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August 1, 2004 - Year C - Pentecost +9
Wesley White
August 1, 2004
Hosea 11:1-11 or Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12-14; 2:18-23
Psalm 107:1-9, 43 or Psalm 49:1-12
Colossians 3:1-11
Luke 12:13-21
GOD can't give us up and can't deal with us as we are. What is a parent of teenagers to do? Just wait for the consequences to kick in? Encourage the pharmaceuticals to develop a vaccine for vanity? Practice the spiritual discipline of steadfast love?
It will be interesting to see what the Democratic National Convention (or, more accurately, the reports of same) come up with as their approach to an adolescent nation.
Wesley White
Luke 12:13-21
For United Methodists it cannot be stressed often enough or strongly enough -- the purpose of gaining is giving. John Wesley was clear that when this principle ceased to obtain among his followers, the Methodist movement would come to a sorry end.
In light of the amount of "poor-think" present in capitalist economies and the felt need to provide tax welfare to the wealthiest, it may help to look at this from another angle. John Wesley's Sermon 126 -- On the Danger of Increasing Riches says:
"... many have found out a way never to be rich, though their substance increase ever so much. It is this: As fast as ever money comes in, they lay it out, either in land, or enlarging their business. By this means, each of these, keeping himself bare of money, can still say, 'I am not rich;' yea, though he has ten, twenty, a hundred times more substance than he had some years ago.... It is possible for a man to cheat himself by this ingenious device.... This shift, therefore, will not avail. It will not be any protection, either against the wrath of God, or the malice and power of the devil.... By whatsoever means thy riches increase, whether with or without labour; whether by trade, legacies, or any other way; unless thy charities increase in the same proportion; unless thou givest a full tenth of thy substance, of thy fixed and occasional income; thou dost undoubtedly set thy heart upon thy gold, and it will 'eat thy flesh as fire!'"
Whether we claim to be rich or not, if our possessions increase more rapidly than our charity we have lost track of the giving aspect of life and we are liable for the parable Jesus told to come true in our so-called life.
Wesley White
Colossians 3:1-11
To change the direction of our attention from spacial to chronal(?) we might talk less about "above" and more about "ahead". This gets us out of static understanding of a static, sitting Jesus and moves us toward a dynamic, walking-with-us-toward-revelation Jesus.
This has the added advantage of moving us away from fear as our motivator (wrongness/idolatry, wrath/disobedient).
In moving ahead we find renewal that changes relationships to bring us together as all and in all. To stay with the "above language has us leaping up to pick answers, propositions and creeds from the sky as though they were final answers and we were millionaires set apart.
Set your life on that which is ahead, for you have been renewed and you, like Christ, reveal GOD.
Wesley White
Psalm 107:1-9, 43 or Psalm 49:1-12
So, how do we deal with the troubles of the world. Choices are before us. How do we interpret the events of our time, the experiences of our life.
Jim Taylor's comments today in his Soft Edges posting remind us that the issues of not fearing and giving thanks lie within us and beyond us - depending on the framework to which we bring them. What subtle difference are you making in the world by sharing your framework with others?
SUBTLE DIFFERENCES
What's the difference between Heaven and Hell? The difference is not that one is an lush oasis, the other a lake of fire. Those images come to us mostly from the Koran, the biblical book of Revelation, or Dante's Inferno.
The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayam includes the famous description of paradise, "A loaf of bread, a jug of wine, and thou beside me..."
These are, of course, all fanciful figures of speech. No one has ever gone there and come back to tell us about it. The only person documented to have returned from death told us nothing about life on the other side. The gospels record not one word from Jesus about his experiences beyond the tomb.
Rachel Naomi Remen offers a different kind of image, in My Grandfather's Blessing: "In Hell people are seated at a table overflowing with delicious food. But they have splints on their elbows and so they cannot reach their mouths with their spoons. They sit through eternity experiencing a terrible hunger in the midst of abundance. In Heaven people are also seated at a table overflowing with delicious food. They, too, have splints on their elbows and cannot reach their mouths. But, in Heaven, people use their spoons to feed one another."
Remen concludes, "Perhaps Hell is always of our own making. In the end, the difference between Heaven and Hell may only be that in Hell, people have forgotten how to bless one another."
It made we wonder how many other situations could be either Heaven or Hell, depending on very slight differences.
ALTERNATIVE SCENARIOS
Every summer, at about this time, I rant about people who have no difficulty dragging cases of beer and bags of munchies down to the waterfront, but they're too exhausted to drag their empties back out.
So Hell might be a waterfront park, where every person left litter behind. Heaven might be the same park, where everyone cleaned up any trash lying around.
Or Hell might be Highway 97 on a Friday afternoon, where every driver took offence at every other driver's action. Hell would be full of horns honking, fingers flashing, and curses flying. Heaven could be the same stretch of highway, with everyone allowing other drivers into their lane, and cheerfully arriving five minutes late at their destination.
Or another possibility -- Hell could be a religious conference, where everyone was so convinced that they had the only way to Heaven that they shouted down all other viewpoints. In that case, Heaven would be a conference where people listened to each other's faith experiences with respect.
Intriguing images? Yes, but notice something -- nothing puts these ideal conditions, or these horrific conditions, some time in the indefinable future. They're all possible right here, right now.
John Milton, who shaped many of our visions of Hell in Paradise Lost, had Lucifer utter this insight:
"The mind is its own place, and in it self
Can make a Heav'n of Hell, a Hell of Heav'n..."
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Copyright (c) 2004 by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations and study groups permitted; all other rights reserved.
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Wesley White
Hosea 11:1-11 or Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12-14; 2:18-23
Being so sure . . . a vanity.
Knowing nothing . . . a vanity.
Thrusting away . . . a vanity.
Expecting return . . . a vanity.
Truly, everything . . . a vanity.
So? Get what you can while you can? Give it all away as soon as you can? Focus on our differences as a way of dividing people? Focus on our differences as a way of building a commonwealth?
Again, (having just seen again the film parable, "Pleasantville") we are left with the question, "Do you know what's going to happen next?" The litany response is, "No, I don't."
Now we can get somewhere. The freedom to change, and know it, is the beginning of wisdom.
The issue of passionless repetition may be more basic than a particular fundamentalism that would keep things unchanging. This may be more important to our work with one another than any other hermeneutical technique of interpreting scripture. There are more active ways to constrain the present by the past than there are stars. There are more subtle ways of constraining the future by the present than grains of sand.
We again meet the boundary of enough and shy away. Have mercy!
Wesley White
Colossians 3:1-11
How do we tell that renewal is taking place? A key element is that of how differences are dealt with.
Renewal affirms different gifts.
Renewal promotes different visions.
Renewal knows hope and help are on the way.
Renewal builds up using the right gift for the right time.
Renewal weds polarities to paradox.
Renewal anticipates healing.
Renewal values uniqueness.
Renewal leads to more renewal.
What is it that gets in the way of renewal? Use of another. Choosing less that the best. Rabid intensity. Shortcuts. Entitlement.
These show up in less extreme ways through self-serving anger, revenge, haste, lies and non-specific language.
So what is a child of GOD to do? If it is not obvious, we are still in a foreign land slopping pigs.
Wesley White
Luke 12:13-21
There is enough.
The issue is not that of dividing, but giving.
The dividing language gets into limited amounts. In everyday life we aren't able to divide by zero (our smallest usual number - if a number it be).
When we are out to have things divided, and we feel like we don't have anything, any dividing that gets done sets up a limitless regression from one unfairness to another.
When I set out to divide my goodies with you I operate out of some sense of an appropriate division. Every time, that gets tested until it is broken.
To live-by-giving changes everything. We see we have been given to. We see we are able to give in accord with what we have been given. Barns beyond what is needed for the next season cease to be in the picture. No more endowment funds for no matter the good that can come from being divided from the fund is offset by the desire to keep the principle steady and/or growing.
The question before us is whether or not we can live from a sense of abundance in a context that does a wonderful job of hiding that from us so we see only our lack.
Each and every night Jesus prayed and found that his soul was demanded. And so he found himself without barns and dens and nests. Those who claim to follow him need to also find that their soul is demanded on a daily basis.
When we are able to come through and know ourselves as folks who have been given to and not those who demand a dividing, this is good news. It encourages us to do it again and again.
So, on a scale from dividing to giving, where is your soul resting this night?
August 8, 2004 - Year C - Pentecost +10
Wesley White
August 8, 2004
Isaiah 1:1, 10-20 or Genesis 15:1-6
Psalm 50:1-8, 22-23 or Psalm 33:12-22
Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16
Luke 12:32-40
We just mosey along, happy as doodle bugs, when -- Surprise! Life is not what we expected.
May this week grant us the opportunity to get our expectations better monitored and calibrated.
Wesley White
Luke 12:32-40
Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
[William Butler Yeats]
For some reason this poem came to mind as I read about GOD's good pleasure to give the "whole realm of nature."
Here is a treasure that never wears out - treading softly in one another's lives.
Where our treasure is, there also is our heart's dreams.
So, surprise, the action we are dressed for, the reason we have lit lamps is so we might tread softly enough hear the approach of our beloved and fling wide the portals before even there is a knock.
So, surprise, we will even care for dreams strongly enough that we will hear the beloved before they are even close to being a beloved, only a thief in the night.
take care
dream strong
smile gentle
and so go well
(a little ditty from long ago that we just put up in our new home beside the front door to remind us of the task ahead of us as we enter the world and lives of others)
Wesley White
Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16
Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
We talk so much about faith as though it were a solid object that could be handed around for inspection and wonderment. Faith has gotten tied with results - "If only we have faith enough, everything will turn out aright." And, then, when it doesn't we redefine things so even this bad thing is part of some larger plan that we will now have faith in because we must have faith in something or fade away.
Here faith is not something accomplished or justified. Here faith stands and falls in the presence of a distant vision, a far-off welcoming.
It is so easy to turn faith into fact and then get trapped by the facts into needing to tell lies to reconnect these dissonances to faith.
Faith is part of seeking, not its end.
Sabina
Do I have to route my replies through the internet or may I just hit reply on outlook express.
I often answer in sounds bites ~ needing time to really digest and flesh out my thoughts. So here it goes.
I feel that faith is colored by attitude. Attitude changes as faith matures. I agee with Thomas that faith is seeking. How stagnant we would be if faith were an end unto its self.
These days we are bombarded with another's fear. Fear produces anger. It is hard to being a loving, kind person if one is afraid and angry. I choose to take the attitude I am not afraid. And guess what? I am not afraid. Be it on the street at night or of the world at large. But, I try to put my self out of harm's way as much as possible
Sabina
Wesley White
Sabina, as one who receives the messages posted here directly by email, instead of coming here to check if there is a new posting, you just need to do what you did (isn't it great when it works that way!) - simply click on the reply link. Following that process will send your messages to the dialogue for all to ponder.
If others would like to receive these posting through email you can click the link at the top of the page.
The connection between attitude and faith seems to me to be a fruitful place to reflect. In some ways it brings together the internals and externals of our lives. In some other ways our attitudes are closely tied to our personalities which seem to remain fairly consistent or change-resistant over time. I'd be interested in your further digesting and fleshing out this connection between attitude and faith.
Wesley
Wesley White
Psalm 50:1-8, 22-23 or Psalm 33:12-22
GOD among us, calling upon the heavens and earth as a source of authority to judge.
GOD in the heavens, looking down upon us, appealed to by us.
As we play back and forth between the location of GOD we might also play with our own location. Are we after being high and lifted up, the greatest of the disciples, the most favored of nations, the sacrificers of others? Are we after being servants, the one's who offer their lives for others, the cross-bearers, the thanksgiving givers?
Here we have an interplay between the prophets and the priests whose hearts, while intended to be oriented in the same direction, lead them to different realms of authority and thus different realms of action.
Ironically the active role of thanksgiving shifts out of its usual categories. The prophets shift the focus to thanksgiving and away from sacrifice as a way of exhibiting thanksgiving. The priests shift the focus to sacrifice intended to eventually lead to thanksgiving as a state of being.
Prophets claim the way to peace is peace, the way to thanksgiving is thanksgiving.
Priests claim the way to peace is war, the way to thanksgiving is sacrifice.
These are highly overdrawn caricatures as there are always false prophets around as well as priests of integrity. They do call for us to think about them again and to use the everyday issue of location as a meditation/contemplation opportunity to reflect on where we are standing and to what end. May we continue to grow in wisdom as we look about us from our current location and courageously move on to see things from a different perspective.
Wesley White
Isaiah 1:1, 10-20 or Genesis 15:1-6
The Sodom and Gomorah story still needs understanding in today's world where wedge issues abound. Folks take one little aspect of something and begin to drive it where it no longer belongs. The issue of strengthening our communities and nations by honoring the covenant of healthy relationships is one of those wedges that takes the story of attempted rape of angels (and how does one do that, particularly those busy dancing on the head of a pin?) and in turn limits all relationships to their genital component.
In so focusing on a tree we miss the forest of issues that include but are not limited to sex.
-- First, do no harm
-- Second, do good
-- Third, seek justice (that elusive and every changing GOD quality)
-- Fourth, rescue, defend, and advocate for any who are oppressed or denied their place in the community
[United Methodists may want to look at John Wesley's General Rules again. You will have a built in three-point sermon here. To see the relevant portion you will need to go to two links (no, I have no idea why the denominational website split the General Rules they way they did and failed to link them together - arrrgh!!!) "do no harm" and first part of "do good" and the rest of "do good" and the "ordinances/life-style of God" .]
When Isaiah is heard we get to the point of Abrahamic righteousness - raising our eyes from seeing what we don't have to the possibilities on the distant horizon, just arriving, that will stream forth for eons. This obviously won't keep us from being afraid or getting some things wrong, but it does keep us focused on the forest of trees and the sky of stars so we don't get distracted by an obsession with one tree or one star.
Wesley White
Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16
The measure of GOD's pleasure seems here to be tied with our desire for something better than we currently have.
What could be better than this current experience of ours? -- Where is unemployment today in your life, in the life of your community, nation or world? Where is health today in your life, in the life of your community, nation or world? Where are relationships today in your life, in the life of your community, nation or world? Where is the understanding of the interconnections of life today in your life, in the life of your community, nation or world?
This line of questioning could go on for a long time. The basic question is whether or not you and I, as individuals, and ourselves, together in community, desire something better. Is our prayer that heaven come on earth keen enough to lead us to make the transitions needed to draw near to our desire?
As long as we are on that path we honor GOD, not embarrass GOD. When was the last time you looked at the theology of GOD's embarrassment or being ashamed? This helps us get out of some of the triumphalist tendencies within the Christian tradition.
Wesley White
Luke 12:32-40
Don't be afraid to sell your possessions and give the proceeds away.
This direct direction to arrive at a place of "real homeland security" is one that we are capable of subverting several different ways.
We can continue to be afraid. There is something about a satisfied mind that is important to the sense of quietude that strengthens us past temporary securities and lets us hold them lightly. A possession is a code word for security. Our treasure spot becomes the goal of our life. Fear keeps us tied to the treasures we have and away from greater treasure. Fear buries our treasure in the ground.
Supposing we are able to sell our possessions in anticipation of greater treasure it only makes sense to still have some strings to the proceeds that they might be added to by the greater treasure to come. Then we can have two treasures. So fear keeps us from giving away that which we have received from a sale.
Evidence of trusting Jesus shows up in the giving process -- giving time, giving energy, giving resources, giving etc.
This is the way to be ready and watchful -- dismissing the possessions that claim our attention. We are limited in what we can attend to at any point (see source of Executive Control of Cognitive Processes in Task Switching and its journalistic synopsis, "Multitasking is Counterproductive" ).
To attend to possessions is to not attend to that which is greater than now.
August 15, 2004 - Year C - Pentecost +11
Wesley White
August 15, 2004
Isaiah 5:1-7 or Jeremiah 23:23-29
Psalm 80:1-2, 8-19 or Psalm 82
Hebrews 11:29 - 12:2
Luke 12:49-56
Choice brings consequence.
Choose justice and righteousness or the consequence will be a sword and hammer.
Choose a sword and hammer and the consequence will be empty justice and righteousness.
As we walk into this next week, tired and weary from well-doing this past week, there will be significant choices whose consequences will only show up in the month and years ahead. May we help each other to choose wisely -- it does make a difference.
Wesley White
Luke 12:49-56
In times that are settled or constrained by one heirarchy or another, Jesus comes with wild language about setting fire to the world and being a sword that divides, that causes choice to be unavoidable.
In times that are in turmoil Jesus comes with a calming word of peace, preemptive peace that binds all wounds and brings us to be one.
It is difficult to say both of these at the same time. In this political season in the US of A, and probably everywhere (for when and where is it not political season?) we are in need of the both in their appropriate settings.
Again we are at a significant point of choice. The divisions among us need to be clarified before they can be healed. This clarity will lead us deeper than the surface issues of the day that make the sound-bite news. We will get to the real crux of the matter that is neither the economy nor some set of values. Both of these are details upon the larger question of whether we are in this together or individually. The signs we rely on will let us know which is which.
In the midst of this choice we are also at an equally important point of respect, honor, and kindness for every "other" we encounter or can imagine encountering.
The word of division leads us to inappropriate atonement images of suffering and last chances. The word of peace leads us to ways of relating that are only on the verge of being noticed. Between these words we encounter the scripture and our own lives.
Let us interpret well where we are and whether we need to focus on the campaigning to make one choice over another or to focus on a choice not to go negative even if that means going to a cross instead of a swearing in ceremony.
Wesley White
Hebrews 11:29 - 12:2
We are called to so live that those who have lived before us might find fulfillment. We are not living for ourselves alone. The dreams of our ancestors still burn in our decisions - they burn with embarrassment for us or with joy with us.
Likewise we are so living that those who come after us may build on what we have laid down.
These are faith statements.
Are we living more worthily than the world around us would expect? If not, might it be chalked up to having lost touch with the joy of connection and larger purposes that see us through every disappointment, even that of death?
We are breaking new ground (pioneer) for those who follow and completing the harvest (perfecter) of the seeds sown before we were here. We are in this together, Jesus and you. We are in this together, ancestral descendant. We are in this together, rich and poor, male and female, Christian and Buddhist. So it is we breathe faith for ourselves and others as we work for a resurrectional new ordering.
Wesley White
Psalm 80:1-2, 8-19 or Psalm 82
Restore us, O Lord God of hosts; let your face shine, that we may be saved. (80)
Give justice, maintain the right, rescue the weak! (82)
We so often act as though there were some cosmic plan that requires nothing of us. Let's all pray that God will take care of things and God will take care of things. So we stumble forward searching for meaning in the details of experience and losing track of the larger picture that includes our involvement in life.
Want restoration? Give justice.
Want God's face to shine? Maintain the right.
Want salvation? Rescue the weak.
Everyone knows this but it is difficult to understand. Everyone want the first part without the second part. We look to God without doing what we can to become God.
Restore the shine of salvation -- judge right the weak.
Wesley White
Isaiah 5:1-7 or Jeremiah 23:23-29
What has happened to the rainbow?
The garden didn't work out. East of Eden didn't work out. Now the vineyard isn't working out. One would think that a God that filled the heavens and earths would better get their way without the threat and bombast. It turns out that rainbows simply work better than fists.
Whether yelled with passion at the top of one's lungs or whispered quietly, there doesn't seem to be a way to get around the reversal of intention.
Justice is to avoid bloodshed, to resolve issues, but we choose to go without justice and to roll out red carpets (red with the blood, sweat, tears, and toil of the poor and weak).
Righteousness is to comfort, but we choose to wait for the cry before acting.
Will the hearts of the prophets ever turn back to justice and righteousness? Will prophets forever take the easy way of shading the truth about justice and righteousness, of deceiving themselves first and then the rest of the people.
Antidotes to these usual ways of living begins with dreams that radically call forth justice and foster righteousness. Dream and tell your dream. Dream and tell your dream. Dream a dream big enough to have heaven come on earth and tell that dream. Dream a dream large enough to clarify and live "enough". Dream a dream that shatters our usual ways of doing business without justice and righteousness.
Dream and dream again. Speak your dream abroad. Act on your dream as though it weren't a dream. Live your dream to the hilt and watch your dreams increase.
Wesley White
Hebrews 11:29 - 12:2
I find it intriguing to speak about varying degrees of resurrection as though some were better than others. How does a resurrection from one stage of life to another differ from a resurrection from a stage of life known as death to a stage of life known as eternity?
There is so much press about the death to life resurrection that it is difficult for us to imagine using such language for anything other than the extreme. While extreme sports are all the rage, I'm unclear that extreme resurrection is the ultimate resurrection.
To use the list given, is not the administration of justice a resurrection? [consider the current state of justice with mandated sentences undetered by any circumstance - read again Les Miserables]
Is not the escape of fire and sword a resurrection?
My own question breaks down somewhat when conquering and war are used as examples of faith. These are much less clear resurrections. A part of the unclarity is the way in which we are able to justify doing in someone else and claiming it as our resurrection [and we certainly can't claim that their being done in is their resurrection].
Here is an exercise to try - before using the term "faith", see if you can substitute the term "resurrection" (and, of course, vice versa) and have it be as meaningful. If you can, it may be a faithful application of "faith"; if not, perhaps not.
Wesley White
Luke 12:49-56
While there are many different attempts at controlling the weather, as varied as the societies of people, none seem to be effective over the long haul. Periodic confluences of a particular weather with a desired weather keeps those attempts alive and well. Weather is something we all talk about, but, so far, we don't do much about it.
In like manner, divisions between people, whether between family and friends or a congregation or some other form of community, seems to come around whether desired or not. We have all manner of platitudes about how to keep divisions at bay, but none of them work over the long haul.
As with undesirable weather, with people we are left with issues of managing the realities of all too disputatious people. Regardless of what we think, plan or desire - this is our reality - differences. In ordinary times these differences aren't paid much attention. In edgy times they take on all the difference in the world.
To face up to this reality of needing to manage differences and it being easier to do that early than late, we need to be reminded in the good times of how we can interpret the minor bits and pieces of life to bring our attention to managing them at that level. When we fail the interpretation of easy times we soon enough arrive at trying to manage hurricane like chaos.
Our experience is that even the best attempts at early management seem to quite regularly fail. We were baptized into cross and chaos and death. Let's recognize it and be about the business of living in the midst of pain, confusion, and endings of dreams. Enough of weather control, enough of avoiding division, face the stresses of life and live anyway.
August 22, 2004 - Year C - Pentecost +12
Wesley White
August 22, 2004
Jeremiah 1:4-10 or Isaiah 58:9b-14
Psalm 71:1-6 or Psalm 103:1-8
Hebrews 12:18-29
Luke 13:10-17
Is there anything better than what we already have. We hope so, but we are so used to living crippled that it is difficult for us to hear a new call.
May this week bring us a release from the hand of the unjust and cruel (even if they present themselves as saviors and rescuers) and a renewal of hope.
Wesley White
Luke 13:10-17
How many wonderful things are you willing to do on a Sabbath. Oh, by the way, is Sabbath to be a time limited thing? Is it a specified time such as the dark of Friday to the dark of Saturday? Is is simply Saturday? Is it Sunday? Is it any renewal time? Is it every night that you rest?
Regardless of how you might define Sabbath, it is probably important to focus on wonderful things, sabbatarian or not. The scripture story seems to suggest that wonderful things are always judged against the interests of the rich and powerful. As such, wonder is accused of being subversive. In times such as ours (and probably any time if we were to be more humble) one of the most transformative acts we can participate in are acts of wonder.
Go to it. Offer folks the opportunity to wonder if they might be freer than they currently are. Then wait for the indignation to arise and the wonder to spread. While waiting for these consequences of your actions, do another wonderful act and another. Don't let anything, including death, keep you from participating in the miracle of transformation.
Wesley White
Hebrews 12:18-29
Here's the choice: You can go the larger than life route with fire and trumpet, unable to stand the order of distant glory that acts like a black hole taking all other glory into itself, or you can come to something better -- a huge celebration, festal, even, for the transformation of murder into forgiveness.
This section seems to begin and end on the same theme of reverence and awe before and after all things, as though that were the first and last and only thing there be. Yet the transformative lies within, a seed of growing life that will break open the cement around it. Key to this is the word beginning verse 22, "But".
It may be mandatory for expansive living to repeat moment-by-moment and day-by-day: "But there is a better word than we have yet heard."
In so repeating we can train our ear to catch the echo of a "clear, though far-off hymn that hails a new creation". [2212, Faith we Sing ]
Wesley White
Psalm 71:1-6 or Psalm 103:1-8
Righteousness is often thought of a right-ness, an only way to live.
Here we get some interesting contrasts with the way that righteousness is sometimes heard in the popular media as a judgment or how far short we fall from some ideal perfection.
Here righteousness first listens to the life situation it is interacting with. Without hearing there is no relationship, no growth. As we live into righteousness ourselves it brings with it a greater openness to incline our ears toward others, as GOD has been inclined toward us.
Further, righteousness is intimately connected with forgiveness, healing, redeeming, raising up, and bringing satisfaction. Righteousness without these qualities is rejection of the very image that has been created. Righteousness without any of these turns into a straitjacket of ideals and rules divorced from reality and growth.
In some sense righteousness brings us closer to the analog and to fuzzy logic than it does to the preciseness of the digital. Can we live this form of righteousness in a world that tends to push us toward one extreme or another?
This kind of righteousness will be seen as subversive to the powers that be and therefore put one on a suspect or enemies list. The good news is that it is worth the risk.
Wesley White
Hebrews 12:18-29
Shaken, not stirred. While it is a line from James Bond, it raises questions about the image that we have for the presence of GOD recognizably with us.
What is this "kingdom" that cannot be shaken? Is it a place you would like to spend much time?
Much of our iconography, folk-tales, and the like posit a static heaven where everything is in its place and there is a place for everything. We circle around a heavenly throne in ordered ranks (saintlier saints first or first born first - which leaves you and me where?). We are given serial numbered harps and magically learn to play our part in the music of the spheres (no improvisation, no jazz, blues, or rap). The will of GOD is has one purpose and many little hands to pull it off, each doing only GOD's thing. We merge with the cosmic consciousness and are no more (oh, except for that physical reconstruction business where we are our perfect moment of health and beauty extended forever). We are kindling for a GOD-warming fire.
Nothing stirs in heaven, not even a mouse, much less shakes. Everything that can be shaken out or winnowed away has been so.
Does this leave only space where everything was or does it put us in the shaken bits where we and GOD tumble and ride and are ridden?
Rather than look for a static, unshaken, state, let us look to something still better - righteousness going on to perfection (emphasis added). Hopefully this frees us to be in the presence of living neighbors, a living self of our own, and a living GOD. In this presence let us speak better words than blood-soaked earth and anticipate festivities.
Wesley White
Luke 13:10-17
"We should not be surprised at the indignation of the chief of the synagogue. Since he had never been able to help his sick sister, he must have felt discredited by Jesus' move. Would it not be the same with us? But it never occurred to Jesus to ask the authorities to save people." [ The Christian Community Bible ]
All too often we find ourselves asking permission to do good. This is particularly ironic because there is no limit to the good we might do. In this day when everything gets spun the other way around - those who are to give consent to be governed are shamed into acquiescence instead of consent by turning their very words against them and having them sound in an accusers mouth to be words of treason instead of the patriotism of raising questions to make things better - we are to do nothing other than give allegiance to a particular party's perspective.
May it soon occur to us that standing outside of permission-requesting begins the process of setting loose wonder - wonder that there is a larger, saner, healthier way to go than that to which we have so far come.
While we are to watch that we do no harm (at least as little as possible in a world that is so interdependent that one action assists some and the same motion injures others - thank you Janists for your concern and insight) we are called to every degree of good available to us (and that is so much more than we think or feel is within our reach - we are not only our own grandpa, but our own limiter).
So who has been invisible to you (yes, of course that is an impossible question - can we at least hear those who are claiming to be invisible in our eyes?) that we have neither acknowledged needed recognition first and then helped or been able to help even when we recognized their need? To even consider such a question puts us in the midst of shame and also sets loose wonderful new opportunities that will grow our spirits well.
August 29, 2004 - Year C - Pentecost +13
Wesley White
August 29, 2004
Jeremiah 2:4-13 or Sirach 10:12-18 or Proverbs 25:6-7
Psalm 81:1, 10-16 or Psalm 112
Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16
Luke 14:1, 7-14
The intention of life is mutuality. Our pride and other qualities lead us to forsake that for going-it-alone, place, privilege, etc.
As we proceed through this week it will be interesting to note places of connection and discontinuity. Where will there be a flow of energy and where will it be blocked? What will lead to building everyone up and what will benefit a few more than the many?
Prophets are always noting these choices and particularly bringing to mind the ways in which we divide ourselves from one another. This division runs counter to a prophetic understanding of the intention of creation.
Wesley White
Luke 14:1, 7-14
Protocol for state dinners is very prescribed. Who sits next to or across from whom and where they are in relation to the principles has a whole manual that covers the ins and outs of such an event.
We actually do that informally in any setting. Watch a cadre of young ones at a movie theater figuring out who is going in first, who tags along last, who makes the decision about where to sit, and who has the most others trying to jockey to sit next to them.
Family tables are similar. Who sits where says a lot about the family dynamics and expectation of serving and being served.
As the New Interpreter's Study Bible indicates: "The sharing of food is a barometer of social relations. With whom does one eat?"
You might want to check out your own eating locations for the next week and reflect on what you find to be true for you.
Wesley White
Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16
In verses 15-16 we might consider deleting the little word "sacrifice". Then it might read something like,
"With Jesus, let us continually offer praise to God, that is the fruit of lips that look first to God. Praise God by not neglecting to do good and to share what you have for this is pleasing to God."
While suffering is a huge theological issues for Christians and others it is a far stronger position to simply receive any suffering that comes from the praise and living of well-doing and sharing than to suffer for some ulterior motive to receive some secret benefit from suffering. It is this lesser value of suffering that gets highlighted with the sacrificial language. It is a joy, not a sacrifice, to receive whatever the outcome is for good doing and sharing. It is a sacrifice, not a joy, to elevate suffering as the desired goal and doing good only being a means to it.
Let us be about the joy of life.
Wesley White
Psalm 81:1, 10-16 or Psalm 112
Let us encourage one another with such words as:
You rise in the darkness as a light for the upright. You also bless those not able to catch a glimpse of such light.
You are gracious, merciful, and righteous. Your constraints are only upon those non-gracious, unmerciful, and ill-righteous promptings within and the greatest freedom to extend grace, mercy, and shalom beyond anything so far imagined.
You are generous and just. You don't play those off against one another but use each to spark more in the other.
You remain unafraid, unbowed, in the presence of the anger of the wicked (the non-gracious, unmerciful, and ill-righteous) at your grace, mercy, and justice.
You are a mouth-wide-opened fledgling being fed and ready to fly off to feed others. You join in singing together as we feast and open the door for others to come.
Wesley White
Jeremiah 2:4-13 or Sirach 10:12-18 or Proverbs 25:6-7
Hmm, "Pride was not created for human beings, or violent anger...." "Our ancestors went after worthless things."
Perhaps we might finally acknowledge that pride and violent anger are worthless to our growth, spiritual and otherwise, both as an individual and as a community, however small or large.
At this point we move from Sirach and Jeremiah to Proverbs and be welcomed further. Imagine the restraining of these temptations being a vehicle to being welcomed forward. Interesting how ceasing becomes a movement. I am reminded of John Wooden's proverb to "be quick - but don't hurry."
And finally, if pride wasn't created for us, for what or whom was it created? Is it only a result of creation or a part of creation?
Wesley White
Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16
We look at entertaining angels through the eyes of Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary [http://www.m-w.com/]
One entry found for entertain.
Main Entry: en·ter·tain
Pronunciation: "en-t&r-'tAn
Function: verb
Etymology: Middle English entertinen , from Middle French entretenir , from entre - inter- + tenir to hold -- more at TENABLE
transitive senses
1: a: archaic :MAINTAIN b: obsolete :RECEIVE
2: to show hospitality to
3: a: to keep, hold, or maintain in the mind [I entertain grave doubts about her sincerity] b: to receive and take into consideration [refused to entertain our plea]
4: to provide entertainment for
5: to play against (an opposing team) on one's home field or court
intransitive senses :to provide entertainment especially for guests
synonym see AMUSE
-en·ter·tain·er noun
It is too bad that we have lost the sense of hospitality as a spiritual discipline that maintains our connection with and receptivity to "angels".
It is now much more a choice issue: hospitality is what I choose to show to those I choose to show it to. Hospitality happens or doesn't happen based on my energy at the time, rather than being an expected goal no matter what the time of day or night.
Hospitality has become an attitude rather than an action. We can intend hospitality and express the outward forms of hospitality without ever having it received.
Hospitality has become a casualty of the 15-minutes of fame approach to life. As long as someone is watching or I am getting some other payback, let the entertainment continue.
It has even moved from a sense of connection and common ground to the competition of a sporting event to see who will win - our avoidance of hospitality or the angels need of it to be visible (even more than a bell ringing for angel wings at some distance).
This state of affairs isn't very amusing.
Wesley White
Luke 14:1, 7-14
What sort of a meal do you think was prepared for a Pharisee's Sabbath? Who did the preparing and when? How did the guests arrive on the Sabbath? Were they breaking any of the Sabbath rules with this meal?
All that to the side (which could be the basis of a wonderful attack or negative ad against the Pharisees), we are asked to focus on the question of who is getting "invited". This is a significant question in any congregation that is in the midst of "unchurched" people and is not growing.
Dynamic humility actively seeks opportunity for evidencing hospitality. It is not even a matter of not getting invited out to a meal in return. Do we even note that there are folks not eating, not even scrambling around for scraps. Do we in any way identify with them. Dynamic humility forges a connection, super-glues dissimilar materials together, and takes a meal to where folks are, not having them come to our preferred time frame for meeting.
Oh, my, what could be more difficult than being called to a dynamic humility?
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