2 Timothy 2:8-15

Pentecost +21 — Year C

2 Timothy 2:8-15

All words are imprisoning. Event as they leap to mind from their metaphoric ground to break new ground, they return to rest providing support for subsequent leaps beyond them.

How noble Paul can be as he sets the good of a select set of others above his own inconvenience. Presuming Paul to understand himself as a chosen one, no matter how thorn infested or out of time he may be, to work for other chosen ones is a limited and limiting understanding of resurrectional and pentecostal power.

We can’t seem to not be in a battle over words. From an earlier “Let it be” to the latest “Let it not be” guiding sentiment of government defunders we struggle to define all else in light of me. This sophomoric argument that everyone else is but playing a part in my dream has significant consequences when it turns out we are not dreaming but in the midst of a much larger and longer story.

Any attempt at interpreting some message of truth is full of stumbling blocks. Here it turns out that a beginning spot of rising up and descending down takes second place to a “faithful saying” that rallies like-to-like in a common defensive position rewarding loyalty.

Knowing only a few of my own limits and how easily movable are boundaries, I have great sympathy for these 8 verses plucked from a larger work as they note a grand transformational moment that keeps sliding back into a creed of exclusiveness after its burst of new life.

May we simply live together for, like it or not, we die. This carries a different sense that trying to avoid our death by positing a dreamy eternity and reinforcing a limited chosenness.

Psalm 66:1-12

Pentecost +21 — Year C

Psalm 66:1-12

Expressing joy is deep work requiring a strong base. Before going further you can strengthen your base:

• breathe in for a slow count of 5
• hold for another slow count of 5
• exhale slowly and fully through a count of 5
• hold empty for a final slow count of 5

Repeat and repeat until your center becomes clear, beloved.

Here is the beginning of a field of joyful murmuring underlying periodic louder expressions.

From here we engage tests of our joy, whether from internal temptation or external turmoil. These tests temper us as is steel from of old, in fire and water.

We are free to be joy. There are no limits to expressions of joy other than our fear of self and/or others. Whether at home or in exile we breathe easy until we can breathe no more and in both breath and its cessation is our connection with the depths of creation’s continuity.

Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7

Pentecost +21 — Year C

Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7

Displaced. Exiled. Refugee. These words and more like them are artifacts of cruelty trampling community. They essentially say, “You must be done away with that I might flourish.” These are zero-sum game categories.

Jeremiah recognizes the reality of what we do to our selves and one another. There is no getting around the political, economic, and military realities of power and its lack.

Jeremiah also recognizes the reality of looking beyond a current balance of power. Since power is always being subverted from within, Jeremiah looks forward by essentially saying, “Flourishing where you are is the best investment you can make in a better future.”

This passage will need much further parsing as it could be used to justify cultural slavery and personal abuse. Part of the trouble we get in with scripture is how it can be manipulated to justify situations other than the one from which it arose. For the moment, if you always have your weather-eye open, close it for space for a long view; if you use a dream-eye to avoid another loss of worth, open it to see whether escape or subversion is available.

Can you both flourish and subvert (take a step to be elsewhere or toward a changed circumstance)? Yes. So, may you flourish no matter what degree of subversion of power is available to you. If you want to read more about a contemporary version of flourishing and subversion when exiled from your religious home, try LovePrevailsUMC.com.

Luke 17:11-19

Pentecost +21 — Year C

Luke 17:11-19

Two notices here.

First, Lepers are an excluded people. It matters not what other identity they could also carry, their exclusion is an identity that supersedes any other. A nation of excluded folks within a nation is a crack in the foundation of that nation. This excluded nation does continually raise a cry from the margin. A prophet/priest does periodically come to release.

As a prophet, Jesus announces freedom. It is as though he said more fully, “Go show yourselves to exclusionary priests who are the gatekeepers of privileged inclusion.” This points toward “outing” one’s self—claiming a place at the table.

While still categorically excluded it is difficult to reveal one’s claim on community. Before an exclusion is excluded it is surprising that even one in ten claimed their belovedness, their basic wholeness, their inherent belonging in the face of categorical discrimination. Being a pioneer in claiming one’s self in the face of exclusion is difficult, difficult work.

Second, once one knows they are whole, not just a person in form but through-and-through, Joy is released. This is shown here with nine out of ten still needing an external validation and obviously not getting such from a discriminating priest. They are not heard of again. Here one comes to a prophet/priest claiming their own with thanksgiving. Indeed, trust is their password—I trust I am whole. [Note: From the discriminating side, Welcome is a sign of a healthy priest.]

Another synonym for faith is following one’s bliss. For an expression of a Leper returning you might get your own T-shirt by one who is still a Leper in The United Methodist Church that categorically excludes gifted and called lesbian women and gay men from ordained ministry simply on the basis of their sexual orientation. Rev. Amy DeLong was tried by the exclusionary priests of her denomination and is still present because of enough prophet/priest on the trial court. You can still support inclusion by purchasing one of her T-shirts

at Love Prevails Store

If you are preaching on this text, what would you think about wearing this T-shirt instead of a robe or other professional attire? Would you use this as bulletin cover or video image to preach on?

Lamentations 1:1-6; 3:19-26

Pentecost +20 — Year C

World Communion Sunday

Lamentations 1:1-6; 3:19-26

A rewrite —

How lonely sits a church that once was full of people! How isolated and barren! How small and irrelevant after such numbers and influence! A once shining beacon is now an overly protected flame safe from wind—only to have no source of fuel.

There is a great bitterness within—a divided self with comfort limited to true believers. Friends and potential friends must first prove their loyalty and do so again and again for fear they will eventually reveal a flaw in a self-contained and unambiguous system.

Yes, exile has come, the center has not held and takes more and more work to sustain. What once honored its many differences and gifts has splintered, each looking to confirm its own before affirming another. The very surety of parity desired now comes back to bite far harder than the labor needed to bind compassion to every-day varieties of lived experience.

False enthusiasm keeps deep joy at bay. No matter how loudly we sing the same song it can’t be loosed from walls of silence intended to protect those within—turning the sanctuary into an echo-chamber with naught to offer beyond. Priests groan; youth grieve; blame grows.

Without turning differences into community, we are controlled by denied differences defining a small and smaller realm of participation. More and more discrimination to protect an ever smaller range of acceptable behavior transgresses G*D’s prerogative for steadfast love, especially relevant in the midst of creation’s variety. The descendants of Eden have again scattered themselves through a failed hubris of building a babbling code of “holiness” within a larger Holiness all around. We have been bound by the eternal enemy of self-magnification.

A grandeur of Spirit has departed the construct of Church. Starving the body has us hearing voices of danger in every direction. Finally we sit down alone feeling as persecuted as we have persecuted.

- - -

In this silence we feed on our shame of trusting our blame of all that wasn’t yet us to keep us pure. Our digital approach to holiness in an analogic abundance failed. Where is hope now?

Is steadfast love trustworthy after all? Are mercies we claim sharable with those we don’t like?

If love and mercy are new every morning, we can dare to lift our eyes from blame and join in seeking their application in our infinite variety.

Our surety striving let us down, again. Let us rest in hope beyond uniformed peace. Let us seek a common good beyond today’s limits. Let us live in communion beyond control.

Luke 17:5-10

Pentecost +20 — Year C

Luke 17:5-10

It takes a good deal of trust that forgiveness is the way to go. This is particularly true when it appears that forgiveness is not an effective tool to change the behavior of someone else.

If there is not a change in another’s behavior after we have forgiven them for an incident, we have a built-in excuse to not try that again and pull out a countervailing power. When even that doesn’t work there is only escalation left—a hand for a fingernail, an arm for a hand, a life for a felt slight.

No wonder the disciples asked for a sign worthy of their greater trust—that their reservoir of forgiveness would not run dry.

Jesus does not give such a sign. Instead he refocuses on seeing there is no lower limit to an innate ability to be engaged in a relationship to understand, modify, and transcend previous behaviors.

The second part of this passage is problematic as it is based on “earthly” behavior in need of a “heavenly” reconstruction. It is important to not be satisfied with a master-servant example when it comes to basic relationship dynamics.

If we stop here we justify abusive relationships.

Homework: How would you improve this passage by substituting some other example or an additional image to reinforce that we have sufficient resources to forgive without tying that to behavior control or privilege within a relationship?

periodic bread

Pentecost +19 — Year C

daily bread is a dream

for countless millions

were it only one

weeping would be in order

weeping cleans the eye

for compassion to enter

banquets to be open

open sores closed

for now we are stuck

unbalanced

mistaking plenty

as effect from our cause

we are stuck to a whirlwind

feeding on its own

until its moment gone

a rainbow left standing

too late we worry about our own

having not cared about others

we are invisible to ourselves

too self-satisfied to be warned

when warning is ignored

there is no easy fix

commonality in death

is all that’s left

too late smart

threats block change

follow G*D out of any garden

weeping all the way

laughing all the way

for old irony

brings sufficient insight

to change from within

- - - - - - -

I Cannot Sleep by Malvina Reynolds

     Lyrics

     Bilingual song

We Have Fed You All for a Thousand Years

     Song (click “show more” for lyrics)

1 Timothy 6:6-19

Pentecost +19 — Year C

1 Timothy 6:6-19

Fight the good fight.

This is where we wrestle with what to trust. Here it is phrased in terms of eternity, which is just one of many pen names of G*D. After filtering out all the highfalutin attributions of immortality, unapproachable light, and the like, strive to give life. This is the measure of value to be used in evaluating whether we have dealt honorably with our opportunities.

So what can be trusted in your life? Because of one experience or another or many is there anything trustable? If not, I’m sorry to have not striven well enough for you. If you suspect there might be something trustable, then comes the testing of it. The witness of the generations is that economic systems come and go so whatever “rich” means is both uncertain and never attainable as there will never be enough riches to take uncertainty out of the equation. The same holds true with applicable commandments and cultural norms. Blessings on sorting through the appearances to bedrock, foundational values.

As you struggle with your trust issues and attendant decisions, there are four interrelated tasks that can be noted for the stewardship of what we do have, whether large or small. With what you do have, 

• apply it to do as much long-term good as possible
• record those acts that they might be remembered in future times of choice
• factor in that just a bit more could be invested in making a change
• again, both intend good and carry it through

Psalm 91:1-6, 14-16

Pentecost +19 — Year C

Psalm 91:1-6, 14-16

It’s the pits when the snare of the fowler and the deadly pestilence we need rescuing from turns out to be our very self. What’s a body to do?

Well, like any good magician this conundrum is put under a gorgeous cloth and an incantation said. There, like chicks under a hen’s wing, a sense of indisputable worth returns and belovedness is known. A transformation from fear to faith occurs.

What comes forth as the winged cloth is pulled back is our self, now assured. The Universe claps with joy at this seeming miracle. And the Universe claps every time it happens. And it happens a lot.

What is the incantation? Usually there is a hefty charge for such information. But having had the cloth pulled back one more time, today I’m hopeful enough to give it away. “I honor you.”

That’s it. Try it.

questions as a way of life

Here is a comic strip that plays well with the Luke and Jeremiah passages this week:

A Day at the Park.

Enjoy.

Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15

Pentecost +19 — Year C

Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15

We ignore verses 3b-5 at our peril. This is where important energy for the passage resides. Without this clear announcement of harm and exile, the action of investing anyway loses its punch.

We are so inured of what little we have that we would never think of anything as foolish as burying our deed to present property going to seed against the great uncertainty of either finding it again or having it carry the day any better than indigenous people's treaties have fared in a colonialist economy.

Without a vision of exile this whole deed scenario loses its way. With it we can see how foolish are hopes of resurrection and to note how much stronger and wider our hope needs to be cast.

In the face of exile, a return: in the face of death, new life (resurrection, reincarnation, re-cycled nutrients, ...).

In light of mini-deaths beyond orgasms, we might yet learn from all the revolutions or stage-transitions we have gone through and willingly invest in a next one. Knowing resources will be available to us on the other side eases our resistance to finally go into our next good night both rejoicing and railing.

Luke 16:19-31

Pentecost +19 - Year C

Luke 16:19-31

Whether ignoring the poor by sticking a nose in a newspaper, attending to Facebook, or listening to your tunes, we have a multitude of ways to compartmentalize our lives. We don't know just what technique for separation this particular rich man used to ignore Lazarus but it seemed to work for him.

Alive or dead, Lazarus didn't make a difference in the economic and political arenas of his world.

Periodically, when circumstances become dire enough for a large enough group, there comes a revolution that would put the ignoring-class in enough hurt to be a warning to future generations of "ignorers". Of course they will also ignore the lessons of their predecessors.

Smashing ignorance and revolution together we find "angels" to be fomenters of revolution leading the currently ignored to a favored position.

Those who do not attend to the prophets won't attend to historical precedent, much less learn from it. Their addiction to short-term personal gain is too all-consuming.

May you be an "angel" this week and for as long as there is not enough for all because of the hoarding of a few.

1 Timothy 2:1-7

Pentecost +18 - Year C 

1 Timothy 2:1-7

Remembering that prayer is more than private words and is connected to decisions to act in regard to those titular “rulers” in your environ—from family through nation to even enemies. If their “leadership” doesn’t lead to quiet and peaceable living (an unfortunate expectation is that it doesn’t), there needs to be an intervention to see if they can finally become shrewd in their dealings with citizens and foreigners.

When the wholeness of individuals and whole societies is at risk, it needs to be brought to the attention of the “leader(s)”. The historical record indicates that it is very difficult for “leader(s)” to have their attention drawn toward dignity for the disenfranchised if they are getting their own and then some.

This is where applied prayer comes in to kick a bit of butt. For this we are sometimes appointed as herald of a revolution. You’ve heard of interventions? That’s what intercessory prayer is about. After negative supplications and positive thanksgiving have been tried, there is intercessory intervention (except it is not at a distance, but up close and personal).

Blessings on your engagement with G*D and Dignity through your supplications, prayers, Intercessions, and thanksgivings.

Psalm 79:1-9

Pentecost +18 - Year C 

Psalm 79:1-9

How is one to practice being shrewd in relationship to finally doing what is right—forgiving debts—if our only technique is to lean back and bay at G*D for help.

An on-going sense of impotence or dependence is not helpful to growing spirits. Even though this is probably part of a process of moving to independence and inter-dependence, it is a phase that is hopefully kept to a minimum. Yes there is value here, but not as much as comes afterward.

There simply comes a time when being rescued, only to repeat our problem because there has been no learning, needs to cease. This dynamic is usually present in multiple places within our life. These reinforce our reluctance to pull out of a dysfunctional system and call it to account. It is also the case that doing so in any one area of our life leads to the possibility of doing so in additional areas. These resistances can also build on one another. This is not a straight-forward proposition that automatically happens and so continual attention and choice is needed.

May you make one more shrewd choice this day, no matter the inconvenience to you or a whole system.

Jeremiah 8:18-9:1

Pentecost +18 - Year C 

Jeremiah 8:18-9:1

After 40+ years of legislated United Methodist discrimination against gays and lesbians based on a false theology/reality of their lives being incompatible with “Christian teaching”, this section of Jeremiah seems all too real.

There comes a time for anger after all the failed attempts to honor the wideness of G*D’s gifts and calls. Building relationships has not changed hearts, scripture analysis has not changed minds, and inclusive legislation has not changed votes. It needs to be recognized that there is no current balm in the United Methodist Church. More church trials are on their way.

Enough weeping! It is time for targeted anger and moving on. Check out three websites for directed action.

Love Prevails

Methodists In New Directions

Reconciling Ministries Network

Regarding full disclosure, I am a part of Love Prevails. I especially encourage you to visit the website, engage, and follow through to:

• Disclose(t) your support of G*D’s gifts and call to LGBTQI people.

• Divest from financial support of a discriminatory system and reinvest in one of the above.

• Disrupt wherever possible the thinking and action of all parts of the institutional church that are silent about the current discrimination and thereby aid and abet it.

I also encourage you to like the Love Prevails Facebook page

May the refusal of gifts and call (slaying the spirit) and complicity in LGBTQI suicides (slaying the body) end practically now and legislatively at the next General Conference.

Luke 16:1-13

Pentecost +18 - Year C 

Luke 16:1-13

As you forgive, so you will be forgiven is a difficult lesson to learn.

We will put it off as long as possible. Case in point: when squandering gifts, yours and others, is finally realized and called we may consider better options. Among these is forgiving debts.

Note that forgiveness is called “shrewd”. This is a healthy way to look at an otherwise fuzzy idea. 

Note further the dictionary definitions of “shrewd”:

1 archaic:  mischievous

Forgiveness throws a wrench in the best laid plans to gain power over, what fun to watch.

2 obsolete:  abusive, shrewish

Heard of heaping coals of kindness upon another?

3 obsolete:  ominous, dangerous

Forgiveness is dangerous to dangerous behavior as it calls for a change on both sides of the equation. It is not dependent upon either a forgiver or one who is forgiven. Forgiveness is simply one of the realities of life and we can either work with it and flourish or work against it and be dead-headed.

4 a: severe, hard [a shrewd knock]

   b: sharp, piercing [a shrewd wind]

Forgiveness cuts to the bone of what it means to Live, to be one with G*D, with steadfastness. Forgiveness simply is; deal with it.

5 a: marked by clever discerning awareness and hardheaded acumen [shrewd common sense]

   b: given to wily and artful ways or dealing [a shrewd operator]

Shrewd forgiveness takes the archaic, obsolete, and current understandings of forgiveness and evaluates its long-term benefit within a communal context.

You can’t honor forgiveness and keep debts to your benefit. Debts must be released lest they fester into entitlement and sin upon sin eventuate.

ouch to awe

Pentecost +17 - Year C 

ouch to awe

lost sheep

lost coins

lost boys

lost opportunity

lost innocence

lost direction

every loss is significant

O—wail it long—O . . .

even nothing can be lost

O . . .

given time monkeys type Shakespeare

given time loss lingers long

an alchemic catalyst

refining lives

our identity so wrapt

with signs for meaning

with loss we are lost

and learn hoarding early

loss by loss

we find more than less

‘til finally

a simple Ah . . .

1 Timothy 1:12-17

Pentecost +17 - Year C 

1 Timothy 1:12-17

How convenient that in matters of belief ignorance is a blessing, whereas in law it is no excuse at all. If that is not a selling point for mercy, I don’t know what is.

How would it change your theology to say that Jesus came into the world to find what is lost? Is too much lost for you when you claim Jesus’ presence requires the presence of a special class of lost—sin?

I wonder if Timothy would feel the same way if he didn’t identify himself as sinner in chief (competing with Paul) but was simply a mediocre sinner. Would he have then made the cut for the Bible?

Does being found while being a big sinner seem more exciting than simply being found after ignoring signs of where you have been and thus not be able to return from wandering on your own? Imagine not having a sliding scale of lostness and a resultant ability to deal honorably with folks regardless of their degree of lostness. I know it would make a difference in my life and I presume it would make a difference in yours.

Jeremiah 4:11-28

Pentecost +17 - Year C 

Jeremiah 4:11-28

Even though it is difficult to break beyond your experience, the values of your community, the paradigms handed to you, to not do so can lead to writhing in soul pain. This is especially true when it comes to major symbols of meaning. Here to proclaim against Jerusalem is to call into question all that is holy. After all, isn’t Jerusalem the sign of religious exceptionalism—our G*D is not only an awesome G*D, but a winning G*D and, did I mention, my G*D.

Those who can only live within current power structures are known as court prophets who tell one another about the way it should be, which is how is currently is, without attending to any cloud on the horizon. A common but ultimately false way to live. We have so many court prophets that we are empty, empty of understanding.

A very neat thing about this passage is that even though all considered holy is abandoned, it is not a full end. Yes, an end, but a necessary beginning point to shed the accretion of lies (especially those mini-truths that go just a tad beyond what can actually be known) that have deafened us to the full range of gifts that can move a community forward. Eventually we will be able to hear all of creation is holy without breaking it into rankings of this is holy, that is less holy, and that isn’t holy at all.

Start mourning now for a next end in your life. It will be as final as final can be. You won’t be able to go back again. Yet (what a wonderful word) Yet this is not a full end, but a final reality that pushes us to journey onward. If you have mourned well, your ears will open to a real and less far-off hymn that hails a new creation.

Luke 15:1-10

Pentecost +17 - Year C 

Luke 15:1-10

Let’s see, Chapter 14 ended with “Let anyone with ears to hear listen!”

Now, Chapter 15 opens, “Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him.”

Just taking those at face-value it might seem as though the folks structurally left out of the religious power loop were the ones best able to listen.

Presuming so, who are the folks who will be listening best in your realm of influence?

If you just run with a religious crowd there may not be anyone, including yourself, who can listen to transformational rejoicing. If everything is aligned, the scriptures and creeds all cohere with no discrepancies, and G*D is in charge—what is there to listen to? Isn’t it just a waste of praise time?

When it comes to the lost, there is no time to lose. Listen for a cry. Find.