If any part of your heart is closed toward humanity, then
your heart cannot be fully open to the creator
Sufi
Wisdom
_______________________________
I have a complaint
I am tired
I am tired of the chaos
Tired of watching the planet suffer
Tired of watching liars flourish
Tired of the fear and the hate
I am with Habbakuk
How long, Lord, must I call for help, but you do not
listen?
Or cry out to you, “Violence!” but you do not save?
Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you
tolerate wrongdoing?
Destruction and violence are before me; there is
strife, and conflict abounds.
Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never
prevails.
The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is
perverted.
Seriously!
Where is God in all of this?
Sometimes I am forced back to the fundamentals
and must think again about that reality some call God
and about this world
and the people in it
and about how it all works
Some think that power that created
Simply put the whole thing together, and then let it go
Leaving us to our own devices
Some think God set everything in motion
and then, once in a while intervenes
interrupting the natural, mechanistic system of cause and
effect
we call those interruptions miracles
and they are a lovely idea,
but leave us with a view of a God who is wildly arbitrary
(acting at whim)
or nothing more than a cosmic bellhop, there at our beck
and call
(ask and it shall be given)
But I think for those who wrote the Bible, most of them
at least
God is not, never was, simply cannot be, an entity that
is separate or outside
this world and its happenings.
God is not absent
God is not outside
Nor is God simply, creation
God is connected to the universe
Present with it and intimately involved in it
Relationally
As Brian McLaren puts it,
“the universe was less like a machine and more like a
family,
less like a mechanism and more like a community…
a complex organic community with both limits and freedom,
accountability and responsibility”
think about the image of a kingdom
in a kingdom, the king relates to the kingdom
there is a relationship
the ruler is not uninvolved, but he/she does not have
absolute control
there is real power and authority
but that power and authority exist among creatures
who have wills of their own
problems arise when we creatures abuse our freedom
we lie, oppress, and horde
we harm the people around us
we neglect the poor and the vulnerable
and we fail to honor the community
and when we fail to honor the community, the common good
we fail to honor the power that created the community
which brings us back to the question
where is the Sacred
and the answer is always the same
here
with us
engaged
involved
not just with us, in us
and when we tap into the Spirit
when we wake up to the presence
things change
we are touched by grace
healed by the sacred
it happens
I have seen it
I have experienced it
things happen that can only be called miraculous
hearts warm
arms open to embrace
and sometimes, even at a cellular level (I believe) healing
happens
this is why Jesus suggested that with God “all things are
possible”
but remember, this is all relational
this is all about the kingdom, or better the community
we will never see this world change
until we become a community of people
who not only love the Sacred
love Love
but love one another
and, as people open to love
filled with love
allow that love to flow between us
so that we
feed the hungry
clothe the naked
house those without homes
provide medical care to the ill
so that we make sure that everyone has enough (equity)
and everyone is treated justly
“how long Lord?” we cry
the answer comes
until you open your hearts
No comments:
Post a Comment