Mark 1:1-8

Advent 2 - Year B

Mark 1:1-8

See, I am sending Advent ahead, to prepare a way;
Advent announces in a wilderness:

          Prepare honest paths.

Advent can be personalized. In the past it was a camel-haired John. Today it is a honey-eater you.

• You are proclaiming a way out of our brokenness, are you not?
• You are clarifying needed change and shifting from paralyzing guilt to next opportunity, are you not?
• You are stepping outside a consumer culture of couture, are you not?

You are not announcing for the honor of imitating John, but an internal necessity to announce we are not yet at the pinnacle of success, no matter how it might be measured. You are simply kneeling to teach tomorrow how to tie its shoe laces that it might walk among the shards remaining from yesterday and onward to a next level of integrated community.

Can’t you hear people calling after you now, “Hey, Advent, What gives! and Who do you think you are?” Pay no heed, you have work to do today to prepare tomorrow’s infrastructure.

Advent - practiced sharing

Advent 1 - Year B

fig tree, fig tree
showing now
a far-off song

tea leaves
presently read
connect with tomorrow

and all we want
is to tear open heaven
to energize today

we'd settle for yesterday
restored to glory
projected forward

but our best gift
is waiting together
in the meantime

practiced sharing
strengthens all
into fellowship

mean times come
unbidden yearning
for better meaning

look for fig leaves
leave them on the tree
let your gift shine

1 Corinthians 1:3-9

Advent 1 - Year B

1 Corinthians 1:3-9

Thanks be given on this day of commercialized thanksgiving – we are not lacking any gift needed (for waiting or other aspects of growth in wisdom and stature - together).

What we are lacking is strength to affirm one another's gifts and their importance to the whole living process (implying action and waiting and ever so much more). Somehow we have lost the gift of connecting gifts (Christ being strengthened among you, so to speak).

Rather than counting your blessings on this day, try acknowledging and counting the blessings of another and all together (we are called into fellowship).
 

Psalm PS

After sending today's posting, I read one of my favorite bloggers - Jim Taylor. I thought his reflection could be fruitfully paired with the Psalm pericope.

You can find his words at: http://edges.canadahomepage.net/2011/11/23/1152/. While there you may want to browse other Softedge and Sharpedge postings.

Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19

Advent 1 - Year B

Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19

To what do we need restoring? Or is is G*D that needs to be restored (come back)?

This relationship is a complicated one. Who's related to whom and in what way?

Rather than choosing a particular way to look at this, it will be helpful to hold the question open. It will be important to wait for the multiple ways of relating to reveal themselves.

If it is simply "restore us" or "come back to us", it is a bit too us-oriented, which limits the effectiveness, usefulness, or application of the psalm. If restoration is more object oriented than relation oriented, we lose its power.

Another way to look at restoration is to rephrase it:
     Restore us = Reveal our relationship

Now we can proceed together and get further without all these little substitutions for direct relationship.
 

Isaiah 64:1-9

Advent 1 - Year B

Isaiah 64:1-9

Do you remember “awesome deeds we did not expect”?

Here we clearly have some expectations of rescue.

Here we clearly, also, have an accusation of blame - because G*D didn’t dance to our tune (hid) we transgressed. Yeah, G*D made us do it.

Advent, ancient and future, requires the unexpected. December 25th, a known date anticipated before Advent begins, will not make it as an unexpected deed. We use the all too well known gift of Christmas to vaccinate ourselves against the very process needed to redeem Advent - the unexpected. We’ve gotten away with it for far too long, but we won’t be able to fool ourselves too much longer. Christmas has to go if we are going to get off to a good start of becoming healthy again.

Would you be willing to forgo Christmas to better wait for the unexpected resolution to our all too familiar problems?

If we do so, it won’t be long before we have become like on who is unclean, who fades like a leaf, blown away. We will be tempted to reinstitute ritual and to lose our ability to be surprised. We will call out to G*D to do all the work, including that of preparing us for a surprise. “Shape us G*D”, we call out, “shape our year, our rituals.”

We want to claim control over G*D - don’t be angry, forget the past, reconsider pleasing us (your people) - and to still be surprised. This closed circle needs an intervention.
 

Mark 13:24-37

Advent 1 - Year B

Mark 13:24-37

In Church Year 2011-2011, after suffering through 2010-2011,
places of meaning will be darkened,
sources of inspiration will not give light,
elected leaders will fall from their heights,
power bases will shake.

Rising from beneath will be the apocalyptic poor
redefining power and glory.
Messengers will be neighbors speaking to one another,
ways will be found to fruitfully gather together.

The relearning of lessons will continue:
fig trees in bloom do indicate summer's nearness.
a shift in consciousness edges closer
we experience it near
so near we expect it in our next breath.
This change does not change.

While not knowing its departure or arrival time,
we keep alert - bags packed for today
ready to be discarded tomorrow.
And so we go looking for a next home
leaving slavish habits to continue their routines,
expecting different results from same actions.
As alert as they may be,
warned to keep awake,
they are left behind,
but echoes of their beginning.

In this day
after that
before then
we wait
through journey.

[bonus: Journey Home]
 

lest the least

Pentecost + 23 (last) - Year A

lest the least

when a glorious judge
finally arrives
then the nations
will be gathered
to be separated
again and forever

hmm hmmm hmmmm
how do we take advantage
of the interim
between now and then
how little can we give
how much can we keep

there is an apparent line
invisible in the moment
rued after the fact
which cannot be crossed
without a consequence
present from the beginning

a line that begins
separating out enemies
moving to divide neighbors
inexorably against
one’s own
zero sum in orientation
that is less than even one

a light that may have beamed
across sea tossed many
begins to flicker
dimming dimmer
to one log alone
and out

it is no new story
a center does not hold
when there is no periphery
yet good news reveals
care for a field’s edge
strengthens the whole crop

make a joyful noise
before a forced gathering
sing yourselves healthy
send a gleam along a wave
lest alone we struggle and sink
as the least rise and shine
 

Ephesians 1:15-23

Pentecost + 23 (last) - Year A

Ephesians 1:15-23

How is your trust translated into caring for your own? Got a good ratio going?

Good. Now gather around so you can find out what you have won. You have won a glimpse at Jesus’ glory. That ought to be more than enough for anyone.

What you thought was about you turned out to be about Judge Jesus moving from background to foreground. Great reward, right?

A church year has brought us through hopes and fears and ups and downs and ups again to the glorious position of having a larger crowd appreciate how great it is to win - that is, to judge losers. As The Message puts it:

The church, you see, is not peripheral to the world;
the world is peripheral to the church.

Rather than acknowledge this is not the best of all possible worlds, we haul out a flag and plunk it down in Jesus’ name. It’s sort of like hoisting a “Mission Accomplished” banner up and thinking it is reality because we said so.

Well, prepare for reentry - next week we recognize how far short this Sunday has fallen from its claim. Let’s try again.

- - - - - - -

A judgment scene is a better starting point for the year (potential Advent 1 lection), not an ending point for the year.
 

Psalm 100

Pentecost + 23 (last) - Year A

Psalm 100

Hooray, I’m a sheep in G*D’s pasture, lying down in good green pastures.

But then I have to consider; am I a fat sheep (boo hiss) or a lean sheep (ta da). Well, what day is it and what time in such a day. It seems my constancy as a sheep is not as constant in its sheepness - sometimes acting fat and sometimes lean.

And then I have to consider whether I might also be a goat in G*D’s pasture, also enjoying a green pasture instead of a sandy one with only patches of dry grass. And what of being a snake in G*D’s garden, with or without legs?

Oops, too many thoughts twirling around. I may have started to respond to a different issue and now can’t get out of the rut of this one.

Perhaps, with all the other talk of judgment, it may be important to simply remember the last line:

For good,
steadfast love enures forever, and
faithfulness generates for all.

 

Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24

Pentecost + 23 (last) - Year A

Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24

Start the sub-categories. Ezekiel doesn’t tell us about the dualism of good and evil, sheep and goats, but the complexity of sheep. Here, what you do doesn’t put you in a category. What G*D chooses is what makes the difference.

G*D will bring back those who have strayed away from hospitality of food. G*D will bind up those who have been injured by their withholding of water from thirsty folks, because that withholding scars the soul. They will be made whole by being fed mercy.

And yet those very lost and weak ones are the same as the fat and strong ones who have disadvantaged others to their own advantage. They will be destroyed by being fed justice.

How are you going to bring Ezekiel alongside Matthew to investigate the ever present realities of human response, growth, and conversion? These two pictures of some form of judgment seem to need one another to correct self-perception. Blessings on juggling the intricacies of motivation, behavior, and the effect of change.

The Occupy Wall Street folks are reviving the Ezekiel storyline - a culture/society cannot exist that lets their fat-citizen sheep run over their lean-citizen sheep without a penalty flag being thrown, accepted, and enforced.
 

Advent Candle Lighting

I was asked today about an Advent Candle Lighting script that would be intergenerational in nature. In specific the request was:
"What I'm looking for is Year B, Gospel based, writings, that could be written in 3 voices. I'm skipping naming the candles as Love Joy Peace, etc (was the fourth one Clyde, I know it wasn't Patience). ((Oh, yeah, Hope)). First voice grand parents, second voice parents, third voice kids (simple language, some of my kids are first grade, some are high school srs). So if you could dip into your reference section, and come up with five simple scripts, I'd be very appreciative."

Thought I would pass on to you what came from that request. Careful, the candles have been renamed.

Advent Candle Lighting Script - Year B

How would you have handled the request?
 

Matthew 25:31-46

Pentecost + 23 (last) - Year A

Matthew 25:31-46

Well, it has been quite a year.

Advent ------ Pope Benedict XVI discusses sexual abuse of children by priests while dining with cardinals and bishops.

Christmas -- The 112th United States Congress is convened. Republican Representative John Boehner of Ohio is elected Speaker of the House of Representatives, succeeding Democrat Nancy Pelosi of California.

Epiphany --- U.S. soldier Bradley Manning, the alleged whistleblower who is thought to have revealed secret U.S. government documents to the international public, is reported to be held in solitary confinement awaiting trial by the United States for seven months now, treatment which the United Nations deems a form of torture when used for such prolonged periods.

Lent --------– An 9.0 magnitude earthquake hits offshore of Japan's Miyagi prefecture, producing tsunamis as high as 10 metres near the epicenter, reaching land throughout the Pacific ocean, and disabling nuclear reactors.

Easter ------– NATO jets fly over Tripoli on their mission to destroy Muammar Gaddafi's forces.

Ordinary ---– Occupy Wall Street begins and continues.

- - - - - - -

Who amongst us will separate sheep from goats?

OK, each of us does it as we make our daily decisions.

Rats, that brings it back to what we are now doing as opposed to what we might do later.

Let’s not get caught up with some glorified mythology of cosmic judgment. It’s all we can do to set one more blessing loose in the world, to consciously choose (until it becomes second nature) to change one system that separates people out and then ignore them.

For instance what grabs your heart and won’t let go:
the hungry (“the food insecure” is too passive)?
those without potable water?
refugees looking for a home?
those without clothes for warmth or work?
inequitable health care systems focused on profit and illness?
punitive legal system untouched by restorative justice?
education systems locked into tests rather than learning how to learn?
religions not trusting G*D and making up rules for lesser gods?
mental illnesses that remove people from community?
your addition?

Choose one arena in which to both apply bandaids and reform systems. Note how far we have fallen short in that one area as we come to the end of another year. Commit to one thing that will be different by this time next year because you will have shifted your weight from protecting your own “inheritance” to investing in a better outcome for all those who are no longer visible.

Remember this vision is not the end of Matthew. We go on to hear of Passover two days hence and a plot, betrayal, and death; and a surprise - both capable of engaging our life. Don’t settle for closing the year with a dualistic courtroom scene when you could be planning a feast, accepting consequences of building common good, and heading on to some edenic “galilee” where we see face-to-face.
 

loyalty good - unmerciful loyalty not so good

Pentecost + 22 - Year A

gifts have come
out of the blue and unbidden
identified in time and space
as to their origin
and where thanks and loyalty
is to be directed

loyalty demands loyalty
even when it should
bring forth justice
or mercy
and so best intentions
fall before strict loyalty

gifts intended for expansion
brought self-constriction
lest past and future gifts
be diminished
great care is given
to securing gifts

and eventually a gift
intended to lift all boats
puts a hole in the hull
with a mere bit-o-mass
of heaviest density
an empty spot sinks

blind loyalty
conditional mercy
cheap commitment
comes around to bite
lions as strong as nittany’s
to cause cain’s self-exile

surprising gifts
turn to expected perks
privileged position
never ready for
a next surprise
or humble response

therefore encourage
a wider application
of building up
a reservoir of common good
against punctured entitlement
of ballooned loyalty
 

1 Thessalonians 5:1-11

Pentecost + 22 - Year A

1 Thessalonians 5:1-11

No matter how large a hole you have dug for yourself to bury your treasure in we expect a surprise that will counter our darkness and reveal to us and all that a treasure can’t help but shine.

So it is we do our best to live in a light of surprise - our darkness has been stolen away from us and we have been built up enough to build up others. Certainly not what we expected, but it turns out this is a pretty good way to live - not for wrath, but for wholeness.

Be ready, again and again, to have light shine out of the darkest of places. Enough of claims for false peace and falser security. We trust steady decisions, not flash-in-the-pan solutions. We look forward to surprises, not put off by them. And so the latest polarity - steady surprise.
 

Psalm 123

Pentecost + 22 - Year A

Psalm 123

In Judges we hear of people calling out to G*D for help. We don’t hear a direct response. What we do hear immediately after the plea is, “At that time Deborah....”

This Psalm might be seen in parallel with the Judges pericope.

Hear it from The Message
I look to you, heaven-dwelling God, look up to you for help.
Like servants, alert to their master's commands,
   like a maiden attending her lady,
We're watching and waiting, holding our breath,
   awaiting your word of mercy.
Mercy, God, mercy!
   We've been kicked around long enough,
Kicked in the teeth by complacent rich men,
   kicked when we're down by arrogant brutes.

What we now hear immediately after this plea is, “At that time Occupy Wall Street ... summoned Ketchup and a thousand more non-leading leaders....”

Cries for mercy are important.
Showing mercy is important.
Claiming of mercy is important.
Being impatient for mercy is important.
Risking a justice that will reveal mercy is important.

So, been kicked around enough? Join G*D and N**ghb*r in releasing mercy from where it has been held in captivity. Yes, now.
 

Judges 4:1-7

Pentecost + 22 - Year A

Judges 4:1-7

Ai yi yi! Oi! Gevalt! Again evil? What chutzpah. Meh keyn brechen!

Today’s Palm Tree Deborah - where are you?

Barak? Who? The doubter requiring Deborah’s presence and later elevated to the rank of ever-so-faithful by the writer of Hebrews - this Barak who could be you or I or me or them?

In seven verses “the Lord” discards the Israelites and picks them to win. Hard to keep your head from spinning. What does being thrown into outer darkness mean in light of an equal and opposite rotation of forgiveness? It’s enough to pause yin and yang.
 

Matthew 25:14-30

Pentecost + 22 - Year A

Matthew 25:14-30

Ahh, sweet investment. Out in the world one person’s gain seems to be another’s loss. It is good to know that a person with wealth is willing to commit it into another’s care. Even further, it is so sweet that 2 out of 3 double their original holding. Wise beyond belief? Willing to risk a charge of usury? Lucky? Predestined?

Depending on a time frame for return, the un-regulated derivatives of that day may not have crashed yet, but did so right after the story. Whatever economic bubble or larger debt may have come between their eventual effects and not turn 5 or 2 units of wealth into 0 or some other negative return, did not so come.

More to the point than again pointing out the consequences of not following the prescribed way, is a vision of G*D as “harsh”. If you are going to get it in the neck anyway, why put yourself out? There may be a correlation between an envisioning of a harsh G*D and following a restricted life.

There are those who see a harsh G*D and claim that it motivates them to find ways to not be cast out. They, of course, see themselves ending up with 11 units of economic wealth where they began with zero. That may work for them in the short-run. However, to claim that one is protected and will always win because they have backed the right G*D, will eventually be shown for the forced and failed joy it claims. Eventually we lose our early edge and begin to err.

A basic question here is whether property is only good for leveraging more property or if it has a relational component that does not pit one person or group against another. It may even be that we need to bring some other parts of the Bible to bear to find even the two exemplars here failed to redistribute the wealth available to them.

This is all leading up to the story of sheep and goats and another division between people. How does this story play out in light of the one coming two weeks hence?

After another church year, is this harsh casting into outer darkness the best we can do? Is the goal of acquisition the best we can do? Is this the image of G*D that we are to imitate?

If this is the culmination of year’s worth of work, it is no wonder we need another Advent. Start now and avoid the rush!
 

keep awake

Pentecost + 21- Year A

keep awake
 you know not
  day nor hour
   of seeing heaven

   keep awake
  and you may see
 story upon story
of seeing heaven

keep awake
 lest you be uninformed
  or get confused
   about heaven

   keep awake
  and after awhile
 it will clear
heaven is not so clear

keep awake
 and it won’t be long
  before it is here
   that reveals heaven

   keep awake
  talk with others
 tomorrow’s heaven
is today’s paradise
 

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

Pentecost + 21- Year A

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

The kingdom of heaven will be like this. Twenty bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. On the way 10 of their lamps went out. Now let’s have no grieving for them for hope will see us through. Since we believe that Jesus’ lamp went out and was relit again, even so, through Jesus, God will relight those 10 lamps that went out. For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord that we, whose lights still burn, will not precede those whose lamps failed.

Of course there was muttering for having a light had so privileged their holders before this. Revisionist history is difficult to come to grips with (see 5 Logical Fallacies That Make You Wrong More Than You Think).

So the apologist continues: For the Lord’s cry, the Archangel’s call, and God’s trumpet (in some order or other) will descend from heaven and the unlit will rise first. Then the remainder, with lamps aglow, will be caught up and join them in the clouds. And we will all live happily ever after.

Tell one another this until you believe it.

And people still wanted to win - to have their lit lamp signify their privilege;
still didn’t see this rise from probable to the way everything else works;
still feared they would be forgotten if they weren’t first;
still participated in double-standards that left them on top; and
still couldn’t understand this story-telling as a fact.

So what are you telling yourself and others about heaven elsewhere than here and now?
  

Psalm 78:1-7

Pentecost + 21- Year A

Psalm 78:1-7

Beware - I’m about to parablize you.

The word mashal, here translated “parable” comes with this set of ways to use it:

   a. proverb, proverbial saying, aphorism
   b. byword
   c. similitude, parable
   d. poem
   e. sentences of ethical wisdom, ethical maxims

and apparently goes back to an earlier marshal - in some original sense of superiority in mental action which suggests:

to rule, have dominion, reign
   a. (Qal) to rule, have dominion
   b. (Hiphil)
      1. to cause to rule
      2. to exercise dominion

How is this dominion to happen? by way of a parallel, a “dark saying”. The Hebrew behind this is chiydah which translated could also mean:

riddle, difficult question, parable, enigmatic saying or question, perplexing saying or question
   a. riddle (dark obscure utterance)
   b. riddle, enigma (to be guessed)
   c. perplexing questions (difficult)
   d. double dealing (with 'havin')

So, incline your ear in this direction to hear the unraveling of the past that we might bequeath more light to future generations.

And when sufficiently riddled, what is to be heard? Hope and don’t forget that which builds community. This is not something gathered by easy pronouncement but worked out in the tangles and perplexion of real life.

Imagine dark places being made plain through riddling enigmas! Isn’t there another way? Perhaps, but nothing is more astute than Edward Albee’s line, “Sometimes it's necessary to go a long distance out of the way in order to come back a short distance correctly” and that is the gift of a riddle, a dope slap, a demythologized reperspectivizing.

So where is this leading - to the middle of the Psalm (vss 37-39):

Their hearts were fickle;
   they weren’t faithful to covenant.
But G*D, being compassionate,
   kept forgiving their sins,
   kept avoiding destruction;
   took back anger so many times,
   wouldn’t stir up all wrath!
G*D kept remembering
that they were just flesh,
   just breath that passes
   and doesn’t come back.

What a puzzle G*D is. What an enigma we are. What mystery that there is no difference. What a long way to travel to arrive at a new beginning.
 

Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25

Pentecost + 21- Year A

Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25

The presence of G*D will be like Joshua calling everyone to a covenant service. They came and heard Joshua recite a condensed version of the courting process.

In most crowds gathered by decree there will be folks more into the process than others just walking through the motions.

Joshua did his best to put the deal in very stark terms. “Serve your above recounted process and lift your lamp high” (when you see lighters or illuminated cell phones at a concert, know this is an ancient act updated through technology). Or, “Serve those dim-wicks around you.”

And so we go into an extension of the previously condensed recounting of the courting process. Joshua says, “Oh, you’re excited now, but don’t let your enthusiasm wane or your wick be too short. If you fall away after this rally, you will find yourself trimmed but not relit.

So they all agreed to be light holders. Of course if you pay attention for any length of time after this, it is clear that the covenant made between unequals failed.

Whether with others or not, a challenge before us is not a lock-step “yes” so easily gotten in a time of transition and stress. Rather it is two questions of commitment: 1) what/whom do you find worthy to engage, worship, and 2) to what/whom are you a witness and will you do so. These keep us awake.
 

Matthew 25:1-13

Pentecost + 21- Year A

Matthew 25:1-13

Would that politicians had lamps indicating their basic wisdom or foolishness that would either remain lit or go out before an election. Obviously life and decision-making isn’t that easy.

Bottomline it seems that there is plenty of oil, it is available at the dealers. The foolish folk had resources to have sufficient oil, they just didn’t bother to take it along. Whether from a misjudgment in time management or simply being cheap is unknown.

I’m curious why lamps were needed in the first place, is that part of the wedding regalia of the time?

I’m even more curious why everyone didn’t simply go out to meet the bridegroom, as instructed. Somehow there was this wandering away to get oil when there was sufficient illumination to follow the lamps of the wise.

So is this a parable of a new heaven based on some litmus test of packing sufficient light? Is it a reflection of a current way of doing business, “I don’t know you.”? Is this light business similar to being wise as a serpent while remaining innocent as a dove?

Questions for today: What/Who are you expecting to yet meet today? Have the resources you need? Presumably there is time to boldly go ahead or to call for delivery.

Remember, in this story there is enough oil at the dealer. If you give some away, it will be just fine.

Anticipate abundance and see what it does to your decision-making.
 

individually seated

Pentecost + 20- Year A

sitting in Moses’ seat
wasn’t easy for Moses
much less Joshua
and even less so
generations later
for Annas/Caiaphas
or usurper Benedict
or insightful me

with each iteration
distance grows
between teachings
and practices
moving from one
to many
is confusing for all
good intentions fall

no one but Moses
is to have Moses’ seat
all are called and gifted
for their hot seat
which is sufficient
so grab your ass
with both your hands
enjoy the ride
 

1 Thessalonians 2:9-13

Pentecost + 20- Year A

1 Thessalonians 2:9-13

Isn’t it wonderful to be identified by someone as their pride and joy? This is a great motivator to keep on keeping on. It grants permission to forge ahead into new territory where we can engage our fear and trembling with new relationships and ways of being together.

Pride and joy are also a great manipulation techniques. They let us hear about limits on the present enforced by the past. We hear about the need to imitate those who were before us. The pride and joy we receive is for not going past past limits, which makes it conditional. Now we fear and tremble should anything begin to shift or change.

Are we in the presence of G*D overflowing with pride and joy?
Are we in the presence of G*D ever ready to break into wrath?
Are we in the presence of G*D who arbitrarily fluctuates between these?

How we see G*D may have much to do with how we, in turn, respond to events in our life. Once again, choose this day what of G*D you will reveal.
 

Joshua 3:7-17

Pentecost + 20- Year A

Joshua 3:7-17

I am looking for an artist who can portray some sense of a G*D-presence around which is a prayer shawl fringed with such as Moses, Joshua, and You (yes, and me, too).

Unfortunately this prayer shawl finds itself in a strange world and prayer turns to preying upon strangers. We are all complicit in damming rivers for our own benefit and overrunning our neighbors property while calling it G*D’s will.

How important is it that we claim a right to protection from G*D without a concomitant sense of responsibility to nourish others?

Sometimes I want to jump out of G*D’s phylactery and fall away from privileged prayer’s fringe.
 

Matthew 23:1-12

Pentecost + 20- Year A

Matthew 23:1-12

Ever has it been thus: Those in power define life for all according to their experiences and a desire to remain in power. Of course it could be emphasized the other way around, power and experience, but, either way, there is a persistent practice of coliseum games, sweet foods, and whatever cultural values are esteemed for the moment.

Even if Boris and Natasha’s “esteemed leader” is captured by the rubrics of power, they may yet have a true word mixed in with their behavior.

As we are closing off another church year this is a good time to haul out the gifts of evaluation and critique to distinguish a good word from an iffy action.

With the Citizens United decision and other ways in which corporations hide behind personhood, it is not always easy to tell those who love their current place of honor so much that thy will only question those who question their values and never consider questioning themselves. With creative bookkeeping is it difficult to discern the phylacteries of profit.

We do a lot of assuming about profit as a sign of power for it is not just reported profit that must be considered, but how it measures against some expectation of ideal profit. Profit is not profit until it has been maximized and everything bows to it.

This is not the way it is to be with us. We are not to pray, My Corporation which art on Wall Street, blessed be thy profit-making ways . . . .

The greatest among you will be those who assist in building a commonwealth (this is the creative impetus from creation).
 

silence sought

Pentecost + 19 - Year A

looking for healthy silence

silence from
being put down
embarrassment
not yet knowing enough
lack of authority to ask
not having a reasonable response

is not healthy silence

silence to
dream
see patterns
study reality around
find a deeper question
push authority to awkwardness

begins healthy silence

silence by
poets
religionistsists
incumbant politicians
letter writers to editors
you

hides healthy silence

still looking
for healthy silence
in a daily schedule
in common with neighbors
based on tomorrow
lived today
 

1 Thessalonians 2:1-8

Pentecost + 19 - Year A

1 Thessalonians 2:1-8


When we share what we understand is approved by G*D we are also sharing ourselves, because the two cannot be separated. This would seem to call for restrained passion. controlled enthusiasm.

“So deeply do we care for you that we are determined to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves. . . .” To be clear about the differences and confluences of G*D and our self is a source of blessing for our self and for others (both G*D and Neighbor).

We bless G*D by not confusing our heart with G*D’s heart. We bless Neighbors by not confusing a word of life with a judgment cutting life off. We bless ourselves by truthfully telling the difference.

May you be blessed with serenity to accept the realities of an expansive and expanding love.

May you be blessed with courage to move our currently experienced limits into a larger venue.

May you be blessed with wisdom use both serenity and courage to guide your fruitful use of gifts sufficient for your time.
 

Psalm 90:1-6, 13-17

Pentecost + 19 - Year A

Psalm 90:1-6, 13-17

“Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.”

Translation: cellular regeneration.

What would it mean to shift the ground from some G*D micromanaging reality and thus having anthropomorphic characteristics grafted on to said G*D? Would a matrix facilitating growth and regrowth hold as much mystical presence?

A ground of being matrix begins to make more sense in fitting ourself together with ourself and others - sweeping away and flourishing - renewal processes.

May this work of generation and regeneration be manifest and may you rejoice in your part in it.
 

Deuteronomy 34:1-12

Pentecost + 19- Year A

Deuteronomy 34:1-12

What do you see that you will not be a part of, other than as an extension of what you are doing today?

This vision will help keep your sight unimpaired and your vigor unabated. To drop your eyes to where you are presently standing to merely find ways to keep standing there is to cause one to weep for oneself rather than have others weep for you.

Lift up your eyes to the world you want to see and live as though it were already present.

Then, when death comes, it basically won’t matter.
 

Matthew 22:34-46

Pentecost + 19- Year A

Matthew 22:34-46

Which child is your favorite? There are any number of attempts at forced choices that don’t lead anywhere.

To respond to this sort of reductionist approach it is important to stretch things just one notch. Later more stretching can be attempted.

So it is Jesus responds with two favorites, not one.

In today’s world there are still dualistic/reductionist questions being asked. We are called to ease out of them in a similar manner, add one little stretch. This subtle response probably won’t be caught, but will aid folks hear a new story in just a little bit (like in Luke 10:25-37 where a similar encounter is reported).

The great sadness here is in the last line, “they quit asking questions for good.” (MSG)

Asking questions is directly related to good. It is in the interplay of question and response and question of a response, etc. that we test for the common good. When economic theories trump questions about same, we are in deep difficulty. This is the real world equivalent of not asking religious questions - when they stop we are in deep difficulty.

Testing questions, helpful questions, require that everything be up for grabs. They also respect provisional responses knowing that they will be tested in time to come.

Blessings on your affirmations - Loving beyond yourself reveals a deeper and more vigorous, rigorous life.

Blessings on your questions - hoary answers don’t satisfy, nor do our present glib attempts at universalizing particulars.
 

temptation tests

Pentecost + 18 - Year A

ready for today’s test?
of course!
whether announced
or not
we all know
tests happen.

life isn’t hypocritical
promising rose gardens
then yanking the rug out
tests happen
and we take it
or complain

there is no out
from an unending stream
of temptations
none are final
all pop up
to burst certainty

we’ve made good choices
and again
and again and again
until we are certain
we are good
deciders

we are good
as good can be
god good
unquestioned good
second to none good
just good

good enough
to get a pass
on a next test
that is only
a breath away
whew

and so my pride
faces off
against your hypocrisy
what happened
to that pass
anyway

I’ll see your malice
and raise you
a great offense
question
response
impasse

and so they left
unchanged
and so
changed
they
return

here comes
another breath
another test
pass or fail
another
comes

leaving no option
don’t breathe
or
don’t anticipate
otherwise
well you know
 

1 Thessalonians 1:1-10

Pentecost + 18 - Year A

1 Thessalonians 1:1-10

Want to be saved from a coming wrath? Unfortunately, there are no free passes. Fortunately, there are resources to aid us in not responding to wrath wrathfully.

Find a living and true G*D. That ought to be easy, except such tends to toss salvation back to you. Since the future is not just an in-breaking of a quantum leap surprising to behold, but an outgrowth of investments we make in it by the way we operate today, we again hear those ancient words, “Choose this day . . . .”

All the encouraging words patting us on the back for having moved in the direction Paul was headed, will eventually lead us to a key issue in the whole book of 1 Thessalonians - persistence in the face of difficulty that we be ready to receive a present paradise in what appears to be a dark and dismal day to come.

Let's say Jesus saves us from a coming wrath. OK. How?

Not by snapping fingers or impecable calendaring or a past act of integrity that rolls on of its own accord. No.

Modeling a persistent drive for a preferred future through intentional present action. Yes.

In following Moses' way of following G*D, following Jesus' way of following Moses and G*D, encourages others in following us following Jesus following Moses following G*D - not unsimilar to the house that Jack built. Such persistence does not allow a passive waiting for an apocalyptic moment, but insists on active investment, willingly risked, anticipating a way through a next self-caused crash based on what we do today.

persistence of trust
of something better
in the face of great persistence
claiming only more of the same
is our way through
to paradise
while wading deep
in unnecessary wrath

[You might be interested in an economic paper that talks about persistence in dealing with the wrath to come from the latest burst bubble pipe-dream of an ever upward economy. The authors speak of persistence in this fashion,

Rather than lurching from one futile mini-stimulus and quantitative easing to another, we must build consensus around a five-to-seven-year plan that matches the likely duration of the de-levering with which we now live, as well as that of the time it will take for emerging markets to transition to patterns of economic growth driven by domestic demand rather than exports.

Psalm 99

Pentecost + 18 - Year A

Psalm 99

Extol - lift up. By extension - to flatter, to inflate, to raise higher than one’s station or level of competence - to be Peter Principled into ineffectiveness.

By the time we get to the end of extolation we are ready to set the hook and catch us a god.

What can live up to unrealistic expectations? Certianly not I.

Three cheers, if cheers they be, and only cheers, begin to ring hollow.
 

Exodus 33:12-23

Pentecost + 18 - Year A

Exodus 33:12-23

Show me a coin with which to pay the taxes you are asking about.

Show me your glory which claims to know me by name.

Feeling trapped or frustrated? It is helpful to know what needs to be shown, not just talked about. Just know that even a showing doesn’t prove anything. Seeing Caesar’s face or not seeing G*D’s face is ultimately beside the point. Both will be false. Both will fade - Caesar from irrelevancy and G*D from meta-relevancy. Caesar will be left behind and G*D will be moving on.

So if this sort of tangibleness isn’t able to bear our search for meaning, where might we more fruitfully look in the moment.

The suggestion here is that our best bet is to focus on:

attending to goodness
showing mercy/kindness beyond bounds

Let’s not get caught with golden calves or coins of realm. Their very solidity will trap us into their shape.

It is enough to meditate for a moment in a rock’s cleft and then to come forth to catch up to a living, moving, presence beyond our settled doctrine, corrupted economy, and power-crazed political system. This presence will be revealed in the common good.
 

Matthew 22:15-22 *

Pentecost + 18 - Year A

Matthew 22:15-22

It doesn’t take much to entrap some of us. The obverse is that it doesn’t take much for some of us to overestimate our ability to trap another.

The Pharisees fell into the second category. The Pharisees understood themselves to be so much in the right that they could send some surrogates to practice on Jesus.

And so it came to pass that students set out to trap Jesus. They used a standard practice of beginning with flattery. It is one of the temptation techniques that has proven successful over time. A little flattery turns the head, distracts. It doesn’t take much loss of focus before we trap ourself.

“You are so sincere. You are surely in touch with the ways of G*D. You are as truthful as the day is long and filled with integrity from top to bottom.”

[Any of these catch you?]

And then the innocent question disingenuously put as an easy choice.

“We’re confused, can we pay taxes to the emperor or not?”

When we are awake we can catch the simple questions of life and see beyond them and respond with the complexity they deserve - with another question.

“Ah,” says Jesus, “what do you mean by ‘pay taxes’?”

Rather than think about the question, the stand-ins thought the question too easy and so quickly responded, “Should those who support Mosaic Law support Caesar?”

“Hmmm,” thought Jesus aloud, “Seems like there are many claims of authority. Each claims a right to body, mind, spirit, and resources. After you have sorted out the authorities, you can respond to each appropriately.”

“Oh,” said the pharisaical delegation.

And so it was that the Pharisees were disappointed and waited to see how the Sadducees fared with their trap.

[Note: economic questions are often the ones that trip us up. It is so easy to fear losing whatever perk we have and thus elevate the current socio-political system into that of equivalence to a universal human need. The Occupy Wall Street events cropping up reveal that we are at a time of seeing behind the Ozian curtain of a silent plutocracy we set in place by not being able to critique capitalism and democracy. This duo has lost its rhythm to the point of democracy no longer being able to offset capitalism’s excesses.
   As we enter our equivalent of the disjuncture of economic and political structures at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, a radical critique of our economic, political, and religious decision-making is painfully overdue and necessary.
   To think we can find an easy way out of facing basic common good values is disingenuous. Unfortunately we have no political process readily at hand to assist us to bring an economic system into a constructive conversation with our spiritual/communal needs.
   Prophets don’t need to know what the next rebalancing is going to look like, only that every aspect of our current life has been unbalanced in its own arena and in relationship to every other aspect. This is why they call us back to issues of the common good - not that there is only one way to express that, but without having this background revealed we will simply ping-pong from one foreground extreme to another without learning anything.
   This may be the most important pericope of the year and well worth dealing with every week for another year.]
 

Changed

Pentecost + 17 - Year A

a most beloved phrase
And the LORD repented

and Moses and you
and I and me and all

the most specific
the one and only

LORD ever constant LORD
LORD the same LORD

repented then and now
repented again and again

And the LORD repented
a most beloved phrase
 

Philippians 4:1-9

Pentecost + 17 - Year A

Philippians 4:1-9

Stand firm. If you are going to be an inviter, don’t, at some point, begin to limit that invitation. There are going to be inappropriate people engaged with church. That’s a part of the definition of a church.

To find one criterion or another by which they can be turned out is not standing firm.

Why would Paul have to encourage Euodia and Syntyche to continue reinviting one another if the they and others hadn’t started to wobble in their firmness?

Let your gentleness (your invitational nature) be known to all. Don’t worry about how such incompatible folks can learn to stand firmly together. There is peace and joy enough to sustain you and them in this journey.

Finally, whatever is true (invitation trumps tossing out), whatever is honorable (when disappointed invite the more), whatever is just (variety of gifts need a system whereby they may each add to the common good), whatever is pure (following Jesus’ way, not the way of Jesus’ codifiers), whatever is pleasing (paying attention to the next steps available without getting stuck in past steps), whatever is commendable (we are in life together and co-responsible for each other and creation), enact it no matter what the temptation to follow a short-cut. Keep on, stand firm, be not afraid, peace is not lost.
 

Psalm 106:1-6, 19-23

Pentecost + 17 - Year A

Psalm 106:1-6, 19-23

Commercial exchange varies across different traditions and economies.

Does the economy of G*D vary according to circumstance and time?

This question is at the heart of what we might trust and hope for and invest with love defined. Presuming G*D to be living (with all the herky-jerky movement that means) or an ablity to move on from past unproductive responses, we might well fall into resistance to shift traditions [G*D might still be there] or a willingess to wait for a new revelation [G*D might be moving to a plateau I can’t even see yet].

Is it reasonable to expect that “great things” from the past will see us through a present dark valley? Where is that flame by night and cloud by day?

Perhaps most reasonably, what is keeping you from standing in the breach between G*D and neer-do-wells to protect both from rash action and cutting off possibility based on some pride or other code? Each of us have that opportunity, each in a different arena of life. Rather than try to figure G*D out, stand for some grand purpose, even in the face of an angry deity. Who knows what unknown test you will both be passing.
 

Exodus 32:1-14

Pentecost + 17 - Year A

Exodus 32:1-14

When our main source of inspiration is delayed or otherwise falters, we are often very quick to give up on it. We expect our connection to the biggest power we know to be very present to us and quick to respond.

Of course there are always those who stubbornly stick with a previous iteration of a god, never able to let go and attach to a seemingly more effective power. Additionally there are those whose relationship to what they trust is more complex.

Simply know that both those who quickly give up and those who stubbornly hang on always lose their resources. Either they face a rising ante to get the old god to come through or they get over-run with bad investments in the face of a rising new economy in an old universe.

Spiritual stick-in-the-mud’s can stir the ire of a jealous god or simply be ignored. In some sense it is easier to deal with a jealous god as they will at least give negative attention rather than none and if we are to persuade our god to act on our behalf we need to first get said god’s attention.

Don’t you love it when Moses goes all Buddhist on YHWH - “Hey, big guy, seems like you are getting pretty attached. Got a co-dependency going?” This seems to have been effective ministry to G*D.
 

Matthew 22:1-14

Pentecost + 17 - Year A

Matthew 22:1-14

Again with the parables. If Jesus, as a revelation of G*D, does so much with parables, we might begin catch a glimpse of a subtle G*D. In so doing we would do well to engage some humility in our understanding of G*D. Blessings to you for appreciating a more expansive G*D than doctrine or literalness can contain.

What a difference if we were to use an “invite everyone” approach to living life. Finding the good and the bad within each person we meet, we will find those ready for a next step and those who are not.

Given a choice between “inviting everyone” and “throw him away”, when a particular everyone doesn’t measure up, we see the parable ending with verse 10 - “filled with guests”. After this we get into what we take is a later addition and agree with the Jesus Seminar folks who write in The Five Gospels, “The Matthean version has strayed from from the original parable. The body of the parable (22:2-10) has been turned into an allegory of history of salvation: a king (God) prepares a feast for his son (Jesus) and invites his subjects (Israel) to the banquet. They treat the invitations lightly or kill the king’s servants (the prophets). The king destroys them and their city (Jerusalem) and invites others (foreigners) to the feast. This allegory is alien to Jesus, since the story has been thoroughly Christianized and looks back on the destruction of Jerusalem.”

It is not enough to hear that a parable is being told without an appreciation of what a parable is. Otherwise we fall prey to the old bait and switch - I’m going to tell you a parable . . . at least I want you to think highly of my allegory I am claiming to be a parable. A discerning ear and eye can help us move deeper into reported experiences and not be fooled by an initial claim.
 

Considerable Rising Needed

Pentecost + 16 - Year A

absentee landLORD
wherefore art thou
o how the rich are
romanticized
we are convinced
our welfare begins
with their welfare

landLORDs claim
our undivided attention
by which I mean work
no talking behind their back
no imitating mannerisms
they are
holy as holy can be

landLORDs demand
increased work time
for your time
is their money
forty hours is a beginning
two hundred eighty plus
is not for them unreasonable

landLORDs are exempt
from family leave
sick leave
bereavement leave
vacation limits
personal days
too bad about your folks

landLORDs are freed
from accident responsibility
long-term disability
screwing their employees
out of relationship time
entitled to their loopholes
too bad you don’t have any

landLORDs are released
from telling the truth
about their real worth
proprietary property
trade secrets
hostile takeovers
everything that’s yours

landLORDs are caught
from time to time
when their time slaves
rise up to claim
a garden spot
and dream dreams
of a new start

landLORDs own
public roads as theirs
public protection as theirs
public education as theirs
each claimed as natural law
leaving no counter-claim
against simple profit

landLORDs forget
what lies ahead
claiming the present
is all that is needful
and they have the present
wrapped as a beautiful present
to themselves

landLORDs tempt us
with their perks
we see and want
immediate prizes
to measure our worth
pause for a moment
consider then rise up
 

Philippians 3:4b-14

Pentecost + 16 - Year A

Philippians 3:4b-14

We are always defining the right way to live in terms of our own experiences. Stephen Colbert’s persona trusts his feelings, not facts. No matter how confident we are about our having found the one true way to live, a bit of mercy for what others have found is in order.

While it is important to ground our actions in what we trust, we simply can’t trust our trust to not fool us into foolish action. Claim is not proof.

So act on what you know, knowing that you don’t yet know enough. Willing to leave what lies behind; straining forward; we press on. This can be for some a preferred future or imitation of a living G*D or just stubborn DNA, but we press on. This is not some Easy Button pressing on, but a pressing on that calls for our best which is better than we’ve been able to do up until now. Pressing on will come from our emotional life as well as our intellectual life, employing our individual gifts and striving for a common good.

Even sure of our present definitions of reality, we press on.
 

Psalm 19

Pentecost + 16 - Year A

Psalm 19

A voice unheard goes through the universe. How wonderful and frustrating. The mystery of this is overwhelming and the lack of clarity a stumbling block of the first water.

As one with not so hidden errors, I still yearn for my meandering meditations to be reflective of that unheard voice. I still desire that my words would be in sync with the growth going on in moving from a glimpse of glory to more glory than glory can hold and it collapses from an external category into regular day-to-day life.

Eugene Peterson talks about “life-maps of G*D” and we all need to spend some time in imitating this by seeing what our current life-map looks like and where dragons are lurking on a raw edge beckoning us into new adventure. There are many models of life-maps from the rigid fundamentalistic to the overly open-ended idealistic. May we be blessed with greater clarity.

If you are interested in a map that does not pretend to be the territory it maps, you might try integral mapping. There are variations on this and you might also consider working with my friend Tom at bodymindspiritworks.com.

The Psalmist suggests you can find a larger map than you have been working from. Blessings on moving on.
 

Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20

Pentecost + 16 - Year A

Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20

G*D is at a distance. The people are explicitly warned not to come up the mountain to G*D. G*D’s “son”, Moses, goes to the people with commands.

How’d he do? Folks listen? Implement? Or ignore (a polite throwing out)? Could they hear future religious leaders coming after them?

How long does control by fear last? One generation? Two? Eventually there is a springtime of the soul and controlling “sin” by fear and awe doesn’t have a good track-record. Inquisitions eventually ebb.

Now with context out of the way. These are specifics in the long tradition of loving G*D and Neighbor. There might well be other specifics (and there are many more in the following chapters). What specifics might we use today? In recent days might we want to make some amendments:

“Honor your fathers and mothers, fathers and fathers, mothers and mothers”
“No murder: individual, legal, military”
“No adultery: physical, emotional, mental”
“No stealing: personal or corporate”
“No lies: by word, silence, or tweet”
“No coveting: enough”.

 

Matthew 21:33-46

Pentecost + 16 - Year A

Matthew 21:33-46

Parable upon parable reflects the facets of what it means to do business with one another in a framework of community. Economic models are often used in parables to break open our captivity by whatever economic model is currently idolatrized.

Here in Wisconsin we are sensitive to the landowner being too easily identified with the current reigning governance by governmental privatizers for the gain of corporate profit that reaps rewards without concomitant responsibility for sustainability. A union of “slaves” is unacceptable to entitled plutocrats.

This week’s hardened landowner (religious leaders), expecting their due reward for investments made (purity kept), might be seen as the stone upon which people have broken themselves for generation upon generation - the unearned profit, the individualized profit, the prideful profit not recognizing it is a product of exploitation of others rather than the strength of one pulling on their own bootstraps while never rising.

And so an alternative reading of this raises the question of what is rejected. Remember the judgment or interpretation rendered by chief religious leaders was “Death to Unions”. Might this attitude be what is rejected.

An inequitable economic system and religious leaders might be seen as the stones rejected by last week’s generous landowner.

Jesus was speaking to the religious leaders who were stonily crushing those outside their inner leadership. Those who live by the stone will die by the stone. Let those with ears, hear. Awareness of this brokenness just might be a worthy cornerstone to build differently. A non-physical cornerstone may be the most helpful.

Rejection of profit and slaves as a cornerstone leads to a new framework of being in an endeavor together - Unions might be a renewed cornerstone in today’s attempt to use globalization to increase the number of “slaves” available to landowners.

ahhhh

Pentecost + 15 - Year A

entering temple
unwelcome
questioning
authorityless
controversial
suspicious
unstable

entering camp
thirsty
quarrelsome
testing
fearful
threatful
demanding

entering today
entering tomorrow
entering freedom
entering life
entering vocation
entering solidarity
entering identity

carrying new-creation energy
heart-opening compassion
head-opening sympathy
grounded honesty
true simplicity
careful hope
story ready
quick joy

carrying
sea-split water
into deserts
of our own making
generating
new water
in old lives
 

Philippians 2:1-13

Pentecost + 15 - Year A

Philippians 2:1-13

A fine goal, being of one mind. A bit difficult to pull off when one or more of the minds is a religious bully unable to hold more than their own mind or allow other minds their wisdom and experience.

The Christian tradition seems to claim that all those Jesus dealt with were bullies of one sort or another, yes, even the disciples periodically fell back into that predisposition.

Without a single mindedness among us, we are left with working out salvation with fear and trembling, with redoubled energy (for self and others). Actually, single-mindedness is not very stable if we are living in an entropic world with a living G*D. I expect that even in that high holy time of unity, there is still a wholeness to be worked on - particularly if I am expected to come to it in the same way you are.

So, assured enough to be humble or cowed into submission, there are no guarantees. Obedience is not sufficient on its own to claim salvation. We seem to be in it together and so my interest is in your coming as close to wholeness as you can and my doing the same. Though probably not identical in size or ripeness, each whole fruit is important in an expansive vineyard.
 

Psalm 78:1-4, 12-16

Pentecost + 15 - Year A

Psalm 78:1-4, 12-16

What experiences are equivalent touchstones in your life? As you tick off moments of life shifting, what stands out? If you were to pick 5 to carry on one hand, they would be?

That’s pretty easy. How about just 4 or 3? For extra credit, can you cut it to 2 key experiences that would reflect your journey?

Now the tough one - 1.

I expect it will have something to do with what you have done, not believed. Yes, your actions are influenced by our thoughts. They can even hem in what we are willing to do. But, bottom line, it is the doing that best describes what we mean by the space we take up and the energy we expend over time. Blessings on redeeming this trinity.
 

Exodus 17:1-7

Pentecost + 15 - Year A

Exodus 17:1-7

Quarrels among a "religous" people are not new. Almost anything can set them off. It may be the lack of a survival resources, the color of a bathroom wall, a word of encouragement or correction, a business deal gone sour, a political perspective, a question as basic as "is G*D with us or not?", an undigested piece of cheese.

And so we escalate every smaller grievance to an ultimate one. After all, G*D is involved and it is mandatory to protect a G*D we have bet will protect us when push comes to shove or creeks rise.

What's the out? Complain to G*D about the folks giving you a hard time? Well, that doesn't work out so well [see also Numbers 20:1-12 and Deuteronomy 32:48-52]. Perhaps there is only proceeding as best one can and agreeing to not get the credit earned or the followers due.
 

Matthew 21:23-32

Pentecost + 15 - Year A

Matthew 21:23-32

During the recent church trial of Rev. Amy Delong (LoveOnTrial.org), the question came, “Are you now or have you ever been a “self-avowed practicing homosexual?” Amy wisely replied, “First let me ask you a question, do you ever ask that question of heterosexuals . . . that they are practicing?”

Church counsel had no response. “If we say yes, everyone knows that we don’t ask that question”: “If we say no, how can we ask it here without revealing our prejudice?”

And so Amy went on to clearly identify herself as a lesbian in a loving, committed relationship with her partner. Loving both her partner and her church, she calmly replied, “I won’t answer a question put to me with the intention of harming me.”

So, is the ministry of further revealing the expansive and expanding love of G*D done by a son who lives by the rules on the outside or by a daughter who lives by grace on the inside?

Forced choices by Jesus are no better than forced choices by chief priests of the Church un-Doctrinal Committee. Both have their limits; both reveal intentions.

What trick question have you been responding to when all that was needed was a twist and return question? Perhaps the bind you are currently facing isn’t really a bind. You are not between a rock and a hard place, but between accepted fantasy and walking free.
 

Philippians 1:21-30

Pentecost + 14 - Year A

Philippians 1:21-30

One of the reasons we get caught in competition regarding a job or professional endeavor is that we participate not just for any fruitful results, but it becomes a measure of our value (longer workers deserve more than Johnny-come-latelies) or a validation of our importance (released folks versus those still captured).

Here we are encouraged to live life in a worthy manner. Every faith group would attribute worthiness to its particular value system. Here it is Christ, there it is Buddha, Mohammed, Jim Jones, No Taxes At All, etc.

Once we get past the particular we can experience generosity and release without claiming them as uniquely ours. Simply bringing forth fruitful work is enough. Whatever your religious focus, may it end in worthy living. This is a central point for inter-faith work.
 

Psalm 105:1-6, 37-45

Pentecost + 14 - Year A

Psalm 105:1-6, 37-45

Thank goodness for selective memory. Here we have a memory of the end results of some very difficult times. The psalm would have to be four times longer were the circumstances leading to such positive outcomes to be reported.

As you look back on previous haunting experiences, is your focus on the difficult moments or the final way through?

A psalm could be constructed to only cry out for a difficulty faced. It would start a new category of a complaint psalm. Even laments have a turn or action involved that begins to redeem a time of difficulty. A question is whether complaint only would be valuable. In like manner, we might ask whether a psalm of rejoicing only has value.

As with most of life it is the moments of transition that are key. Hopefully you can learn from past transitions and can see the beginning of a next transition even as the difficulty of the moment continues.

I doubt that we will get around selective memory and intentional revision, but it is helpful, from time to time, to look at what we are remembering and how that shapes where we head. This past week gave opportunity to do that regarding a national event - September 11, 2001 - that we cover-up with the short-hand 9/11 used to remember the difficulty without ever having to find the better way through.

This might be a good time to do another timeline of how long you think you have been working this time. What might a transition be that would get you out of a complaint oriented approach to working or hungering?
 

Exodus 16:2-15

Pentecost + 14 - Year A

Exodus 16:2-15

The Israelites saw themselves as “first hired”. Hadn’t they miraculously escaped from the powerful Pharaoh? Why then are they having such a difficult time? Isn’t there a perk for their exalted position?

Turns out there is only one perk - recognizing there is no perk, only common care for the whole body. Paying attention to the sufficiency available is a leg up on the usual survival issues of the moment.

Of course we could always attribute manna to the loudness of the complainant rather than the generosity of respondant. That approach usually peters out fairly quickly and we are left with another learning experience regarding abundance and assurance, two key issues for us to get our minds and hearts around.
 

Matthew 20:1-16

Pentecost + 14 - Year A

Matthew 20:1-16

Since the future is not directly accessible we need to approach it obliquely, say through a parable.

Since we can note tangent points between a preferred future and a temporary present, a parable may be applicable to today without the fullness of the future being present.

What do you say to a country who has been devaluing all labor to the point of laborers being pitted against one another until each looking is for their own benefit, not that of all labor?

Well, one thing to be said is that a living wage is due everyone.

A second note would be that the generosity of the universe is available to be chosen in favor of. To choose maximal profit for a small group who got theirs early, is to miss out on being able to share the joy of being G*D with others.

Thirdly, might we go back to the creation stories and note the labor Adam and Eve were given, farming - garden care, vineyard care. Produce for the common good does not come easily. Imagine a farmer’s market to come which would have the work of each, from researcher to tomato grower to refuse hauler to money maker to forest manager to healer to fish catcher bring their gifts together and need is shared with need (not on the basis of some arbitrary value for each, but simply as a way to meet a need, knowing mine, large and small, will, in turn, be met).
 

Romans 13:8-14

Pentecost + 12 - Year A

Romans 13:8-14

Theory: Love does no wrong to a neighbor.

Reality: Members of the church sin against one another.

What's a Christ to do?

Better yet, what are you going to do? Paul suggests living honorably.

How's the day gone so far? Been honorable, regardless?

How's the rest of the day look? Is honorable action still an option?

Just as being untruthful means more work for us as we try to keep all the little pieces of untruth in order, not being honorable ultimately means more work. May you lay the burden of not being honorable down.

Perhaps working on a common definition of honor would get us out of some of our usual binds. Honor is not the whole response needed to life's perplexing options, but it is a good start. Too much honor gets into honor killings, but honor is still a good start. You might want to make up a little card and look at it hourly for the next week. One version of the card might read, "Being honorable is the easy way, is my way."
 

Psalm 149

Pentecost + 12 - Year A

Psalm 149

To execute judgment on another is to enter into a judgment process that unavoidably judges the judger.

What judgment is decreed? May not be the one we were taught.

Forgiveness
 

Exodus 12:1-14

Pentecost + 12 - Year A

Exodus 12:1-14

What is loosened on earth will be loosed again. We need to always remember that traps can be avoided. A “Think Different” mantra is a good one to have handy. Who’s going to believe that “Think Different” would have blood smears involved in a process of freedom? Would you have participated in this first Passover? Just because Moses says so? His track record wasn’t the greatest. If pests and boils won’t work, why this internal, passive approach? Would something in you have been set free to try anything? And when one “anything” turns out to at least be coincidental, does that get so enshrined that it must then be recapitulated, at least metaphorically, eternally? Does ritual have to be be liberated from being ritual before it can liberate?

Looking at this from a vantage point after an Exodus, we wonder about the reversal of calling G*D to come to us when the real trick was to have G*D pass over us, miss us. You just never can tell with G*D.

You may have been trying too hard, looking for a magic fulcrum point from which the world might be moved while what is needed is not that particular, but guerilla graffiti.
 

Matthew 18:15-20

Pentecost + 12 - Year A

Matthew 18:15-20

If another member of a deeper than casual relationship who could turn you in to the authorities for being a member of a subversive group (and what is a church if not subversive?), should not treat you as they would want to be treated (its all too easy to eternalize and external and call it sin when against you and well-intentioned misunderstanding when you behave the same way) it would be wise to find a way to deal with that before betrayal gets added to the mix.

Of course this presumes that a magic spirit can be organized to resolve conflicts and if it cannot that the course of action left is to dismiss them with prejudice (note how “majority rules” works here). In this case it is understood that both would have a strike against them if they now went to the authorities, so casting out a minority is a recommended way to go.

Question: Does this process work in such conflictual settings as the politics of today’s church that models all too closely public institutions (versus being in tension with said institutions as the earliest church was)?

Question: Does this process ultimately bind or loose what might be meant by a “kingdom of heaven” coming to earth?

Question: Is leaving us as the deciders of binding and loosening, an action of a binding or a loosening by G*D?

Where two are company and three are a crowd and the inherent tensions of both can flare up at any time over any issue, it is comforting to know that whatever this heaven to earth business might be about is already underway. So gather together for an opening - practice being ready for it and jumping before it is fully present.
 

Psalm 105:1-5, 23-26, 45c

Pentecost + 11 - Year A

Psalm 105:1-5, 23-26, 45c

Indeed, keep your eyes open for movements within a universe of marvelous possibility. You will see what we call “G*D at work”.

Even more, you can have a part, “Y*U at work”.

We can say, “G*D sent his servant Moses”. Even more, we can say, “Moses went on a larger mission.” Without this balance any subsequent institution will need to continually make revisionist statements to explain any next marvel.
 

Exodus 3:1-15

Pentecost + 11 - Year A

Exodus 3:1-15

We forget that Moses was a lay person. It was his father-in-law, Jethro, who was the priest. Moses knew enough to follow his curiosity rather than box it in to follow a ritual or doctrine that would discount such mystery as a bush that burned without being consumed or one hand clapping.

Even here, mystery is both something to honor, don’t come any further, and experience, take off your sandals and wiggle your toes in it.

What is mysterious is how miserable people are for no good reason. Suffering because others have power is not acceptable. Deliverance is findable in the midst of folks who will no longer be silent or fear only for themselves.

Deliverance is always quite personal and risky. It is a mystery why such as Moses or you or I finally respond to the need to stand up to power, no matter what the cost. There is no explaining it, only a thankfulness when done.

It is no mystery that we would try to wriggle out from the need to decide to follow where mystery leads. One of our wriggles is get things defined sufficiently to reduce the risk. However, mystery won’t settle for our wriggling thus. A mystery based on inclusion and communal action rather than representative, personal power, never settles for denotations, but revels in connotations - who am I? I am who I was when I’m not who I am or will be. Go ahead, give in now before your head spins off.

Who will be a next Moses? No telling. All we know is that it won’t be a priest.
 

Matthew 16:21-28

Pentecost + 11 - Year A

Matthew 16:21-28

It has been said that “The only thing that is real is the being in you that is going to die”. (Carols Castaneda) and that “Death is our eternal companion. It is always to our left, an arm's length behind us. Death is the only wise adviser that a warrior has. Whenever he feels that everything is going wrong and he's about to be annihilated, he can turn to his death and ask if that is so. His death will tell him that he is wrong, that nothing really matters outside its touch. His death will tell him, 'I haven't touched you yet.'” Likewise this Castaneda insight, “Only the idea of death makes a warrior sufficiently detached so that he is capable of abandoning himself to anything. He knows his death is stalking him and won’t give him time to cling to anything so he tries, without craving, all of everything.”

These perspectives help us look at Jesus’ understanding of his life, while alive, while not yet dead but moving in that direction. Time is precious, too precious to spend in fear, in denying death. The stumbling block of denial still reaches up to trip us. We still need to hear that losing our life in life, not expectations, not denial of death, is what will focus us. To simply wait to hear that we have died is to not taste death before its time.

Spoke yesterday with a dear man who has heard from his doctors that he has less than two years to live. Cancer and an infection will have their way. And he continues, not arguing, bringing peace where he can - not in a forced way because time is short, but naturally, because this moment is still available.

Too often we consider that death has a last word, while all it can do is advise us in the present about engaging life that is significant enough to echo on. May you not get caught by the stumbling illusion that death is more powerful and less helpful than it really is. Walk on.
 

Romans 12:1-8

Pentecost + 10 - Year A

Romans 12:1-8

Who do you say that I am? Who do you say you are? When tracking well we say we are members of one another. Which part of a “Son of God” are you? Pinkie, Pate, Patella?

We receive meaning from the body as a whole as well as from our particular locus. We all hold the keys to love and life. There is no holiness but social holiness!

If there is one corrective to today’s resurgence of fundamentalism (one part is more important that another part) it is this sense of universal social holiness where none will be redeemed until all are. This plays out in economics as well as in theology. You might think of a tax as a binding principle that keeps us together even as death drives us apart.

There is a cost to a body of many parts. Each part cannot maximize its own wealth (its predominance among the many) but must play and pay its part. The greater the perception of the part, the more it costs to be a part of the whole.

To wrestle with the purpose of taxes is valuable community building. To put taxes beyond our decision-making is the same as putting G*D beyond our current time and space (no pie in the sky, by and by). Taxes do for a healthy community what serving one another does for the body of Christ. Taxes will always be with us, not because they are imposed from the outside, but because they are a constituent part of being in community. We need to talk about them more.
 

Psalm 124

Pentecost + 10 - Year A

Psalm 124

If . . . , it would have been enough. [Dayenu]

An upbeat way of engaging the vagarities of life.

Another snare is broken, we have escaped more than 15 times. Sing it again.
 

Exodus 1:8 - 2:10

Pentecost + 10 - Year A

Exodus 1:8 - 2:10

In sorting folks out, life changes the sort. Who’s king now? It makes a difference to many.

In one realm a mere son of god can do well while in another it takes The Son of GOD to even come close to breaking even.

Instead of looking at titles such as Pharaoh or midwife, which can begin to distract our eye from what is needful, we might do well to keep our eye on where the next good might be done and be clear about the temptations that lead to a next harm, even a small one.

It turns out that a king eventually takes a back-seat to a daughter and a midwife and a mother and sister of one who will do in the king. How did they pull it off? Well, they lost their fear through a picture larger than the current power structure. This loss of fear made room for longer-term decision-making. They chose “pity” [2:6]. Each expressed it in a different way, but tears of the past, present, and future were heard and responded to. As a result, past tears were reconciled, present ones energized, and potential tears entered into with purpose.

The same process is available today - what good needs to be done; what harm avoided? This doesn’t need one to be King or Son of God, simply human, created in an image of those who show their steadfast love through action of pity more than piety.
 

Matthew 16:13-20

Pentecost + 10 - Year A

Matthew 16:13-20

Who do people say the Son of Man is? Who is the Great Pretender?

This questions brings us to the work of trying to figure out who "666" is or "The Son of God", according to the criteria set out. Can we squish or puff-up someone so they will fit the definition? That’s all that is available to us.

Once past accademic questions of role and definition, we can get to a better question, “Who am I, to you?”

When the response is, “I better see an expansive and expanding love when I am engaged with you”, we know we are in a place just right, a valley of love and delight.

It is not the giving of a right answer that brings Peter any keys of authority, it is his own engagement with G*D. And so it continues to this day.

Who do you say the people are that you are engaged with this day, this week? Does that bring you closer to participating in doing all the good you can? If so, start loosing and binding. If not, time to move on.

Oh, by the way, don’t keep this a secret. Start acting on it and promoting the appreciation of more and more levels to your various relationships.
 

Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32

Pentecost + 9 - Year A

Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32

“The gifts and the calling of G*D is irrevocable.” [29]

And yet the church has a whole series of tests to apply to the usefulness of those gifts and one’s calling according to what is perceived as its continuity. If a gift or calling doesn’t fit within the benefit structure of the church, such are not confirmed and are denied.

Here the Church is at odds with its G*D. Though, many a sociopath has been keep out of leadership roles because of this winnowing of gifts and calling. And, no matter how strictly the church applies its current criteria to a perpetual abundance of scattering gifts and call, there are still sociopaths who can con the system.

“God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may be merciful to all.” [32]

What an intriguing process. At least the church can claim to better follow this construct. It is very good at highlighting “disobedience” that it might appear merciful after some appropriate number of pounds of flesh have been sacrificed.
 

Psalm 133

Pentecost + 9 - Year A

Psalm 133

How wonderful, beautiful, pleasant, when sisters and brothers get along. Ps 133

By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. Jn 13:35

How would you put it in today’s environment of conflictual politics?

Genesis 45:1-15

Pentecost + 9 - Year A

Genesis 45:1-15

The second in command, economic advisor par excellance, still identifies as, “I am Joseph.” His concern is not just about surviving a coming famine, but, “Is my father still alive?”

Finally, with those who betrayed him he makes an audacious claim, “I am your brother.”

Joseph, Jacob’s son, brother to eleven, this Joseph, sees his task, “Sent to keep alive many survivors.”

There are many ways to try to keep many alive. These can contain the infamous, “We had to destroy the village to save the village.” Under Joseph’s leadership, many lost their land and freedom for a better chance at survival. Were they better off? Certainly his family became better off, until Joseph’s efficient planning was forgotten.

How might you keep “many alive” this day? How might you keep yourself alive this day? One way is to refuse to label and be labeled. Drop the titles; claim your name.
 

Matthew 15:(10-20), 21-28

Pentecost + 9 - Year A

Matthew 15:(10-20), 21-28

We can hear it in every generation - it's not about who you are, it's about what you do with who you are (hate the sin, but love the sinner). That's very neat, but not real. Our being and our doing are intimately connected with one another.

A Canaanite woman (2 strikes for being both a woman and a Canaanite) calls out, puts a claim on mercy being extended. According to the earlier statement, one would expect Jesus to pay attention to what the person did/said, not who they were. Mercy was asked for and yet it was denied. Regardless of who is doing the asking, when asked, mercy is expected.

The disciples were also caught up in the doing and being, but in the other way around.

Note how the general cry for Mercy finally has to come down to both one's being and one's doing. Eventually, "Mercy!" needs to become "Help me!"

Questions come, just as in the abortion debate or any wedge issue - the daughter is healed, a fetus brought to term - and now what - simply being female is a problem in a patriarchic system that we are still too much a part of, whether in Sudan or America. What does it mean for this daughter to be healed in this moment only to be discounted later? It might be claimed that she is returned to only having 2 strikes against her (female and of another tribe) instead of 3 (female, of another tribe, and certifiably crazy). Discrimination doesn’t need any basis in reality, for it can always call her less than human again for being a woman or a foreigner. This story is about Jesus and his disciples not being able to initially see faithfulness when wrapped in the colors of another gang.

Seems a lot of us, in Peterson’s words, are “willfully stupid” or keep having the same limited perception that needs continual correcting. We keep trying to separate that which can’t be separated. Whether about being and doing or varieties of faith.

Basic take-away - a daughter was healed, a society wasn’t - ask for more, go for 0 strikes. We need to pay attention to both a needed band-aid and systemic causations. If you are called to work with band-aids, put them on with gusto and support those working on causation. If you are called to shift paradigms, give it your all and encourage those who are caring for immediate needs. May your doing and your being reveal faith in an expansive and expanding “Love”.
 

Romans 10:5-15

Pentecost +8 - Year A

Romans 10:5-15

Faith in anyone claiming extraordinary power or access to G*D is misplaced. They cannot control the heights or depths of lived experience. Faith worth the fear and trembling required for it's implementation asks for that deeper place of engaging your own journey toward a larger universe.

While appreciating the security of plausible deniability, the built-in opportunity to blame someone or something else, ultimately it is going to come back to what has been done by you with the opportunities you have before you. What were the roadblocks you put in the way of every person, regardless of their "status", to engage their journey to an expansive and expanding love? Distinctions between our various journeys aren't all that great, but the ways in which we can hinder one another seem to be multitudinous.

All who call out, who are journeying, receive what is needful. Claim the abundance available and humbly ask for more - or, party-on, dude!

Psalm 105:1-6, 16-22, 45b

Pentecost +8 - Year A

Psalm 105:1-6, 16-22, 45b

O give thanks . . .

This message came this morning from "The Universe".

Some people think, (your-name-here), that some things are "meant to be."

Meant by whom?

Not me,
    The Universe (www.tut.com)

It is comforting to think that everything is going to turn out well. Jesus doesn't stay in meditative prayer but comes walking on the water in stormy weather and we take a step or two further than we ever thought we might.

It is encouraging that enslavement will turn around and we will be in charge (talking about your tax and saver - see Joseph in power).

However, neither of these sort of next steps stop with the desired outcome. There is more ministry and death to face. There is not just the enslavement of one, but of a whole extended tribe.

Choosing where to cut the storyline tells much about who we are.

Does John the Baptizer's death end with Jesus finally alone or you walking a step on frothy waves? Does Joseph's enslavement end with his coming to power or the enslavement of his family? Does Paul correctly set this choice aside by saying it is not about either result (go to heaven - go to hell) but doing what is needful in the moment, regardless of the consequence?

So, what is meant and by whom? Where is thanks directed and from whence is more asked?
 

Pentecost +8 - Year A

Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28

Ah the joy of loving too much. Here it brings an unintended consequence of envy, jealousy, and hatred from others.

A reason given for loving too much is that it is established in old age when a new perspective on preciousness begins to set in. The run-of-the-mill births before this were just that. They happened. We won't comment on Joseph being a first son of Rachel.

At any rate, a long and colorful garment set Joseph apart from the others. How Fabulous it must have been! This was an outward and visible sign of preference by the patriarch Jacob/Israel.

An inward sign of preference by G*D is an ability to interpret dreams. This is not as noticeable, unless Joseph opens his big yap. A braggart from a trickster is quite a gene pool.

The brothers might well reason that Joseph carried recessive genes and it would be appropriate to send him packing with those other recessive gene holders - the Ishmaelites - like to like.

And so 20 pieces of silver enters the symbolic jargon of relationships. You might wonder who got the 20 pieces of silver in the recent American debt ceiling negotiations. I'm sure someone thought a deal of delayed death would be worth getting their cut on the side. One can only hope that some strange twist, to be revealed much later, after much more difficulty, will have what was intended as a win-win for the brothers and a lose-lose for Joseph and Jacob be turned around as a benefit for all (at least for a short while, until we again forget our blessings and focus on our fears).