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June 6, 2004 - Year C - Trinity
Wesley White
June 6, 2004
Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31
Psalm 8
Romans 5:1-5
John 16:12-15
What would the dominion of truth / peace / wisdom look like your the arena of your life / our life / all life?
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Wesley White
John 16:12-15
The line about Jesus having many things to say to me, to us, but that they are unbearable for me and you, intrigues me. What might that be?
While there are many candidates for being the unbearable subject it seems to me that the leaders have to do with broken relationships. These include all the prejudices I have nurtured over time and the unresolved betrayals of self and others.
These keep me from all the truth and keep me pitting this part of truth against that part of truth. They keep my "rate of perception" (a wonderful Oliver Sacks phrase) out of sync with my intentions.
Here it is usually understood that the Spirit will reveal some external truth to us, while it is probably more truthful to indicate that we will be collaborated with, through supportive and corrective actions, to allow us to see what was before, invisible. De-claring, you see is, originally, to make clear, not, currently, to state some proposition.
A question for us as followers of Jesus and friends of the Spirit of truth, is twofold: How do we receive the More of Jesus than we have been able to up to this point and how do we assist in de-claring with others the More that they have missed up to now?
Some hints about this are available in Brueggemann's introduction to the second edition of his The Prophetic Imagination , "The subcommunity that may generate prophecy will participate in the public life of the dominant community; it does so, however, from a certain perspective and with a certain intention. Such a subcommunity is likely to be one in which
"* there is a long and available memory that sinks the present generation deep into an identifiable past that is available in song and story;
"* there is an available, expressed sense of pain that is owned and recited as a real social fact, that is visibly acknowledged in a public way, and that is understood as unbearable for the long term;
"* there is an active practice of hope, a community that knows about promises yet to be kept, promises that stand in judgment on the present;
"* there is an effective mode of discourse that is cherished across the generations, that is taken as distinctive, and that is richly coded in ways that only insiders can know.
"In short, such a subcommunity is one in which the first-line, elemental realities of human, bodily, historical existence are appreciated, honored, and treasured. It is obvious that such a subcommunity knows itself to be positioned for the long-term in tension with the dominant community that responds to the subcommunity at best as an inconvenience, at worst as an unbearable interruption."
Wesley White
Romans 5:1-5
"We boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God." Think theosis, sanctification, perfection.
Here is the summary of The New Creation: The Wesleyan Distinctive by Theodore Runyon
1. The perfection of God's love is, I believe, the most viable starting point of any reinterpretation of the doctrine of Christian perfection today. This guards against the preoccupation with self that has hobbled some past interpretations. And it keeps us constantly open to the only source of genuine sanctification, the love and grace of our Creator-Redeemer.
2. The "renewal of the image of God" was for Wesley a favorite way of characterizing sanctification, and lends itself to describing both the individual and social dimensions important to Wesley. Humanity renewed in the image not only becomes a new creation, it reflects into the world the perfect love which it receives.
3. The renewal of the image also does justice to the relation between justification, as Christ's work for us , and sanctification, as the Spirit's work in us. Both undergird this renewal and make it possible.
4. The renewal of the image also helps us to explain how sanctification is a process that begins with the renewal in regeneration but continues toward fullness of perfection, with ever-increasing possibilities of reflecting the perfection of divine love, driving out sin, and renewing the creature and the world.
Therefore, the Wesleyan doctrine of sanctification is worth retrieving and rethinking, not for the glory of the Wesleyans, but for the contribution it can make to ecumenical theology and to the life of the church today.
Wesley White
Psalm 8
A-big-frog-in-a-small-pond Syndrome shows up in any number of ways.
That which frogs eat wonder at at surviving not being eaten. That's part of the benefit of an increase and multiply survival strategy. How majestic is the next step up the food chain.
That which eats frogs knows frogs to be valuable to their tummy but still lower on the food chain and thus lower in value.
A wonderful CD is Walkin' Jim Stoltz's The Vision. One of the songs is "The Food Chain Song". A PDF of the lyrics and chords are available at Jim's website. You might want to check out more of his environmentally oriented website. If you get a chance to hear Jim, do
At any rate, who this day can eat your lunch and whose lunch can you eat? Can you envision a great day of potluck with flies and frogs and herons when lions and lambs lie down and arise as friends and not as prey and predator?
The trinity picture turns this linear chain of eat and be eaten into a mysterious relationship -- as mysterious as children's songs drowning out soldier's marching orders.
Wesley White
Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31
There is no place that Lady Wisdom is not present -- ahead on the heights, behind in the valley, alongside here at the crossroads.
By extension the same is true in terms of time as well as space. There is no time that Lady Wisdom is not present -- back at the beginning, ahead at the closing, alongside here in the moment.
About twice as far into the book of Proverbs we find one of my favorite verses, 17:24, that relates to this matter. In the Jerusalem Bible it reads, "The discerning person has wisdom there before them, but the eyes of the fool range to the ends of the earth."
Be a discerner of the times and the events of your life, don't be a fool. Discern Lady Wisdom in her beauty right here, right now.
Beauty before us, behind us, above us, below us, alongside us, within us. Forever.
Wesley White
Romans 5:1-5
I needed this lection to have been my point of reflection yesterday. I was not able to boast in my suffering and all that follows that and leads to recognizing - G*O*D's love having been already poured into my heart.
I was not very loving until my beloved reminded me about my not connecting my love to a very stressful day with a person from the next congregation where I will again be an Intentional Interim. They sent me a most unhelpful email with an attachment that got into a loop and kept coming and coming - roughly 30 times - same unhelpful message using religious language to trap me into their particular take on the situation which they have played a major part in worsening.
Finally I had my web provider block their address. For all I know that same message is still trying to get through to me.
This suffering was not something I boasted in, but bewailed. What have I gotten myself into even before I get there?!?
It seems this is one of those learnings that needs to be continually relearned.
How is your boasting - - - - bewailing ratio doing? Who reminds you that you are already loved and are capable of exhibiting that, even in the midst of suffering?
Wesley White
John 16:12-15
The unbearable word we cannot hear right now is that of unity, connection, oneness.
That which is universal, the presence of G*O*D that Jesus kept paying attention to, will continually be brought before us that we might hear it. Again and again, it will be offered to us. No matter how many times we still find it unbearable and avoid attending to it, it shall be offered.
Julian of Norwich in her Showings writes:
"Also the almighty truth of the Trinity is our Father. For he made us and keeps us in him. And the deep wisdom of the Trinity is our Mother, in whom we be all enclosed, and the high goodness of the Trinity is our Lord, and in him we are closed, and he is in us. All mighty, all wisdom and all goodness; one God, one Lord and one goodness."
Truth, Wisdom, and Goodness all point toward the unity, connection, oneness we find unbearable. When they arise we find the hole in the truth, the loophole in the wisdom and the flaw in the goodness. Without those they would be so unbearable that we would either be reborn in their image or crushed under their inevitability.
We can't bear that "all shall be well again, all manner of things shall be well." To bear that would be to boast of our sufferings, etc.
How much longer will you attempt to bear up under the unbearable?
June 13, 2004 - Year C - Pentecost +2
Wesley White
June 13, 2004
1 Kings 21:1-10, (11-14), 15-21a or 2 Samuel 11:26 - 12:10, 13-15
Psalm 5:1-8 or Psalm 32
Galatians 2:15-21
Luke 7:36 - 8:3
Stories surrounding Bathsheba, Jezebel, and an Alabaster Woman raise questions regarding faith and flesh. These keep playing back and forth and assisting each other to be more than they would have been by if separated. Viva la faith! Viva la flesh! (Hmm, seems HS keeps transgressing our language barriers.)
Wesley White
Luke 7:36 - 8:3
Where and when does forgiveness take place?
Did Jesus have a previous encounter with the woman that had been curative for her? Had her sense of gratitude happened outside a direct encounter with Jesus and she heard of this meeting of Jesus with the Pharisees who, word had it on the street, were plotting against him and she knew of being plotted against and went in solidarity? Was forgiveness tied to the prior actions of washing and anointing and kissing and only after giving Jesus these honors did she receive forgiveness? Was this whole forgiveness scene a set up to be able to further draw a distinction between Jesus' way of dealing with the Law and the Pharisees/Sadducees way of dealing with the Law?
As we think about forgiveness and healing, it will be important to tie them to our time, energy, resources, and relationships. Does your sense of forgiveness energize you on behalf of a movement of forgiveness first (preemptive forgiveness) to put your own body in the space of the legalists who will get you or to provide such a movement with your resources, both cash-flow and accumulated?
Where does your forgiveness intersect with your faith? Where does your forgiveness intersect with your flesh?
Wesley White
Galatians 2:15-21
Interesting footnote in the NRSV: "...we might be justified by faith in Christ" or "...we might be justified by the faith of Christ."
This is part of the eternal tension between responsibility and authority. So often we split these two apart and set up failure. We give responsibility without authority or authority without responsibility. In losing the connection between the two we end up sinning in one direction or another.
Play with these for awhile. Are you drawn to one phrasing or the other? What is a link between them?
This almost feels like an optical illusion that flips back and forth between foreground and background - which way do the steps go? Is it a crone or a damsel? Where is the focus put? On what is the action based?
Karen Muntzing
In a New Testament class in seminary we explored this very nuance. It seems to be an agency question of sorts. If I am justified, reckoned as righteous, because of faithfulness in Christ, then it is about me, my action, first. If I am justified, reckoned righteous, because of the faithfulness of Christ, of God's action in Christ, the action to which I respond as my faith becomes known, God's action has priority.
In some ways, I draw a parallel to believer's or infant baptism. Who is the actor in each scenario? Is there an actor? Both textual interpretations require my action, but as I read, I see a priority, perhaps only implied.
There could be pluralistic implications to this as well, if taken out far enough, whether one perceives the salvific natural of Christ to be exclusive or inclusive. I'll have to pull out that paper, preferably the graded one, with the instructors comments.
I have to play in my mind with the notion of authority and responsibility, as I haven't really thought of it in those exact terms.
Wesley White
Luke 7.39
ON A JOURNEY: Meditations on God in daily life
By Tom Ehrich
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I ask the bank teller for my current balance. Her number seems different from mine.
The bank’s mistake, my mistake – I won’t know until I explore the facts. An hour later, after digging through records, I discover that the bank’s number is accurate.
I could have fussed, blamed the teller, questioned their systems, or blamed and questioned my own. But to what end? The point is truth, not blame. I can’t pay bills with blame.
The Christian movement, it seems to me, finds itself fussing and blaming. Each subgroup offers what it purports to be “truth.” Few combatants go deep enough to discover God’s truth.
Maybe it has always been this way. Even during his lifetime, the followers of Jesus were fussing and blaming. The institution they launched was grounded in disputes. The critical decisions of those formative years were shaped by shallow exploration, a desire to stifle opposition as “heresy,” and a search for uniformity.
We now fight over their shallow exploration and lost uniformity. Like our ancestors in the faith, we dig shallow holes and present our opinions as facts, our preferences as truth, and our desires as God’s will.
Nothing new in that, I suppose, and nothing unusually dire. Thanks to faith’s current status as a cultural option, not a requirement, we aren’t likely to slaughter our opponents in the Name of God, as French theocrats did in 1562, launching a 35-year reign of religious terror. But the tenor of our debates – icy logic, relentless judging, serene citing of ultimate authority – suggests that it wouldn’t take much to unsheathe our swords.
We have the answer before us. We just don’t want to see it.
A Pharisee watched a sinful woman anoint Jesus with ointment and her tears. More horrifying, he watched Jesus accept her touch. If he knew the truth about this woman, the Pharisee thought, Jesus would behave differently – more like the Pharisee, perhaps.
Jesus did know the truth about the woman. He had no illusions about her moral stature. But he wasn’t deterred. If anything, her sin drew him closer and made her humility more compelling. Her touch became holy.
Her truth, you see, wasn’t her sinfulness, but her faith. Her faith wasn’t measured by obedience to religious codes, but by the depth of her submission and gratitude. Her depth, in turn, wasn’t something that the Pharisee had to recognize and certify, but was between her and God.
Those dynamics can be profoundly unsettling to us. They put religious codes to the side. They affirm a person’s direct relationship with God, without the institution as intermediary. They mean that the Pharisee has no business judging her or questioning Jesus, because he cannot possibly know what is passing between them.
The Pharisee won’t want to be a bystander. No religious authority wants to think himself irrelevant to God’s salvation drama. But bystander he is.
This, I think, is the answer we don’t want to see. God doesn’t require our affirmation. God doesn’t wait for our nod. God does what God wants to do. If that means doing one thing today and another tomorrow, so be it. If God wants to love sinners, so be it. If God wants to step beyond the boundaries of Scripture, so be it. If God wants to allow diversity, even in those areas we consider critical, so be it. If God has other pathways, so be it. If God considers the tears of a fallen woman to be holy, so be it. If God loves the haughty Pharisee, so be it.
Rather than debate our edicts and judgments, we need to let God be God. We need to seek God’s truth, even if it differs from our own.
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“On a Journey” meditations are e-mailed seven days a week to interested readers. Subscribe at www.onajourney.org.
Wesley White
Psalm 5:1-8, Psalm 32
“And here I am, your invited guest – it’s incredible!” (5:7) [MSG]
“‘I’ll make a clean breast of my failures to God.’ Suddenly the pressure was gone – my guilt dissolved, my sin disappeared.” (32:5) [MSG]
How incredible! Before anything, we have been invited to the dance of life – we are invited and we will continue to be invited.
As invited guests we have a choice to be a responsive guest or a reluctant guest. When the hosts ask, “How are you?” we can take that at face value of their interest and be clear about how it is with us – our self and the host, the world, our self, our neighbors, and others.
We could take it as a polite, ritualistic question and simply care for it with a perfunctory “Fine” or “OK.”
One choice leads to relieving the pressures we experience. One choice keeps everything in its current place.
So… How are you? Really… How are you?
Wesley White
1 Kings 21:1-10, (11-14), 15-21a or 2 Samuel 11:26 - 12:10, 13-15
Leadership led astray by its own sense of divine right and might-makes-right is no new story. A little preemption here, a little preemption there and pretty soon underlying arrogance and exclusion from responsibility begins to show through.
No matter how you cut it, the missing verses from 2 Samuel (11-12) sum it up - "you think you acted in secret, but your consequence will be viewed by all."
The national parallels from long-ago to today are striking. There is nothing new under the sun. What may be less noticed is how the responsible parties are not just the leaders but, in a democracy, also you and I. How we have conspired together - leaders and people to steal property, to press our advantage, to dissemble, to plot with lies.
How far can you draw out the parallels before you are accused of meddling and subject to the same end as Naboth and Uriah? Is it worth that end to bring lies to light? How about simply calling out, "Enough!"
How long can we not draw out the parallels before we lose our ability to follow in Nathan's footsteps? What penalty will we receive if we do not raise the questions? What justification can we give if we allow another to be wounded because we failed to enlighten the leaders through the only means sometimes available, a court jester's tale?
Whether put winsomely like Nathan or bluntly like Elijah, we shall also speak truth to power.
Wesley White
Galatians 2:15-21
"For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God."
We all seem to have our limits. There are litmus tests that we put all around ourselves to see if we are still the person we used to be.
Where in our limits can we find the freedom of G*O*D? Where is the "crack in the cosmic egg" (good book) that offers the option to move forward?
How about such restatements as:
... through United Methodism I died to United Methodism, so that I might live with God
... through America I died to America, so that I might live with God
... through the Economy I died to the Economy, so that I might live with God
... through my Sexuality I died to my Sexuality, so that I might live with God
... through Cultural/Societal Mores I died to Cultural/Societal Mores, so that I might live with God
... through Ethics I died to Ethics, so that I might live with God
What have you been holding on to more tightly than living with G*O*D?
Is this a helpful model to assist us in moving beyond the fear and suffering of our well-defended limits? ...
... through _____ I died to _____, so that I might live with God!
Wesley White
Luke 7:36 - 8:3
The called and the cured, the twelve and the women, are important components to the "good news of the kingdom of God." They bring together and balance the insight and the experience needed to apply their resources compassionately and deliberately to life.
The called can sometimes get so caught up in their position of undeniable authority applied to every event. The cured can sometimes get so caught up in their extending one transforming moment into all moments. Together they can support and correct one another as they move on to witness to "good news" without the physical presence of Jesus.
It would serve us well to consider which side of this polarity we find ourselves first affirming. Where does our personality and encounters with life put us? First called? First cured?
Knowing that, Lady Wisdom, Holy Spirit, can open us to better connect with our identical, but quite real in its own right, twin -- the cured or the called.
We need these ancestors of our faith to witness to the mutuality of ministry between them lest those with authority have too much to say and those with experience have too little to report.
June 20, 2004 - Year C - Pentecost +3
Wesley White
June 20, 2004
1 Kings 19:1-4, (5-7), 8-15a or Isaiah 65:1-9
Psalm 42 and 43 , or Psalm 22:19-28
Galatians 3:23-29
Luke 8:26-39
This is the last sermon for me at this 18-month Intentional Interim appointment. That will influence my reading, but not constrain it. What is influencing your interaction with the scriptures?
Might you have a fear, like Elijah?
Might you be in the middle of a prayer of penitence, like Isaiah?
Might you be thirsting for assurance in the midst of feeling forsaken, like the Psalmist?
Might you be in the midst of disconcerting diversity and tempted to resolve such legally, like the Galatians?
Might you see a grand opportunity to be new in a new place and told to return and be new at home, like the exorcised Gerasene?
Whatever the influences of life, we live within their sphere, but not constrained by them.
Wesley White
Luke 8:26-39
"What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?"
"Who is my neighbor, Jesus?"
"Where shall I declare God's partnership with me, Jesus?"
These are important questions that define our belovedness. We have been so loved that we might love our neighbor and let them know how our love comes to them.
Another question is that of "when." It is recorded that "when the swineherds saw what had happened, they ran off and told it...."
What did they tell? Did they provide fair and balanced news reporting? Did their report focus on pig demons? Did their account highlight unexpected healing? Did their report pre-dispose the newly informed to subsequently "ask" Jesus to leave?
If there is a connection between reports and response, we may want to pay attention to how we declare how much G*O*D has done for us -- it may have something to do with Jesus being asked to leave again or to further commission us.
Wesley White
Galatians 3:23-29
There is a sense in which living under the external discipline of the law is easy. Things are either legal or not (or being judged or legislated to become legal or not). One can be a good citizen of the Land of Law relatively easily.
There is also a discipline of the faith, an internal discipline. In many ways the faith is a more difficult disciplinarian than the law. Children of GOD are not simply adjudicators of a developed and developing set of laws found to have been helpful, so far. Children of GOD are to identify and anticipate relationships beyond past and present — relationships based on Christ Jesus and the teaching of Holy Spirit of more difficult decisions than previously considered available to us.
A part of the difficulty is not just that of discernment but that of putting old decisions behind us. To live in between disciplinarians is to risk the consequences of offending the law to follow new relationships. This risks our body. To live between disciplinarians risks the consequences of offending the faith to follow old relationships. This risks our soul.
Choose your disciplinarian. Choose your mentor. Choose your risk.
Wesley White
Psalm 42 and 43 , or Psalm 22:19-28
Why are you cast down, O my soul? Let me count the ways.
Hope in God. What's the option?
The poverty of the poor is still noticeable.
When dealt with, instead of noticed, it will bring forth praise.
This will be the turning point wherein the ends of the earth shall remember, and be glad.
Wesley White
1 Kings 19:1-4, (5-7), 8-15a or Isaiah 65:1-9
We do feel alone. We are without our servants, our identifiers. We are no better than our ancestors.
At the end, though, we can still set out from where we are. We can still anoint the next generation -- blessed be they.
Descendants and inheritors will be blessed by the old wine of their day which is still too new in our day.
So we are fortified to set out again; to set out from where we are. Blessed be the journey, even the journey of running away from any Jezebel and finding only the hope of the next generation.
Wesley White
Galatians 3:23-29
A note in the NISB says, "In Romans, a less dispassionate letter, Paul presents a more balanced view of the Law."
I wonder if the editor fell asleep there and meant "less passionate". This is one of the eternal issues with Law - editing it. It seems there is never enough clarity with legalisms because real life keeps getting in the way. Passions flare and our strict readings of the Law keep getting skewed by them, but unconsciously so because we would never willingly adhere to anything but their clear meaning. Of course, we do skew.
To clothe ourselves with Christ is to enter exactly into unstrict readings where who can tell who is Greek or Jew, free or slave, female or male? Here we will live in Promise Land oriented toward the future rather than Promised Land of claimed deeds.
So it is that Baptism leads us in strange ways to a choice of the Beloved Community or Distinguishable and Distinct Subgroupings. You may want to browse a sermon based on a book [ We Were Baptized Too: Claiming God's Grace for Lesbians and Gays ] about how Baptism puts us in the middle of Life, not Law.
Wesley White
Luke 8:26-39
Then G*O*D said, “Beloved, this seized-one is part of my whole house. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.’ Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you back to me. And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people. I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the LORD, have spoken and will act,” says the LORD. [Ezekiel 37:11-14, modified]
A city person requires the farmer (of wheat or pigs) to supply their need. They devour products. This is dramatically shown with the end result of destroying that which supplied their need - mad pig disease.
There is another way to live where all receive their needs, a living wage is present, and "enough" is known. Now the city person can see their raving and commit to living and speaking another way, a way of good news -- we are all part of G*O*D's household, whether Gerasene or Galilean.
June 27, 2004 - Year C - Pentecost +4
Wesley White
June 27, 2004
2 Kings 2:1-2, 6-14 or 1 Kings 19:15-16, 19-21
Psalm 77:1-2, 11-20 or Psalm 16
Galatians 5:1, 13-25
Luke 9:51-62
Refuseniks and followers -- holding in our hands a list of fleshly values and a list of spiritual fruits -- we double emphasize what we focus on (there is both the thing and our attention).
This week, what do you want to double the value of by attending to it?
Wesley White
Luke 9:51-62
Reversal upon reversal. Hospitality turned on its head. How do we welcome a commitment to G*O*D that doesn't go astray for this reason or that?
Presumably the messengers smoothing the way for Jesus told some little not-quite-trues. Folks were ready to welcome Jesus until they saw that he wasn't stopping by their wood on a snowy or any other night - just passing through when he should be gracing them with bread or healing or a story.
So the messengers blame the villagers before the villagers could blame the messenger. And Jesus catches their cover up and says, "Nope, we are not getting rid of the evidence."
And others preemptively welcome themselves in, only to be turned away. And others are welcomed before they are ready to climb aboard. And others set conditions upon being welcomed into the family.
The starting spot never seems to be the ending spot. So it is with journeys and relationships. Throughout the next little bit we will journey to the strange land of Hospitality. How is it received; how is it offered? Does it, like opportunity, knock only once or is it background to every foreground?
If you were to use the villagers and the three along the road as measuring rods, how would you evaluate your current life? Are you feeling had or naive or tradition-bound or realistic? Are you feeling so committed that you are willing to misunderstand, impetuously volunteer, honor covenants in the face of greater opportunities, or be wonderfully inconsistent with a generous offer and a built-in excuse to not follow through?
Each is a learning about hospitality. Each contains both sides of hospitality in its freedom and constraints. This is a great place to pause and reflect on how basic hospitality is on the journey toward suffering, death and being raised is. How are you doing? We?
Wesley White
Galatians 5:1, 13-25
There was a little girl
Who had a little curl
Right in the middle of her forehead;
And when she was good
She was very, very good,
But when she was bad she was horrid.
[HWL]
When we are good the Fruit of Spirit (singular) has many different expressions, each fit for an occasion. A Willy Wonka gobstopper creation.
When we are bad the Desires of Flesh (plural) come spilling out, one after the other, pulling and pushing the others along. A Heironimos Bosch creation.
Wesley White
Psalm 77:1-2, 11-20 or Psalm 16
In days of trouble we remember having come through previous years of trouble.
In any day, troubled or not, we are able to choose which past we will focus on and which promise we will hitch our star to.
Whether the boundary lines of life have fallen in pleasant places or not, we are able to receive counsel, to rejoice, and rest in assurance.
Given all this, we gain perspective to fulfill the prophetic role. There will be deepening troubles. Days of trouble will multiply into years and decades of trouble. We know this because we can simply project forward the outcome of our behaviors in the world and interactions between one another.
Prophets do less griping about this than others because that very same perspective allows us to see the promises that are available by simply changing our present behaviors and interactions. Not that this is some magic slot-machine where we put in our money and reap a bounty, but consequences are modified as we modify our connections and further modified as we are encouraged by our first incremental shifts to continue going on to wholeness.
I suspect prophets and poets are perceived as gripers because having to shift patterns is never easy and it is always easier to dismiss the one who calls for such as a malcontent. Our identity is shaped by the negative advertising against us by the power resisting choice. But we couldn't be true to the gift we have been given if we clammed up simply because someone didn't care for the message and threatened any such messenger.
So, externally we hearken back to better days in order to project forward better days. Internally we listen carefully to promises not yet seen and choose for them in all their yet insubstantiality.
Wesley White
2 Kings 2:1-2, 6-14 or 1 Kings 19:15-16, 19-21
What mantle, large overgarment, do you play with these days. Under what aegis do you find yourself protected and authorized to act?
I still operate under a vision of Roy Scott, camp director, where I first heard that I would always be cared for. This has given me permission to enter into the prophetic world because, what could I lose, I would be cared for even if particular folks objected.
I still operate under the title of pastor clarifying the choices of life such as which field to graze and which not. In choosing comes the strengthening of living in fullness.
Titles and visions and mantles all lead to burning our oxen behind us that we might stretch out to touch the barriers before us and part them, throwing up "either" on one side and "or" on the other in order to wholly walk through the middle.
The time has come to pick up a mantle and employ it. It is time to chose life, and be persistent in that choice. In so doing we will choose against war, choose against the idolatry of economy or market forces, and choose against passivity. In so doing we will choose for the hungry and the diseased.
What mantle has seemingly chosen you, what mantle are you living under, what mantle will you pass on?
Wesley White
Galatians 5:1, 13-25
There are two lists here that tie us into either/or thinking of saints and sinners. If we are going to talk about Jesus as truly human and truly divine we will need to talk about ourselves as truly spirit and truly flesh.
It is this primordial soup within which we live and move and have our being and work out any salvation with fear and trembling. As we proceed in this, the way in which we process "law" and "freedom from the law" is crucial to our long-term well-being. In the short-term we will from time to time err on the side paying more attention to the law or freedom, or not enough attention to freedom and the law. Knowing this helps us step back and make our course correction toward what we desire to lead us into eternity.
Are you more comfortable with law or freedom? Where are you with the issue of ambiguity between the two? Which will give more fullness to life?
It is helpful to set these two lists against Martin Buber's I and Thou.
Wesley White
Luke 9:51-62
When a whole village rejects Jesus his disciples raise the question of razing it and everyone in it. They were rebuked.
Were they so rebuked that when individuals rejected Jesus they didn't raise the issue of consigning them to hell? Or is there a qualitative difference between a group dismissing Jesus and an individual that keeps us from being quite so mean to an individual as we are to a group?
Might the different response from the disciples, from rage to oh-well, be based on Jesus response? With the village his face was set to Jerusalem and the rejection wasn't responded to by him. With the individuals he got his digs in.
Or could it be the difference between Samaritan and not-Samaritan? Have they made it out of Samaritan territory when the meet the individuals, or not? Were they dealing with their cousins when they were dealing with the individuals who had excuses for not following.
It could even be that the disciples didn't cotton to more followers and were secretly glad when the excuses were given. They have been a little dense before and they may still have some silly picture that the more followers Jesus has, the less their particular following means and the greater the risk that they will, at some point, not be in the running for the "greatest disciple".
Wesley White
Luke 9:51-62
Action and reaction is a well-known part of life.
Action: I have set my face toward Jerusalem where they kill the prophets and I will suffer, die, and be raised.
Reaction: I will have nowhere to lay my head; I will proclaim GOD to those who are alive; and having set my face I follow through the consequences.
What is the Action and Reaction or Stimulus and Response currently happening in your life?
I can't help but think, as I move toward a problematic next appointment this week, that all of this, and more, is still in play and at stake.
This passage can be viewed from the perspective of Jesus and that of his disciples. How does it look from the perspective of your life or the lives of the others in the pericope? Is raising that perspective to the level of consciousness helpful to you? Transformative for you and beneficial for the rest of us?
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