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Lectionary - July 2005 |
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Lectionary - July 2005 |
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July 3, 2005 - Year A - Pentecost +7 Wesley White Genesis 24:34-38, 42-49, 58-67 or Zechariah 9:9-12 Comparisons and contrasts, foregrounds and backgrounds are helpful way of looking at the whole. If you are in the world of 3-D or stereopticons you may be familiar with free-viewing where you loosen your foreground and background viewing to let things merge and reveal in the middle what isn't available either close or far. If you want lessons in this go to this free viewing site. Wesley White Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30 If we are going to start with 16-19 we need to include 20-24. We can't compare right hands, but need both the right and the left. In fact, we may need more than right and left and to call on Kali. How do you foreground learning gentleness, if not against a background of bringing Hades? Wesley White Romans 7:15-25a One of the aspects I most appreciate about the progressive understanding of not fully understanding is living in the midst of ambiguity. I've been accused, more than once, of appreciating it too much. However, given the choice between choice and non-choice I choose choice. We know the difference between good and evil, it is our birthright. Hope keeps us from doing all the evil we know and fear keeps us from all the good we know. Now we can work out whatever salvation might be within these realities. Jump to, O saint and sinner, there's living to be done. Wesley White Psalm 45:10-17 or Song of Solomon 2:8-13 or Psalm 145:8-14 Wow! 3 choices. The only thing that could be better for a trinitarian is identifying their oneness as well as their differences. Enjoy the comment from The New Interpreter's Bible on Ps 45:17 -- "Memory and praise promise permanence to the king (or perhaps the princess)." Ahh, yes. One connection is the connection between memory and promise. These two polarities reinforce one another. As you read each of these passages -- find the memory, find the promise. Wesley White Genesis 24:34-38, 42-49, 58-67 or Zechariah 9:9-12 A marriage broker, a midwife, a messiah. All are key transition figures from promise to reality. Folks are espoused, babies are born, wars are dismantled. As you look around, what needs a facilitator of a desired future? That which you see is the arena of your call. Between everything that has gone before and that which is to follow, you are at the right place at the right time to see that better living occurs. Will it take your life? Well, of course. That doesn't mean that you will die on the job, teeth still gritted. It does mean that your heart and head and hands and health will be harnessed toward a better end. Wesley White Romans 7:15-25a Here we abide -- 'tween sin and grace. What a glorious place. We are not puppets, even of grace. We are co-creators. We are partners. We are free to do what we do do, well. Obviously this is going to have political overtones whether that is making decisions on our own, in some semblance of family or community, or in governmental arenas. As far as we know each of these impacts the others. So we might as well be bold about announcing that and proceed to be involved at each of these levels. There will be no time to second-guess ourselves, even when we don't understand what it is that has prompted us to particular responses to opportunities. It is important to choose a clear governance that acknowledges our tendency to mess up even when we are so careful not to. Checks and balances are a spiritual matter, as are regulations. Wesley White Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30 Might you be burdened by not knowing GOD? Have you been striving for that and seemingly spinning your wheels? It's good to know we can blame Jesus for not letting us in on the unity game. The sadism of this kind of predestinarianism is supposedly mollified by having this burden recognized and being relieved of it. Somewhere in here things start careening around barns at a crazy tilt. Tell you what, it is possible to have rested souls, no matter what. Wisdom is vindicated by her deeds and sabbath is proved by resting in GOD (which, of course, can be very active, indeed!). We are sometimes burdened through laws that turn us into fodder for sabbath blue laws. We look for the manner in which the sabbath is intended to energize us. When we find that rest, our behaviors are set free and we can dance to any tune and eat at any feast. July 10, 2005 - Year A - Pentecost +8 Wesley White July 10, 2005 Genesis 25:19-34 or Isaiah 55:10-13 In the midst of struggles of life where do we find the way through to freedom? Relatedly, is freedom the way or the result of a way? These questions come before us at every point along the way. We resolve them temporarily and then need to do so again. Wesley White Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23 On a patriotic July 4 comes the parable of the sower/the seed. It would be so easy to begin noting the wonderful soil that is us. How we have blessed the seed sown in us. How the seed had found its rightful home. One of the characteristics of creation is its profligacy. Seeds go everywhere. They travel by bird and squirrel and wind and catching on pants. Seeds end up everywhere. We could claim that there is no place for seed eating birds, no place for that which we call weeds, no place for rocky ground. But consider how ugly, monocultured, and defeatist that would be. We would miss the beauty of the finch, dandelion wine, and those lone flowers on the side of a desert butte. Truly this is not just about good seed triumphing. That's eugenics at its worst. Let's consider for a moment that Jesus was most truthful when quoting Isaiah (in the elided part of this week's pericope) "we listen, but never understand" and was least truthful in drawing a one-to-one correspondence between an evocative tale and one particular take on it. See if you can go back to the story alone and see what it says about your current state of affairs. If possible for you, forget you heard an explanation that has cut off every other option. Simply see if you have ears to listen. Wesley White Romans 8:1-11 If the seed of GOD is in Jesus it is in good soil. How wonderful. If the seed of GOD is in a bird or a briar patch or some dried out somewhere, it is still the seed of GOD. How wonderful. I do believe the Spirit of GOD which raised Jesus dwells in me and you, whomever you might be. This spirit dwells whether I've been bad or good enough for Santa. This spirit dwells and gives life. How wonderful. We can parse GOD out of lives or into. Your choice. Wesley White Psalm 119:105-112 or Psalm 65:(1-8), 9-13 According to the song, "Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose". The same can be said for Obedience. We move in one direction as far as we can, testing the boundaries of freedom or obedience, and then shift direction to the other polarity. We also do this with the models of individual and community, as well as with categories of inclusion and exclusion. As we hold our lives in our hands and in each other's hands, we struggle for clarity of where mercy fits into judgment in models of freedom and obedience. As you read here what model of the above pairings did you hold when 2 or 22 or 42 or 62 or 82? What rhythms have you found working in your life and lives? Wesley White Genesis 25:19-34 or Isaiah 55:10-13 A seed is sown. Will it be rain or snow? Will it be Esau or Jacob? Either way they journey forth and will not return until they have watered the earth, until they have revealed more about themselves, one another, and GOD. This feels like an appropriate spot to note that old gospel hymn, The Songs of the Reaper. Seeds scattered, tears and songs and joy flow mingled down, life is invested and gone beyond. Friends, keep scattering those seeds. [note: just mistyped that and noted the similarity between seeding and seeking -- my but isn't that what progressive Christians do!] Wesley White Romans 8:1-11 Today brings this community the American Cancer Society Relay for Life. Now to a reflection on being set free from the law of sin and death. Paul plays a lot with a resurrected Jesus. This was his experience. What is set aside here is not literal death. Death still occurs and we will recognize both temporary escapes from it and its eventual reality during the Relay for Life. What is set aside is death as a limit. This includes the usual limits of life, as well, resources, energy, insight, etc. Paul sees new life being given to life and resurrected life being added to death. All the Flesh and Spirit stuff boils down to New Life being available today and tomorrow, both in our living and in our death. Consider, for a moment that it is true that this seed of New Life has been planted within you already. It was cast forth while you were still flighty, distracted, hardened, or ready for it. Whatever your state it was sown and re-sown. Now it is time for it to be nourished and nurtured by you, intentionally, that it might burst into good fruit for the common good of those around you as well as yourself. While not free from sin or death (whatever those metaphors mean) we are free to live beyond them, nonetheless. Wesley White Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23 After a telling of the parable of the sower, verse 9 ends, "Let anyone with ears listen!" Verse 18 begins, "Hear then the parable of the sower." Implication - the missing portion is significant in making the transition. So how will Jesus deal with the slow-to-catch-on disciples? He could throw up his hands and lump the disciples in with all the rest who hear but don't get it. He could simply go on to something else, having just planted an idea in their heads that life happens in a variety of ways. Here he chides them, but they probably don't get that either, that others would know what to do with his parable and other teachings and healings and confrontations. But those who would get it quickly are gone, so he has to deal with what is at hand, such as you and I. It appears Jesus goes back to the primer approach that "this means that". Of course this cuts down on the multi-valency of the parable, but it is more at the learning level of the disciples. When folks don't get your message, you have some choices. Will you write them off? Keep repeating yourself and getting the same result each time? Back up and give them a bit of what they can get their heads around, knowing that the Spirit of Understanding will come later to teach them things too difficult at the moment. Let's engage at the level available to us. Let's use the KISS method, "Keep It Simple, Sinner." July 17, 2005 - Year A - Pentecost +9 Wesley White July 17, 2005 - Year A - Pentecost +9 Genesis 28:10-19a or Wisdom of Solomon 12:13, 16-19 or Isaiah 44:6-8 "Words! Words! Words! I'm so sick of words! ... Don't talk of love lasting through time. Make me no undying vow. Show me now!" So sings Eliza Doolittle. So, how would you show "how awesome your place is," "the righteous must be kind," "do not fear," "in Sheol, GOD is there," "an undivided heart," "we hope, we wait for it with patience," and "let both grow together"? Wesley White Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43 The New Interpreter's Study Bible puts a significant issue succinctly: "Again the Gospel regrettably uses imperial goals (destroying all adversaries) and patriarchal images (13:43) to picture God's empire." In some sense there is no option. If empire, even GOD's, is going to be portrayed it must be done in terms that identify who is with empire and who is against it. This sense of in and out takes precedence over the sense of bothness so wisely counseled for the growing time. For a sense of the difficulty, note the elided passages about mustard seed and yeast. Here the smallest (the adversary, the least/lost/lone, etc) grows to be the largest (the last becomes first) and the yeast helps raise all the ingredients. If you were building an empire of parables, which parables would make it in and which would be left out with the teeth gnashers? Would it be the parable about weeds, seeds, or yeast? Since you are not in this business, might we see one in light of the other and, if so, which will be the organizing parable? Wesley White Romans 8:12-25 Assurance is an active state of soul. The spirit "bears witness". Where once there was doubt, it is now clear GOD's "children" can be raised up from the very rocks -- they can include such as ourselves. Life is transformed when assurance kicks in. It is not just a matter of words or doctrine. It is an experience like unto the transformation of futility into hope. Folks who are assured, children of GOD, apply hope to their situation and transform it. So, what situation are you facing? Busywork? Overtime? What difference does it make? One more day? Our waiting is also active. Our hope is not a sitting back and passively resting while transformation goes on. Our patient waiting means we go ahead, moving toward our vocational call no matter what the obstacle. The patient part means the same as persistent. [Note: the etymology of "patient" - Middle English pacient , from Middle French, from Latin patient-, patiens , from present participle of pati to suffer; perhaps akin to Greek pEma suffering (Mirriam-Webster Online). The American Heritage Dictionary Online says "endure" instead of "suffer".] So, hope; so, transform your situation. The assurance of the love of GOD "always hopes, always perseveres" (1 Corinthians 13:7 NIV). Wesley White Psalm 139:1-12, 23-24 or Psalm 86:11-17 It is always astounding how we take the universality of GOD and narrow it down to my present situation. If GOD is going to be wherever I am, even Sheol, then I am set free to take that off my hyper-alert list. However, a temptation is to keep GOD me-sized (even mini-me-sized). GOD may be with me in Sheol, but GOD wouldn't be with you at any time for GOD be on my side! So go the fundamentalist of any age or faith. Even prophets get into this kind of state. This temptation seems to be as universal as GOD. So it seems to nearly always be appropriate to examine our hearts for the ways in which we have narrowed the wideness of GOD's mercy. We pray, show me a sign of your favor, O GOD, so we who have narrowed your love into our hate might see it and be shamed and transformed by your comfort of our constricted lives and the lives of those we constrain. Wesley White Genesis 28:10-19a or Wisdom of Solomon 12:13, 16-19 or Isaiah 44:6-8 How much sooner than Bethel might Jacob have recognized the presence of GOD with him was a freedom from compulsion to follow family stories? Having heard the story of his birth, how much programming was it going to take to move beyond one interpretation of a painful womb? How many times would Jacob need to experience again the wonder of Assurance Lost, Assurance Regained? How many cycles does it take to come to an understanding of Assurance as a Given? What teaching would be helpful to move us beyond the limitation of family stories or curses around birth expectation so we might better receive and respond to continuing opportunities to decide for larger living. Unless we are going to posit unwitting actions under a grand plan, it is important to wonder how Jacob's recognition of Solomon's Wisdom of mercy for others instead of practical jokes or strength through mildness and forbearance might lead beyond a fixed future. This leads us to wonder about what would be different if we had learned that righteousness shows itself through kindness earlier than we did. [This is not to lay guilt trips, but to ask how our experience might be brought to bear to help others in their journey and to encourage us in our next steps.] Hopefully we will hear in statements of our God being a top God, not so much an unchanging and immovable arrogance, but a willingness to walk the way of exile to a future different than currently expected. The choice of learning, "I'll show you, for chasing me out -- I'll take over the land," or to share the bounty, is always with us, even if unrecognized from time to time. A result of the "gift" of repentance is a willingness to share life and resources. May we so repent that hope is set loose in our life and the lives of those around us. Wesley White Romans 8:12-25 Living and dying are not easy categories. In the midst of life we are dying and in the midst of death we might live. There is no hard and fast here. Even death isn't death with resurrection and reincarnation lurking about. Even life isn't life with temptations and numbness lurking about. Suffering and glorification are two other words that mess us up. We tend to absolutize and eternalize and finalize these when their fluidity is what marks them. There are those who glorify their suffering and others who suffer glory. Waiting and hoping continue the pattern of never quite being sure we have said what we want to say. Wherein lies the border between adoption and redemption? Enjoy the tentativeness of your experience. It sets us free. Wesley White Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43 Enemies happen. We might also say entropy happens. As noted on the website http://www.secondlaw.com/ the Second Law of Thermodynamics is the source of Murphy's Law (of weeds in the seeds). We tend to get very bent out of shape around things going awry from our intention and our first line of defense is blame. It has to be some enemy. When we mature a bit we can see the bigger both picture. A Question and Answer from the above mentioned site goes as follows: Q: You're whipsawing me. A while back you said the second law was the mother of all Murphy's Laws. Now you show me that the second law is a good buddy because we can use it for energy to do what we want. That's double-talk isn't it? What's the story? A: Come off it. You're not naive. Life is full of stuff that can be either good or bad. But get ready for a shock now: [Remember what I said about the words "second law" -- that they are often code words for what the second law describes, i.e. that energy spreads out, if it can, from being localized or concentrated to becoming dispersed.] The second law is the Greatest Good and the Biggest Bad to us. The GOOD: Because of the second law about the direction of energy flow, life is possible. —> We can take in concentrated energy in the form of oxygen plus food and use some of that energy unconsciously to synthesize "uphill" complex biochemicals and to run our bodies, consciously for mental and physical labor, excreting diffused energy as body heat and less concentrated energy substances. —> We can use concentrated energy fuels (e.g., gasoline/coal, plus oxygen) to gather all kinds of materials from all parts of the world and, regardless of how much energy it takes, arrange them in ways that please us. Similarly, we can effect millions of non-spontaneous reactions -- getting pure metals from ores, synthesizing curative drugs from simple compounds, altering DNA. —> We can make machines that make other machines, machines that mow lawns, move mountains, and go to the moon. We can make the most complex and intricate and beautiful objects imaginable to help or delight or entertain us. The BAD: Because of the second law -- the direction of energy flow -- life is always threatened. —> Every organic chemical of the 30,000 or more different kinds in our bodies that are synthesized by nonspontaneous reactions within us is metastable. All are only kept from instant oxidation in air by activation energies. (The loss or even the radical decrease of just a few essential chemicals could mean death for us.) —> Living creatures are essentially energy processing systems that cannot function unless a multitude of "molecular machines", biochemical cycles, operate synchronically in using energy to oppose second law predictions. All of the thousands of biochemical systems that run our bodies are maintained and regulated by feedback subsystems, many composed of complex substances. Most of the compounds in the feedback systems are also synthesized internally by thermodynamically nonspontaneous reactions, effected by utilizing energy ultimately transferred from the metabolism (slow oxidation) of food. When these feedback subsystems fail -- due to inadequate energy inflow, malfunction from critical errors in synthesis, the presence of toxins or competing agents such as bacteria or viruses -- dysfunction, illness, or death results: energy can no longer be processed to carry out the many reactions we need for life that are contrary to the direction predicted by the second law. How's that for starters? You can't get any better for good -- that living is possible due to the second law. And you can't get much worse for bad -- that death is always possible too, due to the second law. July 24, 2005 - Year A - Pentecost +10 Wesley White July 24, 2005 Genesis 29:15-28 or 1 Kings 3:5-12 The spirit helps us in our weakness of understanding the signs of our time, the parables of life, the history we are cycling through again. As we listen in this week it will be interesting to see what surprises us and to ask how surprised we should be. After all we have been at this business of applying our knowledge of good and evil for a long time. Ordinarily we might expect to be further along than we are. However, we do continue to frame things in light of what has worked for us before and this gets in our way of reframing to take new life into account. Wesley White Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52 Three interrelated comments from my weekly comments at wesleyspace.net 1. Try talking simply about "the kingdom of God." Religious talk can get us talking past ourselves. Another way to use parables is to move us from yesterday to tomorrow. Simply talking about a desired future brings image after image to mind. So, wherever you see "kingdom" you might want to substitute "desired future." 2. When we are in touch with a desired future we are able access the old (the best of our heritage renewed) and the new (visions beyond any reason for them to come to pass). It is this sense of being able to be real that allows us to stand smack dab between yesterday and tomorrow to claim the best of both and to re-implement lost good and to put into place distant dreams. 3. While there are a multitude of creative images for experiencing the presence of GOD, the best parable has always been the life of a human being who is able to listen to GOD and live with Neighbors. This sort of living always becomes visible in the world around. It takes the phenomenal growth of a mustard plant to grow one's self and provide space for others. It takes phenomenal power of yeast to raise the experiences of life to new heights. It takes the treasure of forgiveness, received and given, to move one to invest in making life better. It takes an expansive person to cast a wide enough net to catch all of life. Wesley White Romans 8:26-39 To bridge into this section remember verse 25, "But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience." It may be that hope and patience are what might be behind verse 26, "Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we ought...." Those of us who live in hope and are patient in suffering the distance between our present and our desired future have been easily labeled as weak. A part of our waiting is praying tentatively. The life of having a prayer that is in accord with our present realities is still off in the distance somewhere. Where two or three accord in prayer is like unto having ourselves and our reality accord in prayer. Creation around us is an ignored prayer partner. Our weakness in hope, patience, and prayer are all too known to ourselves, and yet we encourage one another in these qualities. Still, that which we do have is sufficient to cause others enough anxiety that they must label us as weak in the ways of the world. Pray that weakness cease to be a reason for discounting one another. Hope that those now seen as weak will be seen as bearing a resilient strength valuable to all. Be patient, for the world does bend toward justice for all. Wesley White Psalm 105:1-11, 45b or Psalm 119:129-136 "Seek the Lord's strength" can be a call to dependence or greater interdependence. Our tradition has a huge hunk of worminess within it. When we operate from that stance this kind of approach leads us to bow our heads and leave it all up to the one with power. We place our enemies before God to be smited. Fortunately our tradition also has a huge hunk of wisdom and goodness within it. When we operate from this stance this kind of approach appreciates the qualities of GOD, for they are also our qualities and we are able to reveal them in our day-to-day living. We place our enemies before GOD to be forgiven. Place your bets. How will GOD's strength be lived out in the midst of all the indeterminate issues of life? Does it have to do with some absolute as a law about Roe v. Wade or the Sabbath? Does it have to do with some imponderable as birth and death matters or spiritual breathing space? Many will be reflecting on that as the new U.S. Supreme Court nominee becomes better known. I know from my own voting for United Methodist bishops that the issue of peering into a person's soul is most trying. May GOD have mercy as well as strength. Wesley White Genesis 29:15-28 or 1 Kings 3:5-12 Life happens! The weakness of "unfair" crops up all around. For Jacob the trickster it is unfair to be tricked. If we pay attention to the situations in which we claim an unfairness has happened to us we may get an insight into both our understanding of GOD/Life/The Universe/and Everything as well as into our own particular weakness that we inflict, without awareness, upon others. A question that gets raised here is that of our response to being tricked. Do we have a larger picture than that which we have unfairly received? Will we escalate trickiness, leading to a further escalation of being tricked and our tricking back? Where does this end? With Frost's standoff? -- Forgive, O Lord, my little jokes on Thee / And I'll forgive Thy great big one on me. Even as I hope to get past being trickier than I need to be, I still hope there are tricks to be played. One trick I anticipate is seeing Justice Roberts turn into the Chief Justice Warren of our day - the appointing president's self-identified "worst decision". This is in keeping with the great joke of the last coming first and the first going last. Don't forget to hoot a bit as you catch the tricks played on you ("That was a good one, it helps me see what is important.") and don't forget to moan a bit as you catch the tricks you play on others ("Sorry, that didn't help us move toward a better future, did it?"). Wesley White Romans 8:26-39 Verse 28, "We know that all things work together for good for those who love GOD, who are called according to GOD's purpose." It has been all too easy to move this into a prosperity theology. The way you know you GOD is on your side, that you are within GOD's purpose, is that good things come your way. This really is not about a wonderful resolution to any and all circumstances, proving our worth. It is about steadfast love, a presence of GOD tending things toward good. It is a vision, in the midst of whatever circumstance of weakness - there is movement toward wholeness. And would someone tell me, or hang me a little higher than the sky, who is not called? Wesley White Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52 How does the church grow? It starts small. It is mixed into the world. It is constantly reborn, reformed, found again. It is costly. It is inclusive to the point of breaking apart. Now apply these parables to your life as will as to some "kingdom of heaven." July 31, 2005 - Year A - Pentecost +11 Wesley White July 31, 2005 Genesis 32:22-31 or Isaiah 55:1-5 As we find ourselves in the dark, in the wilderness, hungering and thirsting for a peanut butter sandwich or the meaning of life we wrestle with issues of satisfaction. Where do you have a satisfied mind? Where are you wrestling? Enjoy them both. Wesley White Matthew 14:13-21 It is GOD's desire that all be fed. Both in the first (Eden) and second (Noahic) creation stories we are told what is permissible to eat. The Mosaic Law outlines what is to be eaten. The prophets are concerned with the justice of who gets to eat and who doesn't. Jesus participates in feasts and wines and dines others. Peter has a wonderful vision of inclusive eating. There is enough food. We are missing the miracle of distribution and the wonder of sharing. When stomachs are unsatisfied long enough we will eat dirt for whatever nourishment it provides. When stomachs are unsatisfied long enough we will steal bread (if you have not already, read all 365 chapters of Les Miserables by Victor Hugo). When stomachs are unsatisfied long enough policies will be questioned and revolutions fomented. Follow what Bread for the World is doing and The Society of St. Andrew and your favorite feeding program (local or global) are up to. To be involved with food is to be involved with GOD. Wesley White Romans 9:1-5 For what group of folks you consider to have been left out, left behind, or left over would you be willing to offer yourself -- This is my body, this is my blood, given for you, for reconciliation -- ? How dissatisfied are you that war continues -- that same-gender oriented people are discriminated against, religiously -- that distribution of resource values are starving people -- that the rich get richer while the poor get poorer -- etc.? Most of us are able to satisfy our mind that we are not needed in any of these, or other, places of pain. It is difficult for us to give up our prerogative of salvation that someone else might enter in. We trust that some larger frame of time will automatically resolve issues. We justify our lack of action by some presupposed lack of power, forgetting the power of our freedom to live congruently with our vision of a better world. May you not wish yourself accursed that another's curse might be lifted, for you have known all along that coming at things from the perspective of curse is a curse, in and of itself. May you simply set about living as though our current culturally perceived curses are a thing of the past. Wesley White Psalm 17:1-7, 15 or Psalm 145:8-9, 14-21 Are you afraid of making a misstep and having that be the end-all and be-all of your existence? By such-and-such a mistake will you be known? By such will judgment be made upon you? That is pretty scary. Having lived a pretty good life, can we be sure we have not transgressed some boundary unconscious to ourselves? Have our feet really held fast to our ideals and not slipped? Perhaps we have it backwards. It is not that if we do everything according to Hoyle the game and meaning of life will reveal a satisfactory ending of at least being in the presence, seeing the likeness, of our GOD-partner. But, it is that seeing ourselves in GOD's likeness we travel a path we know to be guarded, never will we get so far away from GOD that we can't return, and so we are free to cry to be seen under light. Having seen that GOD is gracious and merciful we are free to be gracious and merciful, to be a source of upholding all who are falling around us and to lift those currently bowed down. We are called to risk our satisfaction in order to find satisfaction. What an interesting place is life. Enjoy and participate. Wesley White Genesis 32:22-31 or Isaiah 55:1-5 Whether we wrestle with much or with little we all come to limp a bit. Residual atrophy hangs on somewhere. While alone we are not exempt from stubbing our toe. From some direction we find the wounding of the past being clarified and healed, beyond curing, surfacing through us for ourselves and others. Our state of being seems to have its plusses and minuses. Are we going to measure our state of mind by our physique? our resources? our emotional state? our relational base? our spiritual calm? our informational sources? our hopes? Are we going to measure satisfaction by some given combination of these or other qualities? At some point we are thrown into mystery. Strangers come along and offer a new way of looking at things. Our own internals rise up to call us to account. From whichever direction, comes a wrestling that takes us past certainty. We can trust neither disaster or plenty to stay the same. Give thanks for the wrestles of life. They move us along. And don't forget to bring along a tag-team partner, it makes the wrestle ever so much more enjoyable and survivable. Whether your partner is a stranger in front of you or a brother from your dim, dark past, thank them for sharing the wrestle of life (which may simply be another way of spelling "The Way"). Wesley White Romans 9:1-5 A note from The New Interpreter's Study Bible says: "The most natural reading of v. 5 equates Christ with God, making it the most explicit reference to the deity of Christ in Paul's letters (cf. 2 Cor 4:4; Col 1:15; Phil 2:6; 2 Thess 1:12)." This come from the reading, "...Messiah, who is God over all, blessed forever." It is so easy to read this as one who demands to be in control rather than to be blessed. It is fruitful to ask about every decision you are party to and each decision you witness of others -- is it to control or to bless. If it is to control it will require many more decisions to prop it up. If it is to bless it will set folks free to grow in a variety of ways that are helpful to whatever is meant by "the common good". It is sort of like the difference between telling a lie that requires an increasing number of other lies to support the original one or telling a truth that can be consistently repeated. Control/lie/dissatisfaction or blessing/truth/satisfaction. These are the choices ever before us. Do you see them in your understanding of Messiah/GOD, your self, various components of the world around you? Wesley White Matthew 14:13-21 In this world of rabid differences between nearly every creed or non-creed, nation A or B, and even within families, it is a quite radical understanding to say, "They need not go away." There has been a push for purity within my beloved United Methodist Church in recent years. This has led to threats to walk out by one group or another and those same groups threatening to send others away. The difference seems to be whether they are feeling more threatened or more in charge. What a breakthrough it would be for all involved to affirm of the other side, "They need not go away." No, I don't think this is a utopian, final state. This will not change the perceptions and responses by anyone, other than their need to use the strengths of one another to build a better world and their need to avoid the weaknesses of one another, thus staying out of the way of blocking unexpected blessings. I really wrestle with this one because I am not willing to be beat up any more by folks who have no intention to engage, only to win me over and expect me to kowtow (have my head knocked empty). And yet choosing to either vigorously rebut their false images or to only affirm the wisdom given me comes to be a false choice. My rebuttal does not change them and my affirmation still takes place in the context of their controlling behavior. "They need not go away," means more than avoidance or compromise. This is a word of hope for crowd and disciples, for you and for me. Let's listen to it repeated during the day, in the different settings we find ourselves. We may yet learn its quiet lesson in the midst of a story so large and loud that it tends to be drowned out.
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