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Lectionary - October 2003 |
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Lectionary - October 2003 |
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October 5, 2003 - Year B - Proper 22B/Ordinary 27B/Pentecost 17 Wesley White October 5, 2003 Job 1:1; 2:1-10 or Genesis 2:18-24 Separations and Unions. Which do your experience and in what areas of life? These fluctuate and your intentional preference will make a difference. Wesley White Mark 10:2-16 We all know about divorce between spouses. This is always difficult, even when it is needed. Abuse and apathy are never in order. Lest we be diverted from larger questions by focusing on particular test cases such as marriage and divorce, let us also acknowledge other separations such as the nasty one of the disciples diverting or divorcing the children from Jesus. If we take "children" to stand for all the lowest and unappreciated we can ask about who else the church is diverting from Jesus and how much the church is in need of chastisement from Jesus. Might we think of it with those oriented toward their own gender? Is it with the poor and homeless, the lonely and lost? Is it with immigrants or the sick without insurance? Who would you add to the list of those the church separates from Jesus? It is so easy to keep blessings from flowing. We simply need to cross our arms instead of extending them. Peace and loose limbs to you. Wesley White Hebrews 1:1-4; 2:5-12 Let's look at two interrelated sections. 2:5-6, 8b -- "Now God did not subject the coming world, about which we are speaking, to angels. But someone has testified somewhere, 'What are [men]* that you are mindful of them, or the [son of man] that you care for him'.... Now in subjecting all things to them, GOD left nothing outside their control." Friends the future has been put in our hands. The author can also be heard to say the future has been put in Jesus' hands. It has been put in the hands of both and all. Let's act as though our acts have significance for the future. We are not just the momentum of the past or living for this moment only. 2:11 -- "For the one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified [are all of one]. For this reason Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters...." It is important to look beyond Jesus to our commonality, sons and daughters of One. May we not be ashamed to call Jesus our brother as well as savior; mother as well as redeemer. If we can see One's grace at work in all people, sanctification begun, we are also called to call all, "Sister," "Brother." We are in this endeavor of life with one another, with the future, with Jesus, with One. This both takes the pressure off (it is up to all of us) and puts the pressure on (it is up to each of us). Enjoy the fluid flowing flux; the holy wind produced between the low pressure and high pressure ridges of life. * Stuff in the [brackets] is a more literal reading of the Greek. Wesley White Psalm 26 Verses 6-7 from The Message: I scrub my hands with purest soap, A lovely image of a relationship between confession and community. When that works well we are opened to experience and share the presence of GOD in ever more widening and graceful ways. Dance, then, wherever you may be. Fast and confess and dance. Sing and tell tales and dance. From an ecstatic whirling Sufi dance to a slow coupling waltz - care for self and care for others as more than duty - find life's source and meaning. Wesley White Job 1:1; 2:1-10 Once we were not a people, now we are. Once there was Job, now there is Israel, now there is Church. All have had their moments of blessing. All have had their trials. Always, though sore afflicted, they have had life. A key question for us is whether or not our life is reflected in the "persistence of integrity." Are we able to affirm and question the contexts within which we find ourselves so that we leave open the theodicy question in similar manner to the etiology of Job's testing: verse 3, it is GOD who has been incited to test Job and verse 6, it is the power of ha'satan that touches Job. Regardless of where our circumstances arise, will we persist in our integrity? Regardless of how we have been injured by the limitations of creedal renewal organizations or literalists, will we persist in our integrity, our gifts? Welcome, descendants of Job. You come from hearty stock - able to question circumstances. Remember your heritage and be able to see Job as a whole community, not simply as an individual. Wesley White Psalm 8 "Out of the mouths of babes and infants...." NISB Note: "It is unclear how babes and infants silence the enemy and the avenger. Does the praise of children have the power to silence foes? Or does v. 2a continue v. 1b so that even children recognize God's majesty in all the earth? Or does the psalmist celebrate the power of human speech present even as speech begins." Hinge verses that can go with what comes before or what comes after are special verses. They remind us of the life of the scriptures beyond answers. They also remind us of our current place in life. Are we going to mostly be connected with our past, our future, or swing back and forth? If you had to evaluate your past week from this perspective, would have been mostly oriented to what has gone on before or to what is entering from the future? Have you been evenly balanced or weighted in one direction? Any given week may be unique - sort of why, when folks are "church shopping," we need to encourage trying a month in a row as any given worship experience may or may not reflect what is usually going on. So, how's the last week been and what do you have to be intentional about to honor your hingeness? Wesley White Genesis 2:18-24 I am curious about the phrase, "deep sleep." Looks like I will have to go digging deeper than the resources I have here at home. A beginning thought connects this with creation time when darkness hovered over the face of the deep. In a sense creation keeps going and going, just like that pink bunny. It comes out of the deep and the dark. Then comes a word, an act and a spark of light, a mere glimmer sometimes, awakens a weary world to new hope. From a deep sleep and from deep within comes the awareness of deep binding together. This month, two congregations here will be doing an online study of an older resource, "The Wounded Healer." From a deep and dark night of the soul comes the light of being bound together when it felt like everything was being torn and ripped open in preparation for abandonment and death. In the wound is the healing, in the deep sleep is the awakening. In the Adam is the Eve, the new day -- and it was eve ning and morning the next day. The deep sleep of Eden and flood and slavery and captivity and crucifixion and the dark ages and the present age is intended to awaken us to a new day, a new heaven and a new earth. In "Thy Nature and Thy Name is Love: Wesleyan and Process Theologies in Dialogue," Michael E. Lodahl's chapter contains this related thought: ...There is a somewhat insidious implication of creatio ex nihilo that should be brought to light and expunged: The doctrine often seems to imply that God works like a magician who pronounces "Presto!" and pulls a rabbit (i.i., the world) out of his or her top hat (i.e., nothing). In this picture the creation of the universe appears perfunctory and arbitrary with little, if any real, investment or care on the Creator's part -- a picture that lends itself to a devaluing of the world and our lives in it. It is safe to say that this is not, and cannot be, what Christians (or Jews or Muslims) mean by creation out of nothing. The particularly Christian conviction that God has created by the Word -- the Word that became flesh in the person of Jesus of Nazareth -- belies any hint of arbitrariness or caprice in God's act of creation, suggesting instead that creation is the deliberate expression of divine love revealed at Gethsemene and Golgotha. In this case, perhaps creatio ex nihilo might be well-complemented by : God creates out of (and as an expression of) self-giving, creative love...." What in you has been created by love? Is that enough? What of you is creating out of love? Is that enough? Sleep deep. Awaken refreshed, a new creation. October 12, 2003 - Year B - Proper 23B/Ordinary 28B/Pentecost 18 Wesley White October 12, 2003 Job 23:1-9, 16-17 Whether insulated by riches or caught in deep suffering, issues of the heart cannot be avoided. As we prepare for the week ahead, let us face up to the real questions and responsibilities that are inherent in our particular life, both individual and communal. Beth I appreciate this site! I'm interested in the eye/camel metaphor. Online somewhere, I read that the eye of the needle was actually meant to refer to part of the gate to the city. Does anyone have anything to back this up? Wesley White The New Interpreter's Study Bible (NISB) simply says, "A proverb expressing impossibility." My own bias is that that is enough. To play a bit - If your eye is healthy all manner of impossibilities become possible. [Matthew 6:22] If your eye have the speck of a penny or the log of a dollar it is all the same, you are focused on possibilities instead of impossibilities and that will cause a great stumbling. [Luke 6:41-42] If your eye causes such a stumbling, pluck it out. [Mark 9:47] The eye of the rich one has several dollars in it so they stumble toward Bethlehem to await a a new birth shifting both camel and needle to sidelines and bringing the poor to the forefront. Let us know where you come out with the gate image and what you do with it. Wesley White Job 23:1-9, 16-17 Psalm 139 rejoices that GOD cannot be escaped in heaven or hell or anywhere between. Job complains that GOD cannot be found anywhere. This two-sided coin reflects our experience of epiphany and dark nights. It is important to not avoid Job. It is through such wounds as this that we grow and help others grow. It is wounds such as this that open us to our call and ministry (that's everyone language, not just clergy language). On this day, remember your past travails of soul, body, mind, relationship. In so doing may you find your bravado mellowing as you also recognize that GOD is in the trouble with you. Relax. Together, says the promise, y'all will come through. GOD and you, what a team! Wesley White Psalm 22:1-15 Listen to The Message, verses 9-11: And to think you were midwife at my birth, Quite an image, our midwife and nurturing God move away. At least that is the way it seems to us. No void goes unfilled. If nothing else fills it or we are not up to traveling into new realms, trouble settles in. How do we deal with this setting. First we recognize our need - a neighbor. In a neighbor we find ourselves. It is one of the key issues in growing up, who are your friends. In a neighbor we find God. Believe it or not we can find ourselves and God even when our neighbor is trouble. This passage sounds like an adolescent who needs a perfect neighbor, a loving neighbor, before they are willing to be whole and loving themself. Let's give ourselves a couple of years and then we will be better able to deal with brother suffering and sister hostility. Looking back from a resurrection or two we can see how we can love even the seemingly unlovable. Wesley White Hebrews 4:12-16 Ah, to arrive at the spot of receiving or taking mercy unto ourselves and to be filled or to find the grace to accept the help needed to move into living as though GOD's presence dwelt among us. What a wonderful end spot. Here is the community we have been dreaming of. When each knows mercy and is supported we are able to extend mercy to one another and to be of assistance in one another's growth. Now, how do we get there? At least one beginning spot is to experience the living voice of GOD shooing away all our excuses and resistances to living mercifully with one another and creation. We can no longer live under the illusion of being self-sufficient or in control. A second beginning spot is like unto it -- its the grace of help that binds us together. Mercy for ourselves and help for others. Mercy for others and help for ourselves. Around and around we go with support and correction and confession and pardon and grief and joy -- all out in the open. Wesley White Mark 10:17-31 "Good Teacher." "I've kept the commandments." Both these perceptions stop before getting to the point. That may be a definition of sin, "missing the point." Goodness stops with Jesus. This is where praise music seems to stop. Goodness is not attributed to Creator GOD who has seen to the good from the beginning. We stop short. Projecting the present into the future stops with commandments and rule. These can limit some behaviors but never set us free for better behaviors to bloom and grow, forever. Life is not attributed to the positive growing edge but to the controlled and constrained arena of stopping short rather than growing into. The point is growing into the goodness of GOD, the imitation of Christ, the companionship of Spirit -- not stopping short for anything, even Jesus or commandments. Wesley White Psalm 90:12-17 Can you imagine this as a psalm of creation to us who are made in the image of GOD who made all that is and who is to be responsible for all? It is so easy to get caught simply thinking it is we who ask for patience and for renewal. It is so difficult to think we are being asked for patience and renewal. Can you imagine brother animal and sister plant and cousin weather saying to us, "All we can remember is that frown on your face. Is that all we're ever going to get?" Can you imagine these relatives and so many more pleading with us, "Oh, yes. Affirm the work that we do." If you can so imagine, you are blessed. If you can hear, you are twice blessed. If you can "affirm," you are thrice blessed. Beth re: the gate image - after doing some more research, what i found is that there are some who have suggested the eye of the needle as a gate metaphor, but that there is little to support such an interpretation. One writer noted that it was interesting that we just find ways to interpret Jesus' message to make it easier to bear. I guess that's the truth! we don't like to take Jesus seriously when it comes to our money! ;) Wesley White Thanks, Beth. I suspect we also don't like to take Jesus to heart when it comes to any part of our lives. If he can make an inroad anywhere, how can we keep all our dominos from falling? So we make the parts we need to accept for the sake of our position or institution understandable, reasonable, logical, literal. That provides a cyst around the cultural parts of Jesus so he doesn't get to our heart. Wesley White Amos 5:6-7, 10-15 Seeking GOD ultimately includes establishing justice that goes beyond what is fair. This kind of justice will not allow any excuse for making the situation of those with less, worse. We cannot simply take this renewal of justice on simply on the basis of laws attempting to ensure justice. Laws are always a step behind injustice and trying to keep a second incident from happening. Laws are helpless against innovative wrong and so protests and rebuke are no more effective than silence. The part that is left out, verses 8 & 9, give us a better perspective from which to seek good and not evil. Here it in language of The Message: [8] Do you realize where you are? You're in a cosmos Can you equate justice with the cosmos? with participating in the refreshment of people and creation? with saying, "No," to those for whom there is an acceptable level of waste? Let's raise our vision beyond tit-for-tat laws holding the worst at bay but still institutionalizing poverty and all its attendant woes. Let's go beyond our usual responses and speak the grand vision of our being in a cosmos star-flung - and smile and live its truth. Lon Another version is that the "camel" is really "cable", which words resemble each other in Greek. So hang the verse on that rope and it's still a trick that would leave the disciples alarmed, or as Mark says, "exceedingly astonished" at this teaching. "Who then can make it into your revolutionary movement? Who then can be safe?" October 19, 2003 - Year B - Proper 24B/Ordinary 29B/Pentecost 19 Wesley White October 19, 2003 Job 38:1-7, (34-41) Here we are looking at the 19th Sunday of Pentecost on the 19th day of October. With such a numerological confluence this cannot help but being an insightful time. Surely we will get our wish for greatness (to know even more than GOD!). ;) Wesley White Job 38:1-7, (34-41) We do like to make up meaning. Urban legends abound to explain something or other. Once a quote is in place it is difficult to dislodge it. I was struck by these two items in the New Interpreter's Study Bible. In the text they characterize this section of Job under the title, "The Lord Answers Job." In the note they move in a different direction: So, how much stuff are you carrying along (text) just because it is easier to follow tradition instead of considering alternatives (note)? Let's see if we can catch ourselves perpetuating a meaning with our lips without it reflecting our hearts. It's really not too hard, just yesterday, walking in the forest amid the colors I got tired on an upward trek and reverted back to an old male only reference to GOD. Fortunately my beloved caught it and I was able to better say what I meant. Perhaps the text title is just an example of the church being too tired to say what it means and so we get ourselves into all manner of unnecessary disputes. Wesley White Psalm 104:1-9, 24, 35c "What a wildly wonderful world...." The Message Check out Louis Armstrong's Wonderful World Maybe GOD didn't just rest on the seventh day, but allowed lyrics to ebb and flow and then took one breath ("bigger than a circus tent") and the eighth day was sung. If you have the time here is an interesting tangent to the psalm from ArchtypalPsych. Can you imagine not just cycling through seven days, but going on and on? We would lose some tradition and attributed meaning, but we would also gain an expectation beyond anything so far because wildly wonderful creations of love do go on and on. Wouldn't it be something if Daniel's days turned out to be less filled with turmoil and apocalypse and instead we had a day of lullabies and a day of blues and a day of symphonies and a day of rap and a day of silence, all to express love. Learning love in so many different ways would open us up to taking our part in the choir, sitting on a telephone wire, some singing high and some singing low. Check out Bill Staines song at A Place in the Choir. Wesley White Hebrews 5:1-10 The Message talks about learning through suffering (a word play between the two - they are connected, in a "Wounded Healer" sort of way). This suffering-learning brings about "trusting-obedience." These hyphenated words are important. In a culture that tends to reduce important conversations to catch-phrases, bumper-stickers, and sound-bites, leading to a tendency to think about things one thing at a time, we need to more intentionally put important distinctions into play. If you say, "obedience," have you said it all? What is the difference between fearful-obedience and trusting-obedience? Might it be in the arena of maturing in the faith and coming to some sense of completedness or wholeness (all better ways of putting it than, "perfect")? Is there legal-obedience or loving-obedience? Obedience is to bring us to a state of listening toward someone or something. Are we able to hear, "You are my beloved" (trusting/loving-obedience) or do we hear "You better watch out" (fearful/legal-obedience)? How can you assist someone toward trusting-obedience today? How can you mature into trusting-obedience, yourself? Wesley White Mark 10:35-45 It is very easy to pooh-pooh the Zebedee boys for their ambition. It is much more difficult for us to recognize the power, authority, position, rank we have settled for. James and John wanted to get ahead of everyone. We settle for being ahead of at least one. The other disciples were angry at the brothers J. I suspect that I would have been, too. They show me up and cause me to reflect on how petty my power is. If only they hadn't raised this larger question I could have proceeded along as though all were right with the world and I wouldn't have to consider my so-called life and how I wield my privilege in the small pond of my circumstance. Jesus, speaking to the extravagant (J & J) and mundane (deca-oblivoids), purveyors of advantages and disadvantages, reminds both the assertive and passive desirers of benefits and perquisites that this is not the lesson to be learned. And we are still trying to pass the test on this particular lesson. Left and right, liberal and conservative, progressive and orthodox seem to be genetically descended from both James/John and the rest. Keep praying. Keep practicing. Wesley White Psalm 91:9-16 Are you feeling risked? On the verge of being hung out to dry? A key question for still being able to go ahead anyway is the question of where your locus of love is. Do you love the Most-High Ground-of-Being? How then can you not love as Most-Grounded Height-of-Being loves? In the face of evil we are delivered by not returning evil for evil but by turning it around -- live for lives. So it is that GOD is with us in trouble and our rescue is by way of imitating GOD. Need a satisfied mind? Imitate Christ -- love those GOD loves. Wesley White Isaiah 53:4-12 Here is a revolutionary theology to explain the hardships of exile. Here suffering is not in anticipation of suffering, but instead of the suffering of others. This vicarious suffering is not on behalf of some definition of "our own kind," but all. We endure our exile and the suffering it brings because such is in service to God who will use this self-sacrifice as a fulcrum point to redeem and restore the nations. [based on an excursus in the NISB] If this is the case we need to rephrase this from some other singular person to the plurality of this community. What difference would it make if this were written thusly, after the form of The Message : But the fact is, it's their pain we carry -- We were beaten, we were tortured, Still, it's in the consequence of GOD's beginning Out of that terrible travail of soul, - - - - - - - A key here is the question, does anyone really know what is happening? Can we keep the traditional language and not fall prey to sloth? Can we change this language and not fall prey to pride? How do we approach the future being able to only see past and present? Is it worth our while to wrestle for understanding in the face of some grand plan? Is it worth our while to participate in the growth toward creation's maturity? October 26, 2003 - Year B - Proper 25B/Ordinary 30B/Pentecost 20 Wesley White October 26, 2003 Job 42:1-6, 10-17 What would you want a SuperNatural High Priest to do for you? How about just a regular High Priest? Or just a plain old Priest? If they weren't a priest at all, would you still want the same from any old human being? Where do you draw distinctions of holiness and effectiveness? Wesley White Job 42:1-6, 10-17 There are those who go back to the Hebrew language instead of the traditional rendering of verse 6. They would argue that a more accurate translation is, "I reject and regret dust and ashes." This turns Job's recognition that GOD has not answered his questions from contriteness to simply accepting that GOD will not give the apology asked for. Job is not sorry for confronting GOD, but accepting of the impasse. GOD does admit in the missing middle section of this lection that Job was correct in his accusations. But we can't have too much of that in public without leading folks to question additional ways in which the public face of GOD, the Church, might be queried about its behavior. So we are left with a traditional culpa mea and a doubling of Job's former possessions. How many of you would be willing to take on Job's role if you had some sense of making a buck on it and being able to start your "family" anew? In many ways this end of the story is one of its more troubling aspects. It is as if Job gets punitive damages over and above a regular settlement. Can this really make up for the loss of life and health any better than the cigarette settlement assisted those who died because of their addiction or benefited the state that frittered away such money? The concluding description of the rest of Job's life is like unto that for Isaac and DAvid, neither of whom had a particularly happy ending to their life. As the NISB comments, "Perhaps this is the storyteller's covert way of saying that although Job may have appeared appeased, he never fully recovered from his tribulations." How covert do we still feel ourselves to be in relation to GOD and Church? You may want to join the New York Times free online readership to see where an editorial by Andrew Sullivan regarding gay Christians in the Church, Losing a Church, Keeping the Faith, fits into this discussion. [If this link doesn't work for you, try a Google search for "losing a church keeping the faith" - don't forget to include the quote marks.] Wesley White Psalm 34:1-8, (19-22) No matter what alphabet (talk about your giveaway word - what might it mean?) you use - No matter what letter of the alphabet we use to begin a line - No matter if you keep a pattern or break it (skip a letter or two or add a final line that is not part of the scheme) - the elliptical foci continue to be GOD and Community. Again and again we find this to be the tension points of our existence - our relationship to GOD and our relationship to others. Whether "our" GOD is "one" or "our" neighbor defines our "self", we keep coming back to these two realities. So the ecumenical and interfaith mantra is: Let us exult, magnify, glorify, exclaim, share the experience of GOD . Rich or poor, users of this language or that, male or female, straight or gay or bi or trans, focused on this religious tradition or another, plain or extravagantly spoken - we can't do without one another. Let us listen to the experience of one another. The lowest common denominator and the highest prime, real or imaginary numbers, plane geometry and calculated limits all bring their revelation and find their relationship one to the other. Expanding galaxies and earth's surface and atomic subdivisions; eastern and western medical modalities; memes and genes - are absolutely crucial and irrelevant. Take comfort and refuge where you can. Consistency be damned, full speed ahead. Start this day with a new letter and see what happens - try living from the vantage point of vwx instead of abc. Wesley White Hebrews 7:23-28 Since Jesus is unendingly persistent in saving, such is always available to us in this world and in whatever is after. It is this sense of constant intercession that brings John Wesley to so often connect verse 25 with his understanding of perfection. As The Message has it, Jesus is always "on the job to speak up" for us and any. When we tie a persistent response to this incessant intercession - wholeness of being is attainable. Do you have a sense of intercession being made for you? Are you willing to respond as often as you sense an intercession? This response includes paying attention to works of mercy and works of piety and means of grace and development of virtues. Such a response moves us inexorably toward maturity. J. W. accepts that perfection does not exclude the possibility of error. It does, however, include the development of a heart like unto GOD's heart. Would you have connected this passage so closely with growing up in Christ had not John done some of the laying of the groundwork? If you now can glimpse the connection, will you persistently respond to the persistent intercession being made on your behalf by Christ and Church? (I suppose we should ask whether persistent intercession to make folks whole is part of the priesthood of the church? Is the Church imitating Christ in this or have we taken to judging first and hoping afterward instead of interceding first and trusting after?) Kent Ingram Wesley, I often read your insights and enjoy them! Thanks for your work. I have long been fascinated by the Job text. Another way to read the whole book is that it is one long satire, a satire on the view of God as one who rewards faithfulness and punishes evil. In the ninth chapter Job says that IF God does show up, all God would do is ask him a bunch of questions that Job couldn't answer. Sure enough, out of the whirlwind comes a series of unanswerable questions .."where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth..." By the end of the book Job is sure that God can't tell the good guys from the bad guys, which explains the out of place quotes form God after Job responds to God's speech. Read them again, dripping with irony. You can add the wink wink, nod nod, poke poke yourself, but it seems to me that Job is mocking God by saying that Job really didn't understand all the mysteries. Then he says that he had only heard about God, but now he knows for sure...(what does he know?) Then he repents wink, wink, and gets back everything, and then some. Maybe the point is that if you have a God of divine retribution, you have a fool for a God. You only need to look around to see proof that evil often prospers and good people perish. Maybe, at its heart, Job warns us to be careful what we say about God. For what we say about God better make sense in the context of innocent suffering, starving children, violent bigotry, etc. As satire, the ending makes sense. My two cents worth. Wesley White Kent, I have also appreciated your words and learned from them. Would that we could see more of scripture and life from the vantage point of satire and irony. When we are open to these, rather than being afraid of them, we are opened to have our hearts and minds transformed and to, in turn, open doors for others to come in and laugh. Your comment brightened my day and is worth far more than two cents. Remind me the next time we are together that I owe you a cool glass or hot cup of something refreshing. Wesley White Mark 10:46-52 Bartimaeus is called, just as were James and John (1:20) and the rest of the 12 (3:13). Did the 12 know that even before they were called they had been crying out, in their own way, for mercy? Did they know they still needed it - evidence the way they were not able to hear Bartimaeus and be proactive in helping him to come to Jesus? Did the 12 understand that in Mark they would always appear to be blind and deaf to the import of Jesus' actions and words? That they were in need of healing, even as disciples? Did the 12 have some inkling of what it meant to be sent forth from Jesus, "Go"? That there is a recursive nature to it that always brings one back to being a simple follower? Contrast this with James and John last week who came asking for a special position, not recognizing the presence of GOD is so abundant that everyone is always at Jesus' right and left so they can whisper in each other's ear. So often we work out of an understanding of scarcity right in the middle of prodigality. How is asking for a special place similar to and different from simply crying out for mercy? Where are you on that continuum? Where were you yesterday? Where do you hope to be tomorrow? Wesley White Mark 10:46-52 Somewhere along the way Bartimaeus' call, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" got transformed into what is traditionally known as the Jesus Prayer, "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner." The mercy part is constant but it does seem to have a distinct theological bias in transforming Son language to Lord and adding a phrase about being a sinner (which does not seem to be part of the storyline here.) As one who appreciates brevity of expression (though that sometimes doesn't seem to be the case here) I can see shortening this mantra rather than extending it - "Jesus, mercy." Try breathing in this way - Inhale with an extended thought/contemplation of "Jesus" and exhale slowly while centered on the word "Mercy." Set a timer for 5 minutes and try it. What did you find? Does it work better for you to reverse this by exhaling on "Jesus" and inhaling on "mercy"? Next, try it with just the word "mercy" on both the inhale and exhale of another 5 minutes. Any change in what you found? In practicing this we draw near to Bartimaeus who drew near to Jesus and this draws us nearer to GOD. Breathe on. Marjorie Murdoch In the part of my life leading up to my entry into the clergy, my spiritual practice involved something called "Praying the Scriptures", part of which included this Jesus Prayer. For some reason it always bothered me, and your comments have illuminated me as to why. Thanks. The Jesus, mercy, prayer is somewhat akin to one of my favourite prayers, even shorter: HELP! Wesley White Psalm 126 Rejoice! Restore! Rejoice! Restore! etc. What a wheel of life we are on. In theory we are not on a dynamometer that lets a vehicle run in place to measure output. Rather, our theory is that each revolution is going some where. Feel like you are spinning your wheels? Call for restoration. Feel like you can glimpse a destination in the distance and it is getting closer? Offer rejoicing. Do both with good integrity (acknowledging the reality of the other perspective) and good energy (call and offer enthusiastically). It has sometimes felt as though our lives have been stolen by our brothers and sisters of the religious right who can only measure restoration in terms of going back rather than returning to go ahead. We can hardly breathe within their constraints. We have been in a time when the only reality has seemed to be the necessity of our own calling out, "Restore, Restore, Restore," with no rejoicing available. Here we have two different calls for restoration battling one another. Perhaps one way to break this impasse is to be diligent in seeing the possibility of celebrating anyhow. I hope to see some of you at the next Kairos CoMotion Celebration coming up soon (Oct 30-Nov 1 in Madison, WI). You can still come even though we are past the deadline. Go to Kairos CoMotion for more information. It may well be that we need to see beyond the moment and anticipate rejoicing in our release from bondage by our own. What can fear do to laughter but try to do it in and set up the eventuality of rejoicing having the last laugh. Wesley White Jeremiah 31:7-9 The NRSV has it that a "remnant" has been saved. The Message says "the core" has been saved. Interesting to play with these. The remnant of an apple is the core - a central and often foundational part usually distinct from the enveloping part by a difference in nature [core of the city]: as the usually inedible central part of some fruits (as a pineapple); especially : the papery or leathery carpels composing the ripened ovary in a pome fruit. The core remnant of an apple carries on the species - a basic, essential, or enduring part (as of an individual, a class, or an entity). Are you feeling like a left over piece in the bargain bin or right at the center of an expanding presence of GOD? Whichever. Sing aloud. Weep aloud. Live. |