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February 6, 2005 - Year A - Epiphany Last/Transfiguration
Wesley White
February 6, 2005
Exodus 24:12-18
Psalm 2 or Psalm 99
2 Peter 1:16-21
Matthew 17:1-9
What does it take for you to know you are "beloved"?
Where Everybody Knows Your Name
by Gary Portnoy and Judy Hart Angelo - Cheers Lyrics
music
Making your way in the world today takes everything you've got.
Taking a break from all your worries, sure would help a lot.
Wouldn't you like to get away?
Sometimes you want to go
Where everybody knows your name,
and they're always glad you came.
You wanna be where you can see, our troubles are all the same
You wanna be where everybody knows
Your name.
You wanna go where people know, people are all the same,
You wanna go where everybody knows your name.
Making your way in the world today
Takes everything you've got;
Taking a break from all your worries
Sure would help a lot.
Wouldn't you like to get away?
All those night when you've got no lights,
The check is in the mail;
And your little angel
Hung the cat up by it's tail;
And your third fiance didn't show;
Sometimes you want to go
Where everybody knows your name,
And they're always glad you came;
You want to be where you can see,
Our troubles are all the same;
You want to be where everybody knows your name.
Roll out of bed, Mr. Coffee's dead;
The morning's looking bright;
And your shrink ran off to Europe,
And didn't even write;
And your husband wants to be a girl;
Be glad there's one place in the world
Where everybody knows your name,
And they're always glad you came;
You want to go where people know,
People are all the same;
You want to go where everybody knows your name.
Where everybody knows your name,
And they're always glad you came;
Where everybody knows your name,
And they're always glad you came...
- - - - - - -
Or an internet version:
*Where Everybody Knows Your Nick*
by Mark A.Cooper
Making your way on the 'net today
Takes everything you've got
Taking a break from all the spammers
Sure would help a lot.
Wouldn't you like to get away?
Getting vexed when you can't connect,
And no-one's sent you mail;
And it seems there's no downloading
Without credit-card details;
And your newsgroup postings didn't show;
Sometimes you want to go
Where everybody knows your nick
And channel bombers make you sick
You want to be on IRC
Although your friends call you lame
You want to be where no-one knows your real name...
Roll out of bed, and your modem's dead
The morning's looking bright;
Your PC is knackered, despite the fact
You virus-checked all night;
Your 'net girlfriend says that she's a guy;
Why don't you go and try
Where everybody knows your nick
And channel bombers make you sick
You want to be on IRC
Although your friends call you lame
You want to be where no-one knows your real name...
Wesley White
Matthew 17:1-9
Some six days before this transfigurational scene we are told Jesus says, "There are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in kingdom glory."
Sometimes we equate some final point with GOD's Power Enforced, excluding everything else, with a final form of a Kingdom of God. This transitional space of six days (a whole creation's worth of time) reminds us of the in-process nature of GOD and ourselves. "Let there be light," shines forth. And yet it is not a demanding light. It is a light that can be hidden until some later time.
Often this is seen as a scene of such power and glory that we are reinforced in our "worminess", overcome and squirming on the ground. We have just come off a rebuke to Peter about his hesitancy to affirm the trinity of going to suffer, dying, and rising. This could well be a reinforcement of that rebuke. "Silly old disciples," Christopher Robin might have said.
For today, at least, let us glory in a glory that doesn't have to Lord-It-Over another not at the same place we are. May we pass on the favor shown us as we encourage one another and others, to "get up and not be afraid."
Dave Stratton
This got me to thinking that the Kingdom of God is Being Built Now and in us. How does our day lived help others experience the Kingdom now and into eternity?
Lloyd Shepherd
I no longer (if I ever did) find the Kingdom of God metaphor satisfying. There seems to be a lot of effort spent in telling us what the Kingdom of God is about, but little of it fits a kingdom metaphor. The image of God (or Christ) as King does not work for me.
Wesley White
Lloyd - I, too, struggle with imagery for a picture of what Walter Rauschenbusch called the "synthesis of all divine forces in humanity" or Ken Wilbur calls "deep spirituality." I'd appreciate your reflection on what you think the old language of "Kingdom of God" signifies for those who value it and how that significance might be translated or transformed for those to whom it simply doesn't compute.
Lynn Scott
I know of other cultures that have reframed that language into "kin-dom" of God. For me, it becomes more relational, more horizontal than vertical, and more connected with one another and everything. An experience in which I know the Presence of God because relationship with one another is whole and full - we are "kin." Something that I know is "near" and also "not yet."
Wesley White
2 Peter 1:16-21
We know what we know. Our eyewitness is the key to the whole murder mystery. It is no mythery, we heard the conversation about belovedness as though we were in the same room.
Surely one of the great detectives would ask, "Sounds like you were earwitnesses."
Whatever. One of the great motives is love spurned. When God sang out "And you are my Beloved" all those other suitors heard themselves being rejected. The passion came from that of being a rejected lover.
Our eye/earwitness was not an interpretation. What we saw and heard was what there was to see and hear. Our experience led to our belief and our belief now leads our experience. Presuming the premise sure makes belief easier. In fact we no longer have any use for doubt -- what is spoken by God is understood by us, so listen up as we tell you what God says -- doubt not.
In your experience of today's church, how are we doing with the issue of interpretation? Does an interpretation by a majority make it more true than an interpretation by a small group? What is our "eyewitness" experience that affirms a multiplication of belovedness, not a scarcity of same? A part of our witness may be the injury caused by Peter's very assurance of his rightness and his preemptive use of God-Truth that denies an alternative experience. Peter's transfigurational experience is not the basis of my "morning star" experience.
Luther was ready to do without James. The New Interpreter's Study Bible intro says 2 Peter is "among the least read of the biblical canon." I'm prepared follow in Luther's steps: claim 2 Peter to be a house of rigidity we can do without.
Wesley White
Psalm 2 or Psalm 99
Holy Hill! Holy Mountain! Holy, Holy, Holy! Holy Land!
We do invest our spaces with meaning. Our restaurant or my space. We find the unremarkable has become remarkable, the mundane is sacralized. This process goes on and on.
When we look around we find the mountain is not a single entity but a seven-story event. We find our hill is not a molehill but an occasion to play King of the Mountain and compete with each other for preeminence.
Transfigurations can move contrariwise and we can find our laughter not being laughter with someone but against them in derision. Our experience of forgiveness can turn quickly to avenging past wrongs without ever getting to healing or restoration. Mercy received is not passed on. This may be why, in casual conversation, if you toss in the word "transfiguration" it is so easily heard as "disfiguration."
Mountain top experiences are real, but short-lived. Usually we recognize that who we were coming up the mountain also goes back down. A healer before, a healer after. A rascal before, a rascal after. It is the unusual experience, even of transfiguring moments, that sets a different course. When we look back on the best of our transfiguring moments we can see they were more in the interpretation than the actual event. May we be good interpreters of the experiences which come our way. May we be good interpreters of the experiences of others.
Wesley White
Exodus 24:12-18
I expect that Moses had some sense of the communication media of his day and if he heard there were going to be tablets (plural) of stone regarding laws and commandments he might wonder about his physical strength to bring them back. Did brawny Joshua go along for toting purposes since Aaron and Hur were tuckered out from earlier holding up Moses' arms? Elsewhere it is recorded that there were two stone tablets. That might just be manageable. But do you see the rules and regulations of chapters 25-31. Were these just verbal commands not related to the two stone tablets of testimony, covenant, witness mentioned at the end of chapter 31? If they are part of the deal then, if Moses was to carry them, the writing was mighty small leaving folks to argue over whether that squiggle was of the writing or a crack in the stone and so one way it means one thing and the other, another. Or, the tablets were not the swallowable kind, but a huge, immovable tableau.
We have so bought into the imagery of things being carved in stone, good for eternity no matter what else might change, including changes with the carver, that we don't know how to keep that picture in tension with the experience of a devouring fire that could even dissolve stone tablets.
It turns out that much of the injury of the church (both to itself and others) has to do with this business of stone and fire. One set of folks is sure it is one and others sure it is the other. To be caught between the devil and the deep-blue sea or a rock and a hard-place is kid's play in comparison to finding oneself between stone and fire. This being in the presence of the symbols of the law and the prophets (Moses and Elijah) requires a transformation, a transfiguration, that life between these polarities might remain steadfast in the presence of faithlessness -- that of calf-dancing or inept healing or whatever you are having to deal with. Blessings upon us as we deal with the building of new land from lava, burning stone.
Wesley White
2 Peter 1:16-21
In these days we hear much about lack of self-esteem. This comes about in many, many ways -- as many ways as there are temptations. The result is division within one's self and between folks.
This text claims that honor any glory (the opposite of lack of self-esteem without going over to narcissism) come when words such as "beloved" and "pleased" are professed and claimed.
Not everyone who holds a prophetic or progressive stance comes out of a healthy sense of self, creation, GOD. Those who do find themselves strengthened in their firm but gentle interaction with life. Those who don't are never satisfied and never give other ways of living a chance.
If you are up to it, pretend you are a voice from heaven whose purpose is to say "you are my beloved" and "I am well pleased with you" so many times that the world in general and those encountered will not again forget and that when folks think about how to describe you they will talk about you as the "beloved" person or the "pleased" person. These qualities belong to us together --they are to describe others as well as ourself. Eventually this sort of activity will both make a difference and lead to some form of crucifixion (there's the surprise non-ending).
Beloved is as beloved does. Pleased is as pleased does. So, be beloved and pleased. See and evoke such in others.
Wesley White
Matthew 17:1-9
When Moses came down a mountain he came with lots of words for the folks to form a single people out of a complaining lot. When Jesus came down a mountain he came with silence.
Three times the companions and infinitely more quiet.
This may be because Jesus could count on the words of Moses continuing to echo and he could play off of them to good effect.
This may be because Jesus knew that his way to relationship with GOD was altogether different than that of Moses and each situation needed its own care not a fitting into some panacea. This gets acted out as a first act after coming down. Issues of faith (Matthew), prayer (Mark), or action (Luke) seem not to be transformable into technique or doctrine. This particular healing needed a different approach than the disciples yet knew. I am sure they did their best to implement what Jesus had taught. The difficulty was in being able to take what they had learned and go beyond it. In some sense it is this "going beyond" that is the measure of learning, not simply measuring up to some standardized test.
One of the ironies in all this is that this process is very rabbinic. His own tradition of applying old rules to new situations did in his experience of needing new understandings for old situations.
This day will present an opportunity to test our "learning beyond" our course of study. Will we get up, unafraid, and risk testing our learning or not? I pray we will -- again, as we have before.
February 9, 2005 - Year A - Ash Wednesday
Wesley White
February 9, 2005
Joel 2:1-2, 12-17 or Isaiah 58:1-12
Psalm 51:1-17
2 Corinthians 5:20b - 6:10
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
Fast that we might love GOD - pray.
Fast that we might love our neighbor - give alms.
That is sufficient purpose for fasting.
What would get in our way of these intentions? Almost anything, you say? Well, besides that?
Let's refocus.
Wesley White
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
Moving from Sunday's message of coming down the mountain to continue the ministry to which one is called - experiences by Moses, Elijah, Jesus, etc. - to next Sunday's look at temptations awary from that very ministry takes us through mini-ministries and mini-temptations.
A ministry of alms is an honorable ministry. Temptations abound to have that ministry turn from service to self-aggrandizement.
A ministry of prayer is an honorable ministry. Temptations abound to have that ministry turn from healing to curing.
A ministry of fasting is an honorable ministry. Temptations abound to have that ministry turn from a means to an end.
There is nothing good that can't be subverted for some seemingly good purpose. Constant vigilance is the price of spiritual maturity.
Pastor Henry
We were reminded on the mountain that Moses and Elijah were still alive. They met and conferred with Jesus. If they are, then we shall be, if so what matter of lives ought we to live when we enter the valley or the wilderness, knowig that we too shall live with Him who is our Savior. Can we learn from the valleys that there are some things that can only happen as a result of prayer and fasting? Can we learn that the way to win in the wilderness is to depend on the Spoken Word, The Living Word, and having that Word hid in our hearts. Opportunities will come. Temptations will come. Do we believe that the Christ we saw on the mountain will enable us to live in the valley or in the wilderness?
Wesley White
Thanks, Henry. It is important to link our mountain top experiences with our valleys and wildernesses. One construct is certainly that of belief. Another way of coming at that is whether we experience the Christ of the mountain walking with us as we live in the valley or wilderness. Some are attuned to the ideals of belief descending to transform the situation they are in and others seem to better resonate to the practicalities of living from the bottom up. Whichever way folks are wired or gifted it is good to be able to faithfully respond to the the opportunities available.
Wesley White
2 Corinthians 5:20b - 6:10
Paul claims to put no obstacles in anyone's way. Except, of course, claiming that commendation of pride that comes by coming through difficulties. It seems these hardships were not temptations to stop what Paul was doing but competitions urging him to victory. I wonder what Paul would acknowledge as an obstacle and whether he would be a good judge of what others experienced as such.
In some sense we do put obstacles in each other's ways. Sometimes we call them temptations and sometimes they are simply a desire to be ultra-meaningful, to have a corner on meaning.
This all ends up with an appeal to have an open heart. It is that characteristic of Jesus that we continually are being tempted away from. We will put up with almost any difficulty but the difficulty of vulnerability. Almost anything can tempt us away from open-heartedness. So we focus on alms and charity rather than living with the current poor in such a manner that they won't continue poor. We focus on praying for folks without ever thinking of living with them through challenges to oppressive structures. We focus on formal seasons of fasting, whether for a meal a week or a lunar month of Ramadan or 40 days of Lent, rather than fasting for justice, and pay attention to little fasts avoiding chocolate when we could better fast in order to purchase and distribute Fair Trade Chocolate.
What obstacles do we want to put in the way of others that will open their hearts and what obstacles do we not want to put in the way of others that will harden them? This is a worthy investigation by which we begin another Lenten season.
Wesley White
Joel 2:1-2, 12-17 or Isaiah 58:1-12
Psalm 51:1-17
We have had difficult days. We have done our best to influence God through our fasting and prayers. That hasn't worked.
"Well, of course not, these are not techniques to manipulate but relationship deepeners. If you keep going at things the way you have been, things are going to be far worse than they are."
Have mercy! Our sacrifices haven't gotten us what we desired. Now we have to choose to keep at what we find to sometimes get us what we want or risk a whole new way that brings no guarantee that it will be as effective as our current results, sometimes.
"Injustice always, eventually, leads to difficulty for all. If your fasts and prayers are not intimately connected with justice, they are ultimately useless."
Have mercy! We are discontent with the current state of affairs and afraid to change for the better because it might not be.
"You didn't arrive overnight at our current position of being damned if you stay the same and scared to be different. Give this one thing an adequate test of three generations -- share your bread with the hungry. You shall then be called "the repairers of the breach" and your healing shall spring up quickly.
Have mercy! Let us gather the people. Call a solemn assembly to refind our joy of being connected, for better and for worse, with one another and GOD. Perhaps we might yet be mercy!
February 13, 2005 - Year A - Lent 1
Wesley White
February 13, 2005
Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7
Psalm 32
Romans 5:12-19
Matthew 4:1-11
Ahh, sweet temptation. Were it otherwise it wouldn't tempt us to find a shortcut to pleasure or advantage. How are you doing with your tempts - those with your name and those you place before others?
Wesley White
Matthew 4:1-11
Want to know your heart's desire? Pay attention to your temptations. Does it have something to do with your carnality (no, not limited to sexuality)? How about your ego needs? Might it have something to do with a need for eternity?
A temptation is seldom as straight-forward and identifiable as such. It covers itself in the guise of a shortcut that will advance the desire without being seen. Who's going to know if Jesus has a bite of bread out in the wilderness. He is just not popular enough at this point to have paparazzi hounding him. Won't it get him through and give him the strength to battle the big temptations? This is such a small thing.
The medium has been the message all along. Seldom has power lost power by skimping on spectacle. If we are going to grab people's hearts, we better get their heads turning in our direction. Show votes, but no coffins. Accuse Sponge Bob Squarepants or Tinky Winky, but not economic systems that widen the gap between rich and poor.
In our area, the demographics of the most frequent family style includes this description: "Fewer than the national average indicated that they would rather be left on their own without interference from a leader." If I can get my head around that awkward syntax I think it might mean that more folks here desire guidance from a leader who will tell them what to think, feel, and do. Issues of authority abound and if someone can only get group-think to get a leg up in a culture’s fable of independence, freedom, and liberty, it is game-set-match. Leader worship is very powerful and hard to turn down.
Where do you think your vulnerability to temptation rests? The strength of temptation is to take your self-assessment into account and move through another avenue. So, it is always time to evaluate what our desires are and to involve the community in that evaluation. This is tough because investigating our vulnerability to temptation is very embarrassing to folks who worked so hard to achieve the knowledge of good and evil. We should know this stuff, and that very stance is our downfall.
Let's be gentle, but straight-forward, with one another about these matters. (Everyone, that is, but the current writer, who greatly avoids such revelation - hope you're doing better.)
Pastor Henry
"Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against God." The victory I seek is available, if I am willing to spend time in the Word. That is a problem. All of the pressures to do things take my time and keep me from know what the Word says. So I may yeild before I realized the true consequences of my actions. Having bread at hand may keep me from relying on Him for my daily bread. I may be tempted to try a publilicity stunt without ever praying and asking for guidence in the matter. (After all I had a dead line to meet if I were going to get in in the paper.) Do we really belive that the scriptures can be our guide? Isn't that a bid old fashion? Does God work like that today? Doesn't He expect me trust my urges to lead me right? Where did all those thoughts come from if they did not come from Him? You mean that Satan is at work using the same avenunes that God does?
Wesley White
Ah, sweet time, there's just so little of it. There is a wonderful little fable, Momo, by Michael Ende that treats the pressures of time in a marvelous way. It turns out that saving time simply puts us in a greater pressure cooker to save more and more time and pay less and less attention to whatever "victory" is about. Read Momo and see what she thinks victory is.
Of course temptations mimic good ends. If the best ends are GOD's then the best temptations come extremely close to these so it seems we are on a helpful path when we aren't. Pilgrim's Progress is another imaginative way to come at this. It is probably good to get Lent off on the right foot by clarifying how common sense good can turn out not to be so good for anyone. You can use almost any political decision in recent memory (no matter how far back recent seems to you) to look at the stated intentions and the reality of the unrecognized and, perhaps, unintended consequences. A practical Lenten discipline is to ask what the temptation is present in any current political decision-making.
Wesley White
Romans 5:12-19
Here Paul affirms that one-causes-many. This is the domino effect. You simply have to get the chain started and it will fall into place. All the effort and blame/fame belong to the start of a reaction. All subsequent consequences are attributable to the starter.
Another approach is leadership-by-modeling. When we model distrust, fear, embarrassment those who witness it find themselves distrusting back in order to protect themselves. However this chain reaction can be stopped anywhere along the way. We do not have to fatalistically follow what has gone before.
We can also model trust, peace, and gracious hospitality. One of the greater things Jesus would have us to is break the train of causality. An eye for an eye can move beyond retribution to reconciliation and love of enemy.
One of the strongest temptations is the temptation of habit -- "It has been this way and so it will be." A part of the power of habit is the locus of our authority to keep on keeping on with our keeping on. If survival has been our authority, we will keep at it. If scripture has been our authority, we will keep at it. If status quo has been our authority, we will keep at it. In each case, and any others, we end up defending our authority more than we do facing the choice of whether or not this is still life-filling in this situation. We are aware that Jesus intentionally went against survival as an authority by going to Jerusalem. We know that he also went beyond scripture with his, "But I say to you" and offering a Holy Spirit to continue teaching us beyond his beyond. We know that he challenged the status quo of hometowns, kings, and death.
My trespasses have been a stumbling block to others (sinner that I am). My righteousness has been life giving to others (saint that I am). Can we get beyond an either/or between ancestor Adam and descendant Christ. If GOD can repent and Jesus be forsaken, might we not look deeper than pat formulas?
Wesley White
Psalm 32
Blessed are those forgiven the choice of following temptation.
Blessed are those able to now clarify the temptation facing them.
Blessed are those whose temptations have been chosen against.
Blessed are those steadfast in choosing against temptation.
Wesley White
Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7
Santa Claus: Ladies and gentlemen: if you all have been
deceived by some impostor -- so have I.
And so has every man and woman, I say.
I say it, and you feel it in your hearts:
we are all of us no longer glad and whole,
we have all of us sold our spirits into death,
we are all of us the sick parts of a sick things,
we have all of us lost our living honesty,
and so we are all of us not any more ourselves.
-- Who can tell truth from falsehood any more?
I say it, and you feel it in your hearts:
no man or woman on this big small earth.
-- How should our sages miss the mark of life,
and our most skillful players lose the game?
your hearts will tell you, as my heart has told me:
because all know, and no one understands.
-- O, we are all so very full of knowing
that we are empty; empty of understanding;
but, by that emptiness, I swear to you
(and if I lie, ladies and gentlemen,
hand me a little higher than the sky)
all men and every woman may be wrong;
but nobody who lives can fool a child.
--Now I'll abide by the verdict of that little girl
over there, with the yellow hair and the blue eyes.
I'll simply ask her who I am; and whoever
she says I am, I am: is that fair enough?
Voices: Okay! sure! Why not? Fine! A swell idea!
The kid will tell him who he is, all right!
Everybody knows!
Santa Claus: -- Silence! ( To Child ) Don't be afraid:
who am I?
Child: You are Santa Claus.
Voices: . . . Santa Claus?
Chorus: Ha-ha-ha-ha -- there ain't no Santa Claus!
Santa Claus: Then ladies and gentlemen, I don't exist.
And since I don't exist, I am not guilty.
And since I am not guilty, I am innocent.
--Goodbye! And, next time, look before you leap.
e.e. cummings
Wesley White
Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7
This note came in a listserve I listen to: "The collection of Bonhoeffer's writing that ended up being published as *Ethics* begins with the premise that whereas secular ethics are based on the knowledge of good and evil, Christian ethics are based on the will of God, not on our own discernment."
We do tend to get hung up on knowing good and evil and trying to choose between. It may be that is a false choice. Follow this link if you are interested in an online article that reviews Bonhoeffer's Ethics.
To get into an argument about good and evil presses us to make a ruling so the descriptive nude must become judged as naked. [NAKED suggests absence of protective or ornamental covering but may imply a state of nature, of destitution, or of defenselessness (poor half-naked children). NUDE applies especially to the unclothed human figure (a nude model posing for art students). -- From Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary] This very rush to judgment takes us quickly into issues of sexuality rather than relationship and attempting to escape blame through lies rather than truthful accountability. This story has bedeviled religion for a long time. It is a snake in the grass, if not tree, that tempts us to misread the steadfast relationship between GOD and Creation (including humans).
Wesley White
Romans 5:12-19
For the moment let us imagine that this thing called “sin” that so many folks define in so many different ways - mostly to blame someone - came knocking on our gene pool by one person. For this same moment we can imagine that something called “grace” entered through another.
In this same imaginative moment let us consider what we are bringing to the mix? Sins and graces, virtues and vices, understanding and knowledge are not the only things brought through one. What mutation is now needed? or are we just playing out the past?
Surely the world needs your presence as much as it needed Jesus’.
When talking with partners about a public ceremony celebrating their relationship I ask what would make this the very best time for them? How might they best represent who they are in the presence of the folks they have invited? We talk about how traditions have come down to us, having started with one couple and another seeing it and saying that spoke to them and so they repeated it until now it doesn’t so much mean anything other than we think it is necessary in order to have a “real” ceremony. I suggest that there might be something that is so authentic about their relationship and the way in which they wish to exhibit it that someone else will see what they do and claim its importance for themselves. A new tradition will begin that at some much later time will need to be revised for it, too, will become a formality instead of an understanding of life.
What for our time needs to come through such as those of us visiting this site? This may be a question for the rest of our Lenten time? How might we deal with this new way through such basics as loving God and Neighbor through our Prayer and our Care? How will it show up and be lived in our very lives?
Wesley White
Matthew 4:1-11
The old story of temptation in a garden ended with us moving into what we experienced as wilderness (an image from the exile written backward). GOD still with us, but in the wilderness. Our mythology is that we shall return to the garden (homeland). That seems to be what we have set as our goal - a place of indolence where all is cared for, an idealized place of static perfection.
One way of looking at the creation story is not from the perspective of chapters 1 and 2 with creation, but chapter 3 with temptation. This is the purpose of Eden: both to offer a choice and encourage us to think there is still a choice available in a situation quite out of our control. Even though it appears to be Act 2, it is where the action is. So far we have not yet come to the end of Act 3 to see if this is comedy or tragedy.
Where the rubber meets the road, where our specialness, our belovedness comes alive is in the midst of choice -- a key ingredient of temptation.
One of the differences between the Genesis story and the Matthew story is the acceptance of responsibility or accountability. This comes in the sense of GOD's presence that we are afraid of betraying and so hiding who we are becomes the cause of the day or GOD's presence we trust enough to boldly go ahead and risk the nakedness of death and failure. It is this choice that still stands in front of us as we deal with the temptations of being beloved, either by birth or adoption. There are no automatic passes for either our active or passive choices.
Here Jesus is willing to live with the limitations of life that run up against the boundaries of lack of resources, having an end, and is always short on power (read information/knowledge). Temptations urge us to take a shortcut to some desirable end, to bypass the means to an end and jump directly there.
As we deal with the hangings on of outmoded theologies that try to jump to some predetermined end without taking into account our current experiences or wisdom or thinking or knowledge may we work the long hard way through the presence of GOD here in our current wilderness, our current opportunity to choose new life, without giving in to shortcuts or blame.
Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7
In looking at the Genesis lection Tom Ehrich has the following insight to get us back on track. What do you think? What question would you ask God?
- - -
I have spent the past eighteen months just listening to the questions that people would ask of God. If resources allow, I plan to intensify that encounter in a four-month "Listening Tour," starting in July. I am convinced that listening, not talking, is the way forward for progressive Christianity. Church leaders need to stop their orations, public bickering, clever preaching and press releases, and instead listen to their people.
Not only would listening ground us in actuality, rather than safe theory and pointless dispute, but taking people's questions seriously would ally us with the prophetic and disruptive core of God's call. It is the serpent, you see, who says, Don't worry, be clever, have fun, assert your control. It is God who says, Listen to me. It is Jesus who said, Stay in their homes, hear their needs, and serve.
Here is what we learn when we take our faith questions seriously:
People matter more than institutions, and human needs more than institutional imperatives.
Human yearnings and insights reveal God more profoundly than do doctrines and definitions. God is discovered, not distributed. God is known in the here and now, not restricted to a far-off realm that a few gatekeepers control. All have equal access to God, not just those who obey the rules.
When people are treated with dignity and respect, they are less easily dominated by systems that serve the few at the expense of the many. When people are encouraged to think for themselves, to plumb the depths for their actual yearnings, and to approach God from the authenticity of discovered faith, not imposed, they are less easily diverted by empty crusades, such as the current sexuality wars.
I am convinced that if we Christians – joining hands with God-seekers who walk different paths toward the same God – took our own questions seriously, we would find God eager to be known and to respond, our lives would be more whole and less fragmented, and we would feel that personal potency which overbearing systems want us to doubt.
We would make a difference, not as rock-throwers in some mob being formed to attack the vulnerable and thereby to keep us amused and dependent while the few grab power and wealth, but as children of a just God who is not the least amused by self-serving predators and not at all dependent on their grand institutions.
What I want to say to retreatants is, Listen to your heart, listen to the questions you are asking, listen to each other, and don't stop listening when the few tell you to stop being impertinent and heretical.
That is a dangerous path to walk. Institutions fight back. Trillions of dollars are at stake. When faith replaces religion, and yearning ignores obedience, watch out.
February 20, 2005 - Year A - Lent 2
Wesley White
February 20, 2005
Genesis 12:1-4a
Psalm 121
Romans 4:1-5, 13-17
John 3:1-17 or Matthew 17:1-9
Beginnings come with affirmations and questions. We will have an opportunity this week to affirm questions and question affirmations -- those of the past and those we bump into these days.
Wesley White
John 3:1-17 or Matthew 17:1-9
Get up, disciples! It is time to move from a knee-jerk reaction to worship what we don't yet know or to raise never-ending questions. Life needs living. Enough hiding your faces from the light in the cloud or the light in night.
I probably added this the last time we looked at this passage, but I just can't get enough of the note about verse 15 from The New Interpreter's Study Bible: "Eternal Life" does not speak of immortality or a future life, but is a metaphor for living now in the unending presence of God.
Eternal life is about beginning now to participate in GOD's presence. Incarnation and Transfiguration are about the possibility of new life, not judgment upon past life. Forgiveness and Grace are about moving ahead without getting stuck where we have been.
Fellow Nicodemites, let us begin our journey to move from inquiry to actual support of those accused by the prejudices of our culture to caring for those chewed by religio/politico structures to being an active organizer for justice for same.
Wesley White
Romans 4:1-5, 13-17
Calling into existence the things that don't exist is a high calling. What is it we are interested in calling into existence? Is this something we want, desire, need, require?
Might it be that what we are after is more blessing -- blessing piled on blessing, overflowing all cups? If so, how might it be called? Would simply being a blessing call forth more?
This is a challenging question. To say, "No, it takes more than this", we deny the power of grace upon grace, unbidden and open to justification of the "ungodly". To simply say, "Yes, grace happens" is to risk taking our blessing for granted (both that received and that given) and turning it into technique.
So we need faith to undergird the impossible and work to forge a way where there was no way. And now we await the revealing of what has been gained by our faithful work of receiving and offering blessing.
This is a prodigiously prodigal process leading to inclusiveness. Enjoy it through the long-run without giving up on it in the short-run.
Wesley White
Psalm 121
How has the day gone so far? The week? Year?
Many times a question is clearly called for - "From where will my help come?"
One sort of help can be variously identified with a Creator God; a Wide-Awake God; a Keeper God, a Sheltering God in whatever moment we happen to raise the question.
Another presence, whether help is an immediately need or not, is with a Journeying God as enumerated above, but not limited to these qualities. The issue of presence goes beyond the utilitarian need of the moment and is certainly not tied to a need for help. Help may come, or not. Either way, Journeying God is present, if not accounted for.
Are you asking the "help" question these day? If so, do you experience "help" as helpful in your spiritual journey. Is it an aid or a hindrance? Is this a question only asked 'round midnight, or does it also come around at noon?
Let's pay attention to the broader question of presence rather than the narrower question of help. Our starting question is important to where we come out.
Wesley White
Genesis 12:1-4a
Go from your homeland. Go from your tradition. Go from your status quo. Go.
After going you will find a compensation for your losses. There will be blessings aplenty for umpteen generations.
(Now it must be admitted that blessings are also available at home, in the midst of the usual. It is simply that the strangeness of new territory sensitizes us to the presence of blessing and blessing upon blessing and thanks in all things, even such as this.)
Whether at home or not, when blessings come they are not self-encapsulated. Blessings are not things we ingest for ourselves alone. Blessings are strikers against a bell that rings forth. Blessings are stones dropped in water that radiate forth. Blessings have energy as powerful as mc(squared), where m=material life and c=compassion. Blessings are basically not containable, though they can be ignored.
May the blessings you receive so concentrate your core that you must multiply its energy and set off a chain reaction of blessings. Pray to be blessingactive.
Wesley White
Romans 4:1-5, 13-17
Preemptive righteousness is imputed to each one. We are made that way. With or without works is not the issue because this is pre-opportunity to choose this work or that.
For Abraham this takes place before the sign of circumcision (for Jews). For Jesus it is before the sign of the cross (for Christians). For Mohammed it comes before the sign of the Koran (for Muslims). For Buddha it comes before the sign of the bodhi tree (for Buddhists). Everyone has something before their sign of meaning - a blessing of life.
Out of this blessing come choices. A snake made one, a woman made one, a man made one, a brother made one, a people made one, etc. We are still making choices to enhance or betray the precedence of life.
Are you able to catch a glimpse of the righteousness already present (whether visible in works or not) in yourself and others? If so, the blessings you have received are working their works in and through you. If not, life is not given to the dead and things that do not exist are not called to existence.
May we receive mercy for not enfleshing the seed of righteousness that has called us into existence from the dead to work the works available to us. May we receive courage to finally be about this joy.
Wesley White
John 3:1-17 or Matthew 17:1-9
You must be born from above.
From above we hear, "Beloved!"
How can this be? : Should we build three shelters?
Are you a teacher of Israel? : Are you disciples of mine?
To "?" comes "!".
GOD loves through bestowing a blessing of Belovedness and reveals eternity in the midst of lives. This is not limited, restrictive, or condemnatory, but salvific.
You might try this chant for a week and see what difference it makes:
I
I am
I am blessed
I am blessed, beloved
You
You are
You are blessed
You are blessed, beloved
All
All are
All are blessed
All are blessed, beloved
Enemies
Enemies are
Enemies are blessed
Enemies are blessed, beloved
Cosmos
Cosmos is
Cosmos is blessed
Cosmos is blessed, beloved
Dave Stratton
Wesley refers to technique, and it reminded me of J. Ellul's book on Technique, but I forgot what it was about. Can some one refresh my memory?
I wondered if there was a relationship between the two?
Thanks?
Dave Stratton , 2/19/2005 2:08:10 PM
I found my own answer, but suggest that you look at the website of victorshepherd.on.ca , which is about J. Ellul and an excellent summary of his life.
Like Ellul, this website keeps me off balance and that makes me grow.
Keep up the good work, all who share here.
February 27, 2005 - Year A - Lent 3
Wesley White
February 27, 2005
Exodus 17:1-7
Psalm 95
Romans 5:1-11
John 4:5-42
Water From Another Time, a wonderful song by John McCutcheon (in fact the whole CD is worth getting) begins to pull together the water images that sustain us.
We need the creation sea image from the Psalms,
the relief miracles from Exodus,
the gushing, flowing from John, and
the water of love from Romans.
From the CD you might want to check out:
"How Can I Keep From Singing" for Psalms
"Step By Step" for Exodus
"Water From Another Time" for John
"Cut The Cake" for Romans
"The Great Storm is Over" for Hope in things unseen
"Christmas In The Trenches" for Peace that passes understanding
"One Strong Arm" for Love in action
"Wild Rose Of The Mountain" for Faith persistent
Wesley White
John 9:1-41
This long story begs for reenactment. At the very least it should be read slowly (preferably with several voices).
In this day and age it appears that the "Religious" Right is as questioning of healings or larger perspectives that come through some vehicle other than their own traditions as were the Pharisees here described. There is such a righteous rightness to this Right that that which is outside their belief structure simply can't be. Galileo Galilei ran into this, Frederick Douglass ran into this, Mel White ran into this. Whether about the far away sun, the outsides of our bodies or the insides of our gender identity the process is the same as with the blind man of yore.
At some point we need to follow the blind man and Luther in claiming, "Here I Stand!" "One thing I know . . . ."
What do you know well enough to make that claim and stick by it? Feels good, doesn't it. Let's talk about our claims.
One thing I know is that GOD's mercy is revealed all along the way, whether seen or unseen.
Wesley White
Romans 5:1-11
Let's look at a parallelism.
"... we boast in our hope of sharing the the glory of God."
"... we even boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation."
Two connections come quickly. First a connection between God and hope. Can you have one without the other? This is a question for you, specifically, not a generic you. Some can make the distinction, can you? or are they bound together?
Second a connection between glory of God and reconciliation. Again a question of how they are tied together. Are these simultaneous realities or sequential (if so which first, which second) or are they not related but by happenstance?
A connection not so quickly arrived at is means, not ends. How go the connections between "sharing" and "through" for you. Do you find yourself sharing alongside or working through some external mechanism or person? How might you do both?
Finally a connection between boasting and living. Do you have boasting spots in your life or not or have you a boast that is squelched through a socialization not to reveal it?
After finally, how might you see a parallelism between this perspective and the world around us that finds its boasting in power and control for trusting in hope and God is simply too iffy or with the world that can only relate to the glory of self and punishment of anything other?
"There is also this benefit in brag, that the speaker is unconsciously expressing his own ideal. Humor him by all means, draw it all out, and hold him to it." -Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer and philosopher (1803-1882) -- Boast away and help others boast away, just know we will be held to it.
Wesley White
Psalm 95
The waters of creation, divided and constrained, remain an opportunity for temptation. In the midst of choice (often chaotic -- otherwise, what seemed like a choice would be resolved into a non-choice for one side or the other) we look for certainty. Is GOD in favor of this way of walking and talking in the cool of the evening or in favor of a different way? Will we get our daily water on our own terms or as a gift or not at all? When up against thirst won't we do just about anything to guarantee access to cool, clear water?
At Jacob's well or dry Meribah, tests and quarrels are available to be given and argued. The decisions and broken trusts made in times of stress hang on for a long time. Even GOD gets caught up in the temptations and makes 40-year long angers and keeps suspicion regarding changed generations alive for even longer. No one rests easy during thirsty times, no matter how well provisioned they are for the moment.
Is there any propitiation for sin that will mollify a God angered by the thirst of said God's creatures? How can such a God grow up to not be so easily offended when their dream creation goes awry? How can such a people grow up to not be so easily thirsty for eternal life right here, right now?
Wesley White
Exodus 17:1-7
Is the Lord among us or not? So goes a classic question. Are we left to our own or not? Will we be cared for or not? What is required and what is optional? Can we get away with what we want to get away with or not? Might we choose against a short-term blessing for ourself and for a long-term blessing for all?
There is no getting away from tests or temptations, even though we regularly pray for such. They show up on the spur of the moment when all is going according to our own personal Hoyle and in the midst of dire distress.
Presuming that this passage can be read as an outward and visible sign of an inward and psychological state -- which part of you is wanting more and which part is complaining, "what shall I do with this complaining part?" Where does your "peopleness" come to the fore and where does your “mosaic” part jump up and down?
And don't you love it when your creative, rock-striking, miracle part does its thing, as requested, and then, later, having kept folks alive, brings this scene back up as an excuse to deny some other blessing?
If you can imagine not asking a basic question from Eden eastward, "Is the Lord among us or not?" you have settled for a pause on a longer journey. Now, that may be needed to catch one's breath, but it is very easy to pause and very difficult to rouse up and resume chasing a butterfly in the wind we call Holy Spirit.
I hope we will not give in to the temptation or test from God (raising the specter of not making it to a heavenly promised land) and stop asking the discernment question of the ages, "Is God here or not." This very question allows us to identify both our need and spirit's presence in order to affirm both or to choose, with eyes wide open, one.
Wesley White
Romans 5:1-11
This time let's work through the list of virtues the other way around. The current order starts with suffering as a given (very Buddha) and moves through along eight or so paths to endurance, character, hope, and love.
Can you imagine starting with love (very Jesus) and thus having the experience to discern false hope from living hope and then using that living hope to shape our character that is willing to persevere even further than those who endure through snow, rain, heat or gloom of night all the way to choosing against one's short-term achieving of American happiness.
My own experience is that being able to read this in both directions opens up new possibilities for myself and for others. To get stuck with a one-way approach, from either direction, leads into unnecessary tests and a slowing down of a perpetual conversion (as differentiated from a perpetual covenant).
Wesley White
John 4:5-42
To be told everything you've ever done is one of those George Bailey revelations from It's a Wonderful Life. We seem to go along getting caught up in everydayness and frustrations of living and in so doing lose track of the body of work that is "me."
To be told everything from the past reminds us of the possibilities still left open to us. When we stop to think, who would have ever guessed so much good was in us. When we stop to think, who can refuse the good that still might come forward because of us.
There is not a way to avoid reenergizing hope if we look back. Or is there? Might we not get even more discouraged than hopeful over all the ugly stuff that has also accompanied us along the way?
Here, in regard to husbands, it feels like Photina has already been caught in her Adam&Eve avoidance real conversation. If that were the end of the story discouragement would continue to rule the day. But we hear the "rest of the story" as Jesus tells who she is (has been and is intended to be) and life again flows on.
Let's not fail to tell the whole story, which will have a major component of "You are Beloved!" With this reminder, that everything we have ever done has been done in the context of a loving and merciful GOD, Photina and you and I can truly invite others to come hear their context.
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