Ephesians 4:1-16

Year B - Pentecost +10 or Energy to Witness ¹⁰

August 2, 2015

Ephesians 4:1-16

Don’t forget to drop verses 8, 9, and 10 from any reading aloud of this psalm. They make it all too easy to lose the hearer as they interrupt the flow from verse 7 to 11 — each is given grace according to Christ’s abundance. This grace appears as gifts as unique as we are and are to be engaged for building our common good.

All that ascending and descending talk is beside the point here. It is as if the writer had a brain-burp in the middle of their thought about comm-unity and somehow thought they should throw in a touch of creedalism to bolster their argument about building one another up in the image of G*D—a whole family of gods and images of gods (stars and plants and animals and immeasurably more).

Deleting verses 8-10 adds value to this passage. Try it, you’ll like it.

Psalm 51:1-12

Year B - Pentecost +10 or Energy to Witness ¹⁰

August 2, 2015

Psalm 51:1-12

It continues to amaze how we model ourselves as wrong from the start. If we were not begun in joy how can we be restored to it?

There is great heaviness here.

Without dismissing the reality of straying from blessedness, it does not require that we demean G*D’s creative impetus and conclusion of, “My, how wonderful.” There is no requirement that we jump to the extreme of original sinfulness continually in need of one atoning redemption or several others.

There is no face-hiding necessary, just facing the reality of an evolving universe requiring constant adjustment and finding some adjustments are more helpful than others which are hurtful.

For a moment begin with an affirmation where this section of a psalm pauses with a hopeful anticipation.

my heart is fresh
my spirit is as G*D’s
ever new and knowing
never will I be cast away
a joy moving to wholeness
bubbles up again and again
so I re-engage a spirit energy
to rebind all that once sundered

Of course we could try to fool ourselves and mouth these words as a magical token, but they will turn sour if we do and the common good that ultimately sustains us will suffer.

The risks of this affirmation are far less damaging than going the eternal sinner route and getting caught between redemptions.

2 Samuel 11:26–12:13a

Year B - Pentecost +10 or Energy to Witness ¹⁰

August 2, 2015

2 Samuel 11:26–12:13a

The story of the rich and poor is one that has held true since the beginning. This is a story of power and privilege, a tale of prince and pauper. For the sake of living by a communal norm (hospitality) without inconvenience or participation, we break another communal norm (care for family) by stealing from someone else.

In our day this dynamic is most evident by corporations regarding profits and labor. For the sake of one constituency (shareholders) we diminish another constituency (community laborers).

When we have so much, where is the continuing drive for that one desire too far? Whatever the mechanism, an unsheathed sword or unregulated profit, that which allows our gain will become our stumbling stone. From within our own house or justification scheme will arise a force and rebellion against us.

John 6:23-35

Year B - Pentecost +10 or Energy to Witness ¹⁰

August 2, 2015

John 6:23-35

     From time to time we have a sense that our current center is missing in action—we are becalmed against our will. Having a need to be met and a lack of focus about how to proceed leaves us agitated (looking for relief) and depressed (unable to move). We try to search. We give up. We do both at the same time.

     Where will you look? As far as across a sea?

     When we are reunited we ask unimportant questions that are all translatable into "Feed me; fill my need."

     And we hear back, "Look beyond; set a larger context."

     Finally we are able to ask the question we've been yearning to ask, "What must we do to perform the works of G*D?

     Wow, what a question!

     Of course our questions precede our ability to hear a response and we presently confuse our past feeding with a future filling. We hear Jesus' response here in terms of him, not us.

     What we hear here in translation might have gone:

     "How do we move from dying of hunger to milk and honey resources?"

     "Trust in who your G*D Partner has set loose in creation."

     "You?"

     "No, silly, you."

     "We remember you feeding us and manna before that."

     "The bread of G*D is that which comes to give life and meaning to the world. Remember this: from Eve and Adam, you are the bread of life."

     "How can we remember this when our rituals separate us from G*D and turn us from Partners to dependents?"

     "Repeat after me: 'I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever is in community with me will never be thirsty.' Remember: Partner with Neighb*rs and G*D and all manner of things will be well. Now, go. Feed one another as I have fed you, not as I have fed you."

Psalm 89:20-37

Year B - Pentecost +8 or Energy to Witness ⁸

July 19, 2015

Psalm 89:20-37

Where is David’s throne today?

Wherever love is shown (even if not steadfast, for we see where that got David’s descendants)?

Wherever trust is found true?

Wherever competing covenants make things better rather than worse by setting one absolutely, forever, unalterably against another?

Wherever we find our context to be that of a larger creation we die back into?

So, how do you respond to the question of where David’s throne is today? Yes, this is important to wrestle with for awhile and to engage others with you in considering this question. It is all too easy to pass over how we are positively and negatively passed over.

2 Samuel 7:1-14a

Year B - Pentecost +8 or Energy to Witness ⁸

July 19, 2015

2 Samuel 7:1-14a

We begin with “the Lord” taking care of David’s enemies. This also a continuation of G*D settling in to a people and now a place (a false Eden?).

The promise here is the lovely one of the Israelites being beyond disturbances. They can settle back free from external enemies (forgotten here are the internal ones of someone seeking power and basic greed setting person against person).

We end with that dreamed of promise  that G*D will, like a parent, always look out for us so we don’t have to.

If we were to make it all the way to the end of verse 14 we would find this ominous word that proves to be all too needed: “When you commit iniquity, I will punish you with violence from others now contained.”

When the deal looks too good to be true, it probably is. Dependency’s dark side is not safety and security, but punishment. This is another reason the image needed is partnership (with all its attendant frustrations) not parenting.

Mark 6:30-34, 53-56

Year B - Pentecost +8 or Energy to Witness ⁸

July 19, 2015

Mark 6:30-34, 53-56

The way people recognize Jesus, you might almost imagine that there was a Wanted poster for him posted at the local meeting place in every city gate. Then and now, here and there, it is difficult to imagine what a generic Messiah looks like. Probably more like a “terrorist” than a member of the inner circle of power. In our here and now we would be playing the profiling card of Muslim, even though such a stereotype is far less than helpful.

Whatever the mechanism, Jesus was recognized. As Jim Post has sung referring to post-recognition hagiography or iconography and a halo, “No one else wears a hat like that.”

Without even getting a prayer break found in the elided section, Jesus recognized a need for R&R only to find there is no respite if your celebrity status is high enough. Desiring a deserted place—he was recognized and compassion kicked back in. After working hard to get away (unsuccessfully) and working hard to get back Jesus is again recognized. No rest for the compassionate (another reason it is not a top five Family Feud response to a next incident).

So, how is it with you and your compassion fatigue? What have you unsuccessfully tried? Is there anything besides prayer that works for you (remember that missing section where a little prayer break gave Jesus wonder water-walking power?). If there is something other than prayer, is is just because you haven’t seen prayer in a large enough context?

Ephesians 1:3-14

Year B - Pentecost +7 or Energy to Witness ⁷

July 12, 2015

Ephesians 1:3-14

After wading through all the perks of being claimed by G*D (regardless of the mechanism/religious tradition) there comes a kicker at the end. Remember that in the Greek that this is one long sentence with all manner of subordinate clauses.

In the end we are pledged to a future that is larger than the present. The down payment the spirit has made in our lives is to bring the delivery of a wider appreciation of those beyond us also destined to be our sisters and brothers that we have yet to acknowledge and affirm as “redeemed” as ourselves.

This must be read as poetry, not prose. It is not literally an unbridled confirmation that we are specially elected beyond anyone else. Providential energy that incorporates us does not stop with us but is oriented toward finally bringing all things created together. We are still pushing onward toward common-wealth through mutual mercy some now call Christ and some know through other designations.

The New Interpreter’s Bible helpfully concludes, “Ephesians sees redemption as the purpose that God has embedded in creation as a whole. Though Ephesians recognizes the human need for redemption from sin, its imagery suggests that God would have brought all things together in Christ even if Adam had not sinned.”

Blessings to you as you move beyond awe and praise into living well, basic discipleship.

Psalm 24

Year B - Pentecost +7 or Energy to Witness ⁷

July 12, 2015

Psalm 24

It is good to see the Lectionary Committee has a sense of humor. John loses his head. It is not recorded how G*D murdered Uzzah so we can posit a beheading worthy of the denouement (literal untying of Indiana and Marion) of Raiders of the Lost Ark. And now we hear, “Lift up your heads!”

Clean hands and pure hearts are wonderful theories that don’t take into account the stages and states and experiences of living people. Yes, surely they will receive a blessing. Just as surely will the gate be open to all to receive their blessing in soiled hands and abused hearts.

A “King of Glory” without mercy is hardly a king to be glorified. This Psalm begins well with creation and then narrows all of creation down to our particulars. It is as if our particulars are now to define creation rather that creation continuing to set our context. Blessings on your hands and heart, no matter what they have been through.

2 Samuel 6:1-19

Year B - Pentecost +7 or Energy to Witness ⁷

July 12, 2015

2 Samuel 6:1-19

“Off with their heads!” are words uttered topologic novels, king to challenger, and G*D to people. We do this within friendships and families. We are willing to do away with much more quickly than we are to spend a moment to reflect on long-term consequences or even one alternative.

Red Queen to Alice, King Herod to Baptizer John, G*D to Uzzah, you to _______. The tradition lives on, “Do to others, simply do them in” and rationalize it later. It expands to military folks destroying a village to save it, to economic titans finding every last profit to be made no matter the human or environmental cost, education leaving more and more behind because a test is what is important, and examples go on.

No wonder that David was afraid that he would be on the other end of the ark or history and initially refused the gift. When it proved to be as profitable as it was dangerous, David finally placed his bet and retrieved it (as much to spite Obed-edom as to reap the bounty?).

From here everyone returns home. The breaking Friday-after-deadline is lost as everyone returns home for the weekend. So, violence continues mostly out-of-sight. Stand-by, folks can only avoid issues so long, stay at home so long, before consequences come due. Long or short, comeuppance arrives.

See if you can last at least as long as David without an "Ark O'Don't Touch". How long can you go without physical or some other form of violence for someone trespassing your Red Queen habit, King Herod pride, or G*D ultimate rule? An hour? Half-a-day? Day? Week? (Don't forget to include a dismissive glance or silence.)

Mark 6:14-29

Year B - Pentecost +7 or Energy to Witness ⁷

July 12, 2015

Mark 6:14-29

This may be the genesis of tales of Sleepy Hollow and a headless horseman? I believe this is an example of gallows humor. When there is nothing else to say—for the situation is sickeningly gruesome—laugh. Or, alternatively, whistle in the dark.

Additionally, we might image Herod as Lady McBeth and her motif, “Out, out, damned spot.” Everywhere Herod looks, there is John haunting his memory that he was more willing to grieve the death of a “righteous and holy man” die than to let a chink appear in his power. It would be helpful to read about “weeping executioners”  who who express concern for the oppressed, but will not leave their place in the hierarchy of oppression.

Such a sad tale on nearly every level. Sadder still is that we are still playing the same power games to get elected and stay there that Herod did. Position yourself to always be right, if not righteous (particularly if not trustworthy).

Remember how Herod can see a headless John around every corner. Remember how difficult it is for the disciples, male and female, to recognize Jesus even with a headful of Warner Sallman locks.

There is more than enough to be guilty about. May your guilt adjust your behavior and not just lead to a generalized sense of guilt.

There is plenty of room in which to become more aware of a pervasive goodness to creation. May what you know about mystery open you to progressively more wonderful possibilities.

2 Corinthians 12:2-10

Year B - Pentecost +6 or Energy to Witness ⁶

July 5, 2015

2 Corinthians 12:2-10

Can you imagine the “thorn” of Paul. Many have done so. Can you now imagine the “thorn” of Jesus that kept him weak in Nazareth?

How do you think Jesus would speak about his experience in the face of “unbelief”. This might give a hint to those of us who keep getting caught in places of conflicting covenant to personal mission and community stability/traditions.

We all have a revelation that informs us and is untranslatable to anyone else. This sets up a tension between how we understand we are acting and how others see us. What is seen in us or heard from us is not univalent. And so we get caught between in a three-sided press of vision, internal-thorn, and external-insult. The pushes and pulls here are enough to anneal or break us.

May you continue to disclose your vision/mission in what you do and say even as thorns and insults attempt to block the way of healing. May you go forth to announce mercy beyond both any impending or present disaster and repentance of that which led to such. In this mercy we learn about “enough” available in place of any power that can only eventually lead to disaster.

Psalm 48

Year B - Pentecost +6 or Energy to Witness ⁶

July 5, 2015

Psalm 48

Let’s play with three words/phrases.

Verse   3 — defense, refuge, (power)

Verse   9 — mercy, steadfast love (power)

Verse 14 — completed, forever and ever (power)

Living from these positions gives the kind of non-violent presence/force/power (satyagraha) needed to deal with realities of resistance. This is particularly important in places where we are too well known or known well enough to be dismissed.

It is time to check your memory of Pentecost and to do a quick check regarding your sense of these six words/phrases. If you have sufficient, rejoice. If you are still in the closet, wind and fire can still find you. Either way, awareness of your sense of defense, mercy, completion, refuge steadfast love, and forever will lead you a next step today or enhance your anticipation to be ready to act tomorrow. Either way, be a satyagraha to be reckoned with.

2 Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10

Year B - Pentecost +6 or Energy to Witness ⁶

July 5, 2015

2 Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10

The first appeal to David is as a tribal member (bone and flesh) and practical effectiveness (you’ve been leading). In this paradigm we don’t just have “servant leaders” but “servant rulers”.

At Hebron it was not G*D and Samuel doing the anointing to shepherding a larger flock but it was the tribal leaders (presumably doing G*D’s work?) that finally disclosed their support of David—something they were not able to do for fear of Saul. In some way this parallels people finally, and safely, disclosing their support of same-sex marriages or disapproval of an out-dated flag—after a period of fear of religious and cultural literalists (today’s Sauls).

Do note that David did not get full pension credit for his work life. At the Hebron “G*D Outlet” the pension was based on full-years completed. As a result David’s seven years and six months only count for seven years. Even so has management nickel and dimed labor to this day.

Attend to what happens when a City of Peace is named for a person or people (City of David). It becomes a focus of division, ruination, and captivity. What seems so close (David) displaces perennial work (Peace). Even before David’s death, intrique sets in. It is not enough to cover life over with pious sayings such as, “the Lord, the God of hosts, was with David.” Such perspective unconsciously and/or unwittingly lead to—When David falls, this Lord is diminished.

Mark 6:1-13

Year B - Pentecost +6 or Energy to Witness ⁶

July 5, 2015

Mark 6:1-13

Isn’t it the truth that we usually have more trouble from and disappointment in our allies than our enemies. Ever has it been the case. Allies who claim their truth needs to be our truth are the cause of fightings and fears within any movement. Our greatest battles are with ourselves and our allies. Read again Letter from a Birmingham Jail.

What is needed in a movement is an appreciation of the variety of skills, gifts, and strategies needed to be successful. There is no one way forward. We travel on many paths at the same time, evolutionarily leaving some behind and investing more heavily in others. But without each way having value, we are the poorer to leave change to authorized channels, even unorthodox authorities.

Here a strand of a larger movement in an occupied land (religiously as well as militarily, politically, and economically) known as the Jesus Way moves into outlying and foreign territories. The instructions about going out two by two and their provisions opens an interesting conversation about a contrast between Jesus and the Cynics. You can read more about this in chapter 5 of Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography by John Dominic Crossan.

Those sent out were to rely upon the generosity of a new community, not their individual moral strength and wisdom. They were to proclaim a baptismal message that takes a village to complete and heal both individuals and communities.

A significant task always before us is identifying who the actual allies are that can be counted on and leveraging that to deeper resolve (lived repentance) and revelation of this through healing (not necessarily curing).

And so a little post-Pentecost test: What conversation about mystery and wonder are you taking part in across the usual boundaries and intersections? If we are just preaching to a choir or demanding accepted responses to deep questions always moving on from last a last response, we are already losing our Pentecostal Power. Remember, Be Glad, and Move Outward.

2 Corinthians 8:7-15

Year B - Pentecost +5 or Energy to Witness ⁵

June 28, 2015

2 Corinthians 8:7-15

Externally, the American economic system (only one of many with no presumption of privileged position) needs to hear again verse 15, “No one is to have too little; no one too much” and once again deal with its tendency toward gildedness and a growing gap between peoples/classes.

Internally, we hear about followers of Jesus who excel in so much, so fruitful, so ripe for harvesting, so full of healing for the nations. If only they could start with themselves! To partner with G*D, as did Jesus, means being generous with that which has filled and satisfied. 

This generosity is not just overflow. This generosity is to begin an emptying process. Having been empty, having been full, we can return to emptiness for the first time, intentionally, trustingly, eagerly. Now generosity can avoid the trap of measuring itself against others. What we have and what we don’t have, both reveal our G*D Partnership. We can’t help ourselves connecting so tightly our love of G*D and love of Neighb*r that an observer could ever tell the difference.

“Fair balance” means neither “fair” nor “balance”.  This phrase goes well beyond measurement. It goes all the way to mutual generosity. Blessings on not responding, “Fine”, the next time you are asked how you are. Rather try, “Generous”, and see what it does to your encounter.

Psalm 130

Year B - Pentecost +5 or Energy to Witness ⁵

June 28, 2015

Psalm 130

I trust you have connected with this psalm is four human ways:

• Jairus - on behalf of another
• Woman - on behalf of one’s self
• Daughter - in silence, unknown, inarticulate
• Yourself - (your cry hear)

The first 6 verses are the specific needs and connections we have to live our life more fully—in community, health, awareness, and any other quality of fullness. For those in the Wesleyan tradition, it is helpful to remember key words here—depths, cry, there is forgiveness, watch for the morning, steadfast love, redeem—as we hear John Wesley report he heard a choir singing this psalm just hours before he felt his “heart strangely warmed” at Aldersgate.

The last 2 verses are universalized from the individual to the community. Of particular note is a note from The Jewish Study Bible, “Sinners or their descendants normally need to be punished (see Exod. 34.7), but here God redeems, that is forgives, so no one is punished. As in many psalms, the personal becomes the communal.” Likewise, The New Community Bible describes this psalm: “It is a deep-throated cry for forgiveness and survival.”

A reason for attending to the literal in scripture is for words such as this to be carried along and available to individuals in a particular time of need that goes beyond hope. We also need to attend to the metaphoric in scripture to know that limiting the communal to an extension of our personal desires and experience is far too small a way to live—each of our lives is a shard of our community and an entry point of the energy of conversion and anchoring of a preferred future in a wobbly present.

2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27

Year B - Pentecost +5 or Energy to Witness ⁵

June 28, 2015

2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27

Verses 19 and 25 reverse their order but act as a commentary contrasting mighty ones, courageous to the core, with their fate—perished/vanity.

When we look around today it is difficult to identify courage. Without courage to contras with, vanity is even more ephemeral than usual. There is not even smoke to mark a funeral.

Saul and Jonathan are noted in the last line as “weapons of war”. It is not surprising that they fall if that is the way in which they are remembered. As we might all have said, “Live by war; die by war”.

Consider what will be lamented at your death. Who and what will be addressed? Will you be remembered as a weapon of war for not resisting it? Will you be remembered as a forgiver whose presence heals? If it will be some mixture of these, what proportion will be noted?

For now, try writing what you suspect would be found in a Song of the Bow, should the Book of Jashar ever be found. Would it also be a lament, like this one? Is it this one with just the names changed? Would it be a victory song? What does a bow mean? The same as a broken bow?

Do be aware that any attempt you make will say much more about you than you might want known. Nonetheless, be courageous—write anyway.

Mark 5:21-43

Year B - Pentecost +5 or Energy to Witness ⁵

June 28, 2015

Mark 5:21-43

How many times are we to forgive? 70 x 7!

How many times did Jairus have to beg? 70 x7?

Persistence in doing good and looking for good is a positive value. It raises a question about what we are dogged about in seeing changed. Our culture says, “Three strikes and you’re out!” We are famous for wanting instant success.

What follows (fringe touching and hand holding) roll on from an insistence that something be done—and now! Sometimes our persistence needs to be several generations long as the resistance is that great. Don’t forget to mentor a next generation of persisters (resisters) so they can build on what you are continuing from the prophets of old or restarting in a new situation.

Blessings on all importuning widows and distraught fathers and fierce friends.

Psalm 9:9-20

Year B - Pentecost +4 or Energy to Witness ⁴

June 21, 2015

Psalm 9:9-20

Nations, Churches, and Other Institutions have “sunk in the pit that they made”. The very traps they employed to achieve their power and positions have come back to bite and trap them for the world moves on and they have so tied themselves to a last war or a last creed that they cannot see a “new thing” that delivers their usual clientele, giving immunity to the same call to mindless patriotism or blind faith.

If only nations and churches and other institutions had kept verse 10 pasted to their mirrors so every time they basked in their own glory they would see, “For the needy shall not always be forgotten, nor the hope of the poor perish forever.” Yes, if only but so far it has never been.

And so a next time of storm and fear is blowing around and ordinary stones from a river (not cornerstones or capstones/keystones) will remind us that we are human, not cogs in a theoretical economic system that projects losers or imagined theological system that projects sinners.

Karma rises as humans affirm their humanness, their G*Dliness.