community

Presbyterian Bloggers

Powered By Ringsurf

people don’t seem to leave the church because they no longer believe in the beauty of Jesus and his teachings. People leave the church because they believe in the beauty of Jesus and his teaching so much that they can no longer stomach being part of an institution that says it’s about that and so clearly is not.

          Nadia Bolz-Weber

 

When we talk about building a world where all people can achieve justice and fulfill our potential as human beings, we really mean all people. That is Dr. [Martin Luther] King’s vision of “Beloved Community,” where all people can live in peace. Beloved Community is an acknowledgment that the only way for a peace to ever be sustainable, the only way that our people can always be safe, is if all people are free.…

 

Building Beloved Community is not about loving the people who are easy to love. It is about cultivating love for those that are difficult to love

 

If you are not struggling to love people, if you are not trying to build understanding with those you disagree with, then you are not really doing the work of building Beloved Community. The work of building Beloved Community is understanding that we’re not trying to win over people, but to win people over. Historically, winning a war has meant defeating the opponent. There is a clear winner and a clear loser.... But in nonviolence, there is no real victory until everyone is on the same side. 

          Richard Rohr

____________________________________________

 

the church is dying

Long live the church!

 

I think a lot about the church

as an aged coot who inhabits a pulpit on Sunday morning

wondering if he has something to say

to the scattered souls scattered among the pews

 

and I think it is dying

the average congregation has 65 people

and only 16% of Americans say religion is the most important thing in their life

 

did I say congregation?

Ah!

a congregation is a group of people gathered for

that exercise in religiosity we call worship

 

most of the “congregations” that seem to be flourishing

(or so the statisticians tell us)

are those that are very large

 

where worship can be done with flair!

where the entertainment is excellent and

the energy of the gathered masses

takes on the quality of a Trump rally (or a rock concert)

 

(yeah, I know, there are exceptions)!

 

but it all has me wondering about the fate

of all those little congregations

which are dying

one by one

 

it strikes me that something needs to change

perhaps we need to start by changing one word

and stop talking about congregations

and start talking about communities

 

what does it mean to be a community

it doesn’t mean you come together once a week to perform a “task”

it means you live together

struggle together 

share together

eat together

 

community

communities of faith

 

what does that look like

it might mean meeting in a home, not a sanctuary

it might mean meeting to serve (together) at a food bank

or gathering to help an elderly person with their garden

 

a community looks like people rallying around that person

who, suffering from mental illness and trauma just got a DUII

and making sure they still know they are loved

and are a child of God

 

communities are neighbors loving neighbors

people taking care of one another

 

communities are about people listening

forgiving

and giving

 

communities are about working together

despite differences

until everyone wins

everyone gets to the goal, together

 

I don’t know, for sure

how to turn a congregation

scattered souls, scattered among the pews

into a community of faith

a community of love

 

I suspect that I will have little to do with that process

but I do know that in my little corner of the world

middle of nowhere

center of the universe (Wallowa County, Oregon)

my congregation will survive

if it can move beyond being a congregation

 

we live in a world full of lonely, anxious, and uncertain people

scared to death of the future

seeking answers in all the wrong places (in authoritarian leaders for example)

 

the church, if it is to be relevant

has to offer these suffering people that can’t be more easily found somewhere else

 

and it hasn’t

As Jake Meador of the Atlantic puts it

“American churches have too often been content to function as a kind of vaguely spiritual NGO, an organization of detached individuals who meet together for religious services that inspire them, provide practical life advice, or offer positive emotional experiences. Too often it has not been a community that through its preaching and living bears witness to another way to live”

 

The church is dying!

That is not all bad

Because you have to die to be resurrected

You have to die (both Jesus and Paul said this) to the old

to be raised to new life

 

Maybe it is time the church dies

so that it can become the church?

 

the resurrected body of Christ

in this world

Presbyterian Bloggers

Powered By Ringsurf

Jesus

you may “get” us

but we don’t “get” you

 

we have built beautiful soaring buildings to hold your presence

we have built ugly auditoriums in which to shout your praise

we have written complex (and unsingable) hymns

and endless praise songs in your honor

 

we have put together a book

and have idolized it

 

we have fought over its meaning

and sought “right faith”

and fought over what that means

 

we have worshipped you

prayed to you

and talked about you

 

we have bedecked our bodies with crosses

and our cars with bumper stickers

touting our faith

 

and yet we have found ourselves far from you

and it shows

 

we talk about the poor

you lived among the poor

 

those of us who “have”

allow a little of what we have to trickle down to the poor

you called for radical redistribution!

 

we plot and plan and seek to infiltrate the halls of power

we work to codify righteousness

and impose it

 

we enter into the world of Empire and seek to use it

not knowing that Empire simply uses us!

You refused to align with Empire at all

Instead, you resisted Empire and all that it stands for

Wealth

Power

Control

Imposed righteousness

 

Knowing that none of those things is love

 

And Empire killed you

And Empire kills you still!

 

You were about one thing

Love

Love lived out

Love lived out radically and sacrificially

Love lived out among those most in need of love

(not those most easy to love)

 

You were permeated with Sacred

Filled with a Sacred love that spilled forth

Bubbling

Like a spring of living water

 

And you asked those who loved you

To love the way you loved

 

Yes, you asked people to give

To give all

You asked people to love

to love to the point of dying

 

But you knew

And you tried to teach us

That this kind of generosity and love

Comes not through guilt, shame, or fear

It is not implemented through rules

It is not imposed by foul and often cruel legislation

 

It comes from Sacred Presence

It comes out of a love of Love (God)

It comes when our hearts are filled to overflowing

It comes when people fall in love with each other

 

No, Jesus

We do not get you

 

But you get us

Which is why you told us the poor will be with us always

 

Dear God!

We are a mess!

Help!

 

Fill our hearts we pray

until they are full

until your love oozes from our souls

 

fill our hearts until capitalism is not possible

and forced re-distribution is not necessary

 

gather us together

around a table where all are equal

and all is shared

and all are protected

and all are loved

 

we do not get you, Lord,

but we want to

where does God dwell

Presbyterian Bloggers

Powered By Ringsurf

The Bible is most extraordinary because it repeatedly and invariably legitimizes the people on the bottom, not the people on the top. Rejected sons, barren women, sinners, lepers, or outsiders are always the ones chosen by God. It’s rather obvious when pointed out to us. In every case, we are presented with some form of powerlessness—and from that situation God creates a new kind of power. This is the constant pattern found hidden in plain sight.

          Richard Rohr (Daily Meditations, July 17, 2023)

 

Where does God dwell in America today? Is he at home with those who are complacent – indifferent to other people’s agony, devoid of mercy?  Is he not rather with the poor and the contrite in the slums

          Abraham Joshua Heschel  (Essential Writings)

______________________________________________

 

where does God dwell?

where can we find the One who is love?

 

is Sacred hanging out in the halls of the private school

funded by vouchers, where the rich and privileged loiter

or is Sacred in the battered classroom of an inner-city public school?

 

is Love sitting on the banks of the Rio Grande, watching

or is Love struggling, in the muddy waters

pieced by razor wire?

 

is the Beloved one lingering, poolside

with the 1%, who, indifferent and complacent

hoard resources and wrap themselves in an impervious bubble of wealth

or with that person suffocated by poverty

living in their car while working two minimum-wage jobs?

 

is God with the “good ol' boys, raised up right”

the ones in body armor with the guns

the white vigilantes who seek to dominate and intimidate

or with those who must fear for their life

every time police lights flash in their rearview mirror?

 

does God dwell in the church which preaches domination

and promises wealth

with the church that excludes and coerces

and sits fortified in its sanctuaries both massive and small

 

or does God dwell with those who have stumbled from the pews

into the world to serve?

fighting for justice, feeding the hungry, housing those without homes

caring for those no one cares about?

 

is God in the picket line outside the Planned Parenthood Clinic,

or sitting in the waiting room

with the frightened young woman whose life is falling apart?

 

where is God in America today?

at a Trump rally?

in the boardroom of the oil company?

on Wall Street?

in the sanctuary of the mega-church?

skulking behind the scenes at the Family Research Council or The Heritage Foundation?

 

where is God in America today?

is God in America today?

 

if God is

God is on the street,

in the food line

at the homeless shelter

with those our systems neglect and oppress

 

if God is

God is with those the world deems the “least’

in the places that are the most horrific

 

and God’s presence is poured out

not on those who seek to rule

and enter into the pain of the world and serve

 

Even upon my slaves, both men and women,

    in those days I will pour out my Spirit, Acts 2:18

The mystery we call God

Presbyterian Bloggers

Powered By Ringsurf

Good People,

Most royal greening verdancy,

rooted in the sun

you shine with radiant light.

In this circle of earthly existence

you shine

so finely,

it surpasses understanding.

God hugs you.

You are encircled

by the arms

of the mystery of God.

          Hildegard of Bingen

_____________________________________________

 

how do we think of that power

that presence

that something

that some call God?

 

one thing is for sure

Sacred is not a bearded old white man in a robe

dispensing justice

or not

nor is Sacred a tribal King (or Queen)

favoring some human creatures more than others

(God bless America)

 

but neither is Sacred vague and unformed

something akin to tofu or tapioca pudding!

 

there is something real here

something substantial and even personal

 

so we try to understand

we use images and symbols

we talk about a protective father and a nurturing mother

we invoke wind and fire

 

and our understanding changes and grows

as we change and grow

 

once we saw “God” as angry and demanding

then Jesus came

and now we understand that Sacred/God/El/Father/Mother/Pneuma/Creator

is truly enfleshed

all the time

 

in the creation

Abba! 

this does not mean “daddy”

it goes deeper, or so the wise ones say

it means the one to whom we are intimately connected

and from whom life (in all its forms and phases) comes

 

in us

in the Spirit

 

there el is (I love L’Engle’s term)

knocking around in our souls

not distant, not impassive, not angry, not punishing, not vindictive

but

 

One (another inadequate term)

who shares our pain

who hurts when we hurt

who is truly with us

who feels the fall of every sparrow

who fills us with love

 

Abba!

Life-giver

El

Father

Mother

Spirit

Son

One

Beloved

Mystery

 

I do not understand

I only know that when the sun rises, I see God

when I look at the mountain thrusting into the sky

and the eagle soaring

and the child laughing

and the aged person shuffling

 

when I see the deer in the woods

the cat on the porch

the calves dancing in the field

 

when I feel the wind on my face

and smell the pines

 

I am in the presence of Love

Christianity has a problem

Presbyterian Bloggers

Powered By Ringsurf

I have been thinking

Facetiously I often say

I am therefore I think (with apologies to Descartes and “cogito, ergo sum”)

 

I have been watching with a kind of wonder

for it does inspire awe (not the good kind)

to watch the Christianity

the religion

 

I see some good!

I see compassion for the vulnerable and oppressed

from some

I see welcome (of those often unwelcome)

from others

I see people standing up for love

And people standing with those who have no others

 

I see people fighting for equity and equality

and for Justice

(have you ever stopped to think how central Justice is in the

Judeo-Christian scriptures?)

 

But

I also see a lot of stuff that makes my heart hurt

and my stomach ache

 

I see a plethora of things done in the name of Jesus

that are truly antithetical to everything he taught

I see injustice perpetrated by people overtly claiming Jesus

I see Christians siding with the way of domination and accumulation

The way of fear and hate

Racism and exclusion

Guns

Untruth

Cruelty

 

I see Christians choosing to trust and follow

Liars

Not the One said I am the way, the truth, and the life

 

And because of that, there is so little life

In Christianity

 

I know

The apologists will tell me I am wrong

They will point out the good the Christian faith has done

And sometimes still does

 

But in doing so they will often ignore and deny a long history

of deadly collusion with the powers and principalities of the world

the crusades

the inquisition

the slaughter of indigenous people in the name of Jesus

the perpetuation of slavery

 

I think Christianity has a problem!

and think (thank you, Diana Butler Bass)

that we have to move beyond Christianity

into a new kind of spiritual awakening

which can be centered around

the Cosmic Christ

the creative power of Love

a Spirit that empowers

 

But what has gone wrong?

Or rather, how do we recapture the original power

of the Way (the movement founded by Jesus)

 

I think about it this way

There have been two major points of focus in the church

(and I can pretty much only speak for the American Church, after having been an ordained PCUSA minister for 46 years)

 

First, there has been a focus on individual sin and individual salvation

This is, to oversimplify, a movement focused on personal piety

And personal salvation

 

Accept Jesus.  Live according to the cultural and social norms the church has established

Go to church, do all the right stuff (pray, read the Bible, be pious)

Keep your nose clean, repent a lot,

And then, at the end, you are personally saved!  You get to go to heaven

Yay!

 

This is fire insurance faith

You live in the mess, but for the most part, you ignore the mess

You try to keep your own head spiritually above the mess

You try to “rescue” as many other people as you can

And then you get your reward!

 

You don’t get eternally tortured by a God of Love

You get to walk the streets of Gold

 

But for some churches, there has been instead a focus

Not on individual sin and individual salvation

But on corporate, systematic sin, and the transformation of said systems

The focus has been on the need to make the world better

To bring the kingdom (which some cleverly call the kin-dom) of God

Into being here and now

 

So as a Church and as Christians, the job is to fight for

All those good things!  Equity, justice, equality.

The job is to feed the poor, clothe the naked, comfort the afflicted

(perhaps afflict the comfortable), house the homeless

(all the Matthew 25 stuff, all the economic and social justice stuff from the prophets)

 

Which group is right?  Which is wrong?

Both?

 

It is not simple

There is a place for piety and a place for looking at individual sin

And individual redemption and transformation

But not if that path leads to a narrow, rigid, fear-based religion that seeks

To coerce and control, and ends up excluding most of humanity.

 

There is a place for a focus on corporate sin

For we are in fact to transform this world (thy kingdom come)

and make it a place where love wins

and where all are valued

and where true justice reigns

 

But not if this leads to a disregard for personal transformation

 

The fact is personal transformation should lead to a thirst for justice, equity, and equality

But the fight for justice, equity, and equality will not ultimately succeed

If it is not carried out by transformed people, empowered by the Spirit\\

 

Personal piety goes off the path if it is not informed by the need to address corporate, systematic sin (like racism, gun violence, economic and gender injustice)

The fight to transform the world fails those attempting this important task are now fueled and empowered by the Spirit.

 

A vital faith exists at the intersection of personal transformation and societal transformation

 

It comes when our personal faith, and our personal, intimate relationship with Love

Meets a drive to change the world, and create the peaceable kingdom

 

This, I think is where Jesus lived

And this is where Jesus died

And this is the place where Jesus started a movement with the capacity

To make the world the kingdom of love

 

We need to be changed

We need to change the world for (and with) love

 

If we seek personal salvation but ignore the ills of the world

(or identify the wrong thing as ills because… the church)

We are not following

 

If we try to change the world

But try to do it using human power alone, and human tactics

We are going to fail (we become crispy critters, burned out and frustrated)

 

It is time to meet at the crossroads

Of personal transformation and empowerment

And social justice and corporate transformation

 

Because (in my humble opinion)

That is where Jesus waits for us

 

a worthy thing

Presbyterian Bloggers

Powered By Ringsurf

Is there an integrity of the person, so intrinsic in its value and significance that no deed, however evil, can ultimately undermine this given thing? If a person is of infinite worth in the sight of God, whether they are saint or sinner, whether they are a good person or a bad person, evil or not, if that is true, then I am never relieved of my responsibility for trying to make contact with this worthy thing in them.

          Howard Thurman, The Growing Edge (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1956), 17–18.

          Note: minor edits made for inclusive language.

___________________________________

 

we are

all of us

both beautiful and terrible

both good and bad

both kind and cruel

 

we have, all of us

done good things and bad things

we have, all of us

been worthy of love, and worthy of disdain

 

I have had my moments when I did

“very good things”

I have had my moments when I have been a jerk

when my kinder angels have been silent

and I have done things that have harmed

 

it is easy to love people when they are being

convenient

it is not as easy when they are hate-filled and illogical

when they side with cruelty

when they are racists, or fascist

 

it is easy to love the volunteer who helps the homeless

it is almost impossible to love the person

who totes an AR-15 into a McDonalds

or worse, into a school

 

there are people it would be all to easy to throw away

into the garbage heap of humanity

 

those who have been despicable

who have created so much harm and misery

the fascist leader

the mass shooter

the leader of the lynch mob

the drunk driver who just wiped out a life

 

the person who hurt us

diminished us

marginalized us

 

I struggle to find the spark of divinity

In such souls

That small remnant of sacred that makes them “worthy”

 

I would like to “ghost” them

Remove them from my life, my world

I would like to savor my disdain

 

And yet I realize that perhaps

to someone else

I am that person

 

I am the one who has hurt

Who has been cruel

Who is “wrong” and harmful

I am the heretic sinner

Who has lost their way

 

There is a “oneness” to humanity

All have sinned and fallen short of the glory

All

 

And in all there is something worthy

God sees it

I need to see it too

It is the hidden treasure

The lost coin

 

And it is my calling to seek until I find

that bit of “worthy” in them

just as I so desperately need for them

to find that bit of “worthy” in me

 

for it is in that search

that we will find oneness

and it is a task

that is never done

the demand for equality

Presbyterian Bloggers

Powered By Ringsurf

What is lacking is a sense of the monstrosity of inequality

 

Daily we should take account and ask:  What have I done today to alleviate the anguish, to mitigate the evil, to prevent humiliation?  Let there be a grain of prophet in every [soul]!

 

          Abraham Joshua Heschel

 

“The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.”

         

          Franklin D. Roosevelt

 

__________________________________

 

It is a radical assertion

That we poor human creatures are the image of God

 

Think about that

You, I, that person over there

That black person

That LGBTQI+ person

That person with the swastika tattoo

That person wiped out by drugs or alcohol

That rich person flaunting their wealth

That poor person struggling to survive

That compassionate person caring

That person who is hating

That fearful person, angry person, misinformed person

 

Is the image of God

Each person carries God

Reflects God

 

God is the God of all

Or the God of none

The image is in all human creatures

Or in none

 

In each person there is at least

A trace of God

 

And thus equality is not optional

For we are all one

 

It is not OK to think

God is my God, not yours

God is on my side, not yours

And it is certainly not OK to do anything

That marginalizes or minimalizes another

That oppresses another

 

It is not OK to enrich the rich at the cost of the poor

It is not OK to deny services to people who make you uncomfortable

(don’t blame your discomfort on God)

It is not OK to keep intact those systems that create inequality

It is not OK to systematize injustice (by stacking the SCOTUS with ideological extremists)

It is blasphemy to do those things, claiming to do them for God

 

There are many ways prejudice is nourished

Many ways to oppress

Many ways to deny the image

 

May it never be!

Mary insisted that the high must be brought low and the low lifted up

 

That is an affront to the ideology of domination and greed

But what is it, really?

A demand for equality and equity!

 

A demand that all God’s creatures find a common ground

Where all are fed, clothed, housed, cared for, educated, nurtured

Respected

Valued

 

That is why the imperative of the Gospel and the cry of the Prophet is

“to alleviate the anguish, to mitigate the evil, to prevent humiliation”

 

What have we done today?

What have I done today?

 

“The way we act,” Herschel insists

“The way we fail to act

Is a disgrace”

 

It is time for repentance

It is time for action

 

 

in the dark

Presbyterian Bloggers

Powered By Ringsurf

Weeping may linger for the night,

but joy comes with the morning.

          Psalm 30

 

I was caught in a cycle of worry and anger. I was not just walking a dark path; I had let the darkness inside me. Evil always seeks to obscure the light, because once it has you living in darkness, that which should not be painful becomes so…. 

 

What we forget, faith-wise, in our fear—what I was forgetting that night in my daughter’s room—is that even in the darkest night, when we see no light at all, the light is still there. The sun is still shining over Earth even when our side of Earth rotates away from it. The stars still shine above us, no matter how thick the clouds above our heads. What we need in the darkest nights is to keep walking along the path until we can glimpse the stars again. What we don’t need is to panic and run blindly into the woods. 

          Otis Moss III  (Center for Action and Contemplation, Daily Meditation 6/28/23)

____________________________________

 

It stuns me

Freezes me

Astonishes me

Saddens me

 

It is the picture of Uncle Sam

Face angry

Hand offering a gesture of disrespect and hate

(you know the one)

 

Underneath the words

F@*& Biden!

 

Really?

 

It is the comments

Repeating lies

Making things up

Spewing hate

 

It is the blind, unthinking loyalty

to people who do not deserve such devotion

to the greedy

the liars

the abusers

the predators

be they conservative or liberal

 

it is the division

the violence

desire to control

the lust to eradicate the “enemy”

 

the willful ignorance

that simply accepts the talking points

that supports one’s bias

 

until we are all stumbling along in the dark

 

It stuns me

Freezes me

Astonishes me

Saddens me

This fear

This hate

This darkness

 

Sometimes it feels as if the morning will never come

As if the darkness will smother us

Crushing us

Until the breath of life is gone

 

I want to scream

To lash out

I am confused by people I love and care about

Embracing lies

Supporting what I believe to be evil

(and yes, I know they disagree)

 

I don’t know how to respond

Do I confront?

Do I attempt to correct, to reason (good luck with that!)

 

How can I find understanding when I do not understand?

Do I forgive (duh!)

 

But it all comes down to this

How do I keep walking down the path toward the light

How do I keep loving

How do I dance in the dark

 

It must come down to this eventually

 

What do I allow to fill my soul?

Darkness, or Light

Hate, or Love

Despair, or Joy?

 

I believe, Lord, help my unbelief

Help me trust in the morning

In the presence of Love

 

Remind me, as I stumble in the dark

That “Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day.”

 

Help me to dance in the dark

Priest, prophet, pastor

Presbyterian Bloggers

Powered By Ringsurf

I love my country

I love my faith system

I love myself (I hope in a healthy way)

 

Therefore I examine

Therefore I have moments of disapproval

 

Socrates said that the “unexamined life is not worth living”

But self-examination is not always an easy thing

 

Kurt Vonnegut Jr. asks this follow-up question.

“But what if the examined life turns out to be a clunker as well?” (Wampeters, Foma, and Granfalloons)

 

And Alex Bosworth suggests, “Socrates said that an unexamined life is not worth living. But you know, an over-examined life can be a real crap festival, too.”

 

One of the things that has always impressed me as I have read the Bible

Has been the presence of healthy criticism

 

In the Hebrew scriptures, we have the prophets

Who are nothing if not feisty and critical

Not to mention blunt

“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil,

who put darkness for light and light for darkness,

who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!”

 

In the teachings of Jesus, we have those moments when

He exposes our worst tendencies as human creatures

Our judgementalism (You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel)

Our hypocrisy (Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence)

Our failure to take care of the vulnerable (Matthew 25)

 

Yes, there is more!

 

And Paul and the other writers of the letters certainly had no trouble

Calling out the early church for its various foibles.

Paul, for example, called out the church in Corinth for turning the Lord’s supper into an occasion for inequity and worse.  “When you come together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat. For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, and another gets drunk.”

 

Thank God for this honesty!

Perhaps one of the things that has allowed me to remain within the bounds of the Christian faith is my belief that there is room for

Doubt

Failure

Anger

Fear

Frustration

 

And there is room for criticism, change, and growth

 

There is a place to call our nation out for the ways it is wrong

A place to call out the church for its failures

And a place for challenging ourselves.  How with think, how we respond to others, and how we behave.

 

One of the greatest challenges of a person ordained into the ministry of word and sacrament is to find a balance between challenge and affirmation.

 

Between being a prophet and a priest

Priests are about the status quo (I think)

About passing on the beliefs, and yes, the rituals, of the faith system

Priests are those presiding at the table, reminding us to remember the works of God

 

Prophets are those calling us to be better

They are those pointing out how we have stumbled off the path

And are failing to be what God calls us to be

 

(I think there is also the role of pastor, which is very important for many people.  It seems to me this role was actually given to those called Deacons.  But this role in many churches is also laid on the shoulders of the clergy)

 

So Pastor, Priest, Prophet

 

Can one person embrace all of those roles?

I suspect we lean in toward one role over the others

 

I believe I am, perhaps, heavy on the prophet side of the equation

I can be one who challenges.  Even blunt.  One who stirs things up

 

I can be pastoral

And I do, in fact, administer the sacraments

 

But I suspect I am more prophet than priest

I also suspect that in the American church, there are more priests than prophets

Although I think many consider themselves prophets but are really priests

They “protect” the church, and point to enemies without

They call out the sins of others but are blind to the sins of the church (blind guides)

 

I have an element of pastor (I am a licensed therapist)

But honestly, as an introvert, I struggle to be that warm, reassuring presence some seek

(and need)

I often wish I had a better balance

 

But…

 

I believe the American church needs more prophets

It needs more Martin Luther King Jr’s

More people like William Barber, Richard Rohr, Matthew Fox, Jacqui Lewis

Barbara Brown Taylor, Rachel Held Evans, Nadia Bolz-Weber, and Diana Butler Bass

 

Yes, we need the priest (for we need the sacraments)

Yes we need the pastors (we are pretty beaten up)

 

But we need the prophets

But we need prophets who, once they have challenged

Can welcome and comfort

 

Like Jesus did

 

As I said, it’s a complicated thing

Its something I am thinking about on this summer solstice morning

Shadows

Presbyterian Bloggers

Powered By Ringsurf

The shadow self is not of itself evil; it just allows us to do evil without recognizing it as evil! In fact, we often believe that we’re doing something good. That’s the power of the shadow. That is why Jesus criticizes hypocrisy more than anything else. Jesus is never upset with sinners, but only with people who pretend they are not sinners.

          Richard Rohr, quoted in Daily Meditations CAC 6/19/23

 

On a cultural level, shadow means what our group, our tribe, our religion, our political party deems negative, out of bounds, to be shunned, to be improved, or to be punished. Behind every social oppression lurks a piece of group shadow whose members are exporting it onto others who are not of their tribe. When the shadow part is not faced, it goes unconscious and lives there.

          Ann Ulanov (quoted in Daily Meditations 6/19/23)

____________________________________________________________

 

What lurks in the shadows of my soul?

It is an honest question.

 

I suspect things are hiding there that I do not know

I suspect things are hiding there that I do not want to know

 

And that is the problem

 

Because what lurks in the shadows is often revealed in the stark light of day

In my words and my behaviors

In my perceptions of others.

 

There are those things that shape and move me

And take me to places that are not kind or just

 

Those things unacknowledged

 

A need for power

The fear of irrelevance

Pride, and its close friend, arrogance

An undeserved certitude that demands that my opinion be accepted as fact

That my values be seen as superior

That my understanding is more profound

 

My own personal needs to be liked

Valued

Even loved

 

My shadow is made up of those ways in which I think too highly of myself

My shadow is made up of those places where I am needy

 

And when I deny the shadow

And allow it to dwell in my soul

Unnamed

Unclaimed

Untouched

 

I give it power

And it oozes out of me

A dark mist of bias

Of judgment, fear, desire

And so much more

 

And I project all the ills of my soul

Onto others

Controlling, demeaning, using, manipulating

Rejecting

 

Alas

I do what I condemn

I am shadow pretending to be light

Thinking I am light

 

Multiply me by a church

By a political party

By a nation

 

And it is a horror

 

May the light shine in the darkness

May I see, understand, name, and accept (as real) those things

hiding

May I allow the light to dispel the shadows

 

May I be so filled with Sacred

That slowly

Painfully

Partially

But surely

The dark corners of my soul are exposed

And healed

 

Only then can my true self emerge

Me, In the image of God 

No and Yes

Presbyterian Bloggers

Powered By Ringsurf

I have often been told that when one first turns to God, one is greeted with brilliant Yes answers to prayers.  For a long time, this was true for me.  But then, when God has you hooked, God starts to say No.  But it has been more than a No answer lately; after all, No it is an answer.  It is the silence, the withdrawal that is so devastating.

          Madeleine L’Engle  (The Irrational Season, p. 173)

 

In a world full of jive

Full of homicide and suicide

There's no room for love and romance

In a world full of spite

Full of hatefulness and bitterness

Sincerity don't stand a chance

And every night I close my eyes

And ask the stars above

Oh where, oh where, oh where, oh where is love?

          Lyrics by Jay Davies, sung by the Kinks

________________________________

 

I love “yes”

Do you love me?  Yes!

Is it time for dinner?  Yes!

 

I love it when all things work together for God

When life is full of Sacred yeses

 

When the sanctuary is full

When my relationships are working

When I am affirmed for what I do

When I am valued for who I am

 

God is full of “Yes”

Every sunrise and sunset is a “yes”

Every smile, every laugh!

Every “thank you”

 

The joy on an old woman’s face when I show up to visit, perhaps her first visitor in a week, is a “yes”

 

I love it when it feels like Sacred is saying “yes”

 

But there are so many moments of “No”

 

I am never quite sure if they are really “No”

Or merely “not yet”

Or even a “redirect”

 

I am not sure if certain moments are God’s “no” or

Simply the “no” of human creatures getting in the way of God’s “yes”

 

But there are truly times

When the deepest yearnings of my heart

Go unfulfilled

And times when it seems, I am not allowed to escape the pain and loss

Times when I cannot avoid or deflect.

 

There are other times when God simply seems silent

When prayer feels, literally, like praying to a stone wall.

 

Even Jesus had such moments

In Gethsemane

He asked God to “take this cup from me”

 

The answer was “no”

 

On the cross, God seemed silent!

“My God, My God why have you forsaken me!”

 

But out of God’s “no” to Jesus, came a great “yes”

The resurrection

And past the silence was a grand reunion of parent and child

The joyful dance of the Trinity united

 

How often I have found that I needed the “no” to get to the “yes”

And how often I have found that God’s silence is not merely silence

But simply the still small voice of the Sacred

The whispers of the divine, being drowned out by the noise of the world

 

There are times I do not understand

When the “no” seems simply like “no”

When my father died of cancer, young,

When my mother died of a variant of ALS, young

 

When all my prayers for them went unanswered

I still do not understand why two such wonderful and precious souls

Should have had their lives shortened in that way

While people I see as truly evil seem to go on forever

 

Sometimes God seems truly absent

And I wonder, as fascists thrive and hate proliferates

As the world burns

And justice is denied

Where God is in all of this?

 

I am not one of those who can simply say

“Someday I’ll understand”

 

I have questions.  I want answers

I struggle with trust

 

But life goes on

And history unfolds

And I am left, as was Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob

Moses and David

And Jesus

 

Crying into the heated air

“Oh God, into your hands I commend my spirit”

 

Left only with a frail trust

in an eternal “yes”

 

Jesus Stopped

Presbyterian Bloggers

Powered By Ringsurf

Jesus stopped.  And healed.  And loved. Not causes, but people.

          Madeleine L’Engle

 

“I love mankind, it’s people I can’t stand!”

          Linus (Peanuts)

_______________________________

 

I think Jesus disdained causes

He didn’t line up with any group

Not the Sadducees, or Pharisees

Not the Zealots or the Essenes

Not the collaborative movement which went along with Rome (it’s the money stupid)

Or the movement that wanted to eradicate all the Romans

 

Jesus didn’t have much time for movements

because he only had eyes

for people

 

People who happened to be Sadducees, Pharisees, Zealots and Essenes

Noble and common

Rich and poor

Powerful and powerless

Healthy and ill

Confident and confused

Faithful and faithless

Righteous and holy messes

 

And when he saw people

Who were hurting, questioning

Lost

Despairing

(whether they knew it or not)

Jesus stopped.  And healed.  And loved.

 

He did what he could to make people safe

Accepted and welcome

He did what he could to bless

To guide

To transform

 

He did not just work to help them become who and what

They were created to be

Children of God

 

But he worked to make sure they were fed, clothed, and house

To make sure their thirst was quenched

Be it spiritual or physical

 

And when he went on his way

He left people who were changed

(or if not changed, sad and thoughtful)

 

Yes, I know, there are places for movements

And causes

But sometimes our allegiance to causes can leave us blind to people

We can be so into stopping abortion

We lose sight of mothers and fathers, and children already born

And we can become cruel and destructive

 

We can be so into gun rights

The environment

Animal Rights

(pick your cause)

 

That we fail to see people

We fail to see their fear, their pain, their anger

And we an end up discarding them

Diminishing and marginalizing them

Hurting them

Without compunction

After all, “the cause!”

 

I don’t know sometimes how to balance it out

I don’t know how to see the people who are wrapped up

In beliefs, attitudes and actions

That violate love

 

It is difficult to stop and truly see them

It is difficult to love them

It is difficult to treat them with love

 

But Jesus did

He stopped and talked with kindness to the rich young man

The tax collector

The Roman soldier

The members of the Sanhedrin

The lepers

The afflicted

The poor

 

All

 

How do we do it, Jesus?

How do we see those who cross our paths

How do we see them as your beloved children

As our brothers and sisters

 

How do we not let our causes

Our divisions

Our own sense of right and wrong

Good and evil

Get in the way of love?

 

Trust

Presbyterian Bloggers

Powered By Ringsurf

It is like a silent killer

A toxic mist that hovers amongst us poisoning our hearts

shriveling our souls

 

call it fear

call it hate

 

it drives us from green pastures

and still waters into the valley of the shadow

where we fear evil

and feel so very alone.

 

crouching in the darkness

like a demented Gollum

we become malignant

 

we grasp at foul things

we gnaw and destroy

our hunger is insatiable and our dread unrelenting  

 

we try to solve our torment with power

and satisfy our hunger with wealth

 

we grab power and abuse it

using it as a weapon against others

we reject the truth and hide behind comfortable lies

 

our fear-based lives are filled

with guns, banned books,

stacked courts, oppressive laws, and closed borders

 

and our world is littered

with the neglected poor and the excluded stranger.

with people minimized, marginalized, and denied

 

the planet itself cries out in pain

as it burns

 

in desperation, we turn to malevolent dominators

to profane saviors who promise power, wealth, and protection

who tell us we will get tired of winning

if we only follow them

who promise to crush our enemies

fill our pockets

 

who promise us Empire!

 

but the cost is great

children dead, truth denied, people left

in poverty and hopelessness

immigrants imperiled

justice denied

equity destroyed

 

no person can save us

there is only Love

there is only that inner presence of a power greater than ourselves

 

the secret is this

Christ in us, Love in us, the Sacred in us

 

we are all Sacred Children

we all carry the Sacred in us

it is there!

that love, that power, that creativity, the compassion

that created the universe

 

that made the sun, and moon, and stars

that made the flowers and the trees

the birds and all living creatures

 

it is there, inside us

and if we are awake to it

if it becomes that in which we live move and have our being

if it permeates us

 

then we do not have to fear

we do not have to protect

we do not have to manipulate and control

we do not have to hate and exclude

we do not have to lie and believe in lies

we do not have to trust the untrustworthy

 

instead, we can be strengthened in our inner being with power through the Spirit

we can be “rooted and grounded in love”

 

and we can be people who embrace the truth (and refuse to accept the lies)

people who live with open hearts

open minds

and open hands

 

accepting, welcoming, giving, caring, affirming, healing

 

God is here

and if we trust in God, trust in that power within

 

God will restore our souls

and fill our cups

and lead us down the paths of goodness and mercy

 

God will lead us home

We Say

Presbyterian Bloggers

Powered By Ringsurf

We say “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” (MLK Jr)

We say “Love wins”

We say “God has this”

We say “In God we Trust.”

 

In faith, we insist that Sacred is somehow “in the building”

Doing holy things

And that we do not have to be afraid

 

For "All shall be well, and all shall be well,

and all manner of thing shall be well" (Julian of Norwich)

 

I believe all of that

 

But there is something that we often do not say.

That the path toward love and justice

Involves a profound encounter with hate and evil

 

What we do not say

Is that often the center does not hold

And we slide into the abyss

 

There is a reason Jesus said we have to “die to live”

And Paul insisted that “all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.” (Romans 6)

 

We sometimes want to forget that

In between Palm Sunday and Easter

Horrible things happened

 

Conflict, rejection, betrayal, injustice, brutality, and murder

We forget that the world “did its thing” on Jesus

That Empire killed him,

 

Before the resurrection happened

 

We cannot trivialize the power of hate and fear in this world

Yes, Hitler was defeated

But what happened before that happened?

Concentration camps.  Genocide. War. Devastation

 

Yes, Europe and the world crawled out of the ashes

But the devastation happened.

 

Yes, people recover from illness,

Tragedy

Mass shootings

Injury

Hate

Racism

 

Yes, when Sacred is present the end of the path

Will be life and love

Justice and equity

 

But along the path?

So often the path to transformation and change starts

Not (as Richard Rohr says) “when something new begins, but when something old falls apart.”

 

I trust that eventually love will win

That people like MTG and DJT and all the rest will eventually be defeated

 

But I also believe there may well be a lot of chaos along the way

There may be “fire, dark night, death, emptiness, abandonment, trial, the Evil One. Whatever it is called, it does not feel good, and it does not feel like God.” (Rohr)

 

There are times we do not feel the presence of God

Times when in spite of what we say, we wonder

 

I see hard times ahead

I hear the words of the ancient prophets echoing in my ears

Woe to those who devise wickedness and evil deeds[a] on their beds!

When the morning dawns, they perform it, because it is in their power.

They covet fields and seize them, houses and take them away;

they oppress householder and house, people and their inheritance (Micah).

 

We don’t have to go there

But we may well go there

And if we go there

God will be there

 

“He shall judge between many peoples and shall arbitrate between strong nations far away; they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks;

nation shall not lift up sword against nation; neither shall they learn war anymore; (also Micah)

 

How do we hang on in that chaotic, liminal

Painful, deadly, time

In between?

 

We remember that Jesus walked this path too

We remember that out of death God brings life

We remember that Sacred hangs out in our souls

We remember, remember, remember

 

And we turn in

We go to that deep place within us

Where Love dwells

 

We become awake to the Spirit

We give it room to work

 

Knowing that it will not take the pain away

But will transform the pain

Into hope

Into love

Into action

 

And then we will keep walking

Keep serving

Keep giving

 

God does not change the world as much as

God changes us, in ways big, and ways small

God’s presence changes the way we see the world

React to the world

Live in the world

 

And that is why, in spite of it all

The Kingdom will come

And love will win