Mark 12:28-34

Pentecost +23 - Year B

Mark 12:28-34

It is always tempting to cut to the chase. What is the most important commandment? What is the main thing that is supposed to be the main thing? What’s the basic principle here?

Unfortunately there is nothing that is singular. Note this from an article about Gravitational Singularity: “The two most important types of spacetime singularities are curvature singularities and conical singularities. Singularities can also be divided according to whether they are covered by an event horizon or not....”

There may be no other commandments greater than “loving” G*D and Neighb*r, but there will be those that will be similar to them in particularity instead of generality. After all loving Neighb*r looks quite different through the lens of Obama or Romney or you or me. And so it is with some generalized love of G*D.

The most that perhaps can be said here is that physical symbols and decision-making processes cannot take the place of relationships. When we base our interactions on some form of power, we have missed something “more important”.

May you continue to question your religious tradition about what in the world general commandments mean in a particular situation you are facing.

make an entrance

Pentecost +22 - Year B

remember your entrance

life has been going on

plots have been laid down

new lines are available

not all is clear

blind spots raise tension

denial blocks opportunities

hope rides on anyway

help is always in order

even as it is out of order

clenched teeth are one option

calling out another

the needy call out the healthy

will they be left to beg

will mercy be chosen

will partnership die aborning

the world stands still

as pre-existing conditions

meet new occasions

and spin off new duties

what is your claim

your analysis of need

what is your gift

your mercy quotient

to see past a script

to see again for a first time

to edit the present

to revision the future

hark - a new line

shifts settled plots

from tragedy to comedy

remember to enter

Hebrews 7:23-28

Pentecost +22 - Year B

Hebrews 7:23-28

We do look for immortality. We look back and see how many have gone before. This is discouraging for our sense of importance and star-power. If we are a part of this parade, “Another one done gone” will be said of us, too. If we look ahead we see how soon we will shift position within a cloud of witnesses - from active to supportive - we could become even more discouraged.

So it is we are drawn to concretize ideals and models of permanence. We are also creatures of habit and so our ideals are shaped by our past as well as a vision of a preferred bright future glimpsed through unpolarized and darkened glass.

It was once easy to envision Jesus as a High Priest writ large. But a question needs raising: “Any progress been made in 2,000 plus years?” Does a model of external authority, expanded to also be an excellent and expansive authority, still work in a quantum oriented world. When sun and moon and stars were seen to orbit around us, this model may have had some redeeming quality. But now seeing ourselves in an outer spiral arm of one of billions of galaxies and gazing into what were previously unseeable fields, the whole book of Hebrews needs a make-over. Go ahead, add your version.

Psalm 34:1-8, (19-22)

Pentecost +22 - Year B

Psalm 34:1-8, (19-22)

Affirmations are a good way to approach life. It is far better to say what you trust to be the case than to mutter about what you don’t believe. For one thing it’s simpler, fewer moving parts. To say everything that isn’t takes far more energy than to claim the little that can be be put forward.

An exception to the general rule of affirmation is affirmation based on moveable ground. This results in a sense that if you just say it forcefully enough, it is bound to be true even if it contradicts what was said just a moment ago. So it is that we are saved from every trouble. And now every trouble plus this one. Oh, and this one. No matter what the trouble, don’t complain, be radiant. G*D gets us out of every mess someone else gets us into.

This is a Psalm that could have been written by Mitt Romney. No one who runs to him to invest will lose out. Everyone who follows will prosper. What do you need to hear, that is stated. What does G*D need to hear, it is already said.

The Psalms are political/theological writing. They put forward a point of view of a plan, control, and claimed success. Unfortunately these posit more than can be known. Don’t lie through your teeth (verse 13) is a much harder standard than no profanity (same verse). Clean language does not indicate a clean heart.

Go ahead and claim G*D is in the midst of every trouble, just don’t err on the side of saying G*D is some transcendent get-out-of-jail-free card you carry up your sleeve to pull out in extremis. Make your affirmation, live it, and take the consequences that come with a still growing creation.

- - - - - - -

Note: Relatedly, this excerpt from Jim Taylor --– “If there’s a belief system operating here, it’s that I -- whoever I am -- exist separately from the world around me. The laws that apply to everyone else -- human laws or natural laws -- don’t apply to me. I transcend them.

       “It’s such a universal belief that I wonder if it influences our religious faith. Almost every religion imagines its god or gods as transcendent. They live on Mount Olympus or in heaven. They don’t grow old or catch colds. They live beyond our petty limitations.

       “After all, why would I want a God who is less than I am? If I can think of myself as above the realities of my world, wouldn’t any god be more so?”

Job 42:1-6, 10-17

Pentecost +22 - Year B

Job 42:1-6, 10-17

No matter what the apparent disadvantage, to thine own self be true lest you simply follow the money. This is no easy matter when an adversary cannot be thwarted. Whether we are talking blindness, happenstance, or a kingly god to deal with, the reality of honorable loss is an Eastern trait to be affirmed and nurtured.

The storyline is that one will literally get twice what was taken away. Blessed are the blind for they are such good musicians and blessed is parenthood a second time around.

It’s a nice story all too easily bought into. Somehow we keep ending up with a prosperity gospel which does not speak of reality rightly. Instead of this being a wonderful set-up for a punchline that G*D is Awesome!, we might more simply pay attention to what is available for us to do in any given moment. Claiming harm when harm is done is a righteous act. Knowing when we are in beyond our knowing is a grounding in the face of a tree of temptation. Track the process of yesterday’s blind man and Job, not some magical resolution.

Mark 10:46-52

Pentecost +22 - Year B

Mark 10:46-52

Imagine what it would be like to be walking down the street and for someone to overhear your being identified with a specific congregation. Now imagine their response, the equivalent of a knee-jerk exclamation, "Hey You! Member of XX congregation, have mercy on me!"

Why do we make it so hard on folks to know what they might expect from us?

Well, for one thing, who wants to get called out with an expectation of making a difference right here, right now? The risk of failure to live up to another's expectation is high.

If we were to find ourselves in this setting it would be easy to pray in Jesus' name, thinking that would take care of it and we could go on our way. The model here, however, is more relational than technical. Would we have the wisdom to first ask, "Hey, yourself, whatcha want?"

Having found this out, now we can engage more constructively with an immediate band-aid or building a communal response to a systemic dysfunction.

First things first, what is your congregation known for? Without this who would know to engage you with expectation?

Psalm 22:1-15

Pentecost +20 - Year B

Psalm 22:1-15

Who can be saved? Surely not me from this Laurel and Hardy mess.

I have giggled, and now I weep.

I’ve come through so much. We have come through so much. Is it only to find ourselves on the scrap-heap of history and hope?

There is never enough wealth. Never enough power. Never enough prestige. Put simply, there is never enough.

A wrong question keeps being asked: “As I push you out of the way, I wonder how G*D will help you?”

Better questions are: “Why do I find so much pleasure in pushing you down?” or “Am I my neighbor’s?” or “What is my relationship to you?”

Having lost a neighborhood where we can walk and talk in the cool of the evening, how do we reestablish neighborliness, a neighborhood, and neighbors?

Some old understandings of behaving well — no stealing, no lying, etc. — serve well, but with a periodic psychopath/sociopath rising up with with followers excusing their bad behavior in light of their supposed cause, more than behavior control is needed. Unfortunately the something more that is needed is difficult to attain and maintain — perspective beyond one’s own experience and speculations.

Without a glimpse of a larger community with significant interactions, we keep falling back into easy answers — wealth trickles down rather than building up, so I’ll keep mine for me. Wealth proves G*D provides for those who persevere in hard work, so keep yanking on your bootstraps. Wealth is evidence of wisdom, so listen to your betters. Et cetera, et cetera, and etc.

Job 23:1-17

Pentecost +20 - Year B

Job 23:1-17

Today my complaint is bitter!
What must I do to assure something better?

Groaning is not enough.
Contend!

But contend where?
With whom?

Arguing and debating is slippery territory.
Even integrity is not enough here.

Sparks don’t illumine far in a deep darkness.
But we glimpse enough for now.

From dark chaos we have come; to thick darkness we return.
From ashes you have come; to ashes you shall return.

Treasure what little is known.
Here we stand and from here we leap.
 

Mark 10:17-31

Pentecost +20 - Year B

Mark 10:17-31

Interested in eternity? Pay attention to now.

If you are interested in more about finding the whole in a part, I recommend this short blog by Jim Taylor.

Interested in lasting wealth? Be generous with currency in need of constant replacement ($1 bill estimated life span is 4.8 years; $100 bill is in use for 17.9 years - according to the US Federal Reserve)

Pursuing happiness will have something to do with coming to terms with parts and wholes and what Eugene Peterson calls the “Great Reversal”.

Hebrews 1:1-5, 2:5-12

Pentecost +19 - Year B

Hebrews 1:1-5, 2:5-12

The authoress of Hebrews claims a Son is more persuasive than a Prophet. In the end, it turns out not to be the case. Jesus as prophet is still a better image than “son of G*D”. It turns out that G*D does not have an exact clone, reflection, image — even that of Jesus.

There is also an attempt to make Jesus a better messenger than angels. It turns out that people don’t listen, no matter what the supposed pedigree of the messenger.

Finally we don’t see the past, present, or future worlds under the control of our better angels. The same goes for Jesus. It has taken more than two centuries, but it is clear that building a theocracy in the midst of a fallible world fails as ever greater claims need to be made connecting rulers with their identified overlord. And, soon or late, the faults of temporal leaders are projected on what is more and more seen as an idol. When this happens both fall and fade.

No amount of scriptural jujitsu of some subjected suffering becoming an atoning action will lift such a limited theory into the realm of eternal truth. Religious spin is no more persuasive than political spin. Eventually you can’t even fool some of the people.

Let’s go back to the deleted first verse of chapter two with a key clarification: Therefore we must pay greater attention to what we have “experienced”, so that we do not drift away from a “deeper wholeness”.

Psalm 26

Pentecost +19 - Year B

Psalm 26

Need vindication for some awkward situation? Attend to your integrity.

This Psalm is one list of values and behaviors. It is neither an all encompassing list nor one that pertains to everyone. Our call, here, is to see a movement and then to evaluate whether it would be helpful for current needs.

A key repeated word is “integrity”. This ancient Hebrew word comes from a root that points at a completedness, a having been single-mindedly used up in an endeavor. It has been additionally translated to indicate: completedness, fullness, innocence, simplicity.

This makes it easy to sound like a broken record: “I, I, I.”

It is less easy to claim integrity simply by living as though it were true. This political season shows how easy it is for “integrity” to flow into self-aggrandizement, speaking of oneself in the third person, and going negative on others.

One needed measurement of integrity not often used is that of blessing. One of integrity’s first acts is blessing G*D and Neighb*r in a given situation. This is an indication of being full of blessing from having been blessed. It is a sign of assurance.

This becomes clearer when we paraphrase the last two verses:

I remember being graciously healed and claim this as my way ahead.
In the midst of many options, I choose a foundation of blessing from which to encounter life.

Job 1:1, 2:1-10

Pentecost +19 - Year B

Job 1:1, 2:1-10

This passage concludes with “Job did not sin with his lips”. How many ways have you avoided sinning? and how many ways have you sinned? Let us count the ways.

There is an old saying that “sticks and stones may break bones, but names will never hurt”. Here it is loathsome sores may afflict, but lips will never sin.

To go beyond the physical, what about questions? Can we say that “questions may discourage, but responses can remain gentle”?

More to the point, what is a difficulty that you are facing this day? Have you considered a different response than your usual knee-jerk one? This passage can come alive if we take a look at a disconnect available between stimuli and response. This is deliberately phrased in the plural for what it is we face, as almost anyone can deal with one cause and one effect. It is when the stimuli of life gang up on us and reinforce one another. Can’t you just hear the Tester or Confuser orchestrate this:

Stimulus 1, enter stage right.
Stimulus 2, enter stage left.
Stimulus 3, enter by wire from above.
Stimulus 4, enter on elevator from below.
Stimulus 5, enter from upstage.
Stimulus 6, enter through the 4th wall.
Stimulus 7, enter from within a sense of privilege.
Actor, Ad-lib.

And our perfect storm of excuses for having returned a tit for a tat swirls on and on. It is good to pull out for generations.

When a next question comes, what will be your level of defensiveness? And another, how might you detach the stimuli from your response?

Mark 10:2-16

Pentecost +19 - Year B

Mark 10:2-16

It is important to identify your source of authority. Pharisees asked a question and Jesus began with their standard source — “according to Moses...”.

Given that we all operate out of a variety of authorities, depending on circumstance and need, it is always interesting to note which authority is standing behind your latest question.

Back to the story. Hearing a standard Pharisaical response, Jesus basically says, “I’ll see your Moses and raise you a Creation.”

Do jot out your best guess about another 3 interchanges between the Pharisees and Jesus. It is all too easy to stop with Jesus trumping the Pharisees and that’s the end of that so we’ll now turn to the disciples sometime later. Pause. How would the Pharisees have responded to Jesus attempt to predate their contract to replace it?

Now, for part two of the extended story. Can you see the brokenness of divorce resulting in two children crying after a disagreement? Yes it is hard words about divorce and adultery are recorded, but that is the emotional setting, not a doctrine. So what to do? Condemn them both to no community-recognized relationship commitment? Pick them up, like little children, wipe away their tears, and reclaim them as beloved of G*D? Something in between?

From a test comes an affirmation. See it under light and apply liberally. Repeat.

James 5:13-20

Pentecost +18 - Year B

James 5:13-20

This passage makes it easy to confuse what it attempts to clarify.

What is not clear is the distinction between “suffering” and “sick”. Our tendency is to equate these.

Suffering is affliction from the outside and this falls in the great prophetic tradition of dealing with evil as a systemic reality, with a falling away from best community practices. Prayer, here is not a quietism. Note the example given of Elijah and the elements. Why was drought seen as a result of prayer? or rain? It was to address systemic injustice arising as a result of breaking communal care (think Ahab and Jezebel). Prayer is an open-eyed engagement with the principalities and powers. We do prayer an injustice in making it a solitary appeal for a deus ex machina to be engaged. Prayer is bold and confrontative. Prayer is not head-bowed petition as much as an in-your-face claim or affirmation.

While being sick can be too easily equated with a lack of faith, it is in contrast to suffering by its internal orientation—something we do to ourselves (even if expressed as hurting another) and its source is from the inside out. Here we look to models of community that elders and shamans from every culture engage to reset a person’s relationships that bring meaning and strength. Here, too, prayer is active, is anointing, dancing, purging, etc.

A grand model responding to both is restorative justice. That which harms others, be it systemic or personal, can be redeemed, restored. It is this restoration that measures prayer.

If we had these two better paralleled we might better see their connections and distinctions.

A difficulty or possibility in making this connection lies with how we engage blessings. How does song parallel prayer?

Were I advising James on his letter, I would ask for another word or two about prayer and singing. This expansion might unpack deeds entrusted to reset broken relationships/covenants. This extension might clarify faithful work that engages not only past contracts but new potentials arising out of subsequent experiences.

As we continue to learn more about insides and outsides, prayers and psalms, hopes and dreams — lift up your voice.
 

Psalm 124

Pentecost +18 - Year B

Psalm 124

It is so easy to feel the world is against us. Evidence piles on evidence that this is a dangerous place. No wonder we focus on original sin and displace a dangerous outside situation to be our self-image of sinner worm.

Then, when we sneak by some particular difficulty, we return to the outside and claim some external force intervened (having claimed our evil nature, we can’t blatantly turn around and claim we conquered). Hooray for G*D who left us alone long enough to feel endangered and then came back to be acclaimed.

For the moment consider your weakness and G*D’s strength.

Having duly considered, what happens if weakness and strength were more closely aligned with all parts of the system within which we find ourselves? You have weaknesses, you have strength. G*D has weaknesses (why else would periodic repentance be self-reported?) as well as strengths.

Now, re-write this Psalm in light of a deeper partnership.
 

Esther 7:1-6, 9-10, 9:20-22

Pentecost +18 - Year B

Esther 7:1-6, 9-10, 9:20-22

The story of Herod, Salome, and John the Baptist, with Herodias orchestrating from the side, has nothing on the story of Ahasuerus, Esther, and Haman, with Mordecai pulling strings off-stage. Were Haman’s kin to tell this story it may well have Haman honored as a martyr.

In some of the missing verses (7:7-8), we have a direct encounter between Esther and Haman. What were Esther’s options at this point? Why take the one she did?

These questions remind us of the options we have, but often don’t consider. We also bring back to mind that decisions have several components to them, only some of which are we aware. Hopefully these will aid us in finding a way to feast simply to feast and to be merciful simply to be merciful, not to either show off our wealth or commemorate and sweeten the bitterness of revenge.
 

Mark 9:38-50

Pentecost +18 - Year B

Mark 9:38-50

“Someone missed a comma in our authorized orthodoxy! Off with their head!”

So immature disciples react before the individual components of a larger teaching have connected with one another into a nuanced whole larger than the sum of its parts.

At stake is not who is exactly for us or against us, but the connection of folks to deeper powers than they can claim for themselves. Regardless of motivation, whether it comes from one religious tradition or another or none, a blessing is a blessing and receives yet more blessing.

To put a stumbling block in front others based on one’s limited experience is to reduce the value of gifts, including one’s own. When one gift is discounted it turns out that all are reduced. Gifts, like common-wealth, depend on a matrix of gifts that enhance the environment in which they operate.

Consider a list of gifts from Romans 12: Prophecy, Serving, Teaching, Exhortation, Giving, Leadership, and Mercy.

Try prophecying in a culture that does not value teaching carefully considered relationships between categories of life and you’ll see your gift is bound to be relegated to the weird or witchcraft. Exhortation without modeled service based on it turns anything said into pious mouthings and outmoded creedal responses to glimpses of a new heaven and earth. Giving and Mercy unconnected to Leadership reduces giving and mercy to personalized charity bandaids rather than going to the heart of systems to stop hurt being done in the first place and turns our concept of leadership into variations of patriarchy where a few know what’s best for all.

In some sense we don’t get this gift of multiplication without going through difficulties that offer the possibility of seeing beyond the limits of simply addding one cultural platitude to another and glimpsing a better-seasoned life by applying an appropriate tool or gift (mine or someone else's) in a given situation.

Nurture an internal refining fire based on a basic question, “Why not?” and you’ll find a new appreciation for renewal through encounters with “others”. Your gifts will enhance others and their gifts will enhance yours. Now we have a basis for choosing peace together. Peace based on a widening and deepening of gifts is not sweet and ideal, but savory and practical.
 

James 3:13 - 4:3, 7-8a

Pentecost +17 - Year B

James 3:13 - 4:3, 7-8a

Interesting how inversions cast an important light on on-going realities.

It is one thing to suggest that envy and selfish ambition come from within and purity and gentility are from some far off place.

It is quite another to posit that creation is good and that when we lose track of the elements of everyday life by fantasizing power, plotting wealth, and competing unfairly we are dealing with external idolatries.

If we were to stand this apology for external goodness on its head we may be able to end on a different note — Draw near to your created intention and gift and you draw near to G*D as well.
 

Psalm 1

Pentecost +17 - Year B

Psalm 1

It is not necessary to posit wicked people or sinners as a source of human difficulty. All that is needed is to consider our everyday responses toward getting more. In particular we are intrigued with getting enough power to be able to get our way. Whether two or teen or troubled (and who isn’t), we fantasize about getting what we want when we want it.

Shorthand: we want to be the greatest, we want to prosper just by sitting by a river of wealth.

What does this everday desire have to do with equality, with honoring the disadvantaged?

Well, not too much.

Regarding a righteous/prosperous connection, there is never enough proof that we are either. When righteousness is equated with prosperity, our energy goes to gaining more, not giving more. This is as good a measurement of the meaning of life as we are going to get, so heed it well.

Proverbs 31:10-31

Pentecost +17 - Year B

Proverbs 31:10-31

A good and capable wife/woman is hard to find. This starting point makes it difficult to have any but a periodic female exemplar. It excuses much even as it is usually perceived as an accolade.

This proverb is testament to women having to work more than twice as hard to simply hold on to half the respect simply due any person.

Focus here on verses 23 and 31. Husbands/men can be counted among the public deciders simply because they are male. Wives/women show their competency and yet there is only a recommendation that they find personal praise sufficient, rather than public decision-making. Here it is recommended that she have a living wage for communal/household work (any work) and be electable/respected in the marketplace of ideas. Recommendations here are pats on the back rather than actual partnership in community affairs.

All the praises here heaped upon women turn out to be flattery, not serious participation in the decisions of life. And patriarchy, expressed today as capitalism, continues, co-opting women and children and poor men. G*D have mercy and help us see ourselves as we are seen so some modicum of hope might be held out for moving on from this stuck place.

Mark 9:30-37

Pentecost +17 - Year B

Mark 9:30-37

And again we find ourselves in a normal state of affairs - going on from “there”. It is helpful to leave “there” for leaving “here” is always difficult. Our attachements here grow quickly and deep.

Even further, we find that we are not only leaving “there” but doing so on the sly.

Jesus needn’t have worried about being quite up-front about his view of the disaster headed his way - death and destruction which will turn from conflict to celebration. This is never something folks take to easily. Denial runs strong in our DNA - Don’t kNow Anything.

Not only is this such a foreign approach, to head directly for the crux of the matter, where the most heat is, it is beyond foreign — invisible and unable to be asked about.

Instead of wrestling with this meta-view, folks distracted themselves the way we often do, conversing about power, drawing straws for a favored position. Americans do the same every two, four, or six years with the distraction of voting rather than looking at what is coming down the pike. We may have missed the violence at the beginning of an Industrial Age, but we seem to be moving toward it at a rapid pace, here at the end of the Age. The environment has been raped and the poor also. Children have not been been welcomed to their future, only to a past empty of all but financial profit. The gulf between G*D and Mammon has grown exponentially.

May this time of transition be a “there” soon left as we decide to not argue among ourselves, but rise, throw off chains of death and enslavement and move forward to occupy community resources for the larger community.

a humble butt

Pentecost +16 - Year B

we are in life together
agreeing or not
we are interacting
caring or not
we are connected

who then am I
a projection
of the whole
defined by parentage
or tribe or peers

who then am I
with both a persona
and a person
uncomfortably
bound together

you get first crack
at defining me
but be tentative
and gentle
it is too easy to be narrow

I get another crack
at positioning myself
with assertion
and affirmation
it is too easy to be narrowed

after cracking together
it is usually time
to back away
to re-engage
or better consider

our goat-selves would
butt and butt again
when humility would ask
room to recognize gifts
and applaud their use

for encouraging support
thanks
for course correction
thanks
both gift my gift

for challenge
you're welcome
for extension
you're welcome
my gift at work

now who am I
who are you
more than imagined
less than needed
forward
 

James 3:1-12

Pentecost +16 - Year B

James 3:1-12

Why should a select few be known as teachers? This begins to rank and thus to breakdown the value of gifts given by one spirit or to enforce an economic ranking of them. Surely value is not based on being judged with a greater strictness. If we begin to vary the strictness or flexibility of gifts usage, what little community we have falls further apart.

A better clue is given with the example of a forked tongue that can shift in a moment from praise to blame. Teachers have a weird ability to parcel out encouragement and beckoning forward in a variety of styles to meet the resistances of those willing to learn with them. Teachers also have an ability to refrain from speaking more than they know.

So many of us want to be perceived as wise and so we make up things when asked about what we don't know. Speculation and over-parsing nuance make up so much of our time together. Even when asked about what we do know we get so wrapped up in our explanations that we lose track of who asked a question and whether our response has gone so far past their ability to follow that we would go on forever, piling detail upon detail.

One model seldom tried is for teachers to teach how to teach that everyone might teach about their own gift. In this sense, we need more and more teachers, not preparers for tests or spreaders of information without context.

Here is a strict judgment perhaps equivalent to being a strict conservative: We are in the cultural quandaries we are in because we have devalued teachers by idealizing them. Each of us is accountable for the current state of affairs. We have not been willing to be taught or to teach basic community processes and our place in them. To this end, pray for those who can be clear about questions and responses (not answers) and next questions - teachers.
 

Psalm 19

Pentecost +16 - Year B

Psalm 19

There is experience aplenty. There is not language sufficient to express it. Every expression is an attempt to say more than can be said and a container that captures and constrains some aspect of an experience, portraying it as a complete whole.

The same is true about any attempt to comment on a religious collection. Whether Qur'an, Tanakh, Gospels, Epistles, Book of Mormon, Sutta Pitaka, Upanishads, and on and on - explanations are a second and further distance from the stimulus for the text.

Since we are meaning-seeking creatures we are able to use second, third, or fourth explanations as a trigger for our attempt to hold the day and night in place rather than to be held by them or with them in even larger "hands".

In this Psalm, someone experienced their celebration of a key relationship as a new day in their life. They used their undefinable joy in the event to describe a glimpse of the workings of the universe. Well done? Yes. Sufficient? No. Now we are stuck with undefinable joy as a cover for every jot and tittle of Law.

Sun and moon might bring us laws of motion, but laws of relationship - not so much. And so we continue the struggle to understand experience, to know who we are, to shape a future. This difficulty of expression is no excuse, though, to avoid an on-going wrestling with identity - ours, others, and all.

Homework: write a poem (any form) about the significance of your favorite fingernail or Mars landing or your friend. Share it with no further explanation. Rejoice that you don't even know the half of what you write and that much less of other explanations. Rejoice you can still proceed with these large empty ranges.
 

Proverbs 1:20-33

Pentecost +16 - Year B

Proverbs 1:20-33

Howsomever we identify, we eat the fruit of our way.

This approach to the desired and undesired parts of our life and the life of others and all together does not justify the way in which we interact. There will be folks who get away with mean and nasty acts all their life and others cut short well before their prime. This is not about karma or reincarnation. It has to do with self-justification and an excuse to continue a journey we might otherwise shift.

Evelyn Underhill puts it this way:

The true rule of poverty consists in giving up those things which enchain the spirit, divide its interests, and deflect it on its road to God--whether these things be riches, habits, religious observances, friends, interests, distastes, or desires--not in mere outward destitution for its own sake. It is attitude, not act, that matters; self-denudation would be unnecessary were it not for our inveterate tendency to attribute false value to things the moment they become our own.

Eating the fruit of our way is the reinforcement of a habit or a way of approaching life. Some of this seems to be hardwired, but even that can be amenable to choices made regarding what we will attend to. To begin eating the fruit of another way, of another's life or identity, draws us closer to their experience of life. Here lies the possibility of community that calls us to accountability for the whole of life, not just our own.

In the care of the larger the smaller is also cared for - infra-structure for all is a blessing. Concentration of wealth in a few is a fever indicator of the ill-health of a community. O, we could go on about the importance of one life, but note how the larger context is changed. It is not simply that a next best thing is done, but that it is done in a context.

Whose identity needs to enter your life today, to be tasted and enjoyed in its own right?
 

Mark 8:27-38

Pentecost +16 - Year B

Mark 8:27-38

Can you believe it, Jesus was mugged. Since Judas was keeping the money all they got was Jesus' identity information. Without that what is a person to do in a culture so attuned to place of position.

No wonder Jesus asked, "Where does the culture place me?" and "What do you know of me?"

Peter, of course, pipes up with Messiah talk which an excellent excuse for another mugging, this time by the religious authorities and the state (a noxious mix). And, of course, Jesus says, "Whoa, there big feller!"

This then becomes time to move a bit deeper in, from culture to family/friends to self. Who do I say that I am.

I'm one who gets mugged. Individuals come and go at will through my expression of experience with all of creation. Some come to deny, some to adore. Some stay for awhile and some last more than a life-time. Everyone claims a bit of my identity until there is nothing left.

Peter, still thinking Messiah instead of Jesus having undergone a great suffering - a loss of identity - tells Jesus to get over himself and get back on the track of miracles and crowds and power.

"No", says Jesus, who is beginning to remember his baptism and all that it means to be beloved of creation even while used by everyone else's fantasies.

As you wrestle with your identity - any loss that comes your way - there is a question of where your balancing point is. Is it in victim or beloved? This is not to say a Venn diagram can't be used for overlaps with these perspectives, but which has the more persistent boundary? Pentecost pushes back into life with a new identity beyond lost. Blessings on the next part of your journey.
 

James 2:1-10, (11-13), 14-17

Pentecost +15 - Year B

James 2:1-10, (11-13), 14-17

We are each accountable for the well-being of the whole system we are a part of. Were this not the case things would, a) fall apart and b) never change. And, no, those are not opposites.

Acts of favoritism, whatever its basis (usually power or control or desire for same) does not care for the whole.

Acts of favoritism will eventually come back to haunt and, karma-like, give opportunity for us to have to deal with the disfavored side of ourselves.

A key antidote for favoritism is reflection on the old, old question - Am I my neighbor's keeper? As long as that question is taken seriously, we are in big trouble. Keeping this question alive keeps favoritism alive.

It is important to ask it as an evaluative tool, but not as a part of every-day decision-making.

Since mercy triumphs over justice/fairness/favorites we need to take seriously issues of liberty and what it is that would keep us from freely choosing to love our neighbor. The free choice looked for is a claim to be accountable for the well-being of the whole arena in which we are located.

It will be interesting to see what opportunities this day will be recognized wherein subtle favoritism will be revealed to us and we will choose against it. Blessings on being free enough to honestly face your temptation to favoritism.
 

Psalm 125

Pentecost +15 - Year B

Psalm 125

What would keep a hand from a scepter of wickedness. This “Precious” is a great temptation and needs a strong intention to avoid it. We might look to mountains to hedge us in, leaving only the good as an option. We might employ capital punishment, eternal separation, as a technique to discourage wrong-doing.

We know from experience that external controls are only as good as their last success. Eventually they will be tested and tested again. The two-year-old and adolescent in us will push every boundary and push again.

Eventually it comes to what we trust. We trust that being upright and forthright pays a better dividend than the breaking of trust with G*D, Neighb*r, or S*lf.

Image trust as solid as a mountain. A landslide may happen and rearrange a contour, but the basic mass is still present. Imagine living a solidly helpful life. A backslide may happen, but a basic integrity is still present.

Proverbs 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23

Pentecost +15 - Year B

Proverbs 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23

Fortunately Proverbs come in parallel statements. This gives a second opportunity to view what is at issue. Using two sources of data can lift a 2-D movie to 3-D and do the equivalent with our imagination.

A good name — partner in creation — is not only a valuable commodity to be traded on, it is a realistic way to look at all our various relationship.

When we are clear about our connection with creation we begin to lose the cultural and tribal distinctions of “rich” and “poor” at home or “us” and “them” anywhere. This perception opens us to connections with justice and generosity in new and helpful ways.

Likewise, beginning with issues of injustice ultimately backfiring and what works, what blesses, is  generosity, we return to where we began — creation itself being on a track of just generosity, generativity of partnership measuring healthy relationships.

our good name
partner of creation
steps apart from injustice
draws near through generosity
refuses to rob or afflict
stands with creators everywhere

Mark 7:24-37

Pentecost +15 - Year B

Mark 7:24-37

We do need respite. It is not always available. A part of the trick is to regularly live easy. Every interruption can become a welcomed surprise.

The world is disturbed. Even while on sabbatical, the world is disturbed. It is no surprise that when there is a disturbance in the force-field in which we live, we will be touched by it and invited to touch back with a healing word.

Apparently Jesus thought he was on a well-deserved rest, just as Mitt Romney thinks Americans uniquely  deserve the best, and was thus caught off-guard when a disturbance greeted him. He responds out of being disturbed with a haughty and nasty word as though having a non-conversation with Clint Eastwood who seems to be able to see and talk with emperor’s clothes. No excuses are available to Jesus as there is no plausible way to turn his response into a faith test of another; it is simply uncivil.

Fortunately both the unnamed woman and Jesus are able to come back to center with a word of reality and recognition of such. In this report of yore it would seem that this private conversation was repeated by Jesus, “Let me tell you what I just learned about myself and my vocation . . . .”

Back at work (or beginning to live a bit more unattached to one’s own suffering) another healing opportunity arises. Here a private conversation that Jesus asked to be off-the-record was leaked by others.

There is something about restorations that wants to be shouted out. Whether from the restorer or the restored, these are stories too good to be held in. May you tell your stories of being restored or restoring out loud.

communal heart

Pentecost +14 - Year B

why didn’t you listen

to your mother

when you were told

wash your hands

before during after

eating or playing

did you also forget

to put on clean underwear

or not to follow blindly

and jump off a bridge

oh scratch that

we want your blindness

I was too busy

remembering my mother’s stories

about angels, shepherds, and magi

that were confirmed at Jordan

with doves and clouds

speaking belovedness

listen again

dirt has needed minerals

absolute rules of denial

reveal corrupt desires

for absolute power

strive for balance

and yet again

arise my repressed one

step away from reductions

bad case law is over

flowers grow in dirt

let’s garden together

yes attend to cleanliness

“seek a heart that’s joyful,

heart that’s honest, heart that’s clean”

and know this

communal heart is needed

for common distress

- - -

quote above from a translation of Calon Lân (video) by Malcolm Cowen.

James 1:17-27

Pentecost +14 - Year B

James 1:17-27

An introduction of Mitt Romney by Grant Bennett at the 2012 Republican Convention included two scripture quotes. 

The first from Matthew 25,  “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” [emphasis in original] My ear was struck by the cadenced and tonal emphasis placed upon the word “one”. In the context of the focus on individualism throughout the convention, this confirmed a perspective that simple kindness to folks is only done in a context of one-on-one. In this setting it continues a denial of our working together to express simple kindness to a whole class of people. And so food stamps become an illegitimate expression of, “I was hungry and you fed me”?

The second was from the pericope from James we are dealing with this week. Grant reported: “In our early morning calls, Mitt didn’t discuss questions of theology. He found the definition of religion given by James in the New Testament to be a practical guide: ‘Pure religion … is to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction....’”

This continues a theme of individual actors who are “doers” of “a perfect law, the law of liberty”. In current Republican parlance, liberty means my liberty. These individual actors claim “they built that” — their salvation. Here it is actors, one-by-one, who see themselves as modeling G*D that are key. these individual actors make up a “religion” only through their individual action.

If we back up a bit there is an image of seeing G*D as though looking in a mirror to see ourself and what we find is that G*D’s face becomes indistinguishable from our Neighbor’s face as well as our own. Everywhere we look we see G*D revealed, not just in any good deeds done.

What was left out of the quote was keeping “oneself unstained by the world”. The Republican convention seems to want to keep itself unstained by only dealing with individuals, never working in concert to see the original “us” in our main creation story [“let us make humanity in our image”]. This gets implemented here by never working together through our corporate decision-making processes of government to care for whole groups of people, orphans and widows and any others discriminated against. These would not be named if death and circumstance simply happened. It is that we have structured inequalities, based on any number of criteria, into our societies. This means we have to deal with structural matters structurally as well as individually. It is not that one is an orphan but that we have decided that such a happenstance defines one as less than blessed and someone who can be ignored.

We are all stained by our discriminatory mores. We don’t keep ourselves unstained but in lifting the stain of discrimination from others we find our own life less diminished. This happens in both individual and collective action. We are always discussing “questions of theology”. Let’s not avoid this — the water is fine, jump in and play. 

Psalm 45:1-2, 6-9

Pentecost +14 - Year B

Psalm 45:1-2, 6-9

So what keeps us tied to outdated rules based upon a once-upon-a-time experience, enshrined rather than learned from? One reality is the way power co-opts religious imagery to equate itself with G*D and is unchallenged in its arrogance.

A shift from an official version reveals how we need to take a look at much of the scriptures through the lens of a political convention. Attend to the subtle things like color choices, whether a speech is directed to the immediate audience or a media-extended one, and repetition of phrases (to mention only three). Noting such details help immunize us against easy manipulation (none of us are exempt, but we can make the manipulator’s work more difficult).

I thought you might appreciate Jim Taylor’s paraphrase of this pericope. Here is his intro, re-write, and notice about how you can receive more like it.

PSALM PARAPHRASES 

The NRSV calls Psalm 45 an “Ode for a Royal Wedding.” Indeed, the whole thing, verses 1-17, does read as a tribute to a royal person entering a new phase of life. However, the excerpt scheduled by the lectionary for Sunday September 1 feels more like sucking up to a corporate CEO. 

1        Thank you for taking time to see me.
       I’m so grateful.
2        I know you have much more important things to deal with;
       you move in circles that are far beyond me.
6        This is a marvelous office you have here.
       The view over the city is spectacular.
       It makes all other corporate towers look insignificant.
7        You make the rules we must follow;
       You brook no exceptions;
       You don’t bend them for anybody.
       We know where we stand.
8        Your business suits must be hand-tailored,
       they fit you so well.
       Is your after-shave custom-made for you too?
9        And your secretary is stunning!
       Oh yes, and competent too.
       She must be a joy to work with.
       I’d love to be more like you. 

For other paraphrases, you can order Everyday Psalms through Wood Lake Publications, info@woodlake.com or 1-800-663-2775.
 

Song of Solomon 2:8-13

Pentecost +14 - Year B

Song of Solomon 2:8-13

The voice of my be-lover comes leaping and bounding from tomorrow. Like Felix on catnip my beloved is here and there and everywhere, touching every past and present shibboleth with repurposed energy.

In word and grunt and grin tomorrow speaks, 

Rise up, dearest,
     fairest, and come.
Finally, winter is past;
     rains have come and gone.
Blossoms have appeared in the land;
     another season of singing has arrived,
     a turtledove is again heard in our land.
A green fruit is on the fig tree,
     and grapevines fragrantly bloom.
Rise up, beloved,
     fairest, and come.

With or without clean hands, you are loved. Presume cleanness, hold hands, gaze ahead, and come. Together we step beyond regular rounds, persistent residence, into expanding joy. Leap, cavort, gambol — there is enough dying to go around without our cooperation. The next is yet to come.

— — — — — — —

How do you deal with this translational variation in verse 12?

The time of pruning has come
The time of singing has come

Are you singing a yet unseen future into being by setting past and present to the side?

Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

Pentecost +14 - Year B

Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

Our primary experience is not repeatable and yet we institute traditions to keep it going, even if in a secondary way. Eventually our tradition becomes our primary experience and we are frozen into our explanation, not our experience.

Every generation needs to wrestle with this phenomena of locating experience rather than carrying it with us as preparation for a next experience.

In the time of American Empire we are facing this as we exhaust an old experience of finding a sense of freedom in a new configuration of community. Our traditions of such have led us to a time confusion and an attempt to find a new configuration of community in an extreme freedom for the individual where each person is responsible for their own outcome.

A review of communal karma would be helpful but we have so indoctrinated ourselves and left my thinking outside of your critique and vice versa that we have no way to evaluate expected consequences and appropriate risk.

Freedom, individual, community are all excellent words and holders of deep vision. Left to their own devices, outside of relationship, they are no longer nourishing, but each defiles the other. As each becomes filled with too much of itself we find their various extremes unbalanced and unbalancing.

Out of tradition comes frozen experience. Out of freedom comes fascism. Out of individuals comes narcissism. Out of community comes tribalism.

May Pentecost revive your appreciation of communal karma and from your experience of resurrection come the basis re-experiencing primary experience in all its raw wind and fire.

public soul

Pentecost +13 - Year B

how armor the public?

for the public carries our soul

budgets abandoning the public

abandon our soul to evil intent

teen adventurism of independence

can be addictive when abandoned

when a child’s eye on tomorrow

shifts focus from us to me

when an adult’s sense of having been there

is silenced by whiny yelling

a moral commitment to general welfare

comes unstuck and we dizzily spin

fashion a thinking cap

of long-term budgeting

ties that bind open community

to thankful next generations

stand in one another’s shoes

to know what makes for equity

have faith in a common defense

of community response

avoid shooting flaming arrows

of evil’s preemptive fear

institutionalized “you are on-your-own”

ultimately destroys the wealth it seeks

it is not a lie so much as blindness

to the value of the public

blindness to the public

is blindness to the future

trunkless legs of Ozymandias stand

as testament to power budgets

- - - - - - -

[above based on Ephesians 6:11-18 and this article.

Ephesians 6:10-20

Pentecost +13 - Year B

Ephesians 6:10-20

Finally, be beautiful. Remember, you are an image of beauty. Remember, others are also images of beauty.

Our struggle is not against others as much as it is against those messages planted within ourselves that we are less than beautiful. That which negates beauty in is a principality and power. Therefore take up this song and put down all that other armor for those who put on armor will die in armor and that’s no way to live.

Pray that we may declare it boldly—“It gets better.”

Psalm 84

Pentecost +13 - Year B

Psalm 84

Beauty — a marker of the presence of G*D. We yearn for it even as we trash our planet and relationships with one another. Beauty for some is a mighty temple and for some lowly bread. And for you?

When we partner with a living G*D the smallest sparrow has its place as does the largest whale. A beauty of partnering and mature-relating is easy to spot. It is evident in every vale of tears transformed to deep joy and singing in the rain.

Instead of measuring our life in drips of sin, live radically within the tides of beauty. Beauty honors G*D and Neighbor and Self.

1 Kings 8:(1,6,10-11), 22-30, 41-43

Pentecost +13 - Year B

1 Kings 8:(1,6,10-11), 22-30, 41-43

After inserting tab A(rk) into slot T(emple), with plenty of references to David’s favor, Solomon’s humility, and a Horeb memorial, we hear some of the purpose of the Ark-filled Temple.

It is to be a focusing lens for G*D’s eye or conduit to G*D’s ear. When prayers are prayed “toward” an Ark-centered Temple, that which is prayed will be attended to. This is a great way to centralize power.

Note that the deleted verses 31-40 consistently equate sin with bad things happening to individuals and the state. This does, at least, recognize some predictable problems that will be coming down the pike: breaking faith within the community, being internationally prideful, disease and death arriving.

Around these realities, here too strongly linked with sin, is 1) a human trait of narrowing a view on G*D’s presence and interpretation of such and 2) the power of a foreigner’s prayer, albeit as an opportunity for them to recognize an answering G*D and convert. Neither of these are particularly virtuous, but at least they don’t turn regular occurrences in life into sin.

As you think about where you focus on G*D to be most readily accessible, can you develop a mantra or ditty that you can hum wherever you might be that your accessible spot is always in view. This will continue the journey back from Temple to Synagogue to Ark in your heart — your contract with G*D.

John 6:56-69

Pentecost +13 - Year B

John 6:56-69

“Those who rally to my flag are my comrades. Come, let us make an eternal pact. When victory is ours you will have your reward.”

This common appeal has in it a promise and a problem. The promise is heard. The problem is felt: “Oh yeah? Prove it.” And so even among true believers there is a modicum of doubt, or acceptance.

The expected response comes, “The proof is on the way, but delayed because of your unbelief.” 

We almost expect an appeal to clap loudly to bring Tinkerbell back. And it comes. “Your eternity has already been determined, so step forward—volunteer and join, you’ll see.”

Not unsurprisingly, many current followers left. Those remaining were heard to mutter, “More for me. Show me where to sign.”

In Pentecost it is important to ask the question: are you trusting because you expect some reward for doing so? If you remember back, the movement out of expectation into action of interpretation and community that risked losing everything came in a moment, not calculable.

It is not the degree of difficulty of belief that leads to greater maturity. That is for Olympic medals. For meaningful life it is simply doing the best available in the moment. Blessings on your willingness to move beyond whatever fear keeps us in a small room and away from the fresh air of engagement with a larger community beyond the calculation of marketplace.

dialogue between bread and money

Pentecost +12 - Year B

living bread

   Ahh, free money.

for you

   Yah, for me.

for the world

   Mmhum, for me.

eat up

   I’m livin’ large!

want more

   Never enough bread

anything more

   Nope. Well, Yes.

well...?

   Wisdom.

good choice - spend well

   No, wisdom on how to get more.

oh . . .

   Yeah. More.

careful . . .

   More time to get more bread.

your heart will be revealed

   Yep, in profligate creation’s image - more.

don’t be stupid

   Money is never stupid, stupid!

Ephesians 5:15-20

Pentecost +12 - Year B

Ephesians 5:15-20

Solomon is known as “The Wise”. It is a questionable appellation. So how do we actually live wisely.

Well, instead of flattering G*D through feigned humility, it is listening to what builds creation and community, what extends steadfast love for all parts of creation and community. There is no time to waste on faking G*D out. There is plenty of time to make the most of.

We are not to build temples where singing spiritual songs go on apart from the world, but to express our heart’s desire and courage to build up creation and community.

“Wise” Solomon needs to be asked about a definition of debauchery or living carelessly. Do so many “wives” meet the standard of “extreme indulgence in sensuality”? Was it simply political wisdom to leverage power alliances through “wives” and is that a good use of time? What about the riches? Is being the top of the top long-term sustainable and thus wise? Read the story and where is anything left but ruin?

What are you working for beyond working to fill time, avoid something, or make money? 

Psalm 111

Pentecost +12 - Year B

Psalm 111

Note how active this Psalm is. It is our legacy to identify with such energy.

Comparing and reflecting on this Psalm in The New Revised Version with The Message word by word and verse by verse is a great help in cutting through religious language (except for verse 9).

1 Praise the Lord! 

   I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart, 

   in the company of the upright, in the congregation.   [NRSV]

1 Hallelujah! I give thanks to God with everything I've got— 

   Wherever good people gather, and in the congregation.   [MSG]

2 Great are the works of the Lord, 

   studied by all who delight in them.

2 God's works are so great, worth 

   A lifetime of study—endless enjoyment! 

3 Full of honor and majesty is his work, 

   and his righteousness endures forever.

3 Splendor and beauty mark his craft; 

   His generosity never gives out. 

4 He has gained renown by his wonderful deeds; 

   the Lord is gracious and merciful.

4 His miracles are his memorial— 

   This God of Grace, this God of Love.

5 He provides food for those who fear him; 

   he is ever mindful of his covenant.

5 He gave food to those who fear him, 

   He remembered to keep his ancient promise. 

6 He has shown his people the power of his works, 

   in giving them the heritage of the nations.

6 He proved to his people that he could do what he said: 

   Hand them the nations on a platter—a gift! 

7 The works of his hands are faithful and just; 

    all his precepts are trustworthy.

7 He manufactures truth and justice; 

   All his products are guaranteed to last— 

8 They are established forever and ever, 

   to be performed with faithfulness and uprightness.

8 Never out-of-date, never obsolete, rust-proof. 

   All that he makes and does is honest and true:

9 He sent redemption to his people; 

   he has commanded his covenant forever. 

   Holy and awesome is his name.

9 He paid the ransom for his people, 

   He ordered his Covenant kept forever. 

   He's so personal and holy, worthy of our respect.

10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; 

     all those who practice it have a good understanding. 

     His praise endures forever.

10 The good life begins in the fear of God— 

     Do that and you'll know the blessing of God. 

     His Hallelujah lasts forever!

In today’s political climate imagine what it would take to “manufacture truth and justice” and wouldn’t it be worth what it took to participate in such?

Does beauty mark your craft, your vocation? It will be one excellent measure of how you are doing on journey toward truth and justice. Without it we are probably dealing with truthiness and faux-fairness.

To add one more stimulant, here is the way Jim Taylor puts it after seeing a NASA photograph of earth from space.

1 The bright blue planet spins in the vast darkness of space;

   let all who live on earth rejoice.

2 Only on this one tiny orb do we know life exists;

   let all who live on earth give thanks.

3 The vision takes our breath away;

   let all who live on earth open their eyes.

4 This fragile ball bursting with life is a work of art;

   let all who live on earth recognize God's goodness.

5 Foxes and fieldmice, humans and whales, eagles and ants--

   all are woven together in a tapestry of relationships;

   let all who live on earth recognize this reality.

6 And God has delegated responsibility to us;

   let all who live on earth be mindful.

7 We must exercise care not to upset the delicate equilibrium of shared life;

   let all who live on earth understand their responsibility.

8 A tapestry cannot be reduced to a single thread;

   let all who live on earth accept their responsibility.

9 This egg floating in the dark womb of the universe is like God's own embryo;

   let all who live on earth treat it as holy.

10 We share an awesome and terrible responsibility;

     may God live forever.

After reflecting on this psalm through your experience, how would you phrase it?

1 Kings 2:10-12; 3:3-14

Pentecost +12 - Year B

1 Kings 2:10-12; 3:3-14

O what tangled webs we weave when we begin cherry-picking the scriptures. The elided section does not speak well for David or Solomon. There is no “peace from the Lord forevermore” when it is based on retribution leading to more. Oh, Solomon can fool some of the people some of time with his reputation for wisdom and wealth, but all that is left out will come back to haunt for generations. Power remains an uneasy ally.

It is simply not kosher to make this sort of false advertising for Solomon. One might think there are political ads in religious politics as well as public politics. Well, of course, they would be correct, but that is not good PR and the prosperity gospel of Solomon will eventually bite David’s descendants who get all  privileged and out of touch with reality.

What sort of G*D plays these succession-of-power games? Make me look good, says G*D, and I’ll do the same for you. This is an unequal bargain and eventually it tarnishes both parties.

So what will a congregation take away from this passage with a huge hole in it? That religion is surface-oriented, say humble things and be rewarded with expensive things? Any depth available here may well be stripped out with an appeal to a second-class wisdom (our wisdom is smaller than Solomon’s as no one as wise will follow him?). What is intended to make G*D look good, just shows the tricks Solomon has learned from David and Bathsheba to get his way. A rather sad passage, all in all.

John 6:51-58

Pentecost +12 - Year B

John 6:51-58

How do you describe your presence? Are you a feaster? Are you the feast? Gourmand? Gobbler? The main course?

How do you respond to the self-description of another? Trust their insight? Question their self-understanding? Take it literally? Appreciate the art-form?

We can argue all we want about defining folks, but the first consideration is to give a benefit-of-the-doubt to self-identity. Then we can begin to see how that engages over time and beyond self.

No matter what the image used, we all come to every identity with experience that leads us to judge the worth of a self-description. We keep wanting to tell another who they are.

Knowing that raw human material is shaped by the family and culture in which they grow, we might hear again what it means to respond as a child - learning from the identities around us rather than deciding who has come the closest, according to our criteria, in identifying themselves most truthfully. We want to take the gold medal in other-definition.

To allow another to be present on their terms is to participate in heaven. Yes, even delusional understandings or wildly unrealistic identities. Putting that aside, now we can get down to asking better questions and listening for clearer responses.

- - -

You say you are heavenly bread? 

OK. Now, say some more. 

   An element catalyzed to energy. 

So you might also be light, a constant squaring mass?

   Sufficient to see Neighbors everywhere.

Condensing eternity to this moment?

   Myself in you and vice versa.

You seem comfortable with that, but I’m not.

   I could use some peanut butter; you OK with being that?

How about milk or honey?

   Yumm!

Hmm, from other chosen to naturally sweet.

Quite a shift, I’ll let it settle for awhile.

claims

Pentecost +11 - Year B

you claim I am

your bread of life

I claim I am

your bread of life

we thereby claim

to be lovers

we thereby claim

to be neighbors

those we claim

we choose

claims and choices

define our depths

= = = = = = = =

Once, some thirty years ago, I made a survey of sermons dealing with this story of the Samaritan from the early third century into the nineteenth century, and I found out that most preachers who commented on that passage felt that it was about how one ought to behave towards one’s neighbour, that it proposed a rule of conduct, or an exemplification of ethical duty. I believe that this is, in fact, precisely the opposite of what Jesus wanted to point out. He had not been asked, how should one behave towards one’s neighbour, but rather, who is my neighbour? And what he said, as I understand it, was, My neighbour is who I choose, not who I have to choose. There is no way of categorizing who my neighbour ought to be.

The Rivers North of the Future: The Testament of Ivan Illich, (page 51)

Ephesians 4:25-5:2

Pentecost +11 - Year B

Ephesians 4:25-5:2

We are members of one another. Where do you draw the line on that understanding?

We can affirm that part of being in solidarity with our “in group” is some form of integrity, not breaking our fealty with one another, no overt lying.

A hard question is what we cover over with personal niceness and social conventions regarding our various memberships? When we have multiple identities, we have multiple memberships and it can be amazing the knots that we get tied into when two or more of those memberships come together at the same time. Lies we wouldn’t tell one group if we were only with them, get told in a larger setting. We reveal our ranking of memberships.

With our members we can bank our anger and keep it from flaring. Our sins are manageable, confessable, redeemable. Otherwise, look out.

Can this care of one another cross such boundaries as we have put up between ourselves? Can we imitate G*D’s forgiveness with all of creation, or just our membership group? Can we even hear a challenge to expand our imitation of G*D to those who are strangers?

Hopefully G*D is defined by non-commercial love even when described by ultra-membership oriented reporters. And you?

Psalm 130

Pentecost +11 - Year B

Psalm 130

with no where to turn

a cry arises

neither bidden nor

involuntary

wherefore art thou

my need demands

a hearing

there will be no rest

until there is a faceoff

and someone blinks

I know I’m an underdog

in this context

but wobbly knees

are strengthened

for the stakes are high

my claim is not innocence

for there is none

but an honored hearing

a remembrance

presumed forgiveness

a standoff continues

waiting upon waiting

hope within hope

assumpton beneath assumption

as dark turns to morning

no more keeping of fouls

piled unbearably

on one party

we are in this together

freely bound

2 Samuel 18:5-9, 15, 31-33

Pentecost +11 - Year B

2 Samuel 18:5-9, 15, 31-33

“The men of Israel were defeated by the servants of David.” Can you say Civil War? It happens even where covenantal partners live.

It appears to be rather run-of-the-mill for humans to ultimatize one particular or another, draw a line in the sand over it, and begin a battle royal. Things got so confused there are huge contradictions about Absalom’s death from verse to verse. We are likewise confused in this day about church life.

It seems the result of these rising energies for power always end in regret. Whichever way things turn out, the result is a lessening of communal cohesion and hope to build on for a better option for tomorrow.

Intentions, whether best or mediocre, go awry all the way to grief. There is something about that middle part, the going gang aft agley that we should be more curious about. How do things get messed up? “Original sin” is not a sufficient response.

This may be an investigation that is particularly apt during Pentecost. Starting with such strange energy blasting its way out of a closed room of closed people, we might find sufficient freedom to ask why we insist on our own way instead of crossing boundaries and speaking another’s language rather than demand our own as standard.

Blessings on looking again at options available.

John 6:35-51

Pentecost +11 - Year B

John 6:35-51

To be “bread of life” is a very strong image. It is self-image, not a claim to power. Note that this self-affirmation takes place within a context of others who have experienced Jesus but don’t get all that he is about - they haven’t yet claimed their own sense of also being “bread of life”.

To understand that we won’t lose anything is a statement of faith, not a claim to power over others.

At best we can say that self-identity is wrapped up with eternities. Our sense of meaning is extendable.

“Bread of life” is not something to vote upon or to disparage. It is motivation to act, not a guarantee of position. There is no taking away what is so deeply understood.

This is not about being a singularity to which all is drawn, but a whole constellation or solar system of “bread of life” loci.

We have eternal life when we claim “bread of life” as our experience. Eternity is not belief in someone else’s sense of “bread of life”, but our own.

What is “bread of life”? - it is freedom to walk away from enslavement. Death is not the measuring spot here for even Jesus died. “Bread of life”? - simply our meaning and enactment, enfleshment of internally-fed authority.

still not satisfied

Pentecost +10 - Year B

a road less travelled

or well trodden

is not a difference maker

some are beckoned

in one direction or another

both can make a difference

some find life on one

and some on another

at issue is life not path

what must we do

naught at all

but invest

engage where you are

make a wrong path yours

or jump tracks

engage where you aren’t

shifting gears is fine

no absolutes here

look for a next sign

follow as you can

it satisfies

Ephesians 4:1-16

Pentecost +10 - Year B

Ephesians 4:1-16

“Make captivity a captive.” This reversal of fortune is key in every story worth the telling and hearing. It is the journey we are on toward some larger wholeness or maturity. It is a changed relationship to ourselves and the world around us that reveals a loyal opposition to our desires and social discrimination.

When we wrestle with that which holds us captive we discover gifts aplenty within that had been tamped down through self-censorship and peer pressure. Gifts here reveal our part in building up a context that will be healthy for others as well as ourselves.

It is these various gifts that we yearn for and eventually allow to come forth. Until they begin to bloom and blossom, we find our desires running away from our own better judgment and behaviors subject to all manner of crafty, deceitful scheming of others.

Without our gifts being engaged we continue to fall apart. With our gifts engaged in growing and maturing we are bound together, stronger.

Claim your gift and simply engage its implementation. In this we live our version of Jesus and other heroines and heroes.

Psalm 51:1-12

Pentecost +10 - Year B

Psalm 51:1-12

Where through the Bathsheba incident (see how it can be dismissed as an aberration) would you have David penning this song? Was it his recognition of desire? or after Nathan’s story?

Might this much of a psalm be appropriate whenever a desire pops up, whether for food or sex?

Probably. Unfortunately it leaves things hanging. Does my desirous heart come clean this easily. Probably not.

Blessings on your engagement of the difficultly of real-life behavioral change. Recognition of a needed change is important, but then it takes the work of making a change and not just leaving it to G*D. This is a set-up to have someone to blame for failing to change. And if that someone is G*D, all the better. It is nowhere near as effective to blame an underling when an overlord is available to blame (but it can be a bit more dangerous).

2 Samuel 11:26-12:13a

Pentecost +10 - Year B

2 Samuel 11:26-12:13a

Regarding Bathsheba, what did David do that displeased G*D? The initial lust? The lying with? The lack of contraception? The plotting and lying to Uriah? The betrayal by instructing Joab? The waiting for an official mourning time to be up revealing hanky-panky before she came to David’s house?

Where along the way had David stolen Bathsheba from Uriah? What was the trigger point for G*D’s displeasure?

If it was the final straw of waiting so David’s behavior would be noticeable by others, how is that different than the covering up of abuse by clergy? If it was earlier, was G*D still hopeful that things could be put right - that David wouldn’t act on his lust? Would be discrete if he did? Would ’fess up if he did? Wouldn’t employ a final-solution? Would support a widow from afar? 

Where along the way would you have G*D send Nathan with a story of theft?

Did G*D really forgive David by killing a child instead - a sacrificial lamb, as it were? Wouldn’t you like to know the backstory to this face-saving by G*D - was it simply a royal promise that couldn’t be taken back to always support David? How many other children have been sacrificed by the church to save its face?

If this were April this could be tied to Child Abuse Month. Since it is not April, what has been going on in your setting that needs calling out?