Psalm 130

Lent 5 - Year A

Psalm 130

Hmm, is your experience that forgiveness is based on your promise of subsequent reverence (a most interesting motivation for such a basic) or that forgiveness is a developed response or habit?

Is there steadfast love but only conditional forgiveness? Just how does that work?

Oh, yes, right, this is a cry from desperate depths. From such a spot we are willing to try anything. A foxhole prayer doesn’t rely on a consistent view of life or self or G*D. All that is important is getting out of the current bind.

Jesus was in a tough spot with a request to come and risk stoning. Mary, Martha, and Lazarus were in a tough spot with death on the near horizon. Ezekiel was in a tough spot, facing questions far beyond any adequate response. The Psalmist was in a tough spot. You and I find ourselves in tough spots.

How we see the world around us is crucial work and doesn’t come easily. All manner of shortcuts attempt to divert us from seeing the basics of life. Steadfast love, yes. Forgiveness, yes. Deep despair, yes. Waiting and watching, yes. Now take this handful and toss them up into the air. Which comes to earth most easily? Which skitters around? Are they the same weight or circumference? Which has a gravity pull stronger than the rest? Which is background and which foreground. Is one a better lens through which to view the others?

- - -

In or out of extremis
we yearn for connection
beyond judgment
beyond forgiveness
waiting and hoping
for new light
steadfast
steadfast
 

Ezekiel 37:1-14

Lent 5 - Year A

Ezekiel 37:1-14

Out of a pool - sight.
Out of dry valley - word.

Note that the only evidence given for this inner vision is in last verse of the pericope, “... and I will place you on your own soil.”

In today’s world, with all the competing words and the immense power of money, the power of this vision of the lost being found can hang on only so long before it becomes mere words blowing in a very dry wind. There needs to be a bit of evidence thrown in every so often, lest these images fade sufficiently to go in one ear and out the other.

A history of peace instead of history of war would be one way of being reminded that there is everyday evidence that spirit still lives and jubilee still occurs. This is where a community comes in handy, to remember moments of integrity in spite of every cost/benefit analysis that says there is no use.

I suspect that this passage was chosen on the basis of graves being opened, but a stronger reason for its use on this Sunday is the opening question: “Can these bones live?” It is another way of asking, “Who’s at fault, whose sin at work here?” To respond hopefully to one is to respond faithfully to the other.

To say, “No, these bones can’t live” rather than finessing it with “Only you know”, is to acknowledge “sin” as the real bottom line. To claim, that old, dried out bones still have value is to move into new territory of an unfated tomorrow.
 

John 11:1-45

Lent 5 - Year A

John 11:1-45

Walking in the light does not exempt one from dangerous places. It gives information about where to place one’s foot. Treachery in treacherous places can still occur, no matter how carefully one tries to maneuver set traps. Note that in some eyes, it is exactly this “triumph over death”, this “revelation of glory”, that initiates a final trap that cannot be avoided, no matter how careful one is. In a sense, carefulness is exactly what the powers that be desire. An overly careful person will take themselves out of danger and keep the status quo safe a while longer.

The outside of the story is about Lazarus. The inside of the story is about Jesus’ commitment to a picture larger than fear - either fear for his own life or an addressing of our universal fear of death’s unknowns.

In taking away a stone from his own grave (being cooped up by fear of being stoned), Jesus is freed to roll other stones away, to unbind folks from other fears. Had Lazarus physically died, or had he begun to stink of fear? To be unbound from either is a miracle. Does Jesus always have to be credited with the largest possible miracle or he ceases to be a miracle-worker. That’s a sure way to burn out. There is nothing like smaller, regular miracles to keep one in for the long haul.

Would it make a difference for you if the translators had used "weak" or "feeble" instead of "ill" or "sick"? In John, the same Greek word (astheneō) is sometimes translated "impotent", and isn't that reminiscent of being frozen in fear.

PS. Yes, I can read the rest of the supporting story as that of sickness and death and see it as a prelude to a next resurrection that closely ties Jesus with G*D. Today I am feeling more impotent and fearful, in the face of a chaotic world filled with blind incivility and ignoring common kindness, than I am sick and fearful. I simply ask how literal even this story needs to be. How does it speak beyond its limitations? and how do I?
 

bring light

Lent 4 - Year A

who sinned?
a question from the blind
leading the blind

wrong question!
responds a sage
we’ve covered that

assigning sin
is a delaying tactic
keeping one from change

such parsing
keeps everyone in the dark
about present revelation

its absurd
take muddy spit for instance
what a premonitory hoot

opened eyes
don’t claim privilege
for opened eyes

opened eyes
don’t dismiss
unopened eyes

imposed sin
denies grace
sight beyond sin

already told
and told again
life is gift

revealed already
revealed again
life is gift

who sinned?
get real
wrong question!

bring light
while gifted
with life
 

Ephesians 5:8-14

Lent 4 - Year A

Ephesians 5:8-14

Once you were darkness - not seen. Being blind is not just not seeing, it is also a not being seen. Shepherding in daylight is still invisible work.

Be careful in finding out what is pleasing to “the Lord” for it is likely to engage you with invisible people - those who have the potential of witness to change in the most unlikely of situations (from blind from birth to sighted engagement or from lowly shepherd to ruler of a nation). If such can happen, the status quo is in danger and so these shifts are dangerous. Workers will arise and the wealthy shake; rising leaders scare present leaders. If you get caught between, your allegience one way or the other is at risk - and so are you.

To find out what is pleasing to “the Lord” will change your life. You may be hardened against trying that again or you may get deeper and deeper into significant change of a particular social reality or culture. Nonetheless, it is well worth it. Blessings on being pleased when you find out what will be pleasing to “the Lord”. That mutual pleasure may be all that is available in the midst of grinding change.
 

Psalm 23

Lent 4 - Year A

Psalm 23

This psalm is usually intoned, schmaltzed, cadenced, slowed. There are easily recognizable connections with water and sheep to parallel the water used to wash muddy spit off and to honor the scut job of shepherding, given to the least powerful.

It is in considering these other passages that raises the possibility of other reading styles. Would being blind from birth and now seeing turn into a dirge-like unison reading? Trying to figure out what all this new visual data means would be similar to the uncomprehending stare of a new-born. A querulous waver in one’s voice might well be appropriate. Yes, these verses are statements, but huge stories lie behind each one. It is appropriate to wonder not only at this present moment, but be a bit confused about interpreting the past and anticipating the future.

Presuming sighted privilege we might want to try reading this while skipping. “I can see, I can see” rhythms with periodic bursts of laughter, might be another presentation.

Were you Samuel, you might start off with Eliab’s stature and triumphantly blast this psalm. As Samuel went through each of presented sons, with less and less assurance, would he just hold onto the psalm with a hope against hope as each rejected prospect comes and goes. What happens to this psalm when it is repeated five or six times in a discouraging situation? When shepherd David comes along where does this psalm go? for surely it does not simply circle back to its triumphant beginning.

Blessings on finding an appropriate tone for your own life as well as that of a congregation, nation, world.
 

1 Samuel 16:1-13

Lent 4 - Year A

1 Samuel 16:1-13

Blindness can have many a cause. One of the usually overlooked causes is that of grief. It blinds us to many an opportunity and keeps us repeating the same pattern over and over as though that would change something. At some point grief of a loss ends and a revolution begins.

Samuel is not sent to a pool to wash off muddy spit, but to a household to bloodily sacrifice a heifer. Healing and leadership are effected through many routes and processes, not all pleasant or understandable.

Little by little questions come to Samuel. “Eliab is tall, is he the one?” Likewise the noticeable qualities of Abinadab, Shammah, etc. bring their questions. Finally the merest twinkle in an eye stopped the questions and said, “Let’s not judge externals.” There’s more than a bit of humor in this story that needs to be played out and enjoyed.

Bottom-line, what do you know and when did you know it? Well, not till it happened. Be prepared to be present when the next happening happens.
 

John 9:1-41

Lent 4 - Year A

John 9:1-41

Lent is one of those times when we are tempted to peer behind a larger screen and take a break from our own engagement with spirit, personal and institutional.

Like the disciples of old we are tempted by big questions and big answers. How does misfortune happen? Whose fault is it (other than G*D’s or no one’s, of course)?

Jesus doesn’t answer but responds, “Still trying to get out of your responsibility to do your work of honoring a revelation as is?”

Jesus goes on, “Your evasion of your own coming to grips with life’s persistent temptation to set blame rather than do what you know needs to be done, just isn’t going to cut it. You’ve got a bit of light left, use it.”

Then Jesus deepens the response (note: still not an answer). “You ask about sin,” says Jesus, “I’ll see your question and raise it with this ball of muddy spit right to the eye.”

I’ve always laughed at the sight of a blind many toodling off to a pool, at a location he may or may not have known, and coming back to find a bunch more questioners instead of Jesus. Here we go again with the temptation to know more than can be known at a given time. This formerly blind man’s only response is what he knows, without speculation or attribution.

The Pharisees pick up the disciples queries, “Who’s at fault?”

While its a nice coda to have Jesus talk about belief in some Son of Man and a nice moralism to condemn questioners, it’s probably better just to stick with the facts. They are amazing enough to let sufficient light shine through without turning this story into a sunday school lesson that nicely lets you know Jesus is the answer that ends all answers and stops all next questions.
 

coming arrived

Lent 3 - Year A

coming arrived

tired and thirsty
a deadly combination

water in a well
but not a drop to drink

these depths are plumbed
by outcasts

outcasts
beneath one’s station

money won’t make it
past achievements won’t either

neither will happy talk
or righteous faithful actions

this calls for a new way
beyond discipleship

here we need to know
one another

understand the depths
in another

reconciliation takes two
to make a new way

this new way
binds together

a never being the same
and moving on
 

Romans 5:1-11

Lent 3 - Year A

Romans 5:1-11

Any other ways to have “peace with God” than through Christian “justification by faith”? There are, of course, many who would affirm other journeys.

Since this is our journey we note that “sharing the glory of G*D” is Paul’s description of an end game with which we are involved. Such can happen right here, right now. We can love G*D with all that we have, from suffering to loving hearts.

Some might want to focus on the details of justification and expressions of faith. In the light of reconciliation and revelation of the Image of G*D within even ourselves, a works righteousness of Jesus’ death fades as quickly as attempts at works righteousness by ourselves.

Keep your eye on your hope and reality of sharing glory with One Another, your Neighbor (and any you can’t yet abide as Neighbor) and G*D. Justification will take care of itself.
 

Psalm 95

Lent 3 - Year A

Psalm 95

Good ol’ G*D wants to be proved once for all. Don’t test G*D or you’ll get it in the neck or somewhere. One test in the desert will keep you out of a land of milk and honey. See, don’t test G*D. And we want to yell, “I’ll stop testing you when you stop testing me!”

Or, more moderately, we might say, “Relationships are always being tested for how else could there be growth of each part and the whole.” We wonder why the mood swings of G*D. Is there not enough lithium in usable form for G*D? How much can we keep new creations from crossing our mind and being followed even should we be threatened with destruction? There is something about our being in the image of G*D that keeps us pushing the boundaries. Or perhaps it is just the kid in us learning as we go.

Mystery I can abide. Rules without reason are not helpful. Rules that run contrary to experience are hurtful. A rule of not testing G*D is unconscionable, it is not part of our original job description. How else would one know if G*D has grown past a past response? How else do we find what image is our image?

Blessings upon your testings (both those your receive and those you make).
 

Exodus 17:1-7

Lent 3 - Year A

Exodus 17:1-7

For a G*D famous for showing his backside, here G*D volunteers to play Whack-A-G*D. Imagine a very thirsty people, including leader Moses who has water running in his veins as a sign of deliverance from his time upon the water as a babe and a striking of a Reed Sea. A really thirsty people.

This previously reticent to be seen G*D stands on a rock and invites Moses, in full view of the elders, to whack away. I do wonder whether one of Moses’ whacks caught G*D’s metaphoric toe. At any rate, we hear the question, “Is G*D among us?”. In this case the scope of the question is much narrower, “Is water among us?”. The question continues on among folks who have had other oppressions and ask the same question, “Is G*D among us?” - “Is restoration to community among us?” - “Is equality among us?” - “Is health care among us?” - Is a job among us?” - Is . . . among us?”

May you find water flowing through your life and moving you from thirsty quarrelsomeness to fulfillment.

Said another way, may the thirst of others not happen to you and may your thirst not happen to them.
 

John 4:5-42

Lent 3 - Year A

John 4:5-42

Imagine a worn out Jesus, tired from his journey. No, really, imagine a thirsty Jesus without even a little water to turn to wine.

Now remember that wells are traditional places where intimate and covenanted relationships begin. Dan Brown may have gotten it wrong in his speculations about Jesus and Magdalena Mary. Perhaps Jesus so honored his traditions that he had multiple beloved disciples and modeled G*D’s expansive love with at least two - Mary, well-described in the Gospel of Phillip as able to see spiritual realities, and Photina of the Well (initially playing Nicodemus and quickly moving beyond).

Imagining and remembering help us clarify what is it that we experience for ourselves. So, imagine well and remember well. We engage best when holding an imagined future and a remembered past together and also respect their limits.

This scene translates into the unknown just around the corner. Who would have expected the lack of evangelistic results by the disciples and such great ones through Photina. Being born from above is surprisingly simple - see people as people - a woman seen as a person, not as woman, sinner, half-breed, etc. becomes the first evangelist in the fourth gospel.
 

released

Lent 2 - Year A

know
every healthy path
moves us onward
into danger
or change

understand
uncertainty's gift
also move us on
into danger
or change

journey
in a wobbly world
does move us on
into danger
and change

elseways
utopian certainties
keep us oblivious
of tectonics
and fate

remember
prior living-earth quakes
brought light shine
through cracked
blessings

dream
arriving blessings
shake us forward
loosening
fears

release
your testimony
of present life
in this valley
of delight

receive
your going out
your coming in
released
relieved
 

Romans 4:1-5, 13-17

Lent 2 - Year A

Romans 4:1-5, 13-17

In today's Wisconsin and other struggles to make sense of an economy, a key is a definition of work. We have separated the benefit of personal physical work from cultural financial work. In so doing real work has become making private capital work for you rather than you working for communal capital. Making money becomes the end game, not developing care for self and neighbor.

Try substituting "money" for "works" in this passage and see how this works in today's world.

Now to one who has money, their return is not reckoned as a gift but as something due. But to the one who, without money, trusts forces pulling us toward a new community....

Theories of job creation by money (tax and other benefits to the already rich and removal of organizing and other benefits to the present poor) is a promise as weak as that of "inheriting the world".

This passage reminds us to look for a light beyond the present and that journeying is not just a private matter. If we are about the business of calling into existence that which does not yet exist there are some important questions to be asked without being blinded by money in a money culture. We must be born from above the money fray. So, where are you putting your faith? - in a larger grace than profit and intended benefit to our (beyond my) descendents?

Psalm 121

Lent 2 - Year A

Psalm 121

Journey is key to life. Nicodemus travels a fair piece from this introduction in John 4 to John 7 to John 17. Abraham journeys by stages to a promised place, has his momentum carry him past it, and needing to return later. How about you?

The psalm also journeys
from a need for help (1a)
to searching everywhere (1b)
to looking beyond everywhere (2)
to assurance of having found (3-6)
to helping (7)
to living (8)

How would you note your own journey to assurance and then out of assurance journeying more energetically in life?
 

Genesis 12:1-4a

Lent 2 - Year A

Genesis 12:1-4a

Ready, set, move on.

Blessings are anticipatory and unsettling.

Too often we presume blessings are our due, that we are entitled to them. Blessings in this sense are confirmations of the status quo. Blessings, like manna, will spoil if they are contained in the here and now, stored up.

Ready, set, move on.

Blessings are risky propositions only known in retrospect.

Too often we presume blessings are what we are after and they bring safety and security. Blessings in this sense are denials of even more blessings to come. Blessings like to be free and ring false when focused on too closely or turned into sureties. They are part of the background of abundance and fade in the light of day.

Ready, set, move on.
Ur
Ready, set, move on.
Haran
Ready, set, move on.
Moreh
Ready, set, move on.
Bethel/Ai
Ready, set, move on.
Negeb
Ready, set, move on.

John 3:1-17

Lent 2 - Year A

John 3:1-17

While glad to see the pericope widened past a John 3:16 be-wigged sign carrier at sporting events, it would be interesting to continue seeing it go to the end of this particular story - all the way to verse 21.

We then get a fuller picture of the give and take of the conversation with Nicodemus that has been condensed to one voice. Try on this dialogue of J(esus) and N(icodemus) and a fulcrum point of choice in verse 15:

10 - J - You don’t get it?
11 - N - You don’t receive tradition’s witness.
12 - J - If you don’t accept experience, you won’t accept “heaven”.
13 - N - You are not a prophet ascended to heaven.
14 - J - I anticipate healing and wholeness to come.
15 -     Those who see signs of tomorrow, see me.
16 - N - God loved us enough to Covenant with us.
17 - J - Not to condemn, but to make whole.
18 - N - It is what it is. Covenanted, good; uncovenanted, evil.
19 - J - Privileged perspective is not light.
20 - N - You will be exposed and exiled.
21 - J - It is what it is. Light is light, exiled or not.
 

strict daddy v. beauty

Lent 1 - Year A

temptation to power
ancient as the hills
new as Wisconsin gov. walker

one does not live by bread alone
but every extra hefty profit
squeezed from every pebble

with bazillionaire patrons
every risk for them will lift you up
and excuse every behavior

and so the world’s riches
tempt and tempt and tempt
worship Mammon and serve only him

crafty is employed
to bolster temptation
to gain one’s own certainty

knowledge is out, data is in
every spin good for me
is good enough for everyone

knowledge thus construed
keeps one from knowledge
of one’s own nakedness

a confession beyond words
rises up as a last resort
and it satisfies beautifully

power’s temptation
only delays beauty
thus seen, thus chosen against

just as power exercised dominion in death
so beautiful graceful received abundance
leads onward to a paradise of community
 

Romans 5:12-21

Lent 1 - Year A

Romans 5:12-21

A free gift following many temptations and transgressions is simply a free gift. It does not justify anything. It simply makes a next choice toward abundant life easier by showing a step can be taken where only quicksand was perceived to be. (ref verse 16)

Transgression occurred, with the result that the temptations multiplied; but where brokenness increased felt limitations, opportunity to choose living from abundance increased all the more. Just as temptation was followed by transgression, so an experience of abundance grows and grows and leads to participation in paradise right here, right now. (ref verses 20-21)
 

Psalm 32

Lent 1 - Year A

Psalm 32

There are times when we need to face our transgression(s). Those are difficult moments. We wonder how we ever fell prey to such behavior.

One response is that we did not confess our temptation(s). Had we done so, a transgression may never have followed. Nothing is certain here and this is not a programmatic fix for transgression, but it does have its place.

To be able to have some temptation language available to us might aid us in better dealing with the temptation before the transgression. This week might be a time of reflecting on the temptations facing those in power, those out of power, those who are victims of power. We might go on to circling that down to ourselves and others as we deal with similar temptations to make things into all-or-nothings. When temptations are clear we can better see the gradations therein and our scheming to find a short-cut out of the temptation without really dealing with it. Having seen we will have a better choice.

Steadfast love clears our tempted eye. Blessings to you as you straighten up your crooked places, your temptation places.
 

Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7

Lent 1 - Year A

Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7

Satan tempts, G*D tempts, creatures tempt, relatives tempt.

You might get the idea that temptation is a baseline part of creation. Could it be any other way and still have a dynamic participation in a movement toward what is sensed as a better future?

Would you want to make a decision that wasn’t in some way related to knowing it was a good decision. Can that be done in any other way than in contrast with other options/temptations chosen against?

If there is not a temptation in a decision, it might be argued that there is no decision being made.

Bless your temptations. Against them you are more human. Being human is a good place to be - in the middle of yesterday’s rules and tomorrow’s wisdom.
 

Matthew 4:1-11

Lent 1 - Year A

Matthew 4:1-11

Temptations are always larger when in a compromised situation. Being famished stresses every decision. It heightens small decisions into large ones. Mirages seem more and more real.

There is a similar conflation of time and place and possibility in moments between awake and sleep or sleep and awake when connections between stones and bread are apparent. An appropriate role of the whole of scripture is the same as for tradition, present experience and reason. All four can help clarify again bread from stone.

This same sort of process happens as we see the trees bend and feel the wind and beg the trees to stand still so the wind will stop. Cause and effect can get as confused as anything. We can even begin to make up all manner of details pulled from hither, thither and yon. Remember how all manner of attempts are made in dreams to get us out of danger (and stepping off a high place is a danger)? Again, our engagement with the whole of scripture, tradition, experience, and reason can clarify decisions so we don’t rely on the miraculous but can appreciate it should it come unbidden, rather than calculatedly.

Fantasies of wealth while in a famished condition are to be expected. Again and again, we need to be pulled back to reality and actually invest that dollar we are tempted to spend on a lottery ticket into someone else’s life or our own. It would actually be helpful to do both in ways of sharing the little we have with others in the building of a new community. There is strength in solidarity of the famished. This is particularly true regarding collective bargaining. Here is worship - building community, not getting rich at another’s expense.
 

belovedness got them

Epiphany 9 - "Transfiguration" - Year A

Jesus shines on the mountain
a beacon of belovedness

Peter says its good he’s there
he can see that honor is given this place

he and James and John
could handle Moses and Elijah

what got them was belovedness
it knocked them off their feet

just hearing about belovedness
was more than they could bear

to pick them up again
belovedness touched them

get up - be not afraid.
its time to share more

hold your experience of belovedness
close to your heart - away from your mouth

explaining belovedness dilutes it
just live as though it were real

and so it comes to us
brag? faint? model belovedness?

modeling is the middle way
claim it - live it
 

2 Peter 1:16-21

Epiphany 9 - "Transfiguration" - Year A

2 Peter 1:16-21

Prophecy is not just dreamed up to bolster a particular position of power. Those who do so are called false prophets. Prophecy is not expediency, it seems to always take the more difficult, less travelled road as it is the easier route that ends up in trouble needing a prophet. It is not proof as it can only be confirmed afterward and, hopefully, learned from, remembered a next time around.

Prophecy comes from being moved by Holy Spirit. It connects with the deep desires of G*D. It connects widely with neighborly compassion. That which subverts these two are called out by prophets, women and men clear-eyed about the ways in which personal preference and power exempt themselves from accountability to G*D and Neighbor.

This day you have the opportunity to prophesy. It will, of course, put you in harms way. The little you have will be in danger of being completely taken away by those to whom you prophesy. But what else is one to do when a morning star has arisen in your heart?

Prophets in Egypt and Wisconsin, continue to reveal hypocrisy, through the light of belovedness assured.
 

Psalm 99

Epiphany 9 - "Transfiguration" - Year A

Psalm 99

Why worship?
Why praise?
Why extol?

Because justice has been established.
Because forgiveness is an appropriate response for wrongdoing.
Because equity is engaged.

When we look deeply into the world around us,
we see opportunity after opportunity to speak up for what is fair.
When we raise our face to look far ahead,
there is opportunity after opportunity to speak up for neighbors and strangers.
When we simply reflect on our current experience,
our deeply fatigued compassion finds opportunity after opportunity to be re-energized.

Living in Wisconsin and
having visited Madison twice and
been engaged at the local level regarding
the governor giving away the state
(more tax breaks for the richest,
fewer services for the poorest,
and a smaller buffer between the two)
raises many questions of fairness,
of who is neighbor, and
what is short and long-term compassion.
 

Exodus 24:12-18

Epiphany 9 - "Transfiguration" - Year A

Exodus 24:12-18

For what purpose are the tablets of stone to be given to Moses? It is to build community. How might one tell a community has been built? Might it be by the personal sense of belovedness by each member of the community and a shared sense of compassion for one another. Between these two commandments - an experience of being loved and mutual encounters with compassion - will lie the whole of the law and the prophets. Without them stricter and stricter laws will come. Eventually the goal is to live out of assurance and compassion.

As might be expected, it takes awhile for a community to come clear about its internal workings and external relationships. For Moses it was a 40-day slow grinding of the gods to come down a mountain and go to work engaging issues of assurance and compassion.

Other tales have it that it took a second try because the task looked so large while viewing life through the lens of a golden calf. But, first try, second try, or fortieth try, we look beyond the need for a new vision of community and stricter laws to the over-riding issues of personal assurance and communal compassion. Look again, there is no law against these. Let’s nurture them.
 

Matthew 17:1-9

Epiphany 9 - "Transfiguration" - Year A

Matthew 17:1-9

Six days after Peter's affirmation, "You are the Messiah", and denial, "God forbid you to suffer and die" (projecting his own and our resistance to these), Jesus takes Peter, James, and John to a high place.

High places can not only have thin air, but be a wilderness "thin place".

Remember the cycle of baptism --–> belovedness revealed --–> wilderness temptation? Here is an opportune time to revisit that previous wilderness temptation with Peter's rebuke/test (yes, a Lucan perspective, but apt nonetheless). Time to have a booster shot of belovedness previously revealed at baptism.

If the Jordan was a baptism by water, an unnamed mountain may be a baptism of spirit. I can't help but wonder if this story is a compilation of many such revelations of belovedness. Surely there was more than one rebuke/test that Jesus faced and subsequent need for remembrance of belovedness - perhaps this was part of those prayer retreats Jesus took.

At any rate, last week we heard the words, "Don't worry", and this week we hear "Don't be afraid". In both instances folks/disciples have forgotten the abundance of G*D and their ability to share beyond what they have at the moment. Choosing the Invisible Hand of G*D over the Invisible Hand of the Market has always been difficult. Choosing returning to work in every holy space of everyday life over designating shrines is equally difficult.

Blessings on your being able to tell real stories of your down-the-mountain work simply, without resorting to exceptionalist tales.
 

don't worry - choose

Epiphany 8 - Year A

Matthew 6:24-34

No one can divide their allegiance
without other divisions in their life:
extremes of hate and love will come out
fawning and distain will become primary choices.
You cannot long stand between
Steadfast Love and Maximized Profit
without debilitating worry or
self-imposed ignorance.

Participation in meaningful life
is distracted by worry about basics
food, shelter, and universal human rights.
Worry adds no length of days or
cure of self-perceived defects.

Note well birds and flowers
eating when they can and attracting fertilizing bees.
There is value in participating in creation
at whatever level is available.

Our faith falters when we deny our creatureliness
and focus on fancy food and fashionable dress.
G*D-Human living fades when faced with fear
instilled by a class-dividing market.
Our question is not "What to eat?" but
"Why do we eat?"
"What?" worries us, "Why?" focuses us.

Why? A radical freedom of enough.
This is the place of paradise,
this is compassion set loose
far beyond, "More and more".

We have enough trouble staying loyal
to larger care for our commonwealth
without the distractions and worries
of fighting ourselves and each other
for mere "more" today and
just a bit more "more" tomorrow.

Don't worry - choose
rising hope
expansive kindness,
deep care.
 

1 Corinthians 4:1-5

Epiphany 8 - Year A

1 Corinthians 4:1-5

What does it mean to be judged by G*D and is that different than being judged by Wealth or Money or Mammon or Profit?

One way of coming at this is to ask about where they end up.

G*D’s judgment seems to end up with mercy outweighing justice and steadfast love taking precedence over disappointment.

Wealth’s judgment seems to end up with there never being enough for all and so compassion takes a back seat to separating oneself from all others.

A) Who or what won’t take mercy away from you? (Matthew 12:7; James 3:17)

B) Who or what won’t eventually take your resources away from you? (Ecclesiastes 2:21)

answers:
A) Invisible Hand of G*D and Death
B) Invisible Hand of the Market and Death
 

Psalm 131

Epiphany 8 - Year A

Psalm 131

Wealth is far grander than G*D. It has many more shiny things. It ranks high in distractibility from justice. It needs nothing other than itself.

I am acquisitive. I am not calm and quiet. I want more. Any affirmation to the contrary runs counter to what I will be doing next, subverting my long-term well-being for a dream of two birds in hand.

Even had I learned to be submissive, not even glancing up for another handout, accepting of my current place, unquestioning of power hierarchies, settled into a class, quiet as a church mouse in the face of patented injustice, accustomed to mere survival, reduced to an inarticulable hope - an unbidden vision of a deeply satisfying relationship within and beyond current limitations arises.

Something calls from beyond being top-dog, floormat, or middle-class. Perhaps it is a mere asterisk in our language about G*D to remind about a fertile, bubbling, energy that writes on walls and moves on. We live more or we die more.

Acquisitive or submissive, the choice comes down forever twixt G*D and Mammon. Choose beyond - beyond trinkets, money, wealth, seeming security, position. For every Mammon there is a Pirate; for every G*D there is undeniable fidelity (relationship), fairness (justice), and kindness (peace) revealed in the many faces of Love.

So, "Hope on!", "Give it up!", "Get more!", whatever your mantra, and then take a step beyond.
 

Isaiah 49:8-16

Epiphany 8 - Year A

Isaiah 49:8-16

What happens should you begin to track down a choice of G*D over Wealth? Ancient Isaiah sees what G*D's leadership would mean, "I have kept you and given you as a covenant to the people, to establish the land, to resettle families on the ruined properties."

Right! To choose G*D is to choose to be engaged in service of a larger value than self. To follow G*D is to return to the ancient creation task of confirming and continuing care for the earth that is our source material. To follow Wealth is to claim dominion over the earth for our immediate benefit.

Right! to choose G*D is to choose to see that families have living water, a living wage, a living community to bind them again to deeper and wider living where they are. To follow Wealth is to toss more people off their property, always cutting labor wages, leaving people behind to increase profit - at any cost.

In these two examples, following G*D returns us to the two great commands to love G*D (Creator/Creation) and to love Neighbor (Family/Community).

G*D? Wealth? Long term? Short term? It is still time to decide. Blessings on taking a road more travelled by G*D and less travelled by Wealth. It will make all the difference.
 

Matthew 6:24-34

Epiphany 8 - Year A

Matthew 6:24-34

In today’s world we might translate, “You cannot serve God and Corporations.”

If that is not self-evident, I’m not sure what can be done to help focus this. The issue of wealth or money is built on a zero-sum principle of competition to get your piece of the pie. And, since it is a competition, there is no end to the size of the piece that one needs. The operative word is a drivenness of “more”. There is no sense of a joy of “enough”.

Today’s inward/outward quote is pertinent here:

The Spiral of Materialism
Matthew Fox
The spiral of materialism is eternal and never ends.... The materialist is never satisfied. For the heart is not made full or satisfied by any, or even all, of the things that the religion of materialism and its preachers of advertising want so desperately to sell us. "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be," warned Jesus. And the treasures that lead to compassionate living are not buyable because they are less objects than they are experiences.... Greed never asks when is enough, enough? It knows nothing of limits. Therefore, it knows nothing of the true pleasures that life is about. It is utterly ignorant of celebration.

If you value relationship, growth, and celebration more than accumulating resources, you might be interested in a new opportunity to band together to return corporations to their functional state and remove them from competition with people’s well-being. Russ Feingold and many others have begun an attempt at challenging the current and growing power of corporations. You join me in signing on at: http://www.progressivesunited.org/ .

This is larger than Russ, though he is a face for it. It is larger than you, though your action is as crucial as anyones. This is for all those who are tired of striving’s vanity. This is for those who understand the freedom of G*D and healthy relationships are the starting points for knowing how to live with enough today that more will have enough tomorrow.

Here is a key question: What is more about? Is it about food, clothing, security, happiness, satisfaction? What do you need more of? Is it assurance of blessedness? Is it trust in meaning beyond that which passes too quickly away? Is it simple beauty, a graceful movement through the opportunities and challenges of any ordinary day? What do you need more of?
 

But I say to you

In keeping with Jesus dealing with popularized statements with "But, I say to you . . . ." Here is a link to a series of "But, I say . . . ." responses regarding an on-going revelation about sexual orientation.

I wish you well in being able to evaluate the conversations swirling around you and being able to bring the conversation back to what gives more and more life to people.

Bishop's Counsel to Church

"Good News" Response

My Response to "Good News"

What are you saying these days?

1 Corinthians 3:10-11, 16-23

Epiphany 7 - Year A

1 Corinthians 3:10-11, 16-23

There is much trust needed in being connected with a religious institution. No matter how well we build new foundations in a new day, someone else will eventually build well or poorly on that foundation.

Paul suggests that the foundation is Jesus and yet we don’t have the same foundational understanding of Jesus as evaluator of each foundation. Consider how far we are from a near-future parousia. Paul saw things one way, and millennia later we see things another way. Consider, also, the variety of Christian sects and the variety within each of them. It would be a very strange Jesus that could be deduced from the variety of religious expression in just one community.

Perhaps the strongest image here is that of connecting with one another. We have wrestled with an image of Trinity for a long, long time. Imagine a trinity of G*D, Jesus, and You. We become interconnected with Jesus and G*D and, through this, with one another.

Realize that G*D is present in you as well as with you. Nothing will look the same again.
 

Psalm 119:33-40

Epiphany 7 - Year A

Psalm 119:33-40

Choose your teacher.
Work toward understanding.
Travel toward basics.
Practice an outward oriented heart.
Practice an inward oriented eye.
Receive assurance.
Avoid disgrace.
And so confirm your desire for meaning.
 

Leviticus 19:1-2, 9-18

Epiphany 7 - Year A

Leviticus 19:1-2, 9-18

Those of you in Wisconsin know the new governor is playing games with the jobs of public workers. Threats are made to jobs themselves, wages, benefits. Threats are made to bring in the National Guard.

It is difficult to read this passage and then face ideologues whose sense of economic realities is as small as their compassion.

Paul Krugman in yesterday’s New York Times speaking of national politics disguised as economics also describes our state political environment.

Which brings me back to the Republican dilemma. The new House majority promised to deliver $100 billion in spending cuts — and its members face the prospect of Tea Party primary challenges if they fail to deliver big cuts. Yet the public opposes cuts in programs it likes — and it likes almost everything. What's a politician to do?

The answer, once you think about it, is obvious: sacrifice the future. Focus the cuts on programs whose benefits aren't immediate; basically, eat America's seed corn. There will be a huge price to pay, eventually — but for now, you can keep the base happy.

Paul calls this "Eating the Future" and ends his column, "And so they had to produce something like Friday's proposal, a plan that would save remarkably little money but would do a remarkably large amount of harm."

Do you hear in this that there is nothing left for the gleaners, for the poor, the alien? Do you hear the defrauding, slandering, and profiting from the blood, pain, loss of your neighbor?

We have here a huge grudge borne against Neighbor. We have here a denial of community. We have here a false idol of Market.

And so the people do as G*D does, rise in opposition to theft of common-wealth. Demonstrations Today and Tomorrow!
 

Matthew 5:38-48

Epiphany 7 - Year A

Matthew 5:38-48

How does "do not resist an evildoer" feel today after recent events in Tunisia and Egypt?

How does "love your enemies" sound today after recent events?

A part of the difficulty we always face with biblical quotes is their applicability to situations that swirl around us and their connection to other biblical passages.

Presuming a sense of parallelism in this whole sermon, we can begin substituting phrases to see what gets added to Jesus' guidance.

Is "do not resist" comparable to "love"? Play these back and forth.

Now remember last week. How would you play back and forth between "do not resist", "love", "do not murder/be angry", "do not commit adultery/lust", "Do not divorce/be unchaste", "Do not swear by anything outside yourself/say yes or no". If you can't work "love" into a parallel statement, what are you left with?

What are we to not resist? What are we to love?

Parallelism can not only expand meaning, it can also narrow a choice. This will be seen in next week's pericope contrasting G*D with Wealth.

How do you support those in their own version of Egypt (whether run by a Pharaoh or a Mubarak or a Majority)? What would you tell them? For how long would you counsel patience before sending the equivalent of a plague of frogs or citizens? Have you noted the long-term effectiveness of non-violence in contrast to the short-term gain of authorized, institutionalized, violence?

rats

Epiphany 6 - Year A

rats
I thought the rules
were settled
and I had them figured out

Jesus
thought the rules
were lax
and I am unsettled

Jesus
"You have heard it said . . . ."
oh-oh
"But I say to you . . . ."

rats
a choice has been set
forever
and I'm off again
 

1 Corinthians 3:1-9

Epiphany 6 - Year A

1 Corinthians 3:1-9

The realization that we are on differing paths and that those on the same path may be at differing locations on it reminds us that we are living growing beings. If we are going to have any flesh, it is flesh that changes and grows. If our spirit is in anyway tied to our flesh, it, too, will change and hopefully grow.

Perhaps there is a stage of growth we still need to go through to get back to the Garden of Eden relationship with G*D, presuming it is desirable to regress that far - not milk, or meat, but vegan. What might it be like to be fed with food directly from the earth? Might it make the adam - adamah or human - humus stronger after we learn our milk and meat lessons about connecting self - neighbor beyond differing source authorities.

Blessings on discerning a common purpose with friend and foe, alike.
 

Psalm 119:1-8

Epiphany 6 - Year A

Psalm 119:1-8

What a difference a comma can make. Good for the UCC folks to use the comma in reference to what we are still learning about G*D and our relationship with same. Here, verse 3 continues to speak of those who are blessed when it describes those "who also do no wrong, but walk in his ways."[NRSV]

A first tired reading missed the comma and tied “wrong” with “walk in his ways”. After shaking a weary head it finally came into focus. This reading of G*D's ways are wrong has brought forth a flurry of books in recent years about how wrong are those who seek the usual stereotypical god. Another flurry of resources have come for those who are going so much further than said stereotype, but are tarred with the same brush.

A key here is walking in G*D’s ways. Note the plural “ways” of G*D. Note that walking in these ways is not the same as claiming one of them is universal. Note that walking is not static and it is not creedally constrained. Walking in the ways of G*D requires more faith than certainty, more hope than Realpolitik, and more love than personal salvation.

There is room for a goodly community to walk within G*D’s ways, each with an upright heart and all with room for each other. So it is we may live long in the land.
 

Deuteronomy 30:15-20 and Sirach 15:15-20

Epiphany 6 - Year A

Deuteronomy 30:15-20 and Sirach 15:15-20

Jesus' "You have heard it said, but . . ." statements remind us that G*D's nickname is Freedom. Today's New York Times reviews the last 14 days in Egypt. Key is a statement by the newly released Wael Ghonim. After being kidnapped by government forces and held for 12 days he said, "This is not the time to settle scores. Although I have people I want to settle scores with myself. This is not the time to split the pie and enforce ideologies."

Here is a choice as stark as those between the scripturally heightened rhetoric of "Life and Good" or "Death and Evil" or "Fire and Water". Here we have "Violence and Retribution" or "Freedom and Cooperation".

We have heard and lived in cultures of "Power Over" and again we see the gift of "Freedom Growing" from beneath. After remembering an old Egyptian poem, "The Nile can bend and turn, but what is impossible is that it would ever dry up", Professor Mamoun Fandy remarked, "The same is true of the river of freedom that is loose here now. Maybe you can bend it for a while, or turn it, but it is not going to dry up."

The choice to be free, to hear “you have heard it said, but . . .” is basic to life and therefore to G*D and therefore to us as a goal. To not choose beyond enforced consistency is the hobgoblin of little lives (no matter how large they project themselves).

Simply put, we have not been commanded to side with or be wicked, nor have we been given permission to tear down others to aggrandize our self. We are in this together. I rejoice when you can stand tall for the Freedom of G*D [rendered into olde english as “Kingdom of G*D] right where you are. It encourages me to stand tall where I am. I’ll do what I can to return the favor.

A G*D of Freedom again sets before us a choice, settle scores or build new blessings.
 

Matthew 5:21-27

Epiphany 6 - Year A

Matthew 5:21-27

Ah, the literalist approach to salvation - trying to get into heaven by narrowly defining rules to one’s own advantage. Picking and choosing and narrowly defining statements just enough to always be just on the inside side of the cut. Knowing you don’t deserve heaven because of your wretchedness, what else can be done but to do everything in your power to redefine the rules to their letter and excusing behavior because of intent.

The “But I say to you . . .” lines from Jesus are critical to what it means to be a person on a journey to wholeness. Here murder is no longer limited to the physical but the emotional and the relational. Adultery is not just a final act but a desire, culminated or not. It is this same desire that makes one unchaste and open for divorce.

Jesus is not a letter-of-the-law partner with G*D. This relationship is also not one of good G*D, bad G*D.

How are we going to keep following a “Yes, but I say to you . . .” leader? If our intent isn’t simply a desire to learn the latest, revisionist ropes in order to game the system and advance, what is it? Are we those literalists mentioned above, just over different pasages?

Which is why this pericope ends with an examined life and ability to trust a Jesus Spirit to prompt us to say “No” to bad stuff and “Yes” to good stuff without such being part of a programmatic approach to living or a blowing in the wind. Want to keep your saltiness, continuing to add flavor to the world? Want to send a shining ray far down the future’s broadening way? Learn how to listen to “But I say to you” and, in turn, to say it and live it.
 

Beyond Choice

Epiphany 5 - Year A

intentionally fast
or put the best spin
on involuntary starvation
a lack is a lack

there is a power difference
between putting down
and having nothing
nothing to pick up

for a moment note
you have a choice
beyond fasting
or starvation

to claim your aura
no matter how thick
a basket cover
brilliant

to claim your saltiness
no matter how diluted
a homeopathic
solution

rejecting sustenance
or failing to find food
we come to life
beyond choice

eventually we stand
beyond choice
dilute salt is not lost salt
confined light is still light

we don’t need either/or
not even both/and
simply four
revelations

cut injustice loose
reject exploitation
reverse oppression
demolish class

share bread and community
personally shelter those without
spin cloth for self and others
rejoice in differences

and Lo and Behold
flavor returns
lights come on
a new path opens

we are not playing games
nor thinking strategically
just being a revealer
reveling in just being
 

1 Corinthians 2:1-12, (13-16)

Epiphany 5 - Year A

1 Corinthians 2:1-12, (13-16)

15 - Those who are spiritual discern all things, and they are themselves subject to no one else’s scrutiny.

This may well have been Paul’s experience and claim for authority. For Paul and the plowing and seeding of a Church, he may have felt the need to set up a separation of spirit and flesh, grace and law (short-term effective, long-term problematic). This sort of clarity and either/or was probably helpful in his time and for his purposes, but 2,000+ years later - not so much.

The experience here is that the more spiritual we are the more worldly we must be. Barbara Brown Taylor’s book An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith is an excellent source of this perspective. She notes, that currently church people seem to think that the only “more” available to them is more of the same.

Somewhere along the line we bought - or were sold - the idea that God is chiefly interested in religion. We believed that God’s home was the church, that God’s people knew who they were, and that the world was a barren place full of lost souls in need of all the help they could get. Plenty of us seized on those ideas because they offered us meaning. Believing them gave us purpose and worth. They gave us something noble to do in the midst of lives’ that might otherwise be invisible. Plus, there really are large swaths of the world filled with people in deep need of saving.

The problem is, many of the people in need of saving are in churches, and at least part of what they need saving from is the idea that God sees the world the same way they do. What if the gravel of a parking lot looks as promising to God as the floorboard of a church? What if a lost soul strikes God as more reachable than a lifelong believer? What if God can drop a [Jacob’s] ladder absolutely anywhere, with no regard for the religious standards developed by those who have made it their business to know the way to God?

Somehow we need to rebind the world to G*D and G*D to the world. Out of this encounter, sparks will fly.
 

Psalm 112:1-9, (10)

Epiphany 5 - Year A

Psalm 112:1-9, (10)

Want to keep your saltiness? To shed light into the darkness still around us?

Verse 5 may be what you are looking for - “It is well with those who deal generously and lend, who conduct their affairs with justice.”

The communal and parallel behaviors of sharing and fairness go a long way to keeping steady hearts in the presence of fear producing events such as those who would gnash their teeth at you or otherwise attempt to throw you to lions.

Facing some duress? It’s probably not something you can handle on your own. If it is, it probably isn’t duress? If it is duress, you may want to remember its antidotes: sharing and fairness. These are not short-term cures for anything, but they are long-term health for one and for all.
 

Isaiah 58:1-9a, (9b-12)

Epiphany 5 - Year A

Isaiah 58:1-9a, (9b-12)

From what would you fast if your fast were to be evidenced by sharing your bread with the hungry? Privilege?

Yes, sharing with others means less for you. Yes, that means this kind of fasting as a result of sharing does have consequences. Yes, we are up to facing them (both others and less).

For what would you fast if your fast were to be evidenced by sharing your bread with the hungry? Healing?

Do you want you food to be correctly seasoned? Share. This is how saltiness is maintained.

Do you want to see your food, because we eat with our eyes before eating with our mouth? Share. This is how your light stays lit.

Obviously this kind of fasting goes beyond food. It encompasses every basic need. Only when we are engaged in the process of kindliness and care do we season one another's life and light the way for one another. To avoid a need is tasteless and darkening.
 

Matthew 5:13-20

Epiphany 5 - Year A

Matthew 5:13-20

Good old Popeye, "I 'yams whats I ams, and dats all that I 'yams". Quite a salty guy and light unto a thimble of a world. Popeye takes a lot, but as he sinks into the lowland, lowland, low he has his spinach resurrection that returns him to "all that I 'yams".

How salty are you? Will you allow yourself to be yourself?

Now that a trial date is set, I would speak to you of a friend of mine, a United Methodist clergyperson who will be tried on April 11 for not allowing the church to dilute her saltiness by reining in her celebration of Holy Unions and for letting her lesbian light shine. Amy has come to do what she can to complete a vision of Expansive Love. There is still a long way to go until all is accomplished and Grace is revealed in fullness.

Think for a moment what Jesus says is the basis of all the Law and Prophets. Is it not to love G*D with all one is and has (an expansive love) and to love Neighbors, Self, One Another, and Enemies with that same Expansive Love? If so, this is the law that will not be put aside. If we can still remember the Belovednesses from last week, we might say they are the "grace in-law" which cannot be avoided.

If you would like to learn more about Amy and be in support of her, I invite you to go to LoveOnTrial.org. In reading some of her material, may you find your saltiness restored (yes, it can be restored through healthy relationships) and your courage to be yourself strengthened unto light.
 

beloved

Epiphany 4 - Year A

beloved are the poor, ready for fulfillment
beloved are mourners, ready for dawn
beloved are the gentle, already living their inheritance
beloved are those who yearn for wholeness, satisfaction has begun
beloved are the mercy-full, their joy overflows
beloved are those forgiven, they see G*D everywhere
beloved are those steady in peace, images of G*D for others
beloved are refugees, their home shall travel with them
beloved are those reviled for good, their worthy work will reveal them

beloved are the fair-hearted, they ground reality
beloved are the kindly-lived, they enhance creation
beloved are the humble-minded, they reveal the future

beloved are you, period
beloved am I, comma

beloved, be loved, be love, be
 

1 Corinthians 1:18-31

Epiphany 4 - Year A

1 Corinthians 1:18-31

Those with Power claim they has wisdom on their side. How else would they have been “entrusted” with the power they have, if they did not represent the wisest possible way to go. We hear that expressed in one way or another by every winner of a power position. Power and meekness or power and humility do live well together.

At play is a large movement from the nothingness of chaos to everything being vain. We live between and do what we can to hold briefness lightly and with all the gravity we can muster. It is this heavily invested and laughably usable moment that makes a difference.

Paul would equate this with his language of a cross that measures the meaning of creation and re-creation. Paul’s cross image stands to show up power, of whatever ilk. It stands as a bookend to belovedness which lifts up the powerless. And we stand in this moment between a so-solid melting before our eyes and a yet ephemeral future casting a faint path, one less travelled, one day to be recognized as an avenue we all need to tread. And we make a difference.

A conversation with death reminds us how frail is our sense of power and how far from wisdom we yet are. This throws us back on how we choose to live. Our choices will be noted by their grounding. Will we live in light of such qualities beyond the collusion of perceived power and accepted wisdom as the following?

poverty
mourning
meekness
desire
mercy
purity
peacemaking
persecuted
reviled
justice
kindness
humility

The ancients say, “Aye”, The present says, “As soon as we can, but not until we have surety our wisdom is safely in charge”, the future says, “Yea”. This movement can help us stand prophetically in the present whether from Paul’s vision of “Cross” or another creation-centered or eschaton-engaged perspective.

Psalm 15

Epiphany 4 - Year A

Psalm 15

So what are the quizes from Jesus and Micah about. They are practical ways of training our hearts to be ready for healthy responses in very difficult situations.

When we begin to be ready for the next quiz and face a very human choice, that quiz can surface quickly because it is already anticipated. Engaged with questions of meaning will allow us to avoid an opportunity for slander because we are looking to be kind. Likewise, engaged with the deeper cycles of life will have us sidestep getting every tax break we can, every opportunity to get more at another’s expense, every occasion to take advantage. In light of desiring mercy, we will offer it.

Those who are willing to be quizzed again and again, end up solid in their learning, their growing toward G*D (theosis).

Micah 6:1-8

Epiphany 4 - Year A

Micah 6:1-8

Talk about your on-going pop-quiz! Justice! Kindness! Humility!

Or should that be: justice. kindness. humility.

This is one of the lesser known passage regarding the honesty, integrity, judgment of the environment.

G*D is plaintiff and you and I and we are defendents, one and all. G*D’s case is very straight-forward and is placed before judge and jury - creation.

What are the mountains hearing about the way we treat the air, water, land? It is the canary in the mine for the way we treat one another and resources of exchange between us.

G*D’s complaint seems to be about the way we have treated G*D. The suit turns, however, on our relationships with one another. Were these to be characterized by justice, kindness, and humility the case would be thrown out. The mountains and hills could return to their everyday business, G*D’s relationship with us would be restored - as is done to a Neighbor, so it is done to G*D.

And so today’s quiz: Are you and yours any more just/fair than you were yesterday?

And so tomorrow’s quiz: Are you and yours any more kind than you were today?

And so a quiz for the day after tomorrow: Are you and yours any more humble/loving than you may think possible tomorrow?

And so the quizes continue, opportunity by opportunity.
 

Matthew 5:1-12

Epiphany 4 - Year A

Matthew 5:1-12

These wonderful words of the Sermon on the Mount are addressed to those apprenticed to Jesus, “the committed”, as The Message has it.

If just tossed out to anyone, they lose their power. Aphorisms, platitudes, and the like are more likely to act as barriers to learning.

Rather these are are part of a periodic snap quiz, variously constructed.

1) Give evidence that the following statements are blessings.

2) Rank the following blessings in your life from the most evident to the one you are most uncertain of.

3) Note an intermediary blessing between each of the following that connects the blessing before it with the one that follows.

4) What would change were Pilate or Herod to recognize these blessings were the expected outcome of their rule?

5) For each blessing, note 3 people who are doing better than you are with acting out of that blessing and then go to them for further instruction.

6) What is another blessing that should be added to the list for at least a day?

7) Complete the sentence: “Blessed are the blessed, for they . . . .”

When these blessings are engaged as part of an on-going self-study, they deepen one’s spirit. When joined into as a community journey, they widen the reach of the common good. Note that these are not conclusions, but quizes of our life and lives.
 

job creation

Epiphany 3 - Year A

repent
the end is near
by end I mean
a preferred future
is arriving

follow me
new relationships are near
by new relationships I mean
perfection turns out
to be wholeness

together
a push from the past
a pull from the future
redeems arrests
with new vocations
 

1 Corinthians 1:10-18

Epiphany 3 - Year A

1 Corinthians 1:10-18

Church quarrels go back to our very beginning. They are part of our DNA. We are still splitting ourselves into various constituencies.

Has Christ been divided or is that a necessary component of a Christ that engages this particular creation. We do tend to idealize our leaders, whether Paul, Apollos, Cephas, a particular Pope, Martin Luther, John Wesley, the Jesus of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Thomas, Mary, or yourself. What do you make of our ancient or contemporary quarrels? How many Saints were burned as Heretics and how many Heretics have been elevated to Sainthood. What is the half-life of a Creed? What is the cost/benefit ratio of any given Creed?

If Jesus told us to go and baptize and Paul explicitly says he was not sent to do so, what does that mean for you? How else might you join Paul in foolishness beyond a literalism of red letters?

Are you following Jesus and baptism, Paul and the cross, Kairos CoMotion and expansive love? One of these? Two? All three? Another? Blessings to you on following your call, even if not understood by the institutions (formal and informal) around you.

Psalm 27:1, 4-9

Epiphany 3 - Year A

Psalm 27:1, 4-9

What does it mean to live in the “house” or “rebuilt tent” of G*D?

Here are some responses of the Psalmist to that question:

• to behold beauty
• to inquire of meaning
• to receive shelter
• to have a good view
• to be supported
• to be joyful in service
• to seek clarity
• to have presence

Are these characteristics of the congregation you are with?

What mechanisms do you use to experience, see and act on, a heart full of courage? Hopefully they include at least one from column A, another from column B, and yet a third option from column C. That is, that you are not limited to religious responses, even if asking a question to which religion is all too quick to respond.
 

Isaiah 9:1-4

Epiphany 3 - Year A

Isaiah 9:1-4

It is good to hear about “no gloom”. Even as nations and regions are brought back to life, we hear, in the midst of their circumstance, a new call beyond themselves. This passage speaks of a joyful harvest, which could be imaged as putting together all the various fruits of the sea and land and air in a net.

What this passage is waiting for is our response to participate in bringing this picture of the future into the present. We may not be able to harvest the future in all its fullness, but we can do our part in our present part.
 

Matthew 4:12-23

Epiphany 3 - Year A

Matthew 4:12-23

Stories of call can be seen through a number of different lenses. This week we hear about Jesus being proactive in recruiting followers. Last week it was Baptizer John who was instrumental in connecting followers with Jesus.

In both cases there is Good Action behind the calls. John has Jesus say “Stay with me” which means, stand with me, see what grounds me. Matthew notes the grounding is good news about our living and loving together - healing of the public - and healing of individuals.

This Good Action is still available for us to participate in and reveal to others. Whether you then name Jesus or not, Good Living will continue to draw people toward G*D and one Neighbor after another.

Likewise, “fishing for people” is not about forming exclusive clubs. To fish well is to identify and use every available Good Action (our lure, our net), public and private. Blessings upon your being alluring.
 

Universal Background

Epiphany 2 - Year A

After a week of finding a reason to say “Yes” to the opportunities that come our way and also finding that there is no little Friday condensation leaping full-blown from a lowly forehead, one of the sources I’ve invited into my email space brought a poem that said what I would affirm and thought you might appreciate it, too.

G*D says Yes to me

Read it and do a small dance while a Cosmic Background Radiation, with slightly more matter than anti-matter, sets a lively beat. 

1 Corinthians 1:1-9

Epiphany 2 - Year A

1 Corinthians 1:1-9

“Called to be saints”, is a line worth remembering as well as simply membering - being mindful of something important, like being beloved.

We might translate this phrase, “Intended to be beloved”. Note that this is addressed to a congregation and not just an individual. When was the last time you dealt with the plural reality of “saintliness” or “belovedness”?

A result of revealing mindful saints is the giving of thanks. May someone be thankful for your individual saintliness and our common belovedness.

Psalm 40:1-11

Epiphany 2 - Year A

Psalm 40:1-11

I waited and waited and waited for God. [Psalm 40:1a, The Message]

Remember how far it is from Jesus’ birth to baptism. It is far longer than Christmas to Epiphany. Traditionally it was a 30 year wait. Less than the 40 year wait in the Wilderness, but still a long time. How many died for no good reason during that wait? How many were born? How consistently perfect were our heroic figures?

“At last God looked; finally God listened. [Psalm 40:1b, The Message]

The wait was about a direct encounter, a sense of belovedness strong enough to stop waiting. Enough, G*D, of the active listening. Enough, G*D, of the appreciative inquiry. Enough, G*D, of the anticipatory waiting. Enough.

Now, with a firm understanding of mercy beyond repentance, Jesus rises out of chaotic waters (even as Moses put his sandals back on after that mystery of an unconsumed burning bush). And you? No matter how great your repentance it will always be outdone by mercy. So you might as well get on with it - receive great mercy, give great mercy.

So it is we move to the end of the pericope, “Do not, O Lord, withhold your mercy from me; let your steadfast love and your faithfulness keep me safe forever. [Psalm 40:11, NRSV] No matter how long it has been, living the moment in mercy more than balances all the years of waiting (well, if your view is long enough and you don’t want to apply fairness or justice to each opportunity faced). Perhaps we only need to affirm that mercy is a more wholesome approach to life than is an insistence on repentance.

May you find a new song of mercy on your tongue and in your life.

 

Isaiah 49:1-7

Epiphany 2 - Year A

Isaiah 49:1-7

Being called before being made is a marvelous image of the pull of the future working its way into the present and, if you are bold enough, into the past. Pushing a picture into the future of a preferred way of being is another way to talk about this same mystery that connects space and time with all parts of time and space.

Note that this work of deep calling to deep - whether forward or backward - is not intended for such minutia as finding a parking space or extra dollars. If deep is going to call deep, it is for much deeper effect than the personal (not that such is excluded, just that the personal will be included within a larger context).

You and I and we together are lights and light beyond ourselves. There is a temptation to use the comic phrase of “Flame on!” except that it is all to easily understood as abusive language precursing violence. Mere heat is not what is looked for, rather light that illumines an original choice - not simply knowing good and evil but actually choosing the good when it is inconvenient to do so.

Tomorrow desires us to light today that tomorrow might better shine.

John 1:29-42

Epiphany 2 - Year A

John 1:29-42

Simply being born a child of G*D does not seem to be enough to have us care for children.

Recognition by the poorest menials, rich foreigners, or a prophet such as Anna brings no additional shift from cultural expectations.

Simply having good 12-year-old questions of authority does not seem to be enough to have our spirit nurtured.

Witness of a spirit returning to one’s breathing being (instead of leaving) still leaves questions of commitment beyond belief. John can affirm Jesus for John’s disciples, but seemingly not for himself.

As you look around, where do you see the Spirit descend and remain? On a person? A group? An ecosystem? That is a call to be present there, not to send money or others, but to be personally present.

As you see the light dawn, be the light.

 

a long way

Epiphany 1 - “Baptism of the Lord” - Year A

I’ve come a long way

Galilee to Jordan

takes intentionality

not to mention

time and energy

I’ve come a long way

and then I hear

I’m to give

what I came to get

and I say no

I’ve come a long way

now I have only one word

now is the time

now go ahead anyway

now now now

I’ve come a long way

did I mention

Galilee to Jordan

don’t try to get out of

doing your job now

I’ve come a long way

from Galilee to Jordan

from refusal to accord

from underwater to heavenly height

from be-loved to beloved

I’ve come a long way

Galilee to Jordan

isn’t so long any more

Jordan to Jerusalem

is now a longer way yet

Epiphany Church

This morning I posted comments about the Matthew lection for Epiphany.

This evening I was reminded of a sermon by Janet Wolf about being an Epiphany Church. Her sermon begins 3 minutes into the podcast. It is worth 50 minutes of your time.

Matthew 2:1-12

Epiphany - Year A

Matthew 2:1-12

http://edges.canadahomepage.net/2011/01/05/953/

In addition to Jim Taylor’s column, be sure to read the last of the “Your Turn” comments.

 

Acts 10:34-43

Epiphany 1 - “Baptism of the Lord” - Year A

Acts 10:34-43

G*D shows no partiality - except, of course, to us.

G*D ”allowed” Jesus (that rambunctious child in need of learning propriety regarding spreading grace willy-nilly) to appear to us, to the chosen. And Jesus (having apparently learned his religious etiquette) is set to judge lack of grace.

Forgiveness is no longer individually received through ritual or communally received on an annual basis. Now it is a Jesus commodity, part of his conglomerate, his corporation.

Peter had a wonderfully expansive insight and then backed off extending it past those he had personally encountered.

 

Psalm 29

Epiphany 1 - “Baptism of the Lord” - Year A

Psalm 29

Even though it is 10 verses to 1, a basic balance between Creator and Creature continues. The first 10 verses “Ascribe to the Lord...”. The 11th verse “Ascribes to the people...”.

Even with all the praise language, honor is still given to the people. They have belovedness on their side and, with that, a basic core strength that is precursor to peace. With their belovedness, the people are able to stand firm in peace, not needing to rely on violence, even a redemptive kind.

Don’t be fooled by the verse count. This Psalm affirms the importance of blessing and being blessed, of acting with peaceful strength.

 

Isaiah 42:1-9

Epiphany 1 - “Baptism of the Lord” - Year A

Isaiah 42:1-9

Here is one version: “You are beloved.”

Here is another: “You will be just.”

Justice is not extraordinary action. You do it without raising a ruckus. Steady - don’t faint. Be a light where you are to reveal better choices.

So here is the thing: You are beloved; you are just. Go ahead, reveal it.

Matthew 3:13-17

Epiphany 1 - “Baptism of the Lord” - Year A

Matthew 3:13-17

So often we would prevent others from receiving what we have. Somehow or other we play an exaggerated zero-sum game when it comes to ourselves - If “they” get some of what I have, I won’t have anything!

Here Baptizer John has a variation on with that by preventing himself from offering what he has. He plays a “poor me” game.

Jesus has a helpful approach to change - “For the moment, let’s just try it as an experiment and see what happens. If it turns out the way you say, I’ll do it your way. If it turns out what you have to offer is more than you think you have, we’ll just take the results.”

The Baptizer consented to this approach and baptized Jesus for repentance of sins.

Turns out that the Baptizer’s baptism brought forth a great deal - belovedness restored.

Now the game is afoot. Angels singing of “Peace on Earth” is one thing, a dove’s coo of “beloved” is quite another. The first takes responsibility away from ourselves and the second energizes us to take one more step toward a healing of our past (see Healing of Memories by Dennis and Matthew Linn) that our present and future might blossom and grow.