Luke 13:10-17

Pentecost +13

Luke 13:10-17

Life brings opportunity after opportunity to respond to what is before us, rather than what is already past. A built-in response, even from such a revered place as doctrine, seems to continually miss the mark. If we substitute any systemic response for that of paying attention to what is needed now, we eventually run afoul of the hypocrisy demon.

To know a rule without the ability to recognize when to use it and when to ignore it begins to put us in a box that will eventually, in turn, be used to put everyone else in a box and relate to them as less than human (otherwise they wouldn’t be in a box).

So it is that Jesus [read, “you”] is able to see a woman in need of an encouraging word (a first step toward a healing word - a healing word that would allow a scan of a larger horizon than the dirt at her feet).

Jesus could have joined others in the hypocrisy box, simply by having his eye on G*D’s judgment and rule from yesterday that would constrain us today. Instead, Jesus actually saw a woman first, rather than a set of rules that would dim her in his eye (each layer of rule further obscuring her presence and reality) and perhaps make her invisible. Instead, Jesus was looking around him with an eye to G*D’s mercy. Instead of dimming the woman, she began to become brighter and clearer. Jesus was able to see the straightness in her bent form and to call it forth.

It is noteworthy that the issue of hypocrisy is connected with shame. The approach to rules first, rather than mercy, is meant as an insulation from engaging life. The rules simplify our life and we all participate in them to some extent (they do keep traffic moving). And to be caught out, when we thought we had our protection up, failing in basic care for one another, we are ashamed - partly for the good we could have done, but didn’t, but mostly for having trusted our rules and finding that they didn’t keep us from getting called out - the Living G*D we thought we had under control is moving on leaving the husks of rules behind.

It seems our lives are complex enough that there is hypocrisy in every life. At stake is the amount and the arena of our hypocrisy. A part of our task is simply to be aware of the many avenues through which we are hypocritical and to begin lessening how much we have in a particular arena and to reduce the fields in which we are active. This is both individual and communal work.

In this story shame will lead to revenge for having been shown to be out of touch. An important question for every day is how we gauge our hypocrisy level. Can we even see that we have one? Is it high enough to keep us blind to the needs of people as we “should” all over them? Is is low enough that we can better see folks and move toward them with mercy? May you be blessed with a bit less tolerance for rules for the sake of power than yesterday and a bit more mercy toward all than you thought you had - and the same tomorrow.

sigh

Pentecost +12 - Year C

I came to bring fire
but I didn't
sigh

sigh
baptism absent
and so I wait and wait

people project peace
coming from me
but no

divisions
are as natural
as the generations are long

cloud on the horizon
rain is coming
oh my

earth
seems stable
but given enough time

seasons spin around again
never the same
ever

and
I didn't
bring a fire
 

Hebrews 11:29-12:2

Pentecost +12 - Year C

Hebrews 11:29-12:2

Blessed are those who are persecuted for their faith. Twice blessed are those who later have someone join them to continue faithfulness in the face of persecution.

Should you pay attention to the host of ancestral models, everywhere you look there will be a challenging forerunner in the faith. While you won't be breaking any new ground, you may be able to heal some old ground simply by continuing the ancient tradition of taking any consequence that comes along by way of holding to any of the myriad ways of justice and release from captivity (your own or someone else's). As long as there is a continued need for justice to be enacted, there is an ancestor still uneasy apart from your joining them on the journey of life.

The promise here is not that we will be the final iteration of faithful folk that will complete all those who go before, but that we are on the same journey. Should we not complete a task, we will have the privilege of joining a cloud of witnesses, encouraging those who come after us to pay attention to the justice needs of their time. This is helpful in that there is a benefit from simply running as faithfully as we can. We may find ourselves blessed with the completion of a task. We may find ourselves blessed with taking that task one step further along the way to completion. Either way, we find ourselves blessed simply to do what is ours to do - regardless of the outcome.

So, who is your avatar in the faith? Gideon, Deborah, David, prophetesses? To note this person is to discern the arena of your faithfulness. May you go pro in your field of faithful endeavor. You may still be an amateur in some other arena, but improving your ability to be just in a particular life issue is possible and desirable.
 

Psalm 80:1-2, 8-19

Pentecost +12 - Year C

Psalm 80:1-2, 8-19

Hey, G*D, stir up your might, get out of bed, run here, and save us!

You've done it before. Time to do it again. Your indolence is responsible for our peril, so get a move on.

We're finally and really sorry - yes, we know you've heard us say that before, but there really is a wolf at the door this time, dressed in pig's clothing no less, eating the fruit of the vine - so help us now and we'll tell everyone what a great gal you are, uhh, great guy, uhh, great god you are.

If I were G*D, I'd go back to bed. But, the persistence of these bloody mosquitoes (images) is great. I guess I'd get up, but grudgingly. Would I believe them? Nope. I know them too well, they are in my image after all. They will continue to want what they want when they want it. So, let's set up the toys for them to knock over again - someday, they'll grow up, at least that hope is still holding, though it is fragile.

How about you? Will you get up for such as are running the world down while expecting a miraculous pick-me-up at the end?
 

Isaiah 5:1-7

Pentecost +12 - Year C

Isaiah 5:1-7

Must be the Dog Days of Summer, Jesus is looking to burn up the earth, Isaiah is prophesying destruction for a vineyard, the Psalmist recognizes similar destructions have fallen upon the land and pleads for new light, and the letter writer to the Hebrews recounts a cloud of persecutions witnessed. The sweat of our brow is soaking inward, softening the mind and clouding hope.

It is hard enough to do justice when comfortable. When the hot stickies of Sirius joins with the heat of Sol, it is easy to let a bit more of justice slip away - who has the energy to do elsewise?

It is hard enough to be consciously moving toward being G*D (righteous) when comfortable. When the heat humidity index hits the danger level, we hide further away from our self and one another - who has the fortitude to resist absence of intention, we can hardly move ourselves?

So it is that no matter what our call, it is trumped by such little water droplets in warm air and by the driest of heat rising beyond the bearable.

But we know that, so why don't we factor it in to our rhythms and our awareness? Can you look just one more time at what is going on around you and to offer a cup of cool water to someone in need, a refreshing word of support to a whole group prohibited from simply being? Yes, you can! Bloodshed can be stanched by justice.
 

Luke 12:49-56

Pentecost +12 - Year C

Luke 12:49-56

Division and separation are creation-long experiences. Formless void and darkness are separated from light, a garrulous and day-long absent G*D is separated from said image of same and they from their garden chatting place, languages are separated one from another, unclean shellfish are separated from clean sheep, Samaritans are separated from Jews and Gentiles, and the list of separations can continue and continue to today's religious-right identity politics of separationing gay from straight.

Yes, Jesus continues, and even provokes, division and separation. His attempts at clarifying meaning seem to automatically provoke. With Jesus as forerunner of our faith, it is little surprise that we continue to provoke one another to the point of division after division and separation after separation - how many Christian sects are there - as many as the stars in the sky or sand in the ocean (a promise to Abram and Sarai fulfilled?).

Instead of presuming there is no way around some of our disputes (even though the best that might be done is to manage them, not to dispel them) there is here room for us to ask some clarifying questions. What are our divisions? Are you sure? Is there somewhere greater to which our current separating smallnesses might be led? If we are just disputing to dispute because what we are disputing about doesn't really amount to a hill of beans in a larger reality around us, the refining fire of this recognition will exacerbate our stress immensely.

Can we look at ourselves with the same clarity we apply to clouds? Who among us is a nimbostratus? a cumulus? a nacreous? What clarity will resolve long-standing divisions and which will finally bring a needed separation? These are questions for whole religious traditions, as well as a congregation/parish, and an individual.

I expect that dealing with an issue of clarity will also have its dark side as it expands a yearning to have simple resolutions to complex issues. Clarity can also energize precipitous action in the expectation of dealing with ongoing polarities, once and for all.

Said anew, "You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to clarify your present time and your present life?"

This issue of clarity is the issue, not the fire next time or instituting our own current personal or cultural bias.
 

or not

Pentecost +11

do not be afraid, y’all
a good pleasure of the universe
is present
ready or not

this treasure tugs
at our heart and hearts
anticipating only readiness
like it or not

much has been given
entrusted even
much is to be given
required or not

no solemn assembly
can avoid harm and do good
no ritualized offering determines
justice or not

beauty shines forth
honor replaces sacrifice
health is purposeful
thanks given or not

this moment clarifies hope
expanding love well beyond faith
toward a preferred future
seen or not

gazing into Sagan numbered stars
digging a deep and firm foundation
conjures promises and possibilities
prepared or not
 

Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16

Pentecost +11 - Year C

Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16

Take 1

By faith Abram and Sarai set out. If you are not up to the faith standard, there are still hope and love and additional ways to journey.

Try this variation: Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the love of things not seen. Even without assurance that hope will be fulfilled, one can still hope and still love.

Whether by faith, hope, love, or some other path, we can still desire a better world than we currently find. Of course it will require changing ourselves as well as the world, since we are still very much connected. It does open the possibility of modeling the changes we desire.

Whether working from a position of assurance or hope or love or something else, have at it so that you can be grounded in this place and not need some other in which to live and move and have your being - here is enough.

Take 2

Yes, yes, yes, faith is directly connected with assurance and conviction. That is exactly the problem. Anything outside of faith must be prohibited for assured faith is convicted and convinced that it is the totality of what is possible.

Faith is the source of approval, so faith must be secure for all time.

It is in this sense that faith is connected with an other-worldly heaven. Faith and Heaven - between the two of them there is no other option than the option of what is currently understood to be faithful and heavenly by those who control access to either (as either implies both).

Watch out for an unashamed God insisting on faith and offering a heaven, someday. There you will find an idol, secure, never-changing, ever pure. There you will find Crusades and Inquisitions.
 

Psalm 50:1-8, 22-23

Pentecost +11 - Year C

Psalm 50:1-8, 22-23

Time to stand and deliver - no not robbery, or hard work and a positive attitude, or a birthing technique - thanksgiving as participation in life.

This thanksgiving way of life ought to be sufficient by itself. Does it really need some quid pro quo of salvation to improve it or make it worth doing?

No, thanksgiving doesn't need any frosting to make it palatable - it is, in a very real sense the whole of a dessert course. At the end of a meal or a day, it is thanksgiving moments that are retained in the memory and satisfy the soul. So often we begin days and meals with high expectations we shape into ritualized thanksgiving. But until they have been concretized and brought home in dessert and dream time, they are but techniques designed to soothe sound and fury (see verse 3).

Yes, start with a blessing but don't end until it has been transformed into a thanksgiving.
 

Isaiah 1:1, 10-20

Pentecost +11 - Year C

Isaiah 1:1, 10-20

Right thinking is concerned with getting rituals correct.
Right action is concerned with getting justice correct.

There is nothing to keep these from working together. However, the witness of religious history is that religio/politico rituals keep trumping elementary justice, religious laws keep trampling lived experience. Were this not the case, the prophetic tradition, a third of the TaNaKh, would not have the continued presence and power it has.

In this adversarial setting, G*D has seen a larger picture, "though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be like snow". And so a question: given this eventuality, to what are we called to attend and practice?

Do you want to participate in the "snow/wool" conclusion or the "scarlet/crimson" resistance? If the former, here's the agenda:

• do no harm
  
• do good
  
• seek justice
         rescue, defend, and plead for
         the oppressed, orphan, and widow

This is importantly different from other approaches such as the General Rules of the United Methodist Church:

• do not harm
  
• do good
  
• attend to the ordinances of God
         public worship, Word (read or expounded), and Lord's Supper
         private prayer, searching Scripture, and abstinence

Again, these can work together. However religious prohibitions/ordinances, in our day against Gay and Lesbian Christians, seem to keep tripping up that which is for the "good of the land", the commonwealth of G*D, and a healthy connection between thinking and action.
 

Luke 12:32-48

Pentecost +11 - Year C

Luke 12:32-48

We are still echoing the issue of testing in the prayer the disciples asked for without knowing what they were getting into. There are several hooks into the testing motif in this passage. For today we'll look at the test of independence or interdependence. Here is an extended quote from Richard W. Swanson in his Provoking the Gospel of Luke.

Sell your possessions.

Give alms.

This second bit of advice is palatable enough. Giving alms is an expected part of Jewish life. Every Sabbath includes the giving of tzedekah; every year includes structured times to remember the importance of such obligations. The bite comes when these two injunctions are linked to each other: sell your possessions in order to give alms. This envisions a radical sort of interdependence rooted in exchanged poverty.

It reminds me of the Lakota practice of giveaway.

After a death the bereaved family gives its possessions to their neighbors and family. Stated in more revealing terms, the family gives itself to its neighbors. If the family is to go on, the neighbors will have to carry it. Which, of course, is exactly what is required at such a moment. The giveaway reveals a basic truth of human life: no one can go on unless carried by neighbors. This is not a truth unique to a time of bereavement. Death just reveals what is always true: human life is a team sport.

The Lakota know this, and practice it, now as always. Jews know it, too. Worship requires the gathering of a minyan, a group of sufficient size to create a community. Study requires a partner, a chaver, someone who will sharpen the insights and deepen the comprehension, someone who will challenge and support. There is an old saying: One Jew is no Jew. Only in such a community could anyone (notice the number) give up everything and still have everything she needs.

--> "Radical interdependence rooted in exchanged poverty."
--> "Human life is a team sport."

How might these images inform your reading of this passage that gets judgmental and expects everyone to be at the same level of learning and experience at the same time?

• So is the Prayer the disciples asked for, for them or everyone?
  
• Is this extension, for the disciples alone or everyone?
  
• Is your preaching this week for the congregation or everyone? [Warning: if your preaching is for everyone, including the congregation, you will likely have some upset congregational members.]

 

and it is evening

Pentecost +10 - Year C

and it is evening

wise or not
this night
begins another day
today's soul
is laid to rest

all we have prepared
is laid to rest
our judgments
our lack thereof
is laid to rest

wise or not
all together
Ephraim Israel
Admah Zeboiim
are laid to rest

compassion continues
and steadfastness
brings old sorrows
home to be
laid to rest

wise or not
gather to offer
thanks beyond measure
and even this
is laid to rest

thirsty lands
hungry people
satisfied
fallow
laid to rest

wise or not
seekers above
greedy for glory
and entitlement
are laid to rest

lies rest
anger wrath malice
slander abuse
are laid to rest
for an eighth day
 

Colossians 3:1-11

Pentecost +10 - Year C

Colossians 3:1-11

If we were to intersect this passage by Paul with the Sermon on the Mount by Jesus we would get a different feel for the import of this passage.

The first part tends to set us in the direction of splitting body from spirit and claiming spirit takes priority. All this talk about above, not on earth, hidden, and glory tend to separate us from ourselves and to try to get us to do the behavioral injunctions in the last part of the passage at a surface or temporary level (just until some revelation of Jesus - second coming in some perspectives).

If we were to bring the Sermon on the Mount to bear on the first part - so we are setting our minds on such earthly issues as poverty (whether communal or spiritual), mourning, peace-making, being persecuted for doing good - when we get to the no lying part (no anger, wrath, malice, slander, abuse) we would know that there is a depth of integrity that we need to attend to that will take all we have to give and then some. These are issues that are not going to go away soon - they are intimately tied up with who we are becoming right here in Paradise and not just practicing for some future Glory.

The Message comes closer here as we try to reveal Christ present, not wait for Christ to come. We are called to become better, not out of fear of G*D's anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abuse, but because it is where our blessing, happiness, journey is going.
 

Psalm 107:1-9, 43

Pentecost +10 - Year C

Psalm 107:1-9, 43

Let the redeemed give thanks - whether they should have needed to be redeemed or not.

There are folks who are outcast because of their very being, according to one religious source or another. They don't need redeeming for their being and yet they are outcaste (caste-away) far enough to feel that way.

In recent days, comparatively, the ELCA has "redeemed" some of its years of discrimination and loss of pastoral gifts and graces from gay and lesbian sisters and brothers. The Presbyterians, even more recently, are following at their pace. The United Methodist Church still has a goodly way to go to find their strength in using all the gift and graces available to them.

The pastor of a local Reconciling in Christ congregation in the ELCA recently returned from a convention in Minneapolis and I thought part of his newsletter reflection should be shared more widely as we continue to grow in wisdom and give heed to gathering the scattered.

I come away with a new appreciation that much of our Holy Scriptures was written for persons who are on the margins of the world. Here is a small list: Hebrews as slaves in Egypt; Hebrews wandering in the wilderness; the people of Judah in exile in Babylonia; Psalms for all occasions including sadness and loneliness; Lamentations as cries of many hearts; words to Gentiles who were considered unclean and outside God's love; a voice touching the lives of lepers excluded from community; words of acceptance addressing women and children rather than men.

How many times have you come to church wondering if anyone understood how you felt? It could be your sexual identity, your loneliness, your struggles with depression or other emotional health issues, the daily struggle with unrelenting chronic pain, unemployment, struggles with family or spouse or partner, grief at a recent loss. The Word of God is spoken to those who most need God's living presence. The Word of God is not meant just to bless those who are already blessed. It is meant to cut to the heart of our very existence, with our deepest pains and longings heard by God, and to bring us to God's word of new life and new hope in all circumstances. Many who are with us at any worship or gathering are living in the margins or feeling that way.

Which part of you has been marginalized? Who in your larger family has been marginalized? As you give thanks for the expression of G*D's steadfast love in your life, may you know there to be enough to share with others.
 

Hosea 11:1-11

Pentecost +10 - Year C

Hosea 11:1-11

The more I called, the more they ran -- this seems to be every parent's/prophet's experience at some point along the journey.

Many of us have been on both sides of that divide. Some of us still prefer one side over the other and operate out of that preference. There are inveterate callers and knee-jerk runners-away.

I've been led with "cords of human kindness" and experienced some of them as shackles. Our "spiritual care" for one another can be pretty heavy, laying all manner of expectation and reservation of acceptance upon us. Greg Brown's song Driftless has a line about this:

Have I done enough, Father,
can I rest now?
Have I learned enough, Mother,
can we talk now?

Yet, thankfully, the impulse to keep everyone a thankful third-grader who would never respond like that older teen, can keep us going long enough to move past a need to control things like setting a fiery sword at Eden's gate. With blessings aplenty we don't give up on folks. With high hopes we just can't bring ourselves to separate from one another, no matter how disappointed we have been.

In our family, my dearly beloved often has been heard to exclaim, "I don't know how we are going to get through this (whatever was having its day or season), but I'm going to keep loving you." Simple words; profound words.

May you be returned to your "home" (which may be different than where you thought it was or who else is there) in such a way that you can move on into the next stage of your life and your relationship with other family members, near and far.
 

Luke 12:13-21

Pentecost +10 - Year C

Luke 12:13-21

Remember last week - moving from prayer about testing to some stories about testing? Well, this could be a sermon every week - making "faith" real. Again this week we hear about the testing process.

Don't we all search around for an authority that will back us up? The very source of rules we complain about constraining us, unfairly we think, we turn around and use to defend ourselves. Can't you hear the explosion in the heads of a stereotypic biblical literalist if they heard Jesus say to them, rather than to a monetary greedist, "Friend, who set my reported words as a judge or arbitrator over you? - get a life!" A key here is the word "friend". Both the literalist and greedist are looking to get their way - their interpretation verified, their wealth justified, their independence affirmed. A key way out of the self-imposed bind the questioner raises is a return to community rather than see oneself as deserving of more than enough. "Friend" is an excellent starting spot for bringing a difficult word and leaving open an opportunity for more. Here's an irreverent blog posting that you might find reflective of the tone of Jesus here.

Rules and regulations, like other little consistencies, are also hobgoblins of "little minds, adored by little statesman and philosophers and divines.  With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do" [a little RWEmerson quote and visual definition] and aren't both the brother and rich man looking for "nothing to do" but walk around a self-serving "heaven" all day.

Since it is so difficult to see oneself as "rich/deserving", I look forward to a literalist or greedist responding about my unconscious appeal to authority [well, I look forward to this, a little]. This will help in my waking up to what it might really mean to take my focus off having all rules benefit me so I don't have to consider "being rich toward others", or, from last week, "keep us forgiving others and safe from ourselves" [Message variation].
 

Revealing G*D

Pentecost +9 - Year C

made in G*D's image
is no easy road
steadfast anger
roils relationships
steadfast mercilessness
marches and marches
steadfast love
sneaks in from time to time
it is no easy road
revealing G*D

pray your life forward

a preferred future - revealed
an earth-based paradise - reset
secure - repast repast repast
open to change - renewed
tested and unbowed - reliable
 

Colossians 2:6-15, (16-19)

Pentecost +9 - Year C

Colossians 2:6-15, (16-19)

"Christ" is a special code word. While not supposed to be compared to philosophy, if Christ does not captivate our philosophical bone and bent, this Christ may not survive the rough and tumble of life or it may become uber-philosophical and codify all contradictions away.

"Christ" as a category is not to be deceitful. The most adamant Christ-followers seem willing to stretch anything in order to accomplish a goal of more baptisms.

"Christ" and human traditions are put in conflict with one another. Hard to know what "fully human" means if human experience is to be so heavily discounted. This justifies cultural missionaries.

"Christ" is exempt from the elemental spirits of creation. Hard to know what "fully divine" means if creation is not to be listened to. This justifies environmental rape.

"Christ" is G*D's excuse to forgive. Remember how unforgiving G*D can be - No Mercy, No Forgiveness. This feels like face-saving. Poor old G*D can't just start forgiving again or showing mercy again - some intermediary step was required by G*D and Jesus fit the bill. Consider that the whole bloody atonement thing is about G*D looking good in G*D's eyes and isn't about Jesus at all. G*D could have said, bring me a hundred more foreskins (1 Samuel 18:12-30 - since G*D has been acting like Saul, G*D might as well use a Saul-like subterfuge) and felt justified in getting back on the steadfast love wagon. Or simply, again, acknowledged not living up to G*D's best, repented behavior, regretted absence, set another sign alongside a heavenly bow, and proceeded - imagine such a one acting on one's own for one's own integrity.
 

Psalm 85

Pentecost +9 - Year C

Psalm 85

In Hosea we hear of G*D running out of mercy.
Here we hear of G*D's anger to generations.

Look around. There is good warrant for those perspectives.

Look around again. What is an antidote to a lack of mercy and an abundance of anger? The Psalmist suggests it is steadfastness. The generalized particular is a steadfastness of love. I suspect that any steadfastness might do and that we might need to model this for G*D.

Here is an extended quote from Wikipedia that synopsizes the conclusion of Leonard Bernstein's Symphony Number 3 - Kaddish that pushes in the direction of Nikos Kazantzakis' Savior's of God and the role children have in waking sleeping parents.

III : Scherzo - Kaddish 3 - Finale. Fugue-Tutti

The scherzo is a fast-tempo dream sequence. God has fallen asleep and the narrator paints a dream. God is no longer in control and the narrator has full power to bring God on this journey through his own imagination. The speaker begins by painting what God has made:

This is Your Kingdom of Heaven, Father,
Just as You planned it.
Every immortal cliché intact.
Lambs frisk. Wheat ripples.
Sunbeams dance. Something is wrong.
The light: flat. The air: sterile.
Do You know what is wrong?
There is nothing to dream.
Nowhere to go. Nothing to know.

The narrator then proceeds to show God that he is in control of this dream.

Now behold my Kingdom of Earth!
Real-life marvels! Genuine wonders!
Dazzling miracles! ...
Look, a Burning Bush
Look, a Fiery Wheel!
A Ram! A Rock! Shall I smite it? There!
It gushes! It gushes! And I did it!
I am creating this dream!
Now will You believe?

A burning bush and gushing rock refer to some of the miracles described in the Old Testament. The narrator next places a rainbow in the sky, in parallel to the story of Noah, when God placed a rainbow in the sky to institute a new covenant with man. In loud triumph and anger, the speaker declares:

Look at it, Father: Believe! Believe!
Look at my rainbow and say after me:
MAGNIFIED ... AND SANCTIFIED ...
BE THE GREAT NAME OF MAN!

After showing God the problems in the world, he helps God believe in the new arrangement. The music builds to an amazing climax, crowned with the entrance of a boy's choir singing the phrase "Magnified and sanctified be His great name, Amen" in Hebrew.

The pace of the music slows down, as the narrator has finished his dream. He wakes God and God then confronts the reality of the image. The narrator, satisfied that God has seen His errors, beams:

Good morning, Father. We can still be immortal,
You and I, bound by our rainbow.
That is our covenant, and to honor it
Is our honor ... not quite the covenant
We bargained for, so long ago.

The narration ends with a commitment from both sides, God and Human, to "Suffer and recreate each other."

Though there is a resolution to the struggle, the music does not end triumphant and grand. Instead, it ends in a final kaddish by the choir and the final chord is dissonant, suggesting that all is still not right and more work must be done.

= = = = = = =

Steadfast love is not easy work. G*D tires of it and retracts mercy and indulges in anger. Yet, it is our birthright and the image of our creation. Great imagination and deep community is needed for those times when steadfast love falters. May steadfast love be shown you when yours stumbles. May your steadfast love support another in their time of drought. As Red Green has been heard to say, "Remember, I'm pulling for ya. We're all in this together!"
 

Hosea 1:1-10

Pentecost +9 - Year C

Hosea 1:1-10

If you were to look at your family, congregation, community, nation, world - to what image would you compare them that would identify a blockage keeping them from where they might be, were that not present? For Hosea it was a distraction of where their eye landed without their even being aware of it. G*D called everything that wasn't focused on G*D, whores. A convenient digital response of all or nothing.

We do have problems with sexuality in general. Some later interpreters of Gomer denied she was promiscuous before or during her marriage with Hosea. The New Interpreter's Dictionary notes, "Augustine argued that she abandoned her life of harlotry before her marriage; Jerome claimed that her marriage to Hosea remade her "chaste." Luther stated that she was a pure woman who only took on the name of "harlot" as a metaphor."

Regarding their daughter, Lo-ruhamah or No-Mercy, The Message reveals this as a reality of G*D, "I've run out of mercy." In G*D's image, we all run out of mercy. What happens then? Can mercy be transferrable - when one runs out of mercy another can re-infuse them with it? Can we be merciful until mercy returns to G*D?

Well, there is a whole story to go, but for now we need to hear Jesus re-telling Hosea's story right after his teaching of prayer. Is the giving of forgiveness directly tied to the reception of such? If G*D holds back mercy, will mercy be learned?

Again, what image would you use to compare the various parts of your life, given that they could be so much more were it not for that particular impediment? Is whoredom or idolatry still the way to talk about the self-imposed limits? What other options are open to you? As we image our response, we are given a glimpse into where our call might be.
 

Luke 11:1-13

Pentecost +9 - Year C

Luke 11:1-13

Hmm, even Jesus didn't "pray" continuously. I still appreciate John Wesley's sermon On Zeal where he ends up saying that if you are praying and there is an act of mercy that needs doing - drop your praying and get on with the mercy.

You might be interested in a Peshita Syriac-Aramaic translation:

O Birther!
Father-Mother of the Cosmos,
     focus your light within us—make it useful.
Create your reign of unity now;
Your one desire acts with ours,
     as in all light, so in all forms.
Grant what we need each day in bread and insight.
Loose the cords of mistakes binding us,
     as we release the strand we hold of others’ guilt.
Don’t let surface things delude us,
     but free us from what holds us back.
From you is born all ruling will,
     the power and the life to do,
     the song that beautifies all;
     from age to age it renews.
Amen.

Like in John Wesley's sermon, Jesus goes from teaching a prayer form to merciful action.

Immediately from, "And do not bring us to the time of trial" Jesus goes to examples of times of trial. Will you judge to be merciful? Will you do so quickly or reluctantly?

Mercy is knocking at the door. If you know how to pray and care for your own, open the door and prove your prayer.
 

seminar time

Pentecost +8 - Year C

a rule of hospitality
is basic to species survival
in a hostile environment

its very requirement
removes it from evaluation
of joy in the doing

continuing education
takes us back to our roots
and pushes our current limits

calling all Martha's and Mary's
its seminar time now
for new opportunities when

hospitality is time critical
hospitality delayed
is hospitality denied

hospitality is basic mercy
keeping the scene
from becoming unjust

hospitality is antidote
for mischief set loose
after a fall is love again

hospitality is steadfast
no matter how many refusals
it can still simply be offered

hospitality is universal
as we model mature living
inviting everyone to a feast

now it is practice time
theory is set
how you doin'?
 

Colossians 1:15-29

Pentecost +8 - Year C

Colossians 1:15-29

Verse 19: "For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell." NRSV

In keeping with what became the theme of the week - hospitality - whether we open a door a crack or throw it wide, where hospitality is offered, a fuller response comes than might be expected. This is a statement of belief. As you know strangers can do you in as well as bless you. Is the risk worth a blessing? A part of Jesus' gift to us was evidencing the value of not putting all one's energy into removing risk - to walk right into Jerusalem with as much fullness of life as was available.

We are encouraged to recognize G*D's fullness is pleased to dwell in us and, with us, to simply proceed to a next stage of personal fullness.

Verse 21: "And you who were once estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, . . ." NRSV

How might hospitality be shown to those who have locked and, then further, barricaded their door? Perhaps all that can be done is to sing Bob Franke's song, After the Fall with its refrain, "After the fall, there is love. After the fall, there is love again. After the fall, if you can just keep breathing you can walk away." Perhaps resistance will melt in the reminder of this good news and closeted doors will slowly creak open again or be flung aside. Imagine walking away from your perceived and protected Eden and find G*D still with you - a resurrection image.

Verse 23b: "I, Paul, became a servant of this gospel." NRSV

Can you imagine that "doing greater things than Jesus did" would include "completing what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of [others]"? It gets to be an affliction to not give up singing a song of love that continues past a fall, a hospitality that continues past a refusal to receive it. Bear such well for we desire to "present everyone mature/whole/saved in Christ" (verse 28).
 

Psalm 52

Pentecost +8 - Year C

Psalm 52

Boasting of mischief done (verse 1) is the result of not having been taught or learned the skill of hospitality. Some have it as a gift, but everyone can develop it as a skill.

It takes a fair amount of trust to find a refuge in kindness for it doesn't provide defensive armor (a star wars shield) or offensive sword (biological weapons).

On another blog we see the internal spat Christians have as some would Solomonly and willingly divide up a baby/bible. Mention hospitality and righteousness is quick to jump to defend itself.
The Enemy Within
The Division-Driven Church
 

Amos 8:1-12

Pentecost +8 - Year C

Amos 8:1-12

The shelf life of fresh, ripe fruit is not long - maybe a tenth of a generation of fruit flies (and that's pretty short).

It is within this length of time that we are to consider the decisions we have made and to measure them against community well-being - internal hospitality. Often we limit an hospitable welcome to a stranger and forget how to love one another. G*D says, "Trust me, you are starving one another - you have lost the SOWF (Substance of We Feeling - from Shikasta by Doris Lessing) - and this will lead to a famine of meaning and dissolution of the community."

So set a ripe fruit out on the counter and start considering where you need to engage the community with an internal welcome - basic hospitality - love of one another - kindness - simple civility. If you do not begin to act on your thoughtful evaluation before the fruit rots, you've not only lost a fruit but you are that much closer to meaninglessness.

Here's the equation we are looking for GM = RM where GM=GivingMuch and RM=ReceivingMuch. This is not just about produce, but relationships.

Amos reveals ourselves to us. We begin to change now or we begin to practice a dirge for what we missed. Enough missed opportunities and we are addicted to missing them so we won't even see the next one.

If you are not going to take the authority you already have to offer a hospitality seminar, I hope you will take your precious time and resources and sign up for one.
 

Luke 10:38-42

Pentecost +8 - Year C

Luke 10:38-42


Last night we had a brief skirmish between atmospheric sisters of differing pressures - high and low, cold and hot, dry and wet. Less noticeable were the tectonic plates tussling beneath our feet (daily earthquakes). We are at another frontal conflict with Martha and Mary.

We've been hearing about the importance, high value, of hospitality and welcome. Here the tables are reversed. The one providing hospitality is reproved while the one acting as non-Samaritan Priest and Levite is commended.

I appreciate Richard W. Swanson's comment in Provoking the Gospel of Luke, "Many scenes in the gospels make better sense when you begin by surrendering the notion that Jesus is always right, no matter what. I am increasing convinced that the gospels do this intentionally, but ideological Christian reading simply refuses to go along."

Are there limits on hospitality? If so, what might they be?

A friend recently reminded me, "I would suggest that the huge irony of being irenic [endlessly hospitable/welcoming] is that 'tolerance' applied to intolerance is like pouring gasoline by the 55-gallon drum on an already raging bonfire."

Where do we need to pause in the never-ending work of welcoming to regain perspective? For instance, congregations often get into trouble when they claim they are "friendly". That may indeed be their intention, but they have no way of evaluating how their "friendliness" is being perceived by others [and, truth be told, have no interest in finding out, as it would lead to change]. Let's pretend that Jesus was holding a seminar on the effectiveness of current hospitality. Martha's very continuing to do what she has done is getting in the way of her doing hospitality well - it has become expected activity and folks better like the way she is friendly to them - or else.

If your congregation hasn't done it lately, it would be instructive to borrow a couple of lay members from another congregation to do two things for you: 1) drop by at a time of worship or fund-raiser and later report on their experience of actual hospitality received, and 2) to do a quick survey of people on the street, in the grocery store, at the gas station, and people such as a banker, police officer, school principal, regarding their perception of the congregation in question. You can even offer to return the favor. This Mary moment might affect Martha and widen the scope of hospitality for her and others.

With our usual behaviors being reviewed, we are also ready to review how deep are our spiritual disciplines undergirding our hospitality. This sets us up for next week's gospel lesson - not prayer as religious activity, but prayer as an evaluative tool for our behavior.

No Loophole

Pentecost +7 - Year C
no loophole

eternal life
now?

mercy
now!

prophesy
then?

clarify
now!

justice
when?

mercy
again!

health
how?

forgiveness
ever!
 

Colossians 1:1-14

Pentecost +7 - Year C

Colossians 1:1-14

Faith and Love are evidenced when Hope is alive (verses 4-5). This emphasis practically turns 1 Corinthians 13 around - here the greatest of these is Hope.

Look - Love is the greatest!
Look - Faith is the greatest!
Look - Hope is the greatest!

So Paul expects and prays for the folks at Colossae that they would lead worthy lives, lives lived with joy, patience, and power that reflect their Hope (verse 10).

This Hope is for them tied to that redemptive mercy of forgiveness (verse 14).

Look - Forgiveness is the greatest!
Look - Mercy is the greatest!

Do you still Hope for forgiveness and live in that Hope (not groveling for some rescue, but standing firm that your expected forgiveness will engage and energize your present forgiveness of others even before you experience your own)? Now there is Hope that is still Hope and not a quid pro quo. No wonder Paul, here, claims its greatness.
 

Psalm 82

Pentecost +7 - Year C

Psalm 82

We have heard of a Mercy Inn and a Plumb Line. We now hear about G*D holding judgment, doing justice. This is the result of a plumb line of mercy that was unused, set aside for a more pressing issue, and eventually justice was needed to rectify the results of folks being unkind, unmerciful.

If you don't want to face judgment, justice for having gone awry, then show mercy, no matter what the provocation to express something else. Mercy is preemptive Justice. Mercy obviates the need for justice.

If you are among the G*Ds, then your call is to exemplify Mercy so that Justice need not be brought to bear. In the long run Mercy is the most efficient behavior, even when dealing with the unmerciful. Without Mercy non-violent resistance is simply a variation on violence and a will to power.

The longer I sit with this, the more untenable Mercy alone is. Second thoughts arise by the dozens, rationalizations for unMerciful behavior leap into being from nowhere, and satisfaction of revenge is very strong.

Mercy needs a community able to consistently remember Mercy as an option, a multitude of spiritual disciplines, and all the fruits of the spirit to be engaged together. Even then, in our world, Mercy is miraculous in its presence and effect.

Rise up, O you G*D, be merciful.

- - - - - - -

"I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice."
-Abraham Lincoln, 16th U.S. President (1809-1865)
 

Amos 7:7-17

Pentecost +7 - Year C

Amos 7:7-17

Plumb lines, levels, micrometers, and other instruments of evaluation are so much more difficult in the short-term than "looks good, we'll go with that". Plumb lines and the like don't let us get away with "almost". They cut down on future creativity when we later, surprised, try to fit a square peg into an rhomboidal opening and try to figure out how to get back to plumb without restarting (which may be the most efficient response to the situation).

Prophets like Amos have a well-trained eye that can spot a plumb line in the midst of whatever they are doing. They see the presence of an interactive G*D while laughing at the latest popular pundit or a news article so well-balanced it means nothing except we'll be having more of the same for some time to come. A plumb line conversation with G*D can go on about a more hopeful past and preferred futures when dealing with decisions to be made at any level - personal, familial, communal, governmental, international.

A question for us is training our own eye to glimpse a sea of plumb lines, like using iron filings to note a magnetic field. Plumb lines that are internal to our situations get tricky to notice and follow. A cultural overlay can hide them from even diligent seekers and the very act of trying to find a plumb line in a busy picture distorts our response to it, if found.

At some point the recognition of a multitude of plumb lines (good old situation ethics) can drive us crazy - crazy enough to pile up their seeming contradictions and find a meta-plumb-line for larger parts of our life.

Blessings on your revelation of a needed plumb line in your life and the life of the community. Further blessings on your courage to attempt to straighten situations accordingly. And even further blessings on your quest to move from plumb line to plumb line, shining them as you go that others might more easily respond to them.
 

Luke 10:25-37

Pentecost +7 - Year C

Luke 10:25-37

I was almost appointed to a half-time pastorate in a self-described "conservative" congregation. Back when that seemed to be the case I had begun thinking about this week's lections as the texts for a first sermon.

Knowing there was going to be testing going on in that setting, as well as in the intro to this passage, I was glad to note the double commandment that would speak to this congregation's piety with "loving G*D" and their local mission emphasis with "loving neighbor".

I was less glad to have to also note those troublesome issues of "loving self" and a congregation being an inn for all manner of wounded folk where we would have to be with them, rubbing shoulders and building new stories, without a guarantee that a first downpayment by Jesus in a Samaritan guise would be sufficient over a long-haul and we would need reliance upon mercy beyond our current loving limits. These "also-noted" would begin pushing at needed growth areas of how we live beyond categories and stereotypes and an investigation of how these more difficult aspects fit with a pride of being "conservative". And, whereas pushing engenders push-back, questions of degree of a new revelation that it might be glimpsed and choice of examples would take more intentional care than would later come more easily.

If I could carry a tune I would sing Song of Bernadette for occasions such as this.

Blessings on seeing your congregation, family, job, etc., as a Mercy Inn franchise.
 

Traveling Mercies

Pentecost +6 - Year C

seventy times
seven times
forging welcome forgiveness
and strewn everywhere
we might go

in Podunk Center
forgiveness has preceded
our arrival
its practice has prepared
a welcome

in a Capital City
there too forgiveness
has grown ready
to embrace our presence
welcoming

no matter what eventuates
we have seen a miracle
fear does not prevail
Satan does not burn
a wide-welcome rises

there is no law
low enough to constrain
peace and mercy
from their appointed rounds
where'er we go
 

Galatians 6:(1-6), 7-16

Pentecost +6 - Year C

Galatians 6:(1-6), 7-16

"Let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up."

Keeping on keeping on is the relatively easy part of this, particularly when we claim to be right. It is that tricky business of discerning what is right that keeps tripping us up and sending second thoughts our way.

Just one example, what is the right focus for a sermon in America on July 4th?

Do you focus on Liberty or Independence? Do you focus on a call to a better nation, beckoning it to the good of all (versus the further benefit of the already rich or corporations) or to repentance, to refrain from further boasting about how good we are, for we will be recompensed for the trouble we sow? Do you focus on grace or law? Do you focus on faithfulness (gentleness) or patriotism (legalism)?

If you dare, you might simply read aloud John Wesley's tract Some Observations on Liberty and say that there is an on-going struggle between liberty and independence that has gone on since the founding of our country. This choice is not one that is going to go away any faster than any other question of what is right for any occasion.

If nothing else the closing lines here would make a fitting benediction:

A New Creation is Everything!
For those participating in this creation,
peace be upon you, and mercy, and upon G*D.

 

Psalm 30

Pentecost +6 - Year C

Psalm 30

While appreciating the possible transformation of weeping into joy, that is not the only way people experience life. Post-traumatic Stresses, of whatever etiology, have a way of continuing the weeping, even in the presence of Joy-All-Around. Anyone know of a Psalm/Poem for those who suffer a Post-traumatic response, even to joy?

Here are some attempts:

The most popular on through a Google search is Survivor Psalm. It doesn't seem to have the same turn of thanks at the end.

Psalm 30 - A Cycle of Renewal is interesting for its strong body imagery, particularly of the liver expelling that which is no longer useful.

P.T.S.D. Love Poem has some annotations that are important. I was struck by this line: "I see in you the answer/To every time I've prayed." It can do an important bounce back-and-forth between stress and response, one person to another, and G*D/Human relationship. Hear each aspect say that line.
 

2 Kings 5:1-14

Pentecost +6 - Year C

2 Kings 5:1-14

Theory: We live within six-degrees of separation from one another. Here we move from an unnamed slave girl from one country to her mistress in another country to connect a commander with a prophet for purposes of healing. Were we to pay more attention we would find ourselves related to the poor and abused of the earth. What connections are we overlooking that would lead to healing?

Mission programs that connect local folks to half-way-around-the-world folks is an example of this same phenomenon. Doesn't it make you grin to imagine playing a more welcoming version of Elisha and to strew healing all over the place!

Now, instead of a formal mission program that institutionally connects people, imagine those who stand on street corners holding signs requesting money or a job or a person in a grocery line using food stamps or someone at urgent care when you go for a routine checkup and wonder who you know who knows them and how you might be a sign of hope to them in a time of need. Would it change your focus as you move through the day to know everyone you meet is a friend of one of your friends and it would help your already known friend for you to be kind to their friend you are just meeting?

In this sort of small world we need to redefine sainthood. It is no longer the exception to the rule, the big-time, well-known saint that defines holy-living. Every ordinary person in their ordinary day and with their ordinary connections can be a source of healing for another ordinary person. Simple awareness of harm that may be done and the avoiding of it, brings some healing. Simple awareness of a good that may be done and the doing of it, brings some healing. Welcome to ordinary sainthood.

= = = = = = =

For those who would appreciate a song about this, I recommend Garnet Roger's, First Day of Spring. It can be found at minute 42:50 on Woodsongs Old-Time Radio Hour (Show 309).
 

Luke 10:1-11, 16-20

Pentecost +6 - Year C

Luke 10:1-11, 16-20

Some say Jesus sent out 70 folks and some 72. I imagine the 2 extra were the 2 from the previous pericope that were asked to come; made their excuses; heard Jesus' response to their hesitation; rethought/revisioned what was important to them; and came on along.

Following James and John's incendiary remarks from before, Jesus has wisely set up some additional learning experiences for the disciples. A significant part of following Jesus' way to G*D is that of an expansive and expanding welcome (a "peace to all") that leaves room for transformation of G*D, Jesus, Disciples, and Others.

When the focus is on a peaceful welcome, it is amazing how little need there is to yell protests against folks. After laying out two available responses to the paired disciples, it is good to note that their final Blue Book essay was all about the results of mutual welcoming and the powerful relationships and healings that flow from such. Yes, the disciples could have gone looking for opportunities to knock dust off their feet against someone else and they probably even experienced some circumstances where that would have been appropriate, but here they don't find those times to be as exciting, memorable, and reportable as their times of welcome.

We still have opportunities and choices to welcome or curse. Many situations offer opportunity for both responses. A part of our work as individuals and as congregations is to continue finding intentional opportunities to practice trusting a welcome will really be found in our encounters. Recognition of an experience of the Presence of G*D is the value Jesus is looking for. The healings are a bonus.

With whom are you willing to walk together for an hour and then to spend a second hour reflecting on where you had experienced welcome. Y'all might want to try several of these practice sessions (imagine Jesus appointed you to practice until you became proficient at offering a welcoming peace at every moment of your day). One might be in a nature setting, one in a mall, one at a Sunday Service, and one at a community gathering of some sort. These eight hours of practice and reflection will likely lead you joy, just as it did the disciples, as you see more and more of a mystery of welcome, which is a mystery of life, which is a mystery of G*D.
 

underneath

Pentecost +5 - Year C

love yes
lamed love
still desires
incineration
a fire this time

joy yes
jealous joy
desires still
incineration
each and every time

peace yes
partial peace
plainly parses
incineration
when needed

patience yes
penultimate patience
can't wait
incineration
yesterday

kindness yes
kinship kindness
doesn't leave room
incineration
to them and them

generosity yes
greedy generosity
with zero sums
incineration
leaves more for me

faithfulness yes
fickle faithfulness
when it suits
incineration
regretfully necessary

gentleness yes
genteel gentleness
covers a hot heart
incineration
a fecundity of flame

self-control yes
self-serving self-control
deserves satisfaction
incineration
moderately inflicted

results yes
spiritual results
grow slow
incarnation
neighbors strangers
 

Galatians 5:1, 13-25

Pentecost +5 - Year C

Galatians 5:1, 13-25

We often look at the fruits of the spirit as though they were pickable right now. One of the realities is that they need manure and clean air and sun to nurture them to fruition. Many of us need to attend to one Anonymous group or another to provide the space needed for their growth.

A downside of seeing these gifts as fully mature, is the discouragement that comes when we don't measure up to these goals or results. At those moments when we do what we don't want to or refrain from acting when we should, we too quickly judge a growing fruit against a 4-H Fair Blue Ribbon Winner and give up. This is particularly galling in the area of patience.

There is no law against or limit on any of these blessings, regardless of their stage of faithfulness.

Here's a blog post you might appreciate, Dan Dick's Methodeviations that talks about the interconnectedness between the fruits of the spirit, not just their degree of maturity. Playing back and forth between Dan's image and this one, is a helpful spot to be.

You may also appreciate a connection with discipline and resultant (in the context of worship) as described by Evelyn Underhill in The Fruits of the Spirit:

Each person's discipline will be different because what God wants from each of us is different. Some are called to an active and some to a passive life, some to very homely and some to hard and sacrificial careers, some to quiet suffering. Only the broad lines will be alike. But no discipline will be any use to us unless we keep in mind the reason why we are doing this--for the Glory of God, and not just for the sake of our own self-improvement or other self-regarding purpose. Our object is to be what God wants of us, not what we want. So all that we do must be grounded in worship. First lift up our eyes to the hills, then turn to our own potato field and lightly fork in the manure.

Psalm 77:1-2, 11-20

Pentecost +5 - Year C

Psalm 77:1-2, 11-20

"I will call to mind the deeds of the Lord;
I will remember your wonders of old."

You created in multiple images (as many as the gods).
You were disappointed in your creation.
You threw your creation out.
You pursued your exiled creation.
You did not kill your creation when your creation killed.
You dispersed language groups.
You were flooded with despair and flooded in return.
You used famine to direct migrations.
You chose the youngest and least to lead.
You raised dynasties.
You were frustrated by leaders.
You exiled peoples.
You were their hope, delayed as it has been.

And, now, in a day of my own trouble - I look to you?

Yes, and to myself and my friends and to creation itself.
I cry.
I cry aloud.
I call to mind.
I grin.
I laugh.
I go around again.
Dance with me, G*D, a larger dance than my day's trouble - or yours.
 

2 Kings 2:1-14

Pentecost +5 - Year C

2 Kings 2:1-14

Was Elijah testing Elisha with a command to "sit and stay" at Bethel and Jericho? Was Elisha faithful or disobedient when he went to fetch a "double" portion?

Did Elisha see Elijah taken away? Do fiery horses and a heavenly whirlwind count as seeing or an imaginative approximation of an experience?

How is this scene different than Jacob getting a double portion with a birthright or Ruth receiving a first-born blessing from Boaz?

Why would Elisha think he would need a double portion? Fear of what he was going to face as a leader of Prophets? Simple greed? Does it go back to his call and knowing the need for being yoked, and simply express his desire to continue being yoked with Elijah?

Ever wonder about the 50 extra prophets? Were they spiritual Peeping Tom's, inquisitive? Were they protecting the Elijah/Elisha transition from interruption? Were they getting a better perspective on Elijah's leaving so they could claim leadership (with or without doubling)? This entry point raises a question about a Spirituality of Distance or a Spirituality of Presence - Can one be too close or too far from a Thin Place and miss it? It is this question that I think will stick with me over these next days.
 

Luke 9:51-62

Pentecost +5 - Year C

Luke 9:51-62

Have you ever "set your face"? Well, of course, we do it all the time. A perennial question is where we have our persona directed. Our vibes are our messengers - how are they doing in preparing a welcome for us? This question comes from the understanding that welcome leads to welcome.

James and John seemed to be spring-loaded to anticipate rejection. Not only do they expect it, but they have their response ready - "Incinerate them!" Which of your vibes have you named "James" and/or "John"?

This same anticipator process comes with folks thinking they are ready for any challenge, only to find the most ordinary ones of "comfort" and "ritual" tripping them up.

Bottom line - the mystery and challenge of the Freedom of G*D can't be avoided or evaded. There is room for all on the field. Are we going to play and welcome those currently on the sideline, or play and force others to the sideline?
 

a welcome sail

Pentecost +4 - Year C

set sail
to the unknown
there be demons here
state imagined maps

set sail
to the unknown
there are demons
here as well

set sail
to the unknown
for it is not so
unknown

set sail
to the unknown
proclaiming
full steam ahead

set sail
on the good ship
"Right Mind"
to welcome demons
 

Galatians 3:23-29

Pentecost +4 - Year C

Galatians 3:23-29

Faithfulness is another name for Jesus. He was faithful in his journey with and appreciation of the presence of G*D.

Here is the NRSV version with transposed names.

Now before Jesus came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until Jesus would be revealed. Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until faithfulness came, so that we might be justified by Jesus. But now that Jesus has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, for in revealed faithfulness you are all children of God through Jesus. As many of you as were baptized into faithfulness have clothed yourselves with faithfulness. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in revealed faithfulness. And if you belong to faithfulness, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.

On a quick reading, if you weren't one who had memorized this passage you might, at first reading, not note the transposition. When thinking of Jesus it is helpful to consider what you think he was faithful to. This is a more helpful way of engaging Jesus imagery than what has been said about Jesus or claimed for Jesus.
 

Psalm 42

Pentecost +4 - Year C

Psalm 42

"Where is your G*D?"

Let us offer a word of Thanks to our "enemy" who, in one way or another, raises this basic question. However it comes, we are blessed through a focus on an important question that we resist asking ourselves.

Here G*D is closely allied and associated with Hope and experienced through a steadfastness of a "love song" that touches deep places beyond any of our usual markers - beyond hope, beyond faith, beyond love. There is a yearning here that will not be satisfied with any of our usual measures - hope is not enough, faith is not enough, love is not enough.

This is a Jewish koan, "Where is your G*D?" No response is sufficient. Every response leads deeper. Some responses are more enlightening than others, but none are wide enough to hold for all time. This is instructive, if given an opportunity to sink deep within. This existential question balances an Edenic question from G*D, "Where are you?"

So we seek each other, we bump into each other, face-to-face and back-to-back, calling to each other, "Beloved, where are you; come out and play."

Finally, an openness to this question leads us toward becoming G*D, doing greater things. It resets our compass that has gotten confused with secondary priorities. Thankfully, if we have stopped asking the question of ourself, our favorite enemy raises it in ways we cannot avoid. It leads G*D toward us, doing humbler things. It reveals, within every everyday day, another facet of rainbows and empty tombs.

So, where is your G*D and what is keeping you from moving in that direction?
 

1 Kings 19:1-15

Pentecost +4 - Year C

1 Kings 19:1-15

Just two chapters ago (17:2-4) G*D's presence led Elijah forth to Wadi Cherith, there to be fed by ravens, and mere verses later to be fed for a long time by a widow who only had a handful of flour left (miracle upon miracle). Now Elijah runs away on his own, only to be fed by angels. This raises questions in our own life about how long ago we experienced being fed and what our expectation is about a next feeding. (This question is real for all aspects of our self - body, mind, spirit, relationships. . . .]

It is so easy to forget the blessings that have brought us to a testing moment. So it is that Elijah despairs so much that he could only sleep his life away and couldn't eat. Again Elijah is sustained, this time by angels (just ravens with another spelling?)

It is so easy to exaggerate one's troubles of the moment and to lose perspective. Sometimes it takes quite awhile (40 days plus) and quite a distance (as much as 600 to 1,000 walking miles, depending on terrain) to regather perspective.

Finally comes a bottom-line question: "What are you doing where you are?"

When we hear our poor excuse of a response, a click of recognition can comes -- "I am not alone. I have a life to live and a task to accomplish." Simple statements; both. And so we go forth to lay the groundwork for a next generation. Whether they are able to prepare for the next after them, is beside the point. Our call is ours.

We have gotten ourselves and one another in another fine mess (think Laurel and Hardy). There may be nothing more to do than to find one other to mentor to better health than we have that they might be ready to carry on. To keep our soul alive we give it to another that they might do what we cannot.
 

Luke 8:26-39

Pentecost +4 - Year C

Luke 8:26-39

We have begun our 2010 Wisconsin Annual Conference. Word has come about a potential trial of a lay person in West Ohio and a probable clergy trial here in Wisconsin. Both are logical outcomes of the dismissive language regarding "self-avowed, practicing, homosexuals".

As I read this passage from Luke, I can't help but wonder if the demoniac in need of healing isn't the Church that has gotten out of its right mind in an over-zealous attempt at inappropriate purity. The potential trials are acting like the child in the story of an Emperor's New Clothes - demonstrating the nakedness of a dead-end attempt to protect G*D and to live among the tomb of the past.

Those attempting to keep this identity-politic, restrictive language of the Church, seem to bounce back and forth between shouting about being tormented by liberals (Jesus) and begging to not have to change their ways. If called out on the blaming they whine and soon after complaining will be back at yelling for their way - and around and around it goes.

In this story, the demoniac/church is healed at the expense of pigs and those who earn their livelihood through them. This seems to have torn the community apart, as they ask/demand Jesus leave, even as Jesus sends forth a healed demoniac/church to do Pentecostal testimony regarding an amazing, expansive, and experienced love of G*D.

There will be fall-out when current United Methodist Church policy changes, economics may well be affected, but healing work will have been done and there is no adequate measure of this grace and no adequate reason to keep from a needed healing.
 

Faithful

Pentecost +3 - Year C

woman, non-observant
woman, ointment carrier
woman, foot kisser
woman, hair drier

woman
from her head
to his feet
lover

love
larger than sex
larger than forgiveness
faithful

man, grace measurer
mete-er of judgment
sin knower
forgetful

both, released
new faithfulness
walks forward
in peace
 

Galatians 2:15-21

Pentecost +3 - Year C

Galatians 2:15-21

It is amazing what a change can come from shifting one little word to another. In 16a it is important to note that the usual translation of "faith in Jesus" (making it our work to believe) is more accurately translated "faith/faithfulness of Jesus" (carrying us with him as he draws near to G*D, regardless of any privilege or disability we might happen to bring along). For those into such things, this change from an objective to subjective case is much more important than it might seem on first blush. You can find out much more about this at the Girardian Lectionary site - move down the page to the Galatians section.

This begins to put a new light on justification and helps Paul end simply with a subjective relationship with G*D through grace.

The web site Faith Futures: Jesus Then and Now brings us another word regarding this shift:

"The case for the less familiar translation is strengthened when we notice that in Romans 4, where we find similar ideas and terms used by Paul, the salvation flowing to the Jews on the basis of Abraham's faithfulness is contrasted with the faithfulness flowing to all people on the basis of Jesus' faithfulness."

This raises a significant question for those who profess to follow Jesus' Way and are charged by the Spirit to do even greater inclusion. Jesus appears to expand grace to Gentiles (including all people). What will be brought into a new relationship with G*D because of your faithfulness? Creation?
 

Psalm 5:1-8

Pentecost +3 - Year C

Psalm 5:1-8

It is wonderful to come to an understanding that I have been shown an abundance of steadfast love. Whether this abundance comes from G*D, Creation, Neighbor, You, even a mistake of mine Enemy, or Myself it is wondrous to behold.

Then comes the tricky part of what to do with such abundance. My temptation is to store it away in a big barn and to get an even bigger one, if necessary.

Once in awhile I can restate verse 8 into a more expansive reading of living with abundance: "Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness and make a way straight from you to me to my enemies that your abundant love might be known in their life as well."

The rest of the Psalm, as written, continues to divide those who have already received a touch of abundance from those who have not yet received that gift. The Psalmist seems to carve this moment of division into stone - the currently blessed are blessed forever and the unblessed will ever be so.

If one can postulate a greater receptivity on the part of Psalmist, from unheeded to heeded, what keeps them from granting the possibility of change and growth to those now deemed enemies? Would the Psalmist recognize a woman with ointment surprising Pharisees and Jesus with an anointing or would the door have been especially barred to her ever having such an opportunity?

Here abundance turns out to be a curse inasmuch as it asks a huge change in relationships that is seldom able to be lived into. May you be blessed with such a curse and the wisdom to better use it.

This quote from Preparing for Christmas with Richard Rohr is another lens through which a lack of grace might be recognized (for one but not for all) and transformed through a different response to our encounter with an amazing abundance of grace.

"It comes like a gentle dew" (Isaiah 45:8). Grace comes when you stop being preoccupied and stop thinking that by your own meddling, managing and manufacturing you can create it.

We're trained to be managers, to organize life, to make things happen. That's what's built our culture, and it's not all bad. But if you transfer that to the spiritual life, it's pure heresy. It doesn't work. You can't manage and maneuver and manipulate spiritual energy. It's a matter of letting go. It's a matter of getting the self out of the way, and becoming smaller, as John the Baptist said. It's a matter of the great kenosis, as Paul talks about in Philippians 2:6-11, the emptying of the self so that there's room for another.

It's very hard for us not to fix and manage life and to wait upon it, "like a gentle dew."

 

1 Kings 21:1-10, (11-14), 15-21a

Pentecost +3 - Year C

1 Kings 21:1-10, (11-14), 15-21a

Greed and Entitlement denied often show up as Resentment and Sulking.

Both Resentment and Sulking keep us tied to Greed and Entitlement and blind us from finding a better way.

In today's world we find the Greed of corporations and Entitlement of an American public in collusion that leads to so-called "accidents" as oil in the Gulf of Mexico and wars around the world. The only surprising thing is that it has taken so long for a particular event such as the Gulf Oil Disaster to raise Elijah to our consciousness.

Greed and Entitlement are also revealed in the collusion between Parish and Parishioners. Their crash comes in many forms. Each encounter comes from holding on too tightly to the past, keeping Greed and Entitlement going. Much less often an encounter with Greed and Entitlement comes from trying to move too quickly into the future to exact an equivalent to capturing as much profit and continued cheap gas as possible in the shortest amount of time. These mirror images of one another can be informative to us if we are willing to give up our control of past and future and to reflect on the multiple needs in the present for justice. Where are the voices for the poor, the earth, and the disregarded in communal economies (financial as well as relational)? Our models of a market free from constraint (social or religious) will not last another 100 years, as it leaves too many people farther and farther behind. This is not just unconscionable, but a seed-bed for an unnecessary revolution and disjuncture.

Let us remember Ahab and Jezebel for their continued witness to the need for a common-unity way where all will have enough and none have too little. In terms of a current religious issue we need to break the Greed and Entitlement cycle by stopping our talk about "Homosexuals" as an issue and refocus on gay and lesbians Christians in a Heterosexist (Greed and Entitlement) Institution.
 

Luke 7:36-8:3

Pentecost +3 - Year C

Luke 7:36-8:3

A Rewrite:

"One of the Bible-Law Believers asked Jesus to confirm his way, to come and eat at his table, and Jesus went into the Bible-Law Believer's house and took a place at the table of the Heart of the Law.

And a woman in the city, identified by Biblical Law as a law breaker, having learned that Jesus was moving from acts of compassion to association with those who enforce penalties upon those deemed breakers of Biblical Law, brought a gift from one considered dead. From behind a reclining Jesus, in anticipation of Jesus later following her lead, she bathed his feet with tears and wiped them with her hair; she kissed his feet and anointed them with her whole being.

When the Bible-Law Believer saw this, he muttered to himself, "If this Jesus were a real prophet, he would have known who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him - a Bible-Law breaker making him unclean by association.

Jesus spoke, "Bible-Law Believer Simon, I have a Testimony for you."

"I'm listening," said Simon.

"A certain creditor had two clients who owed him money; one owing ten times more than the other. When neither could pay the creditor canceled the debts for both of them. Now, which will be more thankful?"

Simon responded, "I suppose the one who owed the most."

"Yes." said Jesus, "That's a Bible-Law response and there are other responses also available."

Turning toward the woman, Jesus continued speaking to Simon, "There has been a dearth of welcome in your Biblical Law way of living. You were interested in my appearing with you but you did not refresh my traveling feet, greet me with a kiss of welcome, or cool my heated head. This woman you claim is a Biblical Law breaker came to welcome me from head to toe with welcoming actions including weeping over my dirty feet and soothing my weary head."

"Therefore," Bible-Law Believer Simon, I see she has forgiven you who sinned against her through your judgment of her and she has covered your lack of welcome. She has shown an expansiveness of love that I will teach to my disciples. I am glad to confirm what she already knows - she is forgiven even before I announce it."

The other Bible-Law Believers, witnessing this event, began to inquire of one another, "Who is this Jesus who forgives those we have judged as a Bible-Law Breaker."

Jesus, turning to the woman, simply said, "Your continued compassion and integrity of identity as a Daughter of G*D is not only your source of wholeness, but a saving act for those who judged against you. Let us go forth with this peace of passing compassion to self and others."

Soon afterwards Jesus went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the Presence of G*D, "All are welcome."

Jesus, the twelve who were with him, as well as additional women with identified integrity of spirit: Mary, called Magdalene, Joanna, the anonymous wife of Herod's steward Chuza, Susanna, and so many others, went on to raise many more from death in life to life itself through acts of loving-kindness - welcome for all, more grace for those outside Biblical Law, and preemptive forgiveness of self, one another, and others.

This story of a woman of integrity has come down to us through the generations and the promise is that it will continue to echo as we extend her witness in our time.
 

This

Pentecost +2 - Year C

Jesus begins a wrestle with death
seeing this widow
at a border space
a city gate - life or exile
armed only with compassion
a word spoken aloud
enfleshes a living of compassion
revealing every choice
routine death fatigue or
coffin-emptying compassion

this widow silenced
with grief unbounded
ready for history's ash heap
finds not just voice again
but compassion enacted
clearing her keening
drying her weeping
on a pilgrimage to Baptizer John
announcing compassion eternal
life in the midst of death

and now this little you
stands in another gateway
miles and years removed
choosing life or exile
for the silenced
if there were one it would be cause to wonder
if there were one it would be cause to weep
but the missing are numbered
in too many hundreds, thousands, millions
until there are none, we will not sleep

[Thanks to Paul Nuechterlein for stimulating the first stanza and to the great Malvina Reynolds for the last five lines, slightly varied here]
 

Galatians 1:11-24

Pentecost +2 - Year C

Galatians 1:11-24

I've been engaged with an unfortunately on-going conversation regarding the place of gay men and lesbians in the ordered leadership of the United Methodist Church. As we argued about polity, my friend Jeff entered a word about this lection:

I've been thinking about our friend St. Paul.  It's probably not wise to use Paul in support of a position that he seems not to affirm, but in the lectionary reading for Sunday (Gal. 1:11-24) Paul is in the process of defending his decision to move outside of the established "church" and offer the good news of Christ to people who were considered to be outside of the accepted community.  Paul was willing to include persons who hadn't been "marked" as Jews without insisting that they go under the knife and change who they were.  Even Peter came to the realization that people outside of the Jewish tradition were OK as they were.  We seem to have taken a step back.

This catches a dilemma of community - it takes a wrenching experience to have the church move forward in extending and expanding the love it has experienced. Paul and Peter each had their transformative vision of Jesus and G*D that allowed them to step outside the legalism (read theology) of their community. An outcome of church is partly that of desiring and instituting stability and this is a set up for instability. If we don't keep up with changes they build up within and around the church. Just as the longer an earthquake takes to shake loose its entrapment the larger its effect will be, the more people will be lost. Can we not change and change? Theoretically, but not historically.

There have been a series of seismic slips (earthquakes) in the church wherein we make significant leaps forward. Always, though, there is a breaking of some ideal unity as those who cannot keep their balance with the new landscape rebuild over the old fault rather than move on.

A mystery is how the next vision/revelation change will occur. In this instance verse 23 may need to be adapted: ["Those the church persecuted proclaimed their faith in the face of their destruction by the church." G*D was glorified because of their faith.]
 

Psalm 146

Pentecost +2 - Year C

Psalm 146

"Psalm 146 is filled with the vitality of reason." [Bruggemann, Israel's Praise: Doxology against Idolatry and Ideology]. The many specific ways G*D transforms life begin to add up. If you can remember them as they are named, you are led to join in praise - it follows.

A key difficulty of today is not remembering together what we have come through. Second to it is that we have not continually translated the impetus for this Psalm into current circumstance. Where have we recently seen justice for the oppressed? If not, why praise? Where have we seen hungry folk fed? If not, why praise? Who is a prisoner that can be freed? If it is three-strikes and you are out, why praise? What orphan or widow or other silenced group has been upheld? If we don't experience it, why praise? Without connecting our experiences with longer memory we cannot make a logical jump to praise.

G*D's in charge - always? For good? All too often, seemingly not.

Too often we have to fudge our praise. Each time we do there is a greater gap between G*D and ourself. G*D doesn't praise us by watching over us and we don't experience assurance enough to praise G*D. Quite the vicious circle that even a raising from the dead can only momentarily pause.

Perhaps we need to start with whispers of praise before we can put an exclamation point to it. To aid in this you may want to remember by reading Stories of Peace and Justice and they may sensitize you to it happening in your life and a small hallelujah will begin to grow.
 

1 Kings 17:8-24

Pentecost +2 - Year C

1 Kings 17:8-24

Nain? Zarephath? There are widows and soon to be widows all over the place - even in the place you are. A part of our work is to not narrow a definition of widow beyond that of the root of "widow" in Hebrew - 'alam, "one unable to speak" and, by extension, unable to be spoken for.

In this larger role of being silenced, we can get beyond our usual picture of a widow - "a woman who has lost her husband by death and usually has not remarried."

Who is being silenced these day? There is widowhood.

Of interest is the possibility of there having been an Order of Widows in the early Church - see references in 1 Timothy 5:9-16, through to the 3rd century Didascalia Apostolorum, and beyond.

It may be time to return to officially recognizing and affirming an Order of the Silenced that we might hear their story from their own lips and not just talk about people who are not able to be at the table. In some denominations the silenced person is a gay man or lesbian (some narrow that silencing to ordination, but that doesn't help the silencing and shunning). In many places the silenced include an immigrant without official papers. Additionally there are all those who by age or class or educational/economic status or (_____, your experience of a silenced person) cannot be heard by those in power.

Traditionally an Order of the Silenced was authorized to engage in prayer, which seems safe enough. I expect, however, that their prayers all kept coming back to Jesus' prayer, "Forgive them, they don't know what they are doing" and a correlative, "Wake them to what division is caused by silencing people and help them engage them in a new common-unity."
 

Luke 7:11-17

Pentecost +2 - Year C

Luke 7:11-17

Jesus' compassion was short-term practical and long-term status quo.

Justice/compassion for one was not translated into justice/compassion for all. And the imponderable is whether this is from Jesus or the Church.

One young man rose to care for one lone widow.

For this Jesus was seen as a great prophet.

This same Jesus has been heard to say that those who came later would do more than he evidenced.

Well, the needs of many "widowed", physically and religiously, still are present and need attending. Proceeding one-by-one won't suffice. This is going to take a common-unity approach.

Imagine how far this news would spread - not just a lottery-lucky widow, but all "widows" will be care for - beyond blood lineage, beyond class, beyond status, beyond religious obligation.

Now G*D has not just looked favorably upon the poor or had a preferred option for the poor, but G*D is literally with the poor and the poor with G*D - so both "poor" and "G*D" are redefined.
 

a cat named Trinity

Pentecost +1 - Year C

three in one
one in three

now where
did Schrödinger
put that darn box
 

Romans 5:1-5 (6-11)

Pentecost +1 - Year C

Romans 5:1-5 (6-11)

Perhaps a strange pick for Trinity Sunday - Jesus is a gateway to G*D. Any gateway to G*D might be considered a Jesus figure, a part of the Trinity, since it is a bit loose here.

Through Jesus we have access to a hope of sharing G*D's glory, being with G*D, being G*D. Still just a hope, though. We might have arrived at this hope through the standard process of suffering --> endurance --> character --> hope. Here we doubled our chances by using Jesus' gateway access and our own suffering --> hope process.

Hope means we are very close, but not there.

The second, optional part of this pericope gets into that whole blood atonement we are so loathe to embrace. So we will stick here to note that Hope is actually a very good place to be. There is yet a way to go, a journey is still alive, goals have not been reached, love continues to be poured forth, a jolly-good spirit continues to play.

While we are yet in hope our weakness means less and less.
While we are yet in hope our weakness means more and more.
While we are yet in hope our weakness ceases to be the issue.
While we are yet in hope our weakness is what it is.

Psalm 8

Pentecost +1 - Year C

Psalm 8

How much less being than God, Angel, Divinity, Creation, or Wisdom does it take to put one outside of same? Since there is a tradition of this being Trinity Sunday we can say that coming in second place because of a God mono-winner; a God/Wisdom or Father/Jesus tie for winner; a God/Wisdom/Creation or Father/Son/Spirit trinitarian tie for winner - is still coming in second.

So take pride in your sportsmanship that can offer praise to those more than a nose prior to yourself. You still can claim that second-place is better than coming in a more distant third or worse, like those sheep, oxen, or wild things of land, air, and sea. You did your best, having tread water for forty days and nights, trained on Babel's incline, and trod deserts for forty years.

All praise to the winner/winners, able to set a glorious gold medal above the heavens.

Is it obvious that I'm tired that this was the only comment to come forth? Perhaps it would have been better to have the discretion to say nothing at all, but that doesn't seem to be our relationship. We'll practice some more and demand a re-match. On your mark, get set, . . . .
 

Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31

Pentecost +1 - Year C

Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31

Ahh, Lady Wisdom, Madame Insight, finally raises a clear eye and a firm voice to the nonsense that has been swirling about, confusing folks as to where life might be found and grow.

As often with wisdom, it surfaces in the in-between places of life, such as the elided section of the pericope. Listen to some of the words we miss this week that we need to adopt in the midst of different bases of authority and power:

truth
justice
straightforward
prudence
knowledge
foresight
hate evil
counsel
resourcefulness
courage
love
resources
righteousness

Without a good wrestle with these we are simply left with the emptiness of self-importance. Look at me! See how important I am! G*D and I are closer than crossed fingers! Just do as I say!

We need the middle section that will not be heard unless we claim a wisdom that goes beyond praise, praise, praise. I wouldn't be surprised to find that the good news of Pentecost that was shared in native tongues exactly parallels the missing images. Good news is always grounded in clarifying issues and enhancing lives. Pentecost is not just about praise, but bringing light to the troublesome areas of present lives (those 2,000 and 4,000 years ago as well as right now and 2,000 years into the future).
 

John 15:26-16:15

Pentecost +1 - Year C

John 15:26-16:15

We participate in Pentecost when we learn from Spirit, "There is more to life than hiding away."

We participate in Pentecost when we teach Spirit to others, "There is more to life than hiding away."

These parallel pieces of wisdom help keep us on track when difficulties and temptations come to return to hiding. They are the internal and external aspects of moving from plateau to plateau; moving from more life to yet more life.

Regardless of how things go bump in the night and we sense we are abandoned, we remind each other of these key pieces of wisdom.

So, this is practice time. Will you keep moving on without your own personal trainer (incarnate Jesus or instructor Spirit)? Will you keep moving on without your initial inspiration? Will you stop judging; in the arc of justice you know where things are going, so just get on with living your expectations.

Pentecost is not a one time deal. It is time to learn a next lesson, to catch a new vision, and to engage strangers.