Mark 2:1-12 and Mark 9:2-10

Epiphany 7 – Year B

Mark 2:1-12 and Mark 9:2-10

We last left Jesus, having changed places with a leper, wilderness wandering. He has quietly returned to Capernaum. Eventually word leaked out that he was back and a crowd re-gathers to hear teaching, not receive healing. At this point, one of the folks who was either not present during Jesus' extended healing the last time he was in town or had contracted some paralytic condition between then and now was brought by faith-full, faith-active friends.

Emboldened by unnamed friends, Jesus asks us to hear beyond our words to the action of life. A better question than whether it is shorter or easier to say, "You're forgiven" or "Stand; walk" is whether you can hear and see and experience each in the other. This is astounding work.

You may be led to practice this new way of listening and speaking this week. It will be a translational challenge for you and those you interact with to speak divinely in regular life and to speak commonly in ritualistic situations. There will be those who will respond that you are taking a larger jump than they are able to do and, one way or another, label you a blasphemer or just crazy. You may get scared of the possibilities and back away. There will be those who will be thankfully amazed at being able to reframe their life. You may find a rebirth of action in your own faith.

Here are two additional thoughts:

For whom will you make a new backdoor to fuller life? For whom will you activate your intentions? Having identified someone or someones, what is your plan to participate in their healing and the blessing of those who are witnesses to it?

Contrast this scene with that of Job and his friends. On a scale of Job's Friends to the Paralytic's Friends, where do you fall?

= = = = = = =

At this point it dawned that we are not on the story of the Paralytic's Friends, but the Friends of Jesus (Moses and Elijah) who come to him to say the easy thing, "Stand up; Head to Jerusalem."

In the first story, the crowd is transfigured – amazed and glorifying G*D. In the second story, Jesus is glorified.

Now we have a three-way scale between Job's Friends, the Paralytic's Friends, and Jesus' Friends. Oh, it was so much easier when I was dealing with only one layer instead of trying this three-dimensional scale. Wouldn't it be easier to just have to deal with one pericope or the other and forget all this trying to hold them together in a both/and approach? I suppose, but not nearly as fun.
 

deeply moved

Epiphany 6 – Year B

deeply moved

If you want to . . . I'm ready, too.
If you choose to . . . that will make two.

deeply moved
all the primal emotions
jump to the fore
each seeking ascendancy

deeply moved
energy ebbs and flows
betwixt and between
finding commonality

deeply moved
a moment arrives
departs
leaving questions

deeply moved
symbol and silence
wrestle
meaning from moment

deeply moved
hearts forever entwined
change places
and change again

deeply moved
attractive glow
fearsome light
moved deeper
 

1 Corinthians 9:24-27

Epiphany 6 – Year B

1 Corinthians 9:24-27

In today's world, what does it mean to "run to win". Are spiritual steroids appropriate? Can one hire a Prayer Warrior to cover your back? What are the limits of using perishable means to arrive at an imperishable end?

While there is much to be said for Type-A, workaholic, intentional and disciplined people, the other side of the coin is good old grace. Paul, so into grace, not law, comes pretty close here to relying on the law when it came to himself.

Give yourself a break Paul, relax your hyperbole, just do your best. Jesus will reach out and hug you, paunch and all, the leper told me so.
 

Psalm 30

Epiphany 6 – Year B

Psalm 30

Verses 11-12 indicate how good news has a way of bubbling up. Not only does the arc of G*D bend toward justice, but toward beauty and other expressions of good news.

You did it: you changed wild lament
     into whirling dance;
You ripped off my black mourning band
     and decked me with wildflowers.
I'm about to burst with song;
     I can't keep quiet about you.
God, my God,
     I can't thank you enough.
               [The Message]

As folks who are living toward being G*D, this becomes a part of our call – to change lament into dance. As you pay attention (but not too much) to the news of the day, there are many opportunities to identify lament and to address them with your presence. Pick one. Rip off your mourning hesitation and deck the halls with wild-flowers. It may be you will change places with a leper; it may mean addressing your own sorrow; it may find you simply smiling and humming through your day, making folks wonder what you are up to.

2 Kings 5:1-17

Epiphany 6 – Year B

2 Kings 5:1-17

"Two mule-loads of dirt, please."

Some pilgrims bring back a vial of water from the Jordan River and put a drop in the Baptismal Water as though this sort of sympathetic magic would make the baptism more special than, "This is my beloved child!"

Naaman has come a long way from his beginning sense of entitlement and later attempt to adequately recompense Elisha for his healing. He still has a way to go if he thinks that sprinkling "Holy Land" dirt around his constructed altar will make it more special than it would otherwise have been.

Relics of water, soil, bone, or shroud all are important markers along life's journey as we move from the concrete to the universal. Eventually, however, Naaman, like all of us is going to have to become the ground of G*D's love wherever he is. This is considerably different than standing at the right place, at the right time on some ground deemed particularly holy.

This is a significant issue in the Palestine/Israel area. Is it the stones or the living stones in the land that is most important? We have a lot of Naamans running around with their little piece of G*D. How might we put down a symbol of life that we might pick up our life and have it become a sign for others? What choice will you make?
 

Mark 1:40-45

Epiphany 6 – Year B

Mark 1:40-45

How hard it is to choose to keep a good to oneself.

L. If you choose, you can heal.
J. I choose.

J. If you choose, you can keep this to yourself.
L. I don't choose

Choice is a key issue in life. To what will we choose to be true? What will we choose to bring into being or help on the way out? How do we choose between just these two when they are in conflict?

Do you choose to follow the tradition wherein Jesus shows pity or that which has Jesus being angry about the request and not just sending the former leper away, but casting him forth as a demon would be cast out? Whichever choice you generally make, this is a good year to go the other way.

Here our preferred approach is through a translation that honors Jesus' anger. So, looked at through a lens of pity with an underlying tension of anger, Jesus sees the pitiful state of humankind. We have been run out of a garden, been raised up and let down, violence qua violence and retributive violence abound, we are caught without hope and an imagination too small. We don't even know how to claim a birthright of relationship and healing. We are left begging for these rights.

In responding to pitiful with pity, Jesus heals - knowing all-the-while that good-telling will eventually lead to bad-telling and put Jesus in the pitiful position of saying in another garden, "If you choose, you can let me off the hook. All I will have to do is keep you to myself. . . . Oh, I see, neither of us can do other than pity the circumstances and choose to be whole regardless of circumstances around us. I take it back."
 

be in on it

Epiphany 5 – Year B

secret prayer closeted
off in a dark wilderness
sets off a light
beaconing far and wide
let's go
invest broadly
get in on pleasure

pleasure to do good
pleasure in self
pleasure in others
pleasure beyond these

in a demand-free zone
flying beyond
expectational limits
deep within a fountain
of living water
we spring quickly
entering altiverses

real religious folk
and non- as well
high fliers and low liars
moralists and im-

enter other lives
entering our own
mix and match
this point of view
and that
til prayer is pleasure
and we're in on it
 

1 Corinthians 9:16-23

Epiphany 5 – Year B

1 Corinthians 9:16-23

Given that you gotta serve somebody (click on the first "listen" triangle) there is a key question of what are you going to get out of such service. Will it simply be survival in the face of coercive baptism or other threat of death? How about some deemed sufficient amount of the coin of the realm? A promise of insurance, whether health or eternity? A degree of importance from celebrity or being a Friend Of ____?

Paul's reward of "pleasure" [The Message] from proclaiming good stuff is pretty humbling in light of all the conflicting desires we have. He claims that he doesn't just want to talk about a better way, but wants to be in on energizing it. His service is to model his proclamation in his living.

It is this issue of meaning of life or explicit vocation that extends Jesus' wilderness prayer regarding his perceived task. Instead of serving the sick in one location he expands his service to teaching and healing in a wider arena. For some, their prayer would move them in exactly the other direction – a particular ministry in a localized setting. It is not that one is right or wrong, as an ideal, but that one's prayer call be clear and followed – simply for the pleasure of it.

I wish John Wesley, when he stole a Covenant Service that over time shows up as the following, would have added a word about it being our pleasure to do another's pleasure (G*D or Neighbor) to these powerful words:

I am no longer my own, but yours.
Put me to what you will, rank me with whom you will.
Put me to doing, put me to suffering.
Let me be employed for you or laid aside for you,
     exalted for you or brought low by you.
Let me be full, let me be empty.
Let me have all things, let me have nothing.
I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal.

Our "pleasure to participate" is different enough from "freely and heartily yielding" to be noted. One thing adding our pleasure does is to square the pleasure – mine and yours.
 

Psalm 147:1-11, 20c

Epiphany 5 – Year B

Psalm 147:1-11, 20c

How wide a net do you need to join in healing the brokenhearted, binding up their wounds?

What resources and power do you need beyond what you already have to lift up the downtrodden, to cast the wicked to the ground?

How wide and how deep our experience of and participation in compassion are questions that are continually before us. They can get us down when we measure ourselves against compassion professionals or continually see the more that needs to be done. They are also questions that can be approached from a perspective based on how far we have come. Whether from a view of a glass half-empty or half-full, we can avoid denigrating or aggrandizing our part by joining in a company of outcasts who take pleasure in every success and are borne through every wearying worry.

The network of fingers at the end of your arm, the hook at the end of your prosthesis is a wide-enough arc for your compassion.

The energy you have is sufficient for your opportunities.

Hallelujah!
 

Isaiah 40:21-31

Epiphany 5 – Year B

Isaiah 40:21-31

Let's back up a bit to verse 18: "To whom will you liken G*D, or what likeness compare with G*D?"

Whatever you have chosen to listen to, to attend to, sets the relationship between yourself and G*D, yourself and Neighbor. Our tendency is to set our sight too high or our expectation too low. We give G*D credit for more than G*D would do and we discount G*D's presence in our routines and patterns. And so we aggrandize ourselves as G*D's special agent and interpreter or experience ourselves as disregarded and lost.

To be called out to play with Neighbor G*D, to soar and dive, invites us to face our realities and throw out the high and low bids for recognition and simply pick up the ball of life rolled to us and toss it back. It is always the right time and space to play catch, even when what we perceive as a Nerf ball tossed our way turns to a raw egg half-way here or our return of a wicked backhanded sliced tennis ball morphs into a badminton shuttlecock. The funner the game the less weary we be. Calvinball lives where eagles soar, kids run, and the faint walk on.

As Mary Poppins puts it: "In ev'ry job that must be done there is an element of fun – you find the fun and snap! The job's a game." And here we have been Jane and Michael finding every excuse for not doing our tasks. Remember the Doxology has been sung – so, Play Ball!
 

Mark 1:29-39

Epiphany 5 – Year B

Mark 1:29-39

In Jesus' setting and Mark's emphasis upon cleanliness, touching a woman, even for healing, leads to uncleanliness. Imagine the residue of uncleanliness that has accumulated through the night with wave upon wave of sick people come to Jesus. Is it any wonder that Jesus was up very early in the morning and away to pray?

In this darkness may be found an extension of Mark's shorthand version of Jesus' post-baptismal temptation. Here the temptation is to locate, to heal and heal again. Here, Simon, as later, personifies a tempter that would have us settle for a little good that matches his expectation rather than a larger good we have been called to.

How do you measure the calling of others to you and a calling or vocation from what you understand to be G*D? Are they close the to the same (G*D and Neighbor) or are they ranked in some fashion?

Where and when is your time to prayerfully sort out your next step? Here the word is that I will be retiring from full-time pastoral ministry in an institutional church setting this coming July 1. I expect I will be working on this pericope in a variety of ways over these next months and will appreciate any wisdom/prayers you might have regarding opportunities, tasks, and temptations I'll be facing.
 

Teaching Is . . .

Epiphany 4 – Year B

Teaching Is . . .

Teaching is a contrarian sport. You enter where you can into arenas that are not at the same place you are and teach.

Teaching is intentional confrontation. Such encounters can be gentle, but there must be clarity about what is and what a better option might be.

Teaching is humility inducing. To be a teacher is to be continually taught and that informs what and who you will be teaching.

Teaching is teacher recruitment. Without an eye to who might climb on your shoulders, as you have risen in honor of others, you are but an idealistic declaimer.

Teaching is hallelujah enjoining. We move from hallelujah to hallelujah being raised within oneself and another.

Teaching is sensitive freedom. To know a small step for a small faith and a big step for a big faith is a precious knowledge, wisdom even.

= = = = = = =

-- With thanks to Charles Schulz and his first book from so long ago, Happiness is a Warm Puppy
 

1 Corinthians 8:1-13

Epiphany 4 – Year B

1 Corinthians 8:1-13

The tension between living what I know to be true and living by what you know to be true is a truly difficult spot. After trying to legislate on behalf of those with a different political bias and coming up with no takers from the other side, demonstrates the demon in taking sensitivity to the point of no return.

At that point any tension has been resolved in favor of the "weaker". That sounds a lot like Jesus telling folks they are to serve one another and the greatest among us will be the greatest servant.

Certainly that is one part of a larger story, but not large enough to stand on its own. For Jesus did not back down from Pilate or others to backtrack on his sense of belovedness.

The weaker among us will bully and whine, alternatively, until they wear down the firmest prophet or saint. A question for us is where we stand because we can do no other. Even if the weaker have to get themselves into deeper difficulty, we cannot presume growth to more strength without having a larger vision, a stronger stance against which their internal contradictions might break apart.

While freedom is not to be flaunted it is also not to fizzle out. Blessings upon you as you go forth to carefully sin boldly and to boldly live carefully.
 

Psalm 111

Epiphany 4 – Year B

Psalm 111

[G*D] manufactures truth and justice;
All [G*D's] products are guaranteed to last—
Never out-of-date, never obsolete, rust-proof.
All that [G*D] makes and does is honest and true: [The Message, vss 7-8]

In all of Days 1-7 we have reported the externals of light and life and reptiles and rest. What is not reported at that time, but later noted here, is that each day has its part to play in revealing truth and justice.

Light is created . . . TO REVEAL TRUTH AND JUSTICE.
Water is separated . . . TO REVEAL TRUTH AND JUSTICE.
Plants are seeded . . . TO REVEAL TRUTH AND JUSTICE.
Time proceeds . . . TO REVEAL TRUTH AND JUSTICE.
Fish swim, birds fly . . . TO REVEAL TRUTH AND JUSTICE.
Animals procreate, humans create . . . TO REVEAL TRUTH AND JUSTICE.
Even rest pauses . . . TO REVEAL TRUTH AND JUSTICE.
Today we are . . . TO REVEAL TRUTH AND JUSTICE.

= = = = = = =

Hallelujah! I give thanks…. [The Message, vs 1]
. . . . . . . .
[G*D's] Hallelujah lasts forever! [The Message, vs 10b]

We live between Hallelujahs!
Are you remembering to let your Hallelujah loose?
Are you remembering that even G*D Hallelujahs?
 

Deuteronomy 18:15-20

Epiphany 4 – Year B

Deuteronomy 18:15-20

"The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me (Moses). . . ." (18:15)

"Never since has there arisen a prophet in Israel like Moses. . . ." (34:10)

In light of the blessings and woes associated with being a prophet (living on the edge of G*D and Self) wherein one might profit or lose everything, is there any doubt about G*D's HR problem. No wonder prophets are notoriously reluctant and extravagant props like burning bushes are needed.

All that to the side, there is a distinction to be made between you being raised up as a prophet and the lack of heed you will receive from a larger people. These two parts of the equation are separable, he said regretfully for he had prophesied well enough to be heeded.

Even before we get to Lent you may want to do a mini-fast around the discernment of your prophetic gifts. Then, heeded or not, proceed to remind folks that their attempts to wriggle out from their responsibility (their facing G*D) by putting that responsibility on a prophet has come to an end. It is time for prophets to prophesy the end of prophecy. Each and all are accountable.
 

Mark 1:21-28

Epiphany 4 – Year B

Mark 1:21-28

Teaching draws opposition. This seems to have been true from before Socrates and ever since. Teaching (of which preaching can be a subgroup) has its power in clarity (authority is revealed in clarity, not subterfuge) and this is always dangerous for people and times that are interested in simply consolidating or actively trying to replicate a previous experience..

The opposition in this passage is confusion – noise and accusation (still favorite tools of those not ready to proceed).

Can you imagine Jesus not yelling back, not shouting or raising a voice or using an exclamation mark – but simply stating, "Quiet," in a low tone that can be heard in the midst of chaos?

For some it would be enough to settle for "Quiet" but there remains a need for a resolution of the situation. In this case there is also a sending away of that which broke in. A boundary was set. Again, authority is not just control but resolution.

News of this kind of authority does travel. It even awakens the one who demonstrates such authority to additional uses of this resolving power to make whole and make one.

An image we might remember is the play honoring Anne Sullivan, in regard to Helen Keller, is entitled, "Miracle Worker", while the story Helen tells about herself and Anne is entitled, "Teacher." May we all tell this story about ourselves – that we taught those who came after us that they might go further.

A question for us this week is about the authority we demonstrate regarding our own life and the lives of those around us. May it help us resolve the questions we have about who we are and give direction to our courage to be on the edge of new teaching.
 

for all the people

Epiphany 3 – Year B

John is arrested
Jesus ascended

whence will come a call
to life here for all

changing vocation
into Vocation

using resistance
to show persistence

that simplicity
brings reality

time's up - change your life
it's your turn to live

arrested you're not
ascended you're not

once spoken twice heard
gives power to word

believe you're a part
of healing a heart

everyone changes
G*D and each image

new vision new life
time enough to live

I'm not arrested
I'm not ascended

free to go I am
grounded well I am

prophet disciple
for all the people
 

1 Corinthians 7:29-31

Epiphany 3 – Year B

1 Corinthians 7:29-31

"I do want to point out, friends, that time is of the essence. There is no time to waste, so don't complicate your lives unnecessarily. Keep it simple —in marriage, grief, joy, whatever. Even in ordinary things—your daily routines of shopping, and so on. Deal as sparingly as possible with the things the world thrusts on you. This world as you see it is on its way out." [The Message]

Time is important. It is always coming to an end and opening up. In this regard it is as tricky as particularly wavy light that can't be pinned down to one state or another. Whatever the reigning paradigm, early or late, it will be gone soon enough. This whether it is desired or not.

Referencing the recent transfer of power between George W. Bush or Barack Obama, regardless of political perspective, the world as it has been known or is currently known is on its way out. So, don't complicate things. Be whom ye be. Barack was Barack before entering professional politics. George remains George after his political run. Every pastor and president and teacher and doctor and reformer knows how quickly their effectiveness fades when their presence fades. All one can do is all one can do. Opportunities pass and opportunities arrive. Take advantage of your time without taking advantage.

Run toward good news or away from bad news: pause between runs to reflect that time is of the essence. Have a Powdermilk biscuit and do what needs to be done. May you leave a freshness stain wherever you go.

= = = = = = =

Bonus material
 

Psalm 62:5-12

Epiphany 3 – Year B

Psalm 62:5-12

For G*D alone my soul waits in silence.
For G*D alone my soul pants like a deer for flowing streams.
For G*D alone my soul searches the heights and depths.
For G*D alone . . . .

My rock, my deliverance, my questioner, my friend, my image, my judge, my . . . .

For Neighbor alone my soul waits in silence.
For Neighbor alone my soul pants like a deer for flowing streams.
For Neighbor alone my soul searches the heights and depths.
For Neighbor alone . . . .

Beyond an affirmation that G*D pays a fair wage for a good day's work, how's your good-day's-work quotient? What would you consider a fair recompense for it?

Would you be willing to be recruited to the long line of prophets who are able to see the good and evil results of current behaviors and speak it clearly (whether believing it will make a difference or not). It is this seeing the results of present actions that is the gift of Eve's choice, not some a priori ideal of good and evil to be parsed beforehand and chosen for or against. Waiting in silence, etc., brings a new view of disciples and prophets. In addition to being alternative spellings of one another, they are both experience-based. Prophet Eve leads to Prophet Jonah leads to Prophet (your name here).

Play prophetically with these pairings:
     silence – rock – deliverance – pour out
     hope – salvation – honor - trust
 

Jonah 3:1-5, 10

Epiphany 3 – Year B

Jonah 3:1-5, 10

I just saw a sermon for this coming Sunday that posited WalMart (called Mall Marty World in the sermon and VoldeMart by others) as Ninevah. That may trigger other arenas for you where this tale might well be told. The message Jonah brought in the sermon is: "It's not keeping the customers happy that I'm most concerned about; it's the way you treat your employees. They have nowhere else to work and you don't pay them a living wage. When their children are sick, they have no health insurance to pay for their medical care. When they are too old to work, there are no pension funds to help them maintain their mortgage and car payments. It's not right. Your managers and executives live very comfortably." [Found on Midrash posting from John Sumwalt]

Instead of just a generic "Repent" it is helpful to be specific about what is needed. When you find your Ninevah you will also find your voice and it will thrive on detail, not generality.

Behind every prophecy is an understanding that the future stands open, G*D is open. An important corollary is that G*D is not fate, but life. Change is at the heart of life. Responding to new situations with new responses is crucial to healthy living. When one part of the equation changes, the whole situation can be rethought. To change the present is to change the future. However you cast it, smile, a Living G*D is at work and a Living Image of G*D can do no less.
 

Mark 1:14-20

Epiphany 3 – Year B

Mark 1:14-20

Time is always fulfilled or redeemed. It don't get any fuller than "now!" Deemed or redeemed – now is now. The presence of G*D is always eschatologically present. This is a truism Jesus and many have affirmed down through time.

A trickier part is the relationship between repentance and good news. Following on John, Jesus starts with repentance as the initiating action. This then leads to or reveals good news.

This repentance first policy works for many people. However, it is interesting to note that, if you posit Jesus doing a cold call on Simon and Andrew, the first word he says to them is about good news – that they will learn to "catch men and women instead of perch and bass" [The Message]. Only later will they find out that they will need to learn repentance, prayer, and mercy to fulfill this new life they now sense rising within them.

Of course we can imagine that Simon and Andrew had heard or heard of Jesus and the repentance first message he is reported to have continued from John. In this case there may have been some repentance work that went on previously that had opened Simon and Andrew to actually follow.

A tension of preaching repentance and recruiting based on good news has the most appeal this day of remembrance of Martin Luther King, Jr. It reminds us of a long line of saints who have helped us refine issues of nonviolence. A reality-of-brokenness and a hope-of-better is a productive pairing.
 

peekaboo

Epiphany 2 – Year B

peekaboo
I see you

"Even before they respond to a tickle, most babies will laugh at peekaboo. It's their first "joke." They are reacting to a sequence of events that begins with the presence of a familiar, comforting face. Then, suddenly, the face disappears, and you can read in the baby's expression momentary puzzlement and alarm. When the face suddenly reappears, everything is orderly in the baby's world again. Anxiety is banished, and the baby reacts with her very first laugh.

"At its heart, laughter is a tool to triumph over fear. As we grow older, our senses of humor become more demanding and refined, but that basic, hard-wired reflex remains. We need it, because life is scary. Nature is heartless, people can be cruel, and death and suffering are inevitable and arbitrary. We learn to tame our terror by laughing at the absurdity of it all." [from The Peekaboo Paradox, about the Great Zucchini]

and so
Nathanael
anxious
laughed
and Jesus
laughed
and
greater laughter
rolls on the floor
imagining Jesus
as ladder
and
still greater
joy peeks
out of me
and you
believers
in laughter
through laughter
to laughter

= = = = = = =

Nathanael – patron saint of guileless paradox (not to mention tanners and those with neurological diseases).

= = = = = = =

"Can anything good come from . . . ." when responded to with hope can turn into a bonus poem, Are We Not of Interest to Each Other, by Elizabeth Alexander, chosen by President-elect Obama to read one of her poems at the inauguration.
 

1 Corinthians 6:11-20

Epiphany 2 – Year B

1 Corinthians 6:11-20

"This is what some of you use to be . . . ." To look back is to see what was there before we later recognized it. It is to remember there is always more present than is recognizable at the moment.

When did I first know who I was and what was it I knew? Looking back, that would have been a good question to ask back then, but one quite difficult to respond to. It is still a good question even if we still don't quite know how to respond to it.

It does not take traditional Christian sanctification or justification or confession or redemption to come to understand that in the midst of many options (everything being lawful) some options are better than others (you are not simply your own).

A call and response is to see more within another than they can yet see in themselves and to listen when others see more in us than we can currently see. Sometimes that visionary is a neighbor, sometimes G*D. Whichever visionary starts the process of awareness, the other will soon be engaged. May your dreams be strong, may your relationships be strong, and may your strength be the start of a new community.

= = = = = = =

What's in you?
 

Psalm 139

Epiphany 2 - Year B

Psalm 139

Even before a word is on my tongue or I am seen under a fig tree in my everydayness or I dream - my word is heard, my presence called forth, and my dream fulfilled.

So we envision G*D before the fact and after the fact. This can lead to a misunderstanding that our days are purposed and set. It is easier and more accurate to simply acknowledge that everything is connected to everything, so, of course, there is a connection of our present with our past and with our future. This connection is not, however, determinative.

A more fruitful approach is an appreciation of vastness, of beauty. To see beyond our usual constraints to a multivalent call - always echoing and always changing - that can be lived out in so many different ways, is to participate in drawing heaven to earth through every vehicle available. To see deep within each opportunity its connection with our life and a connection with other lives, is to discern what is already there and what may yet be present if nurtured and beckoned forth.

Yes, known and search by G*D, I, in turn, investigate G*D’s presence. Together, not even the sands can measure up to life’s possibilities.

Here is another take on YHVH you might appreciate.

1 Samuel 3:1-20

Epiphany 2 – Year B

1 Samuel 3:1-20

"This was a time when the revelation of God was rarely heard or seen." [The Message] Here we have the moral equivalent of "once upon a time . . . ."

In these days anything can happen. In fact we might even begin to expect that there are games afoot and they will play out. In a day when the elder's children are messing up, dreamtime becomes important. The dreaming of everywhen is still afoot in our lives when we can be alert enough to catch it on one of its turns through ourselves.

How many times have we been called before responding? Are we still waiting for some deus ex machina that will keep us running off to an expert?

Alternatively we can listen to the dreaming that creates out of our nothingness a day of new beginning. This dreaming carries us beyond our projections that claim eternal protection. How would this story be told if G*D weren't so personal?
 

John 1:43-51

Epiphany 2 – Year B

John 1:43-51

How did you hear about Jesus? Was it from a relative? From a friend?

What did you hear about Jesus? That he connects law with prophets? That he is honest at a very deep level?

Where did you hear about Jesus? Was it under a fig tree where you were studying or feasting or trysting? Was it, as per Jacob's dream, at the bottom of a ladder connecting heaven with earth?

Regardless of these journalistic questions, did you recognize the plural "you" in the ladder vision? Perhaps in days of yore one person could whomp up this dream, but now it is communal. Want to see a picture of a better day when a curtain of separation is ripped asunder and the spirit of G*D moves freely between heaven and earth? – be with others who are so seeking. If you can keep yourselves free from mass hysteria – be your part in a supportive and correcting community with one another (the odds are you are already family with Philip and Nathanael) already under your (plural) "fig" tree, and dreaming strong together.
 

Mark 1:1-11

Epiphany 1 – Year B

Mark 1:1-11

Here is a draft of a sermon by Mike Johnson, as found on Midrash Discussion Group. You can join that discussion here.

= = = = = = =

Sermon Title: "The Galilean Candidate" (or "John the Baptist and the Queen of Diamonds" or "God's Sleepers")

Prime metaphor: Jesus as a "sleeper" planted by God in Galilee and activated 30 years later by the preaching of John the Baptist (à la Raymond Shaw in "The Manchurian Candidate" -- a sleeper planted in the US by China, in the original movies, and by a man who doesn't know he's a sleeper)

Entry-into-scripture question: How did Jesus know it was time for him to emerge from his Galilean obscurity? And did he know what it was time for him to do? And did he know all along -- or, as Jim asked in opening comments, "Was everything revealed to him in a great flash of understanding? Or did he figure it out as he went along?"

Existential belly-button question: Who am I that I may not know that I am? A swan and not the ugly duckling I see in the mirror. A prince and not a pauper? A child of God? Raymond Shaw was activated by the Queen of Diamonds. Jesus was activated by John the Baptist's preaching. Jesus is God's instrument for activating us -- letting us know who we really are.
_________________

"Where did this guy come from?" That question was asked by more than one person (especially among Hillary Clinton's campaign crew) as Barack Obama rose from being a 47-year old extremely junior senator to first the winner of the Iowa primary and then the Democratic nomination. Nothing in his background marked him as a possible, let alone successful, presidential candidate. He was not the son of a former president or senator. Born of a basically absentee father from Kenya, for a while the stepson of an Indonesian, raised in Hawaii by a single white mother and grandparents -- not exactly a fast-track to the presidency.

And even after his big splash at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, when people began thinking of him as a future presidential possibility, no one assumed that he was a shoo-in for the 2008 nomination. Who knew that this charismatic speaker would also have such finely honed political skills as to understand the importance of caucus primaries and the savvy to know how to go about getting them a few at a time, in a way that would make the final difference. Even today, marveling at how far he came in so short a time, without the pedigree of so many others, I find myself wondering, "Where did this guy come from?"

Bystanders may have said that about Jesus, too. He was not the son of any famous religious figure - like a Robert Schuller. He may have been spiritually precocious, if there's anything to Luke's story about talking with the elders in the temple at age 12, but he was hardly a well-known child prodigy -- a spiritual Tiger Woods -- on whom the whole world's fascinated attention was turned as he neared the age of 21. Moreover, he was a Galilean -- a boundary figure from the northern fringe of Judaism. If somebody had said, "The Messiah stands among us," nobody would have picked Jesus. And when he started to make a splash -- maybe beginning with his baptismal splash -- don't you know people said, "Who is this guy?" "What's a Galilean doing in these parts?"

You can never tell, based on background alone, what people have in them. Sometimes we don't know ourselves what we have in us. People differ in their beliefs about how much Jesus knew when about what he was to do and be, and I wouldn't argue about it. But I favor the view that he learned as he went along, because otherwise it doesn't seem to be he was really human -- and because the scriptures say that he was tempted in every way we are, and you can't be tempted in every way as we are if you know totally ahead of time the exact outcome of every situation, and exactly what to say and do, no sweat.

As I say, other Christians think that if Jesus were in any legitimate sense, the Son of God, then he must have known all along. And that may be your view. And that's fine. We can still commune together. But one thing is for sure. Whatever Jesus did or didn't know all along about what he had in him, and what he was to do with it, we don't always.

[Tell the story of the "ugly duckling" -- maybe also the story an eagle raised in a chicken lot.]

And Paul the apostle didn't know he was Paul the apostle. He thought he was Saul, the righteous defender of the faith and godly destroyer of the liberal "Christian" heresy -- that was absolutely his identity right up to the point where he was activated by a blinding light and a voice on the road to Damascus. And Moses may have thought he was a son of the Pharaoh -- with all the finest clothes, the whole east wing of the palace to himself, six sports cars -- everything -- right up to the point where he was activated by seeing an Egyptian overseer strike a Hebrew slaves -- suddenly he was activated and knew himself to be, not the son of the Pharaoh, but a brother to the slave. And Rosa Parks had no idea who she was, or what she would mean to this nation, that day when she understood herself to be a human being

People don't always know who they are, who they are supposed to be, what they have it in themselves to be, or what sort of a difference they can make -- until God activates them in one way or another. That's why I think that was true of Jesus too. That he was activated by the preaching of John. That all he had learned about God, from his rabbi, from his parents, from the people they sat next to at the synagogue (who knows who all played a role in his coming to understand the radical nature of faith in the radically sovereign God of Israel -- an understanding that led him to see how far from actually following God's lead the people of God often were?) -- all he had learned about God and what it meant to love and trust God was engaged and taken a step farther by the preaching of John the Baptist, who was saying exactly what Jesus knew to be true.

John's radical call to radical repentance and faith and disciplined living triggered something in Jesus. And John's sense of urgency triggered something. Now is the time. God is on the move now. Now. Get ready. Prepare yourself. Open yourself to God. Leave off your fooling around with religion, let alone your cavalier sinfulness, and start taking God seriously and actually living in faith. And Jesus knew he could never go back to the carpenter shop. He was a part of what was going on.

Maybe he knew he was destined to lead at that point. Maybe he just knew that whatever was happening he was a part of it and the rest was revealed to him later. But whenever and however much he knew, it was the preaching of John that moved him to offer himself for baptism -- to take a flying cannonball leap into the waters of baptism, body and soul, absolutely unreservedly offering himself as an instrument of God to be and do whatever and wherever God lead him to do no matter what.

And as he was coming up out of the water, the heavens were torn apart and he saw forever and the spirit descended on him and a voice from heaven affirmed him.

But the main question here, finally, is not what did Jesus know when. And the question that comes to me out of all this is, "Who am I that I don't know that I am?"

[Haven't fully developed this yet. But want to emphasize especially that God's estimate of us is almost always different -- and always, ultimately grander and nobler and more beautiful and more life-affirming that our estimates of ourselves. Shouldn't be hard to come up with illustrations here.]

Whether Jesus always knew, or didn't know till that point, John the Baptist's preaching was the trigger that activated him. And Jesus is the trigger that activates us. Jesus may not have known until he came up out of the waters of baptism that he was God's son. But thanks to Christ, we know going in that we are children of God. It is God embracing us in Christ who transforms us, who affirms us, who calls us his children, who gives us a new identity.

"Where did this guy come from? Who is this guy, anyway?" We may, and do, often say the same thing of ourselves. "Who am I? I'm a nobody. I do not matter. I have no worth." Indeed, many of our attempts to be somebody come out of our feelings that we are nobodies. Our attempts to impress come out of our feelings that we are not very impressive. Our desire for praise comes from our never having been blessed. Our desire for power comes from our feelings of weakness and vulnerability. On an individual level we may do many foolish and counterproductive things because in an effort to escape the nobody-ness we feel. And on a national level, a people may engage in all kinds of massive destruction, working out their fears and flaws on a global scale.

And that remains our identity -- unless and until we experience ourselves embraced by God, declared to be his children, loved. That's when we find out who we really are -- and begin to live out of that identity. Until then religion remains just a matter of doctrines we ought to believe, commands we ought to obey, but which we can never really get into -- because we do not yet know who we are.

Whether Jesus always knew, or didn't know till that point, John the Baptist's preaching was the trigger that activated him. And Jesus is the trigger that activates us.

That's why Mark tells this story. That's why we keep on telling this story.

So: who are you that you don't know you are?
 

Acts 19:1-7

Epiphany 1 – Year B

Acts 19:1-7

In Mark, folks come to John for a baptism regarding repentance. Jesus' experience of Beloved-Pleasure seems to have been a bonus ("Wait! There's more!) that others didn't notice or receive.

Here, folks seem to be satisfied with John's baptism. Then, along comes Paul bringing Jesus' experience of Holy Spirit Assurance-of-Belovedness to them.

Between a movement of intentionally going out to receive (Mark) and an experience coming in, whether looked for or not (Acts), is the vitality of life.

When the two come together, prophecy that will result – both fulfillment of past prophecies and the setting out of new prophecies that address the current situation. (One does need to decide whether or not tongues and prophesy are related, sequential, or two different experiences. But whichever way you go, prophesy is still a key result of a revealed Spirit of Holy.)
 

Psalm 29

Epiphany 1 – Year B

Psalm 29

a rain god thunders forth
lightning flashes
deluge floods

thunder echoes
from deep to desert
shaking winnowing

wind strips bare
unrepentance
revealing joy

hard rain
strips bare
Lebanon's cedars

from above waters
comes strength enough
for assuring peace

the simplest font
beneath a wild eagle
floods a heart
 

Genesis 1:1-2:4

Epiphany 1 – Year B

Genesis 1:1-2:4

The Mark pericope really should start with verse 1 rather than 4. Baptism is grounded in creation, or its not grounded. This Genesis passage might well fit Mark's opening line, "In the beginning of good news. . ." and continue on with "See, I am sending my messenger ahead." [All the little fiddly bits (as fjords have been described in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy), including all the details of days 1 to 7, have come before us to give evidence of good news.]

If we conflate the first and second creation stories we might choose to focus on the third day. "And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters God called seas: and God saw that it was good." (Genesis 1:10, mostly KJV) From here it is but a hop, skip, and jump to Genesis 2:6. "But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground." (KJV)

That which was separated still belonged together. Baptism is a bringing back together of the humus/human/earth/ground and the sea/water/mist/river. Baptism is a creative moment – "Let there be . . . !" a returning back to basics in order to go further than we have so far come – one step back that we might take two steps ahead.

Baptism that is Baptism is a very present ancient future that energizes us to new levels – indeed, to the very good. Baptism that is only baptism is still good in it's bringing to mind what might yet be. The difference seems not to be in the amount of water or the trace minerals it carries, but this mysterious, creation-oriented, gift of Wisdom (from last week) and Holy Spirit (this week). Good luck in trying to tie them down through any ritual, including Baptism.
 

Mark 1:4-11

Epiphany 1 – Year B

Mark 1:4-11

Baptism is one of those words that comes freighted with layers of meaning. There are questions of style and consequence.

Baptism is simply a response to a recognition of being off-kilter. Whether called sin or misgiving, whatever comes after its acknowledgement is our baptism. It may be a baptism into further delusion so we have deniability of any wrong or a baptism into some degree of repentance or life-change.

Baptism is simply a repeatable action of daily cleansing. Such a mikvah affirms conscious and unconscious, intentional or unintentional, missteps on a daily journey and anticipates some grander baptism that would be once-for-all.

Baptism is simply an assurance that one is marked by L*VE or L*FE and as L*FE and L*VE. (Enjoy the difference between voiced and unvoiced labiodental fricatives and know the difference is subtle enough that you can freely translate between them and be understood.)

Baptism is simply not simple. The Wikipedia article is representative of the divergences of baptismal traditions. If you were to confound your particular baptismal tradition, what one question would you ask?

Regardless of your preferred baptismal ritual, may you live and love out of an assurance of being loved into life.

For those interested in a more orthodox presentation are welcome to attend to several additional sites:
United Methodist Overview
United Methodist In Depth
Overview of traditions from Religious Tolerance
Or – use your favorite search engine: "(your tradition here) baptism"

For those interested in a disconnect with baptism:
The Godfather: Baptism and Murder
 

resolved

Christmas 2 – Year B

resolved

anticipate
light
path
present
resurrection

acknowledge
wisdom
experienced
rooted
honor

listen
bubbling
groans
boiling
birth

receive
grace
peace
sharing
continue

extend
joy
gathered
comfort
enough
 

Ephesians 1:1-14

Christmas 2 – Year B

Ephesians 1:1-14

Blessed be! We have been blessed with every spiritual gift.

Remember this is a corporate blessing.

Together we are adopted and we adopt one another.(1)

In this we find our voice of praise and thanksgiving and the wholeness of a healthy salvation, one for all.

Planned or unplanned, this is a cup of kindness.

Resolution 4: To receive grace and peace on behalf of those not yet able to receive and to continue sharing the same with them regardless of their present ability to receive.

= = = = = = =

(1) A Pale Blue Dot - an opportunity for a new year.

= = = = = = =

Bonus New Year Material:

Hear Kenneth McKellar sing Auld Lang Syne in Scots.

The Millennium Prayer (combo of Lord's Prayer to Auld Lang Syne tune)

Aretha Franklin & Billy Preston bring another kind of joy to the song.
 

Wisdom of Solomon 10:15-21

Christmas 2 – Year B

Wisdom of Solomon 10:15-21

When we look back with 20/20 hindsight, it is easy to discern a Wise presence. What wasn't understood at the time as wise (remember the fear that continues throughout the Exodus) can later be attributed to some good plan. This connects wisdom with thanksgiving.

When we look around us for wisdom to make difficult choices, we find ourselves caught between focal lengths – attempting to apply an appropriate learning from history that we don't just repeat and repeat and peering into a dim unknown for a new learning not already in our grab-bag. This connects wisdom with mystery.

When we do thought experiments regarding the future, we find our prejudices coming to the fore. Our assumptions and speculations rev themselves into red-line danger. This connects wisdom with foolishness.

Remember with thanksgiving that G*D has revealed things to the foolish, not the wise? Well what are we to do with Sister Wisdom who is all over the map? Sit back and enjoy the ride? Winnow the results with yet a fifth criterion to measure reality?

Perhaps the best we can do here is to raise our sensitivity to the mute and those struggling to put their reality into communicable language. Who are you listening to and how engaged are you willing to be to wrest meaning from inarticulate groans of creation?

Resolution 3: To listen to Wisdom bubbling from below consciousness and to join in the groans of birthing a new year from an old by at least boiling water.
 

Sirach 24:1-12

Christmas 2 – Year B

Sirach 24:1-12

In this passage not often heard in today's church there is a sense of the drilling down of wisdom from the general of creation to the specific of geography known as here, from time immemorial to this present moment. Where and when should wisdom alight? Well, why not here and now! Can you sense wisdom alighting in your honored life? Hooray!

From the book Where Shall Wisdom Be Found: Wisdom In The Bible, The Church And The Contemporary World, the end of the article "Sirach and Wisdom's Dwelling Place" by C.T.R. Hayward:
     "Disaster befell Sirach's beloved Temple when, in the year 70 CE, the Romans put it to the torch. Yet Sirach's Greek translation of his grandfather's book was not forgotten. It was included in the Greek Old Testament and was thus available for Gentile Christians to ponder. For them, the work proved so popular that it was regularly read in worship, and in course of time came to be called Ecclesiasticus, a 'church book' of great distinction. No doubt this process was encouraged because St. Paul, the earliest Christian writer, had dubbed Christ 'the wisdom of God' (1 Cor 1.24, 30; cf. Col 2.3), and because the evangelists had, in their several ways, used Temple imagery to speak of Christ's body (Jn. 2:20-22; Mt 26:61; Mk 14:58). Sirach proved to be a rich quarry from which the Church's teachers could unearth almost inexhaustible theological resources in their explorations of Christ's relationship to God. And since Wisdom, both in Hebrew and Greek, is personified as a woman, the way was open for them to develop their thinking on the role of the Blessed Virgin in the Christian economy of salvation. Reflection on Mary as Wisdom and Mother of God, the Temple of the Holy Spirit, is discernible already in the writing of St. Ambrose (De Spiritu Sancto 2.51, PL 16.753), and was destined to bear abundant and nourishing fruit in the liturgies of the Eastern and Western Churches alike."

The Three Wise Guys may be profitably transfigured into Gals. If this, even transfigured into your life. After Henry Van Dyke we can move beyond a fourth Magi to a fifth and further on down the line to you as a receiver and sharer of G*D's Wisdom. As said on Out in Scripture: An honest encounter between LGBT lives and the Bible, "Not only is Jesus Wisdom’s Child, but through God’s Word/Wisdom so are we. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender believers bear witness that it is not the church who says whether or not we are God’s children, nor our sexuality, not even our theology or orthodoxy – but it is our welcome of this one sent from God. The Logos/Sophia does not discriminate based on race, class, gender or sexual orientation."

Resolution 2: To acknowledge the distillation of wisdom found in the set of experiences known as mine – to be one more branch from the root of an honored people.
 

John 1:1-18

Christmas 2 – Year B

John 1:1-18

From the Girardian Lectionary site James Allison is quoted:
     "In the light of the resurrection it gradually becomes possible to see that it was not that God was previously violent, now blessing now cursing (see Deut. 32:39), but had now brought all that ambivalence to an end. Rather, it became possible to see that that was all a human violence, with various degrees of projection onto God. God had been from the beginning, always, immutably, love, and that this love was made manifest in sending his Son into the midst of the violent humans, even into the midst of their persecutory projections of God, so that they might treat him as a human victim, and thus reveal the depth of the love of God, who was prepared to be a human victim simultaneously to show the depth of his love for humanity, and to reveal humanity as having been locked into the realm of the Father of lies."

John's version of a Song of Songs lifts love out of a competition with violence or Platonic philosophy to an exclusive view of life. There is no wrestling between paradigms here, there is only the action of giving light to life and the lie to separation and lording it over. A test for ourselves is to ask what song we find ourselves singing these days? Is it fear of not having enough? Is it joy at being able to share what we do have? What lyric do you hear when your routine is interrupted?

Resolution 1: To anticipate a new light, a new path, by gratefully receiving a glimpse of graceful resurrection in this present situation.
 

more to come

Christmas 1 – Year B

more to come

good ol' Simeon
limit bound

glimpse receiver
ready to move on

departing in peace
has never attracted me

too curious by far
beyond a mere beginning

what's next I ask
messiah's a good start

but o this drama
is no one-act play

I'll wait
denouement

with such a surprise start
imagine twists to come

and project them
dum spiro spero

who would want to
miss what's next

come on Simeon
let's go some more
 

Galatians 4:4-7

Christmas 1 – Year B

Galatians 4:4-7

On Christmas Day we are looking at a scripture to help us take a next first step to living Christmas on an on-going basis.

The time has arrived, as it always does and is, for redemption to begin and be completed, all in one swell foop (the spoonerism reminds us that this redemption is in a good way not fell/foul).

Perhaps the best we can do is two-fold: One, following Peterson, those of us who have been "kidnapped by the law" can now, two, live not as slave, but an inheritor of expansive, generative, adoptive kindness.

This is something that is good today and tomorrow – free to follow a new and renewed heritage of receiving and passing on blessing, a gift otherwise spelled kindness.
 

Psalm 148

Christmas 1 – Year B

Psalm 148

Compare verses 14:

NRSV – He has raised up a horn for his people, praise for all his faithful, for the people of Israel who are close to him. Praise the Lord!

The MESSAGE – . . . he's built a monument—his very own people! Praise from all who love God! Israel's children, intimate friends of God. Hallelujah!

Two quickies:

Are you being done unto (NRSV) or are you among the doers?

Are you close to God (NRSV) or an intimate friend thereof?

I've not delved into the Greek enough here but I do have a preference for the latter perspective. An Active Intimate Friend of God and Neighbor – there's meaning to be found here.
 

Isaiah 61:10 - 62:3

Christmas 1 – Year B

Isaiah 61:10 - 62:3

Whether intentionally, as a celebrant cares for their appearance, or unintentionally, as nature fecunds away, we are to be engaged in actions that will later be recognized as "righteous" – just.

To join intentionality and unintentionality together not only takes energy, but supplies it as well. There is a wearing down if we are only intentional and a dissipation when oriented on the waiting for some right thing at a right time to occur. Here is a gift – to proceed with intention and yet to be open to making the most of the unintentional that happens along.

So a receiving and carrying of new life and a laying it down in a manger which is no crib are paired and release an energy to be reckoned with.

Can you remember times in your own life when these have come together? Did you recognize it in time to rejoice? Are you still living off that energy? Did you learn to practice recognizing their confluence and even to provoke them?

There will still be additional energies and practices needed, but we rejoice at each of these birthing moments where the steel of intentionality and the flint of unintentionality strike Christmas fire.
 

Luke 2:22-40

Christmas 1 – Year B

Luke 2:22-40

The wholeness of salvation is this – light for all – not revelation qua revelation or glory for glory's sake (there's entirely too much of that going around – it gets us to react from the gut and receive blowback).

This wholeness is for more than one's own. It is for "them" as well. It is for the devout and for the prophet, for Gentile and Jew, for those passed by and those not yet.

This wholeness is also in process – there is more growing to do – and so this wholeness is not yet whole. Salvation is never as finished as any ritual of purification might be after all is said and done according to law.

Hooray for Simeon and Anna, for a willingness to be guided and alert to a disturbance in the force for status quo. Hooray for any who can see beyond ritual fulfillment to a fullness of life ready to grow and grow.
 

angel talk

Advent 4 – Year B

angel talk

hey there
hi there
ho there

a thing of beauty ye be
a joy ferever
ferever favored

god be with ye
in ye
thru ye

fear? not!
fear not
favored

now imagine
now conceive
now multiply

you've been named
you are to name
name well

imagine tomorrow
today born
today whole

the impossible
a dozen today
two tomorrow

let it be
enough
pass it on
 

Romans 16:25-27

Advent 4 – Year B

Romans 16:25-27

Prophetic writings are at the heart of G*D revealed.

Prophetic writings clarify a faith-direction, a path toward a better way.

Prophetic writings push us to connect past and future in this present moment – to fulfill a past hope and to establish a future reality.

Prophetic writings are our birthright.
Prophetic writings are our métier.
Prophetic writings make a difference.

Do you see what you are doing as prophetic?
This perception does make a difference.
Now do you see your life and work as prophetic in your time and setting?
 

Luke 1:46-55

Advent 4 – Year B

Luke 1:46-55

Here is a bit of a translation by Richard W. Swanson in Provoking the Gospel of Luke: A Storyteller's Commentary --

And Mariam said:
    It extols, my life does,
        haShem.
    It rejoices, my breath does,
        at Elohim my deliverer.
. . .
    For look: from now on they will call me godlike in happiness, . . . .

- - - - - - -

The cadence makes us pause.
My life, my breath - - - extols, rejoices.
Happiness, as the rest of the poem points, is godlike, is merciful, is just.

How would you fill in the blank for today?

It __________, my life does.
It __________, my breath does.

How would you fill in the blank for tomorrow?
It __________, my life does.
It __________, my breath does.

Are they the same? different (in degree or quality)?

How connected are your life and breath with happiness, mercy, and justice?
 

2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16

Advent 4 – Year B

2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16

David, safe from his enemies around him, but unsafe from enemies within – both his past and his offspring – belatedly recognizes his ego has taken precedence over his "altar-ego". Of course he tries to make up for that error in prioritizing. It comes to no avail.

Yet altar-ego G*D sets up a throne in perpetuity. In today's world of scandal one wonders what sort of bribe that took.

Were David's family, kingdom, and throne permanently secure? If you say, "yes", what scale of measurement are you using?

When this is overlaid generations later on Jesus, what is it that is being carried forward?

If you were so convinced that your own family, accomplishments and place were permanently secure, what change would that make in your relationships (old and new)? Is this conviction a power that corrupts or sets free?

There is a sense in which David's peace was external to the political and power arrangements of the day? Sealed off in a specimen jar, David's peace turned out to be a passing thing. Even before he was dead, cracks in his family, kingdom, and throne were becoming evident and would eventually break apart. This leaves us with the difficult lesson of engagement with current realities and to work through all the pains and confusions of incarnation, joys of healings, disappointments of betrayal, and uncertainties of death and resurrection before claiming a satisfied mind. Our usual process is to make the claim first, proclaim eternity for this moment, and always see that fall away all too soon. In Advent we need to look at our realities, not just our warm fuzzy Santa wishes.
 

Luke 1:26-38

Advent 4 – Year B

Luke 1:26-38

So did the angelic messenger get it wrong? What's with the pronouncement regarding a coming Jesus getting a throne abolished generations before? What's with the language of "reign" or "rule"? And a never-ending "kingdom"?

I suppose we could say that nothing is impossible with God, but does that cut it in terms of the way Jesus will deny a kingdom in this world, dismiss blood family ties, and focus on prophetic acts of mercy, healing, and teaching?

It will take some fancy spinning to have the angelic message end up anywhere near the experience we have of Jesus. While there are many who would set up institutions to rule in Jesus' name, that seems to end up being heretical to the life lived by Jesus.

Here, as we near the focus of Advent – Christmas, it would be well to pay attention to what is and isn't being said. It is all too easy to toss institutional metaphors around as though they were literal.

If we buy into this initial proposition put to Mary we will be able see how her heart will be pierced later – it's hard to put an expectation down. May you watch your story-telling for saying too much. It is easy to use acceptable images, but they have a way of coming around to bite. Think again, speak slowly, don't over-promise. Learn from an angel's over-stated sales pitch and stick to what you know – "Mary, here's a surprise big enough to take your breath away, but G*D will be with you to continue breathing new spirit into you. Relax and enjoy the ride of your life."
 

Advent Conspiracy

Advent 3 – Year B

Who are you? Who are you in relation to Christmas, to signs and symbols of new life? Are you a consumer of religious and political power? Are you a prophet of something larger than profit and ease.

In today's culture, this and other questions are often raised through a video. In keeping with this key language of the present we redirect you to:

Advent Conspiracy.

[Note: Click on the video.]

1 Thessalonians 5:16-24

Advent 3 – Year B

1 Thessalonians 5:16-24

Rejoicing is more than mouth music.

Rejoicing acts. Rejoicing acts by testing everything. No presumptions, assumptions, desumptions, resumptions or other sumptuous speculations. Allow the Spirit to roam beyond your current habits of body, mind, spirit, relations. This is the will of G*D – testing and deciding.

Rejoicing discerns. Rejoicing discerns by choosing better, saying "no" to status quo. This is sanctification, mutual love. In the current popularized language of the traditional United Methodist General Rules: Do no harm; do good; stay in love with God.

Rejoicing rejoices. Rejoicing welcomes joy again - body, mind, spirit, and relations. This gladness is the Peace of G*D. In peace we are opened to testing, choosing, welcoming, acting, discerning, rejoicing – living in G*D's image: faithfully. Pursuing happiness? Follow peace.

[Silly Note: Regarding speculation, you may be interested in the lyrics of a Lou and Peter Berryman song, The Speculator (this is something you have to read aloud to get). Click and scroll most of the way down to Disk 2, Track 11. Their accordion/guitar music adds much to the enjoyment of the lyrics, buy the CD.]
 

Psalm 126

Advent 3 – Year B

Psalm 126

There are comedic dreams and tragic dreams. Here is an example of the comedic. No matter what the difficulty or intensity of a nightmare, things come 'round right. Restoration after disaster brings laughter.

The prayer of the glass-half-full psalmist is that others who are tearful will find a way to see joy eventuating from their exile into dryness. There is a presumption of life being a comedy, not just because of the importance of timing (and what is Advent about but timing), but because difficulties are wonderfully resolved.

A question we are left with - what to do with a comedic dream in the presence of wide-awake tragedy? Do we step back from our disaster and trust a sweet by-and-by? Do we use the dream as motivation when there is not yet an armload of blessed sheaves to bring home? Do we dismiss the dream as "an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato"?

What dream is holding you in the midst of economic uncertainty, political conspiracy, or on-going genocide? Might it hold something as unimaginable in daylight as a manger or a Baptizer John – both of which portend beyond current powers and processes?
 

Isaiah 61:1-11

Advent 3 – Year B

Isaiah 61:1-11

Hey you! Ya, you! Righteous Oak! Whatcha doin?

Rebuilding.

How you doin that?

Seeing grace. Talking grace. Living grace.

How you doin that?

Comforting them what mourn. Hey, now you got me talking that way. But, you're OK, so I guess I'm OK to talk your language. Also paying attention to fair dealing whether dealt with fairly or not. And, giving roses to people while they live.

That sound fun.

Yep. Is. New life is springing up even before Spring. This is fun – it's rejoicing time. Even with a lousy economy, lost jobs, and larger class divisions they can't keep Rejoicing from me. In fact, I usually spell meta… G*D but it may also be spelled or named "Rejoicing". Come on in, join me in anointing and being anointed with good news that releases Rejoicing from Exile. Plant the acorn in you for oaks in a grove dance together.

Hey, look at me, I'm a stump shoot – didn't need no acorn. This is fun!
 

John 1:6-8, 19-28

Advent 3 – Year B

John 1:6-8, 19-28

Thunder in the desert, even lightning, can happen with there being no resultant rain. The clouds on the horizon never seem to actually arrive. Crying in the wilderness often bears similar results – lots of sound and fury….

We are waiting for the rain, for the streams to flow again. All this straightening of roads and leveling hills is fine for job-creation, but loses something in regard to bringing forth a revival. A Baptist needs water for their work and to get sidetracked into construction work doesn't seem like the best use of resources.

At best there is value in the development of disciplines in times of dryness. But it would be helpful if there were a connection between a discipline and a desired outcome.

Rephrasing, John might be seen as a storm cloud that fulfills a promise that needed refreshment will actually arrive, that showers of blessing will revive our perspective. This then raises questions about the work we are called to not being slavish thong tying, but cloud seeding.

Perhaps we might shift job descriptions from being a sunbeam or a narrow-way maker to being a rain seed. Is that worthy enough for us, or still too humble, too esoteric, too elitist.
 

Another Crier Out Done Gone

Advent 2 – Year B

One of our blessed Criers Out has left us – Odetta died this past week. In her voice is John the Baptist, Jesus, Martin Luther King, Jr, and yourself. Listen and reclaim your prophet. Her Voice of Ages will ground your hope, widen your faith, and energize your love.

Here are a couple of places to catch a glimpse of Odetta:

Last Word (a worthwhile 20 minutes) [Note: the link is to the New York Times. If you don't want to do a free sign up with them, a lesser quality and shorter version of the same material is found on Youtube. This elision does miss some good stuff.]

Satyagraha (from "Satyagraha: Gandhi's 'Truth Force' in the Age of Climate Change" event sponsored by The Garrison Institute)

Keep on moving it on (from last TV interview – of course on PBS)

Hymn (helping on a song – hum and sing along all the way home)
 

2 Peter 3:8-15a

Advent 2 – Year B

2 Peter 3:8-15a

It's about time!

This is an aha moment. Here is an example of that in the realm of teaching.

This is a gotcha moment. Felt trapped with one day feeling like a thousand? You must be related to Sarah Palin. Such things are not of G*D, but it must be someone else's fault! There'll be hell to pay.

Between these two lie a multitude of other moments that reveal how we are doing on scales of holiness and godliness that we might better look at as a scale of revelation regarding heaven on earth that is already and not yet here (a variation on a once and future life).

Enjoy your time as the two of you roll along in synch and out.
 

Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13

Advent 2 – Year B

Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13

Elijah, Baptizer John, Jesus of Nazareth are forerunners. They exemplify faithfulness, righteousness, forgiveness.

We are forerunners. May your exemplification be a blessing to you and all.

Run well, salvation wholeness is at hand and in yours. Hold it lightly, lest it be squoze to death.
 

Isaiah 40:1-11

Advent 2 – Year B

Isaiah 40:1-11

Comfort, tenderness, release. This is quite a trio of qualities that define our relationships with one another as we find ourselves in various exiles. Sometimes these will be offered to me by you and sometimes by me to you.

It seems as though living this way is not an easy thing for us to do for one another. Therefore the discipline of preparation. If you are interested in the result of preparing for a Presence of G*D refer back to the three characteristics that began this note – comfort, tenderness, release. If we can see where we are going it makes it a bit easier to stick to the discipline of preparation.

In some sense this is quite natural to us. After all, what we do now leads to what comes after. We know about cause and effect and intention. But sometimes we get confused and participate in some magical thinking that better will just happen regardless of how I am engaged in life.

Finally, an image of a discipline of strength is that of feeding, gathering, and gently leading. The end of the passage can be seen in parallel with the beginning.

Whether focusing on a discipline of preparation (waiting) for use of strength or a discipline of strength (stepping out) as preparation for larger living, may your advent disciplines be a gift to you and through you to others.
 

Mark 1:1-8

Advent 2 – Year B

Mark 1:1-8

A changing of one's ways based on forgiveness would seem to be pretty strong stuff. And yet there is even more change on the way!

The Isaiah passage can certainly apply to John in relation to Jesus.

Imagine, though, how it might apply to Jesus in relation to you.

Isaiah, John, Jesus, and more have prepared a way for you. It has been smoothed and opened – for you.

Hmmm. What could that mean? Only you know.

Following this line, if John brings Water (perhaps changing folks from the outside in) and Jesus brings a Holy Spirit (perhaps changing folks from the inside out) what do you bring?

Advent is not just waiting, but a taking of that next step toward a larger life. A way is open so – on your mark, get set, Step.
 

but

Advent 1 – Year B

to wait
or
not to wait

reasonable question
in
unreasonable times

watching
but
inactive

chooses
then
betrayal

waiting
always
waits
 

1 Corinthians 1:3-9

Advent 1 – Year B

1 Corinthians 1:3-9

"You are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Really?
True?

Then why this felt distance from heaven come on earth?
Then why this experienced distance from one another?

Our love of G*D isn't yet will all we are and have.
Our love of Neighbor isn't yet comparable to our own survival.

Our image of G*D doesn't yet include ourself.
Our image of Neighbor doesn't yet include G*D.

How then are we not lacking any gift (deleting the spiritual limitation is helpful here) while actively waiting for a desired revelation? If we are not lacking such an insight into the universe, is it our implementation that is awry?

This excused out from our original affirmation doesn't altogether satisfy as surely there is a gift of gift-implementation included in our bag of tricks. What are we to do with this bold statement?

Give thanks that the needed gifts are present, are able to built with and upon them. A primordial soup can be restirred, even at this late date.

Give thanks that not even a carb-overload nap will erode your gifts, only delay their use. A choice to eat in moderation, allowing left-overs their day, and to walk and talk with each other is still within reach.

Give thanks that a gift of giving-thanks is not lacking. Use it frequently. It will open other gifts.
 

Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19

Advent 1 – Year B

Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19

Restore us, let your face shine.

This appeal to G*D is a refrain in this Psalm and precursor to "Come, Loving Jesus".

We can think about Jesus as being a face of G*D. By extension we can consider sisters and brothers of Jesus as a face of G*D. Sometimes even the church can be seen as a face of G*D. More times than we might think, all manner of surprising people are recognizable as a face of G*D.

That progression from Jesus to followers to institution to others is a journey, a pilgrimage, a process of entering deeper and deeper into what holds us together. To set any of those off with special brackets around it, makes us more and more superficial, with a center that will not hold.

Restoration is a process worth waiting and working for. Restoration encourages us to continue tip-toeing into Advent, waiting more deeply and working longer. Can you catch a glimpse of yourself participating in a needed restoration and encouraging others – letting your face shine upon those who might also be restorative agents?
 

Isaiah 64:1-9

Advent 1 – Year B

Isaiah 64:1-9

We desperately yearn for a better future to break in. This is not just a vague expectation of some change making some change that might lead somewhere better. This is a deep desire for things to be made right.

Then we pause to consider what that would do to everything we know how to do. Whoa. We are where we are because of who we are. To change the rules mid-stream would be disaster for us. What would we do without our iniquities; be they large or small?

Yet, if it takes our joining whatever new version of the CCC might be, we are still willing to go that route. We'll start at the bottom again as long as due consideration of a better future in the present would be given. It's that infernal and eternal silence that bugs us. In its face we keep on being who we are, waiting for a great mechanism to fly by and wave a wand o'er us.

As partners of G*D we might also posit that we are the potter and we are the clay. We have the authority to make the changes we know deep down G*D would make. Might we lovingly work on one another to reshape our presence into that better future that attracts and scares us. Might we?
 

Mark 13:24-37

Advent 1 – Year B

Mark 13:24-37

Wasn't it just yesterday we tried to talk ourselves into celebrating "Christ the King"? Today we are looking beyond a king, looking forward to the arrival of a Star Child larger than the sky – like the ending of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

If you want to be reminded of that movie here are two places to look: http://www.kubrick2001.com and http://www.filmsite.org/twot3.html.

Look where you will, even at a lowly fig tree, and you will see intimations of a future generation contained within a present generation. Watch for three hours or three days or three years, you will catch a glimpse of this resurrectional transformation. Watch it come even as you go about your daily work.

As a bonus, here are two comments from a Girardian perspective that help us watch in a helpful direction, to avoid the power and wrath trip so easily seen on the surface of this pericope. What will be unveiled as you watch the death of one time and the birth of a next?

"Gil Bailie, Violence Unveiled, has a section entitled "Apocalypse" at the outset of his book, pp. 14-16. It has to do with the very title of his book:

"The word "apocalypse" means "unveiling." What, then, is veiled, the unveiling of which can have apocalyptic consequences? The answer is: violence. Veiled violence is violence whose religious or historical justifications still provide it with an aura of respectability and give it a moral and religious monopoly over any "unofficial" violence whose claim to "official" status it preempts. Unveiled violence is apocalyptic violence precisely because, once shorn of its religious and historical justifications, it cannot sufficiently distinguish itself from the counter-violence it opposes. Without benefit of religious and cultural privilege, violence simply does what unveiled violence always does: it incites more violence. In such situations, the scope of violence grows while the ability of its perpetrators to reclaim that religious and moral privilege diminishes. The reciprocities of violence and counter-violence threaten to spin completely out of control."

And . . .

"Robert Hamerton-Kelly, The Gospel and the Sacred, pp. 35-40. (Hamerton-Kelly's commentary on Mark, written from the perspective of Girardian "mimetic theory" will be a constant over the next year.) H-K begins his commentary on Mark's gospel at chapter 11, the confrontation with the institutions of the Sacred centered around the Temple in Jerusalem. Ch. 13 brings Jesus' teachings regarding these institutions to a climax as he predicts their collapse. It is a mixture of general apocalyptic language about judgment day with more specific references to the fall of Jerusalem and the Jewish-Roman War. H-K lays this out nicely. Most notable, I think, is his closing paragraph (p. 40):

"It is remarkable that among all the apocalyptic imagery of this discourse there is not one claim, that the tribulations to befall humanity in the messianic apocalyptic history and the ultimate eschaton are expressions of the vengeance of God. Rather, the suffering is to be caused by wars, frauds, charlatans, natural catastrophes, misunderstandings and persecutions. These are the sadly predictable human failings that cause human misery without any divine intervention. In fact, the one clear reference to divine intervention has God shortening the tribulation for the sake of his elect. There is, therefore, a significant omission of the divine vengeance from a traditional apocalyptically styled passage, and that confirms our thesis that the generative energy of the Gospel is the opposite of the Sacred. Even though traditional imagery is used, the traditional content has been modified so as to remove the idea of the divine wrath and vengeance. The wrath is the suffering we inflict on ourselves and each other within the order of the GMSM. [Note: H-K's "GMSM" is an acronym he uses for: Generative Mimetic Scapegoating Mechanism.]"

- - - - - - -

So what are you watching for? You'll probably see it. This Advent season are you willing to watch for violence revealed and redeem it?

gone . . . forward

Pentecost Last – Year A

another year done gone
365 pleas of "come" have gone

come, come, come,
weary and sore distressed;
come, come, come,
come and rest.

the snake has eaten
its tail again and again
rolling on and on
so sad, so free

can we hope again
go through this
one more time
anticipated disappointment

mission accomplished
stated with kingly boldness
doesn't suffice the need
of moment or era

may we be clearer
in what we are waiting for
not a harking back
but a deeper investment

being a cup of water
offering daily bread
living with "those" and any
we sustain and are sustained

a transition resolution
not "come" but "thanks"
recognizing beauty present
and sending it forward

- - - - - - -

Note: hymn referenced found at cyberhymnal

Ephesians 1:11-23

Pentecost Last – Year A

Ephesians 1:11-23

"…we [sheep], who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory. In him you [goats] also, when you had heard the word of truth…."

Your faith in the Lord Jesus – Commandment 1
your love toward all – Comandment 2
fulfill the law and prophets.

From verses 12-13 and 15 we find a point of larger working together rather than a final solution for those who have tasted the fruit of good and evil and enjoyed the evil, poisonous seed more than the sweet flesh.

May we see what we are called to – an immense and glorious way of life growing from an extravagance of trust and bringing forth endless energy, boundless strength (a gleaning of The Message, verses 17-19).

How much damage to the "original" has been done by this cherry-picking proof-texting?

Psalm 100

Pentecost Last – Year A

Psalm 100

(The Message – non-holy-pronoun version)
1-2 On your feet now – applaud God!
     Bring a gift of laughter,
     sing yourselves into God's presence.
3 Know this: God is God, and God, God.
     God made us; we didn't make God.
     We're God's people, God's well-tended sheep.
4 Enter with the password: "Thank you!"
     Make yourselves at home, talking praise.
     Thank God. Worship God.
5 For God is sheer beauty,
     all-generous in love,
     loyal always and ever.

When we get past the judgment, the wrath, the division in our life together there is another picture to be seen, another reality in which to dance. This Psalm is a balance point to many of these end-of-year passages.

For those who respond better to avoiding risks, listen to the threat of a final accounting and change your ways.

For those who respond better to attracting hope, listen to the laughter of already being at home and change your ways.

However you arrive, may you find yourself better than you were.
 

Ezekiel 34:11-24

In the sheep/goat model it is helpful to hear even finer distinctions being made. G*D can spot a sheep in goat's clothing. Even sheep come in different guises - "fat" and "thin". Even then there is a quality behind size - justice.

Here in a last week of our liturgical year we pause to reflect on our weight. Too heavy? Too thin? Must not have had your daily minimum requirement of justice. This is not just a personal reflection but one of family, religious judicatory, nation and environment. Too heavy? Too thin? Enough justice?

Since my "sheep within a sheep" detector is relatively unsophisticated, "justice for all" is probably still a helpful mantra.

Matthew 25:31-46

A difference between blessed and cursed stereotypes is a slippery one. No, it's not a difference in lanolin.

Blessings flow toward us and our response choice is to be thankful and pass the blessing on or to be thankful and hold on to it as long as possible. This is the slipperiness of holiness - to receive a blessing with thanksgiving and send it further along.

Whatever religious techniques we come up with to extend a blessing's presence, turns out to be counter-productive. At issue is not how much can be given away, but how easy it becomes to share that which is available.

Although the focus here is upon judgment, the larger dynamic is about passing a slippery blessing on - regardless of any judgment from any source. This shifts the conversation from a quantitizing consciousness to a qualitizing unconciousness. We use the externals to practice on but the game comes down to the internals that allow the externals to expand without increasing volitional energy.

Ordinary Waiting

Pentecost +27 – Year A

The Sacrament of Waiting
Macrina Wiederkehr

Slowly
she celebrated the sacrament of letting go.
First she surrendered her green,
then the orange, yellow, and red
finally she let go of her brown.
Shedding her last leaf
she stood empty and silent, stripped bare.
Leaning against the winter sky
she began her vigil of trust.

Shedding her last leaf
she watched its journey to the ground.
She stood in silence
wearing the color of emptiness,
her branches wondering;
How do you give shade with so much gone?

And then,
the sacrament of waiting began.
The sunrise and sunset watched with tenderness.
Clothing her with silhouettes
they kept her hope alive.

They helped her understand that
her vulnerability,
her dependence and need,
her emptiness,
her readiness to receive
were giving her a new kind of beauty.
Every morning and every evening they stood in silence
and celebrated together
the sacrament of waiting.

Source: unknown – found on Inward/Outward

= = = = = = =

It is this sense of a sacrament of waiting I have been waiting for as we close another church year. Instead, we get an appeal to the base – wrath today, wrath, tomorrow, wrath forever. How does this poem relate to your reading of the "parables" we have been dealing with?

From another perspective, we might compare the pericopes at the end of the church year to the Japanese mono no aware and ask about how this transition to Advent can help us look at these passages. To get a feel for this check out the simple Wikipedia page and Flicker.

1 Thessalonians 5:1-11

We are enlightened folk who are not surprised at the timing and strength of labor pains. We know there are issues which cannot be side-stepped, only lived through. The consequences of past behavior do come around whether early or late, for this or subsequent generations.

Since we are enlightened we are aware that wrath is not a destiny worth pursuing, but a healthy wholeness is. Whether we are discouraged or sensing a brighter dawn is ahead, we are encouraged and encouraging. To move beyond wrath we pay attention to building each other up. Integral to this is a hope that our vision of a preferred future continues to be mutually refocused until we experience a thinning between today and tomorrow. At that point - future touches present, heaven comes on earth, an energized community is encouraged to put wrath down and deal with what is rather than what might be projected.

Psalm 123

Mercy is indeed needed. It is an ever-present need. There are contexts and events that are not controlable but, nonetheless, need a response that includes mercy.

At issue is whether mercy is exclusively what is needed. For instance, when and where will mercy appear as preemptive advocacy from the bottom-up rather than a benefit dispensed from on high? How might G*D's image interact with the rest of creation as though mercy had already been experienced, rather than still to arrive? What will it take to stand for one's self and another because mercy is real?

Judges 4:1-7

Jabon and Sisera are used by god to punish Israel. Deborah is used by god to punish the punishers, Jabon/Sisera, for their 20 years of punishment.

In regard to punishment, how is god usinbg you? Are you to help punish someone god is mad at? Are you to punish someone who has been one of god's past punishers? Is this a helpful category?

If we posit an eternal reciprocal engine that runs on punishment, stroke by stroke, what would cause us to look for an alternative energy source since punishment seems to be eternally renewable? Is simple inefficiency enough to move us off-center?

Matthew 25:14-30

This passage hinges on the word "afraid". The third "slave" (which is an important starting context) is claimed to be afraid. It is this quality that is then used as a reason for their behavior and eventual dismissal to an outer region.

I'm not in a research place right now to look at alternatives, but suspect that when one has the power to banish, any resistance is going to be claimed as coming from a place of fear. Masters use fear to control and then blame those who stand up to them as fearful. It's a destructive self-referential circle.

Here are three questions that provide an opening through which we can poke at the judgmental character of these end-of-the-year stories:

1) By what means might a slave be expected to double their money?

2) Is not an advantaged slave still a slave?

3) Is not a slave already in a place of darkness?

See this passage through the lens of a fairy-tale with the third telling bringing a needed breakthrough. The benevolent, giving master is now revealed as greedy and demanding. Surely there is a better place to end the year than with the gnashing of teeth.

Presence

I'm in the process of trying to shift my language from that of "kingdom" to that of "presence".

From this week some images - kingdoms are long term foolish, closed, answers, and dangerous. Take a look back to see what kingdom has lasted and ask why that became our desire.

Some additional words might be - presence is eternal and momentary, wise, open, offering responses, and assuring.

Choose well your perspective.

A Pause

Just a note that jottings here will be intermittent, at best, during the next two weeks as I am traveling without a computer. May you travel well in place and I'll be interested in any reports of same.

Wesley
 

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

Pentecost +26 – Year A

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

There will be grieving, but the way in which we grieve still has some choice available within it. Not all grieving is equal.

We might grieve that those who have preceded us, who had been left behind, have as their main perk that we will not precede them. The dead and gone will rise before those still clinging to their life – a sure metaphor of conversion that the current life must be lost before it can be raised.

Without preceding our predecessors we will be able to be joined together in transforming this world (there will still be additional worlds needing transformation for the process of transformation and wholeness is never completed and always completable).

So let's not be uninformed by claiming that which is beyond claim – that our heritage holds sway over our present or that an anticipated future trumps every ancestor's limit. Early or late, soon or anon, we eventually need to arrive at today – a creative intersection of a lost past and an unformed future. Let us encourage one another with the reality of redemption of the past and intentionality of the future. We are not bound by past limits nor beyond a well-articulated, heavenly, "yes, we can" come to earth.
 

Psalm 78:1-7

Pentecost +26 – Year A

Psalm 78:1-7

Dark sayings from the past do echo down the corridor of time. They bring with them a sense of stability and a constraint of limits. With a sense of steadfastness, there is also a repetition of generations, one after another, as differentiated from a standing on the shoulders of ancestors to travel further.

In contrast are sources of hope and trust that beckon us into space beyond where we have been. Yes, remember the stories, the scope of history within this moment is set, but know that they simply set the stage and give the opportunity for a new incarnation.

Some of this was expressed ever so much better in last night's acceptance speech of the U.S. Presidency by Barack Obama.