Jesus Wept

“Those who do not weep, do not see.”

                     Victor Hugo, Les Misérables

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I have always found it profoundly important

that Jesus wept

that this one who was all love

this one who was stuffed full of sacred

and oozed healing

should weep

but it is clear he did

he wept for Lazarus

he wept over Jerusalem

he wept, perhaps for himself

as he prayed on that rock in Gethsemane, and “sweated blood”

why did he weep

this man of sorrows

this one acquainted with grief?

because he had eyes that saw

the people

all those people who littered his path

the rich and the poor

the righteous and the unsavory

the welcomed and the excluded

the greedy and the generous

he saw them all

and he saw their pain

their anger, hate, and fear

their greed

and he saw how they treated one another

as they lived out of the house of fear

he saw the oppression,

the exclusion

the hoarding

the cruelty

he saw all the miseries of human kind

he saw death

not just physical death

but spiritual death

emotional and relational death

he saw it, and he felt it

and he wept

and he lamented

Oh foolish people

“how often I have longed to gather [you] together,

as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings,

but you were unwilling!”  (Matthew 23:37)

Jesus wept because he saw

He felt

He took in

He carried

The pain of the world

He carried that pain all the way to the cross

Ah, that we might have eyes that see

Eyes that can look out

Past our own pain, our own self interest

And see the people around us

Ah that we might see the poor

The rejected

The oppressed and the minimized

Ah that we might see all those made vulnerable

By poverty

Or illness

Or by the color of their skin

Or their creed

Or the sexual orientation with which they were born

Ah that we might see them

And the fear, the loneliness

The depression and desperation

the hopelessness

Ah that we might weep

Weep for all the miseries of human kind

Weep for the wounds

Self-inflicted or imposed

But may we not just weep, but act

But offer ourselves

(in whatever way we can)

As instruments of healing and reconciliation

As our eyes see, and as our ears hear

May our hands be full of bread

Our hearts full of compassion

Our words full of kindness

no death

There he sits

in the house his hands have made

a wizened, gnarled version of himself

his daughters hover

solicitous

“Hey” he says as I walk in, “how are you doing?”

“That is my question!” I respond

the chair next to him is empty

after so many years

his wife, with her quick smile and easy laugh

is gone

reflexively he reaches over

but there is no hand to greet his

he is still strong, at 94

but in his eyes a question lingers

and in his voice

is the slightest hint

of a heart that is broken

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When you lost a loved one, you suffer. but if you know how to look deeply, you have a chance to realize that his or her nature is truly the nature of no birth, no death. There is manifestation and there is the cessation of manifestation in order to have another manifestation.

                                                                                  Thich Nhat Hanh

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God[a]; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going.”  

                                                                                  Jesus

We come from something (God, the Sacred), we become something new (who we are in this world), we carry the Sacred with us during this walk (The Spirit), and when we die, we go on to something else (not sure what that is, but it is ).  We return, perhaps, to the one who created us, and from whom we were never really parted.

                                                                                  Me

Eucharisteo

“Eucharisteo—thanksgiving—always precedes the miracle.”

― Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are

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A Haiku for Thanksgiving

how does thanks emerge

by waiting for gifts received

or living gratefully

                             Stephen Kliewer

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It has been decreed. 

History impels us!

Tradition demands it! 

The merchants insist! 

We have no choice!  Count your blessings

Rejoice in your affluence

Eat ‘till you founder,

Then go out and shop till you drop and buy till you die….

It’s the holidays, its Thanksgiving, and Black Friday, and, eventually, Christmas,….

American style

But wait a minute!  What if you don’t feel thankful? 

What if your life isn’t all that great?

In a long past Peanuts cartoon

where the crew has entered the dining hall at a camp

and breakfast is on the table. 

Lucy digs in. 

Peppermint Patty says,

“Wait a minute!  We are supposed to pray first. 

We have to give thanks for what we are about to receive!” 

Lucy, with a distressed look on her face answers… 

“Well I’ve already received it, and I’m not thankful.”

It happens, doesn’t it?! 

There are times when we just don’t feel thankful. 

Instead we feel discouraged, beaten, or frustrated. 

How do we, when our day, or week, our month, our year has gone poorly, give thanks? 

To use the words of the Psalmist,

how can we “Sing the songs of the Lord while in a foreign land.”

I think, to over simplify

The secret is

Presence

Sacred Presence

The secret is understanding that

the Sacred is present, woven into the fabric of who we are

in such a way that we are never

alone

never unloved

never without the capacity

to overcome evil with Good

hate with love

call this understanding faith

call it anticipatory hope

call it what you will

One of my favorite prophets is Habakkuk! 

Habakkuk was not a person who, from a human perspective

had experienced blessing, or abundance. 

He had watched as the Egyptians killed good King Josiah. 

He had stood by helplessly as the hordes of Babylon had poured through the land of Judah,

conquering city after city.  

He had seen Jerusalem itself fall under siege. 

He had experienced famine, injustice, treachery, death and defeat. 

But somehow he found it in him to write these words…..

Though the fig tree does not bud

And there are no grapes on the vines

Though the olive crop fails

And the fields produce no food

Though there are no sheep in the pen

And no cattle in the stalls,

Yet… I will rejoice in the Lord

I will be joyful in God my savior.

Can you imagine writing such words?  Lets bring it up to date!

Though climate change looms

And economic inequity grows

And injustice rules

And children are imprisoned

And minorities are oppressed

Though the rich and powerful abuse their power

Though I personally struggle with illness

Or poverty

Or loneliness or depression, or anxiety

Though I feel as if there is nothing I can do

And the world is falling apart around me

Yet, I will rejoice in the Lord!

Habakkuk understood that

 there is no direct connection between outward success,

comfort, ease, or even health,

and blessing. 

He understood that thanksgiving depended on something other than all that outward stuff.

It depended upon a sense

that God is as close as one’s breath

and that God is Love

and living gratefully

out of that place of being loved

and knowing that that Love

poured into us by the Sacred

will ultimately

be enough

how does thanks emerge

by waiting for gifts received

or living gratefully

Speaking for God, or not

It is a curious thing

Lots of people seem to think they have the right to speak for God

As if has somehow made them a personal confidant

Take for example a candidate for the US Senate

who, when commenting about a rape

and the subsequent impregnation of the woman

felt entitled to tell us

the WHY

Why it happened.

Pregnancies from rape are “something that God intended to happen."

(it seems)

Really?

God told him?

We tend to do this a lot

Put words in God’s mouth

Intentions in God heart

Poor God!

The problem I suspect is that we want certainty

We want to understand

We want formulas to explain how everything works

Do good and prosper

Do evil and fail

Love God and be blessed

Reject God and suffer

We want it neat and clean

We have an obsession with knowing WHY

And the easy solution is that God is in control of everything

And God makes everything happen

And God has God’s reasons

And so we go to this place where God micromanages everything

everything

its all God

whatever happens it is God's will

The problem is not what is happening

The problem is simply our understanding

You know the platitudes

“God's will is like a jigsaw puzzle, sooner or later, all the pieces will fit together.”

There is of course, an element of truth in such insights

But ultimately this is an odd formula

One not exactly supported by scripture

And one that seems to ignore the fact that people have a lot to say

when it comes to evil

I think it is one of the great theological mistakes,

this idea that God makes everything happen...

not only the good

but also the bad and the ugly.

It takes us such weird places

A child dies... we must make sense of it

Why?  Why? we cry...

We must know why!

And so people say "God wanted this beautiful child in heaven with Him"

Really?

Not my God. He would not do that to a loving parent.

A woman is raped and gets pregnant.

God must have wanted another life?

It doesn't work!

The formula is flawed, and no amount of creative thinking

can always come up with a reason WHY God did something...

As with Adam and Eve,

we darn well have our own minds

and we make our choices

and its not always good

and we can't always make sense of it, except to say

that's life

that is what happens when people

who are all too flawed, have choices

“WHY” is the wrong question

It takes us to horrible places

But Paul did remind us... all things work together for good, for those who love God"

God is certainly in the mix

So I think the question is this... WHAT?

What can God and I do with the mess I have made?

What can God do with the mess those around me have made?

What can God in the power of the Spirit

do in me

do through me

do with me,

to create good out of what is clearly not good.

Is it God’s will that a rape result in a pregnancy?

No! Hell no!

But is God there, in the midst and the pain?

Yes!

Is it God’s will to work with us to try and make good emerge

Even from the darkest and most evil sitautions?

Yes!

Yes!

Yes!

So as darkness falls

And evil flourishes

It seems the primary question should not be WHY

(although we will always want to know,

  even Jesus asked “why” while on the cross)

But WHAT

What can God do?

What can I do to help?

How can I work together with God

So that love, and grace, and forgiveness thrive

Because this I do believe

With God

All things can work together

For good

The Gospel, Period

“I don't preach a social gospel; I preach the Gospel, period. The gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is concerned for the whole person. When people were hungry, Jesus didn't say, ‘Now is that political or social?’ He said, ‘I feed you.’ Because the good news to a hungry person is bread.” - Desmond Tutu

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What do we do with the lump in the throat that is God?

What do we do when the wind of the Sacred roils through our souls,

turning us inside out and our world upside down?

What do we do when we come awake to that infinite, immanent One

When that transcendent intimate reality

Who loved the world into being

And sustains it still

And realize that we carry divine DNA

That we carry Sacred Presence (to put it bluntly)

and are

Sacred Children?

The answer should be obvious

We enter into a new way of doing life!

a radical

profoundly new

way of being in this world

this is about Love

that Love which is woven into the fabric of our being

by the one who is love 

oozing out of our very pores

shaping our thoughts, our perceptions, our feelings

and above all

our actions

Dallas Willard once put it very well

“Jesus does not call us to do what he did,

but to be as he was, permeated with love.

Then the doing of what he did and said

becomes the natural expression of who we are in him.”

Indeed!

Jesus was so permeated with Sacred

that the distinction between sacred and common (human)

was meaningless

I will never get there

I will always be painfully human

but I am a Sacred child

and I carry Sacred Presence

and I can

do live a different way

“The Spirit of the Lord is Upon Me”

Jesus proclaimed

‘That I might proclaim good news to the poor.

proclaim freedom for the prisoners

and recovery of sight for the blind,

to set the oppressed free”

The presence of the Sacred is in us

that we might do the same

that we might not only proclaim good news

but that we might BE good news

faith is lived

faith is most manifest not in holy songs

and rituals

but in acts of compassion and kindness

faith is most manifest not in sanctuaries

but in soup kitchens

and immigrant camps

and yes, perhaps, voting booths

and “preaching the Gospel”

is not about sharing ideology

or “magic” formulas that “save”

it is about meeting people where they are at

and touching their lives

at their point of need

it might be about healing a soul

it just might

but it is just as likely to be about

bread

and clothing

and housing

it is just as likely to be about

justice or equity

What do we do with the lump in the throat that is God?

What do we do when the wind of the Sacred roils through our souls,

turning us inside out and our world upside down?

What do we do when we come awake to that infinite, immanent One

When that transcendent intimate reality

Who loved the world into being

And sustains it still

The answer should be obvious

We enter into a new way of doing life!

a lump in the throat

AT ITS HEART, I think, religion is mystical. Moses with his flocks in Midian, Buddha under the Bo tree, Jesus up to his knees in the waters of Jordan: each of them responds to something for which words like shalom, oneness, God even, are only pallid, alphabetic souvenirs. "I have seen things," Aquinas told a friend, "that make all my writings seem like straw." Religion as institution, as ethics, as dogma, as social action—all of this comes later and in the long run maybe counts for less. Religions start, as Frost said poems do, with a lump in the throat, to put it mildly, or with the bush going up in flames, the rain of flowers, the dove coming down out of the sky.

                                                                        Fredrick Buechner

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I am not a big fan of religion

All that dogma

All those rules, and rituals

All that form and government

In the day of my youth Donovan’s plaintive voice

Echoed in my ears

“When rain has hung the leaves with tears

I want you near, to kill my fears

To help me to leave all my blues behind

Standing in your heart is where I want to be

And long to be

Ah, but I may as well try and catch the wind”

Ah, but I may well try and catch the wind

In many ways religion feels like our pathetic attempts

to try and catch the Wind

the Wind of the Spirit

which does not mean I do not have faith

I believe in Sacred

I believe in a power

Call it Sacred, God, Love

In a power that draws all together, and holds all together

In a power that is totally, wholly (Holy?) other

and yet is totally, wholly, woven into the fabric of my being

Someone once told me their major issue with faith was their concept of God.  They saw God as some sort of vague being, some great “other”…

and kept picturing tapioca pudding. 

The big guy in the white robe with the lightning bolt isn’t much better.

God, the infinite one is hard to connect to. 

But there is another side to this reality I call God... 

the immanent. 

Immanence is not the opposite of transcendence, it is the correlative. 

Immanence and transcendence are two sides of the same coin....

If transcendence is the infinite God,

Immanence is the intimate God

This is the God who is present,

And this God I experience

and whom we “experience”

and that is the definitive word

experience

This is the lump in the throat,

the bush going up in flames,

the rain of flowers,

the dove coming down out of the sky.

This is inner presence

If I have to use Bible talk

I would say this is the Spirit within. 

The teacher,

helper,

advocate,

comforter that Jesus talks about.

This presence is there

It is woven into my fabric

It is what makes me a Child of God

And makes you one too

But wow!!

This world!

it is so ugly

the wicked flourish

the innocent die

lies, and greed and cruelty seem to win

and win, and win

so much winning

and we wonder

today a friend asked a question

“Do you think g_d is out there somewhere... listening, able to do something... willing to do something? Anything?”

“I used to.”  He wrote, “But there’s seems far too much evidence to the contrary...

that either g_d is not, or does not exist/express as we’ve been taught,

as we often insist/expect. This is my struggle as I cling to hope... hope in hope.”

I do not think g_d is just out there

I think g_d is in here, in me

and yes, I think it makes a difference

Jesus, in his last, intimate talk with his disciples

Who were going to be left in a world that left them wonder

Pleaded with them to stay connected to that Sacred reality,

the way a branch stays connected to a vine

Grab hold of God, Jesus said,

in such a way that the life giving presence is there

and you can be fed

loved

forgiven

nourished

The word he used was abide

maybe a better word is the word cling.

We need to cling to God,

as when

lonely

and afraid

and  hurting

We cling to another

Clinging and finding in the holding

the touch

the experience of the other being there

the healing flow of love

warmth

energy

Of course clinging doesn’t work if it is one sided

And that is the good thing about this infinite, immanent reality

I call God

we don’t just cling to God

God clings to us…

and as we desperately seek to love Love

Love loves us back

So while I am not a big fan, much of the time, of religion

I am sold on that reality

Who showed up in a burning bush

and blew through the disciples souls

and comes to me

on beautiful fall mornings

as a lump in the throat

As Aquinas said

"I have seen things,"

"that make all my writings seem like straw."

I am seeing things that make my theology

Seem like a pile of dry dust

But still

I believe

the fatal capacity of compassion

Compassion is the sometimes fatal capacity for feeling what it is like to live inside somebody else's skin. It's the knowledge that there can never really be any peace and joy for me until there is peace and joy finally for you too. ”

                                         Frederick Buechner

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they sat on the bench

two old souls

wrinkled by the sun

baked brown by the heat

even in the warmth of California

they bore the weight of coats

several sizes too large

layered

a buffer perhaps against not only the cold

but the harshness of a world

which has shoved them to the margins

almost invisible

they were surrounded by bags

dozens of them scattered on the side walk

and stacked between them

a fortification courtesy of Walmart and Safeway

one eagerly tore at rolls rescued from

a dumpster death

eating eagerly

until

she seemed to notice for the first time

her beleaguered neighbor

then without a word

she passed a roll across

the wall that divided

eyes and hands touched

and they both

smiled

~~~

empathy

love

call it what you will

it is the power

that created

the power that shapes this world

the power that shaped us

into the divine image

and shapes us still

giving us the capacity to see others (all others)

feel for others

connect with others

give to others

it is the power that enable us to understand

at that deep down

soul level

“that there can never really be any peace and joy for me

until there is peace and joy finally for you too.”

it is what gives us the capacity

to reach out

with whatever we have in our hand

(or heart)

And give

die before you die

We are only afraid of death as long as we do not know who we are, but once we know ourselves objectively to be a child of God, we are already home and our inheritance is given to us ahead of time. Then we can begin living and enjoying instead of climbing, proving, or defending. Our false self, as all religions say in one way or another, must “die before we die.”

                               Richard Rohr (reflecting on the teachings of Francis of Assisi

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Bless our little souls

we are afflicted by so many niggling fears

they dance through our brain

they are carried in our bodies

they rock and roll in our soul

all those anxieties

and uncertainties

all that unease and trepidation

leaving us feeling unsafe

and uncertain

it is like a poison, this fear

eating away at the fabric of who we are

leaving us tattered and torn

the walking wounded

desperately trying to heal

but we do not know how to heal ourselves

all our efforts

leave us more damaged

we try to heal through achievement

we strive and hoard

we grab power

we abuse

but we are left with only the fear

that we will lose what we have gained

that we will fail, or worse

someone else will take our treasures away

and so we become hard

suspicious

protective

we keep others at a distance

we keep minimize them and marginalize them

we oppress them and suppress them

we exclude them

we simply cannot welcome

those we fear, those we see as threats

our country

our churches

our lives

how sad we become

as we seek to prove our worth

as we clamber over others, scrambling

toward power or wealth

armoured with hate, and prejudice

or perhaps with camo and an AR-15

or even a Bible

there is only one anecdote

to believe in a God of love

a God who IS Love

and to believe that we are the Children of that God

loved and accepted

and forgiven

and that our destination is sure

Jesus often suggested that we have to die to live

that we have to die before we die

so that we might be born again

which is another way of saying

we must “die” so that we might find

a different way of doing life

so it is

we have to die to fear

that we might be born to faith

die to anger that we might be born to forgiveness

die to greed that we might be born to generosity

die to hate that we might be born to love

and it is when we have died

that we can truly live

so this day

and every day

I plan to wander through the minutes and the hours

muttering to myself

Child of God

Child of God

Child of God

not just about myself

but about every tattered and worn soul

I meet

New life starts in the dark

After the earthquake there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire there was a voice, a soft whisper.

                                                              I Kings 19:12

“...new life starts in the dark. Whether it is a seed in the ground, a baby in the womb, or Jesus in the tomb, it starts in the dark.”

                                          Barbara Brown Taylor, Learning to Walk in the Dark

Soft as the voice of an angel breathing a lesson unheard

Hope with a gentle persuasion whispers a comforting word

Wait till the darkness is over wait till the tempest is done

Hope for the sunshine tomorrow after the darkness is gone….

Whispering hope oh how welcome Thy voice making my heart any sorrow rejoice

If in the dusk of the twilight dimmed be the region afar

Will not the deepening darkness writin' the glittering star

Then when the night is upon us why should the heart sink away

When the dark midnight is over watch for the breaking of day

                                                   Septimus Winner 1868

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There is nothing I hate more than stumbling around in the dark

Things get scary in the dark

Everything is magnified

Every sound

Every smell

Every sensation

Its terrifying

And when it is really dark

I mean deep down

Soul dark

We sometimes feel hopeless

And helpless

We see no end to this darkness

It feels as if the light will never come

But of course

It does

And it is then we realize

We learned things in the dark

About ourselves

Mostly about ourselves

We learn what we are afraid of

What we hate

We learn where we are weak

We learn about resilience

And patience

Things are born in the darkness

That blossom

When finally exposed to the light

Hope is born

So is generosity

And love

What gets us through those dark times?

Those moments when we think

The light will never come

What gets us through the night of despair

When it feels as if the world will never be right again?

When it feels as if hate wins

And love loses

When it feels like we will never be right again

Sometimes it is nothing more than a whisper

The hint of an angels breath

Sometimes it is a message so faint

We can barely hear it

So soft we wonder if it is real

You are loved

You are a child of God

You can start fresh

Love wins

No time? Or we just don't care?

“Instead of saying “I don’t have time” try saying “it’s not a priority,” and see how that feels. Often, that’s a perfectly adequate explanation. I have time to iron my sheets, I just don’t want to. But other things are harder. Try it: “I’m not going to edit your résumé, sweetie, because it’s not a priority.” “I don’t go to the doctor because my health is not a priority.” If these phrases don’t sit well, that’s the point. Changing our language reminds us that time is a choice. If we don’t like how we’re spending an hour, we can choose differently.”

                                         Wall Street Journal

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Priorities are a thing

Because priorities are lived

Priorities are expressed in action

and priorities reveal our values

if we want to know what we really believe

What we really love

Who we really love

then all we have to do is look

at the priorities

we have encoded into behavior

it is indeed true,

that all we have to do is

when explaining our actions

add the phrase “it is not a priority”

its disturbing

I didn’t call you, because you are not a priority

I didn’t tell the truth, because being honest isn’t a priorities

I didn’t listen, because caring isn’t a prioriy

I don’t eat well because health is not a priority

That’s harsh

On a spiritual level it gets even worse

I don’t worship because connecting with the Sacred isn’t a priority

(Or I don’t get up and watch the sunrise, because the Sacred isn’t a priority)

I don’t pray because opening my heart to God isn’t a priority

I don’t forgive because reconciliation isn’t a priority

I don’t give because helping the needy isn’t a priority

I don’t include, because welcoming the stranger isn’t a priority

I don’t follow the words of Jesus, because…… ???

You can finish that one for yourself

What is it we put above love?

Who is it we put above Jesus

This seems like a pretty critical question

Because it appears that too much of what we do

What we say

How with think

Suggests something quite troubling

That while being rescued from our errors might be a priority

While escaping divine retribution is a priority

While being blessed by God is priority

And having God protect us, and give us wealth and power

Is a priority

While using God as an excuse to manipulate and abuse is a priority

Following in the footsteps of Jesus

Isn’t

It is interesting to me that the book

In His Steps

Which popularized the phrase “what would Jesus do?”

Emerged during a period of American history much like this one

During a time when the rich reigned

And when economic inequity was a harsh reality

When the rich indulged

And the poor suffered

The author posited, by way of the novel

The basic question

What Would Jesus Do?  WWJD?

Well?

Right now, what WOULD Jesus do

About the immigrants

About inequity

About injustice

About the lies, and the greed, and the hate?

What would Jesus do?

He would love

He would welcome

He would open his arms to the little ones

To the poor and vulnerable

And as to those rich rulers

Those rich men feasting at the table?

He would love

He would welcome

He would seek reconciliation

And transformation

Jesus number one priority is always simple

Loving people into eternal wholeness

Loving people into healing, and hope and joy

Loving people into generosity

Jesus’ priority is clear

Is ours?

Bless our little hearts

In the story of Abraham, God blesses the one who was willing to leave a previous way of life for one new and unknown, saying, “I will bless you . . . and you will be a blessing.”  The meaning is that the power of blessing in conveyed to us.  The power of blessing is the power to draw more of the Light into the world, and this power is now in our hands.

                                                                                  Beatrice Bruteau

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Blessed

Blest

Blessing

sometimes we think blessing

is all about showers of gooey goodness

coming down from heaven

I am so blessed we say

as we think of lovely things that have happened

a promotion

a new car

an awesome child

an affluent life

a loving companion

our vision of blessing seems to involve a

God (or a Jesus) who wanders around like a deranged

fairy God Mother, wand in hand, dispensing “good things” the “chosen”

but blessing is much richer and deeper than that

blessing means to “be made holy”

or better yet “to be set aside”

Abraham was set aside for a task

So was Moses

And David

So was Peter

The “sons of thunder”

and Paul

so am I

so are you

being blest means

the Sacred One has given one the power

to make a difference

the responsibility?

to make a difference

as one blest, I have been given

love, forgiveness, generosity

I have experienced (from the Sacred) compassion

and patience, and more patience, and then more compassion

not so I can wallow in my blessedness

and hug it to myself

but so that I can pass it on

so that I can be a blessing to those whose lives I touch

each day

wow

wow

wow!

down south

they have a saying

“Bless your little heart”

Its another way of saying

“You are an idiot but I like you and care about you so I don’t want to hurt your feelings”

The Sacred One must feel like saying that all the time

to me

I can hear her now

“Honey, why bless your little heart, but I gave you all those skills

and gifts, not just so you would prosper, although that is OK, but so that you

would help those around you”

the blessing I receive

is not just about me

the blessing you receive is not just about you

it is about the Kingdom

it is about the light

we are given love so there might be more love in the world

we are forgiven so there might be more forgiveness in the world

we are given peace so there might be more peace

we are given the Presence so there might be more God in the world

bless our little hearts

When was the last time you sang?

When was the last time time you sang?

(Question put to the sick by a Native American Medicine Man)

          Quoted by Mark Nepo in the Book of Awakening

_________________________

When was the last time you sang?

not a hymn,

or a song for a chorale

or choir

but sang

joyously, freely

just for the hell of it

because your soul was so full

of the joy of the Sacred

that you could not be silent?

When was the last time you laughed?

laughed at the absurdity of life

laughed for no reason

laughed until the tears ran down your face

and you snorted

ungracefully?

when was the last time you gave voice

to whatever was deep within you

when did you last cry

from the heart?

Freeing the torrents of anguish

the pain dammed behind the façade

you present to the world?

Ah as we creep thought this word

Tip toeing really

little, and shriveled and old of soul

we need to

sing

there is healing

in that giving voice

in the laughter

the song

the cry

the whisper

so

sing

even if it feels

that no one hears

for no song

no cry

no laugh

goes unheard

by the ear

of

Love

Sunshine and Butterfiles

A few years ago, a Facebook friend let his wife read a draft of a sermon he wrote

When she was finished, she just shook her head.  “Don’t you ever preach on anything happy?” she asked him. “Just once,” she said, “would it kill you to preach on, you know, sunshine and butterflies?”

                                         (David Henson, December 28, 2014 on Patheos)

“Sometimes it seems safer to have just enough God to get to heaven, but not so much that he radically alters our lives.”

― Chris Hodges, Fresh Air

_________________________________________________

I wonder if those precious souls

who,

impelled by force I am sure they did not understand,

dropped their lives into the first convenient trash can

and followed Jesus,

ever said to themselves

“What have I done!?”

I wonder if there were ever moments,

when as they listened to him teach,

they felt overwhelmed by the radical nature of the way

they were being asked to follow?

Give up all you have

Turn the other cheek

Love your enemy

Forgive 70 times 7

Die to live

Give to receive

Serve to Lead

Be last to be first

I suspect the disciples felt like they were swimming in a sea of expectation

and drowning

that drumroll of radical, strange, upside down, inside out demands

never stopped

forget sunshine and butterflies

it was all sacrifice

and

No wonder they wailed “INCREASE OUR FAITH” (Luke 17)

there are moments when I too

feel like I am drowning in expectations

and when I too call out increase my faith

and the answer comes

all you need is a tiny seed of faith

that is all you need

I don’t think that is another expectation

I don’t think Jesus was trying to guilt the disciples

Suck it up

Have a little faith

I think he was suggesting God is so big (infinite even)

And God is so close (intimate even)

That even the tiniest bit of faith

Is enough

So give me faith, Lord

Enough to keep swimming

In that sea of expectations

But more

Enough to radically alter my life

That I might give up all I have

Turn the other cheek

Love my enemy

Forgive 70 times 7

give me a seed of faith

so that I might be a seed of change

a pinch of yeast

in a world that needs to be

transformed

colo-rectal theology

To be engrossed by something outside ourselves is a powerful antidote for the rational mind, the mind that so frequently has its head up its own ass - seeing things in such a narrow and darkly narcissistic way that it presents a colo-rectal theology, offering hope to no one.”

― Anne Lamott

________________________________

journey inward

journey outward

journey inward to that place at the center

where the sacred lurks

ready for us to be present to the Presence

journey inward to the place where Sacred lurks

waiting for us to arrive

journey inward to that place

where we can be touched and transformed

by Love

we must make the journey inward,

for who we are in God is who we are

Sacred Children

God carriers

I don’t know about you

but sometimes, many times

I get lost on that journey

Instead of moving deeply into myself,

to the region of heart and soul,

I wander around in my head

which is a bad neighborhood

there are bullies there

which assail me and diminish me

and make me fearful

and there,

in that ghetto of doubt and fear,

it is “all about me”

my future

my needs

my desires for power

my resentments

my lust for retribution

if I live here

it turn myself in upon myself

and end up with a severe case

of cranial anal inversion

No, I must make that journey inward

it is not an option

it is a profound need

and when I make it, I am changed

but the journey is not complete unless there is a corresponding

journey outward

where the world is in turmoil

and pain abounds

where children are caged

and people die for lack of healthcare

and children go hungry at school

or cower under desks during “shooter drills

where families mourn those lost to drugs

and the greedy destroy the earth

and angry people make their statements with a gun

and dishonest, selfish, vindictive souls tear a country apart

faith is about discovering who I am

but faith is more

it is about discovering who I am in this world

this battered, hurting, hungry, bleeding world

and discovering how I can be a healing, helping, hopeful presence

how I can so speak

so act

so give

that I help restore hope, and restore health in others

yes

I know the need is huge

but this day

this day

there is likely to be one person

even if it is just one

whose life I can touch with love and compassion

Lord

my faith is about me

but it must be about more

way more

than me

from colo-rectal theology

deliver me