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Lectionary - October 2002 |
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Lectionary - October 2002 |
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6 October 2002 - Year A - Proper 22/Ordinary 27/Pentecost +20 Wesley White -- October 6, 2002 Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20 Where the big deal is Freedom (Exodus) the fearful thing is Law. Where the focus is on the Law giving shape to Freedom the next fearful thing is new Freedom beyond the old Law. And so it goes around and around. We are called to participate in this gyre that both raises us and scares us. These next two weeks of material are put on all at once. You are still welcome to reply with your voice regarding these scripture passages. I would be interested in your preference for a daily posting versus a week's worth all at once. You can reply here or an individual email to wwhite@wisconsinumc.org Wesley White -- Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20 To have 10 words from GOD seems pretty straight-forward. The Religious Tolerance website indicates at least three different numbering systems for: - Ancient Judaism, Reform Protestants, & Eastern Orthodox and makes this comment: "Lack of agreement among various
divisions with Christianity and Judaism would make it very difficult
to reach a consensus about how the Ten should be printed for
display in public locations." What was probably once very clear to folks, has been broken into several different traditions. And all the king's horses and all the king's men can't seem to put it back together again. So how do you play back and forth between Law and Freedom, between the varying number schemes and how much play do you allow others? Wesley White -- Psalm 19 Nature declares the glory of GOD without speech and explanations. "Unspoken truth is everywhere." The Revelation or Law of GOD reflects this glory. But what to do when the glory and the revelation no longer match so smoothly? Quantum mechanics and astrophysics move us beyond the "our-sized" obviousness of Newton's causes and effects. But the glory, once obvious, now needs to be revealed anew. We need to not only open our hearts, but our minds. May you pay attention to the macro as "Madame Day holds classes every morning." May you pay attention to the micro as "Professor Night lectures each evening." As you forget not to pay attention to the every-day as "Sister and Brother Noon bring their perspective each mid-day." Many rejoice in this new exploration of the interface between glory and revelation and many fear it. If you are a rejoicer, rejoice without claiming exclusivity for your findings. Wesley White -- Isaiah 5:1-7 Ooooo! That smarts! GOD "looked for a harvest of righteousness and heard only the moans of victims." The moans of my "victims" rise to heaven. Perhaps next time I should call down the angels to do them in that I might keep my hands cleaner. But that is no solution - so saw Jesus and even myself when I am honest about it. There is no way to stop the moans other than to stop the victimizing. Am I listening? Is the church listening? Is the United States administration listening? So, how do we help the listening process without beating folks up and yelling, "Listen up!"? Let us know what your contemplating of this comes up with. You may be the voice of GOD for me and for others. Wesley White -- Psalm 80:7-15 "Let your face shine on us and we shall be safe." While these words are directed toward GOD (for our benefit) they might also be directed toward ourselves (a benefit for others). What would it be like for you to imagine that your smile is a smile of blessing? What is it that gets in the way of identifying yourself with blessing? How do we get beyond the culture of "cool" to the warmth of blessing? Smile well. Smile often. Smile. Wesley White -- Philippians 3:4b-14 So how do you talk about what is most important in your life. Will some form of family values cut it? Is security the issue behind all your issues? Being one-up over one or many is where its at? Paul talks about knowing resurrection's power as being top on his list. For him this was more important than "being a meticulous observer of everything set down in God's law Book." Is there anything more important than this for you? How would you phrase Paul's heart's desire? How would you share that with others? Don't give up the attempt to define what is most important. Keep at it. Wesley White -- Matthew 21:33-46 "So," asks Jesus, "what is the appropriate response to evil?" The religious leaders universally cry, "Treat evil with evil, kill killers." The religious leaders universally cry, "Those who keep the system going are best, those who will give an appropriate share to religious power." Is that too harsh a characterization of their response? No wonder Jesus again talks about a great reversal. First he says, "As you judge, so shall you be judged - the living stone you reject will turn to death and redound to your detriment." Then he says, "There is no religious power. There is only 'kingdom living.'" The appropriate response to evil becomes living as though heaven were on earth. This is not concerned with success and making a mint selling a book about how to live well. This is the humble truth of a great reversal - the last shall become first (not in power, but in love of GOD and Neighbor). Though filled with violence, this is a story of non-violence. (Oh yes, by the way, don't read verse 44 as it is not in some transcripts. Let the story end with "GOD's kingdom is for those who will live out a kingdom life.") 13 October 2002 - Year A - Proper 23/Ordinary 28/Pentecost +21 Wesley White -- October 13, 2002 Exodus 32:1-14 Distractions are at the gate. No matter how we try to barricade ourselves they keep coming. How we deal with distractions (idolatries, if we need holy language) will be important. Keep to the basics - both returning to them and building on them. Wesley White -- Exodus 32:1-14 Moses tried to calm GOD down, to pacify GOD who was ready to change horses mid-stream. Enough, already, with complainers against the consequences of freedom. Freedom does not provide a sense of security or basic survival needs. No wonder idolatrous captivity holds such appeal. Have you heard yourself complaining about the results of freedom recently? Isn't that why we don't insist on information before making decisions as evidenced by the appeal to "trust us, we have secret stuff" from an administration looking to go to war? We in the public appear to want to have plausible deniability so war is not our fault but their fault, so we don't demand clear evidence. But the track record of betting on Adam/Eve or Noah/Naamah or Abraham/Sarah all brought disappointments. Would Moses/Zipporah really be a better option? Would you be a better option? Should GOD get rid of everyone else and clone you as the way to bring creation to its fulfillment? Moses did well to talk GOD down to earth from high dudgeon. May we talk our own leaders down. May we work for the good of all and not just for our own dominance. Wesley White -- Psalm 106:1-6, 19-23 There are so many rules and regulations propagated by the religious right who see any other way of doing things than their way as automatic idolatry. So they follow GOD's lead in this story and are willing to bring an end to those who are not living up to the current mark. (Yes, this is a caricature.) None-the-less, where Moses stood in the breach between GOD's anger and the people who were not yet perfect; so progressives stand in the breach between the religious right's anger and gays and lesbians, women who have had an abortion, and non-Christian people of faith. Come on, all you people, let's get together and love one another right now. A part of this love is standing in the breach, confronting the full view of righteous anger and saying, "no." Wesley White -- Isaiah 25:1-9 The Messianic Banquet will take place on our mountain! Everyone comes our way. How would the Messianic Banquet look if we imagined it taking place on Mount Halgurd in Iraq, the land of our administration's latest (not last, at this rate) enemy? What if it were on Mount Everest with very few folks making it up even if they were to come in that direction? What about some rounded hill without a name in South Africa? Where can't the Messianic Banquet happen? Why not where you are? Pull out a tablecloth this next warm day in spring/fall (depending on which hemisphere you are in and how far away from the equator you have drifted) and have a picnic. Invite folks (even enemies) to a Messianic Banquet on the sward where you live. You might even make plans to have the next banquet be on their turf. What, more than one Messianic Banquet? Why not? How loverly! Wesley White -- Psalm 23 A recent translation of verse 6 begins, "Your beauty and love chase after me every day of my life." There is a sense in this of the activity of beauty. (Perhaps a bit of recognition that it chases because we are active in our resistance of being caught by anything, including beauty?) Another way to image this is with simply the presence of beauty, not chasing or pursuing but ever present - the environment within which we live and move and have our being. Here is one version: Beauty before me, I walk with. I am drawn to the walking with language. Wesley White -- Philippians 4:1-9 After we are enjoined to pay attention to helpful and healthy behaviors there is a payoff. Here is an interesting pair of ways of putting it. NRSV - "... and the God of peace will be with you." The Message - "... God...will work you into [his] most excellent harmonies." How do you balance things being with you versus you being worked in with others? Does one of these open you more? Which is it? Why? After you've answered in 25 words or less, why do you think someone else might see it the other way? Wesley White -- Matthew 22:1-14 Where was Moses to stand in the breech here? I can't help but wonder if the power of the story outweighs its moral teaching regarding first and last. This is certainly a story that begs us to pay attention beyond our everydayness, our economic bottom line. This one is just too hard in my current state. As Luther would have left some stuff out of the Bible, I would leave this one out. 20 October 2002 - Year A - Proper 24/Ordinary 29/Pentecost +22 Wesley White -- October 20, 2002 Exodus 33:12-23 So what are the known and unknown resources available to us? Staff? Surprising foreign leaders? Even taxes? May you be open to recognizing resources for the work of justice and peace as you go through this next week. And, having recognized them, have the courage to use them boldly. Wesley White -- Exodus 33:12-23 To be part of a progressive movement within a religious context is tantamount to being alone. The settled nature of religion tends toward the already completed rather than the journey yet to be travelled. Once there is a creed or understanding of the way things are we are wont to not mess with it. The progressive movement is a part of the larger prophetic stream within religious life. We too wonder who is travelling with us. The language of "fellow-traveller" in our culture is loaded with political overtones. Yet it is too much a part of our religious experience to discard. Moses doesn't seem to trust that GOD will be a fellow-traveller and asks this question of GOD a second time, after it seems to already be affirmed. Perhaps that is one of the characteristics of prophetic/progressive people. We have been disappointed before in thinking GOD was on our side and that took care of everything and then we kept waking up to find yet another plague was necessary, a sea was blocking the way, beyond that the way was barren and arid, the folks we were helping didn't appreciate the help, etc. Naturally, Moses asked a second time. And so do we. Not "Who's your daddy?" but "Who's your fellow-traveller these days?" Patti -- Thanks again for inspiration...According to the American Heritage Dictionary an exodus is a departure, usually of a large number of people. I am one who has departed from organized religion based on doctine, creed, or denomination. Because of this, I experience a type of exile. More often than not this exile feels uncertain and lonely, but I cannot return to the land I left. Recently it occurred to me that part of the uncertainty and lonliness I feel is a result of dis-honoring what I know to be true about God's presence as I wander. The theological dogma in which I was raised did a superb job of limiting both God and "Christian Community." Thus, I tend to limit the God-presence of fellow travelers because they do not fit the rules or identifying form of "Christian Community" as taught in my Lutheran upbringing; they are not a church! My experience of God's community differs from the rules and identifying form as taught by the church I grew up in...I continue to wander in exile... Wesley White -- Patti wrote: "...part of the uncertainty and lonliness I feel is a result of dis-honoring what I know to be true about God's presence as I wander. The theological dogma in which I was raised did a superb job of limiting both God and 'Christian Community.' Thus, I tend to limit the God-presence of fellow travelers because they do not fit the rules or identifying form of 'Christian Community'...." I find that to be very helpful language. Dis-honoring what we know to be true is a significant issue and part of what I experience as a source of the negative use of "doctrine, creed and denomination." In each case we find ourselves saying more than can be known and then enforcing it against the realities of life we experience. I have a friend who uses this as part of his email signature - "Discard everything that is an insult to your soul" +Walt Whitman Identifying that which dis-honors and insults is a key work to clear the ground for having the courage to follow where honor and thanksgiving lead. Any other insights into the issues of loneliness we all have to deal with? Patti -- Thanks for your insights Wesley. I particularly appreciate your statement that "Identifying that which dis-honors and insults is a key work to clear the ground for having the courage to follow where honor and thanksgiving lead." Wesley White -- Psalm 99 GOD "loves justice" and so creates or "established honesty, justice and uprightness." [NJB] We often think about creation as a physical reality. What would it be like to envision creation not in terms of 7 days of stuff but 7 virtues. In the beginning GOD. GOD created Justice and experienced its goodness - a first day. GOD created Courage and experienced its goodness - a second day. GOD created Benevolence and experienced its goodness - third day. GOD created Politeness and experienced its goodness - a fourth day. GOD created Veracity and experienced its goodness - a fifth day. GOD created Honor and experienced its goodness - a sixth day. GOD created Loyalty and experienced its goodness - a seventh day. [These are from the Bushido tradition to help open up our thinking about virtue.] What virtues would you point to that shape your days? How is this different than trying to hone ones days to end up at a particular set of virtues. Wesley White -- Isaiah 45:1-7 Just before this lection there is the imagery of foreign king Cyrus being labeled with hometown king David's title of "Shepherd." In our situation, given the decisions of the last General Conference regarding voting patterns, Judicial Council makeup, and the like [crucial stepping stones for the religious right to make sweeping changes at the next General Conference] it is as bold as hearing that GOD will choose the progressive United Methodists of the Northwest to rebuild the vision of holiness throughout the land, beginning with the church. There is no option but to laugh at our sensibilities regarding how progress is actually made. Not only does Cyrus not know GOD, neither do we. So relax. Enjoy. Light and dark, well-being and disaster -- do your best you can with what you have -- none of us know GOD but all of us can continue to grow in that direction. Lon Rycraft -- Aloha Wesley, progressive boat building is often ignored as the waters swirl around us all. The unspoken words are often those that reach our hearts. The truth is we may never know God 'til we push off for the last time from the shore. Until then we might trust the voices we hear in our heart and soul. Standing in the cleft of the rock is exciting and tedious, and maybe the backside is better than no side. Blessings, Lon Wesley White -- Psalm 96:1-13 [Yahweh] is coming to judge the earth; [Yahweh] will judge the world with saving justice and the nations with fairness. (NJB) To envision this as a reality in process is to begin to change our sense of interaction with issues of justice and fairness. We either acknowledge that such judgment is already underway and so it is a major influence in our actions, or we see such judgment as not applying yet and so we can get away with one more injustice or one more unfairness. In my viewing of the American war-rumoring scene I can only conclude that we are using the judgment language about going to war against Iraq and justifying it any way we can as a blind spot. We have no sense of balance regarding the damage we have already done with economic sanctions and the damage we yet intend to do with regime change. We have positioned ourselves so there is no face-saving way to avoid war and dividing the United Nations. How diabolical we have been and we consider ourselves to be on the plus side of judgment, pulling GOD along with us. This Psalm is a paean to GOD's saving power, evidenced in the past, and a call to participate in that by singing a new song (living a new way) ready for the justice yet to come for today's living. May we regret the consequences of our plans aforehand and change them accordingly. (Unfortunately for you and me, this applies to us individually as well as nationally. This is not just something we get to yell at others without taking it to heart ourselves.) Wesley White -- 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10 In his introduction to 1st & 2nd Thessalonians, Eugene Peterson writes: "The way we conceive the future sculpts the present, gives contour and tone to nearly every action and thought through the day. If our sense of future is weak, we live listlessly.... "The Christian faith has always been characterized by a strong and focused sense of future.... "The practical effect of this belief is to charge each moment of the present with hope.... It takes the clutter out of our lives. We're far more free to respond spontaneously to the freedom of God. "All the same, the belief can be misconceived so that it results in paralyzing fear for some, shiftless indolence in others. Paul's two letters to the Christians in Thessalonica, among much else, correct such debilitating misconceptions, prodding us to continue to live forward in taut and joyful expectancy for what God will do next in Jesus." .............. So it is that he translates verse 8, "The news of your faith in God is out. We don't even have to say anything more -- you're the message!" Are you taut and joyful that what God in Christ has done is shift the opportunity for ministry to your life, and mine? On the top of the Wisconsin state capital in Madison is a depiction of Miss Forward (state motto since 1851 - "Forward"). We need to be just that visible as we Live Forward. To drive home the point, the newest state symbol (1993) is the Wisconsin state dance -- the polka -- so, Polka Forward. Wesley White -- Matthew 22:15-22 Jesus certainly had a good response to a trick question about taxes. In our lives, taxes still present trick questions about how to deal with them when they are so skewed toward "common defense" issues and shorting "general welfare" issues. One way of approaching this matter is what is commonly called "war tax resistance." My dearly beloved and I have done this in the past and are reconsidering getting back into it. For more information about this question in today's environment I invite you to go to National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee or The Wisconsin Peace Tax Initiative. Today we might ask, "Show us the purpose of the tax," rather than "show us the coin in which the tax is paid." I have previously referred to the hymn, "Wounded World that Cries for Healing" (#2177, The Faith We Sing). Again the line comes - "...tax and tithe are for a purpose shared to shield the poor and weak...." One can get "common defense" out of the shield imagery but it is in the context of the "general welfare" of the poor and weak, regardless of whether they are close neighbors or neighbors half-way around the world. So, today, in a democracy rather than situation of occupation, Jesus might say, "Wherein the tax cares for 'general welfare' issues, pay it; wherein it does not, don't." And then, just like to his recorded response some 2,000+ years ago, we will have to use our thinking faculties to revisit the question. 27 October 2002 - Year A - Proper 25/Ordinary 30/Pentecost +23 Wesley White -- October 27, 2002 Deuteronomy 34:1-12 We are folks who catch glimpses of glory. So treasure each glimpse and share your part of a larger vision with others. It is important to honor two commandments as much as 10 and nursing a baby as much as setting young adults free from the nest. Glimpse well as it will need to sustain our longer views. Wesley White -- Deuteronomy 34:1-12 What vision is larger than yourself? Is glimpsable [grin] though not achievable in your life or life-time? Is that not the only thing worth pursuing with all one's presence and passion and prayer? One way of coming at this is to listen for what promises ring most true. Another way is to listen to your heart's desire. Both ways are dependant upon listening as well as Moses did whether he was observing injustice, noting a strange event in nature, remaining persistent in the face of seeming failure after failure to have people freed, believing rocks and water contain each other, receiving mountain-top inspiration, etc. So, listen for the vision and follow and share. Wesley White -- Psalm 90:1-6, 13-17 "Long before you brought earth itself to birth, "So don't return us to mud, saying, 'Back to where you came from!' "Surprise us with love at daybreak; "And let the loveliness of our Lord, our God, rest on
us, In the middle of time (whenever we are) there is the reality of nothing ("everything falls, after all" - line from Bob Franke about the bottom-feeding catfish) the reality of love sets that nothing in stark contrast (those good old love hormones in the brain blot out every negative - seldom do we see straight while in this state) may the resurrection of love over nothing (rather than love being a nothing tennis term) continue so strongly in your life that even if no one knows where you are buried (so they can't come and adore your past) they can still benefit from your helping to bring them thus far along. In today's world the nothingness of mud continues to manifest itself in war and rumors of war - even that needs to be surprised by your love again this morning. This is not a confirmation of creedal language, but of lives and loves lived. So live well and surprise whatever the "nothing" is in your life by loving it. Wesley White -- Leviticus 19:1-2, 15-18 Two phrases from Everett Fox's Schocken Bible translation: Verse 2 Verse 18 Fox notes: "The meaning of this phrase, and the concept, have been widely debated throughout the ages." So where is the debate about this in our age? Who here thinks they get it? Start talking about "be-loving" and see how far you get. Where do you see this intersecting with neighbor Iraq? And what are you doing about what you see? Can you see the apoplexy of SECRETary of deFENCE Donald Rumsfeld when he finally gets it, "Be-loving to Iraq who is like America." What, like America with weapons of mass destruction, etc.!? Yes. Wesley White -- Psalm 1 According to the New Jerusalem Bible, in verse 4 the usual translation of "Judgement" can be understood as, "The great Judgement to come, according to the Massoretic Text; any divine judgement in this life, according to the Greek." I hope you have read "The Once and Future King" to get a fix on the fluidity of a once and future judgement. A part of our task is to not put all our eggs in one basket - that of eternal nitpicking each moment or leaving things to one great moment summing up everything. The more difficult way we have chosen is to play the present and the future off against one another, sometimes focusing on one and sometimes on the other. And, sometimes, focusing on neither so the goodness of creation can continue to flow through our present and days to be. May you rejoice in YHWH and meditative prayer, in judgement and forgiveness. Wesley White -- 1 Thessalonians 2:1-8 Paul writes his self-understanding that he hasn't tried to trick or fool anyone, but says as directly as he can (with the honesty of a child before a naked king) the connection between his heart and a message reflective of GOD. It is tempting to try to fool at least some of the people some of the time (for their own good, of course). Pay attention to the political ads and you will note the high degree of trying to shade language enough to fool enough people into voting a particular way. The same process is used in the politics of religion. Today's New York Times (you can get it with a free sign-up) contains this editorial: "Dead Parrot Society" By PAUL KRUGMAN synopsized as "Despite his public image as a plain-spoken man, President Bush is in fact as slippery and evasive as any politician in memory." In many ways Paul is an anti-politician facing a one-party government and religion. He is thrown in jail and beaten up for his straight-forward approach. Like the religious progressives after him, Paul recognizes he has only the plain word of experience, of Christ crucified and raised, against a web of words and techniques used to maintain religious order and control. To get into a battle of webs is, for Paul and progressives, a losing battle. Though tempting to "use words as a smoke screen to take advantage," a key to influencing people for the better is an honest heart in touch with GOD's expansive love for all people and all of creation. Test your heart and tell the truth as soon as you can - even if it does not immediately advance your advantage. It is truth that frees. Wesley White -- Matthew 22:34-46 The Message ends this section with the line, "That stumped them, literalists that they were." They asked about "one" and Jesus responded "two." They claim David (read "we") brought forth the Messiah.
Jesus claims Messiah directs David (again, read "us"). Join the expansive party - beyond the Republi Cats and Dem Publicans and Grr Reens and Lie Arians - the More Action party. |