one isn’t making it

Psalm 126

Year B - Thanksgiving

November 22, 2015

Psalm 126

Do we get more thanks out of a restored past or a breaking future?

Somehow we seem to be more thankful after a loss than with something unexpected and new. There is a longer lasting thankfulness to have a pain removed than with the latest toy soon outlasting its novelty.

Here, too, we have a model of weeping first; joy second. This sounds very much like sinner first; heaven last.

Do consider a concept of “enough” being our measuring spot for thanksgiving. In this way it is not just prayer that is to be constant, but thanksgiving. In fact it is helpful to move prayer out of petition and into thanks so you can’t say “prayer” without saying “thanks”.

Since we have been weeping as we sow seeds for the next generations, do begin shifting that into what you are thankful for—an opportunity to sow and weep. Waiting for actual sheaves and not already anticipating them (virtual sheaves) is a game not worth the playing.

Joel 2:21-27

Year B - Thanksgiving

November 22, 2015

Joel 2:21-27

Thanksgiving casts out shame.

Basic dirt knows this much. Why do we keep forgetting?

Those claiming to be created from such dusty old dust might better remember this than we do. It seems we have to keep learning these things from brother and sister animal and sister and brother plant.

So, Lift up your head, O Gates; Thanksgiving enters. Lift up your head, O Gates; Shame leaves.

And, amazingly, when they meet in the Gate both are transformed. Thanksgiving is humbled; Shame is assured.

Be glad and rejoice when the proud do not stomp the vulnerable into the ground. Be glad and rejoice when the glutton does not explode over everyone else.

Give thanks that we have learned moderation even in moderation. Now we are getting somewhere.

2 Samuel 23:1-7

Year B - Reign of Christ or Evaluation Sunday

November 22, 2015

2 Samuel 23:1-7

Justice is justice, whether seen as engaging a god or a G*D. When justice happens light breaks through and reflects off the water. Wear your sunglasses and put on your suntan lotion for double light will wear you out without them.

When we are worn out, light may appear just but just blinds us to basic common good for the next generation, much less seven down the way. Cultural discrimination masquerading as justice raises its poisonous head to bite our heel as we limp around attractive altars.

The strong light of justice is a harsh task-mistress as she asks questions of our actions and not just those of others. The Ash Rule applies here, You shall be consumed as you have consumed.

A last Sunday in Pentecost is a last chance to share wonders, not to enshrine them.

John 18:33-37

Year B - Reign of Christ or Evaluation Sunday

November 22, 2015

John 18:33-37

The Examiner strides into Headquarters and calls for Jesus Kafka. Gregor the Prisoner is asked his status and asks in return, “Where’d you get that question, I was just looking at another day in the Office of Healing.”

“What have you done?” leaves Jesus befuddled. “Am I to defend myself? Accuse myself? Come up with one more trick response? This must be a dream. I’m not from this crazy place.”

“Ah, so you do have Status! You have done!”

“If you say so. Testifying time! In the end, you don’t exist, Doorkeeper, but the Door does. Think I’ll walk through. See you on the other side if you have courage to follow.”

This is a day of evaluation. We’ve had a year since last Advent. Are we still at the same impasse? How would you apply your best learning from the year to this scene?

Matthew 6:24-34

Year B - Thanksgiving

November 22, 2015

Matthew 6:24-34

There are ever so many worries, real and imagined, that crop up on a moment-to-moment basis. Horror movies are a perennial best seller. We love to scare ourselves and those around us.

It is difficult to keep a focus on the goodness of creation in the midst of so many pieces of the sky falling all about us. Well, at least they feel like sky. We have met Henny Penny and she be us.

On this last Sunday of the church year we could go the “Christ the King” route. The difficulty here is left over from last Advent. What have we learned through the course of the year? Is it our king trumps your king? Is is allegiance to some a priori truth? Is it division into those who hear the voice in my head and those who don’t?

My hope is that we have set our sights a bit higher, the Presence or the Freedom of G*D. In this all the rest finds its way. We can do with enough. We know our connection with the birds of the air and the flowers of the field.

How to wrap up the year? One less worry than last year at this time. Perhaps it is not much, but it is priceless.

Hebrews 10:1-14, (15-18), 19-25

Year B - Pentecost +25 or Energy to Witness ²⁵

November 15, 2015

Hebrews 10:1-14, (15-18), 19-25

“I sacrificed myself for the sins of others and am waiting for my enemies to be abased by my feet, abused by my followers.” Does this sound like Jesus?

If G*D is planning to forgive us, as images of G*D we are to forgive others and invite (provoke) them to love and good deeds. This critical middle section dare not be left out. Without it we move from the postulate that Jesus is qualitatively different than anyone else (not exactly human) to a self-centered group of the “sanctified” separate from the world (our sisters and brothers).

If we are going to be followers of one who removes sin from the table and guilt from our conversation we need to understand our renunciation of reveling in victory is not a technique of humbly being saved but deep, deep habits of encouraging current friend and foe alike and receiving their encouragement of us.

Here at the end of Pentecost we are tempted to find ourselves in another locked room. This time not out of fear that we will be done in but in rejoicing that others will become our footstool. This turn of events might be called an anti-Pentecost that comes back off the streets, having shared wonders, and waiting for all those out there to be blown to the babel-ing winds.

This seems a strange and bitter end to the hope, mercy, joy, and surprise of a first Pentecost.

1 Samuel 2:1-10

Year B - Pentecost +25 or Energy to Witness ²⁵

November 15, 2015

1 Samuel 2:1-10

The lead-up to this passage is Hannah speaking out of her anxiety and vexation, her implied yelling at G*D that goes beyond the recorded plea and bargaining in Chapter 1. This is important as it gets carried through to a seeming resolution of her angst.

Being victorious seems to be all the sweeter if it can be pushed in an adversary’s face. Somehow we don’t count victories in anything other than war and triumphalist terms. So what might we learn from Hannah about what not to do when thankful for one mercy or another? Would Hannah be a leader in a Truth and Reconciliation process?

This song runs through Miriam, Psalms, and Mary as well as every apocalyptic vision. Hooray, I got mine! Too bad about you and you and you!

Next week is the final Sunday of this cycle of the lectionary. Remember again what you had in mind last Advent and through each of the seasons since. Is this what we have come to over a year of supposed growth toward deeper outward signs and inward grace? If so, no wonder some “Christ the King” Sunday rings hollow and no wonder another Advent is required on the great Theosis Wheel.

1 Samuel 1:4-20

Year B - Pentecost +25 or Energy to Witness ²⁵

November 15, 2015

1 Samuel 1:4-20

What would we finally hear if you spoke out of your “anxiety and vexation”?

Now that you have that clear, speak. After speaking, get down to “knowing”, doing the deed that leads to fulfillment.

What causes “the Lord” to remember? Is it in some plan that remembrance take place at some future time? Is it the intercession of an official priest? Is it how heart-felt your plea? Is it presenting yourself before “the Lord” before enough rules were in place to have direct contact with that “Lord” rather than work through your patri-arch who thinks he’s worth 10 of what you desire?

This is only one example of having to force a “Lord’s” hand. Are you still pining and waiting and resigned or exercised enough to push past any current revelation or remembered plan? Is partnership with G*D still an option for you?

Mark 12:13:1-8

Year B - Pentecost +25 or Energy to Witness ²⁵

November 15, 2015

Mark 12:13:1-8

D: Look what large buildings they now have that will soon be ours!

J: Wrong perspective the buildings will be not be theirs or yours.

D: Well, then, when is that going to happen?—that these walls come tumbling down?

J: Oh no you don’t! Prediction is a fool’s game. Don’t be taken in by rumors, no matter how common-sensical they appear on the surface. Such speculation only gets you sound-and-fury. 

[pause]

But you might find the beginning of wisdom in recognizing there is nothing new under the sun and there is no good reason why a creation birthed in “It is good” should have to come to an unruly end instead of a peaceful and satisfied sigh.

D: Is that orthodox? 

J: Of course it is. Those who have eyes will see such blessing in the midst of every confusion and pull back every tangled web woven to deceive you into thinking wars are real and mercy is not. Watch, attend, see, act, grow.

Hebrews 9:24-28

Year B - Pentecost +24 or Energy to Witness ²⁴

November 8, 2015

Hebrews 9:24-28

Let's see, a high-priest model Jesus is unique. He only shows up once to take a picture of us back to G*D in heaven, a mere copy of our true image but what can be beamed up.

But he will come a second time, not to deal with sin that a Holy Spirit will redefine for us in such a way that we will see how wrong we were about sin. But Jesus will come to give assurance that those who have redefined sin are on a helpful tack.

What we don't hear about are all the other sightings that have been made along the way. Perhaps, even some that you have had.

This modeling doesn't square with our experience. Neither high priest or ascension stand up to the bodhisattva we have named Jesus.

Psalm 127

Year B - Pentecost +24 or Energy to Witness ²⁴

November 8, 2015

Psalm 127

How many houses have come and gone? How many cities? Even the most fabled fall with some never to be found again. We might ask where the "Lord" has been.

Who among us hasn't questioned our getting up early and a lack of sleep? Again a question about where the "Lord" has been. Has the Sabbath been a Sabbath for the "Lord" and a day of rest has lasted as long as any metaphoric "Day" lasts in biblical apocalyptic language?

We finally get to our work of raising up power to overtake the power of others and establish our "heritage". Wombs are a work place for replicating soldiers all too soon gone. So we need a first quiver full of "arrows" and then a second and third. No wonder a poor womb begins to weep.

Widows without protection become all too common as those protectors are siphoned off into one quiver or another and the widow quivers in their loss.

Oh, yes, happy man; sad woman.

So, how do we redefine power and "quivers" and "arrows" other than how it affects wombs and widows?

Time for a new song.

Ruth 3:1-5; 4:13-17

Year B - Pentecost +24 or Energy to Witness ²⁴

November 8, 2015

Ruth 3:1-5; 4:13-17

David's ancestress, Ruth, seductress of Boaz, is alive and well in David's DNA (see Bathsheba).

Naomi plays the role of Snake-in-the-garden and Ruth is Eve with with Boaz getting second billing as Adam. Each played their part and we are where we are. Each of us continue playing our parts as we carry these same multiple personalities within us.

Blessings on breaking your play's fourth wall and carrying your role into the audience of reality, there to shift, modify, or re-write your part.

- - - - - - -

How is widow Naomi the same and different from the unnamed widow with a mite or two?
 

Mark 12:38-44

Year B - Pentecost +24 or Energy to Witness ²⁴

November 8, 2015

Mark 12:38-44

After engaging antagonistic Sadducees and Pharisees and technocratic Scribes we come to a fourth story where the antagonist is all-of-the-others rolled into one--institutional religion using fear tactics to cow any unauthorized variant back into line. As a result, every part of the religious structure points to Rome, the Temple, or Fundamentalist teaching, depending on one's focus, but never to real lives of widows, orphans, or aliens.

 

For example, having just heard of a scribe's hearing a second commandment to the Shema--love your Neighb*r is contrasted with an actual neighborhood widow and comes up lacking when the institution requires her last two pennies.

 

Yes, Jesus' observation makes a dandy Pledge Drive periscope. Even though an impetus for giving is present, making a moral out of unequal examples puts a burden on the poor by getting mixed up about amounts instead of just access. As a result, those putting in much are categorizable as wicked devourers of widow's resources. It is as if they said, "Try matching this amount of giving. What, you've given your all and don't have anything left? Too bad, we still have our surplus with which to call the shots!"

 

How do you read this sequence of stories?

 

- - - - - -

 

Ahh, the honored

respectfully greeted

given third-row-center seating

unaware of the back of the balcony

able to ask non-questions

and baffled by real responses

freebie perks reveal

a fragile partnership