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Lectionary - May 2003 |
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Lectionary - May 2003 |
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4 May 2003 - Year B - Easter 3 Wesley White May 4, 2003 In the midst of big questions about sin/repentance/forgiveness and how there is such an emphasis upon catching sin so it can be stomped on, may you, none-the-less, sleep well. Wesley White Luke 24:36b-48 Doubts continue past Thomas. Doubts even in the presence of Jesus Resurrected. Doubts even in the presence of joy (which, in and of itself, tends to dismiss questions in order to party). The suggestion is that Jesus nibbling on sushi put their doubts away far enough that they could attend to some teaching. For me it is this teaching, not the fish, that finally moved the disciples past their doubting. The big teaching is not just the historical facts and figures of their religious heritage, but that they were a part of it in a very particular way. "Witnesses," says Jesus. "Martyrs," says the world. There is something about seeing Jesus Resurrected that helped
them come to terms with their own following - being Jesus' body
in the world will lead to martyrdom. (Is it fair to substitute "Resurrected" for "Christ" - just what does "Christ" mean to you these days?) Wesley White 1 John 3:1-7 There is a real divide between verses 3 and 4. Before -- We live in hope, moving toward theosis - becoming GOD. After -- We live in hope, quite modified by knowing we still sin and therefore are incapable of apprehending or understanding, much less becoming, GOD. In most advertisements the after is better than the before (otherwise why buy). Here I would choose the state of before. Which side are you on? I hope you dream beyond your station in life. Wesley White Psalm 4 A psalm with some obscurity and choices of translation. How like life. At the end of the day, at the end of some event's period of
action, we need to sort out what was meaningful from what was
not. Where did we chase after illusion? where did we trust, even
if fearfully or tremblingly, and follow GOD's heartbeat with
our own? In Peterson's words, "Why is everyone hungry for more? 'More, more,' they say, 'more, more.' // I have GOD's more-than-enough, more joy in one ordinary day than they get in all their shopping sprees. // At day's end I'm ready for sound sleep, for you, GOD, have put my life back together." Having sorted it through - learned what needed learning -
now content of mind - we lie down praying our souls be kept -
in peace we sleep - and arise to more fully live. Wesley White Acts 3:12-19 Is this simply a matter of balance? This week we hear about a healing followed by harsh words; next week we hear about arrest followed by affirmations. It is difficult to deal with this interpretation of an act without reference to said act. How is the crowd being addressed any different from the crippled
one who was healed? Does his very lameness make him different
in kind from the rest of the Israelites? Is he somehow exempt
from the anti-semitically used accusations of being Christ-killers? Perhaps the best we can do is to focus on verse 16b. Our faith (what we have we give) is an important gift for the benefit of all. What an opportunity to assist folks to do their own learning to learn what we have learned about a radical trust in a GOD who welcomes back betrayers and a community that shares all it knows of the power of GOD in any language and context and shares all that they have with one another. Lets not get hung up on the incantation of magical names, but rejoice in the sharing of life through a faith that leads to "what I have I give." Wesley White 1 John 3:1-7 If only the science of the first century could have been as digital, as on/off, as either/or, as 1/0. If so we would have had computers well before our time. If you can set the definition of sin you can find the loophole and escape to still be the twinkle of GOD's eye. How does your definition work if everyone is loved by GOD and is GOD's child AND no one who abides in GOD sins; AND no one who sins has either seen GOD or known GOD? Just how far can you walk in someone else's definition of sin? Soon you will find where it pinches. Can you listen to others report how soon your definition pinches them? If they've been walking in your definition of sin and found it wanting, might you not also find it is a bit too tight? Perhaps we need several definitions of sin that can be applied as needed rather than one size fitting all. Perhaps sin is ultimately as mysterious as love or forgiveness. Wesley White Luke 24:36b-48 Hear Peterson's translation: "You can see now how it is written that the Messiah suffers, rises from the dead on the third day, and then a total life-change through the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed in his name to all nations - starting from here...." How often do we need to learn about suffering? How often do we fail to acknowledge death? How often do we hear about repentance first without the context for it, forgiveness? To wrestle with these three realities - suffering, death, forgiveness - is to come to real life, life real enough to witness to with everything we have. So, starting from where we are, here, forgiven, we witness - "martures" arise! 11 May 2003 - Year B - Easter 4 Wesley White May 11, 2003 We have the power to make affirmations. We can choose to not affirm life and healing. We can choose
to focus on recriminations. Wesley White John 10:11-18 It is difficult to find a negative in our thinking about a Good Shephed. In today's New York Times online there was an op-ed piece, "Who wants to be a martyr" by Scott Atran. It says, in part: "Like the best Madison Avenue advertisers, but to ghastlier effect, the charismatic leaders of terrorist groups turn ordinary desires for family and religion into cravings for what they're pitching. "How do we combat these masters of manipulation? President Bush and many American politicans maintain that these groups and the people supporting them hate our democracy and freedoms. But poll after poll of the Muslim world shows opinion strongly favoring America's forms of government, personal liberty and education. A University of Michigan political scientist, Mark Tessler, finds Arab attitudes to American culture most favorable among young adults (regardless of their religious feeling) - the same population that recruiters single out. "It is our actions that they don't like: as long ago as 1997, a Defense Department report (in response to the 1996 suicide bombing of Air Force housing at the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia) noted that "historical data show a strong correlation between U.S. involvement in international situations and an increase in terrorist attacks against the United States." The motivations behind and focus of attention for a state
of being that allows one to "lay down my life of my own
accord" are quite powerful and can be used in many directions.
Just claiming one's own actions as "good" does not
automatically make them so. Wesley White 1 John 3:16-24 What power does it take to lay down one's life? Does it make a difference if you lay down your life for one of the in-group or for an enemy? A key question for our capitalistic consumer-oriented culture - can you lay down your life more easily than you can lay down your goods? Or will they have to pry your goods out of your cold, dead hand? I am always heartened when belief is paired with love. Too often we separate the two. Do both your belief and your love lead you to multiple versions of laying down your life, laying down your goods, laying down your belief, laying down your preferred worship style, laying down your experience of life, laying down your in-with-GOD? If you are laying down these important matters, what are you picking up? In some sense it is the old addiction issue that if you scat one devil away and do not fill in its place, it will return with seven more addictions and you'll be worse off than before. What are you adding to the pool of life when you lay your life down? Wesley White The
Indestructible Worm Now C. elegans has achieved another spectacular feat. Hundreds of the worms were on the space shuttle Columbia when it disintegrated. They survived the breakup, the fiery descent through the atmosphere and the jarring collision with the ground and kept on reproducing until they were found three months later. Whether this was mostly luck, or because their canisters rode
in a sheltered spot on the shuttle, or because of the worms'
hardiness, is not clear. Their survival lends plausibility to
the notion that life might have descended on Earth from other
worlds in ancient times. ===== While this isn't directly related to the lectionary it did bring back to mind that old saying that if you have faith as humble as C. elegans.... May we engage whatever faith we have in the tasks we have at hand this day. Wesley White Psalm 23 When something gets so familiar that we skim over it because we know it, there is a need to turn it around. Have you tried reading this Psalm backwards? ======= Throughout the length of my days, I am forever in the presence
of GOD. ======= My whole life long I shall dwell in the house of the Lord; ======= Do note the plural on paths of righteousness and consider how many different ways lead there. Wesley White Acts 4:5-12 How is it you do what you do? It is important to affirm your presence without blame or shame. Let your "yes" be yes and your "no" be no. Health for yourself and others is tied up with this ability to be self-differentiated. Just how necessary is to extend the response beyond the identification of Jesus in verse 10? It doesn't appear that the accusations of rejection and positing an assertion that there is only one way, were effective in changing the hearts and minds of those so accused. Yes, they were quiet for the moment, but that is as much fear of the crowds as it is the boldness of Peter and John. The joy of this moment of triumph of escaping arrest was not translatable into a moment of triumph of reconciliation and new life for all involved. May we not be satisfied with simply ourselves getting off. May we find the way to assist everyone to listen to GOD and to rejoice in every good deed, regardless of from whence the wind has blown such blessing. We might want to remember Mark 9:38-41 here. Wesley White 1 John 3:16-24 "If anyone enjoys the riches of this world, but closes their heart when they see their brother or sister in need, how will the love of God remain in them?" It is as if all the things of this world are among the lightest of elements. They are always attempting to float away. In so doing, those who are oriented toward them are always trying to hold them down. In being so distracted they don't notice the hole in their heart (new image) or bowels (old image) through which drains whatever amount of love they have left. How will any love remain in them if they don't focus on the substantial soul issues of life that settle into the holes in our life, slow down the loss of the "substance of we feeling" (SOWF) [read Doris Lessing's "Shikasta" to learn more of this image], and fill it in that we might finally find our cups overflowing. Are you reaching for the ephemeral or patching your leaky places? Wesley White John 10:11-18 It takes a great deal of self-differentiation (knowing one's own and still staying connected with others) to know there is a power that allows the laying down and picking up of life without getting addicted in either direction. Beyond the knowing of this power is the implementing of it. Beyond the implementing is the trusting. An important playing place is the intersection of power and gift. Again it brings us to the tension between what I have and the context in which I have it. Over and over we wrestle with being faithful in a situation that tends to domino in both directions. Add a bit of power here and life for others becomes unbearable. Add a tad of context there and life for one's self becomes intolerable. Even knowing we stand on the knife-edge of these slippery slopes, we dance in the morning.... 18 May 2003 - Year B - Easter 5 Wesley White May 18, 2003 There are generalities about "love" and "pruning". Both of these need some grounding in the difficulties of human interaction. What might these mean in the life of the outcast, the disadvantaged, the dead (however you want to consider this later category)? How much too little has the church loved? How much too much has the church pruned? And your part in this so-called church? How might we revision boundaries, not as limits but as intentional place to make thin? How might we revision pruning to move from technique to art? Wesley White John 15:1-8 To be pruned or cleansed by words that point us to GOD limit a grandiosity of unlimited giftedness and to narrow the possibilities to the realities of the limits of our time and space and resources. There is in this a sense of maturing. I ran across a group in the Episcopal church that is call the Vine and Branch Society that advocates for responsible use of one's accumulate assets through the making of bequests. Eventually we are all pruned, real good, and applied as fertilizer spikes. (Of course we in the USofA do try to slow that process down through our attempts at embalming. Is this to increase the market share of quick acting chemicals to take the place of the slower organic processes?) So how much pruning do you need. If you need it all the way to death, for what are you being pruned? Is there a limit to the pruning process that keeps that image limited to this side of the grave? A blessed maturing to you. May you be well pruned. Wesley White 1 John 4:7-21 Love is mighty difficult to define. Have you tried it lately? If you were satisfied with your definition you may need to be pruned some more since literalism and denotation are not the name of this game. It appears that love can be seen and recognized, but not programmed. We see GOD's love through Jesus and others. We revel in and reflect that love by passing it on to others. As Eugene Peterson puts it, "Loving God includes loving people." Even more basic, active love not only values building life but values repelling fear. Can you think about love as a magnet as it attracts differences and pushes away that which would keep us locked into the same old same old? Wesley White Psalm 22:25-31 Try verse 29 on for size from Eugene Peterson's perspective. All the power-mongers are before him It is an interesting image of a reversal beyond our expectation. The hated rich, pitied poor, and the usual cast of characters all turn out to be part of the worshiping congregation. Who'd a thunk it? If this is the end spot, how do we live in the present as though it were already a done deal? Perhaps it will be when we recognize that our worship comes from GOD, not from ourselves - worship as a response to life, not worship in spite of it in order to mollify some greater power. keith aurand thank you for your discussion about love Wesley White Thanks, Keith One of our most difficult and also rewarding tasks is that of revisioning the images of conversation. This is something at which our politicians are becoming more adept. Also the religious right. There is a new book just out, "United Methodism @ Risk: A Wake-Up Call. It can be ordered for $5 + $5 shipping from MFSA, 212 East Capitol Street, NE, Washington, DC 20003 - tel: 202.546.8806 - fax: 202.546.6811 - email: mfsa@mfsaweb.org This sort of expose is important work, but not more important than a new set of pictures in our language that sets us free from the prison of exclusivity. Let us know what images you are finding helpful in converting folks to an appreciation of being made in the image of a Living GOD and all the ambiguity that goes along with that. Wesley White Acts 8:26-40 Here is a story waiting for the right digital technology, as per the Matrix you'll revisit soon. A limo tooling down the street. Running alongside, opening the door and cooly stepping in - Philip. Opening minds to see what couldn't be seen. A choice is made - dojo baptism. And the seemingly real fades and the beyond our realities come into view as the One brings new life and joy and, seemingly minor character, Philip moves a moment beyond. All that to the side, don't you just love to ask the question of innocent pontificators, "Are you talking about yourself or someone else?" And don't you just hate it when others so question you. In that zen moment of silence, before they/you return to time-eating happy-talk, it may be possible to hear GOD shifting orientations. The great transformation is still possible with us as we move from being slaughtered without awareness to seeing beyond such limits. Wesley White 1 John 4:7-21 Have you experienced a relationship with GOD? By this is meant more than listening to and following rules from on high. Rules are for kids. As friend and partner there is all manner of give and take with GOD. A mono-experience with GOD is better than no relationship at all but far short of a vari-experience. As folks who have a well-rounded experience of GOD, our base of evangelism is the good news of new goodness. A key part of this are the possibilities contained within the visions of prevenient grace and perfection. Lets continue so preaching and living. Wesley White John 15:1-8 Long, long ago and far, far away there were two fruit trees in a garden. One was taken and one remained. Retribution, revenge, and punishment didn't seem to patch things up. After many adventures we come to a vine growing from the same garden source. Finally restoration came along and had victim and assailant talk together. How is restoration of trust, hope, love, and the rest worked out? Well, from the taking of fruit to the giving of fruit, of course. In this reversal all concerned found life a much more renewable
resource than previously thought. Instead of coming up against
a flaming angel a new angle became available - leading and being
led toward GOD and thus moving behind the guardian of the trees,
inviolate and pillaged, finding a way for a storyline of welcome
rather than warning. 25 May 2003 - Year B - Easter 6 Wesley White May 25, 2003 Acts 10:44-48 Here we have the opportunity to learn about dealing with folks from beyond the sheep fold and with sisters and brothers right next to us. Of course we will be doing so from both the individual and the community perspectives even though this very bothness implies a tension not ultimately resolvable. This would be a good Sunday to look at the United Methodist
catch phrase Wesley White John 15:9-17 It will be important to tell the back-story to remember Jesus washing the feet of the disciples, including Judas'. This will help take the "love" stuff, so mushy and nice, out of an inconsequential category and give it some substance. We are not talking about making nice but making love. [How do we talk about love without including the sex part? How do we talk about love without basing it on sex? Is it any better to talk about Doing love or Being love instead of making love?] From another perspective. If GOD is glorified with our bearing
fruit as a disciple, Wesley White 1 John 5:1-6 Interesting equality between Jesus as Messiah and Child of GOD. So often we focus on the belief that Jesus is the Messiah and leave out the understanding that Jesus is also Child. John goes on to push us to love the children of GOD (and just who falls outside that category?) as a way of fulfilling the "commands" of GOD. Here, again, we bump into the tension between command and love. Try paraphrasing this passage. The language is so internally oriented and circular in its references that it is difficult to break into, and thence out of. Eventually this leaves us either saying yes or no to it. In this way it is less useful as an evangelistic tool and more useful as a point of meditation for folks already experienced in the assurance of also being a Child of GOD. Wesley White Psalm 98 Obviously people have made judgments within the context of the everyday life of the world that are not right (much less righteous) or equitable (beyond fair). That has been your experience and my experience of those we have judged and the experience of those who have judged against us. Here, indeed, is the realm of a new song. If there is anything that needs revival it is our sense of righteousness (usually too small) and equity (usually too biased toward one particular side or another). If you can't yet see the words or put them to music, it is still possible to hum. It would be good here to remember a literal song - "How can I keep from singing!" Singing is a progressive Christian act of resistance and remembering the direction of our life - that GOD's Commonwealth come in the present as it is in eternity. Here are some places for, "How Can I Keep from Singing": note: the division religious/secular is false Wesley White Acts 10:44-48 This Holy Spirit dude is certainly disruptive (the ADHD aspect of GOD?). "While Peter was still speaking ..." (NRSV) In the midst of the hubbub, without any planning for it (such as everybody wearing red) Pentecost is revisited - the wonders of GOD are recognized and related in surprisingly different cultural contexts and languages. Question: In what cultural/language group of today would it be most surprising to find this Holy Spirit gal showing up today? Question: Given the track record of the surprising presence of the Holy Spirit, why, again, would we be surprised? Question: Is there a minimum amount of work we need to put in (both amount and content) before the Holy Spirit will plunk its magic twanger? How much scripture, how much energetic interpretation of it and life, how much authority needs to be present to force the hand of the Holy Spirit? Question: Is this baptism by Peter ineffective or illegitimate because only the Jesus Christ part of a later rubric was used? What is the minimum daily requirement amount of Baptism and how is it applied -- in a massive shot of B12 in the butt to seep into the system over time or doled out day-by-day in pill/liquid or natural food? Question: Are four questions in a trinitarian system one too many? or just right because there are not only the three unique components but the synergy of them together? And, then, what are we going to do about any fifth question tagging along? Wesley White 1 John 5:1-6 "...whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith." (NRSV) ----- "John Wesley emphasized that the God in whose image we are created is love. Thus humanity "was what God is" -- love.... "In Wesley's vision, this love, though properly directed toward God, includes and integrates the love of self, fellow human beings, and all other creatures. As Daniel Day Williams notes, however, the human being is a 'battlefield upon which many loves clash.' Our constitution in love (and, therefore, in the image of God) becomes disintegrated as we become preoccupied with some loves to the exclusion of others and as we turn in on ourselves, or as we love creation more than God. This disintegration of love is what we mean when we use the word 'sin.' So it is that, for Wesley (and, as we shall see, for process theology), sin is ultimately a failure to love. Conversely, what Wesley spoke of as a 'perfection' of love may be understood as the reintegration of love and, in that sense, a vanquishing of sin." ["Process and Sanctification" by Bryan P. Stone in Thy Nature & Thy Name is Love: Wesleyan and Process Theologies in Dialogue, p. 71] ----- Now, what would happen if we were to substitute growth in
perfection for conquering? It feels as though conquering tends
to "preoccupation with some loves to the exclusion of others."
It feels as though the author of 1 John slipped here (preoccupied
with getting correct doctrine in somewhere?) and might have more
helpfully said, "And this is the victory that perfects the
world, our maturing in love." |