Joshua 24:1-25

Pentecost +26 – Year A

Joshua 24:1-25

The long journey is nearly over.

Waiting for relief – along comes Joseph and his dreams –
Crowned by power – enter a long time of slave discipline –
Reborn through a Reed Sea – learning after Spirit learning –

Advent – Christmas – Epiphany – Lent – Easter – Pentecost.

Here is Joshua, a transitional figure, moving folks back into another cycle that will end with being puffed up at court and lost in exile.

In the midst of such turning and turning, never quite right, where do we place our bet? Is it with eternal protection? With revenge when protection breaks down? On holiness codes jealously enforced? With promises of the past, threats of today, fears of tomorrow?

Is this the best we can do, recycle our lowest common denominator? If so, we might wonder where on the wheel we find ourselves today and whether we are heading fast to the ground to be ground into the ground by the weight of the wheel. Hope is not our way out of this, but it can encourage us to always appreciate the wisdom of the wilderness.

Today is an election day. Is it the end-all and be-all and answer-all? No. But it will give us a gauge of how soon a next needed revolution will arrive – later or sooner.
 

Matthew 25:1-13

Pentecost +26 – Year A

Matthew 25:1-13

As we draw nigh to the end of another church year we sense a frustration of not having been perfected - as we had so hoped at the beginning of the year. Our frustration shows up in hellish threats to shape-us-up on our deathbed, to get our acquiescence for, if not our commitment to and participation in, living tomorrow (heaven) today (earth).

Where division can be a great motivator, note the flurry of negative ads as we draw near to the close of yet another election cycle, it has limited long-term effect. There is a negativity fatigue, as well as a compassion fatigue, and we just don't respond like we once did.

All that to the side, how are you doing with your awareness of the situation around you and your continued ability to share beyond what is "fair" to you? Have you been wise during these days of housing bubbles (what a lovely word to use for such nasty activity – a housing volcano that finally erupted may come closer)? What does that mean about how you will deal with those who foolishly took the word of experts that all was in good order and the market has a benevolent desire for your specialness? Is it time to cut them off, punish them, send them away? If so, what does that have to do with the expectant waiting we did just under a year ago?

We do need to learn from our cycles through the year. If we don't do a better job of connecting beginnings with endings, we may be doomed to repeat them. If you were to write a history of this past year that we might be edified, what would you include and what would you leave out?
 

Homesick

Pentecost +25 – Year A

Questions carry within them little mini-answers. Who is Barack Obama? What is the connection between George Bush and John McCain? Should health-care be a common-wealth issue? What about the tie between the Perizzites and Iranians? Are you saved? Among the redeemed of the Lord? Do you remember how hard we toiled for you?

While good power rhetoric, we are still looking for opportunities to respond rather than answer and to investigate together rather than ask a divisive question.

Here is a significant arena for delving deeper into the matrix of the universe – finding and appreciating healthy ways in which G*D might demonstrate solidarity with humanity. The old ways of dividing into clean and unclean, chosen and rejected, and upright and blamed don't seem to have much in the way of relationship between the created order. Of course this may simply be the way life is intended to be – survivalist, being on some pre-determined correct side. In the end, however, the vision of heaven this portrays is one heavily reliant upon hell.

At the end of the week we are left with one overarching question – what are you homesick for? What is your greatest yearning? and a desire beyond that? May you find a kernel within that question that will lead you beyond satisfaction to joy.
 

1 Thessalonians 2:9-20

Pentecost +25 – Year A

1 Thessalonians 2:9-20

From whom have you been effectively orphaned?

Who do you long, with great eagerness, to see?

These direction-setting questions, mission-orienting queries, are as relevant today as they were in Paul's day. These are also questions that can be applied all along an election campaign, whether for secretary of a service organization or president of a small or large constituency.

What Paul is not catching here is that he is as orphaned from those he terms "Jews" as from those he knows as "Gentiles". His language further enhances his distance from those who do not see the world as he does.

What would you advise Paul about his blinders or decision to draw such a sharp distinction?

What would you then advise yourself regarding the separations and gatherednesses in your own life?
 

Psalm 107:1-6, 33-37

Pentecost +25 – Year A

Psalm 107:1-6, 33-37

Today we will sing verses 1 and 15 of our next hymn. We will also only pay attention to the 2nd and 10th amendments of the U.S. Constitution. Of particular concern will be commandments 4 and 6 (depending on how you count).

In these selective ways we can avoid responsibility for the whole of life or the benefit of another if it competes with my own desire. We can divide up and set one important part of life against another.

In this case the elided verses are pretty repetitious. They are also looking for G*D to take responsibility for our hard times and going back over old hurts.

What this condensation leaves us with is an image of bringing the destitute to a place filled with potential. The response looked for is a return to being stewards of current resources, not revengers of past harm.

We end with Eden revisited. Now the decision on our part of how we are going to practice stewardship in our current setting - how we are going to invite the hungry into the bounty we have and join us in a next cycle of sowing and reaping? This not a "when" question, but a "how" question.
 

Joshua 3:7-17

Pentecost +25 – Year A

Joshua 3:7-17

Beware of being exulted, even when such purports to come from da Lord. You may be in line for upping the ante from killing the first-born (bad enough) to genocide (bad to some undefinable exponent).

There is an interesting picture here of priests standing where water once flowed (often termed living-water) and now drier than a bone. Given the number of folks to get across the Jordan it must have been backed up for some time. Given the relative narrowness of the rift valley, the extra must have seeped into dry, dry ground or established a new wetland or been like a dam-burst when finally the priests moved their dryness on.

This story is not meant to stand up to that kind of scrutiny. But as precursor to the official line of "my-god-is-so-much-bigger-than-your-god-that-you-are-now-nothing" approach to presidential campaigning or manifest destiny or pre-emptive doctrine or chosen people or . . . , this is not a healthy place from which to bring forth much in the way of heaven on earth.

Suffice it to say that Joshua's better angel might have responded to the "Master of the entire earth", "you go on ahead, this wilderness is a better place to be." But, then, once you have committed yourself and your house to serving, no questions asked, there may not be the same opportunity to bargain as a partner or remind the Master of the House (Les Misérables reference) to cool it.

Beware spectacle, even holy spectacle, especially holy spectacle.
 

Matthew 23:1-12

Pentecost +25 – Year A

Matthew 23:1-12

In what guise will the Messiah appear today?

My learning is going to be impacted by the clarity and breadth of my ability to see beyond the surface of Messiah regalia to the variety of ways a beloved community is revealed.

The greatest among us will model their accumulated wisdom. They will lead us forth, teach us that which was too difficult until this moment. They are Spirit incarnated. From time to time they will be folks mutually affirmed as consistent sparks of new vision. From time to time they will be folks who surprise for their brief instant, not even fifteen minutes of fame, but, for a critical moment, an indispensable blessing.

Those who attempt to claim a spot without it arising from lived experience will be ambition personified. Even if it is I who so claims a vision from G*D, my posing will be revealed. And so Jesus reminds us about the importance of loving one another. For today I am Messiah, tomorrow, you, and in time after that the joy of another.

In what guise does Messiah not appear?
 

So Common

Pentecost +24 – Year A

what a delightful foreground
full of shiny things
baubles and bangles
and glimmering rings
vehicles latest and greatest
announcing status
leaving no doubt
shoes of exotic leather
timepieces unique
in all the world
there is nothing missing
against a barely discernable
background so common

warp of god
weft of neighbor
weave of self
 

1 Thessalonians 2:1-8

Pentecost +24 – Year A

1 Thessalonians 2:1-8

It is always possible to make demands upon another. That is subtext to negative advertising – Don't!

At the same time it possible to refuse to work in a demand-based economy, politics, relationship. In this space we not only have content (sharing the gospel of G*D) but we have process (sharing our hearts, our selves).

The divide between accepting and not-accepting demand-based relationships is a huge divide between varieties of religions. It takes a huge conversion to move from one side of this divide to the other.

Such a conversion can be led by an invitation from a shared life or pushed by one demand too many. Our usual progressive process is to invite, to model, to share. Our temptation is to use the techniques of the demanders and in our hands it is particularly dangerous. Best to recognize that life is a slow process where we don't throw our weight around, but allow it be an attractor.
 

Psalm 90:1-6, 13-17

Pentecost +24 – Year A

Psalm 90:1-6, 13-17

Times have been tough.

Of course god has something to do with that. [wink]

We fear god will reverse engineer us into dust and mud.

So we appeal to god's patience with us.

Then we sort of blame god for having been away while we mice played.

We would rather be controlled than destroyed and we ask god to do so.

All of which ought to get us back to prosperity. [hooray! we tricked god again and live to see another day]

= = = = = = =

The above ain't very poetical but it is familiar territory as we whine and blame, blame and whine.

Given the first two passages for the week, what have we missed about "love" that goes in all directions? What have we missed about a vision larger than our disappointment?

If we could get our heads and hearts and hands and health around these questions we might not again end up rehearsing this Psalm. Blessings upon you as you live through the tough times without bargaining yourself away.
 

Deuteronomy 34:1-12

Pentecost +24 – Year A

Deuteronomy 34:1-12

What are you seeing that you are not going to accomplish?

This is a most un-American, anti-positivist question. In places where kids are overscheduled and incessantly prepared for success, we don't catch a picture larger than ourselves. The same resistance to this question arises in religion precisely at the points where issues of tradition and salvation intersect. We yearn for a right answer from the past to care for our uncertainty and for a correct interpretation of signs to equate the present with the future.

To see beyond actually opens us to the unexpected ways in which we engage each moment along the way. Through all the dry times and hungry times and doubting times and unfaithful times we are strengthened. Through all the high times and satisfying times and times of certainty and surety come the next moments wherein we are humbled.

Can you catch a loving glimpse of G*D, of Neighbor? Just a snapshot? Just a quiet word? In that glimpse you have an insight into a larger world than expected. Such a quest is found in clarifying our expectations by looking again at our entitlements and finding them less than we had counted on; investigating again our hopes and finding in them more reality than we had first noticed. What is Messiah if not connected with my life? What is G*D if not a partner, a neighbor? What is a Neighbor if not a revelation of G*D? What is our Self if not connected with Christ?

Thank you Moses for setting a larger context. Thank you Joshua for attending to the details. Thank You for taking your part in gazing farther and carrying forward.

So, again, what are you seeing that you are not going to accomplish?
 

Matthew 22:34-46

Pentecost +24 – Year A

Matthew 22:34-46

It was quite the tag team match. Scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees, Governors, and Kings all lined up against a refugee-raised, mystic prophet.

A question before us is who wins each round and who wins the match.

Yes, it will be important to define what a win means. To use a Dancing with the Stars image, the judges last word is not the last word – there is a spirit in the air, a zeitgeist that will not be denied. As a result, the results sometimes seem dumbfounding (hopefully the voting machines will not leave us equally perplexed).

To pick up on Eugene Peterson's translation in verse 46, literalists and legalists are stymied by metaphor and creativity. This shows up in whether you are trying to split hairs or find an organizing principle.

In the first scene, regarding Commandments, the detail folks were trumped by a context setting and then, in the second scene about Messiahs, the literalists were out-literalized. We may need to not so much take away a correct answer from this interaction as to un-focus our eyes to see the love shining through – to see every loving line of "you" (line from a Judy Fjell song).

You are hereby given permission to follow where the spirit of love leads you – sometimes seeing the big picture and sometimes attending to a detail. Enjoy the choices as they come your way.
 

existential joy/angst

Pentecost +23 – Year A

From time to time a reader poses a question or offers a comment in regard to these postings. Yesterday brought this question: "Would taking great joy from the Holy Spirit have an inherent risk of leaving the Holy Spirit joyless?"

There is the joy of play in the question and the writer continues: "I am still working on a construct in which an 'existential joy' lens would be as readily embraced as the 'existential angst' lens. I, of course, am admitting to the power and pervasiveness of the latter in my own life by having even posited the above question. It may well be the unspoken existential joy that enables us to be willing to continue in the face of existential angst."

I am going to leave the initial question alone, as any koan should be respected. In response to the existential joy/angst comment, here are some words from a book I am currently reading, That which Transpires Behind that which Appears: The Experience of Sufism by Pir Vilayat Inayat Kahn. I do recommend it.

"You do not have to look for beautiful music, or beautiful churches or painting. You can find beauty in a face that for all intents and purposes does not appear particularly beautiful. Behind the mask you can see beauty. Jelaluddin Rumi said If only you could see your face through my eyes, you would realize how beautiful you are. People can see themselves through your eyes. You can help them in one of the most important aspects of the personality: their self-esteem. It also confirms your utopic thoughts that, in fact, there is beauty behind whatever appears at the surface of the universe.

"So you are continually guarding your emotional attunement from slipping into a low-key condition. At the same time, you are outraged by any offense against honesty, and outraged against rank selfishness. In a way, you are exalting in joy and, at the same time, enduring terrible suffering. Your heart is broken, there is so much suffering in the world.

"You are so full of joy; yet, as you become aware of the suffering of people around you, it is very difficult to maintain that level of jubilations which you encountered when you lifted your consciousness upward. You find that you are being tested in life: are you able to be full of joy and, at the same time, have a broken heart?

"You may also find that you feel precarious and strong at the same time. As Pir-o-Murshid says, Be able to reconcile the perfection of your divine inheritance with the imperfection of your idiosyncrasies. He calls it the aristocracy of the soul, together with the democracy of the ego-- both together, not one or the other. If you tilt too much in the direction of your personal dimensions, you have a sense of inadequacy; you have a bad self-image. If you tilt too much in the direction of your divine inheritance, you could become sanctimonious; you might think of yourself as superior to others. It is very difficult to reconcile these two."

[Note: This is a way of viewing the pericopes of the week. How do you hear the conversations between Jesus and some Pharisees, Moses and G*D, Paul and some Thessalonian converts? Can you experience them as internal conversations within yourself?]
 

1 Thessalonians 1:1-10

Pentecost +23 – Year A

1 Thessalonians 1:1-10

In days gone by early Methodists were engaged by a question: What must I do to escape the wrath to come?

Many responses had to do with lowering one's tax (sin) burden. On the love G*D end was camp meeting praise, emotional and awakening. On the love neighbor pole were issues of simplicity to be able to give more charity and all manner of mercy acts around healthcare, education, and mission.

In a full-bore capitalist society, instead of being at its industrial revolution beginning, with a focus on present profit, concern about a wrath to come, a significant credit crunch, seems to hold no traction. If there is going to be a rescue it won't be from a prophetic moralist like Jesus. Rather, there will be any number of bailouts tried on the basis of capitalism's idol – Mammon. If we can just infuse enough cash into a roiling economy, its invisible hands will pull itself up by its own bootstraps. [Imagine that position, if you will, and you will soon see why one should never trust a fart and how messy things can and will get.]

A question worth struggling with in our day is: what will engage people's lives in the same way the old question about escaping from wrath did in the early days of Methodism as a reflection of an older time in Thessalonica? What would that be in your own life?

What organizing principle is needed in your life and the life of the world around that would lead to your taking "great joy from the Holy Spirit! – taking the trouble with the joy, the joy with the trouble"? [The Message] This present-oriented perspective may well be connected with escaping a more troubled future?
 

Psalm 99

Pentecost +23 – Year A

Psalm 99

The following paraphrase raises several interesting translational/perspective questions that can lead to good conversation.

- Is G*D's greatness a one-way street from G*D to humans/creation? What is the role of interdependence when dealing with issues of holiness?

- What is the relationship between honoring another and groveling before them?

- How warranted is the reference to "humus" in lines 5 and 6? Can we take this back to Creation or is it simply a matter of the line of Abraham's faithful?

- In verse 8, are "wrongdoings" by the Israelites to be punished while also being forgiven or is the reference to "wrongdoings" about those of others?

= = = = = = =

Psalm 99 - paraphrased by Jim Taylor

Though we have climbed earth's highest mountains, the peaks remain as
inhospitable to our life as outer space. Ancient peoples saw these fearful
heights as the habitation of the gods.

1           Like a halo of holiness, the spirit of God envelops the earth.
In the stillness of space, God's spirit gives life; let us acknowledge our
insignificance.
In the emptiness of infinity, God's spirit creates life; let us acknowledge
our interdependence.
2           Look up if you would see God;
raise your sights beyond your repetitive routines.
3           But do not attempt to face God as an equal--
Fling yourself face down on the earth
Before the creator of the heavens.
4           Almighty God, you love to do right.
In your dealings with your creation, you are always fair.
5           We humans grovel before your greatness.
Humbly, we kiss the humus from which you fashioned us.
You are holiness itself.
6           The humus holds the recycled cells of those who came this way
before us;
Step by step they searched for you, until you found them.
7           By the pillar of fire and the whispering breeze,
by bonfire and whirlwind, by prophecy and parable, you showed them your way.

8           Because they tried to follow you, you forgave them their
failings;
But those who laid traps for them, you did not tolerate.
9           So pledge allegiance to our God!
Gather at the foot of the mountain, where even the rocks reach up towards
our God.
Our God is holiness itself.

= = = = = = =

From: Everyday Psalms
Wood Lake Books.
For details, go to www.woodlakebooks.com
 

Exodus 33:12-23

Pentecost +23 – Year A

Exodus 33:12-23

Goodness can be blinding. This comes from both the sparks of new life that burst forth as a result of goodness and the turning away from goodness by those who fear it will lead them where they would fear to tread.

So the understanding of goodness being too much to look upon directly or in advance. Goodness is best dealt with after the fact.

When we begin to attribute goodness as an expected quality, it isn't long before we are disappointed. Likewise, when we intend goodness to flow from a present action, we are soon discouraged by the number of unintended consequences that also come forth.

Would that we would temper our anticipation of someone good arising to lead us out of our current situation all too clearly connected with our past decisions. That goodness will not be forthcoming. Likewise to come at decisions more humbly, doing the best we know at the time without universalizing it. Decisions always take place in the gray areas of life or they wouldn't be decisions.

What we are left with is the backside of goodness. We can recognize it by what comes to pass. This leads us to simply rejoice at the presence of goodness in the midst of so much that isn't. As folks made in G*D's image, having Glory within us, we are called to doing all the good we can, with all the folks and all the time we have. This, however, needs to be carried out with the humility of backsides. May it be our everyday life to sow seeds of kindness and tend them as they sprout. Much later there will be stories told not only of John Chapman but (your name here) as the fruits of simple goodness mature and nourish.
 

Matthew 22:15-22

Pentecost +23 – Year A

Matthew 22:15-22

Flattery is an excellent entrapment process. It works in both directions. Flatterers become less than themselves, knowing all along that they are untrue. Flatterees becomes more than themselves, ready to stumble, top heavy, with their head bigger than their britches.

The appropriate use of taxes continues to be on of those problematic issues. We can't live with them when they are separated from the commonwealth and we can't live without them as long as we are in community.

Taxes reveal our balance or imbalance between an individual's responsibility for themselves and a community's responsibility for those not up to that task and those infrastructure matters that benefit all.

So, what is a religious obligation to participate in a community beyond said religious' tenets?

Do you use state money? The state does have a claim on it. Charity, helpfulness, love, care, neighbor, widow and child, also have a claim on it for they have a claim on every part of my life, our lives.

This is not a division between G*D and Emperor, it is a question of proportion. G*D works through Emperors as well as against them and so questions of discernment are always in order. Are you going to keep your taxes to a minimum? Voluntarily double them? Use them as a tool of resistance?

The Pharisees left too early and easily. Their amazement protected them from a reconsideration of their own question, showing that starting with flattery keeps learning at bay. They'll be back.
 

invitations to life

Pentecost +22 – Year A

invitations to life
banquets galore
come and come
in the midst of distractions
and other calls

anger for being asked
matches anger
at invitations refused
and on anger's unstable ground
we blindly build

unspoken expectations
thinking all is resolved
rear their heads
and lead into another round
of off with their heads

a heavenly presence
is like a wedding
but one without trappings
just joy in relationship
that radiates an excellent harmony
 

Philippians 4:1-13

Pentecost +22 – Year A

Philippians 4:1-13

I'm intrigued with verse 5 – "let your gentleness be known" (NRSV)

John Wesley's Notes indicate: " Yieldingness, sweetness of temper, the result of joy in the Lord." Here we can play with simple joy and specific joy in the Lord. Wherein do these signify the same thing and something different?

Is "moderation" (KJV) a better way to come at this text? How about "forbearance" (ASV)? What about the extended form in The Message, "Make it as clear as you can to all you meet that you're on their side, working with them and not against them"?

When we find joy in moderation, rather than just moderation for its own sake, or forbearance or being for others, there is a switch that is thrown in our perception of our own experience. Then our honor, purity, pleasingness, excellence, and praise not only grow from G*D's peace, but lead to it. In joy these circles come round right and we find ourselves in a place just right, a valley of delight.

May you Syzygus others, yoking them together (their better fate) than allowing a separation to grow between two, oh so similar, folks.

Along with your daily bread, may you daily en-joy.
 

Psalm 106:1-6, 19-23

Pentecost +22 – Year A

Psalm 106:1-6, 19-23

An unsung superhero: The Deflector.

In the presence of a gap between the powerful and the un-powerful, the privileged and the un-privileged, and the holy and the un-holy, The Deflector simply stands.

This seemingly inconsequential act of standing does make a significant difference. It keeps all the un-people from being utterly abolished or annihilated. This is an honorable task for a super-hero. In fact it is a quite doable act by anyone.

First, The Deflector has open eyes to recognize gaps between people.

Second, The Deflector analyzes the relationship.

Third, The Deflector moves into the gap and turns to face the more powerful, privileged, holy to hold their passion and purpose at bay.

Fourth, The Deflector at some point transforms into The Reflector. By this shift the powerful catch a glimpse of what schmucks they have been and the un-powerful catch a glimpse of how pathetic they have been. In this manner the powerful pause and the un-powerful perk up – the field and relationship is leveled.

How are you doing in being recruited as the next Deflector/Reflector in your community? If not yet acknowledged, are you at least practicing? When this post is not filled, a lot of people are hurt and social injustice runs rampant, personal injustice rears its head.

Who do you know who is calling you to stand before them thinking you will be deflecting injustice away from them and will be surprised to see their own power revealed to them so they too can stand? If you have only a hint, it is enough to call you to the ranks of Holy Moses and Saint Syzygus and carry on the tradition of doing your best for the un-people.
 

Exodus 32:1-14

Pentecost +22 – Year A

Exodus 32:1-14

G*D had a second thought that caused a change in G*D. Hooray! Is this not a sign unto us as significant as rainbows and pillars of fire and manna and circles within circles and mangers?

Evil threatened turned out to not be evil done. A disaster was averted through a second-thought.

In the midst of the current economic "disaster" (as perceived by some or many) we might wonder how many second-thoughts were allowed to come to fruition and how many died aborning?

In the midst of whatever personal "disaster" (again, perception is significant here) we are experiencing we would benefit from a reflection on our second-thought process. The same goes for a congregation or other institution.

One of the blessings of the progressive movement is its ability to see beyond what is purported to be common-sense or orthodoxy. We are freed through a second-thought process to visit any number of situations again for a first time. In such a manner are idols best rooted out and extraneous baggage (then and now, gold) let go of.

In this case Moses and G*D sharpened each other. May you continue to sharpen your second-thoughts by honing them against your current "opponent" (again, . . .).
 

Matthew 22:1-14

Pentecost +22 – Year A

Matthew 22:1-14

Might we be looking at a different kind of parable here – one that rehearses a bit of history? Imagine a stained glass kind of re-telling of Creation, Eden/Babel, Flood, Exodus, Exile by one understood to be a prophet who is raising an important question.

The presence of G*D may be compared to Creation. Is not a wedding a celebration of creation? (Mind, a wedding can become quite trivial in its cultural manifestation.) The honoring of differences in the context of a larger unity, sparks much that is new.

However it happens, celebrations do formally end. A drifting away happens when one celebration doesn't morph into a next celebration. Great is the fall thereof – whether in Eden or at Babel – when my difference is more important than your difference and there are better things to do alone.

O, the Flood of rage, as sending folks away grows and grows into murder most foul – into genocide.

O, the remorse, the rebound, to settle for a new people and an Exodus from our mutual crying and loneliness.

O, the heightened sensitivity when the new folks don't play according to the game and we are still not back at the joy of creation. A trial separation, an Exile, grows from any slight or disappointment.

Yes, we have here a slam of the religious leaders of that and every age who forget their place in this ongoing story of Paradise Lost and Paradise Yearned For. But, also a rehearsal of a vision of every prophet to reconnect Creation and Present.

Where was your emotional connection to this snapshot of G*D? Were you overjoyed to be included in with the good, the bad, and the ugly? Were your fears engaged that you would be the next one to make a slip or get caught by an unrepentant Miss Manners, one with no sense of comedy?

After the little moral at the end, did you find yourself feeling glad you were among the few? Was there a little niggling thought that you had one more opportunity to bargain to increase the few, to more, to many, to all? If feeling the former and recognizing the latter, what are you doing to advocate for those being told to go to hell in today's world?
 

Hear another story

Pentecost + 21 – Year A

Let's listen in on the opening of the four pericopes:

- Hear another story. Listen closely.
- G*D speaks story after story, word after word.
- A story begun in creation and
- confidently enfleshed in my story.

The latest G*D story, against the background of an acceptance by steadfast love, contains the specifics of your story, my story, our story. These are stories that need to be told in our day.

In these stories we will hear hard and easy things about ourselves. We will hear about killing those who are not duly deferent. We will hear a beautiful silence between stories. We will hear a yearning for resurrection in the present, not just the past or future.

As we listen we will have a choice of hearing how murderous we still are and responding to a call of prophetic change.

Our choice will define our meaning and shape the coming generations. If our response is to envision killing, Jesus will affirm that that is what we see and gently encourage us to stumble over an alternative lest what we prescribe becomes our fate. If our response is to pay attention to the gift of silence and resurrection, we will be encouraged to change our behavior in light of a better and larger vision, as bright as the sun and as inspirational as the moon.

Do you want to respond to the questions of life and not just stay on some conditioned message? Listen to your story and learn from creation's deep heart's core.(1)
 

Philippians 3:4b-11

Pentecost +21 – Year A

Philippians 3:4b-11

Again the issue of authority. What do we claim as our grounding? Is it time to take another look at it? As I wrestle with a vocational call to keep a pastoral authority going or hearkening to a cultural call of retirement (yes I made it to the magic age of 65 last week – just 5 years left on my biblical warranty), I am asking again what am I pointing toward and which route will best move me forward.

Given where you are on your life's trajectory, where you can place an "I Am Here" sign on your life map, where do you stake out what you are looking for. Can you phrase it like Paul, "I'm looking to attain resurrection from the dead"? Would you say the same thing in different terms and thus ground yourself somewhere to be able to achieve such? Would you say something completely different?

May you press on toward the prize of your call, your authority, in this day, in this age, in these circumstances.
 

Psalm 19

Pentecost +21 – Year A

Psalm 19

"God's Word is better than a diamond,
   better than a diamond set between emeralds.
You'll like it better than strawberries in spring,
   better than red, ripe strawberries."
          [The Message]

In this day we are reminded of basics. What is your better? Is it Resources? Is it Pleasure? Are they located in economic security and/or advancement?

What pulls our life together? What is the value of silence? of waiting? of a way to joy before joy is experienced?

There are so many different explanations of G*D's Presence, so many different measuring tools. Our work is to move beyond fear and beyond sound-bites. Our work is to test "unspoken truth".

May you be blessed in your investigations and sharing of what you have found.
 

Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20

Pentecost +21 – Year A

Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20

So how would you redact this version of 10 commanding words?

Are the many more words about idolatry and Sabbath than the other commands needed because these are necessarily more complex and subtle than the rest? Can we really simplify these or do they need more said about them because of the little ways they can be subverted?

Wherever you come out on that matter, the harder questions are those at the end. Are you comforted by Moses' response urging us to have no fear because this is only a test to see how fearful (awe-full) we can get? I suspect that their rejoinder to Moses may well have been, "O, right!, there's no reason for us to be afraid, its only a test we can't pass. How could we have been so foolish – Not! We're still afraid!"

This response seems to be implicit because of the way the story proceeds to The Lord going on to give law upon law. And, I suspect, that the Israelites would have been corroborated in their fear - "Who, now, can do anything without going down in flames? Ten we could deal with, but hundreds?!"

During these days of Rosh Hashanah it might be good to remember the principle of a Selichot Prayer and its revelation of mercy before, after, and during a test.

In light of steadfast love and mercy, failure can be borne.
 

Matthew 21:33-46

Pentecost +21 – Year A

Matthew 21:33-46

Stones at hand to throw. Stones aplenty to stumble over. Stones to build a watchtower and good-neighbor fences.

Wealth desire more profit while it at ease, off and about. In this sense the wealthy are a stumbling stone. Given what is deemed to be sufficient cause, wealth will come down like a juggernaut to crush its stoners.

The question of response to the initial scene is crucial. Are market forces and the divine-right of wealth the standards of measurement for relationships? Is there any other credible response than a killing-for-a-killing that the current rich might continue so? If there are, in what way might they also contain a see that, over time, will grow into a stumbling stone of another color?

In light of economic issues in the news, here is a column I found helpful by Jim Taylor. It's permalink (http://edges.canadahomepage.net/2008/09/28/459/) will be available later - How else might you link this Jesus story with today's events?

= = = = = = =

Sunday September 28, 2008

PRIVATIZE PROFITS, SOCIALIZE LOSSES

I’ll be fine. Really, I will. Enough of my investments survived the recent stock market roller coaster that I can probably live reasonably comfortably for the rest of my life.

But I may have to die five years sooner than I had planned.

Do I sound bitter? I should. I’m bitter about the hypocrisy of governments that profess faith in the free market process and then refuse to let the free market apply its own consequences for fraud and mismanagement.

I’m furious at corporations that treat the public as a bottomless pit of suckers who can be exploited for investment capital, then milked for bailouts when those investments go sour.

I’m outraged at regulatory bodies that invite corporate entities -- anything from an international importer to a national food processor to a rural municipality -- to cut corners to balance their bottom line, by reducing inspections.

On the other hand, I’m grateful I don’t live in the United States where I have to pay taxes to a federal government that has squandered my money shamefully on wars built on lies and bailouts built on cronyism.

THREE STRIKES

But if I were an American taxpayer, here’s what I would have to conclude.

American banks loaned my savings to the mortgage companies. The mortgage companies competed to loan my savings to people who couldn’t afford to buy a house but who were led to believe that they couldn’t lose if the price of houses kept soaring.

Then, still using my money, the banks and mortgage lenders conspired to bundle those iffy mortgages into something they could sell as a sure thing because it was backed by real property. And the hedge funds used more of my money to buy up those toxic investments.

And when the whole pyramid scheme imploded, federal authorities want to use my money once again to bail out the companies that made all those dubious decisions.

Were I an American taxpayer, I’d have to conclude that I got screwed at least three times. Perhaps more.

Because even if I personally kept my nose clean, my credit above water, and my liabilities low, I would still owe around $37,000 as my per capita share of the $11.6 trillion that my government has gone into hock.

HYPOCRISY RAMPANT

Since Ronald Reagan, a series of Republican administrations has steadily promoted the ideology that life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness depend on a free market economy.

As an outsider, I see them implementing this conviction through tax cuts and the reduction of government interference in businesses’ business of making a profit.

Tragically, Stephen Harper’s government in Canada has bought into the same mindset. Right now, he’s going around the country assuring voters that if you want to feel confident the country is in good hands, entrust it to the party that will mimic the policies that brought the world’s strongest economy to its knees.

Here in Canada, that mindset led to the Walkerton tainted water disaster, after Mike Harris slashed Ontario’s inspection services.

In the U.S., those policies produced the Enron and World.com crashes, the collapse of the Arthur Anderson accounting empire, and finally the sub-prime mortgage fiasco.

Now George Bush and the Treasury are lobbying to shore up their devastated economy with another $700 billion -- and maybe more -- in handouts.

Effectively, good ol’ free-enterprise George has socialized the U.S. credit industry.

COMPENSATION FOR LOSSES

At least this disaster has brought the true Republican principles into the open -- privatize profits, socialize losses.

If you can pillage natural resources, rape the ecosystems, slaughter your opposition, and abandon your wastes for future generations to deal with, you’re entitled to claim any loot you can acquire as a legitimate return on investment.

But if, perchance, your emulation of Attila the Hun should backfire, you’re entitled to be compensated for your losses by the people you pillaged, raped, slaughtered, and abandoned.

Yes, you’re damn right I’m angry.

But don’t label me a socialist. I’ve been a freelance writer and editor for 27 years now. I helped to found and co-owned an independent publishing company for 15 years. I haven’t had a regular pay cheque for ten years.

I quit sucking the teat of a great mother corporation 40 years ago -- although I still occasionally envy the pension plan that rewards those who stuck it out to the end.

But if I had to choose between the bureaucracy of government-run liquor stores, for example, and the crack cocaine dealers who peddle their products on street corners, I’d take the government operation any time.

At least they are accountable. To someone.

In theory, the corporations whose greed has tipped the world’s economy into red alert are also accountable. If not to the government, at least to their shareholders.

But the shareholders were never told what those companies were doing to inflate the value of their shares. According to some news reports, not even the executives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, of Lehman and Merrill Lynch, realized how deep in trouble their firms were. Until it was too late.

Now those shareholders find that their equity has plummeted.

NOT BOTTOM YET

It’s said that alcoholics cannot begin to recover from their addiction until they hit bottom.

I’m afraid that the U.S. economy has not yet hit bottom. Because I see no sign that the people who run that economy have learned anything from their experience.

They are still protecting the CEOs, the managers, the corporate interests. They are still bailing out the bad decisions, the gambles, the fiscal flimflams. By analogy to the alcoholic, they are still in denial.

At least when a drug pusher screws up, he goes to jail. Or gets shot by his rivals.

The corporate and government leaders who got us into this mess will come out of it with gold-plated pensions and/or severance packages.

Thanks a lot, George.

*****************************************
Copyright © 2008 by Jim Taylor.
Non-profit use in congregations and study groups permitted; all other rights reserved.
*****************************************
 

by what authority

Pentecost +20 – Year A

by what authority
will you force a rock
to give up its water
to return to creation
and a separation
land from water

by what authority
will you force an audience
to hear old old old stories
miraculous in their day
even more so in ours
to reshape expectations

by what authority
will your force yourself
to be emptied of gifts given
and turn to others
even Jesus
to empty them

so soon the emptiness
the chaos the deep
falls and rises again
calling for utmost care
and diligent energy
binding will to work

by what authority
will you force a change
upon mind and belief
and move your yes to no
and no to yes
and all beyond both
 

Philippians 2:1-13

Pentecost +20 – Year A

Philippians 2:1-13

The love of Christ is personal in that it makes a difference in me and communal it that that difference is to be joined with others (one another in a faith community and neighbors everywhere). The humility required by this keeps us "reverent and sensitive before God" [The Message].

This communal expression of the experience of love is a measure of our soul, of salvation wholeness. Always reverence and sensitivity are on the edge of fear and trembling for experience is just that way.

To put this in the context of the current predictable economic situation eventuating from a market-only approach to life you may be interested in the first News Brief in the latest TCP Nexus -- reflections by the Rev. Susan Brooks Thistlewaite, professor at Chicago Theological Seminary, and Rabbi Arthur Waskow, director of The Shalom Center in Philadelphia.
 

Psalm 78:1-4, 12-16

Pentecost +20 – Year A

Psalm 78:1-4, 12-16

We tell old, old stories for a variety of reasons. One of them is that of reclaiming the joy of an overwhelming experience that it might inform the darkness of a present confusion.

Who knows how close to the experience came the first interpretation? Well, no one. But, as time has progressed we have found ourselves circling back to the stories until we can just tick them off. We put our fingertips together and intone, "True." In some sense we have become as trapped by our archetypes as we are set free by them.

in Zoanland and in the sea
with cloud and fiery pillar
through rocks that weep
we rehearse limits and leap horizons

Our old stories are made new with each experience and our new stories morph into old. From every direction wonder abounds for those ready to hear and tell stories old and new, ready to chew on parables and pictures beyond words. May these old chestnuts not trap us in reverie, but set us free to wonder, "Why not" and proceed to find out.
 

Exodus 17:1-7

Pentecost +20 – Year A

Exodus 17:1-7

The Mayo Clinic says the symptoms of dehydration are:

Mild to moderate dehydration is likely to cause:
• Dry, sticky mouth
• Sleepiness or tiredness — children are likely to be less active than usual
• Thirst
• Decreased urine output — fewer than six wet diapers a day for infants and eight hours or more without urination for older children and teens
• Few or no tears when crying
• Muscle weakness
• Headache
• Dizziness or lightheadedness

Severe dehydration, a medical emergency, can cause:
• Extreme thirst
• Extreme fussiness or sleepiness in infants and children; irritability and confusion in adults
• Very dry mouth, skin and mucous membranes
• Lack of sweating
• Little or no urination — any urine that is produced will be dark yellow or amber
• Sunken eyes
• Shriveled and dry skin that lacks elasticity and doesn't "bounce back" when pinched into a fold
• In infants, sunken fontanels — the soft spots on the top of a baby's head
• Low blood pressure
• Rapid heartbeat
• Fever
• In the most serious cases, delirium or unconsciousness

Unfortunately, thirst isn't always a reliable gauge of the body's need for water, especially in children and older adults. A better barometer is the color of your urine: clear or light-colored urine means you're well hydrated, whereas a dark yellow or amber color usually signals dehydration.

= = = = = = =

So were the Israelites dehydrated or not? Only their urine knows. Perhaps they simply still trying to work out the effects of generations of slavery – impotence?

Since they have not had any power with which to effect their circumstances, muttering and complaining rise to an art form. We know what to do with a drunken sailor, but not what to do with a complaining people. In these kinds of stressful situations and these kinds of enslaved minds and hearts a time of testing is unavoidable. If it weren't over water in the desert, it would certainly be the next deviation or delay from being noticeably one day closer to a promised land. Everyone knows it don't take no forty years to move from Egypt to Canaan. A series of complaints, when it appears the journey is going to be longer than anticipated, is to be expected.

This is a situation that cries out for assurance. The question about whether G*D is with us or not presupposes our ability to be able to make that discernment. Unfortunately we have a conflict of interest that arises with this question – we expect that G*D will bring us fortune and if there is no evidence of that, on our terms, then, obviously, G*D is not with us, is dead or, at least, missing in action.

In today's world there are many who are thirsty, at least are able to claim they are, and who need assurance – a key theological need in troubling times.

For now we leave it with a humble recasting of the question: If G*D is not immediately evident to us, is G*D absent?
 

Matthew 21:23-32

Pentecost +20 – Year A

Matthew 21:23-32

By what authority are you living?

This is not a comparative question. It is looking for a declaration. A comparable question is, "Who do you say I am?" Again, not a question looking for a comparison or a counting of the ways.

When this question is parsed, it isn't long before fears and confusions set in. Then it isn't long before we deny the very authority we had.

To further exemplify this authority question comes a test questions that appears to be either/or – a question about will-doing that is different from well-doing.

When we are within a healthy creative authority we aren't so quick to answer an either/or. We, rather, ask a question or two in return before responding [contrast "respond" with "answer".]

In the case of this question about will-doing, we want to know more about the nature of the "father". The presenting question about "will" isn't self-evident. Is obedience the key to "will" in this case? Is John the Baptist equitable with the "father"? Is there another anticipated encounter between "father and sons"?

We have the authority needed to lay down our lives and to pick them up. We have the authority to change for the better. We have all the authority we need. Our question is whether we are bold enough to enact it – to be a prophet connected with other prophets to move the status quo ahead. In responding to our question we find our health (salvation and blessing) working toward wider health, larger salvation, and stronger blessing.

= = =

John Dominic Crossan and Jonathan L. Reed, in their book In Search of Paul: How Jesus's Apostle Opposed Rome's Empire with God's Kingdom, comment on "Spirit":

"In itself, Spirit or spirit is clear enough as the invisible glue that holds any group together around some past memory, present purpose, or future project. It is what turns a collectivity of people into a community of commitment either permanently or temporarily. It manifests itself in what that community thanks, says, and does; plans, decides, and accepts; believes, hopes, and loves. Everything thereafter depends on the content of that Spirit. And if you speak of a Holy Spirit, everything depends on the nature of that holiness. Finally, if you invoke the Spirit of God, everything depends on the character of that God.

"You can insist, with Paul, that God's Spirit is a charis, a grace, a free gift like, for example, air or gravity. From those analogies, God's Spirit is that which you can neither create by your own action nor deserve by your own virtue. But it is also permanently available for anyone and demands only that you accept it freely and cooperate with it fully. But, even so, you still have to face this question: What is the character of that God whose Spirit has overtaken you as a free gift?"
 

periodic reset

Pentecost +19 – Year A

periodic reset

what a story it was
everyone paid the same
regardless of energy output
productivity
community built
vocational understanding

what an experience
the most pressing hunger
is released
old bread remembered in manna
lamb stew flies in on quail wings
complaints are quelled

what a remembrance
first-thought loot
turns out to not be much
a surprise river
watered rocky ground
dried out lives

what a purpose
assurance of joy tomorrow
so strong
today can be risked
suffering for trust
for both our sakes

what a reset
coming after
every other try
has worn us out
turned us inside out
ready to create again
 

Philippians 1:20-30

Pentecost +19 – Year A

Philippians 1:20-30

The Message has it that "suffering is as much a gift as the trusting."

Reading backward from here we are able to strive, side-by-side, toward another gift – faith.

Reading further backward - faith perseveres, joyfully progresses.

All of this points to unending fruitful labor, regardless. There is no pie-in-the-sky desired here, only continuation with one another, growing in trust with one another and with G*D.

For some this reading backward is more helpful than reading forward. Try it both ways and see which better clarifies your own life.
 

Psalm 105:1-6, 37-45

Pentecost +19 – Year A

Psalm 105:1-6, 37-45

Were a hurricane, typhoon, or exodus bearing down upon you what would be your first choice to carry with you. Particularly given the recent news about Lehman Brothers and AIG you might want gold and jewels for the journey. They could be used to buy food and water.

Forgetting geography for the moment and where one might travel to from Egypt without a desert wilderness experience, gold and jewels might be a good choice. As it was and is an extra tuckerbag or bota might come in handier.

Thank goodness G*D is a covenant rememberer. Such a steadfast lover becomes a much needed deus ex machina.

What are you remembering these days? Might your own convoluted life become "a contrived solution to an apparently insoluble difficulty"? Remember well that you might actually be an integral part to deal with an intractable problem that later generations will laud as the improbable strikes again. Remember, in these earlier times when the nature of improbability was less well understood, it was not appreciated that any event that is infinitely improbable will, by definition, occur almost immediately.1
 

Exodus 16:2-15

Pentecost +19 – Year A

Exodus 16:2-15

Where two or three are agreed, ask! See what happens when a whole company asks!

Apparently the half-life of blessings is just a tad longer than that of plagues.

All too soon we forget. It will only take folks 6 days to forget what to do on the 7th. After a plague is released we seem to immediately return to what was our normal and reverse any learning that had gone on.

Yet, big lie memes seems to catch so quickly and last forever. What is a thoughtful person to do?

Following is a comment I made a year and a half ago on "mercy", that can easily be translated as "manna" (and aren't we still wondering what mercy is). Are two or three of us crying out for mercy or have we left it in G*D's hands, forgetting our imaging responsibilities?

"We cry out for mercy. When asked about a consequence of receiving same it is so easy to start bargaining, talking about works that one will do in response. You give me mercy and I'll do whatever you say. Give me mercy and I'll hedge myself round with the law so I will never have to ask for mercy again.

"The more difficult route is to receive mercy and humbly ask for more. This presumes that there is not a static juridical balance point for blind justice. Receiving mercy is to live boldly again, not to hide away in respectability. Receiving mercy is to pass mercy on, not handy one-liner proverbs or aphorisms. Receiving mercy is to see one's secret heart, to know creation is good, and to experience the spirit of the law. Yes, to be law-observant or dutiful is a minor virtue. To live mercy is the better part of virtue.

"On this last point check out the whole Charles Wesley Hymn based on Psalm 116 or hear a shortened version with music at CyberHymnal."
 

Matthew 20:1-6

Pentecost +19 – Year A

Matthew 20:1-6

The Presence of G*D is generosity expressed to a fault.

More could be said; a multitude of stories told to exemplify this intentionality that runs from creation to eternity.

But more can't be said and one more story won't make it any more or less true.

Our response seems to be less an image of G*D than anti-G*D. Given half a chance our envy and stinginess comes to the fore. We try to hard to control the blessings by focusing on our work and diligently attempt to deflect rejection by limiting G*D's options. In each and both cases we want not only our own, but to have our own be the most.

It would seem that a better response to generosity is humility. A simple thank-you to be able to witness generosity applied liberally prepares us to participate in being generous for no reason at all. Any other response keeps us from learning and re-learning and expanding our learning of this key quality of life.

For those in the American political scene, take a step back from the negative ads and ask some questions about generosity of heart. Perhaps "your heart will tell you as my heart has told me" that at this point the Republican presidential candidates have more to learn than the Democratic. May they both grow more generous with the last, lone, least and move away from those whose outsize expectations lobby for restrictions on generosity for the benefit of societies first privileged.
 

early mercy

Pentecost +18 – Year A

be merciful
or else

and so we learn
unmercy first

for surely there is an option
to simple mercy

and we try each in turn
putting mercy off

until it becomes
such a mercy we do

like an Olympic pole vaulter
we pass at each mercy height

waiting for a personal best or heroic act
for a mercy what is a mercy

we exhaust our humility
to be the most merciful

when a little early mercy
is all that is needed
 

Romans 14:1-12

Pentecost +18 – Year A

Romans 14:1-12

If we do not live to ourselves or die to ourselves. How do we keep falling short of community between the faith generations – those who have had faith for a long time and those just creeping into it? Forgiveness between these generations is important and seldom seen.

A Baylor University series in faith and ethics on Forgiveness has several interesting articles. In particular, turn to page 29 for Thomas Long's piece, "To Err is Human; To Forgive . . .?" ["The New Testament is always calling us to do what we cannot do. No, we ourselves cannot forgive, but as we strive to forgive we are given God’s forgiveness as a gift. We are not called to create forgiveness; that is beyond us. We are called instead to participate in a forgiveness given to us as a gift."]

Our experience is the passing of judgment upon one another, not the participation in a larger forgiveness. Let's continue working toward Frame of Reference 2.0 and beyond.
 

Exodus 15:1b-11, 20-21

Pentecost +18 – Year A

Exodus 15:1b-11, 20-21

Do you remember the biggest moral equivalent of a "roadside bomb"? – God and Moses and the Red Sea!

How did you first react to this passage? With joy because you identified with trapped Israelites? With sorrow because of the insanity of persecution?

Have you kept to your first reading or have you found another perspective from which to view such events?

Miriam dances her response? How would you use your body to demonstrate your response?

Was it for such an event as this that cloud and fire had led the Israelites? Are we again proving a God's need for praise? demonstrating the essential weakness of a chosen people needing saving, time after time?

When there is no Truth and Reconciliation process forgiveness is not forthcoming. New life is held in abeyance. So threats continue to be made, lacking any wisdom or different model. In response, a defensive action becomes offensive. And we are set up for further conflict internal (golden calves and rampaging death) and external (seeing giants and committing genocide).

This praise doesn't last all that long. Moses who used a staff to beat water into rock will soon be baited into beating a rock into water. Neither of these grand actions move the story along, we are kept in a retributive and reactive mode.

Let's find something larger to sing about.
 

Exodus 14:19-31

Pentecost +18 – Year A

Exodus 14:19-31

Moses baptized those Egyptian charioteers "real good." That perspective is questionable from many directions.

With that silliness aside, remember that Moses not only dealt with water that rock might be revealed, but, later, dealt with rock that water might be revealed. We are always finding balancing points.

What needs to be passed on from this "saving"? Yesterday we heard that forgiveness (a kind of saving/healing) was to beget more forgiveness. How might ways be opened for those who are finding themselves no less trapped than the Israelites of old? Is there an economic component to this "saving" for those whose job has moved? Is there a political component for political theories (such as the liberal or progressive which has taken such a PR beating in the last generation or third-party platforms) to be revived? Is there a racial or gender or sexual orientation component that hangs on long after legislation was to have done away with it or in the face of legislation further marginalizing a people? Is there an educational component in the face of cultural boredom?

By and large, none of the Abrahamic religions have done well in expanding salvation past their own self-interest. How are you doing on a personal level?
 

Matthew 18:21-35

Pentecost +18 – Year A

Matthew 18:21-35

To reveal what is going on in the church it is helpful to take a look at another system and reflect it back into the church setting. A part of the reason this is so helpful is the lack of perspective we so often have on our own junk.

When it comes to forgiveness, Jesus looks at a most unforgiving system – the power system of the day. This is still a good thing to do in our day. In the United States of America the political season is nearing the championship game (and as long as we frame it athletically it will continue to devolve). Many a speech has said no more than, "My Friends . . . God bless America" [kudos to the Daily Show with Jon Stewart for this observation] and it is this lack of standards that allows power to do what power wants to do - it is not even held accountable to its own words, which it changes to get what it wants because most folks don't pay attention enough to remember how the opposite was just posited and then denied.

Forgiveness, as simply forgiveness, is, on its own merits alone, eternally elusive. Our resistance to forgiveness and desire for power seem to require a punishment if forgiveness is not forthcoming. Without the extra motivation of fear of retribution, we don't seem to engage forgiveness with our lives and the lives of others. We keep missing the essential simplicity of, "forgive." Our resistance to receiving and/or giving forgiveness leads to forever parsing out when forgiveness is appropriate. The best question that can be asked at this point is, "when is forgiveness not appropriate?"

If you respond that forgiveness is not appropriate for those who have been forgiven and then don't forgive, you've missed the point.
 

moving toward we

Pentecost +17 – Year A

moving toward we

if another sins
against you

if you sin
against another

what is good
for goose and gander

want some slack
loosen your noose

want accountability
tighten your disciplines

in this and every
generation

comes a struggle
for freedom

comes a wrestling
with death

comes an encounter
with love's debt

willing for night
to pass

waiting for light's
humility

together
a finishing touch

sin of all
forgiven

sin of any
forgiven

no longer
three against one

death's angels
pause their strike

as a puppet
grins and counts

five ways
we agree

you love being you
I love being me

I love you
you love me

and sometimes
we both even love

being we
amen

[last 5 stanzas taken from Judy Fjell's delightful song, "Gee I am Glad I am Me" on her wonderful CD Living on Dreams]
 

Romans 13:8-14

Pentecost +17 – Year A

Romans 13:8-14

When you add up all the "don't"s, they reveal a larger "do" – do love others as well as you do yourself.

Why not focus on the "don't"s? Won't that show your steely resolve to resist temptation? Isn't that the ultimate character test that proves leadership qualities?

No, because the negative of a proposition only carries with it power, not wisdom or life. It is better to affirm the larger purpose of bringing life to one another. To make it through one more day holding an addiction or threat at bay is laudable and common wisdom has it that this is a workable model in our day. But looked at through the eyes of fasting, we'd best have our eye on a larger picture and in its light we take a smaller part.

While "don't"s and "do"s can certainly be seen as complementary that may be experience and personality driven, a distinction of hierarchy and movement is crucial to our participation in life. Let's not mistake a curmudgeon or pessimist for one lacking a larger "do" picture. To confuse surface response and depth of understanding is not helpful.

We can posit that only having a "don't" approach leaves one self-absorbed and exhausted, ready to repeatedly fall off the wagon. It needs an affirmation within which the "don't" can make sense and express grace. Likewise, having only a "do" direction leaves one vulnerable to naivety and disillusionment. It needs the discipline of "don't" for clarity's sake. Our religious culture tends to desire an emphasis upon "don't" and our Jesus spirit leans toward "do". One's orientation in this regard is important.

To temper power with wisdom and energize wisdom, we need a picture larger than fact or truth – a vision of a better tomorrow connected to better living today. G*D and ourselves are putting some finishing touches on a larger wholeness than we have so far known. This takes a deft touch informed by looking at "do"s while knowing there will need to be some practical "don't"s along the way. Anything else will cause too broad a stroke and a smudge.
 

Psalm 149

Pentecost +17 – Year A

Psalm 149

It is all the Lord's doing! Whether or not two or three agree and use Jesus' name to seal their agreement, kings will be fettered and decreed judgment executed.

The Lord's exultation of the humble is not only the Lord's glory, but a glory we can bask in. We are just so grateful that we were blessed to see it happen and give witness back to the Lord about how great the Lord is!

To move away from such subversive thoughts, let us return to the Gospel lesson for the day. In this light, we might paraphrase the psalmist:

Praise the two or three agreed in Jesus' name! Sing to them a new song, let their assembly rejoice G*D.

Let the Church be glad in its prophets; let the Alumni of the Church rejoice in these models.

Let G*D dance and sing and make melody, let angels get their wings, in the presence of listening and agreement.

For the Church takes pleasure in Jesus' modeling of "yes", making healthy mediators through remembrance.

Let G*D exult and sing for joy, everywhere.

Let high praise of the prophets be quick to G*D awareness and a listening ear open to cries of injustice,

to be quick to forgive and continue saving even the untrustworthy and cruel,

binding King Fear and Queen Shame,

to bring a steadfast love proclaimed from afar and ago. This is glory that is glory. Praise where it is due.
 

Exodus 12:1-14

Pentecost +17 – Year A

Exodus 12:1-14

Have you marked a first month for the rest of your life? Not only do we remember the first month the Israelite community, we are now in Ramadan begun again. These are lunar holidays, not solar. Their perpetualness is enhanced by the peripatetic nature of a maddening moon going its own way, marching contrary to the regularity of evenings and mornings. The moveable nature of these months makes intentionality all the more important. We have to plan more for them. They interrupt all our other plans.

What are you to do when a whole nation and its power is against you? Clarify the needed change and affirm your basis of authority. Say, "No." Say, "Let people go." Say, "Past, Present, and Future Life is calling."

Let us continue to be about the business of loosing (never again slavery) and binding (ritual to remember loosing).

To best be about this business of setting people free, attention to the realities of beginnings is important. A danger of ritualizing beginnings is that the on-the-ground pain is covered in a patina of glory. The whole Exodus story goes back to a Pharaoh who forgot. We need rituals that help us remember the whole story and not just a dramatic moment.

In election times there are a lot of attempts to define the starting place from whence we can arrive at a solution being offered. Pay attention to political theatre to see if you agree with their assessment of the issues. Who best gets the "set people free" bumper-sticker? Note that it usually has something to do with the reigning economic paradigm. Pharaoh wanted to continue being on the top of his wealth gap over others, even if that meant their enslavement to the economy of his day. My current assessment is that John McCain best fits the Pharaoh model and Barack Obama better sees the disaster coming and how best to deal with it. This is not a pronouncement, but an attempt to remember our history and actually apply it to the issues of the day. How do you see your situation in light of your history?
 

Matthew 18:15-20

Pentecost +17 – Year A

Matthew 18:15-20

If another member of the church sins against you – work it out by outnumbering them and putting them in a bad PR position. Where you are working this plan your "two or three greater than that one" will have Jesus among you.

Consider for a moment those times when it isn't a member of the church sinning against you, but the whole of the church. What then?

This is the position many find themselves in on one identity issue after another. First it was the Jerusalem part of the church against gentiles. All too quickly it began focusing on gender and social position (slavery) and race and currently includes sexual orientation.

In this instance the only part of this Ann Landers / Miss Manners advice that holds up is the identity part of it – let your "yes" be "yes".
 

investment

Pentecost +16 – Year A

it is so easy
and satisfying
to accuse another
of causing stumbling

it is so difficult
to turn denying
to investing
in fullness of life

it is so strange
and heretical
to shift dead crosses
to dynamic living

yet having seen the change
difficulty eases
strangeness becomes familiar
and we pick one another up

even while demanding
sameness through denial
freedom surprises – taking up life
affirming good doing
 

Romans 12:9-21

Pentecost +16 – Year A

Romans 12:9-21

"Love from the center of who you are; don't fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle.

"Don't burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don't quit in hard times; pray all the harder. Help needy Christians; be inventive in hospitality.

"Bless your enemies; no cursing under your breath. Laugh with your happy friends when they're happy; share tears when they're down. Get along with each other; don't be stuck-up. Make friends with nobodies; don't be the great somebody.

"Don't hit back; discover beauty in everyone. If you've got it in you, get along with everybody. Don't insist on getting even; that's not for you to do. "I'll do the judging," says God. "I'll take care of it."

"Our Scriptures tell us that if you see your enemy hungry, go buy that person lunch, or if he's thirsty, get him a drink. Your generosity will surprise him with goodness. Don't let evil get the best of you; get the best of evil by doing good." [The Message]

(Take up Your Life) <===> (Set People Free)

(Love from the Center) <===> (Do Good)

With these equations, reactions, and parentheses we find ourselves and one another. Print them out. Cut them out. Hand them around. Practice them consistently.
 

Psalm 105:1-6, 23-26, 45c

Pentecost +16 – Year A

Psalm 105:1-6, 23-26, 45c

Hallelujah!
Praise the Lord!

?

Playing Monday morning quarterback regarding history is a strange way to receive praise and glory. With this process everything is either carefully arranged or yet to be revealed.

The rubric here is lifting God up so whatever the rewrite that is necessary will be done. As we are reminded in 1984 those who control the present control the past and those who control the past control the future. It is that tendency to revisionism that raises questions about cutting up a psalm in this fashion.

Here we are weighted too heavily toward only the divine. Just like the infamous Dolly - what God wants, God gets. In coming at things from this perspective we lose a ring of authenticity and participation in salvation history.

If you were to cast about for a Psalm to deal with betrayal or call or living well, what would you choose. This one is just too pat and not helpful in reflecting upon the other three lections for the day. We need scripture to rub against scripture in a way that will bring more light, not just stay on message.

= = = = = = =

PS - just noted that this is post 601 in this series. I don't know what to make of that information other than we missed an opportunity yesterday for a celebration. Since we are a virtual bunch there is probably no reason not to have that party today and no reason for you not to party today, where you are, on behalf of the rest of us.

On this date in the Vandlarian timeline: "601 – King Mordacus III leads an expedition through a portal to the fey realm. King Mordacus returns from his journey mysteriously appearing to be 20 years younger than when he entered." May you find yourself rejuvinated as you celebrate 601 in your own setting.

Exodus 3:1-15

Pentecost +16 – Year A

Exodus 3:1-15

Pharaoh's daughter was surprised in the midst of her daily ritual to find a baby floating toward her. Moses was surprised in the midst of his daily ritual to find an unconsumed burning bush before him.

In the midst of daily rituals holiness holiness can still be experienced. The division between sacred and secular, holy and profane, or any other duality we might mention fades in the face of a mystery beyond all the differences we so glibly pronounce. This holiness leads us in strange directions. Pharaoh's daughter adopts a male Israelite her father has condemned to death before the little guy was born. Moses returns to face down the ruler who had condemned him and a whole people, to bring those people out of slavery, to be "somebody"s.

In the midst of daily rituals we ourselves have been called to do what is right even in the face of power to the contrary. We, too, have wondered whether we could do what needs doing. We, too, have sometimes needed a sense of authority larger than ourselves (although, note that Pharaoh's daughter didn't have the same recorded reservation that Moses did).

Sensing that most of us are more in the situation of Moses, unprivileged, or even less than that, we do look for a talisman to carry with us into the difficulties ahead. What we know about such is that if it is too specific it won't hold up in changing circumstances and if it is too general it will float away before gaining traction. And so we hear the specifics of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and the much broader I-AM-WHO-I-AM (in all its various tenses). Moses holds together these two gifts, the specific and the general.

May you hold your contradictory gifts together that you might further the models Pharaoh's daughter and Moses offer you of doing the right thing to honor life – the life of a condemned child and the lives of enslaved relatives. Those same gifts are needed in today's world. Of particular need is a move toward an integral worldview, where our current world-centric pluralism and relativism (seemingly too accepting and unwilling to stand against wrong) are transcended and included into a critically evaluated, more systematic, whole [collected from written background material of bodymindspiritworks and Integral Life].
 

Matthew 16:21-28

Pentecost +16 – Year A

Matthew 16:21-28

Jesus was a stumbling block to Peter, eliciting a "God forbid!" Peter was a stumbling block to Jesus, bringing forth a "Get behind me!"

In the face of mutual stumbling, looking in a common direction may be of benefit. To move beyond our disappointment in another, a reflection upon death is salutary. Death is a commonality usually recognized as larger than our temptations to stumble or just plain old stumbling iteself.

When focusing on our stumbling places we aren't able to recognize their false nature and get caught up in wasting energy on pseudo-death when a consideration of real death might clarify our mind and heart and aid us to regain our balance.

No matter how daily we lose and find life, there is a sense in which we won't move toward death, catch a glimpse of it, even, before we can see beyond it. Here is the contradiction: we are to see death before we can see life and we can't see death until we do so through a glimpse of life beyond.

Blessings upon our stumbling and our death watch. May our loss be our gain. May our rigidity be softened to appreciate that which we call both divine and human.
 

sesame keys

Pentecost +15 – Year A

keys are ready
are the locks?

a variety of tumblers
allow a variety of keys

specific keys
master keys

note how many keys
note how many locks

there is not just one
there is enough for every one

imaginary heavenly locks
have infinite tumblers

they yearn for a key any key
all keys are sesame keys

every gift can be unlocked
every key is a gift

sometimes this takes forever
sometimes but a moment

so – present keys!
start unlocking

this is not lock and load
this is unlock and free

ready or not locks
the keys are coming
 

Romans 12:1-8

Pentecost +15 – Year A

Romans 12:1-8

Function is a difficult matter in a setting where expectations run high. Here we are called to think locally in order to act globally.

If we try to monitor that which is beyond us (with the best of intentions to make it run more smoothly) we lose functionality.

If we let another care for that which is usually ours (it is easier to just get along with strong-willed people rather than standing up for what is ours) we lose functionality.

This is a family systems issue – to know our boundary, our call, our gift.

So, here’s the deal, we grow up by settling down to the maturity of being who we are, simply who we are. The way to function well is to function well.

In so doing we find our self, we find one another, we find G*D.
 

Psalm 124

Pentecost +15 – Year A

Psalm 124

If Charlie were not on our side [remember when] we would have sunk.
If Mabel were not on our side [remember when] we would have sunk.
If G*D were not on our side [remember when] we would have sunk.
If Mom were not on our side [remember when] we would have sunk.
If Jesus were not on our side [remember when] we would have sunk.

Who else would you add into this list?

Sometimes our thanks is creation-wide. Sometimes it is very specifically located. Either way, when we experience being lifted up it feels as though we were a bird escaped from a cage. A new horizon is before us.

In all of this we find ourselves unable to say "thanks" to G*D without also expressing it to Charlie. Likewise, we can't say thanks to Mabel without including Jesus. May your thanks always bind together new relationships.

If we are to love both G*D and Neighbor, we are to thank both Neighbor and G*D.
 

Exodus 1:8-2:10

Pentecost +15 – Year A

Exodus 1:8-2:10

Moses was pulled out of the water: Peter was pulled out of the water. Thanks be for those who pull folks out – from a maid to a daughter of Pharaoh to Jesus to you.

The need for being pulled out has to do with a lack of power. The social setting around one can sap one's power. The faith setting within one can sap one's power.

Without a sense of factual history a fear is set up based on a scary future [how pertinent is that in today's world?!] and babies are set adrift. Here a baby is not thrown into a river, but is lovingly placed in its care. Creation and midwives and mothers know better than most of us how precious life is and why we must be diligent in pulling life from death (whether from the world around us or within us).

Sometimes we are the puller and sometimes the pullee. May you enjoy both aspects of this yin and yang reality of spirit living, of justice living.
 

Matthew 16:13-20

Pentecost +15 – Year A

Matthew 16:13-20

Caesarea Philippi – where honorifics are most prudently directed toward representatives of Roman rule. Here comes a question to peek behind the trappings of power.

The question begins innocently enough – what's the scuttlebutt at the watering hole? Where are folks looking for hope?

This is an easy one – they are looking for a prophet – one who is oriented toward justice and will speak and act on what they see and hear.

Then the question deepens. Am I among the prophets? Who am I? Or, to phrase it as a hint, I AM whom?

Here in Caesarea Philippi there is a question that must be responded to – what is the balance of justice and power between myself and Rome?

This question continues on and becomes our question in the context of our power broker.

Hooray for those who can see within us to an image of a just G*D. They hold for us the Presence of G*D, they unlock the justice that had been un-hoped in the face of powerful principalities.

Can you hear here Peter unlocking Jesus, not just responding to a mid-term test? [Note: This follows Jesus being unlocked by a Syro-Phoenician woman.] Have you honored those who have unlocked you? Have you passed that favor on by aiding in the unlocking of another?

Finally, the deal is not to set up an alternative power system with Jesus or yourself as top-dog. Simply be a rock bigger than the ancient Pan or pandering Caesarea Philippi rock formation, a rock big enough it doesn't have to prove itself through power – a rock that can skip over water, a rock that can learn faith, a rock of prophetic justice.
 

wish upon a word

Pentecost +14 – Year A

words, words, words
I'm so sick of words
it’s the Eliza/Freddy sticking point
let's see the action
not hear about it one more time

Word, Word, Word
I'm so sick of Word
idolizing a day-by-day past
universalizing a this-day present
restricting each next-day future

I am sickened by what goes in
a greedy maw unsatisfied
refuses any discipline
on type or amount of stuff
and it does show in waist and word

any amount more of consciousness
would soften the dichotomy
between self-satisfaction
and other-awareness
releasing more mercy

but so angry at what I
have to put up with
I chide and demand and ignore
unrestrained
until faith is recognized

having lost my own
a new day dawns with yours
keep saying yes
in the face of my no
with gratitude

and so it is
for her
for him
for all
as you wish
 

Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32

Pentecost +14 – Year A

Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32

What is a limit on G*D's warranty of steadfast love?

What, then, is a consequence of your response on your behavior?
 

Psalm 133

Pentecost +14 – Year A

Psalm 133

How beautiful it is when relatives don't argue (negatively put) or live together in unity (put positively).

If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, what is it that strikes us about this? Might it be how unusual it is for us to so live? Would it be a wonder if it were usual? Is its beauty enhanced by its lack of being what is expected? Would we wonder about this if the standard behavior was for folks to get along?

May you be beautiful this week.

If not for the whole week, perhaps for a day? an hour? Wherever you can start being a wonder to your compatriots and foes will be OK. Then the challenge begins to lengthen and lengthen – like more stably holding a yogic pose over time. Again a chart will be helpful to note your progress and solidify your ability to not argue (nor to get even) and deepen your compassion (unity re-spelled).
 

Genesis 45:1-28

Pentecost +14 – Year A

Genesis 45:1-28

We should note what went before we get to this particular wonderful end of a story when twice or thrice it is noted that G*D had sent Joseph ahead without telling anyone that G*D was doing so. All is well that ends well? Or is G*D just quick at taking a bit of extra credit?

Before, there was betrayal of Joseph and by Joseph: trickery by the brothers of Tickster Jacob Israel and by Joseph of the brothers. This is the equivalent of remaining silent and blurting out nasty stuff – quite the precedent for Jesus.

While a typical focus is on the purpose of G*D bringing everything around right, we might this week focus on the learning of Joseph – "Don't quarrel along life's way."

Quarreling delays healing and reconciliation, neither of which benefit from postponement.

Is there a quarrel going on in your life that will take your not prolonging it by playing one more round of gottcha? Is there a quarrel you observe that takes your bringing Joseph's insight to bear that it might end, here and now?

Let's go see the result of a healing and reconciliation and bring that word back where it might encourage others to finally risk doing what it takes to participate in it, not as a choice, but simply as a right thing to do.
 

Matthew 15:10-28

Pentecost +14 – Year A

Matthew 15:10-28

It's what comes out of the mouth that we are judged by, not what goes in. Likewise with what doesn't come out of our mouths.

These are easy maxims that trips easily off our tongue. As any good storyteller will tell you, this statement is a great setup line for a next scene.

Next we see Jesus with no word where a word of mercy is asked for. What doesn't come out of his mouth is of great import. "He didn't answer her at all."

Then we hear Jesus with a tribal aside to his inside circle in the hearing of one begging for mercy, as though she could hear not - an even greater dismissal than speaking to the woman. "I was only sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

Out of Jesus' mouth is an unseemly silence and a thundering ignor-ance.

Listen then to the words of the woman from far away:
"Have mercy!"
"Help me!"
"Yes!"

Finally Jesus says, "Great is your faith." We wonder why this admission took so long.

The distance between our mouth and our own ear is ever so far. We can ignore what we are saying and not saying for a long time. Without bringing these two into closer harmony the disconnect between who we have been and who we desire to be remains huge. To constructively judge what comes from our mouths we need a renewed gift of listening.

May your faith find itself consistent in your mouth as you engage your life and the life of others. Sometimes speaking for yourself, sometimes for others.

"Have mercy!"
"Yes!"

And in letting your "Yes" be "Yes" may the "No" of the world be revealed for what it is – temporary.
 

buoyed

Pentecost +13 – Year A

buoyed

temptations return regularly
having passed three big ones
along comes Cana
turn water into wine

a moment later
along comes an upper room
with twelve little ones
turn wine into forgiveness

between the two
friends die
escape is made
wide water becomes a path

friends call out
and are called out
striding focused outward
a path turned tentacles

grabbed from below
hoisted from above
a world stands balanced
tethered below shining above

looking back over a shoulder
a string of buoys stretches on
and we are farther from the boat
than imagination allows

we have come a step farther
further staking miracle space
pushing faith closer to fear
thankful to be buoyed

because everything falls
catfish are fat
when temptations return
we are farther along

so call to be called
with fear and faith
step out
a bell buoy
 

Romans 10:5-15

Pentecost +13 – Year A

Romans 10:5-15

In a stormy sea with the demons of the deep all roiled up with no where to go but after you; in a dried out well around which relationships are fractured rather than merged – we find ourselves looking for beautiful feet walking the flood and the drought with us.

When we acknowledge that we were sinking deep and find ourselves raised beyond what we and our bootstraps could do on our own, we know that beautiful feet have drawn nigh. Our hammer toes and athlete's foot scale and fungus under toenails and high heel shortened Achilles and flat feet and all the other bunions and plantar wart ailments become beautiful in their own time.

Finally "there is no distinction", all is beautiful. In this we live and move and have our being. Let your feet shine on top of the white caps and below a depleted water table. Whenever you walk where others fear to tread, fields of daisies spring up where'er you go. How beautiful your feet.

Psalm 105:1-6, 16-22, 45b

Pentecost +13 – Year A

Psalm 105:1-6, 16-22, 45b

Being sent for and released is one of those experiences that is beyond our usual way of measuring time. We are always more ready for release from whatever pit we have found ourselves in (or gotten ourselves in) than we are for the timing of release to be even a nano-second longer than our recognition of our desire for such.

I suppose a Hooray belated is still a Hooray.
Hooray for G*D finally coming through!
Hooray for Joseph, at long last, having come through!

Have you been the cause of your own downfall – asking to be Peter-principled (what a hoot that concept is in light of Peter of disciple fame)? Have you asked to do that which is beyond you, but you won't know it until you've stepped in it?

Have you had your downfall caused by others, regardless of their calculated motivation or simple unconscious ineptitude? Have you received blessings without seeing how they affect others and learning too late about charges of elitism (an old charge)?

Have you found no cause for your downfall, like Job of old? Have you been able to claim innocence in the midst of great testing and turned an accusing eye toward G*D?

It is time to pull out your time-destroyer mechanism so a reset or recalibration of life perspective can go on. It is time to look beyond our usual time limits and simply do the next right thing – get back in the boat, get ahead.
 

Genesis37:1-4, 12-28

Pentecost +13 – Year A

Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28

Who knows what family storms were brewing when Joseph received his special coat. It was as dark and stormy a time as when the disciples were in the canoe without a paddle.

Seeing Joseph's ghost coming closer the brothers decided that vengeance was the way to go to take care of such matters. Eventually Joseph went down into the pit, as deeply as Peter when down in the sea – as deeply as every one has gone down from internal or external forces.

Imagine for a moment the Midianite traders playing Jesus' role of putting out a hand to raise someone up. Imagine again – for whom do you put out a hand to raise them up? Does the commercialization of the raising here discount it as a raising by the hand of G*D (recognized later)? What limits we put on "real" raising or "real" salvation!

When you have the time, instead of considering this story in light of Matthew's, try considering Matthew's story in light of this one with Peter, the best loved, being raised after looking down or back at the storms that had just taken place within the relationships just experienced in the boat-bounded expressions of fear.

Matthew 14:22-33

Pentecost +13 – Year A

Matthew 14:22-33

Unlike last week, Jesus can get away to pray. Dismissing an outer crowd hungry for healing miracles and an inner crowd hungry for modeling, Jesus is alone and in this aloneness chooses, according to the party line, to pray.

Whatever else Jesus' prayer was, it wasn't keeping the disciples free from chaos and danger. Have you had a fantasy of Jesus at prayer and all being right with the world? Isn't that a major part of an ascended Jesus? Well, that may not be a very deeply grounded perspective.

Either when Jesus' prayer was ended or was brought to completion, he faced into the same wind the disciples were wrestling with. Imagine the social and individual story weather patterns available. This is an opportunity to turn this scene into a variation on a Rorschach Test to see the demons in our life.

With dawn still faint behind them in the east and a ghost becoming less faint from that same east; with John murdered and Jesus away, their teeniest fears became vivid.

On a dark and stormy night we don't need assistance arriving at a slow and steady pace. Note, then, the two references to "immediately". Jesus was quick to speak out a word of clarification and hope and to reach out a hand of help.

In the midst of our own stormy times a good way to model discipleship is that of a quick word and quick hand.

How is your quickness in the presence of evil –
- homophobia
- immigration xenophobia
- educational rigidity
- health care politics
- violence and abuse
- war
- STDs
- and your addition to this short list?

Our worship is practicing being Jesus prayerful and Jesus quick. According to John Wesley's sermon on Zeal (#92) if you have to make a choice, choose quick.
 

Correction

Here is an indication of why I don't do more statistical analysis: In the last posting I indicated numbers for the months of July in 2008 and 2007. The time frame for those numbers was actually only the last week of the respective months. I guess that means readership was four times better than reported? Still a pittance in web hits and still worth it to me.

At any rate, may the numbers in your life continue to add up to an abundance, whether currently felt or not.