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Lectionary - July 2003 |
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Lectionary - July 2003 |
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6 July 2003 - Year B - Pentecost 4 Wesley White July 6, 2003 2 Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10 Redefinition of the situation seems in order this week. How do we define what we are dealing with. What keeps us from redefining the place/city we are in as our place/city? What have we heard and seen that would lead us from temples to mountains to forevers? What needs to change within us to be able to look anew at our weaknesses and find there our strength? What revisioning needs to go on to move on from hometown to other villages and from one sent to two sent? Wesley White Mark 6:1-13 What do you make of the charge to the disciples to deal with repentance and healing? Some have indicated that it does not include the believing part, as in "repent and believe" [1:14-15]. Does repentance carry with it the corollary of belief or is that a separate matter? Is simple change of direction sufficient or do we need to also point a direction? If we were to simply deal with this literally we might find that we don't need to come with answers but questions. It is in finally addressing the heretofore unconscious cognitive dissonant parts of life that we find appropriate responses to the situations we are dealing with. Change is needed in our perception and this is related to healing. We get to that change best through questions rather than positing belief creeds. What questions do we need to be asking of one another, of the church, of leaders and followers within a state setting? They will probably have something to do with recognizing our dis-ease with the current reality. They will probably have to wrestle with accepted status quo or established paradigms. They will probably have to bring us face-to-face with our weakness. Now, presume you have been sent by Jesus - Who are you traveling with and how do you raise the important questions of life? Wesley White 2 Corinthians 12:2-10 Is Paul speaking in the third person about his own mystical experience, as some have suggested? How does that play out in then not boasting about himself. My own mystical experiences are very much a part of myself, for better and for worse. To appeal to such a mysterious experience as a source of authority with no other supporting evidence is a weak place to place one's appeal for power in leading others. What is seen in us and heard from us is better. This raises the question of what we are using for our base of operations. Is it our belief or our living with folks? I will be glad when our current reliance upon propositions fades again and we can judge character on the basis of our living in the midst of one another. This is the kind of practical theology that appeals to me. As Eliza Doolittle exclaims, Words, Words, Words! Wesley White Psalm 48 Let us ponder the steadfast love of GOD. It is strong enough to cause panic in the plans of the high and lifted up. Simply seeing steadfast love (whatever the venue) is to participate in the beauty of life and beauty will last. Ponder on this long enough to see that the assembled powers do have their day, but no more. They squabble among themselves and bring one another down - like the story of the caterpillars at the pole scrambling on top of one another to unsuccessfully ascend. It turns out it takes the beauty of metanoia to be able to circumvent the ladder-climbing by flutter-bying. After thus pondering for sufficient time we can begin to walk around this miracle of steadfast love and see that there is room enough to accommodate all. Pray your love will be in the image of GOD, steadfast. This is our secret weapon that is no weapon. Wesley White 2 Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10 Israel and Judah are both ruled by David and yet they remain Israel and Judah. There is one Davidic kingdom and yet they remain Israel and Judah. For 33 years David rules over Israel and Judah and always they are Israel and Judah. Is this an intractable divide or an acknowledgment of individuation within a larger system? Can we claim this is simply the way life is and that those who follow another coming from David's city will continue to remain Orthodox and Roman, Roman and Protestant of various orders and denominations? Yet we have this drive to be seen as having the best response to the ah, sweet mysteries of life. Though I might be willing to acknowledge another if they first allowed my identity, there is this reverse expectation that if I acknowledge their right to be then they will, in turn, acknowledge mine. When this doesn't happen I am doubly frustrated with not being affirmed simply for being and not being responded to when for a moment I have the good grace to accept another. Ah, Israel and Judah, there is so much still to learn about being a new creation. Wesley White 2 Corinthians 12:2-10 The mythology is that Paul is beyond us. He claims to be all things for all people so some might be saved (1 Corinthians 9:22). That's a huge investment for a limited return. Here there may be a suggestion that, even for Paul, not everything is available to him as a means. The old "thorn in the flesh" may be a characterological or behavioral trait that gets in the way of Paul's claim [above]. Is it his split between how he is when present and how he is different when communicating from afar (10:1, 10)? Whatever, I heard a conversation about intrinsic and extrinsic motivations the other day. This confession seems to be pushing in the direction of the intrinsic. If Paul has to deal with his limitations, he will. In fact it is exactly this area of weakness that most clearly shows who he is. The same may well be true for you, I'm pretty sure it is for me. Let's not glory in our weaknesses in such a way that they are excused and we escape responsibility for them, but let them reveal our deep heart's desire. This is an important word to hear on this 4th of July. Our current administration, as most do, has been focusing on our country's strengths and avoiding our weaknesses. This is not healthy long-term behavior. There were no easy answers for Paul and none for us, either individually or commonly. So let's deal honestly with our strengths and weaknesses. Wesley White Mark 6:1-13 Who might be "knocking the dust off their feet" against you? Against us? There used to be a presumption of hospitality and when that was abrogated it deserved a symbolic act of censure. In these days of preemptive dust knocking it is important to ask questions about our openness to holy missions that we are missing because we have our sight so wholly set on our mission. I can understand my own knocking-of-dust off against those who intolerantly dismiss my life and concerns before walking a mile in these dusty shoes. There is a rightness about not participating after catching on to being abused for another's benefit. There is a rightness about going ahead to do good rather than sticking around to get beat up some more. There is a rightness about hospitably offering the same humanity to others that we expect. Hold fast to your own experiential basis of GOD's love and let GOD sort out the varieties of religious experience. (A caveat here, I expect an experience of GOD's love to have some measurable evidence that people are being aided in their journey to wholeness and holiness but such evidence may be more subtle and preliminary than I am willing to wait to come to fruition - so the communal work needed is a discerning patience.) 13 July 2003 - Year B - Pentecost 5 Wesley White July 13, 2003 2 Samuel 6:1-5, 12b -19 The New Interpreter's Study Bible says, "The two basic themes of 1 Samuel carry over into 2 Samuel: the public theme of the importance of good government and the difficulty of establishing it, and the personal theme of the complexity of relationships between people and between people and God." I hope difficulties and complexities are easily seen this next week. If they are not, some government or someone has pulled the wool over our eyes. Be not dismayed whether it is a moment of rejoicing or despair, victory or death. Life is not as either/or as it may appear. Wesley White Mark 6:14-29 Meanwhile, back at the ranch... while the rejoicing is going on in the two-by-two's of the 12 for all the healing that is going on, John the baptizer has been put into "protective custody" by Tetrarch Herod. Of course the one who thus protects has always the power to stop protecting, for whatever reason. And so Herod, who was protecting himself by taking John off the streets, eventually finds it more important to protect his power than to protect John. Say goodbye, John. Are you being protected? by whom? against what? with what result? Is your government being protected? by whom? against what? with what result? Protection rackets have a long and ignoble tradition. This is true whether done legally or illegally. Protection leads to trade offs - it is better for this one to die than a Tetrarch be embarrassed, or a nation be destroyed, or the gene pool be diluted, or there be unrest, or .... Better to continue taking risks as though you weren't safe at all. Preach it, John, preach it, on the street or in prison. May you follow suit with the 12 and with John. Go ahead. Heal and preach whether the response is rejoicing with you or having the dust knocked off you until only nothing is left. Wesley White Ephesians 1:3-14 This is one heck of a long sentence. Here is one attempt at condensing it. Such a try always runs the risk of misrepresenting the creedal and religious aspects of it. "Blessed be GOD, who desires us to be holy and blameless in love as we move toward GOD by way of Jesus' witness to redemptive experiences." What is your best approximation of this broad purpose statement that will get more specific as the letter goes on? While you are at it. see if you can figure out the antecedents for all the "he" and "his" language. Just trinitarianly it would be helpful to have more than just male talk. Earlier saints who speak of Mother Jesus help us out of some unnecessary confusions. To simply read it as it is loses folks real quickly. It would take an expert's expert to read this to today's congregation and have them follow it. Of course, that same confusion also frees preachers to make any number of assertions about destiny being a forgone fact rather a journey toward a destination. Wesley White Psalm 24 Parallel universes are fun to think about and even to explore. The gift of parallel expressions runs deep within ourselves. Hands and hearts can all too easily be false and deceitful, can cheat and seduce. To journey well to the depths of creation's purpose is to not be weighed down with these encumbrances that block our vision of footholds in slippery places. May we accept the help we need from GOD and from our fellow-travelers with GOD to put these behaviors down that we might wake up and lift up peoples and cities. Again and again it would be possible to compare administrations that see their survival being based on cheating and seducing the populace into believing the true to be false and vice versa and the honest to be unpatriotic seducers and vice versa with moving toward a bringing together of creation and history. Entering the temple is a repudiation of the partial. It gives us a much larger and better picture of ourselves than our usual smaller loyalties to stuff and nonsense. Wesley White 2 Samuel 6:1-5, 12b -19 I think it important to include verses 6-11. It appears David is working on the same polling process that is currently doing us in politically. Polling and spinning the results back to folks is an excellent way of meme-ing us into sloganeering rather than consideration of the issue at hand. If you are interested in this try Meme Central. And so, without thinking about anything much, David leaves the ark/chest behind. It was the practical thing to do? Then comes new information about prosperity. Ah, prosperity! Still being the superpower of his day, David hies himself hence to recapture what was originally in his possession but discarded as unimportant. Can anybody remember native reservations and how the desolate and left-behind was reclaimed when oil or other resources were finally discovered there? With equally little thinking and a whole lot of knee-jerk economic response to prosperity, David reclaims the ark/chest. It was the practical thing to do? May your leadership be better principled than David's. Wesley White Ephesians 1:3-14 The mystery of GOD's will has been made known to "us." That's a pretty powerful position to be in. What are we going to do with this gnostic wisdom? Paul goes on to give this mystery away. In verse 13 we hear, "In him you also ... were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit...." My goodness, the presence of GOD is not uniquely for me! Others have the same mark. Can that really be? The narcissistic part of me says, "Nyah, can't be." The holy, blameless, love part of me says, "Hooray!" What part of you is saying what in regard to simply being part of a process where everything will be gathered up in the fullness of time? Wesley White Mark 6:14-29 When Matthew and Luke tell this story it does not come as an interruption in the midst of another event, but follows either Jesus' rejection at Nazareth or the disciples field work and, in both cases, comes before the feeding of 5,000. Even here in Mark, the next thing after the interruption of the disciples practice Christ-ing is the feeding. We could contrast the difference in meals of power where one is entertained at $3,000 a plate meals with a floor show and demonstration of dispensing power to those who please and the meals of Jesus where the hungry are fed and a word of hope is given those in need. Do you remember meals where Jesus is attended by tears and hair drying or anointing, to the displeasure of the powerful? Do you remember other meals where Jesus is a model of service and a catalyst to a repentant tax collector? Which type meal (Herod's or Jesus') appeals to you and which kind of meal do your put on? II Samuel 6 Joseph Would you make that mistake again? Uzzah's mistake costs him his life. Michal doesn't seem to learn form Saul's mistakes. David ready to consolidate power in Jerusalem with this icon learns from the mistake of Uzzah and develops a greater understanding of the power of God. Can redemption be found in the mistakes that we make? Wesley White As long as the power of GOD is seemingly random [GOD "bursts" forth against David's enemies (5:20) and "bursts" forth against Uzzah (6:7) scaring David into leaving the ark behind] we are emboldened to see what we can get away with. Inasmuch as David's dance was reminiscent of the old fertility rituals (the ark is the seed of future blessing in this scene) Michal is justified in her criticism. Is it David's mistake here, confusing Michal with her father Saul, that leads him to not reconcile with her and perhaps bringing forth an heir who could have united these royals? Is it this mistake of David's what leads him to follow his hormones in regard to Bathsheba only five short chapters later? Mistakes do seem to be quite repeatable and new ones made as we mistakenly misapply the learning from one mistake into another situation. Mistakes can be redeemed. Is that redemption from GOD or inherent in the mistake itself. This seems like a fruitful discussion to follow for awhile and see what surfaces for us. Joseph Too many times we don't seek redemption from our mistakes but we offer justification for why we did what we did. Perhaps that is where/when we repeat our mistakes or misapply the learning from them. Perhaps redemption from our mistakes comes when we draw closer to God with the realization of our mistake. Only in that Light can we see the depth of our mistakes and endure the sometimes tragic consequences we bring upon ourselves. An example of this is when the prophet confronts David over his infidelity. Mistakes abound here in this text. Some are based on misunderstanding the nature of God, the personhood of others, and even a misunderstanding of ourselves. Maybe divine redemption comes in that time of reflection after our mistakes (if we truly take the time to reflect) when we understand or faults in relation to our neighbors and we understand ourselves a little better. Better in the hope that we don't make the same mistake again. Is that divine or human redemption? M. Murdoch Wesley White At this point I will be looking at leadership issues this weekend. We will use David (all 19 verses) and Herod to raise questions about what we are using as the grounding for our leadership (all followers are leaders in their own arena and together there is a leadership of a congregation in its setting). David appears to be using some form of cost/benefit analysis to justify leaving the ark/chest and reclaiming it. Herod is dealing with an emotionally laden choice between his own desires and saving face. These are not unusual matters for any of us to have to deal with in family, business, leisure, or other situations. As people sent by Jesus to preach, heal, and manage personal demons and corporate principalities and powers (remember the context of Herod's story as an interruption of the sending disciples by twos) we can just as easily find ourselves drawn to inappropriate models of prosperity and power as David and Herod. To see where leadership mistakes are made is one way to address issues of our own discipleship (on what basis are we going to make decisions). I must admit, though, that part of this focus is based on my current work as an intentional interim pastor who is dealing more with clarifying systems than chaplaining individuals. I can see Uzzah simply protecting himself with his action. What is your response to being crushed by the presence of GOD? Would you also stretch out your hand to steady the ark/chest if it were beginning to topple toward you? Would you kneel down and say, "Crush me Lord, lowly worm that I be."? I'm sure something could be done with that scene but the congregational situation here is pulling me in a different direction. 20 July 2003 - Year B - Pentecost 6 Wesley White July 20, 2003 2 Samuel 7:1-14a Ambivalence, this and that, runs through these passages. Mark - rest and set to teaching Wesley White Mark 6:30-34, 53-56 For some, a mixed metaphor is quite an affront. To others, it is as lively as a pun and quite necessary to life. Compassion is the bridge between us, a cornerstone that can be built on. Retreat time, sabbath time, is part of a well-balanced life to reorient energies and inhale instead of continuing to exhale. There are seemingly two different ways to go about this. One is to come away. One is to learn to breathe in the midst of demands. Most of us do better at one than the other. I'm a "come away" person. How does this work for you. I was looking for a place for this month's retreat and just learned that the place I wanted to go to wasn't available for the date I needed. If you have a favorite retreat space in southeastern Wisconsin, I would like to hear about it. You can address me at wwhite@wisconsinumc.org. Thanks. Wesley White Ephesians 2:11-22 We are always dealing with idolatry - external evidence of a spiritual presence. Then it was circumcision. Now it is a particular economic system, theological surety, narcissism, etc. Compassion for the un-whatever is being Christlike. It is by this process that we offer peace to those far off (the un's) and those near by (the un-un's). This process is the key keystone of our being. Place your keystone where wobbly sides need someone to press against to bolster their ability to bridge sides. Wesley White Psalm 89:20-37 This is good warning not to set too much stock on any given piece of scripture all by itself. All these wonderful promises are simply prelude to the rest of the Psalm. The longer arc is the experience of losing sight of the fulfillment of the promise - in this case exile, not eternal enthronement, becomes the focus. Perhaps the best that can be said is "GOD's faithfulness and steadfast love shall be with you" -- in prosperous times and in hard times come again to our door. There is a tendency to equate GOD's faithfulness and steadfast love us with a sufficiency of the coin of the realm accumulating in our pockets. This partial vision never does fully cover the unrealistic upward and onward now and forever approach to life. While it is a pat and creedal response when things are going well, it turns bitter in our lives pretty quickly when death and disaster appear. The out from this sort of bitterness is a continual affirmation that GOD's faithfulness and steadfast love is with us all along the way from the pleasure of conception to the pain of birth to the struggles with meaning to the walking of valleys by oneself. That's all we have -- presence. And it is enough. Wesley White 2 Samuel 7:1-14a Apparently GOD doesn't experience being over-the-hill. Ain't no son-o-mine gonna build me a house and settle me down. I'll do the building here! This business of housing is an intriguing one as it comes in both physical and the metaphoric man-sion-ifestations. If we free-associated that just a bit to man-scion we could have a good playtime. Mansions have their heir-itage. Are you an ark-of-the-covenant as you wander around? Do you carry the presence of GOD with you? Why would you consider limiting that to a poustinia or a sanctuary? GOD's space has many mansions and ours only one. And we think we can constrain the multitude of GOD into one way? May we hear GOD speaking to us through the gathered community - you are the house of GOD - as you build your life you weave the presence of GOD into the life/house of others. May you be well-built. May others notice. May they soon be surprised to find themselves part of the house of GOD. Here are some community houses of the presence/justice of
GOD: Do you know of one that follows NATHAN in telling truth to power? Wesley White Ephesians 2:11-22 The Messiah repealed the law code that had become so clogged with fine print and footnotes that it hindered more than it helped. Then the Messiah started over. Instead of continuing with two groups of people separated by centuries of animosity and suspicion, the Messiah created a new kind of human being, a fresh start for everybody. [The Message 2:14b-15] It seems we are pretty good at rebuilding walls that have been torn down. Even within one people, if that is a term applicable to Christians, we build walls between ourselves. It is not so much that we start from different positions that can be brought together but that we start from similar positions and add fine print and footnotes until it appears we are two different cultures. This is fascinating. Given the the splits within denominations that find us having more in common with the prophetic tradition in another denomination or faith group than we have with the rule setters in our own denomination, what would constitute a new start for everybody? Where is our Messiah to wound the heels and heal the wounds within a given tradition, even our own? By what sign/symbol will we know that we simply didn't have a clue about our divisive behavior with one another, our genetic predisposition to build a wall? Were we to build a temple today from the different strains of Christians, would we have an inner court and an outer court, for those who are near and those who are far? Where is our passion for inclusion these days? Wesley White Mark 6:30-34, 53-56 Reports of great success with the new program of going two-by-two energized folks to the point of constant coming and going - trying this, experimenting with that. How can they repeat their success? How can they make it more efficient? Finally Jesus says, "Break time. We're getting too caught up in technique." So, off they go. At the sight of a great crowd Jesus moves beyond technique. He operates from a basis of compassion, pity, heart-break, and sorrow. How different is this from the initial charge to go preach and heal? One of the questions of the day is about seeing a great crowd. So many folks are invisible these days. They have no political clout. They don't show up at church. How does compassion get mobilized when we can't see the reality of being together in suffering. We deny our own suffering. We deny the suffering of others. Invisibility is a great enemy of compassion and a great friend of the principalities and powers. Open your eyes and ears to open your heart and your mind and your doors. 27 July 2003 - Year B - Pentecost 7 Wesley White July 27, 2003 2 Samuel 11:1-15 What is the length and breadth of: ?? Wesley White John 6:1-21 NRSV has Philip being "tested" For those who have test anxiety, and who doesn't who has grown up with a tricky GOD just waiting to catch you at something, shifting that to a growth experience of stretching is important. We might think about testing in terms of measuring ourselves against some external measurement or in competition with someone else where there can only be winners and losers. Stretching, on the other hand, is a yogic experience of measuring oneself against oneself. This is a difference between having to get to a particular spot right now and simply moving forward - arrival vs journey. Without grace we have to get it right, right now and every time. With grace we can grow into new life, find our dead-ends, shift gears and directions, live within mysteries far too large for us. I know that I have given more than one teacher fits because I see tests as a learning experience, not simply a measurement of how well I have encoded whatever the standard line is. How do you see the church testing people instead of growing them through stretching? Wesley White Ephesians 3:14-21 Are you still praying for others that they will have a beginning comprehension of multi-dimensioned love filling them to overflowing? Are you still praying this for yourself? I find I am not consistent in this relatively simple task. To modify The Message a bit -- GOD is more than we can ever imagine or guess or request in our wildest dreams. Yet GOD does not push us around but works within, deeply and gently within. [3:20] Isn't it fun when we can experience such multi-dimensioned fullness flowing forth from the deep and gentle places within! This is Christ work and it is our joy to be on the receiving and giving ends of this way of life. Irene Heideman Cindy Thompson I am looking for a variety of ways that we worry that resources
are scarce, so we jealously hoard. With the recent Although I don't discount the possibility that God could make an abundance out of thin air, and Jesus reflects that ability, I personally see more of a miracle, if the story is about Jesus inspiring a confidence to share that overcomes self-protective fear...suddenly we all "remember" that we do have a little something in our pack. I am also playing with Marcus Borg's theory that Jesus repeated the same parables and sayings many times and we can't treat the one (or two or even three) versions we find in the Gospels as rigid fossils. Likewise, I suspect that Jesus multiplied the resources frequently, in a variety of settings, beginning with various offerings, from brave souls of different ages, sizes, life experiences...and God still can and does. Enough rambling. I am excited for the people of Bethel Hill
this Sunday. Wesley White Sound like a picnic is in order for those who can get together yet this summer. We could use "progressive" as a theme and meet in LaFollette Park in West Allis, WI on Saturday, August 23, 2003 for a noon picnic and conversation. If you're game, drop a note to me at wwhite@wisconsinumc.org. This may save me from showing up with my stale balogna sandwich and having to subsist on it alone. We might as well have some body and food fun as well as thoughtful fun. Wesley White Psalm 14 GOD looks for someone not stupid and comes up empty. Sounds like there are stupid victimizers and poor victims. What a choice. And each stupid victimizer in turn becomes a poor victim and each poor victim in turn becomes a stupid victimizer. And around and around we go. O that deliverance would come? [NRSV - modified, 14:7] We have been in exile and we want to add that 7th verse to be able to hear a promise beyond our situation in life. After all, who wants a choice between stupid and poor, victimizer and victim. Surely there is a better way. Let's live toward it. Come Messiah. Come Lord Jesus. Come, let's live beyond our present limited choices. PS - This is the double of Psalm 53. In the poetic tradition, doubling is a way of emphasizing something. Why do you think this Psalm is doubled and not some others? Wesley White 2 Samuel 11:1-15 We can all see David's betrayal of his army by staying home and breaking the adultery commandment. No higher purpose is here to oppose his desires. It is not so easy to see Uriah's betrayal of his commander-in-chief. He gets a pass because of his dedication to his army buddies, as though one faithfulness outweighs one betrayal. Presuming loyalty to his king is at least as important as loyalty to his troops, why not go home to a spouse? Bathsheba has often been exonerated as an innocent and as powerless. A question is -- how conniving she is here. Consider the end of David's life and, coming in on Abishag warming David, she proceeds to further a plot to have Solomon, her son, ascend to the throne. Does that end require this beginning? Does this remind you of Rebekah and Jacob and the various betrayals there? Perhaps the trickiest question has to do with your betrayal and mine. We wrap them in such wonderful justification of loyalty to some higher good and to further our favorites that we seem to be no better than our ancestors. Can we apply to ourselves the same high standard we expect of others? This is tough stuff, being conscious about our own lives as we are conscious of the lives of others. This is part of our work of progressing in our own lives as well as doing what we can to assist the society around us to progress. Wesley White Ephesians 3:14-21 St. Teresa, not satisfied with thinking about or talking about GOD as if about an object, says, "I carry the heart of my God and the God of my heart everywhere." What would that be like for you? One way to get at this is through the matryoshka nested doll, a symbol of motherhood and fertility. Our heart within GOD's heart and our neighbor's heart within our heart and our heart within our neighbor's heart and our neighbor's heart within GOD's heart. Through such multiple nestings is the gift of community solidified. Through such mysterious nestings is the gift of Messiah/Christ evidenced. Pray for Christ to be within hearts. It makes a difference to the prayer and the prayee. The matryoshka nested doll -- a symbol of a spiritual artisan. Try it out. Herein lies the fullness of GOD. Wesley White John 6:1-21 The disciples had a really good time after after being scared senseless. The reassurance and relief came at finally recognizing Jesus in the guise of Impossible Man. After all, who, half-way across a lake, expects anyone to show up striding alongside their stormy moment? When you are having a really good time, time speeds by. When you are having an ecstatically great time, time doesn't matter. Since Jesus wasn't mattering enough to sink, they might as well not matter how long anything is. Was it the increased distance between fear and relief that bumped things into hypertime? Can that happen in just ordinary life? Now transport this to economics, instead of the sea. Is it any less stormy in a culture where the annual pace of personal bankruptcies continues to hold stead at 1.4 million for each of the past five years, an average of 7,000 per hour as household debt topped $7.6 trillion in 2001, a record-breaking 73% of GDP, while home mortgage foreclosures reached a 30-year high. The typical American now works 184 hours longer than in 1970, an additional 4-1/2 weeks on the job for nine percent more pay. [information from Jeff Gates in "We the Unreasonable," Tikkun, July/August 2003] Where might we put our care for people into effect to bring us again to hypertime? It will mean the equivalent of walking on water. To do that we will need to take ourselves very lightly and discipline ourselves quite intentionally. We need to work as unreasonably with economics as Jesus worked unreasonably with physical phenomena. And the list will go on regarding working unreasonably with the falsity of redemptive violence, repressed sexuality and the rest of the powers of the principalities. Pick your arena and walk forward. |