 |
Lectionary - October 2005 |
|
October 2, 2005 - Year A - Pentecost +20 Wesley White October 2, 2005 Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20 or Isaiah 5:1-7 Possession may be nine-tenths of the law, but it is not everything. As we remember the last being first, etc., we may even begin thinking that possession isn't even one-tenth of life. This week we may want to make distinctions between possession as having possession and possession as being possessed. And, even with that distinction, we will be hard pressed to find a meaningful difference between them. Wesley White Matthew 21:33-46 Listen to another story. There was a Leader who had custody of a Land with a constitutional provision for common de-fence and infrastructure for the general welfare. Then the Leader leased the Land to Cronies and went on Vacation. These Cronies led the Land into great debt, reducing environmental protections and workplace safety, increasing the numbers in poverty and those without health care, leading the Land into preemptive war and faith-based science. When those Cronies came to get their votes the Land tried to vomit them out. They spun and spun webs of lies and passed out promises of perks. But enough evidence of the destruction of the constitutional inheritance could not be hidden and the Cronies were tossed out on their ear. When back from Vacation the Leader is told, "The Land will be taken away from you and give to a people that produces common defense and general welfare," on what part will the Land toss the Leader? This story has been told innumerable times from the perspective of every Party affiliation. Prophets who have ears to hear, keep the evidence of expected consequences for partisan purposes before us. Say it loud, clear, and often -- the Leader is naked! Little wonder such Leaders attempt to silence such Prophets. Wesley White Philippians 3:4b-14 I've got good gifts. Oops, to merely say that leaves me open to pride and downfall. Better to be covetous for the gifts of another. Given the quality of my gifts I really need to find the perfect one to try imitating because anything less would have me outshine them. It is hard to be humble. So to do a little reverse psychology on the fates I'll strive for suffering in death. That way those silly old fates, who are too stupid to catch on and can only reverse things, will reverse my suffering into heaven. See, if you just spend a little time figuring these things out you can make out like a bandit. Well, maybe that's not the best thing to be compared to, but what are you going to do with these old sayings that get lodged so deeply in our brainpans. All this fancy footwork to get at the nub of the matter. Here is a worthy process of life: "forgetting what lies behind, straining forward to what lies ahead". If we were to strip away all that other put down of gifts and the opportunities they bring as being third-rate (not even second class) we might better see the connection between living expansively/expandingly in a loving direction and the present moment. To do so reduces the restrictive limitations of past experience and enhances the creative possibilities still before us. = = = = = So we affirm the note in The Interpreter's Study Bible: "What is unclear, and debated, is whether Paul's insistence on these points is intended to correct some opponent's message or to recall and anticipate problems he had encountered elsewhere, especially in Corinth." It turns out all the suffering and diminishment language, the dismissal of good gifts, is off message and distracting. Wesley White Psalm 19 or Psalm 80:7-15 Their voice is not heard, yet their voice goes out through all the earth! In the Psalm, "they" are the creation sequence - the evolution of creation - the elements basic to life. In Scripture, "they" are also the poor, the widows, the children, the alien. None of "them" has a voice and yet they cry out as the mine-canaries deep below every political, economic, and educational system. Have you heard “them”? Do you add to the cry for GOD to attend to the vine, the creation, the poor? Whether it seems your voice is heard or not, even whether you want it to be heard or not, it is important to know where you identify, what you listen to, what you pass on to GOD Listen well, speak clearly, act humbly. Wesley White Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20 or Isaiah 5:1-7 Walls and hedges of protection are valuable gifts. Within these we are able find a source of steadfastness for ourselves and a place of refuge for regrouping when life happens. These protective gifts can be personal as well as communal. The downside is that we begin to rely on these levee-type boundaries as the end-all and be-all of living and they begin to constrain us or to over-comfort us. Like a nautilus that doesn't grow a new chamber, our very protections from external dangers turn to become a restraint on internal growth and maturity. If we don't make room for more than what we learned in Sunday School as a youth, we will remain spiritually stuck at that point. As consoling as a hedge can be when we need escape it can turn us into spiritual couch potatoes, never willing to risk the fear and trembling of salvation. We take our comfort and look for more and more of it. Without knowing the limit of enough comfort. It becomes ever so much easier to avoid using our little gray cells. Thank goodness for communal boundaries of such as 10 out of 100s of "commands." Thank goodness for the comfort of steadfast love that hedges us round. Woe for thinking any number of commands will suffice for adequately participating in the messiness of life. Woe for choosing more and more and comfort over enough and reality. If you were to name your place of safety that allows your prophetic side to take the risks it needs, what would you name? If you were to name your place of imposed boundary that keeps you from maturing, what would you name? Wesley White Philippians 3:4b-14 "Surpassing value" is a strange concept to any economic system. Each system has its value pluses and minuses, but not any values beyond itself. Surpassing value turns our usual economic, political, religious, processes into so much dog-dung (as The Message so graphically puts it. Surpassing value puts the other usual values of life into a new frame. So, state your surpassing value in 10 words or less. Paul puts it, "knowing Christ Jesus my Lord." Kairos CoMotion puts it in more than 10 words: The United Methodist Church says it is "making disciples of Jesus Christ." How do you play with "knowing", "reform", "network", "act-up", "making", and your own way to phrase "surpassing value"? Wesley White Matthew 21:33-46 It is very easy to read Jesus' response about the rejected stone and that which is broken on it to follow the judgment of the chief priests and pharisees and see GOD's judgment overshadowing GOD's mercy. If we simply keep reading in a linear way we can have Jesus echoing this judgment of wrath. The key words we miss are "Have you never read in the scriptures?" This is a signal that that which was just before is wrong and what immediately precedes this is wrathful judgment. This is the same issue before us today with those who would take every negative in the scripture and literally hold it close to their heart and before their eyes (how's that for a posture?). We who have appreciation for the steadfast expansion of love and mercy continue to cry out, "Have you never read in the scriptures....?" Here what is being broken on the stone is not those ne'er-do-wells of the story but the wrath interpreters of the story. It is those whose first choice is wrath that will find themselves broken on the mercy of one they reject. What delicious irony. Too bad it comes at such a cost. And still we are caught in costly ironies that have yet to be resolved in such a way that they can be recognized. Until these ironies come clear, remember to keep responding, "Have you never read of GOD's steadfast love in the scriptures!?!" October 9, 2005 - Year A - Pentecost +21 Wesley White October 9, 2005 Exodus 32:1-14 or Isaiah 25:1-9 Finding refuge in the midst of a strange land is a precious gift. It is not only a place of easier breathing but a launching place for continued encounter with the other -- a place of solace and of fomenting revolution. Where do you find your refuge these days and what do you expect from it? Wesley White Matthew 22:1-14 In trying to find a place from which to get a purchase on this terrible text the following came from Ralph Milton and his weekly Rumors: "What do we do with this passage? The story is an allegory against the Jews who did not accept Christ. Their city (Jerusalem) is burned as a result and the outcasts (gentiles) are invited to the wedding feast instead. As a layperson, sitting in the bass section of the choir, I'd be wondering, "So? Does that have any significance for me?" "Well, perhaps. When we fail to respond to the generous and loving invitation of God - an invitation to joy and sharing that is issued to everyone - and turn instead to the gods we make for ourselves, there can be shattering consequences. Our failure to respond to God's love can lead to hatred, injustice, greed, and all manner of violence to humankind." It wasn't the allegory part that caught me because this is a self-described parable. It was the recognition that a failure to respond to love and mercy can only only end up with responses of indifferent hate and egoistic judgment. We see this played out in today's world in a variety of ways. Listen to this snippet from a list I listen in on. "I went to a fascinating lecture at the U this morning by a Canadian scholar by the name of Shadia Drury. She's written a book titled "The Political Philosophy of Leo Straus." "She discusses to some extent the role of religion with the neo-conservatives--(these are guys like Donald Rumsfield, Dick Cheney, Jeb Bush, Paul Wolfowitz, Irving and William Kristol and others). They were "disciples" of the University of Chicago professor, Leo Strauss (deceased some years ago). "Neoconservatism holds that religion is necessary to "control the masses." They view religion as a pious, but necessary, fraud. Seems to me that this is what we are seeing worked out in the Institute on Religion and Democracy, which has heavy neoconservative connections. Of course, not every religious person who has allied themselves with IRD is insincere--they just may not be "in on the joke" so to speak. The neoconservatives find their alliance with the Religious Right necessary and useful." There is a choice to be made in the face of the outrageous limitation of chosenness that ends this act of a larger play. In and of itself this parable can't be borne long for all of us end up speechless in explaining ourselves. So this needs to be seen in light of the few glimmers of something better than what we have during this time between entering Jerusalem and the end of Matthew. This is the background darkness the clarifies moments of recognition regarding the greatest commandments, the reality of lamenting exactly this approach, a resurrection from exactly this grave, and a willingness to engage a steadfast choice to live an extension of mercy rather than a short-circuiting to wailing and gnashing. Wesley White Philippians 4:1-9 Are you Syntyche (fortunate) with your Euodia (good journey)? How might you account for such blessing? Is it attributable to your excellent rejoicing, your high quality gentleness, your above average ability to not worry? Might it be your qualities of truth, honor, justice, purity, pleasing, and other excellent commendables? Just keep on keeping your head when others around you are losing theirs and GOD's peace will be with you. [Accurate? or not? can peace be present in times of distress?] Given our usual backgrounds, experiences, and cultural norms that run counter to these, it would appear it takes a whole lot of hard, hard work to arrive at such a disciplined peace. Do you have a place of refuge from your own history, old tapes, and peers wherein these looked for qualities might be nurtured and freed? Will it take a touch of Spirit? a Spiritual Director? an examined life? hitting bottom? to refocus and know whom you need to associate with -- the Euodia's and Syntyche's of available in your life? Come, wrestle with what it takes to receive good news and you will develop an experience base that will make it far easier to share what you receive. Wesley White Psalm 106:1-6, 19-23 or Psalm 23 Some of us find refuge in the past and idolize it. Our talk about the future is going back to a past that is always remembered to have been better than it was. A high value here is recapitulation. So we use today's materials and technologies to attempt to refashion yesteryear's experience. The truth, fortunate or not, is that home cannot be recaptured, it can only be extended. Some of us find refuge in an idolized future and thus find comfort in an uncomfortable present. Our talk is about green pastures of plenty that will make everything alright. A high value here is innovation. So we envision the wonders of projected materials and technologies as though they would break the mold and have no downside. The truth, difficult or not, is that tomorrow is much more than a day away and will still have to deal with the likes of ourselves. It is good to remember the past. We can build on its blessings; we can learn from its curses. It is good to anticipate a future. We can see where improvements need to be made and begin the grieving process leading to forgiveness. Whether we are oriented toward past or future, it is possible for us to experience a present of steadfast love, of goodness and mercy, that will keep us grounded in real life, non-idolized life. We will be able to pull apart the strands of the past, without having to make up stories about creation. We will be able to weave together strands not before available into a new heaven and new earth, without fearing creedal blasphemy. This reorientation away from the idols of past and future will allow space for engaging our whole being in the realism of a feast for all. Wesley White Exodus 32:1-14 or Isaiah 25:1-9 We have all had refuge spots along the way. They, like other adaptive behaviors, have seen us through tough times. These times and places in which we can take a breath and re-clarify a vision of a better tomorrow are precious to us. In some sense they are defining moments. Our tendency is to continually return to these same refuges when things get tough. That can work for a bit, but, eventually, we need to find ourselves surprised by a new refuge, never before thought about or envisioned. It is this quantum leap that reveals whether we are stuck in some idolatry of the way in which we will prescribe the relief now needed. Golden calves, and other less obvious sources of relief, seemed to have ameliorated our situation in the past and so we keep going back to that well. We need a new experience that moves the fearful shroud of a commanding mountain into a place of renewed presence of abundance for whatever journey we are on. A key for this transformation of briar patch into refuge is participation in various liberation movements that remove disgrace from one peoples or another. There are still plenty of disgraced folk around. So pick one and go to work to provide a refuge for them, and, lo and behold, find a new refuge for yourself. [Note: this is not just one-way work of helping ourselves by helping others, but entails a mutuality that puts our own need for refuge in the hands of others who, in turn find a new refuge for themselves.] It is time to move on to the graceful and challenging work of challenging disgrace. Or, as Fred Craddock put it,
Wesley White Philippians 4:1-9 Lost in Love by Air Supply = = = = = Like Euodia and Syntyche we can get to thinking aloud and being out of touch with one another. It is part of the maturation of a relationship - coming through such times. We are asked, as loyal companions, to aid others in getting back on their feet with one another. A part of this help is showing a star-plan, a better way. What would you show folks to help them lift their eyes when they are not quite up to it themselves? Would it have to do with being gentle with yourself as well as others? Might it reveal a refuge where worry doesn't have the last word? Could it be a new way of looking at prayer as simply thanksgiving? After getting back on our feet the challenge comes to stay there. It is difficult to keep on doing the things we have learned lead to GOD's peace. A major part of community is reminding one another about what we consider to be honorable (and disgracing others is not honorable). We do need to call others and be called, ourselves, to account over definitions of justice and purity codes, what it is that goes beyond appearing to build things up to actually doing so. Each of these qualities, so easily turned in to some formulaic power of the positive, comes to us as a mirror, asking us questions about where we are standing and with whom we are in solidarity. Wesley White Matthew 22:1-14 Just when we think we have won through the act of violence (destroyed them and their city) and turned things over to those expected to be loyal because of their ascension to new power we find that the expected loyalists also fail to bring the honor expected by such a violent victor. Enough victories like this and there will be no one left but a final golem sycophant. And in what universe is that sort of obeisance satisfying? Procrustes had his bed, this king has his wedding garment to measure the predetermined worth of a person. Perhaps humanity was indeed made for the Sabbath! What other creeds and laws might be called forth to constrain celebrations of life and possibilities of new life? A question must be asked about the insecurity of the king. Isn't this a good spot for a queen to call a time-out, schedule a vacation, insist on a time of refuge? If you've got a good thing/wedding going, wherefrom arises the need to impose it? Is this gnashing of teeth mentality one that will turn around and resurrect? Or, having started down that retribution road, is there a way to repent? Isn't this a fine example of "you're with me or against me"? Where is creativity in the midst of an eighth day? Was it all used up in the first seven? Surely there is a better response than the very one Caiaphas, Pilate, et al was willing to resort to. What other response is available to you when the good you offer is not received as good? October 16, 2005 - Year A - Pentecost +22 Wesley White October 16, 2005 Exodus 33:12-23 or Isaiah 45:1-7 Occasionally we stumble into a new thought but mostly we are creatures of what we have seen and heard. Ordinarily we are called to confirm what has been and to skitter away from alternative choices. As we flow through this week ahead there will need to be decisions about how we will respond this day that is different from all other days. May you find yourself supported by others and supporting others that we might move beyond our current caughtness in less than helpful, yet so oft repeated, knee-jerk jerkiness. Wesley White Matthew 22:15-22 Effusive praise of another is a good way to set a trap. When you find yourself being praised know there is a trap going on - if not from the other directly, from your acceptance of it as your due. It's very presence leads us to responding with a "Whew, I could use a break" and taking a step back from wrestling with seeing and responding in a truthful direction. When all about you are praising your wisdom, you had better sharpen what wisdom you have to catch your own response to such praise and thus catch part two of the catch. One praise point is assuming you can choose between a dilemma's horns. They are equally sharp. In turning toward one you leave your backside open for the other to stab at will. In this story, and again today, hear the wisdom of not choosing a partial choice. Is anything, including Caesar, not GOD's? Is there anything GOD needs to proprietarily claim and can't do without? Its all the emperors clothes tax. Its all GOD's creation. None of it is the president's, its the people's. None of it is GOD's as that way lies idolatry. It would be interesting to note the various dilemmas we insist on resolving this day and to take a deep breath and say, "Both" and to repeat it, "Neither", and then look around and see what opens up. We might even catch a glimpse of a smiling Jesus nudging Buddha in the ribs and in an aside say, "Listen to that, would you. They caught the catch." and notice out of the corner of our eye the saints and avatars of the various traditions nodding agreement. Wesley White 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10 Being an imitator can bring rote repetition of outward behavior. It can also bring a standing on the shoulders of the imitated to take things further. Are we reproducing or resembling when we imitate? This is an important distinction to make. Are we headed back to some ideal time of orthodoxy or building on that which has come down to us and moving its spirit forward in the realities of this time? Paul understands that he has proved to be faithful in responding to his conversion. In thus setting his example, he has encouraged folks to follow further on his path but acknowledges that through their picking up on his example and carrying it on in their way that they have supported and expanded that on which had modeled himself. The implication is that those who imitate the Thessalonians imitating Paul's imitation of a risen Christ revealing the image of one whose nature and whose name is Love, add to the support and expansion Paul continued. So, today, support and expansion of Love goes on through our adding to this tradition in our own time and space. This is not simply a waiting for things to play out but an active participation in the salvation process that saves from wrath right now and lets the future care for itself. A living and true God deals with the choices before us now, not those made by our ancestors in the faith or those who may fail tomorrow. Expect a choice again today that will allow us to reveal the inner dynamic of past choices and anticipate a congruent, yet outwardly different, choice tomorrow. This expectation is not based on the number of points that are absolute in location, but that trace a similar arc of compassion and mercy. Wesley White Psalm 99 or Psalm 96:1-9, (10-13) GOD - lover of justice, has established equity. And our participation in matters of justice, as a partner of GOD, is what? GOD made the heavens. To participate in equity is a heavenly endeavor. GOD will judge people with equity. Our choice is to cause the need for this judgment or to participate in equalizing, evening out, salaries of CEOs with cleanup crews. When CEOs get tax breaks and cleanup crews have their less than living wages cut and we sit on the sidelines -- we let GOD down, we let our neighbors down, we let ourselves down. Time to stand up and and claim GOD's equity. You say you weren't faced with this decision today? Look again. Until this inequity is changed we are complicit in its extension. We simply turned our face, held up our newspaper, as we rode the el past the tenements. To ride with EL is to re-turn our face, repent of our self-imposed ignorance, and intentionally use equity as our perspective on life. Wesley White Exodus 33:12-23 or Isaiah 45:1-7 We hear a lot about GOD's self-understood character, how GOD sees GOD. I, GOD, am going to do this and this and this and this. Hear the beginning of an excursus on God's Character from The New Interpreter's Study Bible: "Exod 34:6-7 has a long history. Its closest parallel is found in the Ten Commandments (Exod 20:4-6; Deut 5:8-10) in the form of a comment on the commandment against idolatry. In the Ten Commandments passages, however, the threat of judgment comes first and the promise of mercy next. In Exod 34:6-7, God's love and mercy are first recited in a catalog of divine attributes. God's mercy extends to the thousandth generation; judgment reaches to the third or fourth generation. There can be no doubt that the listing of the qualities of divine mercy is deliberate, intended to underscore how, above all else, the God of Israel is gracious and loving, forgiving and merciful, even (and perhaps especially) to repentant sinners." This references the next chapter but seems fitting as a way of reflecting on the purpose behind all the "I" statements from GOD in these readings. Wesley White 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10 Your living as an understudy of Jesus shows wherever you are - Healing and feeding and partying and challenging ossified rules. It is clear what part you are studying to play - Herod, Mary Magdalene, John the Baptist, Peter, Thessalonian congregation member, Jesus, Joseph of Arimathea, Anna, tax collector, Pharisee, Syrophoenician woman, etc. etc. Is the part you are studying clear to you? Did you choose it? Has it chosen you? Is it type-casting or a real stretch for you? Enjoy your part. Wesley White Matthew 22:15-22 Caesar has a claim on that which is made in his image (money). GOD has a claim on that which is made in the image of GOD (people). That simple distinction is never very simple. Doesn't GOD have a claim on money through tithe and issues of justice (wages must be paid and driving folks into bankruptcy is immoral). Another way of coming at GOD's claim on taxes is seen through the lens of war tax resistance that claims paying for war is an unjust use of taxes and therefore that amount of tax to be used for the common good should be redirected to an actual common good. That simple distinction is never very simple. Caesar does claim theological priority over any other system of Godness. Religion is part of the ruling of a people for the benefit of those ruling. A civic obligation is to praise a god that passes ammunition. Seen through these eyes there is no place where the flag should not wave and take precedence over every other religious symbol -- it becomes the meta-religious symbol. (A questioning of this view is found with the UCC quoting the ELCA on this matter of flags in worship.) Are you quite adamant about the money/people distinction? What larger issue might this difference represent? On what basis do you draw your line in the sand about these matters? October 23, 2005 - Year A - Pentecost +23 Wesley White October 23, 2005 Deuteronomy 34:1-12 or Leviticus 19:1-2, 15-18 There are different ways of approaching the questions of life. One is to have an answer and one is to have several responses. Which is your usual way of approaching the ponderables? How did you do yesterday -- did you keep on with your usual reaction pattern? If you did, was that the appropriate thing to have done? On further reflection, would you have done well to have come at things differently? If you experimented with a different decision-making process, how did it go? So what did you learn from yesterday that will help you today? Wesley White Matthew 22:34-46 Trying to reduce things to one right answer is always a trap. Far better to have a variety of responses to be chosen between as to which one best fits or stretches the current situation. What is the most important political concept? What is the most important cog in a machine? What is the most important person in a family? What form of sexuality is most important? What subject is most important? Which of the four pericopes for this week is most important? Which year of your life was most important? As we attempt to listen in to the mind of Christ it is important to hear the balancing act of life at work. We also need to hear the need to go beyond any question asked. There is a corollary between GOD's expansive and expanding love and an expansive and expanding response to every attempt to narrow life. Wesley White 1 Thessalonians 2:1-8 How does one care for their own children? One starting point is that of recognizing that children are different and need different responses, even in the midst of the same situation. This reality has been overlooked in the realm of religion where we face the temptation to make one answer good for all children at all times. It is the appeal to universal answers that keeps getting us in trouble. It is like saying that we are made to be reduced for the Answers (Sabbath) not that the Responses (Sabbath) are made for our moving on to wholeness. Here we need to recognize the pragmatism of Paul and our ancestors in the faith who have done their best to be all things to all people -- that is, fit their responses to the situation they were facing to help folks take the next step, not to jump to some conclusion in one fell swoop. Wesley White Psalm 90:1-6, 13-17 or Psalm 1 We flourish, we are renewed; we falter, we wither. In a model of times and seasons we can't simply claim one of them is going to hold sway forever. We look at a thousand days and we look at yesterday. In a model of humans having been made in "our" image, how do you pick the first day of a thousand or claim a specific most recent day to be the most relevant of all? Loving and studying the experiences of GOD eventuates in a beautiful, multi-leaved tree. Each leaf for the healing/loving of a particular situation. To narrow all of life down to one leaf to cover all situations is to reduce GOD to a preordained outcome for every circumstance. Even steadfast love presents a variety of faces. Wesley White Deuteronomy 34:1-12 or Leviticus 19:1-2, 15-18 Moses or Joshua. How do you choose between your kin? Thanks for Moses, thanks for Joshua, thanks for you. We are not to bear a grudge against kin or neighbor (see if you can tell the difference between the two -- at some point the only difference is spelling). To insist that everyone live up the wisdom I have achieved is to bear a grudge against those who aren't as far along and those who have gone much further. To insist on a particular answer for the testing questions of life is to fail the test, to insult a Living GOD, and to reduce our neighbor to our self. To insist is to slander. Wesley White 1 Thessalonians 2:1-8 To attempt to choose between pleasing God or to pleasing mortals raises an important question between the commandments to love God and to love neighbor as you love yourself. How are these ranked? How are these interrelated? If loving God means not loving neighbor, is this love of God anything other than projection based on prejudice against a neighbor? Admittedly "pleasing" God can mean loving God and "pleasing" neighbor can mean kowtowing to "them". If we are talking apples and apples something is not quite right here, other than a rhetorical flourish. If we are talking about apples and oranges this is not helpful scriptural advice. How do you deal with holding the two big Jesus-identified commandments together in a way that aids your responses to the questions of life? Wesley White Matthew 22:34-46 One of the best parts of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart is the way in which they remember the past to contrast it with what is being spun today. A healthy memory is a key element in trying to stay sane in a world trying to forget what was said yesterday. We are all too easily captive to the moment in a most unhealthy way -- unconnected moment following unconnected moment. Prophets connect the dots. Prophets remember what was said to be intended and measure the results against that. Politicians only remember what is convenient to their current desires. Lou and Peter Berryman have a wonderful song about the Acme Forgetting Service. Their politician package forgets their previous indiscretions and their promises, too. What, in your life, doesn’t blow every which way? What has a grounding of past, of evaluation of that past, and of creative recasting based on that evaluation? Hold on to that which so grounds you and you will perplex those blind to the breadth of heritage that has come down to us. October 30, 2005 - Year A - Pentecost +24 Wesley White October 30, 2005 Joshua 3:7-17 or Micah 3:5-12 Looking at life from both sides now is not easy, given the strength of the traditions that push us to a single ready answer to any question. It is becoming more and more important to pause and reflect on what we are doing and how it is really affecting others in the short term and how it will affect our own lives in years to come. Generally we have a difficult time seeing the negative consequences of decisions made in our own best self interest. Poverty increases and we lose track of our part in that increase. We can see a theory of how we might be better off a decade from now and we can lose track of what sort of world that will leave our descendants. This is a week of difficult passages. If we face them directly we will find ways to address the joy of living in community beyond myself alone. Wesley White Matthew 23:1-12 Ouch. But I have such wonderful things to share with the whole world. I'm sure, not necessarily correct, but sure that if only the world would try my way they would soon agree it was superior to every other way. I preach what I am sure about (again, not necessarily correct about, but sure about). I suppose I really should try it on myself first and see if even I can follow what I say and, even if I did follow what I said, that it would make a whit of difference in some larger picture. What would make a real difference in this world? Well, how about that there was an immediate feedback loop following our teaching/preaching that would show us its unintended consequences and require our flesh to first enact it. Those who proclaim war would be required to be the first to sign up and the last to be discharged. Those who proclaim death to social welfare programs would be required to live a year under the conditions that brought those programs into being in the first place. Those who proclaim church and state should empower one another would be required to live under some other church/state than their own where church and state conspire and collude together. Those are biggies. What about little things like living in community and the mystery of a Living GOD? Wesley White 1 Thessalonians 2:9-13 We have worked hard at sharing our experiences of GOD. We have striven mightily in the past. Others have seen our toil and benefited from it. Note that it was not the work, striving, or toil that was received, but the urging, support, and encouragement to keep moving on, to not stay stuck in the world as it was. In this sense, folks do not respond to the due diligence of our workaholism, our human words, but to the best in us, GOD’s presence/word/messiah, that is also available in every person. This presence/word/messiah of GOD is our connecting point. When it is reveled in we grow, when it is suppressed we falter. GOD’s incarnated word is at work in you. Watch out for it will not rest until revealed. GOD’s incarnated word is at work in others. Watch for it lest you miss its support and correction of your present life that you might be more wholly revealed. Wesley White Psalm 107:1-7, 33-37 or Psalm 43 We experience desiccation. We experience water springing forth. Both are given. Our context is sometimes one and sometimes the other. Then we set about valuing one over the other, separating them from the mutual informing they can bring to each other. Among our responses is hope in the midst of dry times and planting in the midst of fertile times. We are certainly capable of working harder and harder to plant more and more when times are dry and then complain that our work didn't bear fruit. It shouldn't have been planted in the first place. We are certainly capable of being so weakened or used to the dry that we fail to exert ourselves when the rains come. Hope has gotten us through and we keep hoping when it is time to put down our hope against hope and pick up a hoe. As we travel the varieties of life, pay attention to which variety is present that we might be present to it. Wesley White Joshua 3:7-17 or Micah 3:5-12 We step out into the wild waters and they cease. We proceed and wipe out others. We retreat into the settled order and it seems to go on forever. We settle and are wiped out. We call out Uncertainty and Fear and get the word Go Ahead and Step On It. We call out Satisfied and Peace and get the word Stop It and Get Real. Prophets, like progressives, come in a variety of styles. Some have quick answers that let us get away with claiming this is as good as it gets so get behind the program of our leaders. Some have complex responses that keep pushing us to better living than we have so far seen. Wesley White 1 Thessalonians 2:9-13 You are witnesses of our behavior, and GOD also. [verse 10a] So often we appeal to our good intentions, to GOD having our back, to having followed the rules to justify our behavior. This won't suffice. It needs the witness of those who have experienced the consequences of our behavior in their lives. To claim any form of trickle-down theory needs the witness of those currently being harmed by it. We cannot rely on some future betterment if folks are not being bettered in the moment. To claim any form of just-war theory needs the witness of those who are harmed by it. There is no collateral damage, there is only hurt people, dead people. Instead of thinking about how GOD might measure our behavior, we would do better to ask how those affected by our behavior, right here, right now, are measuring us. In many ways the whole religious charade is propped up by always substituting GOD for Neighbor and never hearing from our neighbor about how we have injured them, right here, right now. We need to hear both parts of the commands to Love GOD and Love Neighbor. Wesley White Matthew 23:1-12 A viable option to calling no one your "Context In Being" or your "Teacher" is to call everyone Sister GOD and Brother Instructor. Yes, those who humble themselves will be exalted, but forget not that those who exalt others will also be exalted. It may be that humility is not about putting one's self down, but about lifting others up. Lifting others takes a great deal of practice and sturdiness. This is not best done from a face in the mud position but that of looking another in the eye and cheering them on, giving them a boost. We can look at behavior that cherishes community and others and call it self-effacing, but that doesn't do justice to the energy and power it takes to move beyond one's self to bolster another. A trick here is to know what you mean and say it and having said it to carry it through. It is through this standing firm that we are able to encourage others to go ahead that we all might have a better blazed trail ahead of us. Once upon a time it may have done to call for others first. But if there is no me here there is no real significance to others being first. When we take our part in the circles of life we, together, gyre higher. |
Return to Lectionary Archive
Return to Current Lectionary Dialogue