John 2:13-22

Lent 3 - Year B

John 2:13-22

Market presumes a transactional valuing of life. When that is certified by religion it begins to mark the beginning of what will ultimately move from being an incipient to a full-blown idolatry.

For 13 years the Wisconsin United Methodist Federation for Social Action has read a book for Lent. This year it is Rediscovering Values: On Wall Street, Main Street, and Your Street by Jim Wallis. You can follow along with the reading or review other books at their Lenten website.

Jim Wallis has this to say about this passage:

     A few points about context. This passage is often misunderstood. Jesus’ indignation and anger were not fueled by the buying and selling of goods in the temple. In others words, this passage is not an indictment against church bake sales, and I’m pretty sure even a gift shop in a cathedral is still okay! The passage is about greed, not commerce.
     The story is set during the time of Passover, when pilgrims traveling from distant countries came to worship at the temple in Jerusalem. When they arrived, they were supposed to offer sacrifices, but it would have been impossible for these travelers to bring livestock with them on their long journeys. The merchants and money changers conveniently set up shop in the temple’s outer court to provide these pilgrims with the scripturally mandated animal sacrifies. However, the worshippers were frequently cheated in this marketplace. Greedy money changers inflated the currency rate (only a certain type of coin could be used in the temple), and the merchants had a monopoly on the sacrifice market.
     Interestingly, in his turning over of tables, Jesus specifically targeted the merchants who were selling doves. Doves were the least expensive sacrifice permitted to be offered in the temple and, therefore, were often bought by the poorest of the pilgrims.
     It was a marketplace that took advantage of the poor, who had little other choice. It was a “subprime” marketplace in which a few accumulated great wealth for themselves at the expense of those who could least afford to pay. The money changers had taken a place reserved for the values of God, and used it to put their profits first. No doubt these money changers would have argued that they were only responding to a demand of the market, but Jesus didn’t seem to see it that way. What was happening in the marketplace was a spiritual and moral problem, not just an economic one.

As always prophets are questioned by the establishment for whom all things are working out well. What would be your response if you were caught being a mini-prophet? Might it be similar to Martin Luther who was channelling Jesus when he was questioned - “Here I stand I can do no other”. Somewhere along the way your body will have to come into a conversation about life.
 

travelin' on

Lent 2 - Year B

we travel on
who am I now
who are you now
who are we now
who are they now

we travel on
where have I come from
where have you come from
where have we come from
where have they come from

we travel on
where am I headed
where are you headed
where are we headed
where are they headed

we travel on
story by story
remembrance by remembrance
hope by hope
fear by fear

we travel on
losing and gaining life
ashamed and anointed
promised and promising
consistent and mutating

we travel on
and on
thanking
and on
intending
 

Romans 4:13-25

Lent 2 - Year B

Romans 4:13-25

We all trust in a variety of mechanisms, processes, and theories. At question is whether these “promises” reveal grace or not. If so they will grow over time. If not, they will eventually falter and fail altogether.

If we are interested in participating in a story of creation-long development bearing witness to great fecundity, we will be asking whether or not the basic story-line we are trusting in has room for surprising twists, turns, and reorientations. This openness to mutation is trustworthy and turns out to be our grace, our righteousness.

Lent is an opportunity to remind ourselves where it is we want to be headed - into boring grace, standard grace, everyday grace - far deeper than being amazed at such.
 

Psalm 22:23-31

Lent 2 - Year B

Psalm 22:23-31

The Message recounts verse 29:

All the power-mongers are before him—worshiping!
All the poor and powerless, too—worshiping!
Along with those who never got it together!—worshiping!

Before and after baptism, before and after conversion, before and after maturity or power – we continue. Whether glorifying or afflicted, whether praising or poor, whether far or near – we have continuity, persistence, and new possibilities.

Lent, as a journey toward deeper discipleship or lived hope, brings with it a necessity to reflect on how we have been living, are living, and desire to live. In this reflection we find ourselves both diminished and passed by as well as anointed and testing/preparing. In all of this we find we’re going to “serve somebody “[Dylan]. May your service, your worship, your engagement with life bless each stage of your living.
 

Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16

Lent 2 - Year B

Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16

Who do people say I am, Abram or Abraham? This is a moment of identity change. This is a moment of beng the same.

With or without a formal covenant, Abram received a direction to his life that he was willing to follow through fear of kings, drought, and a challenging nephew. It seems that Abraham was no more or less willing than was Abram to trust he had experienced a new call and had received the gifts to deal with it.

Whether Abram or Abraham, whether by your diminutive or formal name, we are who we are - called and gifted, blessed, anointed. It can take all our past experience to be ready for a shift. Hooray for who we have been. A new direction can help us see more in who we were than we could tell at the time. Hooray for who we are becoming.
 

Mark 8:27-38

Lent 2 - Year B

Mark 8:27-38

We have multiple identities, depending on who or what we are relating with. Sometimes we might be even further subdivided into where we are interacting or when or why. If folks were to ask about you, there are a number of responses available regarding who you are by those who know you well.

Hopefully, behind all these ephemeral presentations of yourself, there is a sense of being Anointed, Gifted, Blessed - being Messiah. Some will see that, many will not. Sometimes we see it clearer, and sometimes not.

Basically being messiah is an understanding from which we might interact with the world, whether they understand that as our motivation or not.

Part of the reason for the “secrecy” is not some fancy Marcan messianic secret, but simple humility. To claim messiahship has a tendency to claim privilege and to reject any suffering along the way. Without knowing the difference between hope and fear we get confused and fall into the trap of the Confuser to over-focus on short-term survival.

If any would care to be fellow-travelling Messiahs, they, too, will have to be humble enough to live in the moment as though it were eternity and be willing to lose their privilege for the gift of living congruently, unashamed.

Who do I say you are, Messiah, Anointed, Gifted, Blessed - get on with it without making a fuss about being so.
 

stumbling toward Jordan

Lent 1 - Year B

stumbling toward Jordan
eagle spirit claws
deep in our nape

we dive in
as though pursued by bees
deep calling to deep

rising to a quiet call
after compelling obsession
we live outward from blessing

we step out
where angels fear to tread
wilderness schmilderness

thankful for a gifted call
there is no more waiting
time fulfilled - goodness trusted
 

joyful ashes

Ash Wednesday - Year B

a joy of repentance
strengthens its work

joy replaces practiced piety
healing a left and right divided heart

joy replaces hypocritical prayer
making internal our engagement with healing

joy replaces rote prayer
setting aside accumulated phrases

joy replaces institutional fast
energizing a clean face with a clean heart

joy replaces accumulated wealth
investing in common-wealth

joy of renewal
strengthens its work
 

1 Peter 3:18-22

Lent 1 - Year B

1 Peter 3:18-22

Who will harm you when you are about doing good?

Well, more than you would think. Everyone with a conscious or unconscious investment in things staying the way they are, because doing good means changing a situation in which “not good” has been operating.

What, then, makes it worthwhile to proceed apace and against a hurtful status quo? Is an understanding of blessedness sufficient? This is a baptismal, transfigurational blessing that brings repentance for our participation in whatever hurt is happening and a commitment to see a reconciliation, a “trip to Jerusalem”, through.

There are apparently two different ways of moving ahead. One way is that of non-violence, proceeding with “gentleness and reverence”. The other way is not, implied in the need to make such an instruction. Our go-to position is to project ourselves as good, rather than to see ourselves as part of the problem and deciding to do what we can where we have the power to make a difference - with our way of operating.

Imagine spending a whole Lent in a quest for a conscience that recognizes and responds to “good”. It will probably take that long, at a minimum, to make a shift that can be seen on the outside and not just felt as an intention on the inside. A blessed Lent to you.
 

2 Corinthians 5:20-6:10

Ash Wednesday - Year B

2 Corinthians 5:20-6:10

Even after Ash Wednesday it will be appropriate to work on what it means to be reconciled with G*D, with Neighbor, with Self, with One Another, with Enemies. What was behind our separation? How do we analyze the situation? Where is the fulcrum point that will break the cycle of harm?

Even after Ash Wednesday it will be important to add an eternal insight about, When do we trust grace as a major tool of reconciliation? Again and again we will find the background to a day of salvation, of reconciliation, is this day, this moment, this time - even if it is not obvious; particularly if it is not obvious.

Even after Ash Wednesday we might wear a sign of how seriously we take the whole reconciliation business - from simply recognizing there is a break to investing and commending our every resource to fundamental healing.
 

Psalm 25:1-10

Lent 1 - Year B

Psalm 25:1-10

“All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness,....” That may be enough to be said. Then wherever steadfast love and faithfulness are evident might be claimed as being of G*D. This would be a G*D for all.

But we so often go on one step too far and claim that the only true steadfast love and faithfulness is that which reflects those in a position of privilege and power. Here steadfast love and faithfulness are “for those who keep his covenant and his decrees.” This is understood as followers of a particular manifestation of G*D in historical, societal, and theological contexts. It is not for others, they are defined out.

And so a Lenten question comes: to what “O Lord” or “my God” are you entrusting your soul, your life? If Sundays in Lent are moments of Easter, was Jesus raised only for those who could articulate an allegiance to him or for all to see becoming G*D, steadfast in love and faithful, as a worthy goal?
 

Psalm 51

Ash Wednesday - Year B

Psalm 51

Penitential approach — wash me thoroughly from my iniquity
Discipleship approach — TEACH ME WISDOM

purge me with hyssop
LET ME HEAR JOY AND GLADNESS

restore me
I WILL TEACH

a broken spirit
DO GOOD, REBUILD

We begin Lent with choices of approach. Some will appeal to some, but not to all. All-in-all, the discipleship approach bears more hope and fruitfulness than the penitential. This also accords with the beginning of Lenten disciplines looking toward baptism and membership in Christian Community. Little-by-little, we shifted from an affirmation to a denial-of-self. That shift carried with it the seeds of destruction. A church cannot last (though it has for a long time) only built on penitence and atonement and other doctrinal formulations. A Living G*D will simply move on and leave it doing its rituals.

May Ash Wednesday find you still moving toward discipleship and living out the belovedness of baptism.
 

Joel 2:1-2, 12-17

Ash Wednesday - Year B

Joel 2:1-2, 12-17

Blowing trumpets does not keep darkness away. The same is true for gloom of any degree.

How does a sanctified fast differ from a cleansing fast? Is there a difference between these and a fast resulting from mourning? A fast with more solemnity than another fast, seems to be a significant factor, but it is not.

Weeping priests are no protection against an angry G*D or a frail people. Better for us to have a relationship based on reality, not power of coercion by tears or flattery.

Ash Wednesday is less helpful as a manipulation of weeping, sorrow, and penance. It is helpful if it leads us to be real with one another and our environment.
 

Genesis 9:8-17

First a marker - this is the 1,500th posting here. If you are interested in giving input into an attempt to turn these comments into book form, drop a line to wwhite@wesleyspace.net and I'll send a sample of what is being thought about for you to critique. Now on to today's posting.

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Lent 1 - Year B

Genesis 9:8-17

Hooray for light - a sign of connection with dark and all creation.

Hooray for rainbows - signs of light under particular conditions. In the midst of some storms we are connected with the storm and all through a rainbow sign. Other storms, without a visible rainbow, bring forest fires and tornadoes that raise questions about a distinction between destroying all flesh and the destruction of particular flesh.

Hooray for no light or otherwise mediated light - a sign present in no sign.

A sign of ashes or rainbows will at some time come up short. Will a promised fire next time also come up short? We either have an understanding of being a part of all that is, or we don’t. This goes beyond a sign or any other attempt at proof.

Mark 1:9-15

Lent 1 - Year B

Mark 1:9-15

Last week we heard these “Beloved” words on a mountain top. Today we move back in time and lower in elevation to the entrance to the Dead Sea.

Wherever we are, it is holy ground. Wherever we are, we are beloved.

Simple concepts difficult to embody. We keep getting sidetracked by what feels like wilderness times. Every temptation is a variation on “how might I lose my sense of belovedness this time?”

Thank goodness Sundays were never a part of the penitential approach to spirituality. Even if our experience of life is six-sevenths penance, there is still a kernel of belovedness available to grow into the fruit of our life.

Remember on these Sundays that the goal of Lent is deeper discipleship, not restricted living.

“It is birth time. G*D is present in my life. Make a difference. Trust hope.” [New Revised John]
 

Matthew 6:1-21

Ash Wednesday - Year B

Matthew 6:1-21

Manifest your prayer through your life. Turn your life into a prayer.

From whichever direction you approach this passage, it won’t be long before you are travelling down the other path.

Do not store up for yourself treasures on your forehead. Particularly do not try to be more subtle by having them show on the back of your hand. Rather be the treasure you are, it will be recognized in time.
 

lightening

Epiphany Last - Year B

with a cloud of light
and a hearty heigh-ho Silver away
that mysterious stranger
rode into the sunset

clouds of light
have ever since begun
new adventures
in each new dawn

sunset sunrise noontime
each have their light cloud
wherein everything looks different
from before to after

Moses, Elijah, Jesus, and you
are all different after
cloud lightening strikes
once grounded now freed

free to find the unlit
bursting into flames
of belovedness for now
and belovedness fore’er

everything becomes beloved
proclamations are easier
audiences are wider
clarity is valued

light shines out of clouds
into open hearts
revealing G*D minds
and Neighborly hands

so off to pharaohs
off to baals
on to jerusalem
and beyond
 

2 Corinthians 4:3-6

Epiphany Last - Year B

2 Corinthians 4:3-6

Good news is veiled, burka-ed. What it shall yet become is unknown. There may be a sweet perfume emanating, but it is like catching a mere glimpse of beauty - looking around for more - and wondering what triggered that sense for everything still seems everyday-ish.

This is true for all of us, whether we want to claim any particular one is on a track to perishing or flourishing. Our own beauty seems pale, not transfigured at all, very ordinary. What beauty is present in us and will last beyond us? - inquiring minds want to know.

Our current circumstance of mores, taboos, economies, powers, authorities blind us to the gifts available to and through ourselves and our neighbors.

While it is so comforting to be humble and claim our unimportance in relationship to mighty prayer-warrior Jesus or judge and sender-off-to-hell Jesus, we really cannot deny the good news that is inside us and is ours alone to reveal.

If light is going to shine out of darkness, it cannot be a slave-light. It will be our own knowing that we, too, are a light of the world and sin is our hiding of that under whatever cultural basket is convenient at the time. This is a week to practice shining forth.
 

Psalm 50

Epiphany Last - Year B

Psalm 50

Out of beauty, G*D is evident. Think hoarfrost where a mere degree of difference reveals that which was there all along - living water.

Those who bring thanksgiving are beauty personified. Be personified.

2 Kings 2:1-14

Epiphany Last - Year B

2 Kings 2:1-14

Elisha and Ruth have different styles, but both are clear about where their loyalty lies - with Elijah - and - Naomi - and - G*D. While each will benefit from their commitment, they seem to pay attention to their relationship before its perks. They also understand that their action requires a dual connection between Person and G*D. These cannot be separated. Whether focusing first on Person or on G*D, the other is always implied in healthy situations. Problems arise when we claim one or the other to be most important. Again with the “both/and”.

To pay too much attention to the details of the respective stories is to miss the deep relationships. Even if Elisha had not been able to “work” Elijah’s dropped garment, it was enough that he witnessed Elijah’s passing from life to beyond.

The temptation is to think that the magic cloak was all that was left of Elijah. That level of faith makes shrouds and pancakes with a cultural image of Jesus on them into some false proof of the unprovable. I would also appreciate a story-line that had Elisha wading back to work and Ruth not hooking up with Boaz. Imagine how the personal and religious stories might have been enhanced without an easy happy ending.
 

Mark 9:2-10

Epiphany Last - Year B

Mark 9:2-10

The NRSV has it that Jesus was transfigured “before” Peter, James, and John. While meaning “in front of” or “in the presence of”, there is also a time factor meaning available - “in advance of”. Imagine for a moment that Jesus is simply transfigured/changed in advance of your transfiguration or changed energy level, not as something unique.

What would you do differently if you were to begin to understand that your transfiguration is already in process? Would you press on to analyze how to get on with it, or get in your own way?

Jesus was between times, like you - prophets, saints, good folk had gone before him and were available as advisors. There was a task ahead that was large enough to simply be done, regardless of any consequences - any.

With good examples of those who preceded, anyway and everyway, and something to apply that to, you, too, would be transfigured. No more waiting until you grow up or out or dead.

What these days needs more justice? More kindness? More G*D? There you go. Listen to those important voices in your life and move on. No more utopias. No more guarantees of result. Just energy and purpose. Blessings to you and Blessings expected from you.
 

choosing

choosing choosing
twenty-four seven
choices come and come
in your face
kneeling begging

to look a choice in the face
is to look at G*D's face
no backsides here
will I won't I choose
will you won't you choose

turn and turn again
a choice is still here
and there and everywhere
lepers and saints
each have choices

part of choosing
is whether to be
saint or leper
to heal freely
to freely tell

for now and ever
we rejoice when hiding
in the countryside
or visibly confronting
today's ills and options
 

1 Corinthians 9:24-27

Epiphany 6 - Year B

1 Corinthians 9:24-27

Runners running races sounds very rigorous, intentional, trained, and competitive. It sounds like only one can win. This proto-protestant-work-ethic only forgets the freedom of grace and the mercy of G*D.

Yes, intend to do no harm, intend to do good, and intend to change your thinking with an encounter of a larger picture. Yes, give life your all. And, yes, practice, practice, practice to have your being and doing reflect well on one another.

Know that you are not disqualified. You never were and never will be disqualified. The opportunity to turn and become integrated with your self and with tomorrow is always present. Not being disqualified, brings with it so sweet a soul song that we find a joy in rigor, intentionality, training, and moving deeper. This allows us engagement with the disciplines that enhance our common experience and common wealth.
 

Psalm 30

Epiphany 6 - Year B

Psalm 30

There is no keeping a joy from bubbling over the limits of propriety. One way or another; one time or another; one setting or another will find its expression lighting the way for another joy to be expressed.

Joy calls to joy across every deep chaotic place, binding otherwise disparate persons and situations together.

Our one warning is not to turn a joy into a bargaining chip, it simply is. When mourning finds its dance, it is a Zorba dance that blocks out all other realities for a time. Joy can’t be invested, only well used. And well-used joy goes on and on, always paying forward.

So what healing, differentiated from curing, is bubbling in your life today? May you engage it today and not put it off until it can but burst out. Quiet, consistent bubbling is a good way to interact with equally present difficulties.
 

2 Kings 5:1-17

Epiphany 6 - Year B

2 Kings 5:1-17

“I will accept nothing!”

This is a strong and difficult response. Who among us is capable of a “nothing” response when our life has significantly changed? We will find a way, subtle or overt, to claim the change and affirm the process.

We have a difficult time simply accepting a new path and beginning to walk it without a moment of conversion to talk about, again and again. It is as if a particular response ties us to a moment of change that we can talk about and talk about, but not proceed from - we get caught in our conversion experience and can’t let it go. The strongest believers are recent converts, the newest in love are blind - so much is riding on their experience being equated with life itself.

Naaman’s final request gives credence to the difficulty of doing “nothing”. If nothing else, we will signify our own cleansing by hauling dirt along, perverse creatures that we are.

Don’t just stand there, do “nothing” and get on with it.
 

Mark 1:40-45

Epiphany 6 - Year B

Mark 1:40-45

Should someone come to you, having seen great things in you, how would you respond to them?

If the great thing was something you could do for them, would that be different than if were a great thing they saw you doing for someone else or for yourself?

Presuming you both saw the same possibility, would you do what was asked? If you didn’t see the possibility, would you refrain from even trying?

In this case both the leper and Jesus were gazing in the same direction and a healing eventuated.

Hooray for the moment. Now what? Was this just between the two or did it have a larger context? Obviously, while the two had a similar vision about a healing they did not have the same agreement on what was next. Do you think, in hindsight, that Jesus would have done better to have gotten a written confidentiality statement to constrain any reporting forthcoming from a priestly confirmation ritual? Or, just claimed the healing and told the former leper to spread the news.

What about your moments this week. Are they just your moments or might they give evidence to a larger context and the gifts you need to recognize and enact on a more regular basis? You haven’t really signed a confidentiality statement about your life, have you? Surely not. So, be not afraid to let the news out about your experiences.
 

roam on

Epiphany 5 - Year B

leave your official holy place
leave your regular home
leave your desert-ed retreat

no matter which might be termed
holy, holier, holiest
wait! there’s more!

that no-good town next door
that silly goofus next house over
that bustling times square

haven’t you been paying attention
G*D can’t be hog-tied anywhere
Houdini had nothing on G*D’s slipperiness

and, dear creature, pay attention
you are of the same lineage
here there and everywhere

faint not - you’ll just bump your head
mount up - there are boundaries to cross
walk on - past cookie-cutter orthodoxies

build up synagogue, church, and mosque
support fellowships and covens
guard temples and shrines

clean houses, teepees, and yurts
encourage chalets and shacks
fix foundations and roofs

set foot on soil of every color and acidity
wonder at a Marianas Trench and Mount Everest
protect desert and tropical forest

what do you have to lose
certainly not freedom
share blessings
 

1 Corinthians 9:16-23

Epiphany 5 - Year B

1 Corinthians 9:16-23

If I proclaim the gospel, this gives me no leg up. Likewise, if I focus healings, I am no farther ahead of anyone else. Whatever my claim to fame, it is a false comfort if I believe it.

What does benefit me by grounding me deeper in the reality of gifts, is simply using those at my disposal. When freely used, by me and for others, great common-wealth is generated.

Again, to do what I do for even the good cause of winning over someone, is to lose my focus. My best is simply my best, regardless of what its effectiveness for some other goal might be. An old song goes, “do what you do do well”. May you do do well and laugh at scatological humor and smile abundantly.
 

Psalm 147:1-11, 20c

Epiphany 5 - Year B

Psalm 147:1-11, 20c

Everyone is looking for a gracious G*D - at least one gracious to them, if not to their enemies.
 
It’s lovely to have a G*D that confirms our center of power and brings an in-group back into relationship with one another and in charge of an occupied space.
 
How wonderful to have a G*D who mends our every flaw.
 
There is nothing better than a G*D who sets a large enough context that we can use universally for ourselves and against others.
 
Indeed, great is our G*D - powerful and wise for smoothing our path to greatness.
 
While G*D is defined as a lifter of the downtrodden, it is always understood that is us (whiney Christians in America fit this model of feeling persecuted against all facts to the contrary) and never anyone else who experiences being downtrodden. Likewise, the wicked are always “them” and never “us”.
 
So sing and dance while G*D takes care to keep us on top.
 
Prosperity is in process because the unseen hand of G*D (whatever economic system is in place) is always at work.
 
So, keep this relationship going - fear G*D by expressing your steadfast love for the same.

Yep, praise is an easy way to get what you want.

Isaiah 40:21-31

Epiphany 5 - Year B

Isaiah 40:21-31

Have you not known? Have you not heard (seen, felt, smelled, tasted, sensed in any way)?

There is more than the circle of earth we run on. Raise your eye and see systems and processes whirling slowly - beyond your control.

This larger universe is available to your moments of faintness and powerlessness. Amazingly, this larger reality, from the inside, rises and we mount higher and walk farther.

This wonderful dynamic makes our very being tardis-like. We are larger on the inside than ever we thought for we are connected to an outside which is more intimate than we had felt possible (AstroCantus).

What have you yet to know? What have you not yet experienced as real? All of that and more is available to you and me, and us together. Let this epiphany not go lightly.
 

Mark 1:29-39

Epiphany 5 - Year B

Mark 1:29-39

In a synagogue and in a home, healing takes place. Any distinction between sacred and secular is false. Everything Is Holy Now

We are just coming off a synagogue story where the result of a healing was amazement. This home story has the result of bringing all who were sick to Jesus - it doesn't matter if they were in synagogue/church earlier or not. A home setting has more flexibility and authority than any institution that carries restrictive rules in its DNA - rules that limit the freedom of G*D to call and gift and heal anyone, period.

After the openness expressed in a home setting, word comes that even more people are seeking all that such freedom has to offer - “Everyone is searching for you.” When was the last time you heard that about a church?

Interestingly, Jesus takes this information and further expands it - from synagogue to a home in a community to more towns. Eventually we understand the expansion goes to the ends of Galilee and then the earth.

Remember here that there is both a message and a healing. They go hand in hand.

Hear again the message: Belovedness and happiness is real and energizing. This is G*D’s presence and is growing. Respond by not being stuck - change your hearts and lives and trust an abundance in you and in all.

Hear again the healing: All who were sick were brought and healed. All.
 

Where?

Epiphany 4 - Year B

they went to Capernaum
the same way
we find ourselves
where we are

they went to synagogue
just because it was sabbath
and teaching occurred
as it does

new sparks flew
not just rote
a new freedom
was flowing

just as unsurprising
as another sabbath
is the presence of
brokenness

what does a new freedom
have to do with brokenness?
is freedom for one
destruction for all others?

if you have to ask
you are blind to the silly
crazy at a creation deep level
lost from your belovedness

and so we stand silent
before a captive
our silence calling
forth depth

such depth of abundance
that brokenness is pushed out
there is no room
where we are not connected

a healer is convulsed
along with the healed
both cry aloud
be whole

amazed? really?
this is creation old
movement
void to an eighth day

what is this?
a new teaching?
no - simply
applied freedom

in Capernaum still
in dark and dreamless streets
you and yours arrive
to freely free
 

1 Corinthians 8:1-13

Epiphany 4 - Year B

1 Corinthians 8:1-13

Now, concerning food sacrificed to idols....
Now, concerning xxxx(anything)xxxx....

It appears any claim to knowing forgets that understanding shifts. Thus it is important to come to grips with what is claimed as a source of authority. Here Paul attributes rules, “what everyone knows”, to G*D.

In this case we are reminded that there are rules and principles beyond an immediate limitation on behavior. These larger meta-understandings come from a relationship named love. Through these we find the courage to enter into a new relationship with food and idols. Through these we find the assurance that we can break our own larger rules on behalf of others - doing so willingly, not coerced.

There is not a way to protect others from falling away from their next best ideal, much less one of their past beliefs. To operate out of false protection of another is simple enabling. It would be more helpful if Paul were to speak out of what one can do with integrity while caring for another rather than taking responsibility for their well-being. In this way I can eat with vegans and vegetarians, with omnivores and advocates of steak tartare, without trying to talk them out of their way or show them up with an alternative menu. We need more honoring of differences-in-doing than attempts at conversion-of-being.

Diets do not bring us close to ultimate reality, though they can help remind us to live out of a sense of fullness, not scarcity. Making others into ourself does not construct a paradise. Freedom to respond beyond rules leads us to the big non-rule - be with others as you would have them be with you.

Now, concerning food or anything else, be strong enough in your conscience to be gentle with the conscience of others.
 

Psalm 111

Epiphany 4 - Year B

Psalm 111

G*D’s got you in the palm of a nonpareil hand and is listening hard for your ultimate respects uttered in extravagant language.

The fearfulness of your position must be recognized and this begins your learning, but does not end it. And the same for G*D.

Presuming you can get through a bias of G*D for fear inspired behavior, there may arise within you both more options. G*D might hear praise echoing and enduring forever and not be as demanding of that particular response from such as yourself. You might practice thankfulness until it permeates every bone in your body and be a natural response to any unnatural occurrence - not because it is demanded, but because it feels so good.

What is your fear-based learning today?
 

Deuteronomy 18:15-20

Epiphany 4 - Year B

Deuteronomy 18:15-20

How straight forward - listen to G*D’s prophet and all will be well for you. If not, of course, it will be all the worse for you. Likewise prophets are to only prophesy what G*D intends. To do otherwise will bring death, obliteration.

This sounds as if it has all the bases covered. Epiphanies will be authorized. How could a prophet system like this go wrong? Well, G*D’s delayed implementation of threats to false prophets seems to have had significant consequences.

It seems as if court prophets, looking out for their own profit, have proliferated over time. There is no shortage of pundits (today’s spelling of prophet). Would that they understood the importance of speaking carefully, lest they be considered heedless and cast away.

Most true prophets end up getting heartburn as they live between the compulsion to speak and a fear to speak beyond what they know. Most false prophets end up prospering under whatever political system they are currently working.

Just know that the next prophet is coming from the people, just like you. And it may well be you. Enjoy the ride.
 

Mark 1:21-28

Epiphany 4 - Year B

Mark 1:21-28

Authority - “meaning the freedom to express one’s powers” (JANT).

Authority is a freedom always available, even in coercive situations. Expressing one’s powers may or may not carry the day in the short-run, but it is always a witness to what you consider to be trustworthy. In this you can be as authoritative as Jesus.

It is worth reflecting on the accusation, “Have you come to destroy us?” Certainly there is a sense in which the answer is, “Yes”. For some who are into security, any modification from their ultimate control, is a death. This is the same dynamic used by those privileged in religious power. They must protect every part of their established tradition for the loss of any one part is experienced as a destruction of all of it.

The new Jewish Annotated New Testament is very clear here: “Although there has been a tendency in the modern period to distinguish Jesus’ healings from those of contemporary Jews and others, this is a theological not historical judgment. The miracles in the Gospels contain the same procedures, healing formulae ..., and demonological lore as the magic of the ancient world.”

Let’s not get caught up in trying to make things more holy than they are and openly stick to the simplicity of a freedom to express a power available in the moment.
 

Rhythm

Epiphany 3 - Year B

look back through history
and you’ll find yourself
having been spoken for
by someone along the way

that thoughtful ancestor
gives credence
to your deep heart’s core
but is now off the scene

now it is your time
to carry and advocate
an important piece of wisdom
unexperienced by others

carrying on ancient truth
builds a bridge to tomorrow
picking up strangers along the way
entrusting them with yourself

called from their past
into your new today
and better tomorrow
interesting days are ahead

when you have moved on
they will carry on
in strange and wondrous ways
those before you

honor now your ancestors
before you join them
in fulfilling hopes
and overflowing

anticipate your descendants
by planting seeds
they will reap
and replant

1 Corinthians 7:29-31

Epiphany 3 - Year B

1 Corinthians 7:29-31

If we are going to affirm that the present configuration of love and power is out of balance and passing away, there comes a new challenge.

Continuing to live as though we were perpetually confined to the present is expecting a different outcome from the same behavior. However you were living a day ago, change it today that tomorrow might blossom and grow.

Moving on is a given, treat it as such. Hop to.
 

Psalm 62:5-12

Epiphany 3 - Year B

Psalm 62:5-12

Called to change ourselves and the world around us - to set a new course - to enter into a new creation, an 8th day - to whisper and shout about change - to see G*D change : this is our rock of salvation, our power to proceed, regardless.

On the surface of this psalm it is G*D who doesn’t change but is a source of refuge for us when we waver or feel wobbly in the face of one violence or another. This seems to work for some. Blessings to them. For others of us, this static gap between G*D and ourselves is greatly disappointing in its mechanism to keep us in a juvenile state.

When it is all about G*D, its all about nothing.
When it is all about Creation, its all about everything being related.
 

Jonah 3:1-5, 10

Epiphany 3 - Year B

Jonah 3:1-5, 10

Change is a consistent part of life. The only thing that doesn’t change is change.

Change comes to Jonah, to the citizens of Nineveh, to G*D.

There is an old story about the 36 hidden saints in the world (Tzadikim Nistarim or Lamed Vav Tzadikim). No one knows who they are, including themselves, but without them the world would grind to a halt. They are seedbeds of change - not in terms of technical innovation, but for how we treat one another. Repentance and forgiveness are great change agents.

Since you may be one of the anonymous saints, what change needs to be made in you to live a whole and mature life that others might experience you and the hope you carry within?

Since your neighbor, or even enemy, may be one of the anonymous saints, what change needs to be made in you for them to be more whole and mature?
 

Mark 1:14-20

Epiphany 3 - Year B

Mark 1:14-20

Was the stimulus for Jesus proclaiming “good news of G*D” the arrest of John or Jesus’ return from wilderness of post-baptismal temptations?

If Jesus is seen as the inheritor of Baptist John, folks might well shy away from what appears to be a losing cause - personal repentance and baptism as political/religious resistance.

If this is an external manifestation of an internal strengthening, we might better hear a communal invitation to repentance and trust as good news in and of themselves. Was Jesus empowered by an experience of temptation recognized and dealt with to such an extent that Simon, Andrew, James, and John were able to catch more than the words reported - “Follow me”?

Where, these days, do you hear an invitation to trust a repentance based on a direct encounter with temptation’s power. Is it in the political realm, the religious, the personal, the economic?

Should you be blessed/cursed with hearing an invitation into larger living, which realm will not be affected as you engage yourself with a new level of conscience and consciousness? Yes, every part of life is renewed. You can catch a part of this as you reflect on Martin Luther King, Jr.’s official day, today.

Repentance as empowerment toward a common good is worth looking at. In particular, how this dynamic works within your life and, in general, within the life of the world.
 

no denying deceit

Epiphany 2 - Year B

in days of old
Nazareth was questionable
so close to co-optation
by Roman opulence
in nearby Sepphoris

today we ask what good
could come out of Washington, D.C.
or Wall Street wealth obsession
or Main Street job needs
or your freedom

it is a question of deceit
so many are filled to the brim
and to hear it is not important
is a most important word
for Nathanael and all

where Jesus comes from
is a big deal in his day
this significant political question
needs more than a log cabin
or fig tree or halo

wherever Jesus is from
he reveals G*D
wherever you are from
G*D is revealed
by an honest question

back and forth
Jesus and Nathanael
have one epiphany
after another
and invite you
 

1 Corinthians 6:11-20

Epiphany 2 - Year B

1 Corinthians 6:11-20

There are two competing values going on here. One is about Jesus and one about G*D.

Jesus has become a certifying authority. Here we get into atonement theologies. Here we find liturgy and ritual with baptism. Fore and aft, these technical diagnostics wrap around a conversation about unity with G*D.

G*D is a living tension between all possibilities and the limits of choice. While having many choices ahead of us, we are limited in those actually available to be implemented. And even within this more limited field we find our choices to be revealing of our deep desire. Here we find a reuniting of body and spirit beyond any creedal power or institutional authority.

The simplest proposition here is, “Anyone united to G*D is one in spirit with G*D”. This basic is also the most complex in its application. Have we honored Jesus by affirming “we have been bought” or is this a prostitution of our unity in G*D? Have we glorified Christ by being baptized or prostituted ourselves to ritualized language about baptism?

Eventually we come back to re-connecting body and spirit, ourselves and G*D. Jesus and Christ, similarly connected, are one model by which we catch a glimpse of what it means to love G*D with our mind and heart, our actions and stillness, our uniqueness and unity.
 

Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18

Epiphany 2 - Year B

Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18

Hooray, G*D knows me, through and through.
Hissss, I don’t know myself, hints aren’t sufficient.

Hooray, G*D is omniscient.
Hissss, I don’t have a clue about why I am.

Hooray, G*D knit me together.
Hissss, I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Hooray, G*D is still with me.
Hooray, I am still with God.

At some point we experience a shift from Hissss to Hooray. It seems to come in unexpected times. Nathanael met this change with the image of a fig tree. Samuel had his conversion in dream-time. One older, one younger. (Both are males, but that’s standard for patriarchal source material and not a requirement.)

All of a sudden we see, with G*D’s eyes, our unformed substance and join G*D in calling it forth, saving us both, maturing us both, bringing both of us to wholeness and health. In the end there is no way to continue putting ourselves down for the presence of G*D to be seen. Like it or not, G*D also needs to see already formed and still unformed substance through our eyes. If G*D is to be glorified, so must we and all be glorified - this goes beyond a mutual admiration society.

As G*D investigates our life, let us investigate G*D’s life. This is an eternal learning and a worthy road to travel.
 

1 Samuel 3:1-10, (11-20)

Epiphany 2 - Year B

1 Samuel 3:1-10, (11-20)

When life outside our experience clamors for attention, we find we are formless and void, we have no database in which to encode data.

Samuel didn’t have it. Eli didn’t put it together the first time around. Blessed be persistence that refuses to let us have the out that Scrooge tried - “an indigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of underdone potato.” No, eventually we have to put down our explanations, so finely honed, and say to the universe, “Huh?” and “Here I am.”

To finally acknowledge a mystery is to paint a target on your mind and heart that the mystery be birthed in you - that you will live out your revelation.

May you lift from the ground all the revelations that have fallen about you and toss them to the sky. So is trust evidenced and gained.
 

John 1:43-51

Epiphany 2 - Year B

John 1:43-51

You want to buy a field? Can anything good come from that sort of investment. Invest, instead, in a bank too big to fail.

You found the fulfillment of Moses and the Prophets in Nazareth? Really, Nazareth!

How easy it would have been for Philip to walk away from Nathanael, but he took his conversation all the way to Missouri - “Come and see.”

How easy is it for you to walk away from a discouraging word? Do you have a next step in a conversation that will eventually lead to such an invitation as Philip’s?

Beyond this example of persistent evangelism, it is instructive to reflect on Nathanael as we do upon Thomas, another doubter. You might be interested in a book by Jennifer Michael Hecht Doubt: A History: The Great Doubters and Their Legacy of Innovation from Socrates and Jesus to Thomas Jefferson and Emily Dickinson.

What is the basis of your belief? If not your friend Philip, why this Jesus claiming to have seen you under the symbol of a fig tree (any good magician could come up with this little praise of being honest, straight-forward, and patriotic)?

Another key ability to participate in life has to do with being able to move our belief as new occasions come along. One tendency is to keep believing the same thing in a new setting and failing to come to grips with a significant variation that would deepen or modify first impressions or beliefs. Blessings on keeping your beliefs up-to-date with your experiences.
 

from below

Epiphany 1 - Year B

beginings elude us
always in medias res

what’s next is elusive
still being shaped by now

year by year
we yearn for good

is it light qua light
light related to dark

naming is elemental
shaping perception

peeping from the deep
we grin with the wind
 

dream on

Epiphany - Year B

Herod’s time lingers
G*D continues presence
available to glimpses of the wise

the Herod’s of today
sleep uneasy with fears of overthrow
dancing in their heads and before their eyes

the next usurper could come from anywhere
such universalism can never narrow vision
to know what the ancients knew

the least expected place
is exactly where the next birth
of a prophet of justice begins practice

in anticipation of downfall
co-opted co-conspirators live by secrets
and expect enough fear that everyone will

failing to listen to better dreams
Herod loses track of alternative ways
condemning himself to be an eternal villain

which sets today’s choice
not in energy expended - miles traveled or
extravagance of gifts proffered to the surprised

aboriginal dream time
erupts again into our usual fog
shaping past that tomorrow be reshaped
 

Acts 19:1-7

Epiphany 1 - Year B

Acts 19:1-7

Were you aware that disciples are waiting to be found?

The boundless that you are in touch with can draw them out of themselves and keep them journeying toward that which they sense but have not heard for themselves.

When a next step in their journey becomes clear, there is rejoicing - theirs and those they will share with. They will speak with one another in newly acquired revelatory language. They will speak with others in tones of ancient and future prophets claiming justice and mercy for outcast and the manger-poor.

This makes learning sound more delightful. Where are you listening for the boundless that your bonds may be loosened and new community formed? If you catch even a glimmer - follow.
 

Ephesians 3:1-12

Epiphany - Year B

Ephesians 3:1-12

Is there a mystery in your life that would make you stand for the sake of someone ordinarily seen as outside the love of G*D? In this capitalist country it might be for the 99% or those with inadequate health insurance. In this patriarchal and narcissistic country it might be for same-gender marriage or immigrants.

Paul’s mystery would not let him go. Is it related to some “thorn” or “revelation”?

Paul’s mystery insisted, like an eagle with its claws in the back of his neck, on facing and sharing the “boundless”.

Paul’s mystery is every much as significant as tangible gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

And your mystery is too. May you face and share the boundless with the bound.
 

Psalm 29

Epiphany 1 - Year B

Psalm 29

This psalm is commonly considered a prayer for rain. A good rain in season is a source of strength and well-being which eases all matters related to peace between folks. Were such a rain to be timely across a wide stretch, some of our seemingly innate competition and desire to conquer all else might relax enough to catch the value of each other.

It is, of course, all too easy to flip this back into an unhelpful hierarchy. Does G*D really need all the ascription, the laud and honor given for the purpose of bribery? Doesn’t a G*D larger than violence find this crediting to cut a deal all rather sad?

Were we to image G*D in another way, we might begin with freeing G*D from our picture of sitting enthroned over the flood. This has a feel of captivity to it that is unbecoming a G*D capable of finding belovedness and light in the most surprising of places - deep darkness and a belated Jesus or any one of us.
 

Psalm 72:1-7, 10-14

Epiphany - Year B

Psalm 72:1-7, 10-14

It is the king’s responsibility to uphold and administer justice. It is a president’s place to do the same. Likewise for a bishop, pastor, lay leader. And for the just anybody’s not so far listed, they too have a responsibility for justice processes.

The yearning for, searching for, attempting, implementing of justice is constituent with long-term common good.

We keep short-circuiting justice with economic and political models that eventually meld together, each subverting the other through unquestioned support of the other. Soon there is no check or balance available to keep the poor from becoming poorer even as prosperity for all is available. The needy stand as sign and significance of a lack of pity, compassion, community. As oppression and violence are put into legal place to ensure economic/political power, we look to justice leaders only to find them absent.

It is not just the king that needs a reminder about the interconnected web of life and the respect and honor due each one. This is a reminder to all that justice depends on each of us to raise the questions and to risk standing with the poor and those who have no helper.

On Epiphany may we give even better gifts than gold, frankincense, and myrrh. May we offer our heart and energy to justice on behalf of manger-laid people everywhere.
  

Genesis 1:1-5

Epiphany 1 - Year B

Genesis 1:1-5

There was deep darkness. There was only deep dark - darkness so deep that darkness itself couldn’t be seen.

What is to be done? Drop a stone and listen for a clink? Sort of. Blow and whistle into the dark until it cannot hold and breaks apart. Lo and behold, there was light all along, but not sun light - formless, void.

This is a scene of high drama taking place under the stars that knows lunar months and solar years well attested in scripture. Here there is no astrological correspondence for a seven day week. We might look to numerology and all that we have claimed that “seven” means, but that is also problematic. Why not seven 4-day weeks instead of four 7-day weeks per lunar cycle?

If this recounting of calling forth light rather than finding it and naming it, is from the Priestly line, we might see this whole process as one of beginning a blessing of all that is, night and noon, and becoming our call to bless. It becomes the light the comes up out of the water, dark water, baptizing water, living water.

May you see numinous light and shape it to practical light. May your numinous light be named with your name.
 

Isaiah 60:1-9

Epiphany - Year B

Isaiah 60:1-9

Arise, shine - your light has come, so emulate it.

The light of creation came for its own sake, but not for that alone. Creation’s light also arrived in anticipation of all that was to come. The gift of life is not just as a chip off the old G*D block, but to live as though G*D.

Lift up your eyes: see and be seen; see and be radiant.

Don’t be misled by the gold and fankincense commonality. The connection goes deeper, to light shine from without and within. Be blessed by light and bless with it.
 

Mark 1:4-11

Epiphany 1 - Year B

Mark 1:4-11

Alakazam! John appears.
Shazam! And you also.

John proclaimed.
And you also.

Abracadabra! Jesus arrives.
Hocus-pocus! And you also.

Bethleham is past.
River Jordan is now.

Your past is past.
Your time and space is now.

Secret spirits are loose.
Catch one by the tail and never let it go.

There is no end to belovedness,
no limit to pleasure.

Put potential to work through joy.
And you also.
 

Matthew 2:1-12

Epiphany - Year B

Matthew 2:1-12

As one who loves, what is your secret longing?
Consider yourself “fated” to go for it and go ahead.
The Magi will be glad for your company along “another road”.

- - - - - - -

When You Wish Upon a Star
by Leigh Harline and Ned Washington

When a star is born
They possess a gift or two
One of them is this
They have the power to make a wish come true

When you wish upon a star
Makes no diff'rence who you are
Anything your heart desires will come to you

If your heart is in your dream
No request is too extreme
When you wish upon a star
As dreamers do
Fate is kind

She brings to those who love
The sweet fulfillment of their secret longing

Like a bolt out of the blue
Fate steps in and sees you through
When you wish upon a star
Your dreams come true

When you wish upon a star
Makes no diff'rence who you are
Anything your heart desires will come to you

If your heart is in your dream
No request is too extreme
When you wish upon a star
As dreamers do
Fate is kind

She brings to those who love
The sweet fulfillment of their secret longing
Like a bolt out of the blue
Fate steps in and sees you through
When you wish upon a star
Your dreams come true
 

Holdings

Christmas 1 - Year B

take G*D in your arms
and dance through the stars

fear not to discern G*D
in whatever you hold

if at first you miss it
look again in stone and eye

recognize your death
in your holding

then bless widely and wildly
that thoughts be revealed

thoughts that would close down
thoughts that would open up

bless both that both
would be seen in action

here is revealed again
trust in what is held

hold G*D or don’t
it will be revealed

in need of a revelation
see G*D in what you hold
 

Galatians 4:4-7

Christmas 1 - Year B

Galatians 4:4-7

The phrase “under the law” reads in the Greek as simply “under law” or the Jews.

In current parlance, “under the law” carries with it a sense of being oppressed by a heavy thumb of the law on the scale of justice. Here the thumb is not public/governmental, but particular/religious.

In this later sense, an article about law and adoption is in today's New York Times. It appears the Roman Catholic bishops have closed Catholic Charity affiliates rather than comply with a new Illinois state requirement that they include same-sex couples for consideration as potential foster-care and adoptive parents.

The article contains the self-pity of, “In the name of tolerance, we’re not being tolerated.” Additionally there is the wonderful contortion of, “It’s true that the church doesn’t have a First Amendment right to have a government contract, but does have a First Amendment right not to be excluded from a contract based on its religious beliefs.” Why such silliness is not reported as such and simply left to muddy the waters is a journalistic mystery, but there we have it.

These self-serving apologies are especially egregious in light of this reported data: “Catholic Charities affiliates received a total of nearly $2.9 billion a year from the government in 2010, about 62 percent of its annual revenue of $4.67 billion. Only 3 percent came from churches in the diocese (the rest came from in-kind contributions, investments, program fees and community donations).”

This may be a kernel a sermon to be built around as we are still in the season of Joseph’s adoption of Jesus, the affirmation of Simeon, the universality of salvation, and the limitlessness of inclusivity. Just be sure to note your own denomination's hypocrisy, will to power.
 

Galatians 4:4-7

Christmas 1 - Year B

Galatians 4:4-7

Ahh, fullness of time. It’s about time. Do you sense time’s fullness in your life?

We might also talk about the birthing of time. A whole new continuum has been birthed with the choices we make. These choices begin to set up a whole new set of relationships with the rest of creation. Want to adopt a new future, adopt a new choice.

I just picked up a new book, The Jewish Annotated New Testament edited by Amy-Jill Levine and Marc Zvi Brettler. Another way to approach this is the reflection on verse 6.

6: Spirit of his son, Paul distinguishes between Christ and God but not between the Spirit and Christ. In the fourth century the Nicene Creed distinguished God the Father, God the Son (Christ), and God the Spirit. This Trinitarian conception is unknown to Paul and is barely attested in the NT. Abba! Father. Rabbinic theology, following biblical precedent, often conceived of God as father and Israel as son or sons. Still, although rabbinic prayer were sometimes directed to “our father in heaven” or “our father our king”, no rabbinic prayers invoke God as Abba, which affects a level of intimacy with the divine that made the rabbis uncomfortable. [references to rabbinic works and scripture deleted]

Can you read the New Testament without foisting later conceptual models on it, including your own? While helpful to see how others have dealt with the imponderables of life, there is a freshness available when we have to deal with source material as itself.

I was also intrigued with their observation that the first verses of chapter 4 suggest we are moving on to adulthood, maturity, and in but a few verses the metaphor shifts to being adopted. Try playing with verses 1-2 in comparison with verses 4-5 and see what fits your experience of yourself and your setting.
  

Psalm 148

Christmas 1 - Year B

Psalm 148

The New Interpreter’s Bible reflects: “While the songs of praise generally push toward universality (see Pss 67:1-7; 100:1; 103:20-22; 117:1;...), Psalm 148 takes inclusivity to the limit, surpassing even the final climactic verse of the psalter (150:6). The inclusivity of the invitation to praise God has profound implications that demonstrate the inseparability of theology and ecology....”

And the question of the day: Is there a limit to inclusivity?

If “yes”, what is it?

If “no”, why do we keep playing the same discriminatory games against people and creation?
 

Isaiah 61:10 - 62:3

Christmas 1 - Year B

Isaiah 61:10 - 62:3

For what will you refuse to remain silent? For what will you not rest?

As we move toward a low attendance Sunday we are reminded of a key institutional issue, heirarchy - which is to say, let the preacher do our faith for us. After all, we pay for the privilege of avoiding zeal. Oh, we can get exercised about the way someone else’s idea won the day on the color of the kitchen or the time of holiday services, but on the big justice issues, the national issues, the world issues - we play the “I don’t know” card or the false balance of there being at least one point on both sides.

Yes, rejoice for the blessings that have come your way. But an even bigger Yes needs to go to the use of such blessings to increase blessings for all, commonwealth for all. To settle for personal rejoicing in the face of such great need is an abomination and we don’t hear much about abomination in a Christmas season.

If you have a sense of salvation for yourself and keep it there, it will slide away quickly enough.

Will you speak out for Mary and women this week? For children after their birth?
 

Luke 2:22-40

Christmas 1 - Year B

Luke 2:22-40

What’s the right time to move toward purity/justice? The right time to be dedicated to larger visions?

Are you going to wait for New Year’s midnight plus a minute? How about another 40 days for purification, which would take us to Groundhog Day 2012? [What would happen if Mary presented herself for purification and she didn’t cast a shadow?]

Poor Mary, here to be purified and instead of that being the biggie we have Simeon and Anna butting in to talk about Jesus. Even after the ceremony is done, it is not talked about in terms of a new start for Mary to look toward more teen pregnancies but the focus is on Jesus growing strong and wise. The favor that was Mary’s is transferred to Jesus, just like that - ahh, patriarchy.

In Luke we find other details overlooked - the redemption of the firstborn (5 shekels) as well as a reference to the cost of betrayal (30 pieces of silver).

These details aside, a question remains about what rituals you see as important enough to go out of your way to fulfill? Would you have stayed on in Bethlehem for 40 days? It was probably out of the question to walk back to Nazareth and to return to Jerusalem in that time. Did Joseph have enough saved up? What did he do about jobs carpentry jobs previously contracted? Do any of these practical questions have anything to do with anything?

At any rate, Luke seems to not know all the rituals required for birthing. Even without them, blessings from Simeon and Anna come forth. Note the blessings that arise in your life even when not following the straight and narrow. You might almost think that G*D is about being a prodigal blesser. And your image of G*D; your being in G*D’s image?
 

claim

Christmas Day - Year B

beginning with covered depth
a word breaks swirling waters apart
for room for isle and continent

this becomes this
that becomes that
all the while related

sparks fly between
this and that
light shines brighter

each part is and reflects
a lightening
and light shines

darkness threatens
each part to cease
its identity

no threat is large enough
to close down a hope
that lives in us

we may falter from time to time
attempting to make meaning
but light is built in

sometimes we miss opportunities
to witness to this light
to testify to larger lessons.

to claim one’s own
to make a choice
for flesh made alive

there is no darkness
large enough to hide
a light for everyone

grace upon grace
we claim our place
in time and space
 

some days

Christmas Eve - Year B

in those days
now misremembered
we think life was numbered
but that is only a story

in those days
we made things up
to make them sound better
than ever they were

in those days
we connected birth
with music of the spheres
even angels sing

in those days
we gathered protectors around
for no one would mess around
with shepherd’s staff and sling

in these days
we are misremembering still
chosing our child
over all others

in these days
we are still making things up
to make us look better
than we have so far been

in these days
our organizational complexes
care not a whit
for mutual care

in days to come
we pray to not misremember
our source of security
is sign beyond surity

in days to come
we pray to not make up stories
and to trust the mystery
of experience

in days to come
no matter what comes
we will protect one another
honoring and rejoicing

in those days
in these days
in days to come
ponder deep and treasure well
 

Hebrews 1:1-4, (5-12)

Christmas Day - Year B

Hebrews 1:1-4, (5-12)

The first 3-1/2 verses here are Christmasy, the rest might be considered a thought experiment gone awry.

G*D spoke to our ancestors, directly and through prophets. G*D speaks still directly and through prophets.

G*D’s speakings are revealed by reflections of G*D. We have one of those reflections in a manger scene. When we look in the manger, what do we see?

How wonderful to see back to creation now recapitulated in a new born. How wonderful to see back to Jesus who trained to further reveal and reflect G*D. How wonderful to see ourselves reflected in a baby’s eyes and responses.

To leave nature out of revelation, doesn’t work. To leave a reflection of G*D out of our experience, doesn’t work. To leave ourselves out of Christmas or any other thin-time, doesn’t work.

Imagine you are a reflection of G*D’s presence. This will bring Christmas to many all through the year.

Imagine you are an exact imprint of G*D’s very being or might becomes such. This will give courage and strength to train well that it might be so.

One way to get at this is to reflect on a verse now omitted from O Little Town of Bethlehem (between now popularized 3rd and 4th verses). How would “church” be different if this was a key verse to sing at Christmas?

Where children pure and happy
    Pray to the Blessed Child
Where misery cries out to Thee
    Son of the Undefiled
Where Charity stands watching
    And Faith holds wide the door
The dark night wakes the glory hearts
    And Christmas comes once more

Prophecy continues. What we do in dark nights wakens hearts and, voila, Christmas!

Christmas comes to call us away from the duality of spirit and flesh, G*D and self, sacred and secular. Christmas calls us to do our part, to give our heart.
 

Titus 2:11-14

Christmas Eve - Year B

Titus 2:11-14

The first two verses seem appropos of Christmas while the last two come out of some post-birth story speculative theology.

Let’s focus on verse 12. How is the church training us to renounce foolish theologizing, the real impiety, and indulgent living? These are parallel terms - the impiety of self-indulgence. But back to the question, do you sense that there is any training, education, progress being made in clarifying deep values revealing G*D as our goal?

To move in this direction there needs to be a structure to our movement ahead, our training toward an end. How do we help one another bring together living upright lives and being filled with G*D until there is no way of telling which came first? How do we practice honoring G*D and N**ghb*r and S*lf? These are day-in/day-out issues that take personal discipline and communal support as well as correction.

Without training we fall prey to the strangest of proclamations. Here is a secular example of lying about reality and shading issues for short-term gain [Palestine's imagined identity]. Without training we imagine identities that aren’t there. This is anti-Christmas behavior, untrained behavior.

Christmas, the grace of G*D appeared, brings a picture of wholeness to all without artificially defining some people out. We are beckoned to draw nigh for hope refreshment and encouraged to now take this moment and grow it in ever wider circles within ourself and within the world. This is more than singing Silent Night in candlelight. It means we will commit ourselves to live-long training in living tomorrow today.
 

Psalm 98

Christmas Day - Year B

Psalm 98

Here is a most marvelous thing: G*D has remembered to steadfastly love and to be faithful.

While these two characteristics are closely aligned and often in parallel with one another, it is important to know that they have significant differences. For instance, there are numerous examples of G*D (and thus creatures) having been steadfast in love while turning a back. Likewise G*D has stood by folks even while cursing them.

In this season of light with Star and Candles and Yule Log we rejoice whenever and wherever we see in others or ourself a remembrance of steadfast love and faithfulnees joined again.

Victory here is not in vindication, but in a new beginning, a resynthesis of steadfast love and faithfulness. May you be a part of such in your particulars.
 

Psalm 96

Christmas Eve - Year B

Psalm 96

In honor of “Peace on Earth, goodwill to all” - - - -

Sing to your N**ghb*r a new song;
  sing to your N**ghb*r where’er they be.
Sing to your N**ghb*r, bless them;
  tell of their wholeness available this day.
Declare their worth among the human family,
   their good works to others.
Great is your N**ghb*r, and greatly to be praised;
they are to be revered.
For discrimination among people is an idol,
but N**ghb*rs are part of paradise.
Honor and worthiness are in your N**ghb*r;
strength and beauty reveal their security.
Bravo for your N**ghb*rs, they are family,
   Huzzah for your N**ghb*r’s presence and joy.
Hooray for your N**ghb*r filled with glory;
   share with them, listen to them.
Be in awe of your N**ghb*r;
   rejoice with them in this time and space.
Say aloud, “My N**ghb*r, my friend! Our relationship is firmly established;
   we support and correct one another in equity.”
Let the air be glad and the earth rejoice;
   let the sea shout, and all that fills it.
let animals of the field exult.
   In sign of all this the trees of the forest will sing for N**ghb*rs.
N**ghb*rs are gathering, gathering for discerning action.
   N**ghb*rs act with dignity to one another - G*D smiles.
 

Isaiah 52:1 - 53:12

Christmas Day - Year B

Isaiah 52:1 - 53:12

We have been sold for nothing. It seems like we have arrived where we are by the most natural process available. Little by little we have come to today and we can’t figure out how it happened, it must have been nothing, just happenstance, and who can argue with that.

As importantly, the only way out of our present perdicament is as equally mysterious as nothing. On the farthest horizon a whisper of a messenger who seems to be taking such tiny steps in our direction. For the longest time an approach seems so slow. Little by little we catch advance echoes calling us out - “Depart, depart.”

Where we thought we were stuck, we find it was a wraithful illusion. We don’t go out in haste, but one deliberate choice after another choice deliberately made. We have heard, “Depart, depart”.

Though hard to hear, we found trust available. We have seen the courage of others before and around us. We sense a new wisdom rising in the next generation. Between these we are encouraged to think a new thought, even though threatened.

All that is said about a suffering servant could be said about you and me.

For now we simply focus on knowing this current situation cannot be defined as normative. We are called to, “Depart, depart.” No more retribution. Rather, the blessed will lead others to their own blessedness. May you so lead and light a new way.
 

Isaiah 9:2-7

Christmas Eve - Year B

Isaiah 9:2-7

When in darkness - a glimmer is a joy.

A burden is not only personal, but corporate. Whole peoples have been oppressed by an iron hand of the market. Whether a single person or 99% of them, being burdened is a sure sign of inequity and such always falls, soon or late.

While we sometimes get caught thinking we need some wonderful counselor, mighty god, etc. to defeat such a huge system, it is important to be able to see a crack in the juggernaut (the huge nothing - no not the official derivation) that can be dealt with by a child - even a child such as yourself. Each of us is a sign of the times. As we choose justice and trustworthiness, we brighten the light available to see where else we might choose a better way.

May you unwrap the present that is you. May your authority grow continually. May peace expand through your choices.
 

Yuletide Carol

For those who prefer hearing a story on Christmas Eve, instead of an attempted interpretation of great mystery, you may want to consider this offering from Dan Dick, Yuletide Carol.

John 1:1-18

Christmas Day - Year B

John 1:1-18

The universal is always becomeing the particular, and vice versa. This interpenetration of life with life is one in which we are participants. So it is, we are to identify with being light to one another - love your N**ghb*r as you love Y**rs*lf and one another and especially enemies.

Believe it or not, the universal Word has become your Flesh. While Brother Ass, our flesh, gets us around, we are to be more than asses. From before and after, we are smack dab in the middle of transformation of energy to matter and matter to energy (Word to Flesh and Flesh to Word).

There is trouble brewing when this is not acknowledged. There is blessing aplenty when it is.

Merry Christmas to you and Merry You-mas to all.
 

Luke 2:1-20

Christmas Eve - Year B

Luke 2:1-20

Decrees go out all the time. Communal politics enters personal politics and vice versa.

Everyone is registered somewhere because that is the nature of our lives. The registration may be something we thrive in or not.

Here we hear of an angelic messenger announcing a birth. If we only had the ears to hear, we would hear such an announcement at every birth. It is our willful disregard of the value of each person, both at birth and long afterward, that grows out of past communal decisions and keeps them rolling past their time. Eventually this shows up as one inequity or another.

May we have the courage of our ancestors, including Mary and Joseph and guardians of the flock. May we have the wisdom of our descendants.

These are gifts given to us, far more significant than gold, etc., and we can only wonder at how often they are ignored while in plain sight.

When such gifts are acknowledged, peace beyond favoritism is present.
 

6 Months

Advent 4 - Year B

6 Months

six months into someone else’s story
we find we have our own to tell

of course we thought they were favored
and now we can’t avoid our own

when we stop to think with favoring comes fear
who needs a voluntary earthly hell

what this means for me and mine
is all too well known

Joe is at risk and who ever heard of a boy
named Jesus in our family

fertile fantasies re-appreciate barrenness
especially with being overpowered

spirit rape is no better than any other kind
to sanitize it is simply silly

this needs to be faced along with Tamar and Bathsheba
such a conception is hard when conceived

yes favored fear is all too real
our soul shakes

large promises are no less real
we bake 32 birthday cakes
 

Find Comments on Lectionary Passages

Another Lectionary Cycle has come and gone.

If you are interested in previous comments (2002-2011) posted here on a particular lection, you are welcome to visit http://www.wesleyspace.net/lectionary/biblebooks.html.

Romans 16:25-27

Advent 4 - Year B

Romans 16:25-27

A mystery known as Jesus is now revealed for purposes of “Obedient trust” - a fine example of an oxymoron (from the Greek for “pointedly foolish”) and such a small end.

Advent is a participation in a mystery at one and the same time already accomplished and just over the horizon. Our work is to find applications of prophecy applied to our present circumstance. These are not altogether clear or they wouldn’t be prophecies, but common sense. We are to be playing loyal oppositionist to our own proclivities as well as a status quo which extends privileges to the already privileged, in perpetuity.

Advent pays less attention to special cases, such as a manger scene, and more to the usual cases wherein we find ourselves distanced from ourselves and one another while pretending glad tidings and great joy - obedient but not trusting.

Advent moves us away from mundane obedience and toward the glory of trust. However this requires that we remember to keep focused on what has yet to be disclosed - and this is very difficult as we keep trying to figure out how to make obedience redound to our benefit and still remain open to our being a part of the revealed rather than it simply being an extension of ourself.

Advent gives us something worthwhile to chew on while living out a trust beyond our singularity.
 

Luke 1:39-56

Advent 4 - Year B

Luke 1:39-56

Blessed are you who believe there will be a fulfillment of what is spoken to you by G*D, the Universe.

What have your heard? This is important - what have you heard? We can’t go further until you identify what you have heard. Do you hear how important hearing is? It is the beginning that will require cycles of work and rest.

Thank you for listening and trusting it to be true.

Thank you for also recognizing the danger inherent with listening to voices. Blessings on your discernment.
 

2 Samuel 7:1-16

Advent 4 - Year B

2 Samuel 7:1-16

Pastors today are the equivalent of the king, living in static property while recognizing that the power of G*D resides in movable tents and the poverty of a manger. These two worlds have a most difficult time interacting. Priest does not mingle well with prophet.

G*D seems to have the same temptations to grandeur that we do. Basically G*D says, “Well, yes, I wouldn’t mind having a few comforts after another 6 “days” of work manipulating things for my people and smiting others. A little R&R wouldn’t hurt. Having a pay-off for all this hard work would show those other gods who’s top God.” And so G*D won’t take a “house” from David, but Solomon - that’s a different story. There is no explaining this decision.

Advent is a time to sort through our values: A moving G*D living with the poor and scattering holiness? A settled God expecting folks to come to a holy place? Advent asks us to discern what is behind our questions and to say “No” to the established trappings of success.

I’m still waiting for a creche that will have dung on the floor, holes in Joseph’s sandals, no halos, special magi, shepherds with light-saber crooks, and Mary in wrinkled garb with no eye-liner. This is where a living G*D might visit without getting loaded down with expectations.

Luke 1:26-38

Advent 4 - Year B

Luke 1:26-38

A mystery - How did Mary find “favor” with G*D?

A mystery - “Favor” is also yours.

“Favor” here is but another way of saying “Grace”. It is not so much what Mary or you or I have or have not done. Being grace-full is a gift. This gift is available to all and today and brings new life beyond all expectation of life.

When it happens to you (or again to you) I expect you wonder, “How can this happen to such as myself, particularly knowing how far from ideal I have been.” Such is my experience when grace and favor and new beginnings have come my way.

And so we simultaneously shift into two gears - non-attachment and deep-attachment - Here I am; let it be; onward.
 

John Doe

Advent 3 - Year B

John Doe

make way
make way
from G*D is sent
an unworthy
worthy enough
to throw back curtains

standing aside
opening a door
an outside outsider
rough dressed
welcoming all
who come

how confusing
not to go through
official channels
is a door opener enough
a water sower
not winer diner

no I’m not that
nor them
give me action
or give me nothing
freely and heartily
I believe

better is available
mourn our present
repent our past
prepare our future
open quiet doors
walk gently forward
 

1 Thessalonians 5:16-24

Advent 3 - Year B

1 Thessalonians 5:16-24

Rejoice, Anticipate, Give - these are ways G*D is revealed and drawn near to.

These qualities of relating keep one grounded and flying high.

Rejoice in opportunities available, even in the most dire of situations. Even Uncle Sol was able to start a worm farm in his demise.

Anticipate an unceasing flow of time. Regardless of how erratic time is, our engagement with it continues. We cast an eye ahead and translate what we see into our work of this day.

Give. Yes, thanks, but ever so much more as well. Give energy where you sense spirit is loosening the grip of the past. Give heed to questions of a current system thinking it is the culmination of creation and claiming there is only fear and chaos beyond current limits of our thinking. A G*D of peace is also a G*D moving ahead for the violence of today is not a good place to rest.

Test everything. Particularly test the tried and true.

Advent is practice time for breathing in (keeping a gleam in your eye), engaging processes of change, and breathing out (participating in the potlatch jubilee of life).
 

Psalm 126

Advent 3 - Year B

Psalm 126

We dream we have been restored before.
We pray we will be restored again.

Advent dreams of fulfillments prior.
Advent prays for fulfillment on its way.

We live beyond our past.
We live before our future.

Tears became joy.
Weeping becomes blessing.

And so we stand, past bound.
And so we stand, future free.

We mourn being stuck here.
We laugh to move on.

When?
Always.
 

Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11

Advent 3 - Year B

Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11

It’s time to play the game, Which of These Doesn’t Belong.

good news to the oppressed
liberty to captives
healing the heartbroken
release of prisoners
a year of grace
destruction of enemies
comfort for mourners

If, as in verse 9, our enemies will know us as blessed, why their destruction before their enlightenment?

Is there a breaking down of a wall of enmity through an expansion of blessing rather than running a tank through it? How might that look in your life? I know it will take some work in mine and would say this is Advent work on the ground before we can recognize what we have been looking for.

So, having been given a garland of flowers, we respond by following a bespangled E.E. Cummings and passing them on:

One winter afternoon
(at the magical hour
when is becomes if)
a bespangled clown
standing on eighth street
handed me a flower.
Nobody,it’s safe
to say,observed him but
myself;and why?because
without any doubt he was
whatever(first and last)
mostpeople fear most:
a mystery for which i’ve
no word except alive
—that is,completely alert
and miraculously whole;
with not merely a mind and a heart
but unquestionably a soul-
by no means funereally hilarious
(or otherwise democratic)
but essentially poetic
or etherally serious:
a fine not a coarse clown
(no mob, but a person)
and while never saying a word
who was anything but dumb;
since the silence of him
self sang like a bird.
Most people have been heard
screaming for international
measures that render hell rational
—i thank heaven somebody’s crazy
enough to give me a daisy

 

John 1:6-8, 19-28

Advent 3 - Year B

John 1:6-8, 19-28

If the criterion is being a witness able to testify to what you have experienced as a source of meaning, anyone and everyone can be identified as sent by G*D. The worth and dignity of every person grows from this seed of integrity between the courage to trust experience and the strength to share this truth in the midst of other truths.

This is a measure of one’s own way in the world, not another’s. When we remember and participate in our journey, there is not a need to judge another in relation to our journey, but for an encouragement of them to engage their own journey. What is a next step for one is not a universal.

A further measure of our way in the world is the clarity between what our experience is and what we make of it (our belief).

So, who are you? You can’t be measured against any other model. You can be measured against what you hear - “Make a better way.”
 

good news begins

Advent 2 - Year B

good news begins
with a messenger sent ahead
of said good news

a bit of in-breaking
begins to rattle boarded up windows
as a touch of more enters

at first a whisper
and over time - meme added to meme
the past is questioned

a crack occurs
in cosmic eggs large and small
wild hope hops about

people everywhere
pause listen hear gather act (and repeat)
for a messenger

in their gathering
it becomes clear each of them is a messenger
no one is before or after

each is engaged
with simple water and living water
in saving sins

my prepared way
attends to whispered messages
and announces

your prepared way
attends to whispered messages
and announces

where cross our paths
new futures are discovered and sparks fly
multiplying announcements
 

2 Peter 3:8-15a

Advent 2 - Year B

2 Peter 3:8-15a

When the expectation of a quick eschaton fails to appear - there needs to be an explanation. So it is that we hear about the mutability of time. Somewhere between today and a millenium from now, what we believe will actually become what happens. So strong is belief that it will look to change the very structure of creation and demand the impossible.

So it is not that G*D lost the track on an endless plain of no valley nor mountain, it is that that G*D has deliberately not asked the way so you can have sufficient time to repent, since you obviously haven’t yet gotten it right or G*D would have come. It can’t be that we got the start of Paradise re-entered wrong (that it will come when G*D is good and ready) or that we misunderstood our part in Paradise (claiming its presence through our interactions). No, the delay is intentional so we can get right with G*D.

If we take the justification of G*D and time out of our calculus, it will become clearer that we just don’t want to take on the principalities and power, to hone ourselves against them, and reshape our current time and circumstance into a desired Paradise. It is so much easier to await some future change done to us. So we claim a delay in Paradise is G*D oriented, when it more accurately is about our delay, not some patience of G*D.

Advent is not just four weeks before Christmas or some indeterminate time before an eschaton. Advent is our present opportunity to incarnate Paradise. Whether hinted at or embodied in wholeness, Paradise is our goal, not just a moment known as Christmas.