Second Sunday after Epiphany - C4

Years C
John 2:1-11

What to do while waiting for our time to come? Doze? Run in circles? Take a class?

There is such a focus on completedness that we sometimes forget the journey.

Mother's know mothering is never done. The kid will always be in process. So idealized mothers attend to the moment. What does it mean for G*D to be with us in the manger? What about when in Egypt? How about as a runaway? At a wedding?

When we begin to ask what it means to evidence G*D in the particular setting in which we find ourselves it becomes more possible to just go ahead and find ambrosia and amrita in honey, nectar of the gods, and plain old water (divided by the firmament, but still water on both sides of the sky). Having found the moment of G*D present is now, not an hour away, allows a savoring of the simple and finding it simply divine.

Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy by Barbara Ehrenreich may be another way of coming at this story. An excerpt: "We do not yet understand the neuronal basis of . . . pleasure, but an interesting line of speculation has opened up only recently. Humans are highly imitative creatures, more so even than monkeys and others of our primate cousins. As all parents learn, to their amazement, an infant can respond to a smile with a smile, or stick out its tongue when a parent does. How does an infant transform the visual image of a protruding tongue into the muscular actions required to make its own tongue stick out? The answer may lie in the discovery of mirror neurons, nerve cells that fire both when an action is perceived -- when the parent sticks out his tongue, for example -- and when it is performed by the perceiver. In other words, the perception of an action is closely tied to the execution of the same action by the beholder. We cannot see a dancer, for example, without unconsciously starting up the neural processes that are the basis of our own participation in the dance."

In other words, to see Jesus' baptismal water flowing in a wedding scene calls us to perceive it flowing through us. Water/Wine makes no difference, G*D is with us!

= = = = = = =

O little cana, how still we see thee lie
on the back of your "Welcome to Cana" sign
it reads, "Welcome to Cana"
your still had run dry
you had the makings
but not the time
for fine wine

look again
you've got the time
you still have the makings
for still water to become living water
to welcome the world
to welcome the universe
still no longer, still right now

Second Sunday after Epiphany - C3

Years C
1 Corinthians 12:1-11

While we were yet "pagan" we did not experience ourselves as led astray. It wasn't until there was a moment of revelation that our accepted reality didn't match up with our experienced reality - a moment we later called holy - that we began to make important distinctions regarding decision-making moments and decision-making methodologies.

Recognizing that just because we all believed something didn't make it right opens us to questions about what is now needed that is different than has been needed. We can still affirm that what moved us forward was a particular decision (gift) but that keeping on with that same gift in a different setting is now holding us back.

In the midst of a listing of various decision-making modalities (gifts) there is a key element that takes us beyond simply discussing, debating, warring about the numbered hierarchy of gifts that ranks those who hold them. This key is that of "a common good". In this sense all gifts are good gifts if they are able to play their part. When there is no dialogue between them, the gifts fall apart into sectarian prejudices.

Gifts are activated by a common good (a holy spirit moment) that senses a turning tide and shifts gears to a next gift, already present, even as we momentarily shift away from a previous gift. This activation process calls for a gift of ambiguity appreciation larger than any particular decision-making gift. It calls for a gift of humility to let go and humility to step forward.

= = = = = = =

common spirit
holy good
mix and match
holy common
spirit good

here a gift
there a gift
everywhere
a gift gift

gift of moment
gift of choice
gift of application
gift of letting go
gift of holding on
gift for every season under heaven

gifts activated
gifts received
gifts that are no gift

common spirit gift - kite sky blue
spirit gift common - kite sky bluer
gift common spirit - kite sky bluest

Second Sunday after Epiphany - C2

Years C
Psalm 36:5-10

G*D's steadfast love is showered all over the place. It doesn't make any difference where or who one is or whether we are talking a human being or a mountain - that love is a given background.

Why then the plea that it continue. Is it not rock solid? Why in particular would those who know G*D need continual assurance? Are we the most tempted to ignore it? Are we the most likely to subvert it into power for ourselves? Are we aware of how much we are in debt to it and can't ever quite hold our heads up on our own?

For folks who claim to know something so extraordinary as a source of steadfast love, we seem to keep losing our way within it. We imagine it to be limited and we need to scramble for our share. We suspect that the future may be different than the past and that we will find ourselves not being uniquely privileged by our knowledge. We fear that it is too good to be true and since we obviously need it, it may, as obviously, be turned to greater and greater expectations that we cannot live up to and we will lose love.

Why might you plead for more steadfast love for folks who are exactly as we are? Might it an attempt to lull G*D into setting us as the standard, thus protecting our rights forever? Obviously we are upright of heart, was there ever a doubt, and if that is the criterion, we get the love we need. Too bad about those others that didn't do as we do.

= = = = = = =

extend to heaven
an upright heart
until
an upright heart
becomes heaven

Second Sunday after Epiphany - C1

Years C
Isaiah 62:1-5

We dare not be silent for the sake of a place of Peace. There is so much unrest and wrong that silence is not just turning a blind eye, but actively sticking a stick in whatever sight is left. Silence is a catalyst that amplified the wrong. Silence is an exponent of unrest, raising it more quickly than it might otherwise rise.

A new name is needed in the difficulties of the day - a name that names what might yet be rejoiced over. This name holds a future of active peace and justice, not just a holding tank keeping unrest and wrong at a minimum.

Again and again we are called to call out Delightful and Heart-of-My-Heart. For our sake, as well as Zion's, we see what can be built on, not just what must be restrained, and we can call that out.

As you look at your community, your relationships, what will you so name?

= = = = = = =

any last words?

rosebud?

rejoice?

pardon, were those first words or last?

Second Sunday after Epiphany - B

Years B
1 Samuel 3:1-10 (11-20)
Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18
1 Corinthians 6:12-20
John 1:43-51

With tingling ears we have searched and searched for something that will not disappoint. We have searched inside ourselves and found the house of Eli still alive and well. We have lowered our expectations of everything and everywhere, it is all like Nazareth - unacceptable as a starting place.

A big place we searched was the law but we found it didn't reflect a Law of Justice very well. We could follow it forever and never find it brought us to a beneficial place, only a place bounded by Eli's sons waiting for a loophole to be found.

Finally it is important to fall back on such basics as being trustworthy and without deceit. These are very tough roads to travel that go beyond easy, prior, answers and are continually in need of integrated responses.

Finally it becomes a question of whom we will be with at the end.

If we will be with those we are now with, what response is needed now?
If we will be with ourselves as we are now, what response is needed?
If we will be with that unknown to us, what response is now needed?

= = = = = = =

follow me
come and see
hurry on
we will come to a mirror
and see as we are seen

choices will be feasted upon
responses will be made and remade
we'll see how this looks
and that

shapes will be formed
lives hidden will be revealed
roads will open
laws will fade

hurry
pay your money
takes your chance
you are seen
you can see

Second Sunday after Epiphany - A

Years A
Isaiah 49:1-7
Psalm 40:1-11
1 Corinthians 1:1-9
John 1:29-42

Even though I was called before being birthed [Isaiah], yet I have waited patiently [Psalm] for spiritual gifts [1 Corinthians] to be identified and put to work [John].

This is an arduous journey at each stage.

Calling before birthing leads to entitlement that all ought to go well with me. When it doesn't a tantrum ensues. It is difficult to be patient.

Presuming patience is learned there is still a desire to arrive and we can patiently go down many a wrong alley. Patience is needed, though, to clarify a gift's presence.

Again with the entitlement, seems it never goes away, isn't a spiritual gift a very valuable thing to possess and to use at every occasion, even when a different gift is called for. The spiritual gift of a hammer sees every occasion as a nail, even when it isn't. It is difficult to find one's place and to humbly use one's gift.

And we are back to a call again. Jesus is called, disciples are called, all G*D's children are called to birth after birth, to use of their present gift and future gifts (but not necessarily past gifts) again and again. A call to communal birthing moves us onward even as we try to find our place in a community that will challenge our entitlements with its own and both will need to be seen in a larger light.

The initial process seemed pretty straight-forward at first and then our realities set in. Now we need to move on to see our community as but one gift part of a community of communities.

= = = = = = =

called
through time
through space
through ancestors
and descendants

called
in time
in space
in ancestors
and descendants

called
in spite of everything so far
in anticipation of something different

called
through insight
through attribution

called
through and in mercy
to birth ad infinitum

Jesus' Baptism - C4

Years C
Luke 3:15-17, 21-22

Paper covers rock. Rock breaks scissors. Scissors cuts paper.

Fire evaporates water. Turns it to spirit?

Fire clears the chaff. This includes everything not repented of. This includes a desire to repent more than has been repented so far - to keep peeling back the onion of repentance, layer by layer. Eventually getting to the question of what is left when there is no more repenting to do or what new clarity is released when we stop using repentance as a key model for life.

In some sense the baptism(s) of spirit and fire are part of a good-cop/bad-cop routine.

One way of trying to clear ourselves of mechanizing baptism and sub-dividing it into component parts is to look at our involvement in the process. It is recorded here that baptisms were completed and praying was still going on. It is this praying part that may move us from baptismal technique to its potential reorientation of life.

= = = = = = =

Let us pray.

Jesus' Baptism - C3

Years C
Acts 8:14-17

They had only been born. They had only been born Samaritan. They had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. This is all we know.

Somewhere along the way that is not enough. It seems nothing is ever enough when it comes to measuring up to someone else's experience they consider normative for everyone - right now. No process or stage of a process is enough. Not even being at a stage a measurer will come to is enough as the measurerer isn’t yet there to measure it.

At any rate, a Holy Spirit was deemed necessary. How fortunate that Peter and John were confirmed in their experience by others seemingly, finally, measuring up to it.

We still make up rules and regulations about effective baptism and its deeper meaning when that is not measurable. I can't help but wonder what Jesus would have said about what additional was needed for a baptism in his name to be a baptism in his name. I can't help but wonder how surprised he was to find a dove diving at him as he shakes water from his eyes.

Might a needed Holy Spirit simply be a sense of belovedness, regardless of style or language of baptism? And is that enough, or not?

= = = = = = =

go
pray
handle

unto Samaria and the ends of this earth
we go before there is any evidence
that going will redound glory to us

we identify greatest need and focus there
even if it is only our greatest need projected
we impose meaning wherever we pray

twisting arms and patting backs
we handle the reins of reigning understanding
that we might drive rather than be driven

indeed we handle if not always gently
indeed we pray if not always wisely
indeed we go if not always happily

Jesus' Baptism - C2

Years C
Psalm 29

The voice, spirit, presence of G*D is over water. A slight sound, a breeze is magnified. G*D is positioned to be reflected.

It might be asked, what are we if not water enhanced? Some bone, some minerals, some nano electrolytes, but mostly water and here we are speak and act G*D in our time and place - reflective glory created with a glory of our own.

Over rivulet and flood, G*D hovers. Over time and space, we hover. Nested beings - Christmas has brought an angel hovering over witnesses hovering over a babe hovering over nations hovering over angels. Epiphany has brought us a star hovering over a manger hovering over creation hovering over stars.

In each part and whole is blessedness found. No one remains lost in chilly exile. Baptism of Jesus, yes. Baptism of all, yes.

= = = = = = =

virtual water
sprinkled water
poured water
engulfing water

where is the presence of G*D missing
if we go to the ends of the earth
there is water
if we ascend to the heights
there is water
if we descend to sheol
there is water

my baptism is your baptism
your baptism is my baptism
our baptism is creation's baptism
in our beginning is our end
and through it all - baptism

Jesus' Baptism - C1

Years C
Isaiah 43:1-7

Formed incarnate, redemption already secure, we pass through waters dark and deep, water standing against water.

Called from chaotic exile, already created for glory, we rise through waters light and lively, water living within water.

Isaiah envisions glorious redemption as an integral part of our incarnation, our formation. He remembers an exodus initially protected by parted water and all the desert and parting of more water to come. He anticipates those who had been buried far away to come surfing back.

Reading Isaiah emboldens us as we pass through our next water of redemption to find a glory not fully dreamed. Can you imagine living already redeemed, already glorious?

= = = = = = =

that which you create
is imbued with a goodness
never lost

we learn this creation gift
reflecting on our own
ever found

Jesus' Baptism - B

Years B
Genesis 1:1-5
Psalm 29
Acts 19:1-7
Mark 1:4-11

Creation moves from formless to formed, only to become the ground for new formation. Day by day lightness and darkness interplay.

Repentance called and responded to, follows this same process. This assertion calls us to look around: what light from today's repentance has come to guide us beyond repentances of old?

John's baptism unto repentance, Paul's baptism unto tongues and prophesy, Jesus' baptism unto belovedness, raises the question of what baptism through you is unto? Might it be a baptism unto peace?

Regardless of the baptism focus offered or age/understanding when one receives, there is an entry into the mystery of creation and creation beyond creation. Relax, enjoy, baptize.

= = = = = = =

have you received a holy spirit?
what is that you ask?
it is this says you
well ok says I
and off we go

what once we knew we knew
it is reduced to babbling
pretty and comforting
but babbling still
it is expanded to consequences
harsh and challenging
but consequences still

what once we knew we knew
bows its head to play its part
between the less and more

between the less and more
is less and more
than spirits holy or muddy
can contain without
breaking apart into a blessing
on light and dark
beginning again
moving beyond

have you received a holy spirit?
of course
does it measure up?
not now not ever
and you
have you been released
from a spirit holy
to arise once more?

Jesus' Baptism - A

Years A
Isaiah 42:1-9
Psalm 29
Acts 10:34-43
Matthew 3:13-17

Peace is preached through people's lives. Peace was seen in Jesus' life and invites us to preach peace to others as a way of testifying to his preaching and to our call. In peace, Jesus' preaching and our preaching come out the same. There is no partiality when it comes to peace preaching, each is blessed - period.

So we rejoice when we see another blessed with the affirmation that they are beloved. Even though we know it will lead them to the desert, we rejoice that the blessing given will be sufficient for wilderness times and dark nights of souls.

We are able, thus, to also rejoice when we finally catch on to our own blessedness. We receive with gladness and look around to see what test we will be able to meet with it.

Love Peace with all your heart and mind and soul and strength and whatever other little categories might be brought to bear. Love your neighbors blessedness as you love your own.

= = = = = = =

we advise
better to be baptized by you
we consent
let it be so

we advise
we consent
better lies there
but we are here

we let it be so
we give up better
we give up advice
we consent

First Sunday after Christmas - C4

Year C

Luke 2:41-52

In the midst of the usual there are opportunities to find something more than we ever expected. To begin to appreciate the presence of the unusual there are some games to be played - games of listening and games of asking and games of responding from a new home in the midst of an old house.

Starting with Jesus' parents (Mary/Spirit or Mary/Joseph - it may be interesting to play it both ways in regard to a lost-in-plain-sight Jesus) we begin with that which we don't know - we sense something has gone on outside our ability to see it, something has been covered over by an assumption and is on the edge of being noticed.

When something begins to niggle at us we begin to check our usual haunts to see if everything is really in order and it just felt like there might be a crack somewhere in our cosmic egg that could possibly bring a bit more light into our lives. We check with our usual perception guides - family, friends, church/congregation. If that doesn't get us back to stasis we up the ante a bit and look to Jerusalem - to our culture, denomination, wider religious tradition to find some explanation.

Finally we find ourselves again face-to-face with the ancient model of listening and asking to find a new understanding. Some of this is going on these days in terms of creation myths and sexuality (the general-relativity and quantum poles of our current lives wherein current theories of consciousness recognize the need to adjust to a new way of thinking and feeling based on new realities).

Anxiety is not a fruitful mode in which to listen and ask. When anxiously asked about his whereabouts (the result of his listening and asking), Jesus talks about being at home or having come home to himself, to his particular experience.

But anxiety gets in the way and his parents (still dealing with both options) did not understand a home different than the one they had carried on and developed.

Since they couldn't join him in a new place he went on with them. Mary treasured and pondered this over time. Eventually Mary could get past asking Jesus to come away from the consequences of his listening and asking and be able to stand by him at the last.

What is niggling at you these days that would benefit from some time to listen to, to ask about?

= = = = = = =

increase
a revolutionary concept
pushing us out of one home
pulling us into another home

increase
leads those not increasing
to a sense of diminishment
only resolved by lynching

increase
leads to compassion
for those still stuck
in an old home

increase
listening and asking
increase
resistance to new vision

increase
increase
is a dangerous
prayer

First Sunday after Christmas - C3

Year C

Colossians 3:12-17

Clothes are technologies of comfort and fashion/status. In this sense the experience of compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience are techniques of love, are the clothing covering and revealing love.

Suppose we dream about the Emperor's New Clothes and find ourselves without the trappings of love, what then?

Here we might listen in to a direction that moves from forgiveness (13) to love (14) to harmony (14) to peace (15) to thanks (15). In the sequence of hope, faith, and love the greatest is claimed to be love. In the sequence here, is the greatest of these "thanks"?

Is this confirmed in everything we do being done with thanks?

= = = = = = =

ouroboros traced again
a path told from long ago
arrive, arrive it says

finally arrive at forgiveness
work your way up to it
dissolve the past

finally arrive at love
work your way into it
today never over

finally arrive at harmony
work your way through it
each touching every

finally arrive at peace
work your way under it
pass every understanding

finally arrive at thanks
work your way over it
raising each act

ouroboros traced again
each work claiming eternity
and simply rolled on

First Sunday after Christmas - C2

Year C

Psalm 148

. . . praise the name of the Lord . . . for . . . created . . . bound[arie]s . . . . (vss 5-6)

Just how far can this be condensed?

If "created" is but another way of saying, "current", as all boundaries ebb and flow according to new occasions and new duties they face, we might delete "created" and simply be thankful for boundaries.

If there is some legitimacy to this picking of a pattern, how thankful are we for boundaries? What do they show us about the past (we can look back in sorrow at how long some boundaries have continued - racial, economic, gender, national, sexual orientation, science, and so much more) and how they have shifted? What do they suggest about a fatalism regarding today's boundaries of war, health coverage, and various demographics? Do they help us refocus images of a future for all people?

As we run into boundary questions we not only have implications of what lies on either side of a given boundary, but those soul-searching questions from living within or upon a boundary. Holding contradictions within ourselves can drive us crazy or finally sane to recognize the boundary we thought so strong was but another passing moment.

What boundary are you exploring these days and how does your accumulated faith help you stay there long enough to learn rather than simply react?

= = = = = = =

learning about our sexuality
from the birds and bees
which are not sexual together
reveals an unhelpful boundary
of technique and function
rather than conjoined conversation
leading to deepening and widening
community of com-passion

in today's lexicon we find ourselves
straddling boundaries
as we explore and define
trans-sexual, intrasexual, intersexual
and so much more

for some this is terror producing
for some freedom
so it is with lived boundaries

other boundaries of behavior
reveal other limitations
of what it is to be a
human creation
bounded differently
than mountains and goats

rejoice in boundaries
that make naming possible
and overcoming of them a joy

First Sunday after Christmas - C1

Year C

1 Samuel 2:18-20, 26

It is so easy to miss important people - parents miss children, kings miss wisdom, priests miss women.

How would you like to be repaid for someone else's gift? Those who have the power to get away with this, love it. You work - I'll take the profit!

And if you were on the other end of the game? I'll work - you take the profit. How about then?

After announcements of good-will to all we find we are back in a patriarchal setting where one benefits from another's passion and insight. Elkanah is repaid by what Hannah bore - gifts and children. And Hannah's payment is the pleasure of the bearing?

In this scheme we can justify Rachel's weeping as Herod's right. We need to ask what needs to change that we can look to a day announced, but not yet here, when elaborate justification gives way to simple justice and protection for growth.

= = = = = = =

linen ephod
swaddling clothes
a little robe

wrap round
little samuel
little jesus
little me

protecting
larval stages
transforming
priest to prophet
prophet to
the usual suspects
of me and you
and you and I
as we continue
to grow in
wisdom and stature
a favorable journey

First Sunday after Christmas - B

Year B

Isaiah 61:10-62:3
Psalm 148
Galatians 4:4-7
Luke 2:22-40

"For as the earth brings forth its shoots, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations." [Isaiah 61:11] An echo of this can be found with Malvina Reynolds' God bless the grass (sung) (lyrics).

Another echo is in Luke's recording of Simeon's experience, "It has been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's grass growing in the present garden (otherwise translated as the Lord's Messiah).

Messiah often gets narrowed down to one example. A particular one is claimed as true because of the results, as many are named along the way and were found to disappoint. Sometimes, though it is helpful to think of a messianic imperative, that will simply bring to fruition all the potential that has lain fallow.

Taking both these later echoes into account, we might read the vindication/righteousness/justice of Jerusalem to be her finally living up to her name without being distracted by who is occupying her now or promises of sitting at the head of the table of nations.

In the fullness of time we rather see all peoples and all rulers, men and women, old and young - together!

When the fullness of time came G*D seeded the world with grass - a babe and a woman to break through the cement of law to adopt all into a new togetherness.

= = = = = = =

god bless
grass
worms
cow fodder
fish food
dropping nutrients
for more
worms
grass

blessing that echoes
through generations
through spacious time
through one life
through all life
through to new blessing

god bless
grass messiahs
wriggly messiahs
dopey messiahs
silent messiahs
lamed-waw messiahs
sacred-cow messiahs
denied messiahs

god bless
one messiah
all messiahs

First Sunday after Christmas - A

Year A

Isaiah 63:7-9
Psalm 148
Hebrews 2:10-18
Matthew 2:13-23

There is an image still being held - we will not deal falsely. In the meantime we cause distress and need healing.

Are you holding an image of the one who sanctifies being so yoked with the one who is sanctified that they have all things in common, that they are able to take turns sanctifiying until who knows where sanctification first began or will ever end?

Dealing falsely is shown in what we search for and how we respond to false dealing. Herod searched for destruction; Rachel for restitution. Neither found consolation, healing, safety, salvation, sanctifying. Herod's destruction finds him dead. Rachel's weeping finds her isolated.

Joseph's avoidance of death for Jesus as a babe doesn't avoid death on a cross by Herod's successors. False dealing lives on and on, generation and reign to generation and reign. Eventually the serpent's wisdom turns into an innocent dove and at that point vulnerability to false dealing cannot be avoided or further delayed. Ramah still weeps over how our spirits continue to be killed by one another.

And yet, to see one another as those who "will not deal falsely" is background to every sanctifying event, to every experience beyond fear of death. Those who find themselves with this vision refuse to out-Herod Herod or to out-weep Rachel. As a brother or sisters with sisters and brothers we work to transform the false within ourselves and allow the result to echo, "Peace on Earth . . . ."

= = = = = = =

Rachel wept as thought there was no tomorrow
wept and wept throughout Ramah
wept and wept beyond Ramah
wept and wept for all children
wept and wept for legal and illegal violence
wept and wept through all generations
wept and wept without consolation

finally there is no consolation
no healing, no saving
only weeping

only weeping come sweeping o'er the plain

and then the seeds that were sown in weeping
watered by the tears that ne'er cease to flow
begin to sprout

still no consolation for past distress
still weeping and weeping

no consolation
only clear-eyed, weeping-eyed vision
children will not deal falsely
wept water will part to free
slavery by fear of death

come unconsoled Rachel
come unconsoled weepers of Ramah
come unconsoled friends today
be unconsoled and come

do not deal falsely with hope
weep and hope
do not deal falsely with faith
weep and believe
do not deal falsely with love
weep and love
do not deal falsely with false dealing
weep unconsoled and live

Christmas Eve/Day (Proper 3)

Years A, B, C

Isaiah 52:7-10
Psalm 98
Hebrews 1:1-4, (5-12)
John 1:1-14

Sing! Rejoice!

G*D has done marvelous things
G*D is expressing steadfast love and faithfulness
G*D will act with righteousness and equity

These three can be present simultaneously and yet be experienced sequentially. These can mark stages of faith in G*D, as well as in ourselves. It is not contradictory or heresy to either conflate or sequence these qualities.

For this day we conflate. We see peace running over the mountains, already accomplished. We see the feet of peace in the footprints of prophets - imprints of G*D's very being. This word of peace (grace and truth) yet stands against every attempt at diminishment.

We see the persistence of light, of memory of good creation, of anticipation of transformation of packets of light into waves of light and from that energy to the matter of our lives. We see the dynamism of the present between "in the beginning" and "they all wear out" as selection and being selected work on each other.

We see the long-ago speaking of G*D shine above and in darkened streets of potential. Creation is seen in re-creation.

A child is born! Every child born, bears G*D's imprint. How various is G*D! How versatile is G*D! Of course a manger holds G*D. Of course both shepherd and magi can see G*D in a manger. Of course you are an imprint of G*D. Of course we can see G*D in each other.

= = = = = = =

in the beginning was a word
today word becomes flesh
tomorrow flesh becomes a new beginning

every word, flesh, beginning
is a celebration and a mourning
as each opens new worlds
and closes others

our call from long ago
and unto eons
through birthing and birthing
is to ascend
to enflesh word
to begin with flesh
to speak a new beginning
is to move on
past past words
past current flesh passing away
past even a new beginning
is to be between
a lens for ancestors and descendants
to better see one another
and be at peace

Fourth Sunday of Advent - C4

Year C
Luke 1:39-45, (46-55)

"Blessed are you among people, and blessed is the fruit of your life." This is indeed an extended translation of "Namaste". Greetings between people at this level bring forth lives leaping from within - Mexican jumping beings, if you will. This greeting that sees G*D within the other is a creative word that brings forth more and more. One word leads to another, story upon story, until we marvel at how far we have come because we weren't paying attention to the results of our interaction, simply the interaction itself.

In some way we become the fulfillment of the greetings we have received and given. This is a sacred foundation that can set things right.

On this last moment of Advent we are prepared to greet another and the birthing that comes from such a meeting. An important part of our Advent journey has been to say goodbye to injustice and unrighteousness that we might move ahead with a blessing not held back by them.

= = = = = = =

magnified my soul is . . .

remembering Isaac escaped from sacrifice
cowering behind the altar
reflecting on abraham's fearful faith
finally stammering
magnified my soul is . . .

remembering mary at the cross
immobilized in hope and fear
reflecting on birth and death of love
finally stating
magnified my soul is . . .

remembering every trial come through
still caught in some unfinished
reflecting on my little jokes and G*D's big one
finally praying
magnified my soul is . . .

= = = = = = =

Prayer inspired by material from Provoking the Gospel of Luke: A Storyteller's Commentary, Year C by Richard W. Swanson (this series is evocative and recommended).