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Lectionary - June 2005 |
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Lectionary - June 2005 |
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June 5, 2005 - Year A - Pentecost +3 Wesley White June 5, 2005 Genesis 12:1-9 or Hosea 5:15 - 6:6 What shifts are needed in our individual life and our communal life in order for us to be a blessing beyond our routines? If we don't ask that question on a regular basis we are falling behind on our maturing in blessing. Yes, a life of blessing is a life of increasing blessing, not one where we bless once and get that out of the way. Wesley White Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26 A cry from the universe still arises in our midst: "Go and learn what this means, 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.'" Zechariah 7:9 "This is what the LORD Almighty says: 'Administer true justice ; show mercy and compassion to one another. Matthew 23:23 "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices -- mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law— justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. John Wesley, The Witness of Our Own Spirit, Sermon 12. ...we are moving straight toward God, and that continually; walking steadily on in the highway of holiness, in the paths of justice, mercy, and truth. These three references all have "mercy" in a central location that ties together "justice" with "compassion, faithfulness, and truth." It is so easy for these qualities to lose track of one another. In some sense the hard-headedness of justice doesn't know what to do with the soft-heartedness of compassion, faithfulness and truth (in the lower-case, human-sense of the word). Where is mercy these in these days of preemptive war, increasing numbers of those without access to health insurance/care, a widening gap between economic classes? Do you think a renewal of talk about mercy might help refocus the community of life? Wesley White Romans 4:13-25 Acts, Paul, and other epistle writers can most fruitfully be seen through the lens of midrash on the Hebrew scriptures and Jesus. Paul here is recasting the story of Abraham by conveniently leaving out Hagar and Ishmael. Just how faithful was Abraham and just how faithful was YHWH? Where is the locus of faith when we look at issues of law and grace? The law can reveal grace if done according to the promises of GOD but not if there is mandatory sentencing and "three strikes and your out." GOD's steadfast love has everything to do with faithfulness, GOD's and ours. If such as Abraham is faithful it is good to have that imaged as the same kind of faithfulness that Jesus has and you and I have. Let's all lighten up. [a wonderful lightening song about the galaxy and our place in it is found here.] Wesley White Psalm 33:1-12 or Psalm 50:7-15 A Word calls forth each and every piece of creation. Happy and blessed are those who respond to the call, participate in creation. A Word turns away the limitations of sacrifice. Happy and blessed are those who refrain from ingrained habits of yore. We are called to affirm affirmations that bring forth and to deny denials that limit and squelch. Can you name an example of both? Were you able to make them interact in the same arena so a dynamic tension increases your spiritual strength? Or did you come up with examples that didn't intersect? Here is one example: affirming universal health care as a right at the same time denying corporate welfare as seen in having the government pick up corporation's health care costs. Wesley White Genesis 12:1-9 or Hosea 5:15 - 6:6 To Abram's descendants -- the promise of land. Life goes awry in a very usual way -- from poverty to poverty in three generations. Stereotypically, a poor individual gains through hard work and perseverance and makes a bundle, their children don't have to work as diligently because of the resources at hand, their grandchildren have lost diligence altogether and squander the inheritance back to poverty. Hosea calls the descendants to return to the basic relationship with God without the intermediary of sacrifice which puts all the blame for lack of fortune upon some failed magic in a sacrifice and/or God's perversity. As you consider the dream you once had for your life and where you have come to -- is this a time of rejoicing or regret? Have we been caught in a spiritual version of this old sociological model of generational wealth? What will motivate us third generational progressive prophets to return to our radical roots? (You may want to consider our Camp Kairos this summer as a way of regenerating your spirit.) Wesley White Romans 4:13-25 Abrahamic Promise precedes the Mosaic Law. A key question is how formative is GOD's promise? If it is the standard then the subsequent laws are to be in its service. If it is not the standard then the laws that follow attempt to reshape, repent, or restore this beginning promise to something else. With or without Law, the Promise is present. This is a very freeing understanding. What Promise is it that frees you to move where you need to move and, Powdermilk Biscuit-wise, do what needs to be done. To clearly state the Promise you are working forward from is to make a creedal statement, to express faith. Try, right now, before you forget, to state as succinctly as you can a Promise that stands behind your life. My expectation is that so identifying a Promise appropriate to your situation will lead to lower blood pressure, greater health, and more energy to follow where it leads. Wesley White Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26 Religion as opiate, the masses make religion profitable. We make up in volume (the poor) what we lose in missing the big sale (the wealthy). To say that Jesus has come for the sinners is to have him claim the basis of the current church's profitability. What would the Temple be without the sinners and their sacrifices? Temple/Cathedral and Synagogue/Church all have a vested interest in sinners qua sinners. We talk a good game of helping them be put right and draw near to God, but should that actually happen, what then? There is no recorded instance of Jesus' forgiving and healing bringing him a rupee, much less a lepton/mite. Wow, Jesus really was for the sinner as sinner and not just sinner as source of institutional stability. What would it mean for you and me to be for sinners as Jesus was? June 12, 2005 - Year A - Pentecost +4 Wesley White June 12, 2005 Genesis 18:1-15, (21:1-7) or Exodus 19:2-8a It is always encouraging to see that choices are given and taken. What choices do you now recognize that you didn't think you had last week? There really were other ways to have gone with your decision making. Imagine there are going to be additional choices this week that you don't yet see. Does that help you come to better decisions and to be more gentle with yourself and others? Choice is a great gift. Yes, it also has a burdensomeness about it, but it is gift, nonetheless. Wesley White Matthew 9:35 - 10:8, (9-23) The injustice is plentiful, but the progressive prophets are few. Sound familiar? It should. This is the journey we have been on -- taking on step forward, two steps back, four steps forward, four steps back, three steps forward, etc. Recognition of Paradise Present is our theme song, in good times and bad. Whether the sick are "cured" or not, the presence of healing is available. Whether the dead are "resuscitated" or not, the presence of resurrection is available. Whether evil, personal or corporate, is put in its place or not, the presence of cleansing is available. Imagine again the Garden of Gethsemane scene with Jesus praying until sweat, like blood, seeped out of him. Just so much did Jesus attempt to avoid the "not's" of life. Just that much energy is needed for the harvest. Gird your loins and joyfully jump in. Take no money of the realm, luggage, or a staff to lean on, but go to harvest Paradise present right now. Wesley White Romans 5:1-8 Behind the model of spiritual growth moving from suffering to endurance to character to hope lies the question of what comes before suffering. Do we choose to suffer or do we choose to live in what we consider fullness? I am not convinced that starting with suffering leads so directly to hope. I ascribe to an understanding that living fully leads to hope. The suffering stuff needs to be dealt with, should it arise, without it claiming center stage. One of the lost pictures of what it means to be created in the image of GOD is the gift of choice, even such a counter-intuitive choice as choosing to "prove" love. Basically this means we choose to take any consequence of full living, of focusing on well-being of self and others that is not limited by the scary and arbitrary limits of suffering and death. Wesley White Psalm 116:1-2, 12-19 or Psalm 100 Consider how this hymn is the same and different than the psalm. In particular, where do you think the line, "and humbly ask for more" came from? Methodist Hymnal 1879 C.M. Psalm cxvi Charles Wesley = = = = = = = 1 O THOU who, when I did complain, 2 Since thou a pitying ear didst give, 3 Pale death, with all his ghastly train, 4 To thee, O Lord of life, I prayed, 5 How good thou art! how large thy grace! 6 Then, O my soul, be never more 7 My eyes no longer drowned in tears, = C.M. SECOND PART 8 WHAT shall I render to my God 9 The sacred cup of saving grace 10 My vows I will to his great name 11 Thy lawful servant, Lord, I owe 12 Thy hands created me, thy hands 13 The God of all-redeeming grace 14 Praise him, ye saints, the God of love, Wesley White Genesis 18:1-15, (21:1-7) or Exodus 19:2-8a Of the stories of responses to GOD -- Sarah's laughter and the unitary response of acquiescence of "the people", I'll take Sarah's every time. Sarah knew impossibility when she heard it. She enjoyed it as she went along. It didn't destroy the arc of her life. Whether a child came or didn't come had ceased to be the issue. Just being real was what a hundred years had taught. Better to be embarrassed from laughing at the impossible than being so serious in affirming your willingness to do the impossible only to shortly and embarrassingly demonstrate how disingenuous you had been in promising to not be real -- note Golden Calf. We have all too many folks who are serious in their promising to be a particular way before actually being in the situation where a test was being applied for real. Their earnestness clutters the communication channels and is a frustration to both GOD and themselves. We have all too few who are able to simply be, able to laugh in such a way that the way ahead is cleared. Their lightness illumines a focus upon GOD's doing rather than ours. Their laughter finally brings GOD to put up or shut up about serial promises with no action. Wesley White Romans 5:1-8 It has taken us five chapters to get to a reference to GOD's love. Without going back over how it might be read back into the first four chapters, it is this relationship that gives the perspective to find, somewhere in the midst of whatever kind of suffering we are experiencing, a gift of hope. In some sense it is the engine behind our finding that hope lives in us, regardless. This same love is an energizing factor encouraging us to risk suffering and all that it entails. It is in this sense that there can be a great positive behind any resultant suffering. All too often, without engaging our thoughts and experiences, it is all too easy to doctrinally stop with a great emphasis upon suffering, as if, in and of itself, it proved something. Wesley White Matthew 9:35 - 10:8, (9-23) While we are being sent with purpose in mind, we are also given charge of choices and decisions about how we are going to be along the way. Am I going to do the innocent as a lamb bit or play the cynic snake? Here we are asked to do both. Perhaps it is easier to simply have one standard response with which to engage the world. To mix these qualities is to both make it more difficult on ourselves as we either trust to be led to the appropriate application for the situation or work to define the situation we are facing and apply the appropriate modality. To mix these qualities is to leave ourselves open to the charge of inconsistency. Do you find yourself mostly responding out of the sheep or snake approach to life? What would you have to give up to move into having these be your right and left hands, your left and right brain, to use each in its own time? June 19, 2005 - Year A - Pentecost +5 Wesley White June 19, 2005 Genesis 21:8-21 or Jeremiah 20:7-13 We are always attempting to discern what is temporary from what has deep meaning by which we are willing to shape our live. This deeper life revives our ancestors and emboldens our descendants. It is worth investigating. Wesley White Matthew 10:24-39 It is enough to be like Jesus, without having to be Jesus. Imitating a Jesus that is still alive is to meet the challenge of doing greater things than Jesus did. To live a WWJD life (as differentiated from the jewelry) is to be at that vulnerable place of the sword's edge where clarity refuses confusion and an inclusive love of others confronts exclusive bloodlines and literalistic creeds. At this point we are encouraged to point a clear direction in the midst of winds blowing all around and to let go of certainty when all about are clinging to smaller visions. Wesley White Romans 6:1b-11 If we live with Christ (symbolize this with Baptism) we will live into his life which includes a willingness to take what comes as a consequence of living into fullness. So are we going to live a life or are we going to die a death? If we are dealing with a living Jesus the focus needs to be on his life. His death is seen in its light, not the other way around. So what does baptism mean to you? To those around you? Does it encourage you, day by day, to walk in newness of life? David Lawson, two bishops ago here, used to emphasize knowing our baptismal date and to use that information as part of our spiritual growth. My sense of clergy response was seeing a good technique we could use to deflect the question from themselves by shaming congregations. "Why you don't even know when you were baptized." I suspect it didn't have the power it might have because, for whatever reason, a connection was never made between the act of baptism and the life of a baptized person. Baptism is not just a personal growth technique, but entering into a community that eggs one another on to fully live, riskily live, live past fear of death. Wesley White Psalm 86:1-10 or Psalm 69:7-10, (11-15), 16-18 Here we are - - poor and needy, sunk in deep mire without a foothold. We look around for a way out and there is none. Our behavior is that of bargaining with GOD. What else is there to do? Oh, yes, plead. We plead with GOD. Both of these behaviors indicate the grief we are still feeling from the metaphoric time of garden leaving. The kids recognize this and murder foul is afoot. Time after time we find ourselves going awry and trying to get back into good graces on our terms. This is a tough cycle to break. If we remembered that GOD was outside the garden as well, steadfast in presence, if not in rescuing us from consequences, we might open our eyes to the possibilities of life and thankfulness and not focus quite so much on the disasters and petulance. In the abundance of steadfast love we have the crack in our defensiveness, our sense of entitlement. Let's not settle for being free because of our enemies, but simply because freedom is what it means to be present to the Freedom of GOD. Whether rescued or not, we are already saved. It is GOD's intention. Wesley White Genesis 21:8-21 or Jeremiah 20:7-13 Does GOD know everything, including the future, or is GOD still inventing, creating, growing into new life? An old, old question. Does GOD already know Ishmael will be rescued by GOD and so sending Hagar and Ishmael cavalierly onward is but an opportunity to have GOD be seen in a better light, later? Does GOD agree with laughing Sarah who is no longer laughing about Ishmael's playing? ("Laughing" can be an euphemism that would make them lovers and "playing" can stand for sexual activity that would be the cause for banishment.) Then is it only after hearing Ishmael's cries (but not Hagar's?) that GOD wakes to the enormity of the consequence for the permission-giving already done? How do you play this one, from GOD's perspective? Do Abel and a Flood finally dawn on GOD and a rainbow sparkle? Was it in GOD's cards all along? Is Ishmael's inheritance claim upon GOD primary or secondary, a given or an afterthought? How does this play out within the institutional church? Is it the role of priests to play Sarah and cast out those with whom they disagree or accuse of one heresy or another? Consider how prophets are cared for in the same way as Ishmael -- seen as second-class rather than first-born and cast out, but, crying, cared for. Wesley White Romans 6:1b-11 Verse 5. The word we translate as "united" comes from symphytos , meaning "planted with". The New Interpreter's Study Bible suggests this is "a horticultural metaphor indicating that sanctification is a process of growth." How many plantings has it taken you to move on from death to as much resurrection as you currently have. As you have matured in this process, do you find that it takes fewer deaths to move to the next plateau of resurrection? Wesley White Matthew 10:24-39 "Family values" always require values larger than the family. Family is always in some larger context, be it an economy of resources or an economy of GOD. Herein lies issues of choice between the immediate family and the larger family. Anyone who thinks that when you have said, "Family Values", that you've said it all" is sadly mistaken. "Family values" always require values smaller than the family. Family is always made up of some smaller units, be it genes or personalities. Herein, again, lie issues of choice between the immediate family and the members thereof. It is still true that anyone who thinks "Family Values" is all life is about, doesn't understand the value of family in the micro- and macro- aspects of life. June 26, 2005 - Year A - Pentecost +6 Wesley White June 26, 2005 Genesis 22:1-14 or Jeremiah 28:5-9 Again and again the issue of hospitality and welcoming come to the fore. We could see the whole story from Genesis to Revelation and beyond through the lens of welcoming us to the next bit of life to come. Wesley White Matthew 10:40-42 What a relief, no good deed goes unrewarded. This is a basic stance toward life. The reverse is the old saying that no good deed goes unpunished. An interesting example of blowback is found in an article entitled, "Case Studies of Incidents and Potential Incidents Caused by Protective System". Either of these approaches has its danger of entitlement to a reward or avoidance of involvement. As we proceed it is helpful to remind ourselves that we are actors because, like all prophets, a call has come that cannot be avoided. It is not a question of the result of our deeds, but the careful proceeding to listen for what is needed and supplying it, whether rewarded or not or even punished. A sense of non-attachment is even more helpful than all this talk about rewards. This kind of talk sets up the threat of competition of goodness. Is it not sufficient to simply welcome someone? Anything more gets us in dangerous water. Wesley White Romans 6:12-23 Gotta Serve Somebody by Bob Dylan Lyrics -- Audio (Real Player) sums up one of the many choices this passages puts before us. Do you know someone who can sing this from their heart? How far from Wisconsin are they and what are their fees? Wesley White Psalm 13 or Psalm 89:1-4, 15-18 There seems to be a gap between our frailty and misery and our dream of steadfast love, sometime, somewhere, putting an end to our sense of forsakenness. Through our lifetime we entrust a whole series of idols to keep this dream alive. It's a wonderful picture, being rescued in the nick of time. It has a long heritage. And yet our experience is that of angels with flaming swords, no rescue by going back. Exile transforms our insight and energy into rigid rules and survivalism. Even an exodus paradigm separates the tribes and the tribes from the indigenous. Internal betrayals are rife. Crucifixions keep cropping up to lay us low. It would be helpful to practice experiencing steadfast love in the midst of all this, as our ground of being, rather than it being separated from our present, only coming later to set everything right that can't be set right without destroying its character. If the hospitality of steadfast love is not present right now to show mercy to every experience, helpful and unhelpful, then it is very close to simply being a figment of our imagination, a bite of pickle at bedtime, a spot of spoiled cabbage only good for haunting. Wesley White Genesis 22:1-14 or Jeremiah 28:5-9 Peace and Welcoming are only proved in their doing. It is one thing to pronounce peace and another to live it. It is one thing to announce a welcome and another to demonstrate it. Both Peace and Welcome are demanding masters. They are such large visions with so much detail within. It is best to be a bit humble while visiting these holy ones in these holy places. How does one bring about reconciliation and welcoming in the midst of a view of life based on sacrifice and "redemptive violence"? Obviously it take a new word from the outside that sometimes needs to be repeated and repeated before it begins to be seen as a crack through which new life can come. An anthem that comes to mind here is Anthem by Leonard Cohen, Audio File -Lyrics. Wesley White Romans 6:12-23 Hospitality, like humility, gets a bum rap in a world where only "the" outcome is important, where victory at any cost comes first. We go through all manner of rationalizations and justifications to sanctify our inhospitable actions. We seemingly cannot avoid calling down the angels to protect ourselves. When we have been treated inhospitably long enough we lash out to use the very techniques used against us. This temptation for easy redemption, through violence, makes all actions such as the Truth and Reconciliation movement in South Africa that much more remarkable. A radical hospitality of truth-telling AND reconciling action does improve the pain level of people so we can pause, catch our breath, reorient ourselves, and choose a long-term view, a view long enough to allow us to choose mercy. Wesley White Matthew 10:40-42 It is helpful at this point to remember this is a conclusion to a longer story. We began this section with disciples being called. Their call was into being put on trial (finding the consequences of their call and persevering nonetheless). The positive result of their living out their call is that others will see and be offered choices just as Jesus brought a sword of division or clarity of purpose. This same choice that others find will be a tool of continual evaluation regarding the disciples initial call and living out of that call -- will they persist in finding life by giving it away? Now we come to the larger conclusion, rather than specific instances. Call is welcoming, a uniting of creation and creator. This gets played out in a three-fold process of a prophetic and progressive proclamation of a brokenness and separation -- an appropriate and righteous response of individual and community to the identified issue of arbitrary division -- resulting in a smooth and willing reassessment, revisioning, and resolution of injustice.
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