Nevermore

Pentecost +12 – Year A

Currently our Kairos CoMotion Lectionary blog is being blocked. According to Google, our blogspot host, we may be in violation of their spam policies. They do admit that their algorithmic suspicion of us may be a false positive. So, as I write they are supposedly doing a "human review" of our site.

It seems a desolate place, alongside opportunity, has come knocking, knocking, rapping, tapping at our door. Our fear of nevermore has manifested. If we don't pass some human review, in 20 days all the words here will be deleted.

Is this an opportunity to turn our few readers into a multitude? Probably not. We do not currently have the interest, expertise, or other qualities to market this site. In fact, according to the statistics for the month of July 2008 we have 186 fewer visits than in July a year ago (510 minus 324). 85% of our visitors come as a result of a link on textweek.com (the premier lectionary site you should know about) [kudos also to links or references to us from deaconsil.com and unamalachica.blogspot.com and a few who apparently have us bookmarked]. This web usage is in addition to the 29 people who receive it as an email on a daily or weekly basis.

I don't usually look at these sorts of statistics as this site is not intended for mass appeal. When I do these periodic reviews, however, it usually brings a pang or two of disappointment since we all behave as though a mirror reflects better than it receives (see Mirrors Don't Lie. Mislead? Oh, Yes.) and I am not exempt from fantastic fantasies of self-importance.

Upshot: we are a desolate place on the web. May a blessing come, anyway.

Second upshot: In theory we will be able to post within two business days. Since we aren't known for doing business as usual, we'll just have to wait and see. If you get this, you get this. If you don't, you don't.
 

Romans 9:1-5

Pentecost +12 – Year A

Romans 9:1-5

Going to a deserted place has some hope within it of finding something new or being prepared to return to some same-old same-old.

Here we have an image of going to a deserted place as a result of giving up something already deemed precious. Imagine what it would take for you to be voluntarily cut off from Christ/Allah/Buddha/G*D/What(Who)ever/Food/Energy/Money/etc.

Going to a deserted place also has some loss within it of leaving something behind, never to pick it up again.

As you consider again the need and/or opportunity you have to go to a deserted place, are you looking to find something or to lose something? to break beyond a current barrier or to return, fortified, to encounter it again?

Are you ready to depart for your deserted place? If not now, when?

Is there a way to engage your busy place with your deserted place? A pastoral counselor for a state-wide Council of Churches suggested taking one's vacation (deserting a current idolatry) at one's busiest time. How might this put into regular, daily, practice and not just once or twice a year? For those of us who are work-aholics, giving up our work for the sake of another is heretical, yet crucial to a holistic life. For alcoholics, it is giving up alcohol. For Paul and other Jesusics, it is giving up Jesus. And for you?
 

Psalm 17:1-7, 15

Pentecost +12 – Year A

Psalm 17:1-7, 15

Our alone time, whether with a multitude of others or an internal legion, has a desired outcome. Eugene Peterson, phrases that outcome, "And me? I plan on looking you full in the face, when I get up, I'll see your full stature and live heaven on earth."

Whether there is a plan for our lives or a purpose to be lived up to, there is a meaning to be participated in – living heaven on earth. Regardless of external/internal mechanisms, we are called to "live tomorrow, today."

It is this that leads us, again and again, to a deserted spot where we don't have to give directions to G*D (as per this psalm) or receive some eternal answer to every question. When we simply are able to let the circumstance be what they are and to stretch into a new way of being with others and with our self, we are just what we say we are - We are angry gentle people, singing for our lives, doing what we can to live heaven on earth.
 

Genesis 32:22-31

Pentecost +12 – Year A

Genesis 32:22-31

Sure enough, being alone is tough. If we've just sent a crowd away, we still have an identity to wrestle with.

Wrestling through who we are now to the folks we once knew is painful. It is like competitively forcing oneself to an advanced yoga asana – some hip is going to be permanently out of joint, at least a nose.

Rejoice that an unexpected blessing can come from folks showing up out of the blue or settling down for a long winter's nap.

A face of G*D is constantly showing up. We find that face in others needing mercy. We find that face in ourself needing mercy. Having been trained in parables we can see G*D's Presence anywhere and everywhere.

May you find the blessing of a face of G*D in your today.
 

Matthew 14:13-21

Pentecost +12 – Year A

Matthew 14:13-21

Getting away to a deserted spot is never easy. At the very least along come memories of triumph and regret, the last thing we heard before leaving, and visions of dragons yet to be slain.

Jesus, sometimes successful in sending folks ahead while he remained or walking through a hostile crowd, here was brought an opportunity to serve.

For those who tend toward Jesus having a plan for every moment, suspicions might arise about his withdrawing to a deserted place where folks in droves would be waiting. (Was that one person who noted his going minion of the tempter to see how he would deal with a conflict between wanting to be away and a commitment to mercy or just an observant person on their way for a healing who caught a glimpse of Jesus disappearing around the corner ahead of him?)

The news Jesus had just heard was terrifying and the last thing one needs in such circumstances is to be alone for fears to grow and temptations to return.

We might consider that continuing deeper into his ministry, particularly a ministry of mercy, would trigger a remembrance that such is still possible in such a terrifying world. This may have been the most healing thing Jesus could do for his sorrowful soul – to arrange a mercy moment on a large scale.

How is it with you?

Are your withdrawal times a source of energy-building or draining? Is this a time of practice of your particular ministry focus?

Are you glad for not being alone even when you had planned for the alone? Under what circumstances? Do you find ministry opportunities to show up alongside your non-ministry intentions?

How would this incident of mercy feeding have been received if it had been done as street theatre response to John's death in a busy spot rather than in a deserted spot on the sly?
 

. . .

Pentecost +11 – Year A

well
uhh
it's like
you know

and so we search
for metaphor
for our life
for well uhh it's like you know

well
so sad
uhh
pitiful
it's like
well
uhh
despair
you know
floundering

inarticulate groans
utter forth
as we continue slouching
toward Bethlehem

toward treasure
toward mystical union
toward certainty
toward edenic utopia

how long?
"7" years?
another "7"?
well well well

untold generations
have brought us
inarticulation
a missed parable

begin again
assurance
begets
beginning again

no
nothing
but love
yes
 

Romans 8:26-39

Pentecost +11 – Year A

Romans 8:26-39

G*D's Presence unifies us in the presence of any number of fears.

It is so easy to get caught in the fatalism of predestination, rather than its challenge to live as though one were. It is so easy to get caught in hesitating to live because some power greater than ourselves will knock us down, big time. It is so easy to get caught tip-toeing through life lest this charge or that be brought against us.

Each of these separate us from G*D, self, neighbor, and one another. They over-emphasize an enemy that we cannot love and who cannot love us.

A parabolic approach to life is going to begin the other way around. Once there was a person who was afraid of an enemy. They were so afraid that they began to see an enemy in every reflective surface. Finally, they realized that for every weed seed their enemy tossed into their field of dreams, the only way for them to deal with the harvest was to invite their very own enemy to a weed party at the end of the growing season. There the weed seed and the wheat seed were separated. The weed seeds were burned and the wheat seeds were shared.

From this party both began to see a larger picture -- there was nothing, not even twice as many weed seeds the next growing season (the next new heaven and earth), that would keep us from continuing to share the blessings we have received. Together we planted twice the wheat and found a two-hundred times yield.

We are destined to bless our enemies, so we might as well be about it this season.
 

Psalm 105:1-11, 45b

Pentecost +11 – Year A

Psalm 105:1-11, 45b

"Make known G*D's deeds among the people." This is a call to tell parables, not to construct creeds.

Since G*D is notoriously obtuse in being revealed (whatever the motivation, plan, personality, or distractability that is behind that quality), a part of our partnership with G*D is to let others know what G*D is like.

Here G*D is like a real-estate agent in a time of volatility (perhaps not unlike our own). This agent has found a real fixer-upper that appeals to our participatory spirituality. The terms are almost favorable, just a bit more wholeness or perfection on our part and we'll be able to engage it directly.

While we are not yet able to sign on the dotted-line, the agent continues to be supportive and encouraging. "Canaan has you written all over it." "Don't give up." "Keep building up your reserves." "It will be worth it."

When you are finally settled in, remember with thanksgiving, the agent that facilitated what will become a blessing for us and others as we add on rooms in which ourselves and all will be welcomed to continue growing in love with G*D and Neighbor.

Genesis 29:15-28

Pentecost +11 – Year A

Genesis 29:15-28

Parables of G*D's Presence are all around us, all the time. What is not present is our presentness to G*D's Presence. Lack of anticipation of it degrades our ability to be aware of it at all.

G*D's Presence is like Laban asking Jacob, "What might I give you?"

Desires are expressed and frustrated and met in the context of reward for the past and investment in a future. Tricksters are tricked. Tricksters of tricksters are tricked. The unloved are opened to new life, the loved are opened to new life.

And, in turn, we are asked, "What might I give you?" We are bold to ask for the unconventional and willing to take the conventional. We are bold to keep asking for the road less traveled.

G*D's Presence is as slow and quick as "7 years". As you look back over the last seven years, having received more than you expected, how will you reinvest in the next seven years? In thanksgiving for the past, may you rejoice that this day will move you and yours into a larger future. In anticipation of the future, may you rejoice that this day deepens a fulfillment of the past. Whether you mostly live in thanksgiving or anticipation, may you feast well this day.
 

Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52

Pentecost +11 – Year A

Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52

Apparently it takes training to be able to have a variety of appropriate and helpful responses to the infinity of situations in which we find ourselves.

Without such training we find ourselves compulsively repeating the same response and behavior in diverse and contradictory scenarios.

G*D's Presence is not quantifiable. It is not consistent. It is not uniform. It is not predictable. It is not controllable. It isn't this or that. . . .

So what is this mysterious presence? It is what is needed in the moment. Worry not about what you will say when accused, words sufficient for the day will be available. Worry not about adding (or subtracting) an inch from your waist or a hair on your head, the body is sufficient for its image. It is old and new - in no particular order.

"Are you starting to get a handle on all this?" (The Message, asks.)

To go much deeper into each picture of G*D's Presence will be to dissect the life from it.

Sit back, unfocus your eyes from the cascade of images and from your own life.

Now let G*D's Presence and Your Presence begin to spin gear-like until there is a meshing at some point. Note a need revealed and resources available to address such a need. Rejoice. Come back tomorrow to repeat this process without expectation of it being a similar need/resource combination (though, of course, it may well be). Again, rejoice. And so goes one's training. Halleluiah!
 

surprise

Pentecost +10 – Year A

surprise
erupts around
surprise
startles within

just when beginning
to be comfortable
with surprise
surprise

surprise
ceases to surprise
as we settle for comfort
and lose track of another beginning

may a blessing of startled surprise
awaken us
may a blessing of erupting surprise
encourage us

around us and within
surprising pregnancies
enlarge us
enjoy us

Romans 8:12-25

Pentecost +10 – Year A

Romans 8:12-25

How do you solve a problem like Maria?
How do you catch a cloud and pin it down?
How do you find a word that means Maria?
A flibbertijibbet! A will-o'-the wisp! A clown!

Oh, how do you solve a problem like Maria?
How do you hold a moonbeam in your hand?

[Maria from The Sound of Music]

“All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it's not only around us; it's within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We're also feeling the birth pangs. These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don't see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy.” [verses 22-25, The Message]

May you hold yourself open for a surprise beyond your expectation. This is where we find energy to live, give, and love. Hold out your hand, a moonbeam is waiting for you.

Psalm 139:1-12, 23-34

Pentecost +10 – Year A

Psalm 139:1-12, 23-34

Where is the presence of G*D?

It is right in the middle of wheat and weeds. It is in a hard rock pillow. It is at the farthest limits you can imagine and nearer than breath. It is as distant as Sheol and as close as a heart in the dark.

It won’t take long for G*D to search our heart, for G*D is already present and has indexed every part for quick retrieval.

It won’t even take something as dramatic as a parable or an extra-ordinary event. Think closer to the everyday -- G*D present in an acorn, washing dishes in the kitchen, attending a study group, chatting with a child about Iron Man on a ferry.

So take wing; settle afar. No matter the choice made, G*D is present: you are present -- so enjoy the interaction.

Genesis 28:10-19

Pentecost +10 – Year A

Genesis 28:10-19

Why would one climb Jacob's ladder if "the Lord" stood beside Jacob and the ladder?

There is a lot of archetypal stuff that has gone into this scene from outside it. Somehow it has become an image of a gateway to heaven, rather than the presence of G*D in the paradise of the present.

So often it is true that G*D is present without our knowing it. So are people. Here's a song that will take a little work to get to – "Soul Kiss" by Garnet Rogers.

Go to this link of The Morning Show on Minnesota Public Radio to a RealOne Audio. When you open it slide the time line along to one hour (1:00) and listen.

His story about the song is available at this MySpace Link.

[Note: You may need to get a free download of Real One Player to hear and see these. Windows version or Macintosh version]

Jacob had a "soul kiss" while having his head on a hard rock. Isn't that just the way it is in life?

What would you say constituted a soul kiss for you?
 

Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

Pentecost +10 – Year A

Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

A long time ago, early in our faith growth, while yet babes in faith, we dared not pull weeds among the wheat. So it was -- we waited with evil in our midst, drawing nutrients from the soil that would have produced more and more fruit for the "kingdom".

Fortunately we have grown in the faith, always looking for ways to appropriate science to our own ends. Finally we have mastered the art of targeted herbicides. We can now get rid of those weeds when they poke their heads out of the ground. It won't be long before we will be able to treat the very soil itself to, again, finally rid our fine wheat of those nasty weeds. Yes, finally, a final solution.

Having accomplished this leap for "mankind" we will soon be able to apply it to other contexts. Immigrants will be banished and forbidden. Little pre-evident gay and lesbian children will also be done away with without the need for such public events as weed burning. We will quietly care for these and other matters. Finally, our ancient gift of knowing good from evil will be applicable. We will return to Eden to aid God in ridding this world of sin. With sin gone salvation will be present, with or with out a Jesus intermediary.

So goes a re-telling of this out-dated story. Aren't you glad to be alive in this time so our dominion might be complete? Dominionists arise! Get those weeds now!

Oh, fair warning, those who live by herbicide, die by herbicide. None are pure enough to escape an ever-stricter accounting of who is a weed this week. This is a lesson often too late for the learning.
 

listen

Pentecost +9 – Year A

Listen!
A sower
went out
to
sow.
[how natural
it seemed]
And
as
[spectres rise
choruses groan]
the sower
sowed,
some seeds
[how now]
fell
on a path,
and
birds came
and
ate them up.
[how were
Hansel and Gretel
to return]
Other seeds
[all
have fallen
short]
fell
on rocky ground,
where
they did not have
much
soil,
[barren
wilderness
temptation]
and
they sprang up
quickly.
[visions of loveliness
danced in their heads]
since they had no
depth of soil.
But
when the sun rose,
[a sun
by any name]
they were
scorched;
[and sent
away]
and
since
they had no
root,
[fly away all]
they withered
away.
Other seeds
[oh
the horror]
fell
among thorns,
[a briar patch
of home]
and
the thorns
grew up
[as thorn
will do]
and
choked them.
Other seeds
[how long
o lord
how long
a song]
fell
on good
soil
[no
can't be
revisionist
is not all
lost]
and
brought forth
[a new
heaven
and
a new
fourth
after
a trinity]
grain,
[miraculous manna
lasting manna
new improved
manna]
some a hundredfold,
some sixty,
some thirty.
[some twenty
some ten
some one
some none
yet
all
blessedly sown
in bird's bellies
wilted
abused
and
whole]
Listen!
[listen]

Romans 8:1-11

Pentecost +9 – Year A

Romans 8:1-11

Hooray, Spirit-walkers! Boo, Flesh-walkers!

Aren't you glad that you are in this new family and not that odd old one?

This has been a strange week of dividing this part of the family from that part of the family. The early adapters get perks. But then they, in turn, become the old part that can't keep up with a living, moving, expanding G*D and are left standing on the outside or hardening, and further hardening, the rules to keep themselves perk-ful for at least their generation – the next will have to fend for themselves.

Is it not the case that if Christ is in you that your body becomes alive, regardless of its disability. A healing, if not a curing, goes on and a striving for meaning comes alive. In keeping with anonymous Christ-ians everywhere (who doesn't have Christ within?), it is time for our mortal bodies to come alive – to stop harming; to increase blessing; to deepen relationships. Until we get to a spiritual/religious "Esperanto" we are all anonymous others as well as honored members of our particular tradition.

The very dualism Paul writes about is the downfall of dualism and when we run out of our double, we run out of ourselves. This whole conversation is problematic and it is miraculous that what begins chapter 8 so divisively can end at a spot recognizable and affirmable by all.
 

Psalm 65

Pentecost +9 – Year A

Psalm 65

Ask G*D, "Who is family?" The Psalmist sees G*D responding, "Creation." Each part wanting to not only play its part, but take on more. There is not only an optimal environmental economy (and that is perceived differently when different values are used as measuring rods), but a rebalancing of too much wind or water in time and space.

The Psalmist perceives G*D's goal to be to find an equalized balance, at least for the moment, when each part sings for joy, together, with the others. Less than joyful singing comes when one perspective or presumptive value trumps the rest.

Here is a brief article, Economy of the Earth, that reflects on how G*D's family of creation can be separated from one another and G*D by market forces and capitalism, that which has an investment in seeing their corner increase in value regardless of other needs. A question before us is that of having the eyes to see "family" in contexts other than human biology. With a clear picture we can identify those parts of the family that hold us back and those parts that call us to move on whether they be economic theologies or Gaian limits.
 

Genesis 25:19-34

Pentecost +9 – Year A

Genesis 25:19-34

What is the family relationship here? Are either Esau or Jacob any better at being their brother's "keeper" than were Cain and Abel or Jesus and his mother/brothers/sisters?

It is so easy to trick and to give up on one another. I expect that Esau thought he was tricking Jacob, even as Jacob was returning the favor. Family knows all too well the weaknesses of the others. With this power over weakness we manage to take just a little advantage of each other. And, in this case, a little is as good as a mile.

If you were to compare semen with seeds and wombs with soils, what sort of seed did Isaac sow, what kind of soil did Rebekah carry? Lest we get too categorical and deterministic, consider also ovaries and testes. What sort of egg did Rebekah sow, what kind of seminiferous tubules did Isaac carry?

And yourself?
 

Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

Pentecost +9 – Year A

Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

Just prior to this passage we have Jesus responding to questions about who is part of his family. If it weren't for the artificiality of chapters and verses we would see Jesus' blood family outside. After redefining family as those who are paying attention to G*D in a similar way to Jesus, he goes outside.

Does he glimpse Mama Mary on the way to the sea? Are his sister or brother able to make their way through the crowd set loose to look him in the eye to see his rejection of them?

For purposes of this note we might wonder about the connection of the sower parable to a continuation of the family insight preceding it. This would push us to the power of the soil ('adam/'adamah – human/humus) to determine the fruitfulness of the seed or breath of life given into its care.

Following back to the Genesis 2-3 story, it is all too easy to read the sower as a story of blame. 3/4 of the seed is focused elseways than the well-being of the seed. This obliviousness to creation care is all too familiar.

This issue of blame/constraint is important in every family structure. What is the long ago heritage of your family? How does that compare with more recent experiences? Where did the breath or seed of life enter in? Can that be reclaimed? What cosmic responsibility have you worn and are you still expanding that or has it been narrowed from fear of others?
 

Revelation: source or target

Pentecost +8 – Year A

To whom would Jesus choose not to reveal G*D?

NRSV: "and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him."
The Message: "But I'm not keeping it to myself; I'm ready to go over it line by line with anyone willing to listen."

Translational issues are not simply those of moving language A into language B. Here and elsewhere nuance speaks louder than anything else. The larger issue at hand is that of how folks respond to an offer to see more of G*D through the lens of Rabbi Jesus.

Here is a series of videos that adds a bit more to yokes and calls, rabbis and disciples:

Part 1: Rob Bell, "Dust" (part 1)
Part 2: Rob Bell, "Dust" (part 2)

Upshot: you are chosen to receive more of G*D than you thought possible and to pass on to others more of G*D than either of you expected. Receive and Pass It On – so goes the breath of life, so goes the process of revelation.
 

Romans 7:15-25a

Pentecost +8 – Year A

Romans 7:15-25a

The Message puts it: "What I don't understand about myself is that I decide one way, but then I act another, doing things I absolutely despise. So if I can't be trusted to figure out what is best for myself and then do it, it becomes obvious that God's command is necessary."

What Paul seems to have forgotten is that he is created in G*D's image. Do you remember G*D having times of remorse after the flood, promising never to do that again, looking for a reason to repent in Jeremiah 26:3, and regretful of making Saul king? Trust and dealing with the aftermath of mistakes is a big deal for G*D, and for us.

Sometimes G*D blesses and sometimes curses. And so do we. Sometimes blessings are rued and curses were correct. Sometimes not.

Even with all the dangers, would be assisted to move away from language demanding external commands to the more intangible, but ever so real, presence with one another. This will help us define and redefine what it means to be on the winning side, always a desire for validation and comfort? Better dealing with inconsistency and intuition is unlikely to come from the outside, life simply turns much too quickly. The best-intentioned command leaves much to be desired as the world turns. It is inappropriately institutionalized. It operates from a single perspective rather than in 3, 4, or 5-D. It is dissective rather than vivifying.

To party? <---> To fast? Now there's a question.

So what presence (not what command) do you carry into parties? into fasts? so you might be alive in either setting?
 

Psalm 45:10-17

Pentecost +8 – Year A

Psalm 45:10-17

Hooray! The virgins are coming, the virgins are coming! Hooray!

They are forgetting the context of home that kept them virgins. The virgins are marching toward baby-making!

With no appreciation for what we now know about how sons are developed, the virgin is responsible for the gender of the baby.

All-in-all, after a too-short night trying to get the wrinkles of a new internet provider taken care of, I don't find much here to comment on. It presents an attitude I get some attitude about, but all in all this may be a day for a flight of fancy. I trust you will take one and enjoy the trip.

Genesis 24:34-38, 42-49, 58-67

Pentecost +8 – Year A

Genesis 24:34-38, 42-49, 58-67

Chapter 1 – female and male created together
Chapter 2 – Eve created from side of Adam
Chapter 12 – Sari and Abram were already together
Chapter 24 – Rebekah comes from a distant well to be by Isaac's side

There is a rhythm of togetherness and separateness that keeps running through the scriptures and our lives. This seems to be part of the nature of creation stories – rhythm.

In the separateness narratives it seems the female is much more interesting as a character. She is described with a better script and at the juncture of plot thickening and development. In light of the Gospel text, the women carry the burdens and release new possibilities as the guys muddle along. Patriarchy may be a compensation for the lesser role. It certainly raises the stakes and makes the female roles all the more significant for the resistance they have to deal with.

Patriarchs are famous for saying "Dance" and "Don't Dance" at the same time. These instructions may stand behind another categorization of females – Harlot and Virgin.

Note how little Isaac has to do with bride selection compared with decisions Rebekah faces and makes.
 

Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30

Pentecost +8 – Year A

Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30

I not only like it when things go as I expect, I demand that they do. Elseways I am not able to keep my entitlement quotient where I am comfortable.

Outcomes be hanged, I am only interested in having intentions with plausible deniability. This keeps my ability to demand in good shape from having been exercised so much.

So let us give thanks for all those times when everyone is wrong in their anticipation of being justified. There is an opening here giving hope that we might yet rest from living out of speculation and appreciate actual deeds all the more.

When not trapped in our own speculative expectation, or those of others, we find a reenergizing that comes with dropping that huge burden.

The burden of expectation is not easily identifiable as either being present or a burden. It is simply the water in which we swim. One way of looking at how Jesus was able to be so connected with G*D is his ability to not get caught in the usual expectations with which our cultures surround us. Be freed from expectations and vision is cleared to be able experience the presence of G*D.
 

from here to eternity

Pentecost +7 – Year A

hold on to your winged feet
life is mercurial
found only to be lost
in the finding

in such expected loss
new possibilities open
while past sensibilities
are sacrificed

how long rings the cry
'til the lost is found again
and lost again
'til a gain is simply gain

so let us not be exercised
regarding some specific
model of freedom
for life complexly is
 

Romans 6:12-23

Pentecost +7 – Year A

Romans 6:12-23

There is an old saying, "Out of the frying pan, into the fire." Usually that is not a good way to go. But, if we begin to play with the fire of Pentecost we are only seven weeks away from, this can speak to us of the freedom of G*D. Pentecost involves us again with other people, strangers, even.

We need to learn to reframe our language for our own larger living. This reframing also lets us listen better to others that we might accurately understand their perspective. In listening we also become authorized to speak their language and to help reframe it.

As long as we avoid this business of sharpening our thinking and living out of a values code that contains an appreciation of ambiguity, we will find our freedom continually reduced to less than a mustard seed worth of it.

By seeing a freedom beyond our current intolerable situation we can step out of the situation we are in by looking inward and begin to move beyond the dead end of a frying pan. Jump now into the arms of a larger community and a multitude of sanctifying gifts - many of which are different than yours.
 

Psalm 13

Pentecost +7 – Year A

Psalm 13

In the face of steadfast love there is but the moment.
"How long?" can only be responded to with a variation on the old children's game, "So-o-o-o long."

Through the depths and heights, joys and sorrows, time and yet time again, forgotten and remembered, we have this portion of "So-o-o-o long". It is just long enough to raise a glass in toast and to raise a voice in song.

Come from mud and moving to dust we join in another chorus from St. Woodie:
     So long, it's been good to know yuh;
     So long, it's been good to know yuh;
     So long, it's been good to know yuh.
     This dusty old dust is a-gettin' my home,
     And I got to be driftin' along.

So Abraham is set free from having to sacrifice. Isaac is set free from having to be sacrificed. Lovers of fathers and mothers and lovers are set free from their co-dependency. Righteous folk and thirsters after righteousness are set free from creedal restrictions on their actions. Angels are set free from having to tote sheep to high places.

     This dusty old dust is a-getting' my home,
     And I choose to be kind as I go driftin' along.
 

Genesis 22:1-18

Pentecost +7 – Year A

Genesis 22:1-18

There's a song popularized by the Mills Brothers:
     You always hurt the one you love
     The one you shouldn't hurt at all
     You always take the sweetest rose
     And crush it till the petals fall
     You always break the kindest heart
     With a hasty word you can't recall
     So If I broke your heart last night,
     It's because I love you most of all

What strange things we project onto love. Can you really love sinners without really simply loving sinners. Can you love G*D and go all the way to hurting a loved one in your heart (if not in deed – stopping one ram short of sacrifice).

"Love me more (and more and more and more)" is an appeal to betrayal of other loves.

In an Edenic garden no slack was given, G*D sacrificed G*D's own image. At the beginning of this story, still no slack is given, Abraham is to sacrifice his own image. This is either profound counterintuitiveness or its just dumb. What have you found about losing your life for the sake of another? What have you found about the cost of not losing your life?

Have you found the shifting point that moves from "prove your love to me by betraying another love" to "stop that"?

= = = = = = =

Here is a slightly modified comment from one of the lists I follow (Midrash). Thought you might be interested:

…a caution.... we can get all kinds of self-righteous about the text (and yes, it is a horrible story - it is supposed to be!), but at some point don't we want to see what it brings, instead of reading ourselves into it? (Have you ever noticed how quickly mainliners and progressives can turn into Biblical literalists?)….

It does no good to require of Abraham the sensibilities of a 21st century, college-educated social worker. He lived 3,000 years ago as a primitive tribal chieftain at the edge of pre-history, where … child sacrifice was not uncommon among other peoples in the area. Here's an ancient piece of oral history, told and re-told for a reason. Probably to discern who God is - and turns out God is NOT the one who demands child sacrifice. … it illustrates an evolution in our understanding. Seems to me Abraham is not the one who says "No", but God is the one who says "No." … Abraham had it wrong, and God intervened.

How is that illustrative to us? All the ways we still sacrifice our children, even down to sending them to war for what turn out to be questionable reasons. Does God not still say, "No."?

This story pushes me into the territory of personal heresy, because if it is true and remains true, then God's intention in sending Jesus among us was NOT substitutionary blood atonement, but that we might listen to him and be reconciled. And the accepted doctrine that Jesus had to die for our sins turns out to be a strange twist on a sad set
of events. What if, what if, we were to say that God became incarnate in Christ Jesus, the Word became flesh, and (like Abraham) we misunderstood and killed the messenger, the reconciler, instead? And the Resurrection was God's way of saying, "NO! Stop it!" (?)

And instead of killing the Son through whom the future was promised, we back away from the knife, the Cross, and come down from the dark mountain chastened?
 
     S.W.

Matthew 10:37-42

Pentecost +7 – Year A

Matthew 10:37-42

"Who do you love more?" is one of those imponderable questions. Parents can be quick to affirm they love all their children equally. For them it is not a question of more or less, but how they will evidence their love in this circumstance, with this child.

Trying to parse out degrees of love, qualities of love, always runs into further debilitating debates of worth and deservedness that further divide us.

Do you love G*D more than Neighbor, self more than "one another", and any of these more than an enemy? For every ranking there is a loss. This leads us back to the mystery of one and all. If I don't love one uniquely more than another, how can I love any other? If I don't love all more than this one, how can I love this one at all. This unrelenting slide along a continuum can be a most false and soul-wrenching ride or a most life-giving reception of the depths of joy.

Hear Eugene Peterson's much clearer statement of the intertwining of lives alongside one another rather than the competition of above and below a cut-line:
     "Accepting a messenger of God is as good as being God's messenger. Accepting someone's help is as good as giving someone help. This is a large work I've called you into, but don't be overwhelmed by it. It's best to start small. Give a cool cup of water to someone who is thirsty, for instance. The smallest act of giving or receiving makes you a true apprentice."

The smallest amount of love (given or received!) is large enough to open a way for more.
 

Kindness beyond limits

Pentecost +6 – Year A

To what end are you living? This is more than a purpose statement that its not about you. Whether you use G*D language or something larger, for what will you stand in the face of others telling you to sit down, to be bluffed into silence?

There is not a way to take ourselves out of this equation called life. Whether we are images of G*D or have become same, whether children of Ishmael or Isaac or another tradition entirely, we are to be on one another's side as we grow up together in this and every wilderness.

So, look one another in the eye and show kindness – the kind of kindness that revels in living beyond the limitations handed us and expands what we know as family.
 

Romans 6:1b-11

Pentecost +6 – Year A

Romans 6:1b-11

While appreciating plays of concepts on several different levels, this passage is particularly dense. Issues of death and resurrection, baptism and sin weave and interweave until it may sound as if the only bottom-line available is that we are baptized into death rather than into resurrection and that sin needs to die rather than be baptized and resurrected.

Consider Hagar whose vision of a well may be her equivalent of baptism and how it leads to life in a new land or an entering into a new country of unexpected grace (using some of Eugene Peterson's imagery). Consider the disciples invited to live so openly and beyond their tribal past that the derision of the cross would become inevitable for them.

Certainly there are those who arrive at this position and understand that their beginning spot was focusing on their sin in order to do it in, to overcome it, to reduce it to naught. Their driver is death of sin. Baptism comes as a flood of grace.

Certainly there are those who arrive at this position and understand that their beginning spot was focusing on new life where none seemed possible - to revision the world, to undergird it, to bring forth new relationships. Their driver is resurrection past the sin of others. Baptism comes as a crack of grace in a cosmic egg (reference to an interesting book by Joseph Chilton Pearce).

Do we need to set sister against sister against brother against parent against all others to chose one of these? Will the "end of death-as-the-end" have to play itself out once again as Christianity comes to another opportunity for definition?

So what do we do in the midst of such language that seems lawyerly enough open more loopholes than it closes?
 

Psalm 86:1-10, 16-17

Pentecost +6 – Year A

Psalm 86:1-10, 16-17

This psalm was probably selected with an eye to Hagar, extending her complaint in the wilderness.

There is a sense of this Psalm being more about shaming than survival. The reason I desire to be rescued is to put it to those who put me in harm's way.

All the buttering up of God is to get what I want – revenge.

Although difficult it is probably worth the exercise to listen to our actual language and our intentions for same. The seeds of hypocrisy are sown in this divide within ourselves of flowery language for base motives. Usually this is very difficult work for someone to do alone. Therefore the importance of a community of honest friends who will reflect to us our internal disconnect.

How goes it with those you are listening to? How goes it with those who are listening to you?
 

Genesis 21:8-21

Pentecost +6 – Year A

Genesis 21:8-21

More with the divisions between us being stronger than what holds us together. The power of the blood tribe is "strong", just like the state of the nation. Embarrassment at not being first, when all the promises and work were mine, is also strong. It doesn't take much for us to feel that we are underappreciated and protection of our perception is certainly worth a life or two.

As we travel along we keep forgetting it is the second kid, the last kid, that seems to have a line of the future running through them. Second-born Isaac remains second born and a line for the Hebrew/Jewish tradition to follow.

It will be important to follow all of the Ishmael/Isaac encounters to catch a glimpse of reconciliation and working together at Abraham's death and to take their respective honored places when generational leadership came to them.

So who is the good and the bad here? Sarah protecting her own and giving up another? Abraham giving a skin of water, so little against a large desert? Hagar for lifting a voice in weeping even if departing without a confrontation? Unnamed Ishmael another nimrod who anticipates Jacob's teasing? Isaac so young, so symbolic?

Of these six archetypes, which most closely approximates your past? your present? your desire? Note that each is a mixed bag and so this question is not about ideals on one side, but the mixture of motives and actions that is you.
 

Matthew 10:24-39

Pentecost +6 – Year A

Matthew 10:24-39

How sad when we get caught in the position of being determined by another. Whether this determination is by person, institution, or god, it is always a set-up for revolution. The seed of destruction of a positive value is found in its attempt to claim ultimacy or requirement of obedience.

Have no fear of those who are not in on the joke of creation. They can do damage while stumbling about containing laughter, but eventually even they will come see sparrow and head hair and peace-offerers as sisters and brothers of their own time in paradise and chuckle at both the similarities and differences.

With that aside, back to being determined. Is Jesus really so limited that he has no choice but to promote those who pat him on the back and demote those who challenge him? How about yourself? Is that a teacher at work or a ideologue program trying to test students into improvement?

An argument can be made that this statement attributed to Jesus runs contrary to his larger vision of taking up a cross, regardless of how others respond. It is at this point that a choice is put before us. Will we continue in some judgment process or some faithful action process?

So, whether we are currently up to it or not, this is practice time to move away from hierarchies of student disciples and teacher messiahs or of differing economic strata.

The practical implication here is that it is more important to act from what we understand in whispers (an expansive and expanding love is our key insight) than what others are shouting after us (do "this" and I'll come; do "that" and I'll give).
 

Open

Pentecost +5 – Year A

Compassion

Opens

Many

Paths

Alongside

Sassy

Saints

Inviting

Open

Nurture

Romans 5:1-11

Pentecost +5 – Year A

Romans 5:1-11

What begins as compassion might end as reconciliation. While there are many bumps along this road that can detour our journey to such a destination, reconciliation is contained within promises of healing and simply promises.

Compassion has its genesis in the midst of things gone wrong, promises delayed to the point of seeming impossibility. Here in a problematic zone we might see more clearly what needs to be rectified. One of these places of clarity is when facing an "enemy".

In such locations reconciliation both rises to a greater need to be experienced and costs the most to offer. Sometimes we find ourselves talking about the cost of sacrifice to come to a place of compassion and reconciliation. What we reflect on less is the cost of resurrection, a much deeper and expanded source of compassion and reconciliation. This resurrectional approach looks for a change not only in the one offered compassion and re-opened to a possibility of reconciliation, but a change in the one offering such gifts.

Here we are offered a new picture of the limits of sacrifice qua sacrifice – it doesn't make it to resurrection and so compassion is short-lived or soon-left in the face of fatigue or a next need that tugs at our heart. Resurrectional compassion allows us to stay and stay – like The United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) stays long after the first wave of compassion-givers has come and gone to a next event.

This puts into play both a ranking of compassions (hard-wired humanity, sacrificial, and resurrectional) and a gift of compassion given on many levels (short-term emotion vs. longer-term intentionality, band-aids and systemic involvement).

May you boast well of your place in the keeping of promises made and the keeping-of-promises-made alive.
 

Psalm 116:1-2, 12-19

Pentecost +5 – Year A

Psalm 116:1-2, 12-19

Oh how we like to be acknowledged. Because my voice has been heard, I’ll go ahead to the next testing time. And woe be to the god that disappoints, that does not acknowledge me.

What is life, but one great series of trust tests? a sequence of tits for tats? when you scratch my back, I’ll return the favors?

Into this reality, there eventually comes a question of what I will do with or without trust. Well? To what are you going to be true? Will you remain in relationship when the trust test falters and fails? For every 10 times you have been responded to, does the respondent receive a get-out-of-disappointment card?

Is this process translatable to what’s good for the goose is good for the gander, so that you might also accumulate forgivenesses and opportunities to try trusting again?

Without falling prey to issues of abuse, what are your current boundaries of compassion and how would you contrast and compare them with previous boundaries and hoped for boundaries? In responding, don’t forget to consider this from the perspective of being on both the giving and receiving end of compassion or trust.

Genesis 18:1-15

Pentecost +5 – Year A

Genesis 18:1-15

“Sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast” said the White Queen to Alice. I don’t believe the Queen laughed much, though. What is the use of such belief if it is not tied to laughter?

The Queen had the disadvantage of living backward, while we are trying to live forward. It is this forward focus that turns promises into laughter. The denial of laughter is a step toward the prison of fear.

I yearn for more laughter in the world that comes from an unrepentant response to such a vision as the presence of G*D coming on earth in the form of such as myself! or you! or us together! Can’t you see it now, entering our next childhood! Such a silly picture as “second childhood” can be putting a best spin on the aging process. But beyond that limited use, isn’t life laughable – what we will become –what will come forth from us.

It might be said that acting compassionately is keeping a larger hope alive – both within ourselves and within others.

Matthew 9:35-10:8, (9-23)

Pentecost +5 – Year A

Matthew 9:35-10:8, (9-23)

What might be the good news of the presence of G*D? We hear about proclamations and healings, but the good news standing behind them is that of compassion for folks who are harassed and helpless, confused and aimless.

The field in need of compassion is huge, larger than one would hope. It takes all the compassion I have, and then some. It takes all the compassion a village has at its disposal. Villages that raise compassionate children, still find the need for this gift to be too big, never-ending. A danger is compassion-fatigue and so it is important to travel with support (as mentioned elsewhere as being sent two-by-two).

So, really, Jesus sends those who had experienced his compassion out to be compassionate. The way their compassion was acted out and reported on repeated the external tasks of witnessing and making whole, but the real good news was simply folks being present with folks in a compassionate manner.

Of course compassion is a political act and counter-cultural act in today’s world (beware of those claiming to be compassionate too glibly) and so one does need to keep alert to the resistant forces. This is not to shy away from them, but to judiciously decide where to engage and where to wait (both being compassionate responses when paid attention to).

Truly, when we are acting compassionately we are in the presence of an incarnation of G*D, a beloved one, and it turns out to be us. In this presence the code language comes true, the “Son of Man” has come again. Go forth to be compassionate and let the rest fall where it may.

caller callee

Pentecost +4 – Year A

just toddling along
oh so merrily along
along came a caller
calling uncallable folk

what a tangled web
was woven flexibly
between warp and woof
grace and mercy

patterns cease to matter
caller becomes called
only to be called again
and to call

frowned upon officials
privileged officials
the sick and dead
callers and are called

can you use the word call
in a sentence this week
can you listen past calling
to hear another call

caller and called
fast and feast
overalls and silk blouse
shape a life's quilt

just toddling along
open to the moment
amazing amazement
flows merrily along
 

Romans 4:13-25

Pentecost +4 – Year A

Romans 4:13-25

Promise.
Covenant.
Contract.

Three different relationships.

How do you rank them?
Which do you live out of most?

In which do your own actions make a difference to a perceived outcome? Can your works change a promise? covenant? contract?

In which might someone else's actions make a difference to a perceived outcome? Can Jesus' "sacrifice" change a promise? covenant? contract?

If a corollary to Promise is Trust, what are the corollaries for Covenant and Contract? For the moment, playing with Obedience and Responsibility, what might this thought do to such an old standard as "Trust and Obey"?

In today's world we are politically driven to issues of verification in treaties. Presume that "Heaven" is on its way to "Earth", does verification remain an issue for those who are disposed toward promise? covenant? contract?
 

Psalm 33:1-12

Pentecost +4 – Year A

Psalm 33:1-12

"Praise befits the upright." (NRSV)
"Right-living people sound best when praising." (The Message)

So do you start with the praise or the people? Where would you put the emphasis?

"He (sic) loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the steadfast love of the 'Lord'." (NRSV)

"He (sic) loves it when everything fits, when his (sic) world is in plumb-line true." (The Message)

We still feel constrained by the tradition handed down to us. Literalism carries the burden of the past into the present.

One of the barriers to righteousness and justice, fit and true, is the weight of tradition that is mighty and will withstand much on the way to learning a new thing. Wherever a small change can be introduced, it is worth the effort. Here we raise doubt about an overemphasis upon maleness and personalness of that which is generally indicated by the too-small word, "God". One small word or refusing to be limited to one small word can lead to a new understanding and structuring. Regardless of how daunting the task to get past the traditions blocking the very righteousness and fitness they claim to desire, it is worth the effort. Hopefully you have a recent experience of seeing your faithfulness as a source of praise..
 

Genesis 12:1-9

Pentecost +4 – Year A

Genesis 12:1-9

Jesus called and was called. Abram and Sari and Lot and others were called and call.

Call is closely allied to blessing. Blessing is where a call is intended to lead. Blessings are available to and through the one(s) called.

In fact call and blessing are so strong that they often overshoot the mark. We catch a glimpse of the extra energy that comes from call and blessing when Abram and the lot make it to the land of Canaan, have it acknowledged that this is the place that was the goal, and then find themselves unable to stop the journey, the call, the blessing and moved on from there to east of Bethel and then south to the Negev.

One could always argue that these subsequently named places are all part of some "promised land" and Abram was but staking out various part of it. But if we read but one more verse we find Abram all the way into Egypt. There is a sense of bait and switch here with Abram seemingly promised good things to come and ending up in a famine that pushes him on beyond Canaan. Promises delayed is going to be theme for awhile (still).

You may want to track this in your own life of calls and blessings overshot and delayed. While we usually focus in on just the pericope at hand, in this instance it is helpful to go the extra mile and read a bit beyond the appointed stopping place.

A later reflection on the "overshoot" phenomena suggests that call and blessing can easily be sidetracked through a mechanism of pride. It appears that call and blessing do not live easily with humility. A struggle, rather than cooperation, between these gifts can delay each of their benefits, both for self and others.
 

Matthew 9:9-26

Pentecost +4 – Year A

Matthew 9:9-26

While it is fun to eternally play with the "Why" questions of life that will seemingly never be settled, even with cute retorts about physicians and bridegrooms, the larger parenthesis of this passage is that of action.

We begin with a not-so-innocent bystander minding his own tax forms and everyone's, who is called to action – "Follow" – and he does.

We end with caller being called. "Follow", says another official to Jesus. And follow Jesus does. Even with delays along the way Jesus follows. He follows into a present past and then leads to call again from an unexpected future.

Between calling and being called there are those fun questions of "Why?" For the moment put them aside for if they are not able to be treated as poetry they will eternally trip us up and divide us.

Another take would have Jesus learning the mercy he claims G*D desires. This mercy shows a new way of doing business – a caller is ready to be called. It is so easy to claim that a caller has priority over the called. It is a mercy to not be trapped into a position, even one as exalted as Messiah. Hear again how Jesus is called away from teaching to living his teaching with his action. Mercy entails life changes in the face of other plans that had been made.
 

Zeal of Love

Pentecost +3 – Year A

Not everyone who say "Lord, Lord" does the work of "Lord, Lord." Here is an excerpt from John Wesley's sermon 92 – On Zeal. It makes the same point – if you've been doing your "Lord, Lord"-ing, and fail to care for an immediate need, you really haven't done a very good job of "Lord, Lord"-ing. Otherwise your eyes and ears would have been tempered or energized to see and hear what needs doing.

= = = = = = = =

In a Christian believer love sits upon the throne which is erected in the inmost soul; namely, love of God and man, which fills the whole heart, and reigns without a rival. In a circle near the throne are all holy tempers; — long-suffering, gentleness, meekness, fidelity, temperance; and if any other were comprised in “the mind which was in Christ Jesus.” In an exterior circle are all the works of mercy, whether to the souls or bodies of men. By these we exercise all holy tempers; by these we continually improve them, so that all these are real means of grace, although this is not commonly adverted to. Next to these are those that are usually termed works of piety; — reading and hearing the word, public, family, private prayer, receiving the Lord’s Supper, fasting or abstinence. Lastly, that his followers may the more effectually provoke one another to love, holy tempers, and good works, our blessed Lord has united them together in one body, the Church, dispersed all over the earth; a little emblem of which, of the Church universal, we have in every particular Christian congregation.

. . . .

For example. Every Christian ought, undoubtedly, to be zealous for the Church, bearing a strong affection to it, and earnestly desiring its prosperity and increase. He ought to be thus zealous, as for the Church universal, praying for it continually, so especially for that particular Church or Christian society whereof he himself is a member. For this he ought to wrestle with God in prayer; meantime using every means in his power to enlarge its borders, and to strengthen his brethren, that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.

But he should be more zealous for the ordinances of Christ than for the Church itself; for prayer in public and private; for the Lord’s Supper; for reading, hearing, and meditating on his word; and for the much neglected duty of fasting. These he should earnestly recommend; first, by his example; and then by advice, by argument, persuasion, and exhortation, as often as occasion offers.

Thus should he show his zeal for works of piety; but much more for works of mercy; seeing “God will have mercy and not sacrifice;” that is, rather than sacrifice. Whenever, therefore, one interferes with the other, works of mercy are to be preferred. Even reading, hearing, prayer, are to be omitted, or to be postponed, “at charity’s almighty call, when we are called to relieve the distress of our neighbor, whether in body or soul.

But as zealous as we are for all good works, we should still be more zealous for holy tempers; for planting and promoting, both in our own souls, and in all we have any intercourse with, lowliness of mind, meekness, gentleness, long-suffering, contentedness, resignation unto the will of God, deadness to the world and the things of the world, as the only means of being truly alive to God. For these proofs and fruits of living faith we cannot be too zealous. We should “talk of them as we sit in our house,” and “when we walk by the way,” and “when we lie down,” and “when we rise up.” We should make them continual matter of prayer; as being far more excellent than any outward works whatever: Seeing those will fail when the body drops off, but these will accompany us into eternity.

But our choicest zeal should be reserved for love itself, — the end of the commandment, the fulfilling of the law. The Church, the ordinances, outward works of every kind, yea, all other holy tempers, are inferior to this, and rise in value only as they approach nearer and nearer to it. Here then is the great object of Christian zeal. Let every true believer in Christ apply, with all fervency of spirit, to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that his heart may be more and more enlarged in love to God and to all mankind. This one thing let him do: Let him “press on to this prize of our high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”

. . . .

Lastly. If true zeal be always proportioned to the degree of goodness which is in its object, then should it rise higher and higher according to the scale mentioned above; according to the comparative value of the several parts of religion. For instance, all that truly fear God should be zealous for the Church; both for the catholic or universal Church, and for that part of it whereof they are members. This is not the appointment of men, but of God. He saw it was is not good for men to be alone, even in this sense, but that the whole body of his children should he “knit together, and strengthened, by that which every joint supplieth.” At the same time they should be more zealous for the ordinances of God; for public and private prayer, for hearing and reading the word of God, and for fastings, and the Lord’s Supper. But they should be more zealous for works of mercy, than even for works of piety. Yet ought they to be more zealous still for all holy tempers, lowliness, meekness, resignation: But most zealous of all, for that which is the sum and the perfection of religion, the love of God and man.

 
 

Romans 1:16-17; 3:22b-31

Pentecost +3 – Year A

Romans 1:16-17; 3:22b-31

Our distinction is that there is no distinction between us. This is a distinction worth celebrating.

We can argue about whether sin and glory/belovedness are the correct categories upon which to note distinctionlessness. Even throwing in faith as a way to break the tie doesn't really help us out here.

Consider a relationship with every other part of creation. Does a measuring of sin, glory, belovedness, faith help clarify anything? No. A calibration of any of these does not enhance it. We do need a shift of focus.

One shift is suggested by Parker Palmer as he speaks of living in the tensions between our various perceived categories of vice and virtue, "To be in the world nonviolently means learning to hold the tension of opposites, trusting that the tension itself will pull our hearts and minds open to a third way of thinking and acting.... We must learn to hold the tension between the reality of the moment and the possibility that something better might emerge." [from A Hidden Wholeness: A Journey Toward an Undivided Life as selected by Inward/Outward]

Focusing overmuch, even on a significant question, leads us to an unhelpful judgmentalism of self and others through a tool of measuring us against a too large goal. If we can draw our eyes back a bit, unfocus them for a moment, we will see beyond the boundary of any given perspective. Consider here the swings of art history and the various arrivals and dismissals of perspective or the swings we have made regarding holiness (social/personal) or genetics.

To jump even further than any platform will allow, our distinction is that there is no distinction between G*D and us. This is a distinction, full of a possibility of something better, worth celebrating.
 

Psalm 46

Pentecost +3 – Year A

Psalm 46

G*D is a place of safety, not security. In this sense we finally realize that our building has been on shifting sands not able to bear the weight we assigned to foundational material. We keep trusting in surfaces, not their depths. In some sense this is creation – sandy, slippery, changing.

A part of our response to this is to then run about as noisily as we can to set things right, to move our house to a different foundation and then a different one. We insist on keeping the house without consideration of its foundational environment.

If only we were still for a bit. Eugene Peterson puts it, "Step out of the traffic!" Were we to take as long a loving look at G*D as we experience being looked at by steadfast and expansive love we would note that living on shifting sands is exactly where we need to be – living on sand is our rock. Remember back to all the strange folks who have set out on journeys, to enter into temptations, to know that hometowns aren't where its at, to trust resurrectional processes over any other, and to live life as though it were worth something. Remembering that we are among the traveling saints of old, we know we are always sliding down a sand dune of some sort and we can enjoy the ride.

Whatever sand you have built upon, G*D is with you. Stop, Look, and Listen and join the chicken crossing to the other side of the road. After all, as Grandpa says, "In my day we didn't ask why the chicken crossed the road. Somebody told us the chicken crossed the road, and that was good enough." So, you're living on sand - build lightly, not a bigger barn. It is time to get back to tent living, not palace construction.
 

Genesis 6:9-22; 7:24; 8:14-19

Pentecost +3 – Year A

Genesis 6:9-22; 7:24; 8:14-19

The earth was apparently built on a sand foundation when a breath moved over the deep. The crust over the deep was shaky. It leaked. Some even called it corrupt.

Eden turned out not to be all it was cracked up to be. Our nostalgic tendency has made more of them than they could stand.

A building on sand is very much like an ark afloat – unstable, uncertain where it is going to end up and when it will finally come back to reality.

At any rate, after falling buildings and falling water Noah and family come back to earth only to find that corruption has come with them. Not only have things come on board, two-by-two, but so has our ability to see things dualistically. Immediately after landing we find irresponsibility, nakedness, and blame all back. Wine and bodies and relationships are all ambivalent experiences, but here they become either-or, this-or-that, that takes the life out of them and leaves us with only caricatures and exaggerations of G*D's image.

Since we are always dealing with the limits of creation, it shouldn't be too surprising to find Noah and family back where they started – in need of steadfast, rainbow, love that builds on sand, again and again, until we learn to have this reality become the rock upon which we can rely – wait a moment and the life we have constructed will all come tumbling down – a readiness for change.
 

Matthew 7:21-29

Pentecost +3 – Year A

Matthew 7:21-29

This summer I am not going to follow the lectionary, though I will still post about it here. We will be having guests (this week, Mel Duncan, Executive Director of Nonviolent Peaceforce) and responding to desired sermon topics from the congregation. I expect there to be connections between the lectionary and other scriptures chosen for their more literal connection to a given topic.

For instance: a general sermon title might be: "When 'Lord, Lord' is a Foundation of Sand" and a specific application this week might be – "You can't use Jesus as an excuse for hitting someone".

An immediate connection is with the possible list of good things we have done that would allow us to excuse ourselves from the evil we have also done. Jesus doesn't seem to have a concept of impartial justice that weighs good and evil and whichever is an ounce/gram weightier wins. Thus the history of evil-doers who are appreciators of the arts and gentle with their own children are not excused because of those and other virtues. Or, in this passage, those who prophesy, exorcise, or otherwise do miraculous deeds under the cloak of "Jesus" are not commended for simply doing such. Even the devil can quote scripture.

Here Jesus suggests a return to his foundation – belovedness. In the baptism of life, wherever rain falls, is there an increase in belovedness – one's own and that of everyone? If so, its solid foundation is revealed; if not, shifting sand is revealed.

Sometimes we desire to hide our base foundation. Here Jesus asks us to reveal it. On this "Memorial Day" can we remember a foundation of Jesus in non-violence (the reported mini-apocalyptic statements attributed to Jesus aside) such as Luke 9:51-56 – "When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. And he sent messengers ahead of him. On their way they entered a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him; but they did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. When his disciples James and John saw it, they said, "Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?" But he turned and rebuked them. Then they went on to another village."

consider again

Pentecost + 2 – Year A

consider again
a moment of new vision
a flower stopped by
visited and blessed
how beautiful

consider again
a moment before
a flowering
breaking new ground
how beautiful

consider again
a moment before before
a seed
sunk in soil
how beautiful

consider again
a moment yet before
a fruit
full of potential
how beautiful

consider again
an even larger moment
holding all moments
full and empty
how beautiful

consider again
a worry before
this reading
and after
how beautiful

consider again
a field of worry
in which a flower grows
a once and future blessing
how beautiful

1 Corinthians 4:1-5

Pentecost + 2 – Year A

1 Corinthians 4:1-5

Worry is very much connected with judgment. The greater the sense of impending judgment, the greater the worry. When these are low it allows for saints and sociopaths to operate out of the same criteria. Sometimes it is very difficult to tell the difference between them and sometimes very easy.

One approach to reducing worry comes from the Appreciative Listening presentation we had yesterday at the annual meeting of United Methodist Transitional/Interim Ministry Specialists (TIMS).

If you can visualize organization (personal or communal) as a mystery to be embraced rather than a problem to solve, we can project that solutions to current issues are already present.

Then we can appreciate and value what is best by focusing on life-giving forces, build on affirmations of what is working.

This leads to an envisioning of what might yet be as we amplify what is working.

Dialog regarding what can yet be becomes possible as we learn from what works.

From here we are open to the innovations needed to arrive at what will be. Out of this agreement we find it easier to walk through this process a next time around.

Click here for more information about Appreciative Inquiry.

Even presuming that this approach works well, it won’t be long before a recognition dawns that worry and judgment are very much still alive and well. Appreciative Listening and other helpful tools need some larger sense that we are living into experiences and revelations of G*D’s preemptive mercy. Extravagant forgiveness and assurance of same are the countervailing forces to judgment and worry. How are you doing at identifying and receiving these larger gifts?

Psalm 131

Pentecost + 2 – Year A

Psalm 131

With a calmed and quieted soul we are able to hear amazing things. We can hear still small voices. We can hear “Beloved”-ness all around. We can hear no-thing to distract us from hope.

Isn’t that the kind of listening we would appreciate being a part of? May you listen for your own sake and also for the sake of the world and friends and enemies that we might learn to hope together - for there is no hope but social hope.

Isaiah 49:8-16

Pentecost + 2 – Year A

Isaiah 49:8-16

G*D says, “In a time of favor I have been present.” This is one of those perception issues. We have times we label favorable and unfavorable and we equate our reception of G*D’s presence with our experience of what finds favor in our sight. In this duality of abundance and scarcity we find ourselves sometimes claiming we are forsaken when G*D is still saying, “I am present with you.”

Listen again to creation: “Sing for joy, O heavens and exalt, O earth; break forth, O mountains, into singing! For G*D is present with comfort and compassion.” All of creation except those made in G*D’s image, male and female and hermaphrodite, seem to be able to experience each moment as a time of presence. We may be too close to G*D to experience ourselves as living and moving and having our being within an expansive gift of compassion and mercy. We keep grasping after some invisible short-cut to being in absolute charge. In our perception that life could be better, we falter in our ability to sing for joy.

It seems we are continually in a state of worry based on a perception that we are being thwarted in what we are entitled to. The ability to perceive that we are forsaken and forgotten, one of the curses of being made in G*D’s image, is exactly what gets in our way of perceiving that we are as present as a scar on G*D’s hand.

What, you say, G*D’s hand can be scarred? Consider your own hand and the scars you have received in offering it. Remember your creation and the scars you have caused on the hands of others, including G*D.

May the time be ripe for us to cast a larger vision beyond our worries, fears, frustrations, losses, and sin. May we experience again compassion, possibility, new growth, and mercy. In such experiences let us join a mighty chorus that hails a new creation.

Matthew 6:24-34

Pentecost +2 – Year A

Matthew 6:24-34

"You cannot serve God and wealth." A recent movie exemplifying this is Redbelt by David Mamet. God here might be defined as personal integrity, but, however you spell it, the issue is one that is contemporary in every culture and economic system.

If you can neither serve G*D (the good I want, I don't; what I don't want, I do) nor wealth (there is always someone more sneaky, more wealthy) we are pushed back to the wisdom of Qoheleth in Ecclesiastes 5:10-20 [The Message:

"The one who loves money is never satisfied with money,
Nor the one who loves wealth with big profits. More smoke.

"The more loot you get, the more looters show up.
And what fun is that—to be robbed in broad daylight?

"Hard and honest work earns a good night's sleep,
Whether supper is beans or steak.
But a rich man's belly gives him insomnia.

"Here's a piece of bad luck I've seen happen:
A man hoards far more wealth than is good for him
And then loses it all in a bad business deal.
He fathered a child but hasn't a cent left to give him.
He arrived naked from the womb of his mother;
He'll leave in the same condition—with nothing.
This is bad luck, for sure—naked he came, naked he went.
So what was the point of working for a salary of smoke?
All for a miserable life spent in the dark?

"After looking at the way things are on this earth, here's what I've decided is the best way to live: Take care of yourself, have a good time, and make the most of whatever job you have for as long as God gives you life. And that's about it. That's the human lot. Yes, we should make the most of what God gives, both the bounty and the capacity to enjoy it, accepting what's given and delighting in the work. It's God's gift! God deals out joy in the present, the now. It's useless to brood over how long we might live."

When you can't move into the future (G*D) or live with the past (accumulated wealth), there isn't much left than the present – so, don't worry, enjoy. This may be what is meant by the difficult task outlined of "striving" for the presence of G*D. In a moment of enjoyment all that is necessary will be found.

Of Brighid and Her Realms

Pentecost +1 – Year A

Of Brighid and Her Realms

Today's witches take many of their Imbolc associations from pagan Ireland. There, Imbolc belonged to the goddess Brighid or Bride (either is pronounced Breed), mother of poetry, smithcraft and healing.

In their Encyclopedia of Celtic Wisdom, Caitlin and John Matthews quote the tenth century Cormac's Glossary: Brighid is "a poetess... the female sage, woman of wisdom, or Brighid the Goddess whom poets venerated because very great and famous for her protecting care." Cormac's Glossary gives Brighid the poetess two sisters, Brighid the smith and Brighid the "female physician"; Brighid thus occurs threefold, called by the Celts the Three Blessed Ladies.

The three Brighids multiply, to three times three: Caitlin and John Matthews call Brighid "a being who has nine separate spiritual appearances and blessings, which are ubiquitously invoked through Celtic lore." Hers are the "nine gifts of the cauldron" mentioned in Amergin's "Song of the Three Cauldrons": poetry, reflection, meditation, lore, research, great knowledge, intelligence, understanding and wisdom. The Christianized St. Bridget had nine priestesses, the "Ingheau Anndagha," or Daughters of the Flame, who lived inside her shrine and tended her fire, whom no man could look upon, according to Kisma K. Stepanich in Faery Wicca, Book One. Brighid is also a midwife and protector, a war-goddess and a teacher of the arts of battle.

Celtic lore makes Brighid the daughter of the Dagda, the Good God, and marries her to Bres of the Fomors, by whom she bears a son Ruadan. But, as Janet and Stewart Farrar write in The Witches' Goddess, "The fact that Dana, though goddess/ancestress of the Tuatha, is sometimes referred to (like Brighid) as the Dagda's daughter; the hints... that the Dagda was originally the son of this primordial goddess, then her husband, then her father; the dynastic marriage between Brighid and Bres - all these reflect a long process of integration of the pantheons of neighboring tribes, or of conquerors and conquered, and also of patriarchalization." Like many goddesses, Brighid probably once birthed the god later called her father. Brighid's name can be derived from the Gaelic "breo-aigit" or "fiery arrow," but the Matthewses prefer a derivation from Sanskrit, "Brahti," or "high one."

The entire Celtic world worshipped Brighid. She was Brigantia in Britain, the patron goddess of the tribe of the Brigantines in northern England and of the Brigindo in eastern France, Stepanich says. The Celts continued to worship her in Christian times as St. Ffaid in Wales, St. Bride in Scotland and St. Bridget or Bride in Ireland. St. Bridget was said to be the midwife and foster mother of Christ, the helper and friend of Mary.

from http://www.widdershins.org/vol2iss7/i9704.htm

Trinity and trinities of trinities abound. No matter where you look there are groups of threes. We even seem to think in trinities of thesis, antithesis, synthesis (perhaps the smallest number in which to do three-D modeling or holographic work).

May you have a full portion of 3x3 gifts –
   poetry
   reflection
   meditation
   lore
   research
   great knowledge
   intelligence
   understanding
   wisdom
 

2 Corinthians 13:5-14

Pentecost +1 – Year A

2 Corinthians 13:5-14

Here is one of those compare and contrast choices between the tone of the NRSV and The Message.

NRSV: "Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless, indeed, you fail to meet the test! I hope you will find out that we have not failed."

The Message: "You need firsthand evidence, not mere hearsay, that Jesus Christ is in you. Test it out. If you fail the test, do something about it. I hope the test won't show that we have failed."

In both cases the crux of the matter is Jesus Christ in us. From there things get dicier.

A never-ending argument can be had, both internally and externally, about what an appropriate test is that Jesus Christ within is being revealed without. Paul, evidently, has his litmus testing process. I fall back to Karl Rahner and others who find Jesus Christ to be within each person, "anonymous Christians" if you will. Without magic signs of fishes and crosses and ever-changing code language it becomes next to impossible to be certain about intentions and motivations.

Regardless of any given testing process it will be helpful to focus on verse 10 in the voice of The Message: "The authority the Master (Jesus Christ within) gave me is for putting people together, not taking them apart."

This is a difficult task when folks are not willing to be put together, but it is still a hope held out beyond there any longer being hope, that, even beyond an ending place, we will continue to be put together and find unexpected and undeserved blessings abounding.

So, remember again – Jesus Christ within is before baptismal validation as a starting point, is always in a process of creatively putting together, and will not quit even when beyond some arbitrary ending point. Given this remembrance, how would you evaluate the just stated trinity in light of other trinities you have known?
 

Psalm 8

Pentecost +1 – Year A

Psalm 8

In solidarity with those taking final exams in some school systems, here is an essay question:

By how much have you and I (we) missed being G*D, a fourth partner?

Please respond to this question by first considering it in light of humanity and secondly in regard to your own individual life.

Genesis 1:1-2:4

Pentecost +1 – Year A

Genesis 1:1-2:4

Distinction and Extension. Dividing this-from-that and generating more-and-more. With these two tools no-thingness goes beyond some-thingness to potential more-thingness.

When these two processes do not work in relationship to one another we end up with the battle any institution faces as it strives to hold itself together in the face of forces ready to tear it apart. To put this in a different and more contemporary process of creation and de-creation here is a working paper THE CENTRIPETAL NETWORK: How the Internet Holds Itself Together, and the Forces Tearing it Apart that exemplifies some of it.

Put graphically


Creation is a fractal and our brains are hardwired to appreciate it.

Matthew 28:16-20

Pentecost +1 – Year A

Matthew 28:16-20

The lection passages this week have been chosen to give authority to the idea, concept, reality, hope, relationships that has come to be deemed "Trinity." A key question is whether this metaphor is still constituent for Christians or if it has passed its helpfulness. My sense is that we are moving past this doctrinal formulation, but there are miles to go. What will be helpful is our not taking it more seriously than a vision of the past can bear. If the Trinity can't take being laughed at, it probably needs to be sidestepped in favor of a larger picture. Panentheism would broaden it to Infinity and monotheism would return it to Unity. Are you on one pole or the other or on the continuum between?

Paying attention to context is helpful. Here we have travel-tired disciples worshipping and doubting, at one and the same time. This is key to the on-going debates about Trinity and how difficult it is to teach this concept.

I am presuming that more than Thomas are doubting, that others learned from him that doubt is an acceptable beginning spot for interaction with Jesus.

In this mix of tired, worship, and doubt Jesus draws nearer than his worshiped distance would otherwise allow to say four things, with the Trinity being but a subset of one of them:
   • Be.
   • Baptize.
   • Teach.
   • Re-member.

In these we find some basics.

Go can also be Be. There is a journey and we are on it. Authority that can motivate to journeying is helpful. Authority that constrains to pre-ordained outcomes is not helpful.

Baptism and it's qualities of Repentance, Turning, Belovedness takes precedence over any institutional words that define and limit it. To be baptized by John is as significant as that in one, two, or three names of what we call Trinity. Whatever leads one to a reconsideration of life and recommitment to larger life is holy.

Baptism is an entry into learning; learning even from temptations. Teaching is thus a holy endeavor as significant as journey and baptism. Teaching how to love one another, love enemies, love self and neighbors, and love G*D goes beyond mere obedience, all the way to life itself. What else are we teaching all day long? What else are we learning all day long?

Each of these points finds new and renewed life in the context of an on-going experience of G*D's incarnation – re-membering or rebirth in the mangers of our hearts. This experience vivifies authority and journey, visions new baptisms, challenges teachings and doubts.

= = = = = = =

Recast:

A census of remaining disciples brought them back to Galilee. Here angelic song and shepherdic doubt came together one more time. In this crucible Christ was heard to say: I'm entrusting the creative authority John sees in me to all of you. Get moving to share what you know. Start with repentance from past and present (use any experience base you find helpful – that of creation, resurrection, or interconnection) and move deeper into a preferred future through the five love images I taught. Most importantly know that Love never ends and my participation in that will help sustain you all along life's journey. We are yoked together – onward – Emmanuel begins again – in you!
 

Pentecostal Babel

Pentecost – Year A

Yo! Thomas, Mothers, Anyone Oriented Toward Common Good, etc. – Ephesians 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God - 9 not the result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are what God has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.

Good works include finding ways to listen to and speak to as one does the best one can with what one has. In this setting there are rumors and rumors of rumors about several subjects. Language is being used to set decisions in stone that need an openness to new vision. Language is being used to limit the options G*D has to bless and individuals and systems have to receive blessing. Language is being used to divide the body. Even in a Pentecostal context, Babel lifts its head again.

Were it not such a mixture of Pentecost and Babel we would have long ago destroyed ourselves – give thanks for language well used. If it were not such a mixture we would have long ago experienced heaven on earth – be sad for language used for entitlement.

Yippee for Pentecost! Hip Hip Hooray for Mothers! May the ouches of life caused by words as real as sticks and stones be kissed and band-aided and new inclusive language be learned. This inclusiveness is not just about people, but tomorrow.
 

1 Corinthians 12:3-13

Pentecost – Year A

1 Corinthians 12:3-13

The variety of gifts given is too large to count. Go ahead - just try to count the ways in which folks are gifted.

While we appreciate the variety of gifts among us, we have a more difficult time comprehending that all these gifts have been held in whatever G*D might be. One of the ways in which this has shown up over time is not understanding mothering to be a gift given and yet retained within G*D. The divine feminine is a weak spot in our Christian doctrine.

Until we can affirm a larger common good than getting our own way we won't be able to affirm a more expansive image of G*D. In speculative fiction this would be the movement from a moment of creation to a continued expansion that at the same time moves to a singularity – and beyond.

Imagine an intersection of these symbols > < [remember to extend them past these truncated versions and put them in motion in regard to one another] and a progression from <> to < > [imagine connecting curved lines] to <, while > to < > was just as mysteriously real, leading to <> and finally . and taking all that experience to an even livelier expression of common good.

While yearning to see this under light, in motion, I am only as far a noting elements, not their interaction. May you aid us all in re-viewing the many gifts yet available, the strengthening of those present, and the letting loose of those needing to be put down for the benefit of a current and next common good, a once and future steadfast love.

 

Psalm 104:24-34, 35b

Pentecost – Year A

Psalm 104:24-34, 35b

From Eugene Peterson's translation – verses 29-30:

You come, and they [all creatures] gather around;
   you open your hand and they eat from it.
If you turned your back,
   they'd die in a minute –
Take back your Spirit and they die,
   revert to original mud;
Send out your Spirit and they spring to life –
   the whole countryside in bloom and blossom.

Here is a model of a generous person, as well as a generous G*D. It raises questions for us about how we hold our hand – open with food, clenched ready to strike; extended to lift up, closed to pound down. The hand here stands for our whole being, not just specific acts that can be counted up and measured.

Here is a prayer from The Complete Idiot's Guide to Christian Prayers and Devotions (page 102) that exemplifies this Pentecostal ethic:

Ravensbrück Concentration Camp, Found Beside a Dead Child
Lord, remember not only the men and women of goodwill, but also those of ill will. But do not remember all the suffering they have inflicted; remember the fruits we have bought; thanks to this suffering—our comradeship, our loyalty, our humility, our courage, our generosity, the greatness of heart which has grown out all this, and when they come to judgment, let all the fruits which we have born be their forgiveness.
 

Acts 2:1-21

Pentecost – Year A

Acts 2:1-21

My ability to speak another language seems to be limited. In bygone Peace Corps days I did know some Filipino. A part of my learning that lovely language was rather cacophonous. If enough of us learners of poor ability were together it may well have sounded windy.

If this learning another's language process was instantaneous, it may have been a quieter Pentecost and fewer people would have been drawn to see what was happening. Thank goodness for the noise of a learning process.

As it was, care for another's difference (language, at least) emboldened folks to move outside their room to engage others with what they had just experienced – an open heart to others that opened their minds and doors. A joy contained in that movement does become noticed.

The membership vows of the United Methodist church have long been four-fold and inward focused. We are called to support the church with our prayers, presence, gifts, and service. Note that this is support for the institutional church. At our General Conference just completed, a fifth vow was added that functions like the fire in that small wind and fire room of long ago – witness – tell deeds of loving-kindness (not doctrinal belief, but deeds). We'll see what this small change makes – hopefully as much as the small room and small number of people made in earlier days.
 

John 20:19-31

Pentecost – Year A

John 20:19-31

Fear on the inside the equivalent to mighty winds on the outside. Both bring life-quakes.

A word of peace is a vision of a renewed appreciation of diversity (renewed from the richness of creation in all its variety and interdependence).

Forgiveness allows a next opportunity to hear again a mystery of the universe. This forgiveness and hearing cuts across all barriers that were thought to be so strong.

Forgiveness includes in those who have not had the same experience of fears relieved and community believed. Forgiveness is a blessing every once and future person needs to both experience and practice offering until it is second-nature.

So it is that life comes forth and is renewed.

Faithful Witness

Easter 7 – Year A

Glorifying and being glorified are related to persistence of call. While not always able to finish our tasks or achieve a desired result, our very faithfulness to the task at hand has an intrinsic value that cannot be denied.

Here the persistent witness of Hee Soo Jung was a valued beginning to a day of witnessing. The text of his sermon and all too brief video are worth your time.

Later there was a positive witness by GLBTQ People and Allies. You can read about it and watch a Quicktime recording of this witness.

For most of the day there was a negative witness by the combined IRD, Good News, and Confessing Movement as they did their best to derail constitutional changes leading the United Methodist Church to be a world-wide denomination. It was evident that their multitude of referral motion, speeches, extraneous amendments, and voting signalers were designed to keep the primarily white-male "evangelical" power-brokers in charge with their ability to play the "evangelical" holiness card in the U.S. and the various delegations, primarily from Africa, were designed to keep them anonymously pulling the strings. They lost control of their talking points about a world-wide church and the body took them up on what for them was just a wedge issue. Hooray for a living spirit that took them at their word – don’t you just groan when it happens to you!

Faithful preaching, faithful and unfaithful witnesses - each brought their emotional response. Now for a last day with very exhausted people doing their best in a brutal environment we created for ourselves.

Peace to those far off and to those near by. May positive witness continue here and where you are for faithful witness is resurrection living.

1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11

Easter 7 – Year A

1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11

Being reviled for following one’s call from Christ is one thing when the difficulty comes from an outside culture that denies your call or an internal process of not doing what one desires or the other internal process of doing what one has resolved not to do, compared to being reviled by another person, also called from Christ, who claims you are incompatible with their call and therefore your call is invalid.

Here at General Conference we have been dealing with the last of these scenarios and it feels as though this intra-call reviling is the most difficult to deal with. Again, time after time, we refused to listen to the truth that we are differently called.

The matter of sexual identity is a very easy target and will not be something only suffered for a little while. It is also not an issue that is resolvable in some great by-and-by when some “glory” will swallow up the glory of sexuality in this paradise. This matter is very much oriented to our current relationships.

Until this matter is dealt with, there is no option but to find alternative “church” forms either within or beyond current denominations. This is a discipline that is hard to keep because of the comforts of established ways of thinking and acting and the comforts of power and payment for services rendered. You may want to rethink things in light of what the Church Within a Church Movement is doing.