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Lectionary - September 2002 |
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Lectionary - September 2002 |
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1 September 2002 - Year A - Proper 17/Ordinary 22/Pentecost +15 Wesley White -- for September 1, 2002 Exodus 3:1-15 So who are we in the mixture of stuff called life? We run to foreign lands to hide from justice only to find ordinary bushes flaming for justice. We are rocks to build on and blocks to cause stumbling. Even as we "hate" evil, so we "bless" it. In all ways we look for the shift in perspective that opens to openness. Wesley White -- Exodus 3:1-15 The world of Moses: Inexplicably not drowned because of the open heart of the rule-breaking daughter of the rule-maker; adopted alien; murderer; refugee; vision-of-GOD encounterer; excuse-maker to avoid said vision; knower of GOD's identity [I-AM-WHO-I-AM (and its several variations into past and future)]. This process could have been stopped at any number of points along the way. A less sly family, a hard-hearted king's daughter, palace intrigue, not empathizing with his roots, killing his own to cover up another murder so he could keep his perks, standing his ground and taking his punishment, giving up on justice and not rescuing the shepherdesses, been even more Gershom-like (an alien sojourner) and wandered further, lost his curiosity, insisted that future confirmation is no present proof. As it is we get a murdering escapee who questions GOD. This is the one to lead us into a great story of freedom? OK, then what is to get in the way of your furthering that great story of freedom? Whatever your, "Why me?" there is no reason given. It is to be enough that GOD will be present with you. So, is that enough for you? If it is, there is great openness for your life and promise of great openness for the rest of us. Know GOD with you and the tentativeness of your past no longer determines your worth. Know GOD with you and you are free to aid others to freedom. Wesley White -- Psalm 105:1-6, 23-26, 45c "Recalling the past can be a prayer: when we try to see the work of GOD and to give thanks." Christian Community Bible. It is time to do a time-line of your life to see the presence of GOD with you and to give thanks. Having done so, may your eye be open to recognize the presence of GOD with you now and to give thanks. May your heart be open to knowing the presence of GOD will always be with you and so be freed to be about the business in the unread portion of this psalm - to risk preparing the way for the realized eschatology of freedom. Wesley White -- Jeremiah 15:15-21 Hear these words from The Message by Eugene Peterson: This is how God answered me: "Take back those words, and I'll take you back. How often we have whined about the religious right. We have thought them the steel wall when they are no better than a Maginot Line (strong enough for the last battle, but simply a distraction for the future). Too often we are found appealing to God to change things when it is our words, our life, that are to be the instruments of change. How do we get out of our whining? By using words truly and well. This will force us into accuracy, even when it means we need to change as much as others. This will call us to evaluate the situation more carefully and always leave room for the miracle of change of heart and mind in the others (not forgetting change in ourselves) -- always ready to welcome our enemies as well as our friends. So no more cheap whining, but clear statements about how good it is to feast on GOD's intention for creation. So no more blame, but enthusiasm for the game of life. Wesley White -- Psalm 26:1-8 "I never lose sight of your love...." "I love the beauty of your house and the place where your glory dwells." Don't you enjoy these courting moments. We draw and are drawn. So what are other parts of the constellation of love/beauty/glory? This would be an interesting way of evaluating decisions so that if we are fooling ourselves about love (and that is so easy to do) that we might catch ourselves on the beauty or the glory aspects. If we can't trust the overuse of the word love as a criteria for action, might we ask if our decision will bring more beauty, more glory? Will the world be a happier place? Will the ratio of peace and justice jump higher? Will we choose to bless at every moment because at every moment we know our selves blest? Wesley White -- Romans 12:9-21 "Love from the center of who you are; don't fake it." [The Message] So what is at our center? Is it the daily pronouncement on creation, "Its good!" or Jesus' self-identified task to release "more and better life" than we ever dreamed of? Is it the understanding of original sin or the image of being a worm underfoot? Paul's examples of the grace given him to encourage our love presume that we have it within us to hold evil at bay while welcoming good. We can not only do that as theory but with the one person or mob we are facing who is confused about the good and evil within them. Our center of hospitality and generosity are to lead our behaviors, our interactions with others. Jesus' presence and encouragement to love enemies is real and possible for us. To recast these words using the United Methodist General Rules of 1) do no harm, 2) do good, 3) attend to GOD's presence -- "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good by keeping yourselves fueled and aflame." It is not only OK to lead from your good center, it is expected. Enjoy the freedom this gives. Wesley White -- Matthew 16:21-28 What kind of self-image did Peter have of himself? One moment he was praised and named "Rock." The next he was shunned and named "Satan." I expect Peter simply felt he was doing the best he could with what he had at the time. What kind of identity do you have as you do the best you can with what you have at the time? Sometimes you come through, gloriously. Sometimes you come through, flat on your face. Sometimes you come through, just barely. Do you have names for the various ways you come through? I suspect that having a way to identify your various identities would be helpful in trying to methodically move toward wholeness. Peterson, in The Message, talks about Jesus' suggested self-evaluation in a way that could be turned into a scale from 1 to 10 rather than using the personification of names such as Rock or Satan. Q1: On a scale of 1 to 10 (with 1 being the least and 10 the most), how far did you run from suffering today? Q2: On a scale of 1 to 10 (with 1 being the least and 10 the most), how closely did you embrace suffering today? Or would you rather use the old religious imagery of denying yourself and taking up your cross? This shift of our relationship to suffering is clearer and more helpful to me than across-the-board denial of or aspiring to messiahship. It aids us in simply and unswervingly doing the best we can with what we have and with whom we are - in being an ever present presence. 8 September 2002 - Year A - Proper 18/Ordinary 23/Pentecost +16 Wesley White -- September 8, 2002 Exodus 12:1-14 What are you going to remember this next week for? Keep alert for memorable moments of freedom, of forgiveness, of love. Simply anticipating that they will arrive is a blessed gift. Note them when the present adds its blessing. Remember them in days to come will give courage for additional anticipation that transforms life. Wesley White -- Exodus 12:1-14 This is to be the first month of the rest of your life. Did you know that? This is the day the Lord has made. Did you know that? This moment is to echo on. Did you know that? There is no other time for freedom than now. Did you know that? Yes, there have been previous acceptable years of jubilee, and months, days, moments. They have played their part in bringing us to this time. In anticipating and remembering we are bold to be in a hurry for justice. Are you doing what you can in conversation and action? Yes, we have had our hopes raised and dashed before. But a part of who we are is found in the meaning of never giving up on issues of freedom. A part of our freedom is to pray for the rear-guard of days gone by. Someday we will measure people by the content of their character not their color, gender-preference, labor-status, class, or any other cultural boundary. That someday is already assured and we will speed its arrival with our boldly living as if someday were today. So, workers of the world, arise! We have nothing to lose but our chains! This old, but venerable chant, needs to be heard again and again wherever people are in cultural and religious bondage (yes, the two do go hand in hand). Wesley White -- Psalm 149 What would it look like to triumph without resort to two-edged swords to slay others? Here is a great divide. Can we unswervingly proceed to erase the differences between earth and heaven, between now and then, moving them toward congruence, regardless of the consequences to ourselves? Must we be the vehicle of GOD's justified imposition of consequences upon those who would limit how present the powerless can be? Do you find yourself wavering in the middle between the resistance formulations of Gandhi or Che? It is time to choose which continues to be the new song of life. It may be enough to simply remember the first lines of this Psalm and let the rest go, trusting what will be will be. -- Hallelujah! Alleluia! (in any spelling form or language) we are singing a new song 'cause there is no fixing the old one. To keep to our singing we do it in the presence of fellow-travellers lest we forget and fall back into unoriginal behavior. Wesley White -- Ezekiel 33:7-11 Who has played "warner" in your life? For me some of the authors have been Kazantzakis, Ellul, Stringfellow, Rauschenbusch, Wesley, Luther. I am struck with how male that group is. I am thankful for the living presence in my life of Brenda, the Kairos CoMotion planning team, Sharon, Kathryn and so many more women. Together they have helped me be a "warner." Together they have convinced me that the warning that needs doing is a warning toward new life, as well as a warning away from old life. "As sure as I am the living GOD, I take no pleasure from the death of the wicked (or the good). I want the wicked to change their ways and live (and the good to deepen their ways and live). Turn your life around (and keep it going in a healthy direction). Reverse your evil ways (and be drawn ever nearer the ways of abundant living). Why die (and why not live)?" This business of "warning" seems to go way back "to be aware," "to watch," "to care." This is more and different than the kinds of warnings we get about terrorism these days (seemingly calculated to distract). How aware are we of our own complicity in the consequences we have received? How much do we care that wickedness on both sides cease? Being a warner is not easy if the warner heeds the warning as well as passes it on. Still it is a valued gift. Warn away! Wesley White -- Psalm 119:33-40 We are so easily swayed by the resistance to trusting goodness. It is almost that we are best defined by what we stand against rather than what we stand for. When I get to the "pearly gates" I sure hope I won't be put on one of those shouting heads programs so prevalent these days in order to defend my "entrance." Or, if I am, that I will be wise enough to listen, to wait, to affirm rather than deny. May you also spend more time affirming life than defending temporary positions that will need to be modified in the next twinkling of an eye as someone else comes to power and cultures again shift their idols. Continually saying "no" wears us out. It takes us back to being two or a teen. Let's deepen our mature appreciation of the time, energy, and resources it takes to participate in (to say "yes" to) "saving justice" (NJB). Wesley White -- Romans 13:8-14 Paul's situation is both similar and different from Moses'. How would you describe the similarities and differences between your situation and that of Paul and/or Moses? I expect that it is no easier for us to deal with the issues that connect death with freedom or that call us to connect law and love. In all these it is difficult to speak to the current situation and not some leftover situation from our past. A key line from The Message is, "don't always be wanting what you don't have." This pushes us to consider whether or not we already have what is needed/wanted and simply don't recognize it. We are loved, but we don't always recognize it and find ways of measuring love in ways that can never be met. We love, but we don't always recognize it and find ways of labeling it friendship, necessity, enlightened self-interest or something else. The finishing touches are already being put on creation. These touches include clarity regarding love and go far beyond any three-fold categorization of agape, philia, and eros. This is a process that goes back far further than our awareness of belief. It is a process that extends far beyond our ability to implement the life of love. A tricky part in all of this is not confusing the manifestations of love. Some are appropriate for some and some others for others. I expect it will take most of our life to work on this and we do need the help of others to dress us in Christ until we are able to so dress ourselves. Even with this trickiness, it is worth the work. Wesley White -- Matthew 18:15-20 At first blush it would seem, from most translations, that the reconciliation process will either end in renewal or a final breaking of relationship -- "excommunication," "let them be to you as a Gentile," "regard them as a pagan." An important question is, how did Jesus model dealing with Gentiles, tax collectors, and others outside the inner circle of official religion? Here we get the openness to start over. The question must be raised about our relationship with those outside the pale, whether more gently as Gentiles or more hard as excommunicated pagans. Is there not a special emphasis upon reaching out to those who do not experience the expansive love of GOD and ourselves in their life? Is this call not less than the call, as sisters and brothers of Jesus, to share our resources with one another? Is not the process of completing wholeness eternally dynamic? So be careful where you say "no" for it soon becomes a place where we must say "yes." When we say "excommunicated" or "pagan" with one breath must we not, with the next breath, say, "Welcome,friend" or "Welcome, sister/brother." 15 September 2002 - Year A - Proper 19/Ordinary 24/Pentecost +17 Wesley White September 15, 2002 Exodus 14:19-31 In the week known as "terrorism week" can we find it true that there is nothing to fear but fear itself? How do we find that still small turning point of acting from our best rather than someone else's worst? These last couple of weeks, and again this week, we are finding evil being bracketed by forgiveness. I continue to hope other voices will be raised in this place of dialogue. Where do you find hope and even joy when all about are muttering "terror" and planning external war to distract from the lack of internal peace? Wesley White -- Exodus 14:19-31 Oh my, oh my! It is power that brings reverence and belief and trust. As we will find, that result of power doesn't last. As soon as folks are finished singing about this power they begin complaining (stay tuned for next week). Power brings with it a sense of entitlement that always leads to disappointment. If you can't trust power, what can you trust? [The emphasis here is upon "you" - so what stands behind your belief and trust?] Wesley White -- Psalm 114 In looking back at events of power and loss of life, the Psalmist most remembers what was experienced as GOD's presence changing things. This helps put the Exodus passage in perspective and to keep us from celebrating overmuch the body count of our enemies. This is an encouraging word. Where are the blocks in moving to freedom these days? Well, a way is being prepared through that block. You are asked to participate - raise your arms, raise your voice, raise your prayers, raise your energy, raise your resources. Could it be as simple as voting? Could it be as difficult as being a candidate? Focus this day on the presence of GOD, fear and terror then are seen for the shams they are. Wesley White -- Genesis 50:15-21 "[Joseph's] encounter with the brothers is concluded with "comfort" (v. 21). The issue of guilt has been completely overcome. The agenda has moved beyond any concern for retribution to the larger issue of vocation. Twice now [Joseph] has said to them, "fear not" (vv. 19,21). Their alienation, fear, and grief are overcome. As is evident in Isaiah 40:1-2, "comfort" is an exile ending word...." [Walter Bruggemann, Genesis] I am struck with Bruggemann's earlier description of vocation. "This way of presenting Israel's faith is at the same time deeply believing and radically secular. It does not doubt the plan of God in the least. But at the same time, it accepts responsibility for the plan. Joseph does not 'leave it all in God's hands.' But he also does not believe that 'God has no hands but ours.' He accepts his vocation." So where is your vocation? Where do you accept responsibility for being a participant with GOD in the process of working forward from the gift of creation? When we get to the point of claiming our vocation the issues of guilt and shame can finally be laid down, we are freed from fears of retribution - comfort and hospitality become real (both our being welcomed and our welcoming). Progressive Christians find themselves wrestling with the bothness of being "deeply believing and radically secular." We are not willing to have one be subservient to the other or to separate them as a though there were a choice to be made between them. This is a quality that can help move the church into its next stage of life, so rejoice in living this bothness. M. Murdoch -- My experience has been that my "vocation" finds me. As I pastor a church of fairly conservative and non-involved souls, I have to confront daily the tension you describe, between "deeply believing and radically secular". As I do so, I discover that my vocation is to be faithful, to do the best I can in the circumstances in which I find myself, and look for the sometimes surprising results. I find as I share my struggle with guilt, shame, perfectionism, others are liberated, or at least awakened to, their own. We move back, together, to self forgiveness, and then move forward to liberation from our burdens which keep us from "moving forward from the gift of creation." This work, I believe, must be the foundation of any work of reconciliation in our world. Wesley White -- Psalm 103:(1-7), 8-13 "tenderness and pity" (NJB) Tempers of GOD. Created in GOD's qualities, these are also ours. They are internal/external values that can be applied anywhere along the polarity process between "deeply believing and radically secular." Make up an hourly chart starting now. Each hour indicate how the previous hour went in regard to you and these qualities. (Using a scale of 1-10, with 1 being lousy and 10 being fantastic should be sufficient.) Don't forget to do this for sleep time as well as wake time. Our dreams and fantasies need maturing as much as the rest of our life. Try it again and again, as a regular exercise, to gather data about your progress in becoming GODlike - a most worthy goal. Wesley White -- Romans 14:1-12 "Welcome with open arms fellow believers who don't see things the way you do. And don't jump all over them every time they do or say something you don't agree with -- even when it seems that they are strong on opinions but weak in the faith department. Remember, they have their own history to deal with. Treat them gently." [The Message] Ah, the nub of the matter - seeing that someone else is doing the best they can with what they have at the time. This is so tricky when, at the same time, our best seems so much better than their best. Is treating them gently actually the better way to go when we are trying like crazy to focus on making them better rather than developing our betterness? Is it more effective and efficient a process to participate in classes designed to deepen one's own spiritual life rather than joining other advocates to transform someone else? Are there any helpful categories that don't assume that the other will change toward us rather than have us do any changing toward them. A longer view really is helpful here and so to move from the start of the passage to its end -- "...None of us are permitted to insist on our own way in these matters. It's God we are answerable to -- all the way from life to death and everything in between -- not each other. That's why Jesus lived and died and then lived again; so that he could be our Master across the entire range of life and death, and free us from the petty tyrannies of each other. "So where does that leave you when you criticize a brother? And where does that leave you when you condescend to a sister? I'd say it leaves you looking pretty silly -- or worse. Eventually, we're all going to end up kneeling side by side in the place of judgment, facing God. Your critical and condescending ways aren't going to improve your position there one bit." [The Message] So, to get us what we claim we want -- connect with gentleness. How unAmerican in these days of Iraq-phobia. Be not afraid of gentleness and understanding. Go into those counter-intuitive gifts and be freed from "our petty tyrannies of each other." Wesley White -- Matthew 18:21-35 One level of life is our positive response to nasty things we encounter. Another is our ongoing nastiness (of course not seen by us, but reported by others). This passage gives wisdom about the length of our patience in active forgiveness. The flip side is to ask the question of how long we are going to try the patience of those who are in a position to forgive us. So, are you going to string them out as long as possible. If you do a sin a day against someone you will give them about a year and a third of grief before the literal limit of forgiveness sets in. Do you really have to wait that long to stop? Obviously, if you sin several times a day against someone that literal limit will come much sooner. How do you respond to the question, "How many times can I get away with sinning against someone for what I consider good reason? Is seven times a reasonable number?" I find I need to wrestle with both these questions and that they do help inform each other. The greatest help in being honest about these matters is to be in some form of a class meeting. Hie ye hence. 22 September 2002 - Year A - Proper 20/Ordinary 25/Pentecost +18 Wesley White -- September 22, 2002 Exodus 16:2-15 This will be a great week to look for reversals of actual situations as well as expectations. What will be manna for the hungry of this world? How will your whisper make a great change in the world? When will those who have little to go on, not have too little, and those who expect much, not have too much? Wesley White -- Exodus 16:2-15 What we experience as freedom others experience as great discomfort. Images and experience of a GOD beyond theism; seeing creation as a flowing river rather than a series of start-up points; and placing a culture of welcoming hospitality over the rules of time-specific doctrine -- allow differing responses of freedom and discomfort. To yank people into a desert of reliance upon experience rather than regularity of structure does cause discomfort for them beyond their previous discomfort. It is no wonder that complaints come. In fact it would be miraculous if there wasn't this response. One of the questions here is whether the experience of meat and potatoes (quail and ?manna?) came as prediction or interpretation. The words lead us to prediction, but were the words crafted to assist folks to see in a new way so they could move from discomfort to comfort by taking small steps toward freedom? This can be seen as a story moving on the continuum between comfort--and--freedom. One of the reasons I am attracted to the "freedom" end of life is that the stated purpose of the quail and ?manna? is to assure people that GOD is GOD and is on their side. Obviously this result doesn't come about in any lasting way. Any evidence that GOD is on our side slips and slides away and is open to misuse. [Later the people will choose the known desert with its ?manna? over going into a land overflowing with milk and honey - people don't know how to easily separate the experience of GOD with them from the particulars and choose to keep the particulars rather than experience GOD with new particulars.] A part of the appointment (call, if you will) we label as progressive, has to do with what Moses did - define what is already in front of people - their experience - as the presence of GOD. In the midst of the ?manna? ("what is it?") of life, may you experience GOD and aid others in experiencing GOD in the midst of the ?manna? of their life. Wesley White -- Psalm 105:1-6, 37-45 Can we be thankful, be Pentecostal (telling the wonders of GOD to all), be alert to new experiences of GOD's presence, be alive to wonder - without falling prey to the entitlement that turns every wonder to "my" advantage rather than "our" advantage? Is this the song that is being sung nationally in the United States of America these days - remembering only the parts of our history that are to our benefit. When looked at through this lens we can sense the danger of unbridled jingoism. My hope is that we can disconnect the first part of the reading from the second part so they don't reinforce one another but shed light on one another. Wesley White -- Jonah 3:10-4:11 What does it mean for "GOD to change," to do something other than get stuck in unrelenting destruction? What is our response when this reality sets in for us? May we find a GOD-sized compassion for folks who don't have an experience of the gentleness of moving toward communal living without demanding perfection in the moment. May this GOD-sized compassion move from sheer quantity to quality in our lives that we might also have a GOD-shaped hospitality. So what makes you angry these days? What beckons forth your compassion? How do these interact in your life? Is anger occluding compassion? Is compassion inclusive of your anger? Wesley White -- Psalm 145:1-8 It's time to "ponder anew what the Almighty can do." What are the top ten wonders in your life? What are the top ten wonders in the last week? What are the top ten wonders yesterday? What are the top ten wonders so far today? What are the top ten wonders you are expecting and living toward today? What are the top ten wonders you are expecting and living toward tomorrow? What are the top ten wonders you are expecting and living toward this week? What are the top ten wonders you are expecting and living toward - period? Did you know you already had 80 wonders in you? Regardless of your answer to this question, proclaim/live what you know. Wesley White -- Philippians 1:21-30 "Life versus even more life! I can't lose." The Message Our United Methodist language on abortion talks about the "tragic conflicts of life with life." How would it change us if we were able to move our vision of conflict from "tragic" to "edifying" or "gift"? While there are many dangers in spiritualizing difficult decisions to justify whatever decision we make, there is something very appealing about setting life now and life eternal in parallel with each other, rather than in conflict with each other. Paul says, "I'll deal with now, now, and with later, later." Part of how he gets to the vision of victory over the limits of time dictating behavior is, in the words of The Message, "There is more to this life than trusting in Christ. There's also suffering for him. And the suffering is as much a gift as the trusting." To see today as much as a gift as eternity shifts our decision-making. Let us help one another with all the decisions that bring front-and-center issues of "trust" and "suffering" regardless of which way we go. To deal with these head on does help with second-guessing. Wesley White -- Matthew 20:1-16 Read Barbara Ehrenreich's, Nickel and Dimed. We pay
people to work, but we don't pay them enough to live. Do this work from a sense of generosity rather than some idealized agenda. There is so much Poor Think all around - seeing economic resources as being much more limited than they are. A part of the Progressive movement is to not be frightened by those who predict disaster if the economic modeling moves away from the current overemphasis upon profit for the corporation. Here, as everywhere, we are called to see and prepare for the Great Reversal of swapping out last for first and vice versa. This is a far more reliable rule of thumb over an eternal long-haul than our time-bound models that encourage the rich to get richer and the poor to become poorer. Our negative temptation in a scarcity model is to become stingy. Our positive temptation in an abundance model is to become generous. Be positively tempted. :) 29 September 2002 - Year A - Proper 21/Ordinary 26/Pentecost +19 Wesley White -- September 29, 2002 Exodus 17:1-7 Caring about life within folks is tricky. How do we give enough space to allow change and where are the limits of cutting folks off, once for all, to be laid down. As we proceed through this week, have your antennae out for the life within others and ask the question of how to nurture that life. There is undoubtedly something being born anew within you as well, so give that its adequate due. Wesley White -- Exodus 17:1-7 September 11, 2001 brought a question to the United States of America that others had to face much earlier, "Is GOD here or not?" There are many within the church and many outside the church that experience the dryness of the institution in its care for all folks, each at their own level of spiritual maturity, and ask, "Is GOD here or not?" There are innumerable incidents in our own lives where that same question could be raised. Is death, even our death, reason to claim the absence of GOD? Is the lack of care, even of ourselves, reason to claim the absence of GOD? Is disappointment or grief? Is birth, even our birth, reason to claim the presence of GOD? Is being greatly cared for reason to claim the presence of GOD? Is fortune or joy? The staff used to dry up water becomes the staff to bring water gushing forth. Around it goes. Perhaps we might try using this image for ourselves. Can you see yourself as a staff of life drying and gushing as needed? So often we image things moving in only one way when a circularity is closer to the mark. The stuff of life is too great to be limited to one way of operating (as though everything were a nail because I have a hammer). So be a staff of life, able to be present and helpful in each differing circumstance. Oh - to be a simple staff in the hands of a living and loving GOD. Wesley White -- Psalm 78:1-4, 12-16 There is so much one-sided talk these days about the inevitability of American aggression on Iraq. I was just at a town hall meeting held by our congressperson. A strong 90% of the speakers counselled "no" on invading Iraq. This runs so counter to what is in the media. So where does truth lie when the administration has a "bully" (literally) pulpit and so dominates the public air? In the Psalm we hear only that which fits the Exodus passage - how wonderful is GOD to provide water for us. The very next verse (17) reminds us that trying to put the best possible spin on things is only half the story. "All they did was sin even more." It is important to remember the joys of coming through. It is also important to acknowledge the limits of that - why it was so wonderful (because things weren't so great) and then what happened in response (repeating the not so great). Having pooh-poohed the spin of the lection selectors it is tempting to say that the most important part of the story is disappointment, two-to-one - before and after. However, it is still of the utmost importance to affirm blessings and to participate in more blessings. May we soon find the blessing of the larger community of the U.N. in the face of fear and ignorance masquerading as ultra-patriotism and go-it-alone-bravado. Wesley White -- Ezekiel 18:1-4, 25-32 Ezekiel catches us just right - whining - "That's not fair! God's not fair." And we are right, God's not fair. Otherwise we would be graded on the curve with extra credit given for our intentions and our creedal fidelity. If God were fair it would be noted that I'm not as bad as so-and-so, so I should get a better seat in heaven. If God were fair I would not be tempted at all, much less only up to what I can bear. What fairness do you expect from GOD? And since you don't get that fairness, what are the specifics of your whining? This may actually be a helpful self-help technique - listen in on your whines to find out what you need working on. Wesley White -- Psalm 25:1-9 "Integrity and generosity are marks of Yahweh..." (NJB) These are the issues we need to focus on, again and again. What does it mean to have integrity? My dictionary lists as its first definition: "An unimpaired or unmarred condition: entire correspondence with an original condition." We are creation-centered. We listen for the refrain, "It is good." We measure ourselves against what we understand GOD's intention for creation was (not how far we have fallen short). We encourage everyone to work together. We are like the prophets, always returning to creation as our plumbline. And generosity? How about this definition: "Liberality in spirit or act." There is an expansiveness here that goes beyond definitions of the status quo. This may have something to do with the line "be fruitful and multiply." If it does, that means more than literal procreation. There is also a suggestion of working from a mind and heart-set of abundance rather than scarcity. We have enough experience of GOD's merciful hospitality toward ourselves that we can let our cups overflow with this same generosity toward others. Keep practising. Keep encouraging others to so practice. Wesley White -- Philippians 2:1-13 "Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn't think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what." One of the quick responses I once gave to my daughter when she was asking questions about what lay behind the nastiness of life, evil, if you will, was: A key element behind each of the seven deadly sins is a sense of entitlement. Think for a moment about these seven classic sins and their attendant virtues. How does a sense of entitlement lead to the sin and how does not claiming what is due us lead to the virtue?
............ If you are interested in other lists of sins and expanding your thinking to them, here are a couple. SEVEN DEADLY SINS OF INFORMATION DESIGN SEVEN SINS OF DEADLY MEETINGS THE SEVEN DEADLY COPY EDITING SINS THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS ACCORDING TO PRINCESS NATALIE (and examples)
Wesley White -- Matthew 21:23-32 How do you justify your life, excuse yourself, apologize (defend) for your interactions? Does the Bible tell you to ...? I still marvel at ordination services that clunk a hand on and order, "Take thou authority...." as though something happens there that wasn't present before. In a democracy we give credence to the authority of a majority (or even a judicially declared minority) to give license to make decisions. Prophets don't get official sanction. A loyal opposition doesn't require certified status. Are you still waiting for some authority to live well, to advocate for salaam/shalom/peace, to speak up and out for community? As Jesus set aside his claim on deity, so we are to set aside our claim on authority. It is enough to live toward greater and greater generosity of spirit through our time usage, energy investment, resource sharing, and community building. |