RAGTAG & DISORGANIZED

Isaiah 11:1-10 — The Message

A green Shoot will sprout from Jesse’s stump, from his roots a budding Branch. The life-giving Spirit of GOD will hover over him, the Spirit that brings wisdom and understanding, The Spirit that gives direction and builds strength, the Spirit that instills knowledge and Fear-of-GOD. Fear-of-GOD will be all his joy and delight. He won’t judge by appearances, won’t decide on the basis of hearsay. He’ll judge the needy by what is right, render decisions on earth’s poor with justice. His words will bring everyone to awed attention. A mere breath from his lips will topple the wicked. Each morning he’ll pull on sturdy work clothes and boots, and build righteousness and faithfulness in the land.

Ragtag and Disorganized

I am thinking about our journey,
as a church and as a people.
I am thinking how crazy
this journey seems to be at times.
Not just crazy,
but convoluted,
bendy/twisty,
and fairly obscure with
no signage to speak of,
and what there is of that being
fairly unreadable and in a language
with metaphors I’ve never,
ever, quite understood.
Still,
I was told that the way to all I pray for
(a heart in sync with God’s Spirit),
this path I am following,
is in actuality,
straight and narrow and really clear.
What’s up with that?
I have put quite a bit of thought into this,
“What’s up with that?” question
and I have concluded that what’s up
is that all the organization
that religions try to claim
is actually really disorganized
to the point of fragmentation
and those
who are self-tasked
with promoting faiths
and denominations and religious systems
in general are desperately
doing their best at trying to sell us rules
and concepts and gobs
of spiritual make-work,
and failing,
because they are just as full of fear
and as confused as those
they are trying to manipulate
to their way of thinking.
All in all their organizations
are wholly fictional,
and they are exactly
as disorganized as they pretend
not to be.
AND THEN
there is what I will term,
honest and intentional disorganized religion.
This faith-walk makes no pretence
of being organized and actually
follows the winding and convoluted path of Jesus
who ambled and rambled
around breaking
religious rules and dogmas and standards,
healing and setting free those so
bound in religious junk
they had given up on church
and in many cases, life itself.
I am on this path with Jesus.
There are no answers only mystery.
There is no dogma only desire.
There are no formulas for salvation only hope.
There is only a tender, fragile, green shoot
in a long dead stump—Jesus and us.
We have diverse spiritualities and goals,
and different spiritual languages.
We don’t want our leaders to
form us into their faith,
but to help and encourage
the fragile shoots that are us
to more deeply discover our own paths.
This is Disorganized Religion:
we are a ragtag and disorganized people
of faith gathered together
in Mystery and by Mystery
to pray together and be strong
as we share in each other’s
different faith-journeys and discoveries.
This is us.

NOTHING

1 Thessalonians 5:16-19 & 23 — New Revised Standard Version

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless…

NOTHING THAT IS NOT
©Hilary F. Marckx, all rights reserved

There is a difference between
nothing and Nothing.
I mean a lowercase nothing
and a capitalized Nothing.
The kind of nothing that is
empty and desolate
and the kind of Nothing that
is deep and warm and
kind of sparkly.
One nothing is like a desert
prickly and dry and a barren wasteland.
The other lush and full
and verdant and fecund.
I am thinking about prayer.
Prayer as emptying.
Prayer as letting go.
Prayer as absolutely Nothing
Before I continue let’s
consider God for a bit.
How we pray depends entirely
upon our image of God.
So, what is your image of God?
What is mine?
Is one image of God better than another?
Thinking of God as a traffic director,
or a Santa Claus, or a Great Sugar Daddy,
or a dealer in physical commodities
who therefore doles out
alms, charity, handouts, subsidies,
stipends, welfare,
or quick fixes in times of disaster,
or physical healings,
or the goodies we most want,
may not be the most fruitful way to consider God
in terms of our spiritual growth.
Thinking of God as one who companions,
who walks with, who suffers with,
through Whom we gather
wisdom and insights
and in Whom we find solace and comfort
is another.
The Nothing of which I write comes
from this latter consideration of God.
Begging God for stuff and health and life
does not grow us.
This is praying from our brains
and it is a form of surface prayer.
Asking God to show us more of God
is a sure bet to discover the very
necessities we need.
Deep prayer is a means
to start learning about
and understanding and knowing God
at the deepest level of our souls.
We generally tend to think about God
in negative terms—
terrible things happen to me
because God wants me to learn a lesson.
God watches me and knows when I do wrong
and will punish me for it.
God killed God’s son so I can be saved
from a fiery hell that God has created
for us to go if we don’t follow God.
These are all ways that we create a God
that is untrustworthy and treacherous.
The Idea of God as a loving God
and as a God who actually cares for us
more than God cares for
God’s own weak and needy ego
takes a hit with this kind of
negative God-thinking.
In deep prayer we learn of a God
that is tender, nurturing,
generous, and patient.
We learn of a God that loves, just loves.
We also discover that this loving God
will transform us if we will learn to pray
without expectations, or demands.
If we will learn to come to God
with an open soul,
then this open soul
can learn and discover—God.
So how do we do that?
How can we learn to
pray without begging,
pray without expecting,
pray with an open soul?
Over the rest of October
I am going to answer these questions,
but for now I will offer that
the first step
in this kind of praying is
learning to sit in silence—
earn to love solitude.
The second step
is sit with patience before God.
The third step
is to trust God with our open souls.
The fourth step
is to learn to listen with our soul.
The last step
is to let go to our
preconceived notions of God.
The step after the last step
is to begin the steps again
understanding that there
really are no steps.

RACISM 101b, White Fragility

Acts 10:34-36 “It’s God’s own truth, nothing could be plainer: God plays no favorites! It makes no difference who you are or where you’re from—if you want God and are ready to do as he says, the door is open. The Message he sent to the children of Israel—that through Jesus Christ everything is being put together again—well, he’s doing it everywhere, among everyone.
Matthew 7:12 “In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets.
Matthew 7:21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name?’ Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers.’
Matthew 25:41-46 ‘You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?’ Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

WHITE FRAGILITY
©Hilary F. Marckx, all rights reserved

Speaking to the white people, here:
When did you first realize you were “white”?
When did you first realize that “whiteness”
had privilege just on the basis of “whiteness”?
It was May 26, 1966, for me.
My daughter, Shannon,
had been born the day before
and I had gone into a liquor store
to buy a box of cigars to pass out.
I turned away from the register and
saw there were six
black men looking at me,
and I had this overwhelming
sense of “whiteness,”
mixed in with a strong
portion of fear,
and I said,
“Hey, it’s a girl!!!”
and passed out some cigars.
They all grinned shook my hand,
took a cigar
and congratulated me.
I was still white when I walked out,
and they were still black,
but in some small way
I had been transformed by the experience.
I am white.
I am male.
I have a higher-than-average degree.
I have privilege
and access
and entitlement
and class status—
not because of me
but simply
because of the color of my skin.
Everyone
who has whiteness of skin
has this privilege—everyone—
and without really doing anything special,
except just being white.
It’s called “White Privilege,”
and it is something that
white people,
consciously or unconsciously,
feel we need to protect.
I have come to believe
that most white people
are addicted
to their own need
to maintain their white privilege
and the entitlements that
come with that privilege,
and we become nervous
and fearful when they are threatened.
We can all be in denial
about that statement
but let’s see if it is true.
This morning I am going to talk
about what is termed, “White Fragility.”
In her book by the same title,
Robin Diangelo states that it is the dynamic
by which white people control
or shut down
any conversation about race
that makes us uncomfortable
or afraid.
In a conversations
about Affirmative Action,
for example,
many times a white person
will shut it down by claiming
that Affirmative Action is just
another way to cheat the system.
Or a white person will attempt
to use the law to try to get
into a school because, of course,
their whiteness
ought to have a chance, too.
In talks about helping the poor
there are some who will attempt
to stop such talk
by proclaiming that people
of one race or another are
lazy, stupid,
and out to get their (the white person’s) share
in one way or another,
steal as much welfare
as they can from the system,
and claim that people of color
are getting more than their
fair share from the system.
Even not using birth control
and breeding more children
for that very purpose.
Many white people,
when seeing the news about
people of color marching,
or protesting, state
that they should just settle down
and let well enough alone.
I have heard white people say
that the “Black Lives Matter” movement is
just more people of color complaining
and think it should be
“all lives” matter, or
“white lives” matter,
or “blue lives” matter,
because people of color
are no better than whites,
never once understanding the real
issues that underly the protests.
Many people of a white complexion
express anger and confusion
when on Cinco de Mayo some Hispanics
fly Mexican flags,
saying that so doing is unamerican
and the flag-flyers ought to
go back to Mexico where they belong.
These are all expressions of White Fragility.
Again, White Fragility is the dynamic
that some white people use to
manipulate and control the conversations
around race in a way that
effectively shuts them down
so whites can feel safer in their whiteness.
White Fragility as a way to control
conversations about racism
is really about the desperation
of white people
who are afraid of losing their place
at a table that they own lock, stock, and barrel,
have complete control of,
even to the crumbs that fall on the floor,
and are still afraid of losing
even the crumbs.
Psychiatrist Gerald May suggests
that we humans are all true addicts
in every sense of the word,
and that an addiction
is not only about substances,
but is about anything that keeps us
from the grace and the pure love
that God has for us.
In this way we white people
can be understood to be addicted
to our whiteness.
It might be hard to admit
but our addiction to whiteness
is devastating
to us as a nation,
to people of color,
to our souls.
We cannot act out our fear
of losing our place at the table
and keep others from having a place there
without doing significant damage
to our own souls.
I believe that the last two texts
in our readings today,
Matthew 7:21
and
Matthew 25:41-46,
speak directly
to the consequences
of our White Fragility.
Not being recognized
by God is significant
to the health of our souls.
The ones who are the least—
the unentitled and unprivileged—
are the very ones
we whites are so afraid of
and fight so hard against
so we can maintain our white privilege.
In the end it is not about protecting
our privilege
or our entitlements,
but about making sure
we share them
with all who ask us to share.
I have had conversations about race,
where many times the retort
is that the notion of racism
is nothing more
than a liberal/progressive’s attempt
at being politically correct.
Just another
“snowflake whining
and trying to control the lives and freedoms
of true Americans.”
My response to that is this:
What you are so derogatorily terming
Political Correctness is, in actuality
offering another human being grace,
feeling empathy for someone else,
and I understand grace
as the ultimate healing
for our White Fragility.

RACISM 101a, how do we begin the undoing?

Micah 6:1-8 – New Revised Standard Version

“With what shall I come before the LORD,
and bow myself before God on high?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
with calves a year old?
Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams,
with ten thousands of rivers of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”
He has told you, O mortal, what is good;
and what does the LORD require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?

How Do We Begin Undoing?
©Hilary F. Marckx, all rights reserved

When I was in the 1st grade
I had two little friends.
I really liked them,
and played with them
every recess and at lunch.
They were black, but I did not know that—
they were just my friends.
My parents found out that
they were black and got very upset.
I was told that I had to tell them
that I couldn’t play with them anymore
because my mother said,
“they were not my kind.”
I didn’t understand, and felt sad,
but I did what I was told.
I remember that when I told them
I could see something change in their eyes,
and in that instant they went
from being my friends
to being my enemies.
I was brought up to be a racist,
but I refused.
It was a struggle.
It has many times been a painful process.
I once accused my parents of being racists,
and they became outraged, denying it,
vociferously proclaiming my wrongness.
I am not sure there are many racists
who will admit to being a racist,
or of acting in a racist fashion.
This is why racism is so hard to undo:
no one wants to own their racism.
It is still hard for me to own up to mine.
Yet, according to the information
I receive in the workshops I’ve attended,
racism is the state of our lives.
We all are racist to a degree.
It is not to be confused
with the kind of racism
that is vicious
and evil
and goes out of its way
to do harm,
but it is nonetheless insidious because
we are not conscious of it,
doing it and obviously being
a part of the problem instead of the solution.
There is no such thing as being “color-blind.”
The danger in denying our own racism
is that we will then act it out unknowingly
and harm others and ourselves through
our unthought-out words.
Racism is defined as
“prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism
directed against someone of a
different race
based on the belief that one’s
own race is superior,”
but it is more than that.
I would like to add my own definition.
Racism is when we look—
consciously or unconsciously—
at a person
of a different race than our own
and stereotype that person and discount
their validity as a human
based upon our own fear of that race,
our own fear of things and people
who are different,
or because we listen to and believe
gossip and false stories
about a particular race
told to us by people we think of as friends.
In this way racism becomes
cultural and endemic
to our personal meaning making,
to our culture and our institutions.
If you make assumptions about people
based upon their ethnicity
the assumptions are racist.
Thinking of a person of another color
as having a particular character flaw
because of their race,
is making a racist assumption.
In a very true sense,
if we think of our race
as special in any way,
and doing so gives us a feeling
of comfort or superiority,
we indeed are thinking and acting
in a racist fashion.
So, how do we undo the damage?
First we need to admit to it.
Second, we have to want to change.
Third, we must to be willing
to do the hard work of changing our
attitudes and thought processes.
We start paying attention to our thoughts and
the words that come out of our mouths.
We listen to what we say,
and think about how that might affect others.
We do not use race as a referent
when speaking of a person or group.
Always remember that the job of a Christian
is to do justice.
We are to love kindness
and to be kind.
Walking humbly
is looking at our own racism
and owning up to it.
It is to change how we think and speak
about others.
In a very real way
acts of racism
are acts that steal another’s humanity,
and when we steal another’s humanity
we are also losing
just a little of our own.

GOD WON’T FORGET, BUT HAVE WE?

Amos 8:4-7 – New Revised Standard Version
Hear this, you that trample on the needy,
and bring to ruin the poor of the land, saying,
“When will the new moon be over
so that we may sell grain; and the sabbath,
so that we may offer wheat for sale?
We will make the ephah small and the shekel great,
and practice deceit with false balances,
buying the poor for silver
and the needy for a pair of sandals,
and selling the sweepings of the wheat.”
The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob:
Surely I will never forget any of their deeds.

GOD WON’T FORGET, BUT HAVE WE?

We all seem to learn
from what is written in the Bible.
Some of it is good
and healing and full
of love and grace.
Some of it is divisive
and ugly and full of hate.
Many Christians
seem to focus on what
Phillis Trible
refers to as the “Texts of Terror.”
She writes from
a feminist perspective,
I write from the
perspective of one
who reads this book
searching hopefully for grace.
But the book is compiled
in a way that has
grace almost
occluded and hidden
under so many layers
of tribal fear
and suspicion
that it seems easier
to preach politics and hate
from it
than to find passages
of true grace.
The book seems so
burdened with suspicion
of the other
and justification
for judgement and condemnation
that the grace
is usually missed.
Yet, here it is:
BE NICE
TO THOSE WHO
ARE POOR AND NEEDY!
DON’T BE CRUEL
TO THOSE YOU DEEM LESSER!
DO NOT CHEAT
SO YOU CAN MORE
IMPOVERISH
THE ALREADY
IMPOVERISHED!
There are some
who have taken passages
of this book
and twisted the words
so they become evil
and hurtful,
or they just plain
ignore the grace entirely.
How else do you explain
finding justifications
for locking asylum-seekers
out of our borders,
caging children,
using scripture
to justify white supremacy and nationalism,
and then having the audacity
to accuse those of us
who dare
to stand against them
as politicizing scripture,
as making our churches
into political churches.
Still God says
that we are to do
the opposite of fear.
We are to do
the opposite of hate.
We are to do
the opposite of finding
comfort from the unease
of those who beg,
yes beg,
for us to share
just a small portion
of the grace
we have been given.
Righteousness is not
piety
and nice pretty
spirituality.
Righteousness is
doing justice!
Let us not be accused
of forgetting
to pass on to others
the grace
we have been given.

THE CALL OF JEREMIAH

Welcome guest preacher, Christiane Swartz! She is a member and Elder in the Geyserville Christian Church. Christiane is also a Seminarian with Disciples Seminary Foundation and studying for a Master of Divinity at the Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley, CA.

#   #   #

Jeremiah 1:4-10 — New International Version

The word of the Lord came to me, saying,
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
before you were born I set you apart;
I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

“Alas, Sovereign Lord,” I said, “I do not know how to speak; I am too young.”

But the Lord said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am too young.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you.

Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the Lord.

Jeremiah spent over four decades preaching, and beseeching those around him to hear God’s message. F.o.r.ty. y.e.ar.s. “Trust God.” “Put down your false idols.” “Stop with your greed.” “Come back to God before things get really bad.”
He preached relentlessly, tirelessly, and with gusto. Why?
Because God called him.
You would think that kind of reference would come with a high regard, but no. For his efforts, Jeremiah was ridiculed, beaten and jailed repeatedly over four decades, thrown into a muddy cistern and left to die and ultimately rescued only to be stoned to death by his fellow countrymen.
And Jeremiah might have still been a teenager when he was asked, but he clearly wasn’t stupid. That did not look like a job description he wanted! “Uh…no,” he responded to God, “No THANK YOU.”
So God said, “Yes, I really really really want you to,” and whatever God said to Jeremiah was compelling enough that eventually, Jeremiah said yes.
Why ever would someone say yes to a life like that? Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind serving God. Let me rescue cute kitties and duckies. Let me feed the poor and feel good about myself while my neighbors talk about how awesome I am! Let me hear another’s pain and offer words of caring and support to their grateful souls. I’m happy to help. There’s no reason for me to be miserable and abused for my efforts.
Right???
Not always, apparently. So I think this passage leaves me with more questions than answers. Was he predestined to that life? Did God PLAN that one person would live a quiet contented life knitting sweaters for goats in Nepal but Jeremiah would be stoned to death after a miserable existence of offering a message that no one seems to want to hear? How did he really know he was called? How did he understand what he was being asked to do with gifts he didn’t think he had? Could he have said no? Does God mastermind the process? Would God protect people God calls? Would God allow bad things to happen to them in the process? Or does God only agree to companion in ways that only God might understand? And why wouldn’t God just fix things God’s own self and not torture us with the bloody details? I’m not sure we get to know those answers. A mystery. These may seem like irrelevant questions. After all, who cares what happened 2600 years ago.
Right???

Except.

Except for the news headlines this week.
“…Threats to raise tariffs on Chinese goods to 30% amid escalating trade war.”
“Near the Amazon fires, residents are sick, worried, angry.”
“The planet’s lungs are burning.”
“Gay workers not covered by civil rights law…”
“Aid volunteer faces 20 years in prison for giving food and water to migrants near the border.”
“ICE detention centers preparing for longer average stays by migrant families.”
“Federal court rules that detained migrant children are entitled to toothbrushes and soap.”
“San Jose opens first affordable housing complex for the homeless.”
“…Christian fundamentalists are pouring dark money into Europe, boosting the far right.”
“Ship captain who faces prison time for migrant rescues refuses Paris bravery medal.”
“Mom who inspired millions in her fight to get a liver, dies at 39.”
“North Korea launches more short range missiles…”
“Colorado becomes the first state to cap insulin prices.”
“City council candidate: Keep town as white as possible.”
Kenya social media outrage saves Giraffe with bone tumor.”
Greed…false idols…distance from God…pain…grief…mistrust. It’s still around us everywhere. Not just this week. But last week. Today. Now.

And so are those who are called to somehow DO something about it and remind us who we are. I believe we are all called to do something. I don’t think it matters if we are a prophet or a poet or an activist or a dishwasher at the happy hen. There is a quote by William Tyndale that says, “There is no work better than another to please God: to pour water, to wash dishes, to be a [cobbler], or an apostle, all are one; to wash dishes and to preach are all one, as touching the deed, to please God.”
William Tyndale was an English scholar during the reformation who was burned at the stake for his efforts to translate the bible into English. Because he believed, as the Disciples of Christ do, that everybody should be able to read and understand the Bible for themselves.

So it would seem that none of us are really excused from asking the questions and living our own answer.

What are you being called to do?

Are you paying attention?

Will you pretend not to recognize God… like that acquaintance at the store we don’t really want to see, and duck into another aisle?

Will you trust that you are enough?

Will you say yes?

Hopefully we’re not being called to be stoned to death or burned at the stake whilst just trying to do the right thing.

But these are examples of people absolutely committed to the something- a hope, a dream, a promise, a belief- bigger than themselves.

What is that something?

How do we honor that possibility in our own lives?

(Christiane Swartz 8/25/19)

SOLVING THE RIDDLE

Psalm 49:1-4 — New Revised Standard Version

Hear this, all you peoples;
give ear, all inhabitants of the world,
both low and high,
rich and poor together.
My mouth shall speak wisdom;
the meditation of my heart shall be understanding.
I will incline my ear to a proverb;
I will solve my riddle to the music of the harp.

I like this idea of solving riddles to the
music of the harp.
It’s kind of like the Blues musician’s
claim that “the blues will get us through.”
Music,
like the sound of the harp, piano, guitar, bass,
in a 12-bar loop that should be predictable,
but is not,
and is littered with
surprising accents and riffs
and soul
— lots of soul —
and a warm sense of home.
And the music does not
have to be the blues
to do this,
it just needs to be music:
arias, country, symphonies, folk —
whatever touches the riddles
and quandaries
and entanglements of our
own hearts
with healing and comfort.
Music does this:
takes us to a place of healing,
of remembrance,
of deep knowing.
Sometimes the music we hear is
carried on the night wind
from a far-a-way radio,
sometimes it is the wind itself.
Or, the rustle of a leaf,
or, a lover’s sigh,
or, a baby’s laugh,
or, the beautiful music
of our own hearts
as they beat the rhythm of our lives
or, or, or…
sometimes, for me,
the deepest music I hear
is the silence between
two notes in the middle of a
sweeping guitar arpeggio.
What is the music you hear?
In the Guitars for Vets Program
where I have been a volunteer instructor
for four years,
the motto is:
“If we can get a guitar in the hands of a vet
it will be hard for that vet
to get a gun in their mouth.”
Solving the riddle to the
music of the harp.
What are your riddles?
What riddles do you hear voiced
in your communities
in the news you read and hear
in the voices that speak to you?

IGNITING AN INNER POWER

Acts 2:1-21 — The Message
When the Feast of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Without warning there was a sound like a strong wind, gale force—no one could tell where it came from. It filled the whole building. Then, like a wildfire, the Holy Spirit spread through their ranks, and they started speaking in a number of different languages as the Spirit prompted them. There were many Jews staying in Jerusalem just then, devout pilgrims from all over the world. When they heard the sound, they came on the run. Then when they heard, one after another, their own mother tongues being spoken, they were thunderstruck. They couldn’t for the life of them figure out what was going on, and kept saying, “Aren’t these all Galileans? How come we’re hearing them talk in our various mother tongues? Parthians, Medes, and Elamites; Visitors from Mesopotamia, Judea, and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene; Immigrants from Rome, both Jews and proselytes; Even Cretans and Arabs! “
They’re speaking our languages, describing God’s mighty works!” Their heads were spinning; they couldn’t make head or tail of any of it. They talked back and forth, confused: “What’s going on here?” Others joked, They’re drunk on cheap wine.” That’s when Peter stood up and, backed by the other eleven, spoke out with bold urgency: “Fellow Jews, all of you who are visiting Jerusalem, listen carefully and get this story straight. These people aren’t drunk as some of you suspect. They haven’t had time to get drunk—it’s only nine o’clock in the morning. This is what the prophet Joel announced would happen:
“In the Last Days,” God says, “I will pour out my Spirit on every kind of people: Your sons will prophesy, also your daughters; Your young men will see visions, your old men dream dreams. When the time comes, I’ll pour out my Spirit On those who serve me, men and women both, and they’ll prophesy. I’ll set wonders in the sky above and signs on the earth below, Blood and fire and billowing smoke, the sun turning black and the moon blood-red, Before the Day of the Lord arrives, the Day tremendous and marvelous; And whoever calls out for help to me, God, will be saved.”

IGNITING AN INNER POWER

I think that we can take this story of Pentecost
both literally and metaphorically.
Well
maybe not too literally…
Literally,
in the sense that God
moved in their midst
and deeply
within their own spirits,
and they were so
radically changed
they became different
thinking-acting-speaking-living
persons.
Metaphorically,
in terms of the
image of fire
as a fundamental and
profound purification
of the
heart, mind, soul, and intention
of each person in that room.
I do not for
one minute believe
that God
overcame them,
or forced
this radical change on them,
in the sense that
a bully might force
someone to do something,
but in the sense of
setting free,
turning lose,
fanning a flame already burning,
yet hidden
deep within each of them.
I wonder what
great fires burn within each of us?
What candles
have we hidden?
What tiny sparks
flicker unseen
in our dreams?
What world-changing
event would we each,
and collectively,
foment
if the Spirit of God
fanned our respective flames?
In that small room,
on that day,
fierce prophets
were forged out of
a timid and fearful people,
and an enduring church
was created.
What dreams, secret passions,
unnammed desires
do we harbor?
What tremendous
events would be unleashed
by God’s flame
burning within us?

REWARDS

Revelation 22:12-13 — The Message
“Yes, I’m on my way! I’ll be there soon! I’m bringing my payroll with me. I’ll pay all people in full for their life’s work. I’m A to Z, the First and the Final, Beginning and Conclusion.

Revelation 22:12-13 — New Revised Standard Version
“See, I am coming soon; my reward is with me, to repay according to everyone’s work. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”

Revelation 22:12-13 — New Testament for Everyone
‘Look! I am coming soon. I will bring my reward with me, and I will pay everyone back according to what they have done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.’

REWARDS

Rewards…
what does that mean?
Jesus is coming soon
and brings rewards
as some sort of payment
according to
some work we have done?
This reads like life
is like a competition,
a game on the mid-way,
or a job for which we get paid.
Paul thinks of life
as a race to be won.
Peter sees himself
as being on a
spreading-the-Good News
assignment,
for which payment
might be made.
But Paul
has defined Christian theology
by claiming salvation
is not by works
but by faith alone.
But then faith
becomes a work
in and of itself
and we are left
holding a bag-full of question marks.
Maybe what
the author of Revelation
is saying
is that Jesus
is the reward.
In my theological opinion
I am thinking
that the author,
AKA John of Patmos,
is deep in metaphor here,
but still holding
out carrots to
keep the Christian community on track.
Some would rightly hold that
God/Jesus is neither
the big sugar daddy in the sky
nor some sort of
heavenly purveyor of favors.
I think that there is truth in that
while cautioning that God
will not be defined
and we truly cannot say
anything conclusive
about God in terms
of God’s actions or character
except that God
is a God of Love.
So what are we left with
for understanding this claim
by the writer
of Revelation?
Here’s my take on it:
If Jesus was and is and will be,
then Jesus is always the reward itself—
back when, at a later date, and right now.

LISTENING-IMPAIRED CONVERSATIONS

Acts 16:9-15 — The Message
That night Paul had a dream: A Macedonian stood on the far shore and called across the sea, “Come over to Macedonia and help us!” The dream gave Paul his map. We went to work at once getting things ready to cross over to Macedonia. All the pieces had come together. We knew now for sure that God had called us to preach the good news to the Europeans. Putting out from the harbor at Troas, we made a straight run for Samothrace. The next day we tied up at New City and walked from there to Philippi, the main city in that part of Macedonia and, even more importantly, a Roman colony. We lingered there several days. On the Sabbath, we left the city and went down along the river where we had heard there was to be a prayer meeting. We took our place with the women who had gathered there and talked with them. One woman, Lydia, was from Thyatira and a dealer in expensive textiles, known to be a God-fearing woman. As she listened with intensity to what was being said, the Master gave her a trusting heart—and she believed! After she was baptized, along with everyone in her household, she said in a surge of hospitality, “If you’re confident that I’m in this with you and believe in the Master truly, come home with me and be my guests.” We hesitated, but she wouldn’t take no for an answer.

Listening-impaired Conversations
Acts 16:9-15

How hard it is
to be heard,
sometimes.
How hard it is
to hear.
It is like we have
a listening impairment
We all have something to say.
We all want what
we have to say
to be considered.
So most of the
time we just talk —
without listening,
without hearing,
without paying attention,
just talking,
a little louder
and talking,
with a little impatience,
talking,
talking,
talking.
Our ears
think
that they are hearing
to what the other is saying,
but our minds
hardly ever catch
the significance
of what it is
because we are talking
over,
through,
louder and faster.
As if
that will get us heard better.
So most of the time
we seem to fail as communicators,
fail as listeners…
But that is not
what happened with Lydia,
she actually listened to,
and heard,
what Paul had to say.
She didn’t try
and tell him
how he was not
saying exactly
what she believed,
or how
their prayer group
was better,
then talking over the top of him
to prove her point.
She listened.
We spend so much time
not listening,
that we assume
that God probably doesn’t
really listen,
either.
But God is better than us.
God does listen.
To every word we pray
and thought we think.
God really listens.

WHAT IF GOD IS FEMININE?

Isaiah 66:13 — “As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.”
Hosea 11:3-4 — “Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk, I who took them up in my arms; but they did not know that I healed them. I led them with cords of human kindness, with bands of love. I was to them like those who lift infants to their cheeks. I bent down to them and fed them.”
Matthew 23:37 and Luke 13:34 — “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!”
Genesis 1:27 — “Humankind was created as God’s reflection: in the divine image God created them; female and male, God made them.”
Deuteronomy 32:18 — “You were unmindful of the Rock that bore you; you forgot the God who gave you birth.”

What if God Is Feminine?

I should state first off
that I do not think for one minute
that God has any gender.
The “It” pronoun is most
efficacious when accurately
speaking to, of, and about God.
Still, humans seem to have
the need to genderize the concept of God
and rely heavily on
making claims about God
that give them most comfort,
and the strongest sense of security.
There is nothing especially wrong with that,
except when we begin to believe
that our comfortable misconceptions
are how it actually is
and try to force others
to hold our own
not too well founded notions
of theology.
So let’s consider
the possibility that if God did have a gender
what it might be like if
that gender is feminine.
There are not many feminine images
for God in the Bible,
but there are some,
a few.
The five texts above
are a few of them —
maybe most of them.
It was a full-on patriarchy,
that ancient Hebrew community,
and it has profoundly
shaped our own culture.
Many of the Gods
they abhorred so deeply were female.
Many of the neighboring
religions expected/demanded
human sacrifice and whether
or not they were in fact
goddess traditions,
they were all conflated into
other/outsider/sinful/bad/abominations.
The writers of the Hebrew scriptures
defined themselves
by what they were not,
and they were not
like anything that they defined as
“other.”
But what if their
patriarchal testosterone packed
outlook on life
wasn’t exactly how it is?
What if they had defined
God as being
of a feminine nature,
instead of masculine?
Understanding that these folks
ran with a rough crowd
we still would get more texts
that read like those above,
and the Isaiah 49:23 reading that goes:
And kings shall
be your nursing fathers,
and their queens
your nursing mothers,
instead of the Hosea 13:16 text that reads:
Samaria shall
bear her guilt,
because she has rebelled against her God;
they shall fall by the sword,
their little ones shall be dashed in pieces,
and their pregnant women ripped open.
Or Psalm 137:9: that reads,
Happy shall they be who take
your little ones
and dash them against the rock!
What would Christianity
look like if
instead of the male god of Abraham
we had the female God of Sarah,
nurturing, wisdom-filled,
forgiving, and loving?
I think it is what Jesus
tried to proclaim when he prayed
he could gather
Jerusalem,
read that humanity,
like a mother hen
gathering her chicks
to protect and nurture,
and was rejected.
Let’s be honest
for a second here,
wouldn’t we all rather
be gathered and held and loved and nurtured
by a loving mother God
than judged and condemned?
I believe we are—
loved and not condemned—by the way.
I also believe it goes against every
warring, violent thought we,
as a patriarchal culture,
hold so dear.
We are,
after all, humans
and we have a deeply embedded
violence as part of our
way of doing business.
Still.
Still.
Maybe if we worshiped a
god portrayed as a god
with a nature
of nurture and forgiveness
rather than a god portrayed as a god
of judgement and retribution
we might be a tad different.
Which is why I titled this
What If God is Feminine?
It is a question…

WELL, GET TO WORK

John 20:19-23 — The Message
Later on that day, the disciples had gathered together, but, fearful of the Jews, had locked all the doors in the house. Jesus entered, stood among them, and said, “Peace to you.” Then he showed them his hands and side. The disciples, seeing the Master with their own eyes, were exuberant. Jesus repeated his greeting: “Peace to you. Just as the Father sent me, I send you.” Then he took a deep breath and breathed into them. “Receive the Holy Spirit,” he said. “If you forgive someone’s sins, they’re gone for good. If you don’t forgive sins, what are you going to do with them?”

Well, Get to Work

Get to work,
Lord?
Get to work?
But, on what?
There is so much to do.
So many needs.
How can I choose?
These are the thoughts that
go through my mind
when I read an admonition
such as this.
Really?
Really?
And yet,
if we take the directive seriously,
and I do,
we do not need to
take on the whole
aching, bleeding, festering, bruised wound
of the world.
To me
this means to be
open to the needs
around us.
Pay attention
to our own interests.
Find the messes
that we can do something about,
and then clean them up
and see it doesn’t happen next time.
And it is OK
if what we fix on today
is not what
we work on tomorrow.
We are called on
to engage in facilitating
the healing
of the wounds around us,
but not all at once.
I have changed my priorities.
With earth day this last week
I remember that for years
environmental issues were my hot topics.
I wrote my Master’s Thesis
to reflect on how God
and the environment are interconnected,
and while they are still
high on my list of priorities,
I now focus more
on helping those around me with
their process
of inner healing
and spiritual growth.
Still, the earth
is all we really have,
and how we treat it
is telling
of our relationship to God.
God did not so much
create all that is
out of nothing
as
God created all that is
out of God’s own self.
That makes all that is:
us, we, them,
two leggeds, four leggeds,
six leggeds, eight leggeds
soil, grasses, rocks, rain, sky
all part of God’s body.
We simply cannot
make claims
to loving any person or being
and then trash
that entity’s body.
If I say I love Cherie
and then beat her,
I am a violent liar.
Subsequently,
we cannot make claim
that we love God
and then destroy
vast portions
or small portions,
of the earth
without giving lie
to our claim.
We are all culpable
in the earth’s destruction.
Love God —
love God’s people
and creatures and earth.
Figure out how to do
that as best suites you.

WELL, GET TO WORK!

John 20:19-23 — The Message
Later on that day, the disciples had gathered together, but, fearful of the Jews, had locked all the doors in the house. Jesus entered, stood among them, and said, “Peace to you.” Then he showed them his hands and side. The disciples, seeing the Master with their own eyes, were exuberant. Jesus repeated his greeting: “Peace to you. Just as the Father sent me, I send you.” Then he took a deep breath and breathed into them. “Receive the Holy Spirit,” he said. “If you forgive someone’s sins, they’re gone for good. If you don’t forgive sins, what are you going to do with them?”

Well, Get to Work

Get to work, Lord?
Get to work?
But, on what?
There is so much to do.
So many needs.
How can I choose?
These are the thoughts that go
through my mind
when I read an admonition such as this.
Really? Really?
And yet,
if we take the directive seriously,
and I do,
we do not
need to take on the whole
aching, bleeding, festering, bruised
wound of the world.
To me this means
to be open
to the needs around us.
Pay attention
to our own interests.
Find the messes
that we can do something about,
and then
clean them up and see
it doesn’t happen next time.
And it is OK
if what we fix today
is not what we work on tomorrow.
We are called on to
engage in facilitating the healing
of the wounds arounds us,
but not all at once.
I have changed my priorities.
With earth day this last week
I remember
that for years environmental issues
were my hot topics.
I wrote my Master’s Thesis
to reflect on how God
and the environment
are interconnected,
and while they are
still high on my list of priorities,
I now focus more on helping
those around me with
their process of inner healing
and spiritual growth.
Still, the earth is all we really have,
and how we treat it
is telling of our relationship to God.
God did not so much create
all that is out of nothing
as
God created all that is
out of God’s own self.
That makes all that is:
us, we, them,
two leggeds, four leggeds, six leggeds, eight leggeds
soil, grasses, rocks, rain, sky
all part of God’s body.
We simply cannot
make claims to loving any person or being
and then trash that entity’s body.
If I say I love Cherie
and then beat her,
I am a violent liar.
Subsequently,
we cannot make claim that we love God
and then destroy vast portions of the earth
without giving lie to our claim.
We are all culpable, complicit,
in the earth’s destruction.
Love God — love God’s people and creatures and earth.
Figure out how to do that as best suites you.
Frederick Buechner in,
Wishful Thinking: A Theological ABC,
writes,
“The place God calls you to
is the place
where your deep gladness
and the world’s
deep hunger
meet.”
Think about your
deepest gladness,
your greatest joy,
the true desire of your heart.
Then
find what and who
you can best help with
that joy,
and get to work.
For, our deepest joy is
always discovered
at the heart
of God’s deepest need.

EASTER MORNING

John 20:1-18 — The Message
Early in the morning on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone was moved away from the entrance. She ran at once to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, breathlessly panting, “They took the Master from the tomb. We don’t know where they’ve put him.” Peter and the other disciple left immediately for the tomb. They ran, neck and neck. The other disciple got to the tomb first, outrunning Peter. Stooping to look in, he saw the pieces of linen cloth lying there, but he didn’t go in. Simon Peter arrived after him, entered the tomb, observed the linen cloths lying there, and the kerchief used to cover his head not lying with the linen cloths but separate, neatly folded by itself. Then the other disciple, the one who had gotten there first, went into the tomb, took one look at the evidence, and believed. No one yet knew from the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead. The disciples then went back home. But Mary stood outside the tomb weeping. As she wept, she knelt to look into the tomb and saw two angels sitting there, dressed in white, one at the head, the other at the foot of where Jesus’ body had been laid. They said to her, “Woman, why do you weep?” “They took my Master,” she said, “and I don’t know where they put him.” After she said this, she turned away and saw Jesus standing there. But she didn’t recognize him, Jesus spoke to her, “Woman, why do you weep? Who are you looking for?” She, thinking that he was the gardener, said, “Mister, if you took him, tell me where you put him so I can care for him.” Jesus said, “Mary.”Turning to face him, she said in Hebrew, “Rabboni!” meaning “Teacher!” Jesus said, “Don’t cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I ascend to my Father and your Father, my God and your God.’” Mary Magdalene went, telling the news to the disciples: “I saw the Master!” And she told them everything he said to her.

Easter Morning

After death.
After several nights of pain
and inexplicable grief.
After watching a friend,
family member, mentor, leader
die,
the disciples’ expectations
were confounded.
The unspeakable,
was said —
He is risen!
The unthinkable
was thought —
The tomb is empty!
The ultimate loss
was itself defeated —
Jesus was returned.
But don’t you think,
and I do, that the
bitterness
of their grief lingered
on their palates
for the rest of their lives?
Take a second.
Think of your own losses,
the grief
you endure,
the sorrow
that sings you to sleep,
that one piece of joy
out of all the joy you feel,
that you continue to lament in your heart of hearts.
We hardly ever speak about our grief,
or allow it to show,
but it is, nonetheless,
real and present
to every one of us.
I do know that you
know this deep kind of grief.
I know you know
that I also
know this deep kind of grief.
I believe that grief
is at the heart of the idea of Resurrection
as more of a looking-back event
than the reportage of a current one.
I have come to believe
that the glory of the Easter Morning Event
was first
discovered by Jesus’
loved ones many years later
at Table
while breaking bread
and pouring cup,
and sharing
with each other,
and that they experienced the miracle of Easter
in their memories
and stories and healings and sharings
as they gathered together
in his memory.
The song says that we serve a risen Savior,
and we do.
We are told that Jesus lives,
and he does.
We gather together here to sing,
to break bread,
to pour cup,
to remember
that because Jesus rose,
and will continue to rise
for us,
and within us all,
we can make sense of our grief.
For in our memory there is life,
in our memory there is healing,
and our memory
is like a road-sign on
our road through life.
Because he lives
in our remembering
we will all live,
we will all rise again,
we will all meet again
those we love
as we share our stories and lives.
Family gatherings,
school reunions,
random moments of storytelling,
breaking bread and
sharing cup at Communion,
in memory there is life.
And, in memory
grief will not win the day!

COME TO MY TABLE

Christiane Swartz is an elder at the Geyserville Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Geyserville, CA. She is, with the other elders in a monthly rotation to preach. She is also a seminarian at the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, CA, on a grant from the Disciples Seminary Foundation.

Luke 22: 14-27
When the hour came, he took his place at the table, and the apostles with him. He said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I tell you, I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he said,
“Take this and divide it among yourselves; for I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” Then he took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” And he did the same with the cup after supper, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. But see, the one who betrays me is with me, and his hand is on the table. For the Son of Man is going as it has been determined, but woe to that one by whom he is betrayed!” Then they began to ask one another, which one of them it could be who would do this.
A dispute also arose among them as to which one of them was to be regarded as the greatest. But he said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those in authority over them are called benefactors. But not so with you; rather the greatest among you must become like the youngest, and the leader like one who serves. For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one at the table? But I am among you as one who serves.

“Come To My Table”

One of my favorite authors, Barbara Brown Taylor, said,
“The hardest spiritual work in the world is to love the neighbor as the self- -to encounter another human being not as someone you can use, change, fix, help, save, enroll, convince or control,
but simply as someone who can spring you from the prison of yourself, if you will allow it.”

How easy this must be
with your friends who follow you,
worship your very breath and
fall all over themselves telling people how awesome you are!
But what about the ones you know will not stand by you?
What about the ones
you know will get you killed??!
Jesus knew he was going down. He had lots of options, presumably.
He could have run away. He could have battled.
He didn’t.
He could have, (and from a human standpoint arguably should have)
at least offloaded Judas, who he knew for days was going to betray him.
But Jesus didn’t live our way.
He did not offload Judas at all!
Instead,
he LOVED him. He INCLUDED him. He FED him.
…Jesus was outrageous like that.
They weren’t even extraordinary, his disciples. They were just NORMAL.
They were ordinary humans, with ordinary, flawed, human impulses.
But Jesus loved them. He had spent his whole life preaching about abundance
and unconditional love.
Especially in a time of such ruthless scarcity,
human impulse is to hoard things like food, money, material goods, power.
The breaking and sharing of bread was
actually countercultural!

So in the face of darkness… Jesus threw a dinner party!

He invited his friends. He insisted on serving them. And he did so much more
than just share a meal.

Jesus’ whole life was symbolized in the act of
giving thanks,
breaking bread,
pouring himself out for others,
sharing.
It is remarkable to me
that given all the choices Jesus had on his last night,
he chose to simply love his disciples and
give them
what they would need to survive what they did not know was coming,
a gift that would be a life raft in the days to come,
and thousands of years later with the same
fervent
relevancy.
The gift of understanding that eternal life and heaven
was not
some distant far off destination,
but that the very act of sharing, loving and forgiving would bring us renewed life
here and now.
The gift of understanding
that this would be what was needed
to fight against darkness.
It was more than an act of love.
It was an act of utter defiance against the dark powers,
against the establishment,
against oppression.
With all the powers he could choose from,
Jesus went to the cross trusting the power of sacrifice and love!

“Do this in remembrance of me.”

And so communion
is the continual living of a story of changing and transforming the world
not with force
but with the breaking of bread.
It is the thing that happens when we invite friends or strangers,
share food, laugh with them, cry with them, hear them.
Something nurturing, something forgiving, something healing.
Maybe not like a bolt of lightning
or even like an “aha” moment,
but like breath,
a sigh,
a soft place to land.
Strength. Hope. Inclusion. A light to drive out darkness.
It happens here in this church.
It happens when we show up to a friend’s house feeling
war-torn and road-weary
and they put a glass in our hand
and something home baked in front of us.
It’s what I pray my family finds at the end of their day
when we drag them to the dinner table and they allow us
to share in their laughter, joys, sorrows.
In these places, we are gifted with Home.
We are gifted with forgiveness.
We are reminded that we are enough, and that in the face of
darkness, aloneness, suffering or fear,
we can
courageously and outrageously
just
choose
love.

THE FRAGRANCE OF LIFE

John 12:1-8 — The Message

Six days before Passover, Jesus entered Bethany where Lazarus, so recently raised from the dead, was living. Lazarus and his sisters invited Jesus to dinner at their home. Martha served. Lazarus was one of those sitting at the table with them. Mary came in with a jar of very expensive aromatic oils, anointed and massaged Jesus’ feet, and then wiped them with her hair. The fragrance of the oils filled the house. Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples, even then getting ready to betray him, said, “Why wasn’t this oil sold and the money given to the poor? It would have easily brought three hundred silver pieces.” He said this not because he cared two cents about the poor but because he was a thief. He was in charge of their common funds, but also embezzled them. Jesus said, “Let her alone. She’s anticipating and honoring the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you. You don’t always have me.”

Potentiality #22

“The Fragrance of Life”

There’s a Mac Davis song from the 1970s,
“Stop and Smell the Roses,”
You’re gonna find your way to heaven is a rough and rocky road
If you don’t Stop and Smell the roses along the way.
Mary.
Mary with the expensive perfume.
A perfume used both
to cover the smell of death
and to celebrate life.
Mary
who just loves.
Mary
who unashamedly just gives her best,
and then gets shot down for it.
Mary,
your love is
true and lovely and perfect.
How many times
have our offerings of love
been misunderstood,
and shot down
by someone too needy to
understand love
or an offering of love?
How many times
have we shot down love?
A friend once bought
his lover
a very expensive bottle
of perfume.
His lover became
enraged
and said
she was not worth the price of it
and made him take it back.
He was brokenhearted,
devastated.
He kept asking me
what was so wrong
with his offering of love
that she would reject it.
You know,
in various ways
we do this
all the time to those
who love us,
and because we just
do not understand the nature of love,
we try to shoot down
their offerings of love.
Whether Judas
was actually the bad guy
he was made out to be
is neither here nor there.
The story
has him needy and greedy
and desperate for
what Mary offered Jesus—
I read this not so much as about the money,
but about the love behind the offering.
So he tries to wreck Mary.
He belittles her
act of love and tries
to elbow
his self-righteous posturing
between Mary
and her intention.
Jesus will have none of it.
He says,
“Let her alone!”
So beware of those who
would turn profound
acts of love into
insubstantial acts
of silliness or fool’s errands.
There is a lovely fragrance
to our lives
and our living,
and we should inhale it deeply.
It is to enjoy,
and to those who
will try to steal your dream,
to those who
would belittle your fragrant
offering of love,
to those who
would deny you
the loveliness of your story,
nothing stinks here
but the death
in their judgement.
LEAVE IT! STOP!
There are roses to smell.

A CRAZY LITTLE THING CALLED LOVE

Luke 15:1-3 — The Message
By this time a lot of men and women of doubtful reputation were hanging around Jesus, listening intently. The Pharisees and religion scholars were not pleased, not at all pleased. They growled, “He takes in sinners and eats meals with them, treating them like old friends.” Their grumbling triggered this story. Then he said, “There was once a man who had two sons. The younger said to his father, ‘Father, I want right now what’s coming to me.’ “So the father divided the property between them. It wasn’t long before the younger son packed his bags and left for a distant country. There, undisciplined and dissipated, he wasted everything he had. After he had gone through all his money, there was a bad famine all through that country and he began to hurt. He signed on with a citizen there who assigned him to his fields to slop the pigs. He was so hungry he would have eaten the corncobs in the pig slop, but no one would give him any. “That brought him to his senses. He said, ‘All those farmhands working for my father sit down to three meals a day, and here I am starving to death. I’m going back to my father. I’ll say to him, Father, I’ve sinned against God, I’ve sinned before you; I don’t deserve to be called your son. Take me on as a hired hand.’ He got right up and went home to his father.

“When he was still a long way off, his father saw him. His heart pounding, he ran out, embraced him, and kissed him. The son started his speech: ‘Father, I’ve sinned against God, I’ve sinned before you; I don’t deserve to be called your son ever again.’ “But the father wasn’t listening. He was calling to the servants, ‘Quick. Bring a clean set of clothes and dress him. Put the family ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Then get a grain-fed heifer and roast it. We’re going to feast! We’re going to have a wonderful time! My son is here—given up for dead and now alive! Given up for lost and now found!’ And they began to have a wonderful time. “All this time his older son was out in the field. When the day’s work was done he came in. As he approached the house, he heard the music and dancing. Calling over one of the houseboys, he asked what was going on. He told him, ‘Your brother came home. Your father has ordered a feast—barbecued beef!—because he has him home safe and sound.’ “The older brother stalked off in an angry sulk and refused to join in. His father came out and tried to talk to him, but he wouldn’t listen. The son said, ‘Look how many years I’ve stayed here serving you, never giving you one moment of grief, but have you ever thrown a party for me and my friends? Then this son of yours who has thrown away your money on whores shows up and you go all out with a feast!’ “His father said, ‘Son, you don’t understand. You’re with me all the time, and everything that is mine is yours—but this is a wonderful time, and we had to celebrate. This brother of yours was dead, and he’s alive! He was lost, and he’s found!’”

“A Crazy Little Thing Called Love”
Luke 15:1-32

The “Love”
about which Jesus
preaches,
demonstrates,
acts out,
lives out,
and
builds the kingdom,
is not your average
run-of-the-mill
kind of love.
It is not based
on human comfort
or expedience,
or some
esoteric notion
built upon a philosophical
(Augustinian, Melanchthonistic, Calvinistic,
dogmatic, systematic, or biblically correct
or any other) construct.
This love is lived in a
real-time
set of actions
that are based on
totally
non-human,
God-constructed values.
Humans,
of their own volition,
would hold back love as a condition
or prize
for abiding by
cultural, legal, or religious conformity.
We can demand that those to whom
we portion out love
do what makes us
comfortable
or keeps us safe,
but God gives love
out freely regardless of our
explanations of belief or non-belief.
God cares not a thing
about who we think
should acquire our love and mercy.
Humans want love to be earned
through right actions, fidelity,
good thoughts,
with all sorts of stipulations.
But love in not a commodity.
God just seems to arbitrarily
hand it out at will — to anyone.
Humans have the notion
that love needs to be earned,
deserved,
a merit-valued service
to be avariciously
allocated as warranted.
God’s idea of
love-giving
is a
lavishly squandering drenching of grace.
Those who see love
as a commodity are
continually confounded
by God’s notion of freely
giving love and showering grace,
even forgiveness,
on those they deem unworthy.
It seems many
would like permission
to judge and hate.
God’s notion of love
is not comfortable to many of us,
and we would like permission
to take revenge on our enemies.
This was particularly in
evidence when
the Death Penalty
was suspended not too long ago.
The shrieks for
vengeance and revenge were loud,
but they were neither
God’s voice
nor were they based
upon the unconditional love
Jesus taught and acted out.
We seem to be able to love
those who love us,
but it is almost,
if not impossible,
for us to love and forgive
an enemy.
It is a crazy little thing called love.
But it is not so crazy
to God.
It is crazy to humans
who have hardened their hearts
and turned a vengeful soul
to a gospel of love.
Love.
Love to all.
Love for everyone.
Love.
Just love.
Love.

A Response to a Too Comfortable Interpretation

Luke 13:10-17 — The Message

He was teaching in one of the meeting places on the Sabbath. There was a woman present, so twisted and bent over with arthritis that she couldn’t even look up. She had been afflicted with this for eighteen years. When Jesus saw her, he called her over. “Woman, you’re free!” He laid hands on her and suddenly she was standing straight and tall, giving glory to God. The meeting-place president, furious because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the congregation, “Six days have been defined as work days. Come on one of the six if you want to be healed, but not on the seventh, the Sabbath.” But Jesus shot back, “You frauds! Each Sabbath every one of you regularly unties your cow or donkey from its stall, leads it out for water, and thinks nothing of it. So why isn’t it all right for me to untie this daughter of Abraham and lead her from the stall where Satan has had her tied these eighteen years?” When he put it that way, his critics were left looking quite silly and red-faced. The congregation was delighted and cheered him on.

A Response to a Too Comfortable Interpretation

Awhile ago someone posted
on Facebook
a pro-LGBTQ+ comment
having to do with
the United Methodist Church’s
recent stand against homosexuality,
and someone else posted
that homosexuality was a sin,
the Bible said so.
It was said
with such confidence
and innocence,
but supporting an attitude
of hate and exclusion
with which Christians have
become so
smugly comfortable.
To be precise
the texts
used in Leviticus and Deuteronomy,
are part of what is termed,
The Holiness Codes.
The same set of codes
that say:
“If a man lies with a male
as with a woman,
both of them have
committed an abomination;
they shall be put to death;
their blood is upon them.” (Lev, 18:22 & 20:13),
also states other
indictments and
judgements and
sentences.
Some concerning adultery (Lev, 20:10).
Others about cursing father and mother (Lev, 20:9).
Another,
“A man or a woman who is a medium
or a wizard shall be put to death;
they shall be stoned to death,
their blood is upon them.” (Lev, 19:31).
It seems that anything God
(or maybe tribal leaders more than God)
finds offensive
to the point of being
an abomination,
is a crime punishable by death.
“If a man marries both a woman and her mother,
that’s wicked.
All three of them must be
burned at the stake,
purging the wickedness
from the community. (Lev, 20:14)
A woman shall not wear a man’s apparel,
nor shall a man put on a woman’s garment;
for whoever does such things is abhorrent
to the Lord your God. (Deut 22:5)
You shall not wear clothes
made of wool and linen
woven together
(any mixed fabrics). Deut, 22:11)
Anyone “who practices divination,
or is a soothsayer, or an augur,
or a sorcerer,
or one who casts spells,
or who consults
ghosts or spirits,
or who seeks oracles from the dead,”
is an abomination. Deut, 18:10 & 11)
We read today
how when Jesus was attacked
about healing
someone on the Sabbath,
he countered with how
they fed and watered their livestock
on the Sabbath,
later he says that
they should mind their own business.
I think that this retort
by Jesus
is also good for the person who
uses ancient biblical
tribal law
to support their own discomfort
with other people’s lifestyles.
MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS!
And we should,
mind our own business,
because not one of us
is without some fault
that could be punishable
by some biblical code
and put to death.
If we want to hold our LGBTQ+
neighbors up to the fires of abomination,
we should first check out our clothing,
or our tendency
to claim ourselves as Aries, Capricorns, Leos,
or how we speak badly of others,
or whether we have
consulted a Tarot card lately
or the weekly Horoscope predictions.
We might just find ourselves
on the outskirts of our
respective villages
being stoned.

TRUSTING TO THE END OF THE JOURNEY

Luke 13:18-30 — The Message

Then he said, “How can I picture God’s kingdom for you? What kind of story can I use? It’s like a pine nut that a man plants in his front yard. It grows into a huge pine tree with thick branches, and eagles build nests in it.” He tried again. “How can I picture God’s kingdom? It’s like yeast that a woman works into enough dough for three loaves of bread—and waits while the dough rises.” He went on teaching from town to village, village to town, but keeping on a steady course toward Jerusalem. A bystander said, “Master, will only a few be saved?” He said, “Whether few or many is none of your business. Put your mind on your life with God. The way to life—to God!—is vigorous and requires your total attention. A lot of you are going to assume that you’ll sit down to God’s salvation banquet just because you’ve been hanging around the neighborhood all your lives. Well, one day you’re going to be banging on the door, wanting to get in, but you’ll find the door locked and the Master saying, ‘Sorry, you’re not on my guest list.’ “You’ll protest, ‘But we’ve known you all our lives!’ only to be interrupted with his abrupt, ‘Your kind of knowing can hardly be called knowing. You don’t know the first thing about me.’ “That’s when you’ll find yourselves out in the cold, strangers to grace. You’ll watch Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets march into God’s kingdom. You’ll watch outsiders stream in from east, west, north, and south and sit down at the table of God’s kingdom. And all the time you’ll be outside looking in—and wondering what happened. This is the Great Reversal: the last in line put at the head of the line, and the so-called first ending up last.”

TRUSTING TO THE END OF THE JOURNEY

Trusting to the end
of the journey
and not worrying about
how other people walk
with God.
We have our journey,
they have theirs.
I was brought up
to fear for
the eternity to come
for the “unbelievers”.
If I didn’t work
hard at getting them “saved”
then I would be culpable in
their eternal damnation.
I HAD TO GO OUT AND
BRING IN THE SHEAVES
AND SAVE SOULS
FOR JESUS!
That’s not
what I am reading here.
What I am reading
is for me,
and you,
to mind our own business.
What minding our own business
doesn’t mean
is to leave others
to their own suffering
because
they have brought it on
by choosing
to not follow Jesus.
What minding our business
does mean
is to live into the grace that we am given
in our own way
and allow others
to live into the grace
they are given
in their own way.
When Jesus speaks
of the Great Reversal,
he is saying that
our preconceived notions
of others,
and our attendant
biases and prejudices
are going to be thrown
in our faces,
and we will be aghast
at our own choices
in our judgements
of others.
Can we trust to the end
of our own journeys?
This is second Sunday of Lent.
This is our journey
towards the Cross.
This is that time,
where once a year,
our faith
invites us to hold
our own lives,
not someone else,
up to a magnifying glass and
check ourselves out.
Our question for today,
this week, is:
Do we have enough trust in God,
and in God’s process,
to quit judging others
by our very small and
very low standards
and let them grow
into grace by God’s very high
and very loving standards?
Can we trust it all
to the end of the journey?

SPEECHLESS

Luke 9:28-36 — The Message

About eight days after saying this, he climbed the mountain to pray, taking Peter, John, and James along. While he was in prayer, the appearance of his face changed and his clothes became blinding white. At once two men were there talking with him. They turned out to be Moses and Elijah—and what a glorious appearance they made! They talked over his exodus, the one Jesus was about to complete in Jerusalem. Meanwhile, Peter and those with him were slumped over in sleep. When they came to, rubbing their eyes, they saw Jesus in his glory and the two men standing with him. When Moses and Elijah had left, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, this is a great moment! Let’s build three memorials: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” He blurted this out without thinking. While he was babbling on like this, a light-radiant cloud enveloped them. As they found themselves buried in the cloud, they became deeply aware of God. Then there was a voice out of the cloud: “This is my Son, the Chosen! Listen to him.” When the sound of the voice died away, they saw Jesus there alone. They were speechless. And they continued speechless, said not one thing to anyone during those days of what they had seen.

SPEECHLESS

At first they mindlessly jabbered on.
Then, when reality
hit them they had nothing left to say.
Overwhelmed with wonder.
Blinded by the light.
Stunned into silence.
Gobsmacked.
Well,
if Jesus’ disciples thought that Jesus
was just a good pal
who said really cool things,
or maybe was just another
rabbi/guru
sporting some far out
pop psych
self-awareness aphorisms
that made folks feel really good
about themselves,
they found out differently.
I mean what would you do,
how would you react,
if the person
with whom you had just climbed
a mountain
turned out to be
someone who could
light up like an electric bulb,
and stand there
in front of you all
lit up like that and
speaking with
long-dead historical figures
who were
the major influences
of your faith?
I mean what would
you do
if you looked at your
wife,
husband,
child,
parent,
you know, someone
you think you really know,
only to discover that they were holy,
I mean holy
like God is holy,
like Jesus?
What would you do?
Really do?
We are for the most part an
unconscious people.
We are most of the time
blind to the realities of the sacred.
Really obtuse
when it comes to the
workings of God.
So look around you,
really see each other right now.
Could the faces around you
really be the faces of the sacred?
Could we each be the face of God?
If we have paid
attention to the teachings of Jesus
I believe this
is what he came to tell us:
“You are as holy as it gets,
act like it!”
“You are created to be the face
of God in the world,
Gods own self,
live into your creation!”
Today’s scripture challenges
us to recognize the reality
of ourselves
by recognizing the reality
of Jesus,
by finding that transfiguring
light within each other
and in our mirrors.
The chapter begins with
Jesus giving his power
and presence to
these disciples
then demanding to know
who they thought he was
so they could in turn
know themselves,
and by extension,
so we too
can know ourselves fully.
And who are we?
Who are we called to be?

BE NICE

Luke 6:27-38 — The Message
“To you who are ready for the truth, I say this: Love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer for that person. If someone slaps you in the face, stand there and take it. If someone grabs your shirt, gift-wrap your best coat and make a present of it. If someone takes unfair advantage of you, use the occasion to practice the servant life. No more tit-for-tat stuff. Live generously. “Here is a simple rule of thumb for behavior: Ask yourself what you want people to do for you; then grab the initiative and do it for them! If you only love the lovable, do you expect a pat on the back? Run-of-the-mill sinners do that. If you only help those who help you, do you expect a medal? Garden-variety sinners do that. If you only give for what you hope to get out of it, do you think that’s charity? The stingiest of pawnbrokers does that. “I tell you, love your enemies. Help and give without expecting a return. You’ll never—I promise—regret it. Live out this God-created identity the way our Father lives toward us, generously and graciously, even when we’re at our worst. Our Father is kind; you be kind. “Don’t pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults—unless, of course, you want the same treatment. Don’t condemn those who are down; that hardness can boomerang. Be easy on people; you’ll find life a lot easier. Give away your life; you’ll find life given back, but not merely given back—given back with bonus and blessing. Giving, not getting, is the way. Generosity begets generosity.”

Lessons

Be Nice

Be nice, be kind,
don’t hurt others,
you don’t get to have revenge
and you have to, yes,
have to,
forgive.
Many confuse piety
and self-righteousness
with what Jesus asks of us.
To my thinking
that is wrongheaded,
because this text is the
central theme
in Jesus’ ministry and teaching.
Some think they
can pretend Jesus
expects certain
holy poses
from us.
They construct rules about
what is non-Christian
behavior,
telling us how they think
Christians
should look
and act
and exist
and all the ways
they have
defined correct “Christian” comportment.
I think this text is clear —
be kind!
That’s it.
That’s all.
We are challenged to let
the cup of our hearts
be so full of God
that we will overflow
the joy of
forgiveness and kindness,
over all the
meanness and cynicism
of the world.
We are urged
to give back joy for anger,
light for the dark,
forgiveness for harm,
love for hate,
peace for dissension,
hope for despair.
I believe we
are asked
to listen to
and hear in
all of the negativity
with which we are confronted,
not a perceived
attack upon us,
but the cries of the
broken heart of the world,
the wounded cry
in all broken, frightened,
hearts we meet,
for a chance
to offer healing.

Luke 6:17-26 — The Message
Coming down off the mountain with them, he stood on a plain surrounded by disciples, and was soon joined by a huge congregation from all over Judea and Jerusalem, even from the seaside towns of Tyre and Sidon. They had come both to hear him and to be cured of their ailments. Those disturbed by evil spirits were healed. Everyone was trying to touch him—so much energy surging from him, so many people healed! Then he spoke:
You’re blessed when you’ve lost it all. God’s kingdom is there for the finding. You’re blessed when you’re ravenously hungry. Then you’re ready for the Messianic meal. You’re blessed when the tears flow freely. Joy comes with the morning.
“Count yourself blessed every time someone cuts you down or throws you out, every time someone smears or blackens your name to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and that that person is uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens — skip like a lamb, if you like! — for even though they don’t like it, I do . . . and all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company; my preachers and witnesses have always been treated like this.
But it’s trouble ahead if you think you have it made. What you have is all you’ll ever get. And it’s trouble ahead if you’re satisfied with yourself. Your self will not satisfy you for long. And it’s trouble ahead if you think life’s all fun and games. There’s suffering to be met, and you’re going to meet it.
“There’s trouble ahead when you live only for the approval of others, saying what flatters them, doing what indulges them. Popularity contests are not truth contests—look how many scoundrel preachers were approved by your ancestors! Your task is to be true, not popular.

Blessed

Being Blessed
Luke 6:17-26

What does it mean to be blessed?
How do we go about living
a life that is blessed?
I have come to believe that
it is when we live
and speak and think
in a manner
that enriches the
lives of others
we are living blessed lives,
because we are
actively blessing.
To many of us think
that we have the right,
privilege,
to enable
ourselves to look
better in our
own eyes by
always having some
“truth”
to speak,
(read that something
profoundly hurtful
to say about another
human being).
There is always
some dirt to dish,
some filthy pot to stir,
if we look for it,
but is that what
we truly want?
For every mean,
gossipy thing
that can be said
about someone else,
some “secret” just
found out that is spreadable,
there is one
that can come back
on us,
as well.
And for the one
who thinks they are
oh so cute
by making random
inflammatory statements —
political, racist, sexist, homophobic —
so as to rile people up,
“get their goats”,
“just kidding,”
how can they live
a life that is blessed
and keep this up?
In this scripture we
discover that
smugness
is a surefire way to fail
in the blessedness realm
because it cloaks truth
with a
kind of falseness
that is deadly to the soul.
And it may feel
momentarily good to
cause someone else
a ration of grief,
but it will,
indeed,
come back on us.
And how can we be
blessed by losing it all?
Because the word,
all,
here, implies our
hurt, fragile, wounded egos
that that many mistakenly
believe will be
healed by
tearing others down.
Speaking love
blesses and heals.
Spreading rumors
and gossip
— hurtful , incendiary,
troublemaking things —
in the end,
kills hearts.
Bless or violate
another human,
the choice
is ours to
make…

THE REALLY BAD NEWS

Luke 4:21-30 — The Message

He came to Nazareth where he had been reared. As he always did on the Sabbath, he went to the meeting place. When he stood up to read, he was handed the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Unrolling the scroll, he found the place where it was written,
God’s Spirit is on me;
he’s chosen me to preach the Message of good news to the poor,
Sent me to announce pardon to prisoners and
recovery of sight to the blind,
to set the burdened and battered free,
to announce, “This is God’s year to act!”
He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the assistant, and sat down. Every eye in the place was on him, intent. Then he started in, “You’ve just heard Scripture make history. It came true just now in this place.”
All who were there, watching and listening, were surprised at how well he spoke. But they also said, “Isn’t this Joseph’s son, the one we’ve known since he was a youngster?” He answered, “I suppose you’re going to quote the proverb, ‘Doctor, go heal yourself. Do here in your hometown what we heard you did in Capernaum.’ Well, let me tell you something: No prophet is ever welcomed in his hometown. Isn’t it a fact that there were many widows in Israel at the time of Elijah during that three and a half years of drought when famine devastated the land, but the only widow to whom Elijah was sent was in Sarepta in Sidon? And there were many lepers in Israel at the time of the prophet Elisha but the only one cleansed was Naaman the Syrian.” That set everyone in the meeting place seething with anger. They threw him out, banishing him from the village, then took him to a mountain cliff at the edge of the village to throw him to his doom, but he gave them the slip and was on his way.

When You See No Need to Escape

The Really Bad News

According to this reading
Jesus did not come for us first
with the Good News —
he came for those who have nothing.
We already have what we need,
which is enough.
Maybe not everything we want,
but what we need.
I actually think that this is OK
because I do believe that the many
who have always been last,
who live at the bottom,
who seem to find themselves on the outside
of our social and
economic and
spiritual circles,
who,
because of their skin color,
nationality,
gender,
sexual orientation,
mental health,
intelligence,
their economic status,
or homelessness,
live in fear ̶
these are the ones to whom Jesus is referring in this text.
So let’s stop for just a bit
and check in with ourselves.
How do you feel
about hearing Jesus’
words and intentions?
How would you feel sitting in that synagogue
hearing Jesus make these statements of exclusion?
Think about it for a minute or two.
In Jesus’ time the expectations for the Messiah were generally political:
it was hoped he would be the one who would deliver
the occupied Jews out from under the thumb of the Roman Empire.
But then he goes off about not giving them the deliverance
they were expecting for themselves but
offering it to the down-and-outers,
the hopelessly helpless,
the very ones who
were not sitting in synagogue ̶
I can sort of understand those Jews
wanting to shove him off a cliff.
And yet in our own time
don’t we with access
and entitlement
get twisted up trying to co-opt
the pain of others?
In America
there is a ruling class,
and it is basically
white, male or male identified,
and rich,
wanting what it perceives
as its white pain
to be equal
to the pain of the blacks.
And yes,
for those who consider
their entitlement
and their
perceived success
as their right to
being first in line for
a front row ticket
to God’s kingdom,
this is indeed the really bad news.
Privileged men
don’t understand why women want
job opportunities and
pay equal to their own,
and are angered by
the concept that all
humans are humans
and all deserve
the promises Jesus makes here.
And we do deserve them,
and we will receive them,
but after the least of the least
have their needs met.
What I see as a truth
in this text
is that
when we truly
have a need
and pray for help
God answers us,
not because it is our right,
but because in
our asking
we become as the least
of the least.
If we never see ourselves as
least,
or as needing help
or salvation
neither
will be there for us.

JUBILEE: DISTRIBUTING THE LOVE

Luke 4:14-21 — Common English Bible

Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and news about him spread throughout the whole countryside. He taught in their synagogues and was praised by everyone. Jesus went to Nazareth, where he had been raised. On the Sabbath he went to the synagogue as he normally did and stood up to read. The synagogue assistant gave him the scroll from the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me.
He has sent me to preach good news to the poor,
to proclaim release to the prisoners
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to liberate the oppressed,
and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

He rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the synagogue assistant, and sat down. Every eye in the synagogue was fixed on him. He began to explain to them, “Today, this scripture has been fulfilled just as you heard it.”

Jubilee: Distributing the Love

The Jewish people had waited
for the coming of the year of Jubilee —
that special year promised by God.
It was a year
for which they would save up,
putting aside
enough supplies the prior year
so they could live
a full year without working.
Like the weekly Sabbath,
it was full of regulations
and rules, so the people of God
could concentrate on God
instead of hand-to-mouth survival.
Captives were also freed.
Debts were to be forgiven
and written off by the lender,
properties that had been
passed down by birthright
and lost to indebtedness
were to be returned
to the original families.
It was a year of economic leveling.
It was a year of reestablishing equity
and redistributing of wealth among the people.
It was a year of which to dream,
but to avoid in real life
because it meant not only getting stuff back,
but giving stuff up.
Some claim it was celebrated
until the 6th Century BCE
and that the year of Jubilee
had not actually occurred since.
Jesus’ claim here
is that it is in him that the Jubilee is reinstated.
This is why I have come to see
that Christianity itself
should be,
if it is to follow in the footsteps of Jesus
a system of leveling
of the economics of all societies.
I see Christianity as
distinct for Marxism and Socialism only
in that they are systems bereft of God,
or Jesus.
Functionally
and structurally there is not
a lot of difference in the systems.
Because Jesus IS the year of Jubilee
Christianity should be as well.
By extension,
as followers of Jesus,
WE are anointed
to be that year as well.
And as Jesus attempted,
we are to attempt
to free the captives and
forgive our debtors.
This is neither an abstract
concept nor is it a fiction,
it is our commission.
But you see,
it is easier to have our debts forgiven,
than to forgive a debt owed to us.
Redistribution of love,
of wealth,
of health,
of freedom,
of access and entitlement
becomes a messy endeavor
for many Christians
and is a concept
some think might
best left in the pages
of the Bible.
Nonetheless,
while we can’t do it all,
maybe even nothing at all,
we are called to try
to bring about
some part of this year
through the living of our lives.
To discover what part
of it we can do.
It is not just what
we are called to proclaim,
this is what we are asked
to attempt to
live out.