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April 3, 2005 - Year A - Easter 2
Wesley White
Psalm 16
Ahh, when boundary lines fall in pleasant places! What fullness of joy!
This, of course, means that we have some understanding that such lines have not always fallen so.
A question is whether or not fullness of joy is yet possible when we find ourselves in dry places. Seemingly this is difficult to do. We beg for food and water in the desert and for cups of anticipated suffering to be removed.
What will we do when our agenda is not being met? when we are not getting our way? when our wisdom seems to count for naught? Will we proceed directly to open-eyed joy without passing blind despair?
The process here is not to shut our eyes in the midst of pain for ourselves or others. As the old spiritual has it, keep your eye on the prize. Wow, a prize is in sight. At least it is still in sight. That's a good carrot to keep joy in the tank and keep us from running on empty.
Now, what prize has caught your eye? World Peace? US out of Iraq? Getting through the next week? AIDS/HIV victims? Feeding tubes? Tsunami stations? Understanding Psalm 16? Social Security security? Theocracy? Personal Peace?
Wesley White
From http://www.reverendfun.com/ comes this cartoon that we are using in this week's bulletin. No there is no good reason.
Browse and see what strikes your eye.
Wesley White
Acts 2:14a, 22-32
There is much sound and fury here regarding Jesus' death and who is responsible for it: GOD or nonChristian Jews.
How much different would our history be if Peter had spoken of what he knew -- his own experience of Jesus of Nazareth and the difference new life made for him and how that might be possible for others who did not have his years of experience with Jesus -- instead we get deep theological constructs being built to set up a vast chasm between us'ns and you'ns.
There may be something to not letting preachers go to seminary, even a seminary taught by Jesus. As soon as they come out, so the accusation goes, they lose their humanity and talk about coming over to the "right" side instead of living righteously enough to do greater things than this Jesus.
In today's world we get altogether too much of this divide and conquer approach to life. Recently we have heard much about those "activist judges" and blame them for killing Terri in the same way that the Jews have been accused of killing Christ. When will we get down to wrestling through choices that don't set up such sides and recognize the limits of life? We are called to advocate for our perspective, but not at the expense of backing others into a corner and hammering them.
Now, as then, the issue of conflating religion with government is dangerous business.
Wesley White
In keeping with taking ourselves lightly so we can fly with the angels -
Humor is not just cute, it can also have a bite. For a mild example, try church satire.
Wesley White
1 Peter 1:3-9
Amazing - death (or is it a resurrection from death) becomes a source of mercy that bears the fruit of hope.
When we are merciful we are engaging our hope in the present situation. When we are hopeful we are building on experiences of mercy. These are the parenthesis of a resurrected life (Jesus', yours, any).
Whether receiving or offering mercy, we do so with joy. Whether living in hope or recognizing hope living in us, joy abounds where it would otherwise be barred.
We pray for the potential of mercy and hope to flourish in the death of Terri and the near-death of Karol.
Wesley White
Sometimes we need to see ourselves as the butt of humor. Here is a wonderful source of such many opportunities to practice an ability to see ourselves as others see us.
http://www.geocities.com/inquisitive79/humor.html
Wesley White
John 20:19-31
"Peace be with you" is a phrase that is always in order to be reflected upon and grown into.
Bouncing back to 14:27, it is an outcome of living with GOD, exemplified in Jesus and many. Moving forward to 15:4-10 and the emphasis upon mutual "abiding" it completes our joy (15:11) and leads to an expansion of that abiding with Jesus to abiding with one another, loving one another (15:17). Continuing further, it lays the groundwork for the openness needed to hear the more the Spirit will bring than we can currently bear to hear (16:12) and to gather courage to face persecution in any future event (16:33).
In reprising this in 20:21 and 20:26 we return to the mutual abiding of GOD/Jesus/disciples and the crucial aspect of forgiveness that opens us to love one another and to move past the past. Particularly, in Thomas' case, it opens to belief through the presence of being, not the probing of certainty.
All that to the side, if it can ever be far from the center of things in John's portrayal that has Jesus at peace enough that the Gethsemane prayer for an exemption is not present, "Jesus' Peace" is one of several ways to continue addressing current issues of clinging to life and accepting death that have been present with current media attention on Terri and Karol. It may be the balm we need in our time as Jesus/the 10/Thomas found it to be in their time.
April 10, 2005 - Year A - Easter 3
Wesley White
Acts 2:14a, 36-41
Psalm 116:1-4, 12-19
1 Peter 1:17-23
Luke 24:13-35
Opening our eyes to what is around us is difficult work. We get all caught up in the latest impingement upon our sphere of influence. To get in tune with a larger picture is to come to a resting place where we can breathe.
Wesley White
Luke 24:13-35
Progressive Christians have gone around hanging their heads, remembering the way life used to be, uncertain of their spiritual sensibilities in the midst of hostility toward them. Yes, we have been on an Emmaus walk.
It is not enough to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and say, "I'm not going to stand still any longer, I'm not going to be sad." Even if we could so pull ourselves up, it would only be for the briefest of moments, it wouldn't last.
Just as our namesakes of old there is the need for an organizing vision that not only puts our past in perspective but brings the energy to gather with folks of like mind and together move on.
We pray that the Methodist Federation for Social Action gathering, Voices of Faith: From Swords to Plowshares just completed will have proved to have been an Emmaus table moment that moves them on.
We pray that the Peace Not Poverty gathering of one million people online to create a written Declaration for peace and justice and against the Iraq War will bear much fruit. The developed declaration is to be read tonight at Riverside Church 7-9 pm EDT as we continue to Break the Silence. The current plan is for this event to be shown on C-SPAN - check your listings.
I pray we are doing more than just chatting with one another here but that energy is being developed to gather as we can and move forward into living the gracious love of GOD.
Wesley White
1 Peter 1:17-23
It is easy to turn to one another and have a pity party. There is enough that goes awry in any day that we could take the rest of the time to go back over and over an injustice or to plan and plan how to avoid this same event from ever happening again. Surely you see it in others. Sound familiar in your life?
A trick here is to recognize the awry will have its time and place to shine and claim victory and power. Even so, we can let it go its way while we pay attention to that which is ever so much more satisfying -- expressing mutual love, from the heart, for one another and for the awry. In touch with a spirit of new life we are able, again and again, to draw a larger circle of life than anger, embarrassment, and fear would expect from us.
Wesley White
Psalm 116:1-4, 12-19
An ear of the Universe has been turned in our direction. That which burns within us, but is yet inarticulate, is listened into being. The cry for meaning takes shape from an appeal for simple escape to a participation in service.
What is interpretation of scripture but the listening for the deep desire and finding ways to respond to it in such a manner that it becomes clear. This clarity becomes a clarion call to action.
It is so easy to have interpretation mean "spin," trying to get someone to see things in a very particular way.
The more difficult and useful approach to interpretation is mutually discovering what it is that ties us together so we can see through one another's eyes. In this way being saved leads directly to being in service and being served (each in their own time which sometimes is the same time).
Wesley White
Acts 2:14a, 36-41
All who are called are welcome.
Can you imagine someone not called by GOD to life and life renewed and life eternal? If you can you've slipped into the strange land of judgment that will come around to bite.
To be devoted to good news (rather than Fox or other media-driven news), to fellowship (all the way to sharing of possessions), to ritualize (connecting to the presence of GOD through memory of previous connections), and to contemplate (more than we yet know) is to open oneself to the mystery of renewal. In these basics we open our eyes to more than our self and are ready to engage it to deepen peace and to widen mercy.
So, say, you have an opportunity to raise your voice in a gathering, what several points would you have as your goal? Would they include assisting others in catching a new vision of themselves and their relationships? intentionally gathering folks together to explore their heart-level connections? aiding folks in sticking with spiritual disciplines over the long haul? exploring the "more" of life?
Hopefully you are reminded for at least the third time today that it is possible to live at peace and in mercy with everyone (whether they live that way toward you or not).
Wesley White
1 Peter 1:17-23
I appreciate the way in which Peter uses Jesus as a vehicle whereby we might ground our faith and hope on GOD. All too often we get caught up with Jesus rising by his own bootstraps, nepotism, or intrinsic worth.
In seeing the arc of Jesus' story we can come to trust GOD's presence with him, and, by extension, with us.
This "trust," rather than some construct we call "truth," allows the gift of mutual love.
Trust on even when those about you are untrustworthy! It's the Jesus way.
Wesley White
Luke 24:13-35
Somewhere from here (either 60 stadia or 160 stadia) we have wandered. Our wandering included our muttering about all the imponderable "why?" questions of life. We look at it this way; we look at it that way; we look some other way.
Somewhere from here our reflections become our main attraction. We just love our speculations. Why are we the only ones to have our experience and insight?
Living in the realm of the speculative seduces us away from opening our eyes to a world just outside our cave.
Living in the realm of the speculative is artificially exciting. It takes all our time and energy to package the unknowable into some world-view and to protect it from the latest learning.
The antidote for this is to hear our internal excitement described as "foolish, dull, slow in both mind and heart." If that much can get through, even an everyday activity such as eating together can become numinous.
Now we have a purpose that will bring us back here to where we began and to see it again for the first time. And now we find those others who are also first seers. We can join forces by going our own ways with new eyes to see who isn't here and break from doctrinal and polity straitjackets to fire their hearts and imaginations.
April 17, 2005 - Year A - Easter 4
Wesley White
April 17, 2005
Acts 2:42-47
Psalm 23
1 Peter 2:19-25
John 10:1-10
Where do you find life to the full?
What are the blockages for abundant life?
Between these two we find ministry: enhancing shalom, breaking barriers.
Wesley White
John 10:1-10
Living with integrity is prelude to living fully.
Consider again what it means to be faithful in small matters as an indicator of being faithful in larger matters. To be about the business of shortcuts to life is to short circuit an appreciation for the wrestling with joy of life. Shortcuts are more about our own immediate pleasures than honoring the past or building for the future. Shortcuts probably have their place, but as a bridge connecting our ancestors to our descendants, it is pretty flimsy.
Day by day, opening one gate at a time, we bring our ancestors along to greet our descendants. There is no fast way to do this. To jump into the sheepfold brings wrongful energy. To see the goal of abundance, rather than scarcity, is to set out on a path of building community infrastructure rather personal wealth. This orientation does eventually lead to both communal and personal benefit (and, no, working the other way around doesn't even bring a trickle of security or peace).
Wesley White
1 Peter 2:19-25
Woe be to the preacher that doesn't start with verse 18. This important context of involuntary servitude is crucial to keep us out of all the issues of abuse that are not in such a context.
In the context of not having a choice, the choice of suffering rather than death can make sense. Elseways the choice of suffering rather than not suffering is nonsense.
It is all too easy for Peter's language to turn into a polemic for hierarchic continuance. It doesn't even have to be the intention of the speaker. Our culture predisposes listeners to hear it even when not meant.
For those who live in a world of choice have a special responsibility to not give solace to those who abuse those who have no felt choice. In particular it is the crucial for males in our culture to finally say to other males that abuse of women and children is unmanly.
Wesley White
Psalm 23
The New Interpreter's Study Bible notes: "Although often used in funeral services, this psalm is more about God-centered living than it is about death. Its unmistakable depiction of intimacy with God is effected by its basic image: God and a single sheep, not a flock; God the host and a single guest."
In a more humorous vein, it is intriguing to note that it is the leadership of YHWH that brings the sheep into a dark valley. It is not the wandering sin of the sheep, but the leadership of GOD that leads to such a pass.
Just as Sheol is not empty of GOD, so a dark valley is filled with GOD. And so the image of great abundance in the midst of seeming loss is available to us at any moment. We can remember joys of yesteryear, anticipate greater maturity of tomorrow, and revision current pain in their light.
This is not a psalm of quiet trust that all will be well, even again, ever anew, but an energy to actively engage current turmoil from a position of "safety" beyond safety. As such it is not about death, but life.
Wesley White
Acts 2:42-47
To have all things in common is to act out what it means to seek the common good.
But do we have all things in common, even within a congregation? What example can you give that will live beyond a moment in time, a specific case?
Wherever we look we find the Common Good as a mantra that covers all manner of greed and advantage. An extended article by Arundhati Roy details one river valley in India and how devastating "the common good" argument can get.
Roy writes: "The millions of displaced people in India are nothing but refugees of an unacknowledged war. And we, like the citizens of White America and French Canada and Hitler's Germany, are condoning it by looking away. Why? Because we're told that it's being done for the sake of the Greater Common Good. That it's being done in the name of Progress, in the name of National Interest (which, of course, is paramount). Therefore gladly, unquestioningly, almost gratefully, we believe what we're told. We believe that it benefits us to believe.
"Allow me to shake your faith. Put your hand in mine and let me lead you through the maze. Do this, because it's important that you understand. If you find reason to disagree, by all means take the other side. But please don't ignore it, don't look away."
It benefits us to believe we are personally engaged in the common good. It is an anesthetic that allows us to continue setting boundaries of acceptable pain and avoid the specific consequences of our self-justified "well-intended" acts. We do this in regard to human sexuality, setting up glbt persons as second-class citizens, automatically consigning them to categories of vice. We do this with the invisible civilian casualties in every war, including the currently continuing one in Iraq. We do this with health care and education and pensions and environment and the list goes on. In the name of the common good, someone must take a back seat.
It would indeed be an occasion for awe to see folks living with everything, including power and control, being held in common. Where are the descendants of this brief moment in time? Is it simply an ideal, like Jubilee, that shields us from continuing to be active in its pursuit for the sake of others?
Let's look again and move away from a bumper sticker arguments for some generalized common good and look at specifics where the devil resides and keeps us confused.
Wesley White
1 Peter 2:19-25
Verse 19 - Be aware of God
Verse 23 - No abuse
These are hidden in all the talk about suffering, whether unjust or just.
Was Jesus aware of GOD? Was Jesus' decision not to abuse a result of this awareness?
If this is an If:Then process, the question needs to be raised about what awareness we have of GOD and what awareness of GOD we are modeling that will reduce abuse -- Mercy G-O-D, disabuse us of the validity of abuse.
Some of this will be choices we make about awareness (is awareness a growing awareness, a dim awareness, a paused awareness). Some will be what we are aware of in GOD (aware of suffering, aware of loving anyway, aware of gotcha). Some will depend on our awareness of our awareness.
For Progressive Christians there is a direct link between GOD and Intentional Nonviolence.
Wesley White
John 10:1-10
If, as some say, this passage begins a verse earlier (9:41 -- "Jesus said to them, 'If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say, "we see," your sin remains.'") it makes sense that this story was not understood.
To anyone who has a sense of being a gatekeeper, this story of a different gate and gatekeeper claiming that they are the 'real' gate doesn't make sense. It can't make sense and still have folks believe what they have believed, act on what they have known works often enough.
Can we hear the debates within the present church as everyone claiming the right of gatekeeping?
If so, how do you understand the role of gatekeeper to the shepherd who claims to be a gate? Does the gatekeeper open all manner of gates to various shepherds who aren't yet able to recognize each other?
The sheepfold becomes no less than another image for the Garden of Eden with all the temptations to know I'm right and another is wrong.
At this point it may be important to affirm what we know to be true without doing battle with those who are affirming a different truth. This process doesn't guarantee one affirmation eventually taking precedence over another (even if mine is larger and more beautiful than yours). This doesn't even suggest that one's affirmation may not be the occasion for being put to death. Yet, affirming the gate that is known is important.
Hopefully we will eventually get to the point of affirming that our shepherd's voice does change. This is a natural growth process as our next Shepherd, Friend, or Counsellor leads us further than our previous shepherd. I hope we can hear a dream of maturing in this story that challenges every picture of settled righteousness.
April 24, 2005 - Year A - Easter 5
Wesley White
April 24, 2005
Acts 7:55-60
Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16
1 Peter 2:2-10
John 14:1-14
This would be a good time to again reflect on the tension in the scriptures between GOD's steadfast love for all of creation and our tendency to limit that to those who can be identified as being within the fold of doing/being what they are supposed to do or be.
Wesley White
John 14:1-14
As John begins to formally close Jesus' life with an extended Minnesota good-bye there are memories that come flooding back from earlier times.
The whole conversation about "the way" hearkens back to Nicodemus in the night. Way? Again? Above? Huh? And we haven't come much farther.
Questions of seeing "Father" reminds us of Photina, the Samaritan woman at the well. Is this "Father" on this mountain or that?
Finally there is the issue of doing greater things. Oh, how Fundamentalists distrust this passage. How can it get any better than it was? Will we best Jesus in tricking Satan? Will we best Jesus in physical comedy (physical miracles) and bring health juice out of wine? Will we best Jesus and find a category of love beyond God, self, neighbor, one another, enemies and will it have to do with bodies as well as spirits? Will we best Jesus as knowing what lies ahead, be able to project the consequences of our behavior? Etc.?
Wesley White
1 Peter 2:2-10
If we are hungry we will eat most anything, including dirt. It doesn't matter what we taste as long as it seems as if it is helping fill the void. We may long for the tastiest and most nutritious foods, but, given the circumstances of scarcity most folks experience or are taught, we settle for what can be scrounged, we don't hold out for better.
The same seems to be true about religion, faith, spiritual matters. We may have tasted a moment of the expansive love of GOD but find that our experiences and learnings, overall, cause us to doubt that such really occurred and not to strive after more.
A part of our work is to continue witnessing to the goodness of life and constructing new vehicles for dissemination of recognitions of such goodness. This is more than just putting out another Guideposts knockoff or one more volume of Chicken Soup. It is going to take the same energy, dedication, and creativity that it takes to organize a union in a company town.
Wesley White
Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16
Ratz. I still need refuge.
Into your hand (left-brained right hand) I commit my spirit. Yes, I know that is the one that lays the law to the spirit.
And yet I look for some steadfast love beyond our usual religious experience that will lead us to a flaw in the net drawing tighter round our necks. Through the blessing of relativity may our creative imaginations be emboldened to move past every attempt to enforce some commonsense natural law or the other. We look for a right-brained, left hand to snatch us from that right hand that keeps forgetting what the left is doing.
Wesley White
Acts 7:55-60
Have you had teeth ground at you? What was your response?
Did you grind back? Did you see a better vision and witness to it?
What constitutes your better vision? Is forgiveness for yourself and others included in it? To what degree? To your first degree of relationships? your sixth?
In some sense this scene is about a martyr. It is also a stop on the way from least to greatest for the coming story of Saul/Paul. Out of Stephen's death grows a new shoot from the deadened root of Saul. Even as we recognize this we know that we are somehow glossing over the pain of others who are still being hurt by the religious righteousness of those who so clearly see deficiencies of everyone else. This phenomena is as ancient as Cain and Abel and as recent as Save Straight Marriage Proposals or preemptive wars based on false information.
An important part of the puzzle of life is how we are going live and die in the midst of such deadly jousting over so little.
In the current scriptural record, Stephen is the second disciple of Jesus to die. Judas was first and showed Jesus against a backdrop of unmet expectations. Stephen was next and showed Jesus against a backdrop of transfigured glory.
We have both Judas and Stephen within us. Are we giving up or moving on?
Wesley White
1 Peter 2:2-10
"Once you were not, now you are." This conversion experience is very powerful. It can set us apart from other and get us in to "I'm OK, you're defective" decision-making that leads to crusades, witch-burnings, inquisitions, and other creedal or religious-right theocracies. There are signs that we are moving back into one of these cycles.
The antidote to this pridefulness of self (that we all to easily deflect into pride in our God who is always right and needs us to be "his" hammer or enforcer) is the very next line here that is so hard to hear -- "Once you knew not mercy, now you do." Every opportunity for mercy (even if it comes in the form of Greek widows who are not receiving their share in a community that affirms "all received according to their need") pulls us that much closer together in our living, not in our goose-stepping. Mercy can get us in trouble like it did for Jesus and Stephen, but it is the kind of trouble we can't do without.
Merciful ones arise! You have nothing to lose. Period.
Wesley White
John 14:1-14
To know a name is to have power over that which is named. This is a well-attested understanding from days of yore. Obviously if you ask it in Jesus' name, then Jesus will do it. This is pretty straight forward cause and effect.
But this Jesus guy can be pretty tricky. Which of the many ways Jesus is identified is going to be the control mechanism. If you go, "Hey, Jesus" and that day he's going by "Word", whatcha gonna do?
Consider this format for your asking.
- Identify what aspect of GOD you need to be in relation to for a particular purpose and call to that.
- State your asking in one simple sentence - no dependent clauses, parenthetical statements, or metaphors.
- Say, "Thank you" and "Amen."
This is almost as simple and difficult as a breath prayer. Try it for a week and see what happens.
- - - - - - -
A second way of using names is that of identification. To know what to ask for and from whom to ask put you in a direct one-to-one relationship. What we have here is Sympathetic Magic. A way of understanding this is that asking in Jesus' name connects Jesus to us and us to Jesus -- we are in him and he is in us. And, Jujitsu, the greater things Jesus said we would do we are doing.
This leads to the question of whether there is anything greater to ask than exemplify the divinity in which we were created and intended. Well. If that is asked for, it is to be lived: in the asking is the doing. This turns out to be our participation in the creation calls that end with the recognition, "It is good."
Ask. Act.
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