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Lectionary - June 2002 |
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Lectionary - June 2002 |
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2 June 2002 - Year A - Proper 4/Ordinary 9/Pentecost +2 Wesley White -- For June 2, 2002 Listen this week for clarifying what is a blessing and what is a curse. They can morph into one another with a change in circumstance. All have sinned and are still eligible for a gift of grace - floods come and also rainbows. Genesis 6:9-22; 7:24; 8:14-19 Wesley White -- Genesis 6:9-22; 7:24; 8:14-19 So where are you these days? - preparing for disaster, with all the energy that takes? - waiting through the long days of gestation to some new environment? - living into new relationships? (it is one thing to be cooped up together for survival and another to go forth and choose to yet remain in relationship) Whichever state you find yourself in, may you know you are blessed. One view of the progressive movement is that we have entered into the third of these stages. We are past the flood of literal/creedal limitations taking our breath of inspiration away, we have redeveloped our spiritual disciplines during our confinement, we are going forth to live our gifts and, yet, to stay in relationship with all the other creations of GOD. Guess what, this is not the end of the story as we have yet to cycle through other floods such as the cycle of Babel to Pentecost and slavery to exodus and death to resurrection and others we cannot so neatly label. Wesley White -- Psalm 46 From a quick and dirty search of the NRSV one-fifth of the Psalms use the image of "refuge" and nearly half the references to "refuge" in the whole canon are in the Psalms. This is a significant issue to sing about. In the above paragraph, my fingers twice typed the word "refute" instead of "refuge." How Freudian is that? Regardless of that psychological issue there is a connection. To "refute" is to beat back an attack; to "refuge" is to flee from attack. Where are you refuting harm to another? Where are you taking refuge from harm aimed at you? Both are active and worthy acts. We flee to GOD for refuge and GOD refutes the uproar against us. As GOD's people we are called to be people of refuge for others and people who refute the world's uproar that diminishes any sister or brother. Wesley White -- Deuteronomy 11:18-21, 26-28 In my local community we are wrestling with a statue depicting the 10 Commandments, from the movie of the same name, in a public park (dedicated to youth who worked to refute a flood back in the 1960's). Here is a divide between the two sections of the text. Is the statue to be bound on our public forehead or is it to be lived in everyday lives? The two sides volley many words past one another without touching any helpful interface. Here we have a sense of the magical nature of words, in and of themselves, that construct our perception of reality (vv. 18-21) and the need to go past them into actual behaviors that make a difference in people's lives (vv. 26-28). A part of our struggle is with blessings - how long can they remain the same (one generation, two, many)? Is it -- once blessed, always blessed? Is it that blessings need to be renewed to remain blessings? Is it that some blessings need to be discarded in order to be renewed as a blessing? Is it that blessings are always provisional? Pray, "give us this day our daily blessing." Then, go ahead, choose. Choose your blessing. Follow where it leads. You will be surprised. Wesley White -- Psalm 31:1-5, 19-24 The purpose of a refuge is to gather courage, not to simply be cared for forever. We who have received the gift of compassion and extension of that beyond our own certainly do need courage to keep expressing that gift in every circumstance. I have yet to see a system or structure of this world that values compassion. Oh, the appearance of compassion is a selling point ("compassionate conservatism"), but more than fooling the people one more time, compassion, itself, does not come highly valued. Intentional refuge is an interesting image that raises a question about sabbath being a prophylactic or a treatment. Do you use sabbath time as preparation time or recuperation time? Probably some of both, but there may be one that you use more than the other. Whichever way you have been gifted, may you find your experience of refuge to be refreshing of your courage. If you are finding your courage to engage the principalities and powers to not be as bold as it once was, it would be good to engage your faith community or a spiritual director in an investigation of the state of refuge or sabbath in your life. Wesley White -- Romans 1:16-17; 3:22b-28, (29-31) Again and again there are choices to be made about what to emphasize. Hear Walter Rauschenbusch on the image of "atonement" in his book A Theology for the Social Gospel. "It is important to note that every theory of the atonement necessarily used the terms and analogies taken from the social life of that age, and that the spirit and problems of contemporary life are always silent factors in the construction of theory. The early church set the model of formulating the doctrine in the terminology of sacrifice. To us sacrificing is a matter of antiquarian knowledge, kept alive mainly by the Bible. To Christians of the first three centuries it was a social institution which they saw in operation all about them. Paul saw in the death of Christ the solution of the great social problem of his life, the abolition of the Jewish Law and the emancipation of Gentile missions.... "Our dominant ideas are personality and social solidarity. The problems which burden us are the social problems. Has the death of Christ any relation to these? Have we not just as much right to connect this supreme religious event with our problems as Paul and Anselm and Calvin, and to use the terminology and methods of our day? In so far as the historical and social sciences have taught our generation to comprehend solidaristic facts, we are in a better situation to understand the atonement than any previous generation." So, how do you connect Jesus' death with the issues of your life, of our life, today? Wesley White -- Matthew 7:21-29 Entering the realm of "heaven" takes more than learning traditional passwords of praise-song repetition of "Jesus, Jesus." This has been called the SUTJ [Sucking Up To Jesus] approach to salvation, using Jesus to make oneself important. Working backward from this lection toward heaven, the last teaching of Jesus before he talks about his word being a place of refuge was that we would know people by who they are (their "fruit," not just what they say (v. 20)). The "narrow" way that does lead to fulfilling the prayer that GOD be present on earth as in heaven (v. 14) is found in expanding relationships through a golden rule-of-thumb, "Ask yourself what you want people to do for you, then grab the initiative and do it for them. Add up God's Law and Prophets and this is what you get." (v. 12) [The Message] Where else do you find that you need to back up a bit and hear what went before or tell a different part of the story before you can better address what is before you? A major part of our work is that of setting the scene. May you continue to go back to a "golden" context for the meaning of life and then live boldly between a rock and a sandy place (that is, live abundantly with others in the midst of all the conglomeration [geologically] of life). 9 June 2002 - Year A - Proper 5/Ordinary 10/Pentecost +3 Wesley White -- for June 9, 2002 Choosing to do your best without appeal to the rewards and
punishments of law is difficult, but not too difficult. Genesis 12:1-9 Later in the week there will be several days of comments all loaded at once because the Wisconsin Annual Conference needs attending to. It would be wonderful for me to come back and find several who have been bold enough to reply with another thought about these scriptures. Wesley White -- Genesis 12:1-9 More will be made of Abraham's "faith" later in the week. For now let's look at Abram's response. An old dog can learn new tricks. Abram was 75 when striking out on a new path. Who can be given up on? This passage lets us know we can't give up on anyone. That could be modified by saying we can't give up on anyone who has been touched, blessed, by GOD. But, what sort of elitism is it to define who will and will not be touched by GOD. When was the last time you considered the radical Calvinist branch of Methodism as elitists. They try to project themselves as populists but that is but a facade for knowing who is already in and who isn't. And, according to them and General Conferences scared of their scare tactics, all GLBTQ's are out (its a matter of procreation, don't you know) just as before this all the descendants of Ham were out. But all that to the side. Note the altar building and then moving on, more altar building and more moving on. Have we not built altars and then settled beside them? It is time to note that keeping up with GOD goes beyond sacred spaces. Let's keep moving. Wesley White -- Psalm 33:1-12 How new a song can be sung? Wherein lie the limits of GOD's creation and GOD's favor? This is one of the key questions we wrestle with. There is value in tradition and continuity. There is value in breaking new ground (earth) and new hope (heaven). Between these two we usually find ourselves trapped into valuing tradition and continuity more than we value new ground and new hope. The risks in turning this value system upside-down are too great for us - so we emphasize GOD's designs and plans and will as eternal and constant. GOD's people are GOD's people and those who aren't, aren't. The Psalm ends with GOD's steadfast love being called our own. This is a pretty old song - I got mine, too bad about you. A new song would be to call GOD to love all there is with all the love GOD has. A new song would risk the joy of our own hearts being loved, by living as if that joy is not complete until it also springs forth in others. A mystery of this new song is that there is more than enough Babel (counsel of nations) in each of us to separate us from one another and there is more than enough of GOD's love to bind us together. May you live in the larger mystery of GOD's love and sing a new song. Wesley White -- Hosea 5:15-6:6 How do we respond to GOD's disappointment in us and leaving us to the strict consequences of our contracting lives? One response is a call to return to the last GOD we knew. Let us study and worship with renewed vigor. We'll show GOD how much we've learned and committed ourselves to. All of this to bring us back to some comfort level with GOD. I find the various titles for the subsections of this passage to be intriguing. The Contemporary English Version simply has it, "The Lord's People Speak." The New Revised Standard Version puts a meaning on the speaking, "A Call to Repentance." The Message puts the reverse spin on it by seeing behind the surface of the words and calls it, "Gangs of Priests Assaulting Worshippers." I find the "assault" image to be the strongest. In the face of our false fantasies that all we have to do is get our worship right then GOD will bless us, the last portion of this passage reminds us that GOD sees through our failed fantasy that "the appearance of love is sufficient." Being able to be clear about our choices is an important step toward being able to choose well. So choose: "I'm after love that lasts, not more religion. I want you to know GOD, not go to more prayer meetings." The Message "I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings." The New Revised Standard Version Wesley White -- Psalm 50:7-15 The saints, the people claiming to be GOD's people, listen. What do you hear when you listen? I suppose I should say, "What do you hear when you listen to GOD?" but how can we not hear GOD when we simply listen. Deep listening clarifies choices. It is remembering and community and hope all wrapped up in a moment. Want to take a coal to Newcastle or make a ritual sacrifice to GOD? Go ahead. It's a rather innocuous way to spend time. Newcastle has plenty of coal and GOD already has all of creation to draw upon. All that sacrifice talk does come out of remembered directions and does shape a community in a particular way and does have a modicum of hope attached to it that GOD will be mollified enough to let something by or to get us what we want. Here, however, we hear a new model of expressing thanksgiving through intentional living and the keeping of honesty, fairness, and promises. To live expansively thankful lives from this day forward is our way of being cared for in the midst of difficulties. Wesley White -- Romans 4:13-25 It is so tempting to turn the cross and resurrection into another law to be followed (including some a priori law that Jesus' purpose was only to die rather than to live so abundantly that the principalities and powers felt obligated to do a cost/benefit analysis and to murder one for the sake of the position of many). The focus here is on a promise of faithfulness by GOD not Abraham's, Jesus', my, or your past, present, or future worthiness. Where it seemed there was no way (impotence of Abraham/barrenness of Sarah or death of Jesus) there is a way (the Laughter [Isaac] and the Resurrection). So, be persistent in your journey as GOD's partner. Laugh and Live. Don't give up your living abundantly or assisting others to so live. To smash two hymn lyrics together - Where the blockages of law-oriented religionist seem so strong, GOD is the "ruler" yet - "unrevealed until its season." Wesley White -- Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26 My goodness! How did we get back to Hosea 6.6 so quickly. Aren't we simply to read the scriptures, underline them in blue, and file them away? Here we are called to apply what was read earlier. [It also wouldn't hurt to glance ahead to Matthew 12:7 to see this repeated again in regard to the religious institution of Temple. So, whether oriented toward those who would keep "sinners" out or temples standing, this line about mercy rings clear.] It must be admitted that we progressives are a pretty motley crew. We are disorganized, riding off in all directions at once to rescue this or that particular cause. We can't always explain the "Christian intuition" we have been given that sensitizes us to issues of injustice - we simply know pain when we hear it whimpering under a barrage of religious jargon about why life can't be any different than it is. Yet it might be said that we are in close proximity with a key, life-shaping, reality - mercy. Mercy first, mercy second, mercy last. We know we stand in need of it and value that gift so highly we want to scatter it wherever we go, no matter where it might land or how it might be received. Merciful Heavens! May it come on earth.... 16 June 2002 - Year A - Proper 6/Ordinary 11/Pentecost +4 Wesley White -- For June 16, 2002 Watch out. This week we will be tested with an open door of generosity. How much can we take of this? How much can we share? If you are not careful you'll be convicted of shutting the door rather than helping to prop it open. It might be better to skip this week and come back later. Genesis 18:1-15, (21:1-7) Oh, yes, Father's Day. Check out UMH 111, "How Can We Name a Love," by Brian Wren. Verse 2 concludes, "Love unconfined, a father kind, a mother strong and sure." It will be alright to hold up fathers as generous as well as generative. How generous will you be with your insights about these passages? I hope they will lead you to jump in and share the wisdom you have been given. Wesley White -- Genesis 18:1-15, 21:1-7 What impossible vision has been held out for you? I surely hope you have a good laugh about who you will become. When that vision comes to pass, I hope you will remember the dismissive laughter of your earlier days and that you will rejoice in unbounded laughter that will grow through the years. One of the ways to anticipate the really deep laughter yet to come is to cast your mind back to some of the unexpected moves that have led you to where you currently are. I laugh whenever I think of being a preacher. A tongue-tied youth fearful of how I would be betrayed by what I said - indeed the tongue is both the weakest and the strongest of muscles. Moving my planned study at seminary (academic interest, not ministerial) up 5 years because of the Viet Nam war. Getting a phone message from Bishop Alton while graduating and having my name run through a local congregation and district and conference boards and being ordained a deacon within two weeks - ill-prepared, at best, to be a pastor. Who would have thought of that result! Surely not I. I've been laughing at the silliness of trying to administer our way to holiness ever since. What's ahead? I can only presume it is more laughter. Won't it be a hoot when I'm called out of the pastoral role! Won't it be a hoot if I die in the pulpit! Won't it be a hoot if . . . . ! We might as well laugh well now if there is any glimmer of hope that we will laugh well later. In fact, even if there isn't any hope - we might as well laugh. Laughing with and without hope has gotten me through the last several General Conferences and many a local parish circumstance. Wesley White -- Psalm 116:1-2, 12-19 A toast: "To GOD - for blessings - thanks!" It would be so easy to turn this generosity of GOD into our own little slot machine. Ah, GOD paid off for me. But hear how the blessings, though experienced individually, are to be dealt with in common, in community (verses 14 & 18). Our vows, our thanks, are to be visible to all. What is your understanding of our relationship to GOD? A clue is found in the silent section, verses 3-11. "I shall pass my life in the presence of Yahweh, in the land of the living." (verse 9 Jerusalem Bible) To so pass one's life is to: To live within and into blessings is a place of satisfaction, a place of "enough." To so live is a participation in partnership with GOD and Neighbor. As we have been discouraged and yet remained faithful and trusting and found again our courage, so we engage others in identifying their blessing. As we have found new life, we participate in opening up the land of the living to folks who have been constrained into seeing no way out for themselves. Now how do we rest and relax as we help others come to relax and rest? Contemplating this puzzlement is fun and an opening to living in all fullness (John 10:10). Wesley White -- Exodus 19:2-8a In the middle of a wilderness it is comforting to receive word that, of all the possible people, GOD has chosen you. Whether in the wilderness of racism (overt or subtle) or sexism or homophobia or poverty or abuse or whatever, it is important to hear a word of specialness. The temptation is to turn that specialness into a proprietary holiness which separates rather than helps us all toward interdependence. What happens if we turn this into a generic story? Whether one is from the Native People in the America's or a woman in a patriarchal society or gay in a straight legal system or poor in a land of special interests or a child clobbered from any number of directions or whatever - you are special - you are a priest and a prophet between GOD and others who have been wounded by one or more of [the Seven Deadly Sins times Seventy Other Sins]. What does it mean to be a holy nation brought to GOD on eagles' wings? Do we not help GOD hear other cries, as ours were heard? Do we not help those who are crying by honoring both their tears and their value as we fly them to GOD or fly GOD to them? Do we not structure our common life in such a way that our experience of captivity is redressed and offered as hope for others? Generosity in the wilderness! Generosity in your wilderness! Count on it. With the whole earth to choose from, GOD chooses you in the midst of your wilderness and also chooses those whom you have placed into wilderness settings through your inattention to their pain. Together we are chosen. How generous! Wesley White -- Psalm 100 Laughter and Joy exemplify the presence of GOD. We have been cared for so well it is hard to know how to respond. Sometimes we are grateful worms. Sometimes we are entitled princes and princesses. Our response to the generosity of GOD for even a moment's breath and awareness is a measure of our soul. Eugene Peterson suggests that the response that gets us out of the extremes of being of no account or of royalty is a "password" - "Thank you!" To have these words of "Thank you!" lived through our words and deeds, our thoughts and interactions, opens us to the overwhelming nature of generosity. In their simplicity the beauty of GOD's love and loyalty shine the brighter. In their simplicity the beauty of our response to live that same love and loyalty shines the brighter. What other response would open us to the presence of GOD as quickly and widely and deeply as does the "Open, Sesame" of "Thank you!"? Faster than a creed, more powerful than rules of constraint, able to leap wildernesses in a single bound - Look, up in the sky! A bird? A plane? It's the beauty of "Thank you!" Wesley White -- Romans 5:1-8 We can focus on GOD's putting everything on the line of Jesus' death and try to figure out how to talk about this in the sacrificial milieu of Paul's time or in some other imagery of participation from our own time. Trying to define GOD too closely has run into some difficulties. Perhaps this year it would be more helpful to look at the work of the Holy Spirit to help us recognize and reshape the generosity of GOD toward us that we might have a passion for the patience it takes to help others identify the generosity of GOD in their lives. Through this radical patience our character is made like GOD's as GOD waited for us to recognize the generosity offered us. So, together, we are in alert expectancy for the critical mass and energy necessary to transform this wobbly old world into a new heaven and earth. Isn't it better to be so expectant of more glory than it is to try figuring out how GOD of the first part ("Father") authorized God of the second part ("Son") to pull a sacrificial switcheroo? May your heart be filled with the patience to imitate the character of GOD and respond with hope to the generosity of love. Wesley White -- Matthew 9:35-10:8-23 "When people realize it is the living God you are presenting
and not some idol that makes them feel good, they are going to
turn on you, even people in your own family. There is a great
irony here: proclaiming so much love, experiencing so much hate!
But don't quit. Don't cave in. It is all well worth it in the
end. It is not success you are after in such times but survival.Be
survivors! Before you've run out of options, the Son of Man will
have arrived. [verses 22-23, The Message] 1. "When people realize it is the living God you are presenting and not some idol that makes them feel good, they are going to turn on you, even people in your own family." How do you see your life in relation to GOD? Are you "presenting" GOD or "representing" GOD? This is worth your meditation/contemplation for a whole week. 2. "There is a great irony here: proclaiming so much love, experiencing so much hate!" This may even go beyond irony to reality. What did you expect when you first connected with a living GOD? (Was there not fear within yourself so you too needed to hear, "Peace, be not afraid.") Why would that same response not be present in others? Now that you've considered it and tried to live with a living GOD, can you imagine anything other than this irony/reality? 3. "But don't quit. Don't cave in. It is all well worth it in the end. It is not success you are after in such times but survival. Be survivors! Before you've run out of options, the Son of Man will have arrived." The word "survival" means "to really live". In common American English these have different feeling levels. To survive is to squeak by, to just barely make it - "whew, I survived." To really live is filled with a voluptuous joy. The sense here is more of survival in the midst of fleeing from persecution, but remember that there is something very important about really living even while fleeing. Without some sense of present as well as future fullness of life, ultimately mere survival is no survival at all. Where is your search for meaning taking you and how do you share that without injuring others' search? 23 June 2002 - Year A - Proper 7/Ordinary 12/Pentecost+5 Wesley White -- Genesis 21:8-21 This week we will look at divisions from both sides and above. Pay attention to the divisions you sense you are in the midst of. Can you imagine it - your life will shed light on the scriptures. Wesley White -- Genesis 21:8-21 See Paul's allegory of this story in Galatians 4. How often do we find ourselves, like Abraham, ambiguous in the face of conflict between Ishmael, treasured older son, and Isaac, elected younger son. Choices seem to have been forced upon us. How do we care for the outcast -lade them with provisions for their journey? How do we care for the privileged - put them at risk to test the provision of GOD? Too often we see the ambiguity of life resolved too quickly. We decide only for one - lifting them up as special and pushing away the loser. We struggle here with how to love Ishmael and Isaac that, over the known horizon, they might find a reconciliation at Abraham's death, that the descendants of a castaway Ishmael might be a vehicle for rescuing a castaway descendant of Isaac - Joseph (run out and read Rabbi Arthur Waskow's, Godwrestling). We struggle with how to love the literalist and the metaphorist, those who find grace through constraint and those who find grace through freedom, those who find meaning in ancient creeds and those who thrive in the midst of new understandings. May we be bold enough to choose and to wise enough to care for the unchosen. On the surface this is nonsense, but deep down we know it reflects who we are - part dim and distant treasure and part deeply and delightedly desired. Do we not want our willful parts cared for and our gifted parts honored? May we offer this to others for there are reconciliations yet to come between ourselves and ourselves, ourselves and others, ourselves and creation. Wesley White -- Psalm 86:1-10, 16-17 How to live when it seems the choices of circumstance and specific others are going against you? Might this psalm be a song of Hagar? We can rear up and call GOD to chase after and destroy those who have so wounded us. In fact, many have been the time we have done just exactly this - cry out for retribution. Listen to the last two verses in a recent translation by Eugene Peterson and see if there is not a better way - restoration after we have been stripped bare. So look me in the eye and show kindness, May the gentle be so powerful in your life that you will reveal GOD's love by not continuing the "bully" part of our traditions. Wesley White -- Jeremiah 20:7-13 Fightings and fears go on inside as well as outside. Do I speak? Do I keep silence? Do I mutter? Do I push away? Do I embrace? Do I stand still? The list of ways in which we polarize our choices or make them immaterial goes on and on. Jeckle and Hyde we are. What is the weak within us that needs strengthening? What is the evil within us that needs deliverance? We can use small groups and focus groups and self-help techniques and large bootstraps to pull on, but they all come up short. When caught and stymied in our approach/avoidance modes it seems the last thing we will try is singing. Do you hum? Do you whistle? Are you aware of what tunes you are using? In the midst of every confusion it is probably important to consciously sing to GOD for the saving of the weak from the wicked. Even though we don't yet see how, it is happening and we have a part in the saving. The next time you find yourself battling yourself, try this question: Who is being hurt? Then take their side for GOD is already saving them and you might as well join in on that side. Of course you will have to throw out any false harm arguments being used by the principalities and power trying to keep you from seeing the real harm (like all those shills who say we can't yet tell if global warming is real, so we don't have to do anything about it, or the harm done can't be undone, so we don't have to stop doing additional harm). M DeCarlen -- I am responding to the Genesis reading but found no reply button below it so here are the parts that spoke to me: How often do we find ourselves, like Abraham, ambiguous in the face of conflict between Ishmael, treasured older son, and Isaac, elected younger son. May we be bold enough to choose and to wise enough to care for the unchosen. On the surface this is nonsense, but deep down we know it reflects who we are - part dim and distant treasure and part deeply and delightedly desired. Do we not want our willful parts cared for and our gifted parts honored? May we offer this to others for there are reconciliations yet to come between ourselves and ourselves, ourselves and others, ourselves and creation. I can think of two ways to speak about the chosen and unchosen: they are relegated to that status by others and then we find ourselves negotiating "inbetween them" OR they are relegated to that staus by us and then we find ourselves living with the ramifications of making someone unchosen or chosen. I feel mostly ashamed when I make someone an outsider to establish my ego needs of being "elect". I am not even sophisticated enough to "treasure" the one I am making into an outsider. It is a junior high tactic that I use when I feel another's arrogance and/or dishonesty. In the church this happens mostly with colleagues. The truth is that Jesus calls us to tell the truth to ourselves about behaving with this kind of arrogance which pushes people out so that we can be in...Jesus also calls us to then repent. Another thing mentionable is that according to Muslim tradition, Hagar (Sarah's slave girl impregnated by Abraham)left the Israelites and traveled down the Arabian peninsula to the Becca Valley with her son Ishmael, who established a line of succession stretching to the Prophet Muhammad. It is intersting that Christians and Jews have followed a long tradition of relegating Muslims to be outsiders or unchosen. How do we begin/continue the repentence? ===== Wesley White -- Thank you, M., for your thoughtful extension of the chosen/unchosen aspects of life. A technical note to other readers who may want to add a word - there is only one reply button per lectionary week. You can use it to add your insight on any aspect of any single lection or any combination of lections for the week. You are welcome to use it as many times as you have something to add. When you click the reply button it will bring up the last entry and a box where you can enter your comment. You are not limited to a response to the latest comment but can, like M., refer back to a previous comment or start a line of thinking on something not yet noted. I find first writing what I want to say and then copy and pasting to work best for me, but you can simply type in what you want to say to the rest of the readers of this dialogue. After entering your comment there will be another box to click that will post your message. Then you will be brought back to the dialogue series and find your comments added to the rest. I hope to see more and more comments here as we live our way through formerly narrow visions of the import of the Bible and enter the "freedom of GOD" (one of my favorite translations of the "kingdom of God"). Wesley White -- Psalm 69:7-10, (11-15), 16-18 Are we patient or demanding when the choice we would have is so slow in coming? Patient: NRSV - "at an acceptable time ... answer me." Demanding: The Message - "God, it's time for a break!" Now: Christian Community Bible - "But I pray to you, O Lord, at a time most favorable to you. Later: Contemporary English - "So when the time is right, answer me and help me...." Ah, the joy of many translations. Which one do I choose? For what reason? Is your habit to look at choices through one lens or several? And what, would you say, are the pros and cons of your habit? Are there certain choices where you tend toward a single lens and other choices where you gravitate toward multiple lenses? Knowing how we choose helps us clarify where the growing edge is for us and also gives hints about what sort of assistance we need when stuck. At any rate, in the midst of choices, may we know GOD's freedom. Wesley White -- Romans 6:1b-11 How many of us get stuck between the way we used to be or wish we weren't and the way we expect to be or wish we were? This stuckness of the moment can be an eternity. The moment between one breath and the next makes a difference. Take an intentional deep breath or use a baby's dive reflex - by the time we surface or are lifted out, the next breath is being breathed in the land of new heaven and new earth. Baptism, that moment between breaths. Remember your baptism and be glad. When we have passed through the last temptation, know ourselves to be nailed to a cross, we have committed ourselves to trusting GOD, come what may, even death. Death will never again have the last word and so we can see clearly now. Remember your crucifixion and be glad. Do you have before and after pictures of yourself? Before a baptism? After a crucifixion? Try sketching one and putting it on your refrigerator door. Are you willing to click the "reply" button here and let us know about your moment between sin and grace or what it is like for you to walk in the resurrection of newness of life? I hope you are so willing and able to follow through on it. When we honor all these before, during, and after times, in ourselves and in others, we find ourselves talking in new ways - GOD language of oneness and pluralism (together) comes alive. Religious multi-lingualism is a delight. Wesley White -- Matthew 10:24-39 Enough, already. Enough secrets. Enough enforced silence. Enough, already. Enough fallen hairs and sparrows. Enough fear. Enough, already. Enough denial. Enough divisions. Enough, already. Enough rich being pulled down. Enough poor raised up. Enough, already. Find enough and it will be enough to free us from having to better our teacher, to replant follicles, to fight family, to cheat to get first place. Finding enough is enough. Having found enough we find life brimming over. Find enough. 30 June 2002 - Year A - Proper 8/Ordinary 13/Pentecost +6 Wesley White -- June 30, 2002 Being provided with what is needed brings simple expectation and complex mystery. As we enter this next week we will find what we need coming from unexpected places. It is almost as if GOD can't resist setting up a practical joke and seeing our response to a pie in the face when we are simply hungry. It is a way to be fed, but who knew that would be the way. If we can stick with it all week long we might even be surprised next Sunday. Wesley White -- Genesis 22:1-14 Let's see. Pro-video - to see for. In the midst of testing that we pray not be brought, comes
the provision unexpected. The means of resolution are not self-evident
in the terms of the test. Perhaps it is sufficient for us to simply be clear about the test that is being put before us and to move forward through it. All along Abraham has heard the promise of generations to come and risking the laughter of Isaac sorely tests that promise. All along Jesus has heard the promise of the freedom of GOD and risking the finality of death sorely tests that promise. All along you have heard the promise of _____ and now _____ is sorely testing that promise. We find ourselves unable to be free of the testing and unprepared in our own resources to provide for ourselves in the midst of the test. Where is the expansive love of GOD to be found in a church unable to deal such a basic part of life as sexuality (it seems we have chosen to be blind)? Where is the expansive love of GOD to be found in a world unable to deal with such a basic part of life as sharing and nurturing economic resources (it seems we have chosen to be deaf). Where is the expansive love of GOD to be found in a nation unable to deal with the patriotism of a loyal opposition (it seems we have chosen to be stupid). Where is the expansive love of GOD to be found in a Bible unable to deal with the messiness of providence in the face of rules to kill (it seems we have chosen to be anesthetized). I don't know where expansive love will show up or when or through whom or anything else. I simply know there is no other way to go in the midst of the ambiguity and contradiction of life between the testing and the providing than to stand and say, "It will be seen to." Let's see. Wesley White -- Psalm 13 I have long regretted the versification of the Bible. Oh, it does help us get to the same spot together - but at the cost of wandering through the wonder of what wasn't numbered. Somewhere - between the beginning plea and the concluding confirmation of trust - we have missed something. This is the American TV half-hour sitcom. For 18 minutes (give or take) there is set-up and then there is 2 minutes of resolution. What happened just before verse "5" begins with radical trust and celebration? An invisible providence occurred? That which "sees" cannot be seen? Can you sense an invisible providence already at work in the midst of your particular life, your testing? Go back again to the beginning of the Psalm. Put in your particulars. What trouble have you carried long enough? What "tar baby" have you struck and been stuck to? Without being able to glimpse the way through can you find yourself beginning to celebrate, "I'm singing at the top of my lungs, I'm so full of answered prayers." [The Message] May you be so full of answered prayer (even one) that you can continue in the midst of those prayers not yet recognized as resolved. What a wonderful blessing. Wesley White -- Jeremiah 28:5-9 The Spiritual Formation Bible suggests your journal entry for today begin with, "What I Don't Want to Hear From God." I don't want to hear that things are going to get worse before they get better. I don't want to hear that the problem is with me, not with someone else. I don't want to hear that I need to dramatically stand up to the powers that be and say, "I don't trust you." I don't want to wait to see. I yearn to hear that the economy will only go up from here. I desire to be assured that the problems of the world can be targeted on one group (or another, it doesn't really matter which group). I hanker for someone I can turn decisions of state and personhood over to. I crave and lust after immediate results. What have you resisted hearing? That's a pretty sneaky way to get us to hear what we need to hear. Is this the missing part from Psalm 13? Instead of just complaining, did the Psalmist finally listen to what they didn't want to hear and come to rejoice at their ability to enter into a meaning and purpose of life beyond being top dog? Wesley White -- Psalm 89:1-4, 15-18 Ah, King David. The throne of all generations. We take that as a good thing, thinking nothing is beyond the generations. Before the Kings, Samuel had warned, "You will become the king's slaves, and you will finally cry out for the Lord to save you from the king you wanted." But the people refused to listen to Samuel and demanded, "We want to be like other nations. We want a king to rule us and lead us into battle." And so the kings ruled and battled and it came to pass that the kings passed. The Monarchy passes into Israel and Judah. Israel passes. Judah passes. We are back to where we started with Samuel imploring the folks to trust GOD, not political/military/economic leaders. "All we are and have we owe to GOD, Holy GOD of Israel, our King!" [The Message] The test of kings, and even of majority democracies, is found in the illusion that in such we will find guaranteed life, solid and lasting as rock. Providence, GOD's beauty, is beyond such illusion. May we dance in the beauty beyond kings and congresses. The issue is not whether a king is good or bad. Either way they block the beauty of life, the test of trust. Wesley White -- Romans 6:12-23 Down through the years the traditionalist and literalists have accused those on the progressive portion of the Christian continuum of being libertines - those who abuse their freedom. The expansive freedom of GOD does come with some built in testing points. It does travel beyond the limits of rules and commandments. GOD does sometimes change decisions mid-stride. In turn, we had heard it said and now we need to listen to what is being said anew and differently. In listening to "grace" first and "law" second we do run risks. These are different risks than attending first to the "law" and then to "grace." The risks are different and folks do seem to find themselves gravitating or levitating toward one or the other polarity - law or grace. Perhaps the best we can do at this point is not to argue or defend or apologize for the gifts we have been given, but simply use them - trusting that we will be provided an opportunity to change directions (an angel will open our eyes) or an opening to new knowledge about GOD and self. May our freedom in GOD lead us to so care about others that we too will be accused of being too free in associating with the poor, the outcast, the sinners. May our freedom in GOD lead us to so care about GOD images that we will find a way out of the slave talk and sacrifice talk of yesterday into recognitions of the obsessions and compulsions of the day and the gift of participation in the fullness of life rather than having that being something merely done on our behalf. Then let the accusations come that we do cast the net of grace too broadly and that we do recast images of GOD beyond those that have been codified and constraining of GOD's expansiveness. For now, this is our way to a "whole, healed, put-together life." This way does lead to eternal life. We rejoice that this is our path and trust others rejoice in their path. Wesley White -- Matthew 10:40-42 Often times we think about mission work as an "us" to "them" proposition. Listen to Eugene Peterson's picture of how we are "intimately linked" beyond an "us-them" duality. "Accepting a messenger of God is as good as being God's messenger. Accepting someone's help is as good as giving someone help." This is certainly an unexpected turn of events. Just when we think we have the tests of life figured out we get thrown another of these last-to-first kind of promises. If we begin to think this backwards way around we find that hospitality is a key to life. Living a welcome demonstrates the message of GOD-news that welcomes us and oftentimes speaks louder than words. How do you wrestle with being humble enough to receive help and not to always be the one to give help? How is this an example of the way of Jesus opening us to GOD? Can you see the resurrection in this picture of Jesus needing to receive GOD's help and not just exhausting himself in healing and preaching? |