new means new

The world waits for newness

Settled wisdom knows nothing of newness

Settled wealth knows nothing of newness

Settled power knows nothing of newness

                        Walter Brueggemann

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its an odd thing

how many religions insist that we must constantly die to the old

and be reborn to what is new

in order to find life

in order to be who and what we were designed,

as Sacred Children, to be

it is also odd how persistently we ignore this

instead religions seem to be the champions of the status quo

or worse

religions grab hold of old ways

and hang on desperately

they find “new” scary

unacceptable

something to be rejected

religions all too often grab hold of old errors and failures

and hang on desperately

but Jesus suggested that we must die, and die and die again

to all that “old” stuff that keeps us

from being born again

That includes our old views of ourselves

And that includes

Our old ideas about God

Who is ever revealing

I am more and more convinced

That the Bible is fundamentally the story of people trying to

Figure out what the Sacred is all about

And doing it poorly

Mixing up their own ideas of God

(creating God in their own image)

With God’s self revelations

And so we have so much in the Bible

That is attributed to God

That I question had anything to do with God

So many rules

So many actions (like genocide)

That were people acting in very human ways

And using God as an excuse for their actions

Forget the “devil made do it”

Much of the evil in the Bible is more a matter of “God made me do it”

What we see is things slowly change

Evolve

From a angry vengeful God

To a God who is more about restoration and reconciliation

We move from Leviticus to the Psalms

Which are a mixed bag

To Isaiah with its lofty vision of the peaceful kingdom

And then we get to Jesus

Who was the clearest revelation of God we have

Who said “God is love”

Who showed that God is love

And boiled it all down to two commandments (kind of three)

Love the Lord your God (love all things Sacred)

Love your neighbor as yourself

Then we get to Jesus who suggested that God is not a tribal God

But a god for all

And even Peter got it

With his vision of the blanket in which what was unclean is now clean

God telling Peter and us that we can’t use God as an excuse for our prejudice and bias

And even Paul, who made his own mistakes

Got that at the heart of it all

The Secret was that we all participate “in Christ”

And we all carry the Sacred

And that all means, at a very deep level, all

There is so much we have to die to

Hate

Fear

Self loathing

Judgementalism

Prejudice

Anger

Past mistakes

The need to control

Greed

We must die to these things day by day

Moment by moment

So that God’s new thing can be born

But most of all we need to let go our old inadequate concepts of God

And God’s way

And be born into that wild, foolish, loving way of the Divine

Where all means all

All are welcome

All is forgiven

All is given

Where love reigns

(This are my thoughts on a day with a touch of sunlight bringing newness to the snow.  As always, these are my thoughts only.  I might be wrong J)