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Lectionary - June 2003 |
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Lectionary - June 2003 |
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1 June 2003 Year B - Easter 7 Wesley White June 1, 2003 Acts 1:15-17, 21-26 Lots of talk about divisions and choices. These things are put pretty starkly. How do we continue to talk about Jesus' care for all when he sometimes is recorded as speaking to a particular group (I'm praying for y'all, but not for them). Blessings upon us as we work our way through the week. Remember we are being prayed for. Wesley White John 17:6-19 Prayer is interesting as it can reveal our deep-seated fears and can pull us toward our best ideals. Sometimes it does both. For the moment I would point toward an ideal - praying for protection/community for others (verse 11). What might this mean in the context of Memorial Day in the United States of America? Might we listen in on the prayers of the dead for the living instead of the other way around? Would those prayers be for the protection afforded by community? Would it make a difference if that sentence were constructed the other way around: for the community within which issues of protection were no longer needed? Wesley White 1 John 5:9-13 In a divided congregation it is real helpful to have untestable testimony to bolster one's own side. Starkly put, this is the way it sounds. "I know in my heart that I'm right. I know in my heart that you're wrong. Since my hearts is known to be true, do things my way or go away." "If you don't believe me, you're calling God a liar." "I've got the key to eternal life. Understand Jesus the way I do and you'll get a little." This is pretty heady stuff that takes a prior agreement with it to make it hold together. I hope we can do better in our situations of division, but this is a typical genetic response for us and we get caught very easily. The New York Times reports today, "From 1975 to 2002, the percentage of Americans who expressed a "great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in the people who ran organized religion fell, to 45 percent from 68." At what percentage do we again acknowledge that we are back in Jesus' time and find those creative, non-violent, prophetic places in which to stand, no matter what accusations of blasphemy come our way? Wesley White Psalm 1 'Ashre (first Hebrew word of the Psalms - "happy," "blessed" - a relational term) is used 26 times in the Psalms and only 20 times in the rest of the "old testament." There may be something particularly lyrical about relational experiences that find one happy or blessed. Real life is found in the dynamism of a relational state. Often this back and forth movement toward perfection or healing of the split between divine humanness/ human divinity is revealed in prayer, psalm, hymn. As you bring together the gifts of soil and sun, may you bear fruit in your season. May such fruit bless us all. These comments were stimulated from notes in the new helpful resource The New Interpreter's Study Bible . Wesley White Acts 1:15-17, 21-26 And just why couldn't the body of Christ get along without the body part of a 12th apostle? Was a prothesis or organ transplant life-saving needed or cosmetic surgery? Even if the symbolism was important (making it sound like an elective procedure) how did the criteria of being male and present since John's baptism (a hazing requirement even stronger than any present apostle had met) come to be so important (particularly when the unintended consequences set up by that pattern have been so destructive/distrustive within the life of the body)? When we look at the whole gamut of apostles in the Christian scriptures those criteria seem rather narrow. If this was really intended to be a pattern why was James not replaced when he was killed in chapter 12 (or somewhere else)? Well, are you going to be heard of again, unlike Justus and Mathias? If so, in what prophetic context will that be? Wesley White 1 John 5:9-13 Here is the testimony: God gave us eternal life. Do you remember the flaming angel guarding the tree of life? All our attempts to return and grab that gift went to naught. We were first intended to live with the gifts of life and knowledge. Then we grabbed for all the gusto we could get and ended up with a portion of the fruit of knowledge. Not able to live "with," the little we had was taken from us and well defended. There is a weak spot in every defense. In this case it was an internal flaw. GOD really did want us to live with eternity and wisdom. Since we weren't able to find a way back in (knowledge is never enough in such situations) GOD, from the inside and behind the angel's back, stole, prometheus-like, the gift and did an end run to continue to offer the gift of eternity. It might almost seem that were enough of a twist on a tale until we figure out this gift of eternity is manifest in human lives already, we just didn't get it (it takes more than knowledge to catch eternity in the present). Enjoy the gift of life. Pass it on. From this experience -
believe. Might this be a diagnostic tool for identifying which religious/political pole one is on? Wesley White John 17:6-19 Happy happy joy joy (press start) made complete among ourselves - the character of GOD spread deep and wide. What is the character of GOD? is very important. With us in the "world." Enabling us to express GOD's character for our own sake and the sake of others. Can we pull this off without becoming deadly serious? What is your quotient of happy happy joy joy in the face of your crashes? Try a Ren and Stimpy break. One analysis of surfacing the below-surface material of life (being aware as a protection in the world) can be found at Cartoons Aren't Real! Ren and Stimpy in Review. 8 June 2003 Year B - Pentecost Wesley White June 8, 2003 Acts 2:1-21 The Spirit of GOD has been busy. The Spirit of GOD continues to be busy (whether we can discern it or not). May the Spirit of GOD busy-fy us to be about the same business. Wesley White , 6/1/2003 10:49:05 PM John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15 We are called to extend the revelation of GOD, through Jesus, into the future. This can't simply be a carrying forward any particular past revelation, but a continuing one. This is part of the arguments of the day. Was revelation complete at some previous moment and now it is simply a matter of repeating that or are there things that are now self-evident to the body that were not so previously. While it seems clear that we have made a change in the inclusions of life (divine right of kings, slavery, some of the gender issues) there are still folks who don't get it. At issue here how much of this you see to be plural and how much singular. The Spirit is generally not privately possessed, though that is the case for prophets. For instance, the church has yet to change its mind on GLBT matters as it has on slavery and women issues of relatively recent times. We cannot claim that the Spirit is only communal for the community does get stuck with viewpoints just this side of bearable. At the same time we cannot claim everything that runs counter to the communal spirit is and expression of some larger truth. Both individuals and communities need the peace and courage to be clear about the risks involved with change and be willing to take a good many of them. Here we come to "Here I stand!" moments when we can do no other. Here we come to listening beyond our circumstance and confessing we had gotten it wrong. Let's keep incarnational theology alive by fearfully and tremblingly listening and acting. Wesley White Romans 8:22-27 What are you awaiting that you cannot see? Just over the rainbow horizon is what? What's on the tip of your tongue and yet still deeper than words will hold? One such is the inarticulate yearning for this thing called heaven to become one with this thing called earth. Another such is this thing called, "love one another." It is worth the continual wrestling with articulation of the not yet. As we sense it drawing near we are energized to aid its arrival. As we sense it fading, as we experience an increasing inability to call forth a desired word, find ourselves having gone into the woods on a dark night. In our weakness, in our lack of hope, we trust and rejoice in being interceded for. In our strength, our hope beyond seeing, we trust and rejoice in interceding for. Wesley White Psalm 104:24-34, 35b Breathe on us, breath of GOD. Create in us a clean heart o'erflowing in goodness. Fill us with life anew. What other hymn phrases would you use to connect blessing and soul and spirit? Thomas D'Alessio Re: the John 15 passage referred to above, and in particular the comment that begins "We are called to extend the revelation of GOD..." I recall that most of the early christian groups, including those planted by Paul, leaned toward an apocalyptic theology that was also strongly proleptic: in particular, the Johannine communities had a clear sense of "already/not yet" and so it would not be so much a matter of extending revelation, as one might "extend" the ripples made by a rock splashing into a calm pond. It would seem to be more a matter of looking ahead to the "not yet" event which draws us into a future not yet unfolded but growing stronger in its unfoldment as each day passes. I find this far more promising (and exciting) than simply trying to ride out the wave created by some revelatory event a couple millenia ago. I am convinced that this "drawing into a future event/time" is what de Chardin had in mind when he wrote about omega point. And the nifty point is that the "not yet" of an unfolded/revealed future is "already" present as possibilities in each current moment, much as the growth and development of an acorn into an oak tree is already encoded in its dna. The acorn knows how to grow. Our most important task might just be to make sure the squirrels don't get all the acorns. Wesley White Ah, the old push-me-pull-you from Dr. Dolittle. Is the past pushing us forward that it might be fulfilled (a lot of Nikos Kazantzakis in this) as well as the future pulling us toward it that it, too, might be fulfilled (de Chardin, et. al.)? And around and around we go. Generally I prefer the pulling method but periodically I do appreciate a push. Thanks for pushing me to pull again. This conversation got me to thinking again about Nikos. Thanks. A couple of longish articles are found at Modern Parables of Sacredness & Profanity and Uphill Path . Wesley White Acts 2:1-21 I've been away for several days to an international conference of Intentional Interim Clergy. In doing this work it is important to have some self-differentiation from the situation in which one lives and moves and has their being. The same seems to have been true back when. As always, there is a divided response to the good news of an open future and appreciation of GOD's presence. In front of the poles of true and false are the states of being known as questioning and sneering. How often we respond positively to the questioners who want to know more and negatively to the sneerers who don't even want to know what is already known. Let's help one another keep an even keel in the midst of adoring questioners who desire ever more of our wisdom and dismissive sneerers who simply don't care for us, much less what we have to offer. In so doing we may yet help focus attention on a vision of active wholeness for all. Wesley White Romans 8:22-27 If we hope (25) the Spirit helps us in our weakness (26). If we await what is not seen (what a weak position) we find the strength of hope that moves through the heart and comes out in care for self and others. As the beloved says, "When I am without hope, hope still lives in me." Who can explain this mystery that goes around and around. Let us continue interceding as we have been interceded for.
Wesley White Romans 8:22-27 If we hope (25) the Spirit helps us in our weakness (26). If we await what is not seen (what a weak position) we find the strength of hope that moves through the heart and comes out in care for self and others. As the beloved says, "When I am without hope, hope still lives in me." Who can explain this mystery that goes around and around. Let us continue interceding as we have been interceded for.
Wesley White John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15 What we have experienced is going away. Woe is ours. What we have yet to experience is to our advantage. Joy is ours. Between these two we wrestle with sin. We have experienced it as moral categories; we will experience it in the quality of our relationship with Emmanuel (connecting us with everything - a variation on a theory of everything?). Between these two we wrestle with righteousness. We have experienced it as legally binding; we will experience it as a wholeness or completedness through larger living. Between these two we will wrestle with judgment. We have experienced it as tit-for-tat retribution, or worse; we will experience it as mercifully restorative in moving beyond temporary boundaries. Happy betweening. 15 June 2003 - Year B - Trinity Wesley White June 15, 2003 Isaiah 6:1-8 Have you come late to the faith game? That's fine. A sense of unworthiness can be dealt with as we come to recognize that everyone is adopted ("Who's my family?" asks Jesus) and that GOD's intention is for good, not condemnation. Have you come early to the faith game? That's fine. There is no entitlement here, you are adopted, too. Wesley White John 3:1-17 A "Special Note" in the New Interpreter's Study Bible on the phrase "eternal life" found here in verse 15 and again in 3:36; 4:14; 5:24; 6:27; 17:14 says: "'Eternal life' does not speak of immortality or a future life in heaven, but is a metaphor for living now in the unending presence of God. Jesus' offer of his own life through being lifted up on the cross makes eternal life possible for those who believe. This is the new life Jesus promised Nicodemus in 3:3 and 5." Even with the helpful image of "the unending presence of God," there is still that old bugaboo about crucifixion being the mechanism of such a presence. It would seem a stronger connection is Jesus living of his own experience of the presence of GOD opens us to the possibility of also so living our experience of the presence of GOD. The crucifixion part is an extension of the living not the beginning of such living. May we experience the joy of the presence of GOD. May such experience overflow the boundaries of our own life. May the world be blessed by Emmanuel, GOD with us . May we be energized by this "eternality" of life. Wesley White Romans 8:12-17 The choice of feeling tone is that of assurance/witness or fear. These manifest themselves in issues of adoption or slavery. When we are assured of our relationship with GOD we are open to affirming our own adoption and willingness to aid others in being adopted. When we are fearful we become slaves to a zero-sum game of life, always on the look out for not losing. The difference is focusing on offense or defense. In sports the emphasis is upon defense, for that is where championships are won (Devils beat Mighty Ducks with three shutouts) but we are in a never-ending series of seasons. In Jesus' way the emphasis is upon offense, simply putting forth the best one has without defending to the last one's self (Resurrections trumps Crucifixion) where it doesn't matter if there is another season or not for this one was so well lived. Rejoice, you are adopted, spirit touches spirit and we breathe deeply and persistently. Wesley White Psalm 29 Strength and Peace to you, to all. We see GOD's strength in regard to both heavenly beings and earthly creatures. We are made in this image. We hear the response to this strength of "Glory!" We are at peace in this affirmation. This is communal in nature. How do we nurture one another to connect strength with peace? Without this our strength leads to non-peace and our peace is a tool to build our strength against one another. Strength and Peace to you, to all. Wesley White Isaiah 6:1-8 Though lost we are not lost to the uttermost. We can yet see GOD. Though saved we are not saved to the uttermost. We will again have unclean lips. And so the journey begins for Isaiah and for ourselves. After beginning such a journey, things get interesting just beyond the limit of this lection. In between lost and saved, we become a confusion to those who are only one or the other. Wesley White Romans 8:12-17 "Don't you see that we don't owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. There's nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life. God's Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go. "This resurrection life you received from God is not
a timid, grave-tending life. It's adventurously expectant, greeting
God with a child-like 'What's next, Papa?'...." Putting the NRSV alongside this raises some interesting word combinations. flesh = do-it-yourself Now let's play. Our fleshly exhaustion is based on a sense of having to do-it-yoursef. May your fears growing from this exhaustion finally be seen as simple grave-tending. This is not easy or something we do on our own. When we begin to sense there is something beyond morbid fascination with what is wrong, it is as though we were part of a different family culture and we begin to explore the arena of child-like expectation that will help us grow. Beyond mechanical growth of seed germination in the presence of moisture and warmth, simply living/growing, growth takes on new life when fruiting begins. Eventually (so why not now) our fruits are offered and harvested (very Giving Tree-like) as we are led by the spirit beyond usual life to resurrection beyond exhaustion. Wesley White John 3:1-17 A lovely progression - speaking what we know and testifying to what we have seen - not sent to condemn. So often we get caught speaking what we know as though it were the only thing to be known. It is so easy to move from knowledge to power. A redeeming factor is needed to keep us from this trap of insisting that others see what I see. That gift is the gift not to insist but simply to witness. It is so easy to say more than we know to try to prove the little we know. It is so difficult to simply say what we know. This has been true over the years in regard to Trinitarian issues. It is still true over this and other creedal tools that have become weapons. May we know that salvation/healing is not done by fiat but through living. 22 June 2003 - Year B - Pentecost 2 Wesley White June 22, 2003 1 Samuel 17:(1a , 4-11, 19-23), 32-49 This is a week of deflecting and accepting issues of power. Find a way to have power be part of the community conversation where you are. Wesley White Mark 4:35-41 What does it mean to speak "Peace" when all about you are losing their heads? Is it simply that you don't have enough information (otherwise you too would be afraid)? This is one of the spiritual disciplines that we have lost track of - calmness in the midst of storms. To practice this is easier for some, as their natural inclination is to move in that direction, and much more difficult for others. But both can benefit from the discipline to make it stronger and to take a step in that direction. Who then are you if you daily operate more out of faith than fear? Surely you are not the youngster you used to be - you have matured in the faith. Surely you are in but not of the culture all around you. Surely you are picking up where Jesus left off. I'm sure you will have an opportunity to practice this discipline today, evaluate how you did with your opportunity, and apply your learning a bit more tomorrow. Wesley White 2 Corinthians 6:1-13 Moving from moments of great endurance to expressions of the tools of righteousness to a series of antitheses. A comment that struck me from the NISB regarding this last list is that they "reveal the contradictions of this difficult life, especially when opposition is encountered from those whom one serves." This issue of betrayal is still alive and well. We face it periodically. There is always hurt involved. It feels like dying, punishment, bankruptcy. And yet we don't have to respond in kind. Our hearts can yet stay open. By now you know that I have trouble with the religious right, the conservative renewal groups. On this Tuesday I will be deep into our Annual Conference and decisions/votes of people to send to General and Jurisdictional Conference. I pray I can still stay open to those I sense are participating in the betrayal of the best of our United Methodist tradition by limiting us to piety and to creeds of the distant past, who would make limiting loyalty oaths part of our life and dismiss those followers of Jesus who don't live up to their standards. As you may be able to tell from that so-called sentence, my prayer quickly got eaten up by my fear of their power. Let me try again, I pray to be able to keep an open heart. Wesley White Psalm 9:9-20 "The nations have sunk in the pit that they made...." by "forgetting the needy and thwarting the hope of the poor," time after time. (vss 15 & 18) When these verses can be brought together, rather than simply turning to God or talking about Sheol, we again hear the prophetic within the psalmist. This is the judgment that continues to stand in front of us. When will enough people hear it and respond? Before we, too, get our reminder about the mortality of institutions as well as that of individuals? Wesley White 1 Samuel 17:(1a , 4-11, 19-23), 32-49 When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid. (11) And David heard him. (23) David said to Saul, "Let no one's heart fail because of him...." (32) ... the LORD does not save by sword and spear." (47) Let's check our hearing and our understandings. It appears that what we understand affects what is heard. When we are looking at issues of power we can approach it from the perspective of might makes right. In this case, the one with the bigger weapon wins. If this is our understanding, we are correct in being afraid of currently being behind in the bigness category and also being afraid that at some future time we will fall behind in such. An alternative approach is not the reverse of right-makes-might, but the sideways gift of metaphor and analogy and other images. Goliath is enough to engender mass hysteria; his challenge, if taken literally, freezes responses. If we can see him naked under all that armor we know from previous encounters that we can deal with a big pussycat, even if it has a scary name, like "lion." If we can look carefully we can note a chink in the armor (speed vs. mass) and redefine the challenge. This redefinition re-defines what we now can do. Reframing the situation offers new hope. We will still, though, still need some courage to proceed. After the event, David still had four smooth stones from the wadi - for additional situations. Imagine David giving you one of those stones and saying, "Don't let your heart fail," inviting you to reframe the situation in which you experience the most fear (oh, I forgot, these days we only talk about being "a little uncomfortable" - not much motivation there to seek an alternative way). May you not walk in the armor of the past but the freedom of GOD in the present. Wesley White 2 Corinthians 6:1-13 A couple of days ago, reflecting on this same passage, I prayed for an open heart. That prayer does not seem to have borne specific fruit. I find that my heart can only be most open when it is not dealing with closed minds. To have an open heart toward a closed mind is counter-productive for myself and the other being related to. It is at this point that the virtues of endurance and righteousness need to be reoriented. There is no particular virtue in enduring bigotry. There is a virtue in continuing to see the closed-minded as capable of change and to keep open to that while not letting the limits of a smaller-horizoned life limit our inclusion of them. All of this means that the whining/accusation model of behavior so often employed by the more constrained viewpoint needs to be addressed and suffered. I find that the alternation of whining with accusation, and back again, switching whenever confronted directly so change can be avoided, is among the most difficult tasks I have. I keep getting sucked in and worn down by such behavior. I appreciate Paul's process in verse 11, "We have spoken frankly to you, our heart is wide open to you." Frank/openness may be the antidote to whining/accusation. Thanks, Paul. I pray for this polarity to be more real in my life, and yours. Mark Geisthardt Wesley White Mark 4:35-41 With Jesus on board everything is supposed to be alright. Even if we are headed into unclean territory there is a certain presumption that we will be encapsulated in safety, protected. Even this early in Mark, we are not all that surprised that the disciples are surprised when a storm shows up. It may not be a Perfect Storm with a trinity of fronts clashing together, but a storm, nonetheless. We won't be surprised when the storm in not external, but within the nave. Either way there is here a presumption that storms ought not happen when Jesus is around - as though crucifixion would never happen. You might be interested in a new book by Joan Chittister, Scarred by Struggle, Transformed by Hope . Chapter 5 begins, "The first gift of struggle is the call to conversion -- the call to think differently about who God is and about who I am as an individual. It calls us to think again about what life really means and how I go about being in the world. These are deeply spiritual questions...." Obviously the disciples did not struggle sufficiently with their storm. Jesus short-circuits their work and the miracle brings only wonder, not conversion. Blessings upon you in your storms (yes, those all too regular storms that roll on through your life as though across the face of the planet). Where storms are minimized there is desert, not a helpful solution. Your scars are beautiful, signs of transformation. Wesley White Mark - I'd be interested in the "giants" you name that are present in our lives today. If there is more you would like to say than just a list, I'd appreciate that as well. 29 June 2003 - Year B - Pentecost 3 Wesley White June 29, 2003 2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27 There are some who are receiving the posting in this dialogue as an email. Whenever something is posted here it comes to them. A limitation to this is that you cannot post a comment via the email listserve, for that you have to use the web site. If you desire to try this form of receiving the lectionary comments from here, send your name and email address to me at wwhite@wisconsinumc.org. When you want off you will also have to send that information to me. It generally takes one day to be put on or taken off this list. If you prefer to check here on your own schedule there is no need to do anything different than you are now doing. - - - - - - - A dirge, a depth, a healing, a collection - what a collection of material. This feels more like a Jackson Pollack than a Piet Mondrian . Blessings upon us all. Wesley White Mark 5:21-43 Sometimes the medium is the message. Here the medium is an appreciation of interruption. The way we handle interruptions is a measure of the grace we carry with us. Also check out chapters 2 and 3 for other interruptions. Mark is telling us something in the very construct of the story, not just the words on the page. On a wall of the office where I work I placed a gift piece of art - a collage with words woven into it, interrupting it, if you will, that reads, "Peace is when Time doesn't matter As it passes by..." I find that plays well on several different levels. May you deal well with the interruptions of life. Wesley White 2 Corinthians 8:7-15 Check out John Wesley's sermon The Use of Money. It's three-fold pattern of earn all you can is still a good pattern. It is also good to remember that John berated the early Methodists and I imagine would excoriate us today regarding the last of these, "give all you can." Paul's emphasis upon "fair balance" would fit here very nicely. And just how eager are you to give all you can? This is one of those weakest link situations. It seems we always settle for the level of giving of the least eager to give. Folks around you will be influenced by your eagerness. They won't be any more eager to give than you are. We may not be able to pull everyone up to our level of eagerness (presuming there is much) but we sure can drag everyone down to our level. At any rate, regardless of the level of eagerness we have, let us at least finish what we have begun and then evaluate and set a new intention that might also come to completion. Wesley White Psalm 130 From our perspective "waiting" and "hoping" are nearly interchangeable. Try this in your own vocabulary - this next week switch what you usually would say. If your usual conversation uses a lot of "hope," try using the "wait" word. How does that change your interaction with others. This psalm also gives testimony to GOD's character. GOD is disposed to forgive. Is that your first thought about GOD or does your first thought run in another direction. I hope it doesn't get into the Left Behind mentality. This characteristic of GOD might shed some light on the hope/wait pair. If GOD's character is that of forgiving do we need to "hope" for it or "wait" for it. This gives a sense of where the two are not interchangeable. Here is an intriguing question: Of all the various ways in which GOD's character has been described, which one is at the top of your list? This will set the tone of our various interactions with GOD, with ourselves, and with others. Wesley White 2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27 Time after time the mighty have fallen. The mighty of our day will do the same, someday. But we really need a question mark, not an exclamation mark, after the assertion that "the weapons of war perished." They were removed from the hands of the mighty. But other mighty ones arose to not only pick up the fallen weapons, but to make them more deadly. They, in turn, had their mightier weapons picked up and made even more deadly. The weapons of war seem not to have perished. Can we say that the commitment to peace has escalated over time? It sometimes seems that we are spinning our wheels here. What will add to the traction of peace? Will our weeping? Will our participation in the spoils of violence? Will our distress over particular losses but not over the system of loss? Where is the dirge for peace that so honors mercy by raising up the lowly and filling the hungry with good things that the proud will scatter themselves, the powerful will stumble, and the rich give themselves away? Wesley White 2 Corinthians 8:7-15 Fund raisers are clear that board members cannot substitute their time at meetings or conversation/promotion of their cause for their financial giving. If you don't put your pocket where your mouth is, you are an ineffective board member. At issue is not the amount of financial support, for that will vary according to one's resources. What is at stake is the validation of your faith, wisdom, knowledge and love. This is like James saying that faith without works is dead. So, reconsider your giving pattern. First, are you giving? Second, are you giving generously in relation to what you have, not what you don't have? Third, if so you are a blessing, if not you are unfair to yourself and your cause. I stand convicted, and you? Will we who are so convicted repent and change our ways? There was an editorial in today's New York Times by Paul Krugman, Toward One-Party Rule that reads in part: "As a result, campaign finance is only the tip of the iceberg. Next year, George W. Bush will spend two or three times as much money as his opponent; but he will also benefit hugely from the indirect support that corporate interests - very much including media companies - will provide for his political message. "Naturally, Republican politicians deny the existence of their burgeoning machine. 'It never ceases to amaze me that people are so cynical they want to tie money to issues, money to bills, money to amendments,' says Mr. DeLay. And Ari Fleischer says that 'I think that the amount of money that candidates raise in our democracy is a reflection of the amount of support they have around the country.' Enough said." The same thing is happening with The United Methodist Church. Your resources are needed to reflect your faith, hope, and love. To modify an old advertising slogan, "Attend the church of your choice," it might now read, "Financially support the cause of your choice." Wesley White Mark 5:21-43 This past week the Supreme Court reversed/repented their Bowers v. Hardwick decision of 17 years ago. This as been described as "a sweeping declaration of constitutional liberty for gay men and lesbians..." (NYTimes, 6/26/03) If you can understand why there were many that wept for relief and joy when they heard this decision, you will be able to get a better feel for import of Jesus in the lives of such as the woman who bled for 12 years and your own experience. If you can't understand this, join the disciples saying, "What does it matter who touched you? It was a nobody." There are so many liberty issues to go. Let us rejoice for those that periodically come to pass. Let us rejoice with those who are set free from such passe ideas as unclean menstrual blood and criminal gay sex. |