On Prayer

pray for me they plea

pray for this one I love

 

and in my own heart prayers leak

out of my own fears

of possible cancer

of an aging body

of the shadows of fascism

 

it is almost as if we cannot help but pray

and if our own heart and mind

fail

 

something deep within us speaks forth

 

yet what is prayer?

 

a claiming of Sacred favor?

a plea?

a demand?

 

for me prayer is opening

opening all that I am to

all that there is

 

it is letting sacred flow in

and flow out

 

it be permeated with love

so that I am transformed, transfigured

healed by a presence

that changes me all the way

down to the cellular level

 

and more

 

and when we join together in prayer

praying for one another

it is like opening the floodgates of heaven

so that love and hope

peace and joy pour forth

 

and sometimes

that works wonders

the wonder of healing

or, perhaps, more often, the wonder of acceptance

and peace

 

and sometimes the prayers change

as the powerful presence

prompts our hearts

and prays for us

with sighs too deep for words

 

so let us pray

God's plan... more about how than what

Why can't we be humble

Like the good Lord said

He promised to exalt us

For love is the way

 

How men be so greedy

When there's so much left

All things are God given

And they all have been blessed

 

That's the way God planned it

That's the way God wants it to be, didn't He

Well, that's the way God planned it

That's the way God wants it to be, for you and me

                     Lyrics by Billy Preston

_____________________________________________________

 

Everything happens for a reason!

Nothing occurs by chance!

Its all part of God’s divine plan!

 

Is that the way it is, really?

When that good person gets cancer, that’s God?

When that evil person flourishes, that’s God too?

 

When that person get unexpectedly well,

that’s God?

When another person simply dies,

that’s God too?

 

It is a mystery

this God thing

this powerful presence thing

 

for that truly, is what it is all about

 

its not about an external God

who is “up there” or “out there”

 

arbitrarily, sporadically

jumping into the mess

 

its about a Sacred, Spiritual presence that permeates us all

and which variously

oozes from the inside out

into our daily lives

 

when we are open to this presence

when the Power rocks and rolls in our souls

things happen

 

when we are closed?

when we are self focused?

not so much

 

when we think God is ours alone?

not the way God planned it

 

when we think God is our excuse to dominate and coerce?

not the way God planned it

 

when we use God as a reason to judge and exclude

not the way God planned it

 

when we use God to support toxic individualism or tribalism

not the way God planned it

 

when we think God is a cosmic bellhop who brings us goodies?

not the way God planned it

 

all of us, connected to the ground of our being

all of us, permeated by love

all of us, with the fire of Sacred love roaring

and the wind of divine power blowing

 

all of us connected to the One

and thus connected to one another

 

living out LOVE

that’s the way God planned it

 

all of us, with the Spirit flowing into us

through us

out of us

between us

 

that’s the way God planned it

 

kindness is us letting Sacred Presence flow

so is generosity

forgiveness

 

and when we join together

and do it the way God planned it

wow

 

we can change lives

we can change nations

we can change the world

 

because that’s the way God planned it

(and that is why the Kingdom is near)

Hearing the cries

The church would betray its own love for God and its fidelity to the Gospel, if it stopped being a defender of the rights of the poor, or a humanizer of every legitimate struggle to achieve a more just society… 

 

When the church hears the cry of the oppressed it cannot but denounce the social structures that give rise to and perpetuate the misery from which the cry arises

                     Archbishop Oscar Romero      

_______________________________________________

 

Do you hear the cries of the oppressed?

Do you see the tears of those marginalized and minimized?

Those cast aside,

Excluded,

Holy Ghosted?*

 

Do we see the LGBTQI youth

homeless, rejected

by family and church?

 

the person, homeless and hopeless

while working 2 minimum wage jobs?

 

the refuge, tired and worn down

driven from their home by poverty, violence

corporate plunder

and climate change?

 

the person with mental illness

mutter her way down the street

lost to the voices in her head?

 

Do we see them?

Do we care?

Are we willing to move beyond thoughts and prayers

to that place of costly action,

following Jesus’ staggering steps to the cross?

 

Are we willing to let go,

as Jesus did, our rights, our need for power and affluence

our desire for ascendance?

 

are we willing to stand up

and speak out

saying

as Jesus said on the Cross,

“this stops here!”

 

Jesus came to preach good news to the poor

to fight for justice

to bring healing and reconciliation

 

how can we be followers,

how can we be the ongoing incarnation,

how can we be the “body of Christ”,

 

if we succumb to toxic individualism?

if we neglect the poor?

if we protect the status quo (because it benefits us)?

if we turn away the stranger?

if we embrace the way of abusive and violent domination?

If we dehumanize those who are different, or with who we disagree?

 

When the church chooses earthly power

political influence

domination and wealth

exclusion and retribution

 

it betrays its love of God and its fidelity to the Gospel

and blocks the transfiguration of the earth

the universal resurrection

the coming of a new heaven and a new earth

 

friends

we must hear the cries of the anguished

we must hear the cries of the angry

 

we must stand up and speak out

we must put our very selves on the line

 

we must be the ongoing incarnation

the sacrificial and redeeming

presence of Love

15 Minutes of Fame

evil has its 15 minutes of fame

always

 

it has its moments of transcendence

when everything seems to be going its way

and it struts and bloviates

 

evil has it moments

as people, caught up in a lust for

domination

retribution

power

 

plan iniquity

who plot evil in the hallways of Congress

in the boardrooms of commerce

in the retreats of the rich

 

and then carry it out

because it is in their power to do it.

 

they suppress votes

they use their power to coerce and control

and to punish

 

they buy politicians (and become politicians)

they perpetrate fraud

and cast families on the street

they destroy the earth for profit

 

yes, evil has its 15 minutes of fame

and we cowed and battered

have our moments of despair

 

for it seems as if the dark malignancy of QAnon

as if those pushing the lies

as if hate and greed and racism and ignorance

as if those who “hate good and love evil”

will win

 

and yet

love

 

dare we believe that love is more powerful than hate

generosity more powerful than greed

kindness more powerful than retribution

 

we say it blithely

love always wins

 

does it?

 

I, like Paul “am convinced

that neither death nor life,

neither angels nor demons,

neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,

neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation,

will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord”

(Romans 8)

 

the path to this victory may be a painful one

a path of sacrifice

the ascendance of love does not come easily

 

if love is to win

we must be connected to Love

filled with Love

guided by Love

impelled by Love

compelled by Love

(come Holy Spirit, come)

 

but love can win

at times evil seems invincible (Gandhi)

 

at times the tyrants and would be tyrants

seem to be unbeatable

but they always fall

hard

 

evil may have its moments

but it will not prevail

if we do not give up, if we do not tire of doing good (Gal. 6)

if we keep telling the truth

keep giving

keep welcoming

if we keep loving

 

evil may have its 15 minutes of fame

but love has eternity

 

 

the need for truth

Above all, don't lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love.

                     Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

____________________________________

 

in The Book

it all went wrong with a lie

 

one falsehood

took the original blessing

and destroyed it

 

and we moved from paradise

to the wasteland

 

proving perhaps

that if we listen to lies

if we build our lives on lies

we will always fall

 

and yet we persist

 

the lies are out there

powerful and pervasive

lies about exceptionalism

election fraud

masks

vaccines

 

you know them, I know them

they trickle into our ears

insistently

 

the lies are in us

our own delusions

our own little dishonesties about ourselves

and others

 

you know them, I know them

they are our precious defense

against truths that

are sometimes painful

 

it is a lot of work

to live a life built on a lie

 

we must close our eyes

close our minds

close our hearts

close our souls

 

no wonder we become hardened

no wonder

we cease to love

no wonder we become desperate

and stumble into ever more deplorable places

 

our beliefs, our words, our actions

becoming ever more extreme

as we try to maintain the lie

 

ah wretched creatures that we are

who will rescue us from the lies we are told

the lies we tell ourselves?

 

can we be rescued

before the earth, before our nation

becomes a wasteland?

 

thanks be to the one

who is the way, the truth and the life

thanks be to the one who taught us about love

 

thanks be to the one whose words

are truth

and for a truth that can set us free

 

the way is clear

the way is love

the way is compassion

the way is generosity

the way is welcome

 

as the lies come

as the voices of hate and fear chatter in our ears

hissing their falsehoods

 

may we hold fast to Love

as branches to the vine

 

may we let the life giving Spirit

flow into us

transforming us from the inside out

 

so that we are no longer

the people of the lie

 

but stand on the firm ground

of truth and love

 

salt

light

yeast

 

special agents of God

ready to participate in the ministry of reconciliation

and love

 

love hurts

It is a time to discover new stories about our God, who could not bear to stand apart from our suffering and joined us to live as we might live. . . .

 

Our God, who poured Herself into the creation of all that exists, is subject to risk, to being fractured and torn, just as we are. . . .

 

          Sally A. Howard, “Secure Dwelling and Positive Meaning in the Face of Trauma,”          “Trauma,” Oneing, vol. 9, no. 1 (CAC Publishing: 2021), 25–26, 27.

___________________________

 

it is the very nature of Sacred

to be incarnate

 

incarnation is self-revelation

incarnation is presence

incarnation is “standing with”

 

all creation is the incarnation

of that powerful presence we call

(for lack of a better way)

God

 

it is all the creativity, all the wonder

all the love

of the Sacred made real

 

Jesus was Sacred incarnate

And the Spirit too

 

God with us

 

and so too we human creatures

as Sacred children

carriers of divine DNA

are incarnation

 

into us too

into these fragile shells

Sacred has flowed and is embodied

 

there is power here

the power of Love

 

for God is, if nothing else

Love

 

and love hurts

 

we know that all too well

 

Ah, there is joy in love

and ecstasy too

 

but when we love we see,

we feel

and we see and feel it all

not just the joy, but also the pain

 

when we love we can be hurt

when we love we can feel the hurt of others

 

the more we love, the more we hurt

and God

God loves (God IS love)

really, really, loves

 

and so God hurts

yes, God feels pain when we violate the Sacred way

as we feel pain when our love is violated

Love is pained when we hate,

when we are caught up in lies

when we abuse power

or succumb to greed

 

but mostly God feels our pain

our fear, our emptiness

our anger, our longing

 

when we hurt, God hurts

and does what any lover does in such moments

 

comes alongside

with patience,

with comfort

with embrace

with love

 

God joins us in our pain

and through presence works with us

to help us move through the pain

to help us carry the pain

and

in the end,

transform and redeem

 

 

powerful presence

“Lets build a happy little cloud.

Lets build some happy little trees.”

                      Bob Ross

____________________________________

 

how do we talk about

that power

that presence

that Love

we call “God”

 

without getting anthropomorphic

 

even at the burning bush

as Moses felt the sand of the Sinai between his toes

and sought a name

he got a verb

 

“I am”

 

Not Zeus, or Jupiter

Not Baal or Odin

 

just  flickering flame

real

present

powerful

 

just wind

unseen but felt

 

something happens when we try to make this

powerful presence

concrete

man, woman, it doesn’t matter

 

we make God (see how hard it is not to anthropomorphize?)

smaller

 

and this is part of a more profound problem

our tendency not just to make God in our own image

but our tendency to claim and contain

that which cannot be claimed and contained

 

we make the mistake of thinking that this powerful presence

is “ours”

that this powerful presence can be manipulated

and that this power can be not only claimed for our benefit

but used against others

 

I am stumbling and bumbling here because

I a fighting against my own deeply held and nurtured views of

the Sacred

 

because I believe the Sacred does make a difference

and I believe our connection with this powerful presence does make a difference

 

I just am not so sure it works the way we think it does

 

hear me out

 

This powerful presence is in everything

This powerful presence is in everyone

This powerful presence, this divine DNA makes us who we are

 

and when we are awake to it

because it is Love

we are different

we are what we were created to be

those “in the image”

rather than those we have become

those who have “blurred” the image

 

This powerful presence makes things happen

and when those things happen, we sometimes call them miracles

 

yesterday in worship we heard of a medical supply person who, unscheduled

found one our beloved on the floor, blue, nearing death

and  call to 911 saved our friend’s life

 

a miracle?

 

we heard of a traumatized young woman suffering a severe panic attack

who just happened to be in a building with a mental health peer counselor

who was able to help her

 

miracle?

 

yes

miracles happen, as we are awake to this powerful presence

and this powerful presence somehow leads us to those in need

and moves us to act in the ways necessary

to heal and restore

 

physical healing?

 

this is harder

why would this power we call God save one person,

and let another die?

 

we can’t just deal with that issues by saying ‘its in the plan”

for why would the divine agency plan for one family to suffer pain and loss

and not another

 

as if “god” were some sort of demented and arbitrary chess player

 

to me it seems as if it all comes down to

the presence

the powerful presence

 

which it appears we can be open to, or not

and it comes down to this

presence

which is not only powerful

but loving

always

loving

 

impacting us

perhaps at a cellular level

perhaps mentally, emotionally

socially

 

changing how what we see

how we feel

how we function

 

it is about presence

driving us to people in need

helping us see the need

giving us the grace and love to respond to the need

 

that weird bond taking us to this person

the powerful presence taking us to this place and not that place

 

it is about a presence within that simply says “I am”

 

I am still working this out

and will always be working this out

but what I do know is this

 

it is not simple

 

there is a danger in denying agency to Sacred

there is perhaps a greater danger in seeing Sacred

as a cosmic bell hop who helps our football team win

helps us find the perfect ‘second home’

gives us a job (but denies another)

heals us (but abandons another)

 

alas

questions abound, abound

I want my cake, and I want to eat it too

 

I do not have the answers

only the question

 

but until then I will seek the powerful presence

the great “I am”

I will hope the bush burns within me heart

And I will do the best that I can

 

 

 

coming home

many years ago they left

driven from Eden

from the land of Wandering Winding Waters

their homeland

 

greed and racism left no room for them

no longer welcome

they were driven onto a trail of tears

 

on this day

they returned

and once more their songs were raised into the sky

and the drums sounded

 

once more they saw the waters and the snow capped peaks

home again

 

and once again tears flowed

but this time tears springing up from full hearts

as land stolen was returned

and ending becoming a new beginning

 

a church closing but hope being born

how Gospel

 

ah how often people are far from home

driven their by forces beyond their control

driven from Eden

by those who would judge and exclude

by those who would dominate and control

 

by those who do not respect

their sacred DNA

 

indigenous people

poor people

immigrant people

mentally ill people

LGBTQI people

 

people

Sacred children

 

and yet

when hearts are open

and the Spirit moves

wind and fire

 

ah, we are prodigals all

we who sit on the land

wrapped in privilege

and those who long to return

from a long exile

those who have wandered, those who have been oppressed

 

there is always way back home

back to the homeland

back to the place where we are birthed and rooted

 

but only love can empower 

that return

only humility and a thirst for justice

 

only the understanding that all belong at

the table and deserve

to gather for the feast of Love

 

the homeland may be a scrap of land

it may be a place in the Great Spirit’s heart

 

but we know it when we see it

we feel it in our hearts and in our stomachs

and we want nothing more than to dwell there

and gather all others

 

to that place

of love and hospitality

 

 

 

apocalypto

A quick etymology of the word will help: kaluptein is the Greek word for “to cover” and apo means “un,” so apokaluptein means to uncover or unveil.

 

What apocalyptic means is to pull back the veil, to reveal the underbelly of reality…

 

We would have done history a great favor if we would have understood apocalyptic literature. It’s not meant to strike fear in us as much as a radical rearrangement. It’s not the end of the world. It’s the end of worlds—our worlds that we have created…

                    

                               Richard Rohr, Daily Meditations, week of April 25^th, 2021

_____________________________________

 

let’s hear it for the apocalypse

 

not our misunderstood concept apocalypse

as looming destruction, impending finality

 

but for apocalypse as an uncovering

of those things we need to see

need to know

 

so that we can learn to let to go,

learn to slough off the dead and rotting things

that do not belong in the Kingdom of Love

 

let’s hear it for the apocalypse

for those moments when we really see

ourselves

those around us

 

for those times when Sacred

shakes us up and forces us into radical change

and reveals looming joy and impending newness

 

we often resist apocalypse

 

oh sure, there are those souls

who, thirsting for retribution, and blindly sure of their

own special standing with God

 

seek a stunted and twisted version of apocalypse

wishing ill upon all but the “chosen” (them)

 

but for the most part

we don’t like disruption

no matter how miserable we are

we hang on to the old with grim determination

 

preferring old to new

 

and so we blind ourselves to our own dark underbelly

to our lust for domination

our greed

our bias

 

instead of allowing God to show us reality

and push us into to repentance and change

we grimly deny reality

 

we project our own sin onto others

accusing them of being who we are

we hide behind a distorted piety

 

we call good evil, and evil good

we exchange the truth for a lie

 

but Love is persistent

Love reveals all

 

Let’s hear it for the “mind of Christ”

given by the Spirit

 

let’s hear it for wind and fire

apocalypso!

 

Sacred shaking us up

disorienting

deconstructing

reconstructing

 

opening our eyes to everything

to those things in the world that need to change

to those things in us that need to change

 

opening our eyes to beauty

to the sacred nature of each person we see

 

let’s hear it for apocalypse

for the unveiling

for the moving and the shaking

for the letting go

for the going forth

 

let’s hear it for the radical rearrangement

that moves us out of the messes we have made

 

let’s hear it for the end of world

as we know it

 

 

 

wake up

 

  God—let me be aware.

  Stab my soul fiercely with others’ pain,

  Let me walk seeing horror and stain.

  Let my hands, groping, find other hands.

  Give me the heart that divines, understands.

  Give me the courage, wounded, to fight.

  Flood me with knowledge, drench me in light.

  Please—keep me eager just to do my share.

  God—let me be aware.

                     Miriam Teichner (2^nd stanza of Let Me Be Aware)

_________________________________________________

 

it takes a brave or foolish soul

to wander outside their safe places

their encapsulated places

 

in this time when dangers seem to abound

 

there are shifting climes and strange storms

Covid still roams

angry, fearful people with guns worship at the altar of power

politicians divide and destroy

 

…it’s a killing ground out there!

…you can get killed out there!

(William Hanley, Slow Dance on the Killing Ground)

 

even a trip to the mall

the grocery store

can become a fearful thing

 

if not for guns

then for oblivious people

who, armored in well-manicured ignorance (at best)

or self-centered contempt (at worst)

refuse to wear a mask, or distance

 

it is this that strikes one’s soul

as one wanders through America today

(it is this way everywhere?)

 

how so many are unmindful

unaware

and have little sense of others

 

it is seen in the smaller things

in a refusal to wear a mask

or keep one’s distance

(smaller things which are big things)

 

it is seen too in the willful blindness

that enables and sustains

injustice and inequity

 

in Mr. Santorum’s arrogant a statement

that delegitimized the indigenous people of North America*

in the blindness of white privilege

that refuses to see the pain and struggle of people of color

 

it is seen in the blind idolatry of those

their right to have any gun they want, any place they want

is more important than the lives of all those who die by gun violence

 

what the world needs now

is people who see other people

who see what other people suffer

see what other people need (to be safe and flourish)

 

and

believing those “others” to be

precious, sacred children

look beyond themselves

 

and do what is needed

to protect, to help

to comfort

 

for the fact is we all make it to the Kingdom together

or (in spite of what evangelicals say)

we don’t make it to the kingdom at all

 

_____________________________________________________

 

* “We came here and created a blank slate," Santorum said. "We birthed a nation from nothing. I mean, there was nothing here. I mean, yes we have Native Americans, but candidly there isn't much Native American culture in American culture.”

 

 

end to begin

 

Yearning for a new way will not produce it. Only ending the old way can do that. You cannot hold onto the old all the while declaring that you want something new. The old will defy the new; the old will deny the new; the old will decry the new. There is only one way to bring in the new. You must make room for it.

                     Neale Donald Walsch, Facebook post, July 22, 2014

 _______________________________

 

I want

I want

I

 

funny how that works

as we wonder through life

yearning all too often for that we do not have

 

suffering it has been said

is the gap

the distance between what we think

we want and need

and what we have

 

and we live all too often in the suffering gap

yearning

struggling to close that gap

 

to grab more power

more wealth

to grab more peace!

more love

 

I know!  I’ve been there

I am there

in that yearning place

 

but slowly I have learned,

(I do learn)

to value the place I am in

and the things I have

touched and experience

 

to quiet to yearnings for a moment

and rejoice in the hoot of an owl in the morning

the first golden rays of the sun

the wealth (of so many kinds) I have enjoyed

including the people

 

those precious souls

who inhabit my life and my heart

 

and I have also learned

to let go of the place that I am in

knowing that with Sacred sway

there is always something new

 

it is no accident the Spirit came as wind and fire

blowing like dust in the wind

searing us and driving us into new places

 

out of my darkest moments

have come great gifts

out of painful loss

has come the freedom to start again

and again

 

even this day, as I sit ensconced in my oldness

the Sacred is asking me to make room

to let go

of my fear,

my need for comfort

my old visions and dreams

my old agendas,

so there is room for the new

 

for there is something new awaiting

there always is

 

if I can just let go

and make a little room

 

Our own worst enemies

What is there to say

if God is for us, who can be against us

 

If God is for us, who can be against us?

The one who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—

how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen?

 

It is God who justifies.

Who then is the one who condemns?  (Romans 8)

 

No one.

 

No one

No one

 

 And yet

 

We struggle

we can be so toxic

with our guns

with our right to NOT wear masks

with our freedom

and our rabid patriotism

 

what is there to say

we are our own worst enemies

while struggling so hard to protect ourselves

and yes

protect God

 

we double down on everything

that is not God

on hate

domination

greed

power

coercion

death

 

we do it in the name of God

we do it in the name of patriotism

we justify it

embrace it

 

and yet

 

we are dead wrong

 

what can we say

if God is for us

and God is for us

yet we act as if that is not true

 

as if WE are the guardians of faith

as if WE must keep things pure

as if WE must stand up for God

 

really?

 

God does not need our help

God needs for us not to get in the way

with our hate

our judgement

our rituals

our ideology

our theology

 

God is for us!

We can love

we can forgive

we can give

we be kind

 

because God is

and God is Love

 and God is enough

 

 

There are two paths

Retribution

it is a very human thing

it is as American as apple pie

 

retribution goes along with domination

it oozes out of the belief

that it is “all about me”

 

it is a by-product of toxic individualism

 

when our world view is based on domination

and the idea that the one with the most power

is the person with the most worth

 

when we believe that nothing should impinge

on our right to do what we want to do

when we want to do it

on our right to impose our values, our beliefs, our “way” on others

 

then people thwarting our will is unacceptable

whether we be a nation

a church

a race

or even an individual

 

and the only way to answer such presumptuous challenges to our power

is to use our power to crush and control

 

this way of living started early!

 

enter Cain who eradicated Able

who dare compete for “God’s favor”

 

it continues

enter politicians who, when people threaten their power

double down on repression (think voter suppression)

or even on retribution (think the GOP threatening companies who oppose voter suppression)

 

it is interesting that such brutality

is often done in the name of God

God becomes the excuse for human cruelty

 

enter the inquisition

enter the Salem witch trials

enter the KKK

 

enter the right wing American church

 

enter all those who tell people God is going to punish them

with eternal conscious torment because of their beliefs

their color

their ideology

their sexual orientation

 

people of retribution have a God of retribution

 

contrary to what some may believe (RC Spoul Jr)

God did not create sin so God would have an excuse

to exercise God’s beautiful wrath

 

God is not a God of retribution

God is a God of reconciliation, and restoration

God is a God of Love

 

how do we know?

God’s self revelation

 

enter creation

enter the manger

enter the cross

 

enter Paul, struck blind with the enormity of his error

his retribution actions

 

but restored, empower

and commissioned

 

there are moments, yes

when I long for retribution

there are more moments when I subtly buy into

“the American way”

and the myth of power and domination and wealth

 

but each day I struggle to find that other way

that way that led to the cross

that way of humility and service

 

as Paul, the restored and forgiven on implores

through love become slaves to one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another. (Gal 5)

 

it seems we have a choice

we can go the way of domination

we can use brutal force to impose our will

we can suppress and oppress others

we can manipulate the system to make ourselves rich (and others poor)

we can walk around with our guns and intimidate and coerce

 

or we can walk through our day

noticing others

thinking of others

loving others

 

and lifting others up

 

There are two paths before us; we may take only one path (Matthew 7)

 

We Must Change

God is always bigger than you imagined or expected or even hoped. When you see people going to church and becoming smaller instead of larger, you have every reason to question whether the practices or sermons or sacraments or liturgies are opening them to an authentic God experience.

                     ~ Fr. Richard Rohr – Quoted by Roger Wolsey

________________________________________

 

this world needs people with big souls

 

or rather this world needs people who have become less

who have emptied out their souls

and then have allowed the wind of the Spirit to blow

and the fire of the Spirit to burn

 

and fill them with Sacred

 

this world needs people with souls that stretch

like new wine skins

souls that can grow big with Love

souls that can hold God’s new thing

 

the world needs people who

have been “born from above”

who, because they have been touched by God

have become new creations

 

no longer who or what they were

transformed

 

and the church should be one place where that happens

where followers gather

and where the wind rushes in

and the people glow with Sacred fire

 

and yet the church is often that place

where people huddle in the dark

for fear

 

fear of change

fear of loss

fear of “others”

 

it is often the place where the faithless huddle

and hang on desperately to the old

protective

reclusive

 

windows closed

breath of God extinguished

air fetid

wrapped up in a stale and false reality

                                                                                         

Pentecost denied

 

the world looks on, not in amazement

but with bewilderment

as those who claim the Risen One

side with domination and retribution

guns and greed

and tolerate racism

 

the world turns its back

and walks away

not touched by the miracle of inclusion

the wonder of grace

 

but appalled

and confused

 

help us Lord

help us to have large souls

help us to be open to your presence

and allow you to stretch us like new wineskins

 

transform us

do not allow us the comfort of the old

do not let us rot in the pews

suffocated by the stale air of fear and resentment

 

remind us that when you come as Spirit

we cannot remain the same

we must throw open the widows and open wide the doors

 

we must let the wind blow and the fire rage

we must change

we must become new

 

and we must take to the streets

singing songs of love

and welcome

 

 

Forbidden Fruit

it hovers there

like the forbidden fruit

ripe, enticing, ready to be plucked

 

that which if we pluck it

will surely kill us

 

we may hesitate

for a moment

 

but then comes the lie

we hear it clearly

spoken by others

echoing within ourselves

 

the lie made only more powerful that others

even our culture

embraces it too

 

and so we grasp for the fruit

we bite and chew

we consume

 

and it, and the lie

become a part of us

 

and with each bite

the image of God is blurred

and the presences of God is diminished

 

paradise is lost

when we believe that might makes right

when we accept that the right to carry a gun

any kind of gun, anywhere,

is more important

than the right of people to live

 

we are driven (by our own agency) from the garden

when money is more important than people

when political power is more important than justice

when we deny that a person of color is equal

when we dehumanize and minimize those different from ourselves

when we seek to oppress and control

 

behind us the ground is littered

with half eaten fruit

with the bodies of those killed by our guns

with the gaunt bodies of the homeless

with the empty eyes of the poor

and the angry eyes of the oppressed

 

O Beloved

let the wind blow

scorch us with the fire of the Spirit

 

do not let us listen any more

to the lies

help us to see them for what they are

excuses for the inexcusable

 

do not let us lie to others

do not let us lie to ourselves

 

help us to hear only you

you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart

you shall love and value your neighbor

just as you love and value your self

 

this day

let us turn our guns into gardening tools

let us call all others our brothers and sisters

let us walk the way of humility and service

 

it is insanity to keep doing what we are doing

and expect something different

 

this day let us say

as Jesus did on the cross

“this stops here”