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Lectionary - March 2003 |
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Lectionary - March 2003 |
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2 March 2003 - Year B - Epiphany 8 Wesley White March 2, 2003 We get caught up in so much veiled living that we seem to always be surprised when the veil is lifted. May we expect another revelation this week that will surprise us and energize us rather than surprise and stupify us. Wesley White Mark 9:2-9 It is not really amazing that keeping secrets leads to future
difficulties within a system. At the end of Chapter 1 we heard about a healed leper not keeping Jesus secret and its supposed negative results. Later in Chapter 9, after the above three are sworn to secrecy, we will hear about the disciples arguing about who is the greatest. Here we can look to two secrets that might well have led to such dissension within the troops. Three had an experience they knew set them apart as the greatest and began to act that way. No one knew what this resurrection secret was that Jesus kept referring to and they argued about who had the best explanation of this secret. A Messianic secret is wonderful initiation stuff for those in the know. Whether a secret is Messiah's or yours or mine may not make all that much difference. Secrets still breed breed division, "I know a secret and you don't; nyah, nyah, nyah!" So how do we justify our secrets? I am still remembering a speech on the floor of General Conference where it was proposed that clergy not tell laity about the information they learned at seminary because it would upset the laity (cause them to question their past thinking) and the laity would retaliate by withholding their money. I couldn't believe it then and still have a hard time doing so, but there it is. The speaker advocated keeping GOD secrets for Mammon's sake. We still have a great information divide within the church and continue to argue about who is the greatest. Secrets divulged have a moment of discomfiture (the beginning of Chapter 2 has Jesus back in town). Secrets kept set-up long-term difficulties. Relating one's experience of the holy also has its drawback - the limitation of language to contain experience and the attendant misrepresentation and misinterpretation of such experiences. Nonetheless, it seems the struggle to relate has an edge on segregating experiences into secrets. Wesley White 2 Corinthians 4:3-6 Even as unmasked as we can get, as clear about GOD-light as we can be, there is yet no guarantee of another understanding our joy. What we know is that our life has been enlightened through church stories (bible) and personal connection with the Spirit of the risen Christ having taught us more than our ancestors in the faith knew how to teach us. In the midst of these gifts we connect back through the church, Jesus, Elijah, Moses, Eve, to that oldest of commands - let there be light! We connect forward by standing aglow, being what beacon we can be. "There is no way of telling people that they are walking around shining like the sun." [Thomas Merton] But we may also connect forward by catching whatever glow others have and reflecting that back to them - a little spiritual bio-feedback that goes beyond "telling." So we proceed through the storms and rocky landings of life - lighthouse to lighthouse. Shine, yourself, and reflect the light of others - in so doing, life is good. Wesley White Psalm 50:1-6 To use only the first six verses plays well with the transfiguration imagery and moves us from GOD the creator into a transfigured GOD the judge. Other than that it is an unhelpful truncation of the Psalm. If the transfiguration to judge doesn't indicate what is being judged or what the judgment is, we have only one of those old transformer toys - now its one thing, now its another. Without the storyline and only having the end points, there isn't much sense to be had. So how does the issue of "thanksgiving" enter into transfiguration? This is a key word in the Psalm. The transfiguration is to reveal the importance of thanksgiving. Yes, this is thanksgiving beyond the building of holy huts on a hill. The good blindly follow the rules. The wicked use the rules
to their own advantage. Thankful living moves us beyond the rules and keeps us true to them when using them. Thankful living is a path of rescue and salvation. Wesley White 2 Kings 2:1-12 A prophetic spirit is a gift of GOD, not inherited or otherwise passed to one. Elisha's request is as difficult to grant as it was to do all that traveling in one 24 hour day. And yet, it did come to pass through a "watching" process. How alert are we to the movement of the spirit as we walk along? Aren't we more likely to focus on the presence of the chariot and horses of fire than on Elijah? It is not easy to keep seeing people in the midst of whirlwinds. This is a huge challenge - to remain present and humble enough to still see Saddam and Dubya as they may become beyond their posturing and rumoring of war. Wesley White 2 Corinthians 4:3-6 "All we are is messengers, errand runners from Jesus for you. It started when God said, 'Light up the darkness!' and our lives filled up with light as we saw and understood God in the face of Christ, all bright and beautiful." [The Message] Presuming that this is the experience of progressive christians, it is time to claim how central is our experience of GOD. We are not fringe people of faith or people of a fringe faith. We are connected with the beginning of GOD's presence - creation. The Light, first commanded word, still reflects in our lives. Let us live in this new first day. Let us be bright and beautiful as people see our faces and then see Christ and in Christ see GOD and in GOD see themselves. Dave Stratton In our weekly lectionary group someone suggested that what we would do with the transfiguration, would be to want to build a Theme Park for God! What seemed to be asked by Jesus was to listen???????? Wesley White Mark 9:2-9 Thanks, Dave, for the theme park image. Another image is that of a nested doll. There is Jesus and if you look inside you'll find Moses and Elijah. And if you look further you'll get back to Eve and before her the Word, "Let there be light." All of this comes together in a moment so overwhelming that the response is sheer silliness. Let's build a hut or two. And isn't that what huts and temples do, concretize everything
up to that moment. So, here we are. "We?" Will folks experience our drawing on our experiences of Jesus and Moses and Elijah and Eve and Light and Baptism when all they see is us? All around us there is a hardening of traditions into huts and temples. All around the literal denotative hardens into fundamental laws. In the face of hardness, we join Jesus in moving back into real life and all the attendant risks that we call crosses. Give thanks that you are filled to overflowing with alternative voices. Give thanks that, being so filled, you are able to leave a transfigured moment behind and live again the risk and the resolution, the cross and the empty grave. 9 March 2003 - Year B - Lent 1 Wesley White March 9, 2003 Wesley White Mark 1:9-15 One of the important issues in life is that of assurance. You can read here a paragraph on Justification and Assurance from the United Methodist Book of Discipline. Apart from the holy language of that snippet, it might be more helpful to look at what it means to come up out of the water. Finding our experience to be that of coming forth at creation can be a high moment of the assurance that leads to a new creation. Here the swing is from chaos (water) to assurance ("you are marked by love") and taking that assurance back into the chaos (wilderness) to shape life anew (tested in the presence of angels) and to affect the present (proclaiming). Where have you experienced your baptism lately? No I am not talking about rebaptism (liturgically) but about reassurance (experientially). Have you come through a drowning time? Where did you again know you were loved - an internal sense, a word by family/friend/church, a symbol of "dove"? Katherine Hawker Genesis 9 I'm captivated by the bow. Steve Patterson suggests that God hangs up the weapon, inverted and useless. This is a people who have been at war with God and lost (flood, et al). Now they see God disowning the instruments of war. What does it mean when a people recognize that they are no longer at war with God? Does this enable us to make peace with one another? Wesley White 1 Peter 3:18-22 Facing wild beasts in the wilderness, in addition to the usual
trials and testings that come to reveal where we have placed
our meaning-of-life, leads us to tense up and over-function.
These self-protective functions become set around us until we
are imprisoned. A part of the preaching function is that of reminding us that we can go a different way than we have come. An image of the chaos at creation's dawn that can come back to haunt at any moment with memories of floods past and fears of floods to come can be transformed into the very water that cleanses and brings forward expectations of finding that same refreshment anywhere and everywhere along the way. Our very prisons can become starting places for freedom. We recognize we are powerless and let go self-imposed boundaries for the experience of larger living. Wesley White Psalm 25:1-10 Alphabetical poems have an artificiality to them. Nonetheless, they can be significant cries for help or insightful ditties. Here's a part of an alphabetical and mathematical song by
Grin, Judy Fjell's puppet. You can find Judy's work at JudyFjell.com. This song is on her CD "Living on Dreams." Sample the title song and order her material. Wesley White Genesis 9:8-17 Let us count the ways in which we shall not die. By water (rainbow) and word (resurrection). Let us count the ways in which we shall die. Too many to count. While in the midst of death, may we experience that which brings life. Rainbows take a moment of light in the presence of suspended water and diffract such light into many lights. From one comes many. When we have our rainbow lenses in place we find our own life and that of others to be scattering many-hued evidences of opportunity. When we have our reverse-rainbow lenses on we try, ultimately unsuccessfully, to bring all those colors back to one (our own), as though life does not advance into the joy of greater complexity. When the word of resurrection hits us, it blossoms this way and that. We receive the Roy G. Biv Award for living as though we will not die. Not risk-free but freely risking death for the sake of better living through resurrection. When we catch sight of a rainbow we remember an ancient promise to honor the image of GOD that is our self and that is another. In so honoring we recognize our part in the war and pain of the world and promise to no longer participate in it. Of course this resolution falls apart pretty quickly with the slavery image and blame and castigation of Ham for something over which he had no control. It further falls apart with Babel and the setting loose of a rainbow of languages but not a concomitant gift of listening to such a rainbow. It also picks up one strand, that of Abram and Sarai, and finds a holographic image of all. Likewise we pick up one strand of Jesus and find a holographic image of all. Within the particulars, at their and our best, we find a rainbow of the rest of the stories of life. May the whole rainbow be found within your one part of the spectrum - a rainbow within a rainbow that heralds better things to come. Wesley White 1 Peter 3:18-22 An interesting debate among the ancient authorities - Did Jesus "die" or "suffer" for "you" or for "us"? Verse 18 brings us these variants. Is there really any difference or does it make a world of difference which combination you are drawn to. Supposedly, different personality types will be drawn to either the dying or the suffering image and to the question of being included in or whether this is for others. If you draw the intersection of a vertical and a horizontal line to set up four quadrants, Put "suffer" at the left and "die" at the right; place "us" above and "you" below. Where would you locate yourself? Would you put yourself 90% toward "die" and 85% toward "you"? How about 75% "suffer" and 92% "us"? Some other combination? How, then, do you see Progressive Christianity in these terms and how would this group of people relate to folks who located themselves in an opposite direction? So, does it make a difference which translation you read or which authority you follow? And that difference is what? Wesley White Mark 1:9-15 What does it mean to be a Child of GOD? 16 March 2003 - Year B - Lent 2 Wesley White March 16, 2003 There are many ways to discount the presence of GOD - from laughing it off to controlling its limits. What experience of the presence of GOD with us do you have questions about this week? Is it the setting of St. Patrick's Day as a decision place to go to war? Is it the lack of care for our own citizens that makes us think the real war is against education? Is it the length of time we've been running our own lives, with no end in sight? Will there be an earthquake this week that will set many to misinterpreting the data? When we catch a glimpse of the presence of GOD a simple thank you would be in order. Wesley White Mark 8:31-38 Taking up one's cross is a good lenten theme of renunciation and loss of one's self. Another way of thinking about this is the market term of investing. Will I daily invest in the life vision of GOD-with-us? The Christian Community Bible says: It is necessary
to lose oneself: How would this read differently if one were to write about investing oneself in GOD's new creation? Some of us do respond more quickly to investment in life imagery and some of us do respond more quickly to self-denial cross-bearing imagery. Whichever group you find yourself in, may you not lose your soul. Wesley White Romans 4:13-25 Abraham hoped against all expectation regarding what he understood
was GOD's promise to him (a promise that energized his travel
and his aging) -- descendants. An important question I am still wrestling with is what promise has so captured me that it will energize my living and aging? So far it is a picture of being able to participate in beckoning to earth and heaven to draw near to one another that they might be joined to bring forth a new heaven and a new earth -- now there's a descendant. This is distinguishable from earth using heaven to justify its wars and from heaven belittling earth as impure, both of which keep them from joining together. What is the promise that energizes you? That keeps you hoping against all expectation? Wesley White Psalm 22:23-31 Forsaken and Hopeful. Here we are again find ourselves in life's polarities. Not knowing what is coming our way we apply the gift of praise in the moment. We will note a new relationship within the gathered community. We will see that where we felt forsaken there has always been mercy offered and where we have experienced the miseries of life there has always been someone to listen. We will find the excluded hungry are now gathered in to have enough and be satisfied. Those we least expected to be invited, those no-good pagans, are also a part of a new community gathered out of the pains and divisions of life. All of this leads us to rejoice beyond ourselves and our time. We anticipate our work now will bear much good fruit in generations to come. The excluded of tomorrow will be born into the creation-long process of entering into GOD's joy. As we do our work to welcome all, we will be modeling for our descendants the amazing gift of hospitality that they will expand upon in their time. This is very important work - to recognize our forsakenness in the moment and to live a hope beyond tomorrow. E. J. Hunt I just want to say thank you for giving me something to think about. You'd be surprised how difficult it is to have that happen sometimes. thanks... Oh, and my hope for now and tomorrow is knowing that God is with me, even when I don't feel like he is. Wesley White Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16 Abram falls on his face (is this awe? fear?). Abraham falls on his face, laughing. To be able to laugh at GOD is alright. What else can one really do when the promises and past relationships have been so strange. A line from a hymnwriter talks about "laughter's healing art." I have no explanation for what was ailing Abram and Sarai that the reasonable promise took so long in coming. Was it really GOD delaying things or was there always a fair amount of attempted control that needed to be dealt with before a promise could really be a promise and not an earned reward? Perhaps the laughter was the breakthrough moment to allow promise to be promise. Abra(ha)m finally got it when it involved Sara(h)i. May we do more laughing at and with GOD. May we do more hearing of GOD laughing at and with us. After all, what kind of relationship is it without laughter? It will be interesting to see what promise will come to pass through this healing art. Wesley White Romans 4:13-25 Verse 25 in the NRSV reads, "It [faith] will be reckoned to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was handed over to death for our trespasses and was raised for our justification." There is one little word of "him" that is probably a too small and narrow a description of GOD. Then there are two lines about Jesus. The weight of words tends to turn this into a sentence about Jesus rather than GOD. I still read it, however, as "my faith is in GOD." The evidence I use for this faith (hoping against hope) is the witness of Jesus' community and the experience of my own life. Where does the church reckon its faith is? How does this open its heart, mind, and doors? How does this set its limits? Wesley White Mark 8:31-38 Satan = out of touch with larger meaning; in touch with smaller meaning. To have no choice is satanic. To choose yesterday's meaning or a smaller meaning is satanic. To have said "Messiah" is not to have said it all. What sort of Messiah are we talking about? Obviously what Peter meant by his affirmation is not the same thing that Jesus meant by it. For, as Peter lives into his understanding, he finds he got it wrong again. The disciples in Mark really don't do all that well. Even when they are affirmed for getting the external right (the term "Messiah") they find themselves rebuked for missing the internal dynamic of the Jesus expression of Messiahship. What might be satanic about the unilateral approach in the current time of rumors of war? We hear a lot about, "get behind me, traitor" so we need to ask about what do folks really mean when they say "patriot" or "democracy", for once you've said that, you've not said it all, either. This is a good reminder to check out meanings. 23 March 2003 - Year B - Lent 3 Wesley White , 3/16/2003 10:21:42 PM March 23, 2003 So where will power be vested this week. American might - Jesus' power? Thou shalt not murder (and what else can one call shooting Iraqis in a barrel) - Well, in this one case it's justified? The voice of the desert calls out wisdom - the desert is a place of temptation? Money changers in the temple of commerce - commonwealth as a goal? In the midst of the choice being made this week: Check out "War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning" from the library. Check out The Emerging Superpower of Peace Wesley White John. 2:13-22 Jesus wasn't about to "entrust" himself to religious ceremonialists. Today's religious ceremonialists aren't about to let that stop them and to they co-opt Jesus - pass the ammunition in Jesus name! A related article is Bush and God. So how do we again disentangle Jesus in our time. Self-differentiation is a positive value, even in religion. Avoiding entanglement will help us hear a word of support and a word of correction, each in their appropriate time. Not working at this leads to more co-dependency and triangling. To raise this issue leaves one open to being labeled a heretic. To avoid the issue puts us at risk for a theocracy that will authorize burning heretics. Can we be touched, changed, energized by Jesus without claiming Jesus as "our" authority? Wesley White Whoops. I keep straying beyond the appointed bounds. The previous comment is from the extension of the text to verses 23-25. Wesley White 1 Corinthians 1:18-25 Well, we have heard the wisdom of the wise - 48 hours and then war. The most foolish and weak thing of GOD is claimed to be better than this. So how do we respond to this choice? Quickly or not, the wisdom of the wise will be destroyed and thwarted. The question left is how many will be slaughtered in that process. It is not too early to design a service of mourning that can be used as regularly as an order for morning, midday or evening prayer. Preemptive mourning for a preemptive war - how fitting. Again comes the call to the prophetic wing of the church to sit in sackcloth and ashes as a sign of the weakness of GOD in our day. We pray this action to be a sign of salvation. Wesley White Psalm 19 So how is "the rule of law" going these days? Is it Does it How about the words of your mouth? On this day that brings the trigger of war Clean the slate, God, so we can start the day fresh! Wesley White Exodus 20:1-17 It is difficult in a multi-valanced community to come to agreement about the ground rules for that community to grow together and to flourish. When one considers that one's community is a self-bounded entity in the midst of that identified as "other" there is a better chance of setting up rules that have a great deal of power in the community. It very much feels like a matter of survival. The Hebrews between exodus and entry have that setting. The religious right in a world of diversity have that setting. Trying to figure out and implement the few fundamental rules is crucial for them. For those of us who are not feeling so constrained the question comes about what is constituent for us. Are there still a handful of guiding principles that keep us on course and growing closer? How different are the "rules" when the issue is living in a larger community rather than remaining one group among many. GOD and humans are co-partners in creating the future from here. Trust is crucial for us to rest enough to be creative and not exhausted. That which breaks personal relationships, breaks community. Entitlement is a source of on-going sorrow. What would you add? What would you throw out? What would you modify? Wesley White 1 Corinthians 1:18-25 The cross as foolishness - we might even speak of it as counter-intuitive. On the way to destruction, as is everything, there is a very strong positive value in extending the pre-destruction experience. A very clear and immanent danger of the cross is the way in which it cuts short this desired experience. For those with a bi-directional, semi-permeable barrier at the point of destruction, the cross is where the action is as one moves from this side. (We probably need some clearer images of where the point is when the action moves in the other direction.) The issue of sacrificial living can make sense in light of a cross crossing across the cross-purposes of life. Sort of makes one cross-eyed, so cross your finger in the presence of fear and trembling. Proceed apace. In the midst of such diversionary language, a more serious question rests with what would constitute a cross for you or for Jesus in the midst of the war on Iraq? Or are we only into bombing others to the point of destruction? Is this latter way the equivalent of our calling down the 12 legions of angels Jesus refused to call upon when he was arrested (Mt. 26.53)? Wesley White John 2:13-22 Can't you just hear the pulpits ring with connections between the money changers hold the people hostage to their demands and the Iraqi people blocked from God by Saddam Hussein? Thus the need for war to drive him out of power. The dramatic imagery is very much in the tradition of the prophets who can marry harlots, walk naked, and make dumb purchases of property. We need to get beyond the fascination with a Rambo-like experience to see what lies beneath. Whether this event comes early (John) or late (synoptics) it is significant enough to be used in different ways. At least one option for a larger picture is a very small item - Jesus made a whip. Now consider making salt in India, making a seat on a bus in Montgomery. What "little" thing will you make to hallow creation? Will you limit your "making" to the religious realm or have it focus on political and cultural limitations. What would happen if you started making your own clothes? Change what you have the power to change in the moment you have. Make what you have the power to make in the moment you have. 30 March 2003 - Year B - Lent 4 Wesley White March 30, 2003 Are we really created for healing? The caduceus is an ancient sign of healing. Since we have lost touch with our metaphoric roots, what symbol speaks in today's world? May you find the image of healing we need in these warring days and may you lift it up for all to see. Wesley White John 3:14-21 Whoever is the world. GOD has so loved the "whoevers".... The poison in the world must be lifted up for the world to see what it has brought upon itself. That way, what has been biting our heels below our consciousness can be seen for what it is. The power of religion and the power of state are finally able to be seen as the Revelation 13 dragon they can be. The cross reveals the dragon of self-sustaining power. Revelation by itself brings clarity. The next issue is that of whether such clarity brings in its wake healing. Or, does is bring blindness and a redoubling of self-serving so no one else will be courageous enough to be lifted up. It sometimes feels as though the cross of long ago and the caduceus of longer ago need a new vehicle for their healing work. We have forgotten their purpose and now use them as brand marks. Where will this healing breakthrough in our time to reveal unconscious snakes and conscious dragons for what they are? - that the goodness of creation might be born again, from whichever direction. Wesley White Ephesians 2:1-10 The context of this section is about the church. Read this in plural form regarding the work of the congregation and not in singular as only the response of an individual. To rephrase: "The congregation is what GOD has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which GOD prepared beforehand to be our way of life." What a vision/mission statement. Would it make a difference where you are to consider the good works GOD has prepared you to do? Are you already doing this. If this were applied to a nation, how would it change war policies? Would it do away with pre-emptive strikes based on paranoia or fear or inflated ego? Would it increase foreign aid because it would be seen as an extension of a general welfare policy? Lon A Rycraft I am thinking God's Grace is good stuff, and maybe considering the good we are called to do might reshape how we go about doing it. I am wondering if that would be like looking in the serpent's eye and being healed? Wesley White Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22 Even fools are redeemable, healable. There is more than enough foolishness to go around. Let us pray for all the fools that led us to war. Let us pray for all the fools that were led to war. Let us pray for all the fools who protested war so ineffectively. Let us pray for all the fools who got caught between warring parties. Let us pray for all the fools who will profit from the war. Let us pray for all the fools who pray for all the fools. May we find the joy and thanksgiving available to replace the warring madness. May faithful love lead to honesty and rejoicing. May redemption lead to a vast silence. Dave Stratton Thank you for your words of healing and hope! I have found myself down, discouraged and feeling so powerless. Wesley White Numbers 21:4-9 Speak poison - get poison - poison defeats poison. Ah yes, pray the snakes of life, the thorns in the flesh, be taken from us. They do take so much of our time and energy to defend ourself against them - their touch demands all our attention. Yet, GOD did not take the snakes and thorns away. But did and does send a new way of looking at things. Look up, not at your ankle. We will be bitten and punctured. We are being bitten and punctured (think war and its consequences). The way out of such a predicament is to look beyond it, to see it transformed from a snake of temptation and deceit to a snake of wisdom and healing. If snakes can be so transformed, so can our life and the current war. Pray to GOD but don't forget to look about you for miraculous transformations. Now what are you going to do with your healing and vision? Wesley White Ephesians 2:1-10 It's a wonder God didn't lose [God's] temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, [God] embraced us. [The Message] As the snake was raised in the desert, so Jesus, so the Church - what mercy and love in the face of poison, hate, indifference. We have been embraced in many ways. Now it comes to you and to me to live these experiences and be, ourselves, a sign of mercy and love? A snake, a cross, a community have all be raised for the world to see amazing grace. There is some equally strange or weak sign out of your life that functions in this same way of sign and to not hold it high is an avoidance of investing in life (bearing your cross). The same is true for my life and that of our sisters and brothers in the faith. What a wonder it would be for such a multitude of signs to be raised in the midst of any circumstance (including our current one of war). What will you raise above the crowd that will bring healing and hope? Wesley White John 3:14-21 "This is the crisis we're in: God-light streamed into the world, but men and women everywhere ran for the darkness. They went for the darkness because they were not really interested in pleasing God. Everyone who makes a practice of doing evil, addicted to denial and illusion, hates God-light and won't come near it, fearing a painful exposure. But anyone working and living in truth and reality welcomes God-light so the work can be seen for the God-work it is." [The Message] Addicted to denial and illusion? listen to the war reporting. Nearly every sentence has a qualifier in it. Illusion! as we strive to make meaning where there is not yet any. Denial and illusion - isn't that an interesting definition of doing evil? The much more modest approach of simply stating here's what I'm doing and here's why I'm doing it doesn't get much play these days. Every administration does its best to match its rhetoric to the situation, but always seems to shade things so when the public gets more reliable information it is difficult for them to continue trusting. This seems to be true whether it is personal issues of the previous administration (I did not have sex with that woman) or policy issues of the present administration (the terrorists of 9/11 were Iraqi - increasing expenses while decreasing revenue is sound fiscal policy - etc.). Let us not easily give in to denial and illusion. Listen carefully and tell only what you know without speculation. It is amazing how much quieter and saner the world would be without the noise of speculation regarding others or what one present moment means for eternity. |