Envelopes filled with love

[In] John’s Gospel, Jesus continues to use the imagery of disruption (John 3–4). First, he tells a man that in spite of all his learning, in spite of all his status, he needs to go back and start over, to be born again—perhaps the most apt image for disruption ever. Then he tells a woman that the location of worship doesn’t matter at all—which in their day meant that temples were irrelevant. What matters, Jesus says, is the attitude (or spirit) and authenticity (or truth) of the worshipper. . . .

 

If you want to see the future of Christianity as a great spiritual migration, don’t look at a church building. Go look in the mirror and look at your neighbor. God’s message of love is sent into the world in human envelopes. If you want to see a great spiritual migration begin, then let it start right in your body. Let your life be a foothold of liberation.

___________________________________

 

Disruption sucks!

Disruption frightens

Disruption can be dangerous

 

And so we love order

We love having things remains that same

And so with human beings we are constantly looking back

at what was

 

looking back, with longing

with passion

 

Adam and Eve, looking back at the garden

(the one time such longing may have been appropriate)

the people (I am sure) looking back at the Tower of Babel

before the great disruption

 

(funny how those keep coming around)

 

the tribes, with cloud and fire in front of them

yearning to go back to Egypt and slavery

 

the disciples who after the disruption of Jesus’ crucifixion

went back to their nets

 

Make America Great – Again

 

We love order

We had disruption

 

“The moving ever shall stay,” Basava said.

 

Those words contradict so much of our inherited religious sensibility.

“Stay the same. Don’t move. Hold on.

Survival depends on resistance to change,”

 

and yet Jesus says

you must die, and be born again

the temple of stone must come down

so I can build a temple not made of stones

but of human hearts

 

we are in another time of disruption

the unrest fermented by the oppression of people black and brown

the unrest created by people who happen to be LGBTQI

stepping forth and saying “Here we are!  Value us!  Love us!  Include us”

the disruption of Covid-19

which has disrupted our well worn patterns of

work

play

and yes, worship

 

we can see this as an awful thing

a terrible horrible time

 

and yet

out of the disruption comes the opportunity for God’s new thing

just as out of death comes the possibility of resurrection and new life

 

even as old structures crumble, and are torn apart

even as statues are removed

and language is changed

and our way of looking at policing is scrutinized

the new emerges

 

who knows!

May be this time, in our time, systematic racism will be replace

With systematic equity and equality

Maybe this time, in our time, a staggeringly pathetic system of funding health care

Will be replaced with one that provides access for all

 

Maybe this time the old paradigm of might makes right

domination is the goal

will be replace with an understanding that if we don’t all get there together

we don’t get there at all

 

Maybe this time the church instead of getting in the way of the kingdom

help drag the Kingdom of God into reality

 

Maybe

 

Maybe we can understand, as we are limited in our ability to gather

And worship in modern day temples (or rather auditoriums)

That the true “temples” are not those places where

The masses gather, the stage mist smoke rises, the bands play, and the monitors glow, but are human beings, hearts on fire

human beings, cemented together by love, living faith

doing acts of mercy

protecting on another

respecting, honoring,

being holy abodes

 

As Richard Rohr says it,

“If you want to see the future of Christianity as a great spiritual migration,

don’t look at a church building.

Go look in the mirror and look at your neighbor.

God’s message of love is sent into the world in human envelopes.”

 

Yes, this is a time of disruption and chaos

It can be a time of devastation

Or it can be a time of preparation and germination

And the beginning of something new

 

If we want it to be the start of a new order

Then it needs to start right in our own bodies

 

given over

holy temples

Sacred seeds, scattered

yeast

light

envelopes filled

with Sacred Love