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December 5, 2004 - Year A - Advent 2
Wesley White
December 5, 2004
Isaiah 11:1-10
Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19
Romans 15:4-13
Matthew 3:1-12
Justice is a scarce commodity in the best of times. In stressful times it becomes even easier to let it slide.
When we see it as a point rather than a process, justice is also a divisive word that sets up winner and losers.
Some additional words that would indicate justice is present might be more helpful. Listen this week for the quieter words of "blessed be", "wondrous", "wisdom", "understanding", "counsel", "live with", "lie down together", "the kingdom of heaven has come near", "confessing their sins", "raise up children", "steadfast", "encouragement", "welcome one another", "confirm the promises given", "glorify God for mercy", "may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace".
Wesley White
Matthew 3:1-12
Lots of people attempt to emulate John the Baptist. They get the feel of John right. There is righteous anger, counter-cultural living styles, and denunciation. It is an honorable tradition and one that can be quite satisfying in the action of the moment and a bit more uncertain when out of action.
One of the Rorschach type tests available here is the phrase about Jesus baptizing with "the Holy Spirit and fire". There are many ways of seeing this this, as many as there are denominations, orders, or sects. We do much arguing about the real meaning of this poetry.
In the midst of the bombast of John we hear this word of promise, "God is able from these stones to raise up children."
How would you label the stones of today? Fear? Irony? Death? War? Poverty?
Has GOD called you to join in the process of raising up children or raising up an ax?
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On a separate note: play with this aphorism attributed to Mason Cooley, "After ages of bombast, the rhetoric of virtue has become ironic and shy." Is it important to respond to bombast with bombast and so it needs to make a comeback in today's world of negative advertising and misrepresentation of fact and truth? If so, who will do that? Can we do both bombast and child raising? If not, which takes precedence in our current experience?
Dave Stratton
This past weekend, I had the opportunity to go through the space mueseum at Hutchinson, Kansas. In it was part of the Berlin Wall. As I reflected on the stones referred to by John the Baptist, I thought of the wall, and the good that has come from the wall coming down.
Now my heart aches, as I see our own country creating new walls, which relates so directly to the question, How would you label the stones? Fear? Irony? Death? and War?
Wesley White
Thanks, Dave -
I had been focusing on the action of raising and asking what was being raised. Your reflection on your recent experience began having me raise some additional thoughts.
One of them has to do with single and corporate. Often we look at individuals (stones) or structures (trees) as if there were only one overriding characteristic that identifies them and that one is good and the other bad. As in so many cases, the devil is in the details.
Raising children is not a straight-line. Confronting systems is not straight-forward. Razing walls means reawaking the various stoney parts to internally weaken the monolithic nature of a wall as well as applying pressure in key foundational areas to weaken the connection between the wall and its environment.
For us, raising individuals is not just a matter of a few well chosen rules, its a life-long process that takes a structure. For us, razing walls is not just a matter of absenting ourselves and waiting for erosion and entropy to take over, its a life-long process that takes one specific act after another.
Wesley White
Romans 15:4-13
As we look back we can see that progress has been made. The actions of our ancestors give us hope that we too will come through our difficult moment. This is one of the benefits of having an appreciation for history.
A parallel is found in the next verse as it talks about hope (phrased as glorification of the holy) that will come from our being as steadfast in our time as those of old were in theirs.
This is one of the debate points among religious folks. Are we living off the hope of the past and seeing that fulfilled among us? Are we living in anticipation of a hope being fulfilled in those coming after us?
In the first instance we reaffirm the doctrines of old. In the second we break new ground with boundary-stretching doctrines. We don't get away from issues of partial surety for that gives us energy to move. We do, however, have a choice about what we are sure about and that, it turns out, makes a great deal of difference.
Here Paul focuses on welcoming one another which is to welcome that which is not us, not part of our past, not controllable. It is in this welcoming that issues of hope are clarified as hope fulfilled, over and done, accomplished or as hope on the edge of being accomplished, in process, anticipatory.
Joy and peace are two key wellsprings of hope. Be of good cheer and welcome another; together they spell hope for tomorrow.
Dave Stratton
Reflecting on your comments about hope past or hope future, I recall a poem I had to memorize for English class.
I do not remember the author.
Our little systems have their day.
They have their day and cease to be.
They are but broken thoughts of Thee,
and Thou, O Lord, are more than they!
May our systems of hope be motivated by the giver of Life!
Wesley White
The website TheoCenTriC: ravings of an amateur pastor, hack theologian, and wannabe mystic references the author —
Douglas John Hall puts it well: "In our theoretical attempts to account for and order existence – in other words, in our ideologies – we human beings regularly truncate, simplify, or falsify reality. Life is always more mysterious and less manageable than our theories about life – including our religious theories and systems of theology." [7] Lord Alfred Tennyson states this truth poetically:
Our little systems have their day
They have their day and cease to be
They are but broken strands of thee
And thou O Lord art more than they.
Wesley White
Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19
It sounds like a lot of moral values are being attached to leadership in this Psalm. In this passage moral values revolve around justice for the poor, not the behavioral control values of our recent election.
Yesterday I received two references I thought you might find helpful regarding moral values:
click on December's issue and read the PDF.
Reading the Gospel - red letter version not red state version.
- - - -
On a side note — my keyboard just lost its "l" key cap. It is time to get out the swiss army knife and epoxy and try gluing it back together since I'm pretty cheap. Can you imagine a religion without its "__ll"? I may just have to leave it like this and have the keyboard become an icon through which a living/loving GOD might be better glimpsed.
Wesley White
Isaiah 11:1-10
Notes from The New Interpreter's Study Bible indicate that patristic and medieval interpreters were concerned with Jesus' messianic nature in Isaiah and often quote 11:1-2 in their writings and in the church's liturgical traditions. They also indicate that 11:6-8, the image of the "peaceable kingdom", found particular resonance in the 19th and 20th centuries in the U.S.
This suggests different times see different emphases in this passage. What might we look at here in the 21st century? Is it time to cycle back to the messianic god/king? Time to continue the peace theme? Shift from the poles to look between them at what connects them — issues of justice for the poor?
One option in this day of information overload might be issues of knowledge and understanding — where their similarities end and where their differences begin.
How do we inquire? That feels like an Advent issue here between times.
Inquiring becomes a winnowing fork. "Ask away, ask away, ask away, Joe" - becomes the sea chanty of our day as we sort out the knowledge of the Lord currently wider than the sea to see where we find an island of solidity on which to stand for a moment before diving back to inquire further.
Wesley White
Romans 15:4-13
If we consider for a moment that Jesus was not a Christian (that being an institutional way of keeping some of the GOD-energy recognized in him going through generations) we might begin to ask questions about Jesus' involvement with the world around us through the lens of verses 8-9.
"For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the church on behalf of the truth of God in order that the promises give to the disciples of Jesus might be confirmed, and in order that non-Christians would experience mercy and show appreciation to GOD."
In the original there is an understanding of Christ stretching the circumcised, the Jews, past their then current boundaries and internal debates. This is taken to be a good thing, particularly for the non-Jewish folk.
Given the way in which the Christian Church has gotten bound up in its current boundaries and internal debates it would be appropriate for some stretching to go on here for the sake of those inside and outside said Church.
How might Christians today become a servant of their church on behalf of the truth of GOD? Is one example that of Beth Stroud, United Methodist Pastor in Pennsylvania, yesterday convicted of breaking a church boundary in regard to being an active, committed, loving, truth-telling partner of Chris, also female, and thus outside a self-imposed church boundary?
As The Message expands the traditional reading of verse 9, "Just think of all the Scriptures that will come true in what we do!"
It is in this light that the Reconciling Ministries Network writes about Beth's conviction resulting from her telling the truth of GOD in her life, not remaining self-closeted:
Rev. Beth Stroud Stripped of Credentials as Result of UMC Trial
The UMC has shamefully stripped the Rev. Beth Stroud of her credentials as clergy. It is time for the UMC to stop the violence against gay and lesbian clergy. Neither side questioned the validity of her calling to ministry, neither side questioned the work of the Holy Spirit in her ministry at First United Methodist Church of Germantown, neither side questioned her baptism, her faith, or her love of Jesus that she so readily shares. Both sides affirmed her as a sister in Christ, a truth-teller, a role model of graciousness.
Yet, her faithfulness and honesty have been demeaned by the church. She has been judged not based on her character but on cultural prejudice heaped upon homosexual persons. The church has sinned.
And this is just the tip of the iceberg. Rev. Stroud is only one of hundreds, if not thousands, of faithful United Methodist seminarians, pastors, district superintendents and bishops who are gay and lesbian. It is God who has called them to ministry in the United Methodist Church and their integrity to this calling has blessed the Church.
Most United Methodists will nod knowingly when you talk about the gifts and graces they have experienced from gay and lesbian clergy. The church's refusal to honor the activities of the Holy Spirit through this marginalized group of faithful servants is sin. It is blasphemy.
Dave Stratton
Once again our little systems have had their day, but THEY WILL CEASE TO BE, when we become as honest as Beth Stroud. It is the system that is on trial and not her.
I have often quoted myself in saying, "all systems are corrupt...." Once again the corruption wins, but only the battle and not the war!
Wesley White
Matthew 3:1-12
A contributor to the Midrash Lectionary Discussion writes:
"I ... didn't get something a friend of mine cooked up -- a John the Baptist Christmas Card. You can just imagine what such a card might look like: "Merry Christmas, you brood of vipers!" "Happy Holidays to you and yours, and may you flee from the wrath to come!" We'll all gather around the local river for a John the Baptist Christmas with our holiday dinner of locusts and wild honey. We'll open our John the Baptist presents. "Wow, Mom! It's clothing of camel hair with a leather belt to go around my waist! Gee, thanks." And then we'll sing John the Baptist Christmas Carols about impending destruction and the chaff being burned with unquenchable fire."
This is often the story folks are left with (or "Left Behind" with) — repent with regard to your professed dogma. That is very much a political result that measures correct belief by who can get whom to agree to what.
If we listen a bit beyond the bumper-sticker sound-bite, "Repent", we might hear a measuring rod beyond the political — "bear fruit worthy of repentance". Regardless of what others are trying to get you to do, this is not dogma as works-righteousness — Simply believe "this" and then "that" won't get you.
John and, at our best, ourselves know there is something more than our take on things. There is something more than working to change the past, even though repentance and restitution are important quality-of-life issues. There is also, at least, the mystery of approaching the present (Holy Spirit) to transform (fire) our currently projected future into a better future.
Between John and Jesus and you and I there is a wholierness (sp?) that is more desirable than any one by itself. (For those worried about the blasphemy that Jesus is not enough, all by himself, remember the power of context and the self-imposed limit on power evidenced by said Jesus.)
In light of our coming Kairos CoMotion March Celebration (yes, registration is appropriate right now) — how might we shift substitutionary atonement carols to Emmanuel (GOD-with-us) carols? Anybody willing to try their hand at modifying a carol or writing a new one for our day?
December 12, 2004 - Year A - Advent 3
Wesley White
December 12, 2004
Isaiah 35:1-10
Psalm 146:5-10 or Luke 1:47-55
James 5:7-10
Matthew 11:2-11
What will you take as evidence that hope for new life is still operable?
Jesus used a list of action after action. This would please a prophet who is action oriented.
What will you give as evidence that hope for new life is still operable?
Wesley White
Matthew 11:2-11
Are you the one to come or are we to wait for another?
This is a question that haunts not only Jesus, but each of us.
Am I still in process of becoming or not?
We are called to love folks as we find them and as they might become. These other folks have the same task to love us as we are and as we might become. It is in this mutuality that we affirm that there is little room for taking offense or giving it.
In some ways the issue of offense is the canary warning that all is not as good as it appears. Where offense is experienced or inflicted we have lost the tipping point leading to a better future.
Offense is worse than anger. Anger can be transformed away from sin. Offense is anger turned to sin.
Take not offense.
Refuse to be bound by the offense others express.
I hope you, too, are haunted by the question of what you will be when you grow up. You are the one we have been waiting for and we are waiting to see what else will come forth from you.
Wesley White
James 5:7-10
This last week Beth Stroud, United Methodist Pastor, was convicted of crossing an official line measuring one's gifts and graces for being a pastor in this/that denomination. For living fully in a committed relationship with another woman she was legislated out by the majority of leaders elected to discern the will of GOD through the lens of their tradition and expectation. How patient would you be in a setting where your very being was judged incompatible with your very faith by those had nurtured you in that faith?
You may be interested in seeing how Beth handled that in her last sermon before her trial and dismissal from "sacramental" opportunities. I think she passes the James test and I will be glad when she again will look someone in the eye and again encourage them through her flesh to join her in modeling Jesus' use of the cup as a sign of a new covenant, a new way of living -- forgiveness for me, for you, for many, for all.
Power in Reverse a sermon by Rev. Irene Elizabeth Stroud.
Again, how are you doing with the James test? How did Beth do? Pay attention because the test will come again and again. Let’s continue modeling for one another how to live in these in-between times — between evidence we can do better and our delay in doing so.
Joseph
Isaiah passage especially verse 8
"even fools will not go astray"
As I ponder this passage, I find hope that despite my foolishness and the foolishness of others--- the Way remains open. Even as I ponder my own mistakes and what I percieve to be the mistakes of others, I realize that God has opened the Way for all of us-- and perhaps even provided guardrails for the journey.
Perhaps John in his cell pondered his own decisions about who he followed and what he did? Was it a mistake? Was it foolish? Listen to the assurance Christ gives; no condemnation is offered-- only an invitation to look at what had been done.
May so God guide us in our foolish times.
Wesley White
Joseph -
Thanks for your picture of guardrails. That's a good image for the theological doctrine of prevenient grace.
A part of my own thinking was running along a parallel track of methodical operations or basic rules that move us into paths of justifying and sanctifying grace that does't push the guardrails quite so much or often.
Wesley White
Psalm 146:5-10 or Luke 1:47-55
There are standard operating principles for everything. Even thieves have an M.O. (modus operandi). GOD's M.O. seems to be oriented toward seeing that justice is done — that the rich and poor are balanced so the rich don't have too much (discouraging them from changing themselves and the system) and the poor don't have too little (discouraging them from changing themselves and the system).
Whether you listen to the Psalmist or Mary, extraordinary singers, both, you will find the same sort of emphasis — laments, prophecy, praise — all oriented toward living wholly as an individual and as a community and as a world. In this way they are reflecting GOD's M.O. back to GOD and allowing it to transparently shine through them to others. Pretty tricky these singers to be both reflective and transparent. That is an art form in and of itself.
So what is your M.O. when dealing with someone richer than yourself? With someone poorer? Are they close to the same or considerably apart? (You may want to check out where you are with your wealth in relationship to others and that can be done at the Global Rich List.)
What is your M.O. when dealing with someone on the same theological wavelength? With someone who is not? What ratio of time do you spend with one category or the other?
What is your M.O. when dealing with your own spiritual growth? Has that changed over time or it is it still the same as it was when you had your first theological growth spurt?
Joseph
Wesley,
If we didn't push against the guardrails, what fun would that be? :)
Dave Stratton
Your comments have made me scan again, Walt Brueggemenan's "Hope within History (pp84-85, and as we are in the midst of Hoping for the coming one, I found this quote helpful to me.
It is Daniel responding to King Nebuchadnezzar (of any age).
"O Neb., we have no need to answer you in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace; and he will deliever us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image which you have set up."
Then Brueggemann says,
"Their hope is a wonderful act of defiance. Perhaps we will be delivered. Perhaps not. Either way, we will not submit. Hope makes it possible not to submit. No wonder the response of the men fills the king with fury (3:19), because it signifies a dramatic end of his royal claims and his capacity to intimidate.... hope gives reasons not to submit to present power arrangements. Hope affirms, in each case, that the present well-established power is not permanent and need not be taken with too much seriousness.
Though I have little respect for the current regime in power in this country, I would also look for unjust systems with who ever is in control. My hope is built on a savior who is full of compassion, justice, love and peace among all people. We, as Christians, are not here to kiss the king's ring, but to serve the King of Kings!
Dave Stratton
There is yet another piece to this theme of hope.
Brueggemann says,
Hope does not appear among the managers of the status quo.
Hope does not appear among the intellectuals who reflect of systems categories and expect nothing new from God.
Hope does not appear among the oppressed silent suffers
But it comes from those who enter their grief, suffering, and oppression, who bring it to speech....new hope and new possiblity come in the midst of such grief.
So, who in our churches, have brought their grief to speech? To them we must turn and Thank!!!!!!!!!!!
Wesley White
I must admit that when folks ask me what my hobbies are I don't have many of the usual responses. I can now report that I have a hobby of pushing guardrails. That satisfies my daily minimum requirement for a non sequitur that can lead to a more interesting discussion.
Joseph
Ok, I get the hint, sorry for being foolish.
Wesley White
Ah, the bane of email communication (a moment in time devoid of enough personal history and/or all the other cues that go into communication) - relying on the written word only and not being able to smile or grimace in a real way (I have never found emoticon to be a very satisfactory substitute). Even the best of friends can go awry through email. One word or one phrase can trigger all manner of responses. Presumptions arise and we are off to the tower of babel and then we don't know how to get past the different experiences that use the same expression or the same experiences that use different expressions.
Joseph, I will here presume it was my comment about hobbies that you felt was a put down of your expression about guardrails. It is true that what I consider to be hobbies leave the majority of folks who ask about that rather nonplused. It is also true that I haven't grown out of that stage of life that asks why things are the way they are (or growing back into it here in my second childhood days) and I have received a lot of negative feedback about never being satisfied and pushing at boundaries.
I hadn't used the guardrail image as a way of describing boundaries before. It is a more positive way of speaking of a boundary than I usually think about. So I appreciated it and began playing with how it fit into the work I do. (I use the term in the next posting that was written before this conversation about email intentions going astray.)
Here I hope we can be foolish in a helpful way (being a fool for Christ) and not in a hurtful way (a polite put-down). The line between those always is fragile -- open to impulsive or interpretive misuse. Apparently only GOD can use a Word in its most primal sense that brings flesh along with it.
Let me know if there is somewhere we can take this to redeem this moment. I'm available for an off lectionary conversation at wwhite@wisconsinumc.org
Wesley
Wesley White
Isaiah 35:1-10
I've been thinking about the Holy Way in verse 8 in relation to the journey of Christian on the King's highway in Pilgrim's Progress. Isaiah portrays it is an exclusive road that has been perfected as a road, accepting only the special folk who are God's people. John Bunyan portrays it as a path that many jump on midway for a brief while or who enter to seduce folks off.
There are a great many resemblances between the story lines of the two authors and some differences. Rather than parsing all that out and thinking a choice can be made between the two that makes sense, as differentiated from a choice based on some inclination or other, it may be more fruitful to ask how you see "Holy Way" these days. Does it have broad guardrails? narrow? Are there high embankments or wide vistas? Are there toll booths and troll bridges?
Will you talk about the diversity of the folks on the way or their homogeneity? Is it a road of quest or of homecoming? What are the speed bumps made of?
I suspect that the way in which the Way is spoken of influences the way in which we travel. Are we on a 3-day tour? Is it a walking tour? Is the guide engaging us in the scene or repeating memorized facts and figures? Are we alone?
For me, who has been a part of the majority with quiet privilege, I find myself drawn toward the excitement of questing forth as described by Bunyan. My experiences with various minorities (and the outcast parts of myself) is that Isaiah's is a very powerful image.
[Side question: How did the outcast, imprisoned Bunyan come up with the quest process instead of the idealized?] The U.S., arguably the nation with privilege, puts forward the idealized formula and claiming it for itself (as opposed to the exiles coming home). All of which makes life very interesting when not frustrating. Just when we think we've got it figured, some invisible "least" pops up to lead us in a different direction.
Wesley White
James 5:7-10
Prophets are fine examples of patient waiting. By nature they are as clear and noisy as they can be about what they currently see going on as they project the consequences of our actions some way down the line. They have no control over how their insight and presentation of that (in word and theater) will play out. Will people hear and understand and change? Will people hear and understand and keep on the same track anyway? Will people hear but not understand? Will people even go so far as to hear?
Who knows how prophecy will play itself out. Its intention is to affect change but is not in charge of that change.
The way in which we discern a false prophet from a true one is in the results — did people change and thus come to a new future? Did people not change and the consequence come to be? Only afterward can one tell self-serving prediction from that of community-serving wisdom. And if people change and a different future comes about than the one prophesied, can we ever tell if the people really changed or if some other factor came to bear on the situation?
Prophets must wait to see the fruit of their labor. Evangelists, preachers, and teachers also have some wait built into their work to see if what they do sticks with folks and makes a qualitative difference in those lives, but their venue and timeframe is usually far narrower and shorter.
At the same time there is this burning inside a prophet if they are slow in carrying out their task and so there is both a hurry-up and a wait component to their work. I suspect it is easier to get relief from a pent up message than it is to wait to see how it will be received. This type of prophetic patience is not a passive waiting, but active. In the best of situations the prophet persists in the message and in the worst of situations the prophet whispers and goes off to sit and wait and see the destruction they expect and even desire.
Those who read here are part of the prophetic tradition. It is a difficult task to prophecy and be patient, it almost takes a split personality. This is one of the reasons that a prophetic community is so important and why it is important to be part of a school of prophets and a tradition of prophets. Let's keep talking together that we might be encouraged to be prophetic, in season and out. What keeps you going, persistent and patient?
Wesley White
Matthew 11:2-11
In this day and age it seems folks are willing to go out of their regular routine for the look of success rather than the look of challenge. Perhaps, just perhaps, they will find the secret to being just like everyone else, in a better way.
As we face the consequences of rampant wealth for a few, taxes on labor but not on wealth, devaluation of the currency, record number of bankruptcies, another unwinable war, deporting of jobs, and decreasing the value of education it is not too big a leap to feel a major crunch drawing ever nearer — nearer than heaven is claimed to be near.
As difficult as the next decline and fall will be, it may make it more possible for the overlooked to be the only hope left. Then we'll go out of our way to hear a word of change (unless, of course, such a situation merely coarsens us into smaller tribes and larger intolerance) from a non-success oriented prophet.
Where would you look these days to find such a prophet?
Would you think to look inside your clothes?
December 19, 2004 - Year A - Advent 4
Wesley White , 12/12/2004 5:03:37 PM
December 19, 2004
Isaiah 7:10-16
Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19
Romans 1:1-7
Matthew 1:18-25
Saving, restoring, extending to all — no matter what the directional need of life in the moment we seem to need a sign from outside that encourages us to hang on to hope in such a way that we participate in an improved state of affairs rather than just watch it play itself out as a parade rolls by.
Be involved in saving, restoring, extending to all a participation in the events of life.
Wesley White
Matthew 1:18-25
One of the hallmarks of Jesus in Matthew is the fulfillment of the law and prophets - boundaries and compassionate implementation of same. Here we have a prelude to that work of fulfillment through the soon-to-come formula: "You have heard it said, but I say to you . . . ."
As a righteous person, Joseph knows the law is to be construed and implemented as strictly as possible. As a prophetic person who attends to their dreams, Joseph knows spirit as well as letter. This combination brings Joseph to that in-between place of life where creation continues. By law, Mary should be stoned to death or divorced — either way disaster for Mary. By dream, Mary should be revered unto a marriage relationship, tying Joseph to her life for better and for worse.
By law you have heard it said, but by angel now hear . . . .
What is the issue closest to your living and the living of those around you where you need to pay attention to the Joseph in you? It is time to awake from sleep and dreaming and live in the fertile ground between law and prophecy.
Kent Ingram
Wes, I read a book by Douglas Ottati, Hopeful Realism, that had a quote that keeps coming to mind as I read the story of Joseph's dream. Talking about The Christmas Carol he says "...the enlarging of Scrooge's heart depends on his being blessed with the right nightmares." Being blessed with the "right nightmares" is not really a pleasant thought. Anyway, something to ponder.
Kent
Wesley White
Indeed. To a law abiding person a request for mercy would be nightmarish. To a grace abiding person a request for consequences for boundary violations would be nightmarish. For most of us, in one situation/issue we focus on law or grace and in another situation/issue we find ourselves in the other camp. No wonder nightmares abound. Every day we find ourselves being challenged.
Let's hear it for Scrooge, able to change. Let's hear it for Joseph, able to change. Now comes the tough one, will I hear it for being able to change?
Nightmare as change agent. Alright. If need be. Thanks for passing on this blessed image. May the waking nightmares taking place all over this small 3rd Rock from the Sun lead us to a hopeful realism that reclaims the poetry of theology (see fuller title of Ottati's book).
Wesley White
Romans 1:1-7
Paul writes of being a servant apostle. Its always good to have a tension somewhere in one's self-understanding. It helps growth keep happening. If Paul were living today he might talk about being a servant leader.
Here is some lingo from a report to the 2000 United Methodist General Conference, Call Forth Covenant Leadership:
"Making disciples requires lay and clergy servant leaders who come together with one another and God in covenant to use their gifts as they prepare local churches and the whole church for God's mission in the world. Developing a servant leadership will require that The United Methodist Church move away from being a clergy-dependent church to one where ministry is shared among clergy and laity. Some United Methodist churches today are too dependent on the leadership of appointed clergy and staff. In the Wesleyan spiritual formation model, laity and clergy alike are ministers and share in the calling to make disciples of Christ. A transforming church will enable us to truly live out our belief in the ministry of all Christians. An emphasis on building spiritual leadership will engage the talents and energies of leaders throughout the church. It will energize and nurture local congregations and faith communities and build a sense of shared spiritual accountability."
Both Paul and a contemporary denomination employ very dense language. Basically, Paul is going to use his experience of conversion (obedience to faith) to engage others around its value and invite them to follow where conversion leads them. What is your intention?
Wesley White
Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19
Though the reference to Joseph makes it easy to connect the Psalm with the gospel lesson by having the Shepherd of Israel (angel) lead Joseph the tribe (Joseph the individual), there are troubling verses ahead.
Here folks are recognizing that they have had a difficult time (tears to eat and drink) (scorn and laughter of enemies). Mary's Joseph is about to enter into difficult times (scorn and laughter of neighbors for being a cuckold) (refugee tears in Egypt and Nazareth).
How do we go ahead when, instead of seeing ourselves coming out of difficult terrain onto level territory, we see ourselves going deeper and deeper into a wilderness living with nothing settled?
Do we need more "life" given us (are we talking ease and prosperity here?) before we commit to going ahead? Do we simply go ahead in the face of difficulties? Do we go expecting a reward for going ahead? Probably it is all of these three and more. This is part of the gift of community, holding one another steady as we run between the options like a chicken with its head cut off: tasting one, holding another, fleeing a third, and exploring beyond a forth.
Perhaps salvation (last word of the passage) is more about the presence of GOD than our restoration to ease. Try reading that last verse backward and see what you come up with.
Dave Stratton
Your comments on Nightmares reminds us there is always pain and fear in those dreams. Joseph has lots of company in these days. Do we follow the rules or do we respond to the grace of God in our relationships here and around the world? Allowing Jesus, the savior, to unchain us from our legelisms, may give us more nightmares/fears/pain in being God's person.
Good News for all people is obviously a nightmare for those who use, abuse and minipulate our world unjustly. Thanks Be to God!
Wesley White
Isaiah 7:10-16
Prophets have been known for their use of symbolic action to dramatize their message. In some of my formative years guerrilla theater was the outward form of an inward prophetic grace. We have gotten away from some of that and settled for unimaginative picket lines, pre-produced signs, and rational arguments. It is probably time for re-investing in symbology beyond words, as the usual forms of protest against injustice are like trying to teach a pig to sing — it wastes our time and wearies both mortals and GOD.
One of the injustices is that of resisting a hopeful word. We, like Ahaz, tend to get ourselves set for the worst and not be able to find any out where grace might ooze in, if not abound. What have you given up on? Why is that? Particularly during this time of remembering Joseph, why is that? If Joseph can be transformed, so can the kings of old and the high and mighty of today, so can you and so can I.
Let us not act unjustly toward the possibilities of GOD that move us beyond the limits of our fears to a new life that comes from actively following our baptismal vows to refuse evil and choose good.
Wesley White
Romans 1:1-7
Were you, or someone you revere who is old enough to have been, a mouseketeer? Remember, or ask about, the energy needed for that position.
Paul claims to be a gospelteer. Imagine the energy that needs as you play back and forth between the prophets-of-old and the not-yet saints.
Is that where you have been playing? or have you focused overmuch on the prophetic end, getting their message "right"? or have you focused overmuch on imaginary saints that might someday be, but are unable to jump from here to there and blind to a next step on such a journey?
To helpfully play between is a place filled with tension and fear. You risk the prophetic message by trying to literally translate it into each new situation rather than being a prophet in your current time and space. You risk being co-opted by some definition of saint rather than modeling saintly living in the here and now without waiting for some certification of X-number of miracles.
No wonder Paul finally blurts out - Grace and Peace!
Well, enough. To receive Grace and Peace is to claim permission to energetically play with both the revered prophets and the almost saints. Play on!
Dave Stratton
I got to thinking of other nightmares, and remembered the Exodus story with the Egyptians chasing the Israelites, who are trying to escape their slavery.
What a contrast are these nightmares from the Shalom we normally think of at Christmas. W. Brueggemann reminds us that the opposite of Shalom is idolatry. So, I am trying to tie all the nightmares that befall us to the things we make too important? Yet, our pain and fears we have experienced this past year (have we made them too important)seem to also be more nightmares? Scrooge and Joseph are not alone in their sleepless nights.
Wesley White
Matthew 1:18-25
Matthew begins, "Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way."
Then Matthew goes on to tell us about the official relationship between Joseph and Mary, Mary's unusual pregnancy, and Joseph's knee-jerk response and dream that transformed that response that a connection might be made with an old prophet (as if a new thing were outside the realm of possibility because fulfillment is the measure).
Thus was Jesus borne by Joseph and Mary.
The birth story is just the carrier for Joseph and Mary's story. Context is primary here — genealogy of ancestors and parental choices. Into such everyone is born. Some know more about this than others but everyone knows the frailty of our past — its a miracle any of us make it as far as we are. Life is more difficult than it has been and getting worse. So says every generation.
And, yet, no matter what a birth certificate says, the choice set before each of us is recognizing each of us bystanders have been pointed out as an Emmanuel to show Ahaz and Prime Minister President Chancellor Whomever that life is not as bleak as it is often made out to be.
Lift up your head (your name here) and be lifted up Emmanuel.
December 24, 2004 - Year A - Christmas Eve
Wesley White
December 24, 2004
Isaiah 9:2-7
Psalm 96
Titus 2:11-14
Luke 2:1-20
Anouncements and invitations are helpful markers of time. Without participating in the event announced or adding your presence to the party the announcements and invitations might as well be tossed out when they arrived.
Let’s presume you have been invited and you have seen for yourself the joy so long anticipated. Now what. Does your going to see solidify the anticipation into an action of going forth to share what you experienced?
How many times have you come to the door of a key event and been disappointed? May Christmas Eve wrap you round with belovedness that you might be unwrapped on the morrow, and every morrow, as a gift in every coming present time.
Enjoy the pageant but don’t limit yourselve to a place in a tableau.
Wesley White
Luke 2:1-20
Let's hear it for all the third-shifters on Christmas Eve, or any eve. When the usual day is over and the sky is safe for angel singers the late-night workers have the opportunity for a waking dream and being able to respond to it right away.
Imagine all the third shift workers catching a vision of peace for themselves and all that is so compelling that they walk away from their responsibilities and band-aiding and production. What a night that would be.
Some would see in this only disaster - the sheep would be open to attack, patients would finally be allowed to die, a protective shield against the consequences of inattention would go down, irresponsibility would reign.
Some would see in this only the breaking in of a new world we have held at bay because of our anxiety regarding power and control, hope would reign.
Some would see a combination that leant in one direction or the other.
Wouldn't it be a wonder, though, if we paid more attention to amazement and less to obligation. Yep, pretty chaotic. Would you be afraid someone would take advantage of the situation to get an illicit gain? Would you be glad to have such an amazing moment even if you had to ponder over it for the rest of your born days?
Christmas Eve - we are almost there and just can't wait so we celebrate now. Apparently four weeks of Advent was too much. Waiting one more eve for the next morning is too much waiting.
Christmas Eve - and it was evening and morning the eighth day. Celebrate early and often.
Wesley White
Titus 2:11-14
How are you living the night before Christmas. Not knowing what is coming tomorrow, how would you be living? In the midst of waiting for blessed hope to be clarified, how are you doing with self-control?
It is so exciting to have a night before Christmas. Expectations run so high. This is being posted several days before Christmas Eve. Might we begin living in expectation that the night before the night before the night before might be the night before we have been waiting for. Tomorrow, probably an ordinary day, may be a turning spot. Who knows! And why are we skipping this moment of hope in favor of a remembrance of a previous blessing.
May we not be so blinded by Christmas Eve that we miss a new Christmas before that.
Wesley White
Psalm 96
Even before a blessed event we affirm the blessedness of not only "the" event, but every event. This sort of willy-nilly blessing is to be looked at quite carefully for it doesn't allow exclusion of any for there is no such thing as equity, an eye for an eye. When it comes to confession, it is the contriteness of the confession that is important, not the discipline that goes alongside it. The ritual of discipline simply calls to mind the change that has gone on that rejoicing can be done anyway. Equitable judgment, from a holy perspective is not that the sinners will get their comeuppance, but that righteousness and truth will be set free from their prisons — our fear that we will be found deliberately ignoring the options of righteousness and truth on a regular basis will be transformed to that way of living.
On this Christmas Eve we recognize that tomorrow is blessed. On this time prior to the big day we claim its blessedness. That day is not only tomorrow but today. Did you find the blessedness that was within it? Are you anticipating the blessing from an ordinary tomorrow? Profligate blessing before the fact is a blessing indeed.
Wesley White
Isaiah 9:2-7
There is a promise of an endless peace ahead. (if we paid attention we would know it is already present). What is the way to that peace? waiting for another angelic flaming sword or chorus? Nope, the way to peace is peace and it runs through you and me.
The zeal of the All will do this. Does this mean we are simply to stand back, get out of GOD's way, and clap when the magic is accomplished? Nope. How does GOD work? what is your experience? certainly not by turning you into a puppet.
You are the locus of the zeal of GOD.
Whenever we are open to partnering with the zeal of GOD it is a birth experience in the midst of the deep darkness. A light shines within us and without us (in both senses). Even before the official time — tonight could be an Eve that goes down in history. May you also be zealous for participating in such activity.
Wesley White
Luke 2:1-14-20
Well, this is the day of the night for light to dawn. Do you think the shepherds had any inkling of what was coming? Had they passed a street-corner preacher anticipating this with such specificity (and, if they had, would they have paid any more attention than to the last umpteen specific pronouncements that had come and gone to no effect)? Do you think they routinely asked what would make this night different from all other nights?
They had no clue. You and I have no clue about tonight. Will it be another pageant that cutifies a sanctuary? Will the light-bulb go on for an individual or a congregation about what it means to enter people's lives through such an everyday event as a birth and lead them to welcome all on a similar basis? Will we get our last payment in to keep our heavenly insurance going for another year? Will we band together, unionize, leave our securities and responsibilities to find a life larger than either of those basic goods? Will we shed a sentimental tear? Will we tell what we have experienced? Will we open presents? Will we wrap a present for someone unthought of before this time?
We have no clue about tonight. Perhaps we might start a nightly ritual:
1) review how the day has gone
2) identify the blessings it held and plan to build on them
3) ask what would make this night different from all other nights
4) be ready to follow where the music of the night leads
5) sleep with a satisfied mind and a joy of anticipation
December 25, 2004 - Year A - Christmas Day
Wesley White
December 25, 2004
Isaiah 52:7-10
Psalm 98
Hebrews 1:1-12
John 1:1-14
Beauty of new songs, new creations, active peace, and participatory salvation. Ahh! Beauty before you! behind you! above you! below you! alongside you! Ahh! Beauty — live it.
For many this is a down day — time to clean up the mess from last night — time to relax for a bowl game. Both of these are culmination points. A celebration is over, a season of striving to be the best is over.
May we look back in a couple of weeks and see that it was also a beginning. What would you need to add to this day for that to be so? Would you light a candle in the daytime and pause to listen for the dangers and possibilities for children and be willing to be a refugee for the sake of those children? In the end we would so live for the sake of all.
Wesley White
John 1:1-14
The Word became Flesh: May your Flesh become Word.
And around and around we go.
From light to meconium
From creator to suckler
From honored to exiled
Now we live out the difference made by moving from potential to actuality. Live well.
Wesley White
Hebrews 1:1-12
Where is the line between a prophet predecessor and an heir apparent. Was it with conception or anticipation of a near term event? Was it with birth? Was it making it through the dangers of childhood? Was it with an adult event sometime off and not guaranteed? Was it with death or resurrection?
Here we are celebrating one moment of many births. May we celebrate Christmas Day 2004 as another moment of many births that has as much significant import as the one we remember more than 2004 year ago. If we are not reborn this day we throw into question the importance of that earlier one. Where does commitment fit into a quiet celebration?
Wesley White
Psalm 98
A marvelous thing has been revealed.
A new beginning.
A marvelous presence is coming.
We are still between the revealed and the coming. Jesus' birth both does and does not settle all matters in their particulars. Advent's dual focus has not been resolved by Christmas. We are still remembering and anticipating.
Even though still between times, this is still a marvelous time to let rejoicing loose. In but a few ticks of time we will also need to let our grieving loose. For now, dive into the powerlessness of rejoicing that has no agenda but to echo the far off hymn, "joy to all".
Wesley White
Isaiah 52:7-10
How beautiful within a manger, a slum, community, church, or home is the presence of one who not only walks in beauty but lives with peace.
May your feet quickly bear your comforting arms where they are needed this day. What check do you need to write? What protest do you need to participate in? What restitution do you need to make? What forgiveness needs offering and accepting?
Living with peace puts us in the strangest of places during holy-days. If you come to Christmas Day and know someone has something against you, go quickly to them for the gift of reconciliation.
Wesley White
Hebrews 1:1-12
O Child of GOD — Yes, you!
Your call is to love righteousness and hate wickedness. For this you have been anointed with the oil of gladness and compassion beyond your comprehension.
Can you still feel that anointing? Good.
Can you still feel that anointing? Good.
Can you still feel that anointing? Good.
Wesley White
John 1:1-14
What an exciting heritage we have.
Poor old Jesus was born of the will of GOD into a human context.
We are born of blood and flesh through the will of both humans and GOD.
There is no less mystery in the biologic becoming of flesh than John's high poetry of light to flesh.
So as you arise to a new day (whether physically blind or not) may the light of this day make your flesh glow with new purpose to be full of grace and truth.
December 26, 2004 - Year A - Christmas 1
Wesley White
December 26, 2004
Isaiah 63:7-9
Psalm 148
Hebrews 2:10-18
Matthew 2:13-23
Mercy remembered changes our first impressions and preliminary decisions. This week may you remember the three keys to carrying Christmas forward — mercy, mercy, mercy.
Wesley White
Matthew 2:13-23
"Get up!" Fearsome words for a dreamer. There is another quantum leap ahead.
First, it is put aside the legalism you have constructed your life upon. Choose mercy over justice. Now it is leave home, become a refugee in a land known to be captivating. And now it is head home, but not really home, home to a new home at the other end of the land, away from the center of things.
Each of these are Christmas experiences filled with angels and joy. Joy, you say? Yes, joy!
For Matthew joy is intimately connected with his understanding of fulfillment. There is nothing better than being in tune with promises of new life, new heaven, new earth coming to pass in your time. Participating in the larger issues of life bring the joy of being part of the wholeness and holiness of this moment.
May you pay attention to your dreams and be ready to respond when those words come your way, "Get up!" The issues will be different than they were for Joseph, but no less meaningful. His work was his, yours is yours. Get on with it.
Wesley White
Hebrews 2:10-18
The issue of suffering is a key one for a religious sensibility. One place to further investigate this beyond our usual parochial takes on suffering is a Monastic Interreligious Dialogue on Suffering and Transformation.
I recommend the site in general. Here is one small part of the several day event:
Samu Sunim
Father Thomas, I appreciated your talk last night very much. Your said that God is in limbo with us. You also said the presence of God is available to us twenty-four hours a day. Right now there is this terrible, heartbreaking conflict going on in the Middle East and in the institution of the Church. There is a conflict going on with the Buddhists in Asia. There is also conflict among the Buddhist clergy. My question is, where is God when all these conflicts break out?
Thomas Keating
You ask, "Where is God?" Well, I really don't know, except that he is there. This implies a view of God as the source of everything that is. This source, of course, is goodness. But if you introduce the human condition into this work or creativity of God, then the goodness of God is distorted by the human condition. To keep it very simple, since it's a complex concept, I'd like simply to say that there is no rational explanation for suffering, especially innocent suffering. The consolation in suffering, it seems to me, is that in some extraordinary and mysterious but maybe very simple way that we don't understand, suffering says something about the Ultimate Reality that nothing else can quite say. The bottom line is that God is incredibly humble; he seems to want to give himself away, or more exactly throw himself away. Suffering, insofar as you see God identifying himself with the human condition, is telling us that God loves us so much that he is prepared to go to any length to convince us of his extraordinary love for us and of his determination to transform not just us but the whole human family into the divine life. So, where is God in suffering? He is right in the middle of it. But I can't prove that. I just believe it. This, it seems, is what the passion and death of Christ symbolize; namely, the death of the individual self and the resurrection of the new self; or the self as the image of God, or the expression of God's infinite tenderness and goodness in the details of life, including the utmost tragedy.
Samu Sunim
I think God is suffering. I think "God is suffering" could serve as a reference point for Christian and Buddhist dialogue as well as dialogue exchanged among all world religions right now. Deep and proactivist suffering is awakening from our delusion. Thank you
Wesley White
Psalm 148
If written in post-exilic times (best bet) this Psalm has one feel. If written during an exile it has another. And, there is still another sense to it in pre-exilic times.
Can you imagine Joseph and family heading off to Egypt humming this tune?
There is something lamentable about the after birth story Matthew tells. Just look at the political deceit around the Magi and Herod, the dislocation of families, the violence of power and control, the death of Herod still not bringing security for families and so leading to a relocation of home.
There is also something very upbeat. The fulfillment motif helps us ride any and all such bucking bronco disappointments without them throwing us off. Angels are heard, next opportunities are set in motion, an arc of hope keeps sparking.
And so in the midst of run-of-the-mill pre-exilic times such as a Pax Romana and Americana extravagant praise such as this isn’t real to the controllers. It is labeled enthusiasm and dismissed.
In exile it is all that we have left, an old song of Zion. We hold to it as a promise that will come to pass as this exile passes away. The freedom to move on to a promised land of new creation will eventually trump any and all attempts to keep it at bay.
After exile it is our emotional response to everything that comes our way.
But where the line between the end of one exile and the beginning of another lies is a mystery. At some point things change from a natural praise to a forced praise.
Even though it may not make any sense, I suspect Joseph and Mary sang lullabies to Jesus on their way to Egypt and this was one.
Wesley White
Isaiah 63:7-9
Surely we will not deal falsely. Surely we will not.
Well, surely we will. Surely, we. Surely.
And so we begin another communal lament.
Having experienced the real presence, how could we ever be false again. And, yet....
We "we'd" all over the place.
Will the love and pity that once redeemed remain steadfast? is the absence of the presence momentary or eternal? Having been carried we wriggled and scriggled until we got down and now we cry to be picked back up again. Falseness or not?
If we only looked at these three verses, what could ever go awry? But if we read on we find the skewed.
Having had Christmas what could ever go awry?
And here we are, not having to live very long past Christmas to know the continued need for compassion and mercy. We need it and others need it from us. What a deal! What an opportunity!
Wesley White
Hebrews 2:10-18
"The one who sanctifies and the one who is sanctified are all of one." [Footnote translation from NRSV]
There is a special bond between one who needs rescuing and one who rescues. It binds people together across all other barriers. In both cases the one is dependent upon and responsible to and for the other.
This is easiest for us to see in the felt sense of a saved one owing their life to the saver. This can easily be seen in stories of the rescued entering voluntary enslavement to the rescuer.
In this we can fail to see the negative effects of one act defining all future acts. Free-will is still operable even if voluntarily given up. We can also fail to see the reciprocal experience of the one who does the rescuing. It is not for nothing that another is saved. The rescuer can further invest in their growth potential coming to pass.
Here also there is a danger of taking on further and further responsibility for a weaker one and not allowing growth to proceed through a necessary wrestling with experience.
It is not that they both belong to a third. It is sufficient for them to rejoice in a relationship unexpectedly developed that can lead both to more interdependent growth if they can avoid the pitfalls of dependence.
Here after Christmas we are called to not have a Christmas savior take all the responsibility for the saving and to recognize those, like Joseph, who saved the savior. Now we are called to reciprocate whatever sense of salvation we have by following the journey laid out by Nikos Kazantzakis in his brief but powerful spiritual exercises, The Saviors of God.
My bias is to read it in a hardback version — that not only brings an excellent preface by the translator but allows time to savor and go back over the images. A second choice would be to print it out and format it according to your eye and then print it and read it away from the hustle and bustle. This would be a wonderful Epiphany gift for yourself. Order one during these 12 days of Christmas and see how it is for you.
Wesley White
Matthew 2:13-23
The angels in Matthew's telling of Jesus' birth experiences do not sing in the heavens about some "Peace on earth." They are exposed in dream-time nudging us to pay attention and to wake and act.
The context here is that of conflict and survival in the midst of it the ebb and flow of life. If we simply took the Matthew version and began applying it to the world around us we would see its value. Despite affirmations that "peace is on the march" we can see the usual falling-to-pieces anywhere you look. There is no safe haven where we can cross the border and find "Peace on Earth."
It would be interesting to read two books (not the movies) together: The Lord of the Rings and The Neverending Story. You can read one take here. How do you respond to the dangers of life that are spreading a dark nothingness over the land?
For this we need the angels whispering in our ear, helping us play back and forth between our hopes and the situations we face.
Christmas does not delete messes of pain and evil. Christmas does not resolve long-standing family feuds. Christmas does not bring "thy kingdom come on earth". Christmas does not let us avoid the responsibility of intentional engagement.
At best it brings us to a new place to stand within an old order. We move from the City of David with all its power to some mythic scripture reference to being a Nazorean (whatever that might be - A Buddhist Branch of Original Christianity, A Nazorean Gospel, Pagan Connected, etc.).
Is the angel, today, calling you into escape or reengagement in a new way?
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