Lament runs deep

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Terrors are to come.  The earth

is poisoned with narrow lives.

I think of you.  What you will

 

Live through, or perish by, eat

at my heart.  What have I done? I

need better answers than there are

 

to the pain of coming to see

what was done in blindness,

loving what I cannot save.  Nor,

 

your eyes turning toward me,

can I wish you lives unmade

though the pain of them is on me

          Wendell Barry

__________________________________

 

Terrors are to come

Terrors are here

 

In Gaza, children look toward the sky

expecting death to fall like rain

while old white men

plot and plan

and count their cryptocurrency

 

Immigrants huddle in fear

waiting for the knock on the door

for the masked intruder

who will cast them

nameless and faceless

into perdition

 

The poor wonder how far

their last paycheck will go

and look at empty shelves

 

The houseless know

that they will never have a house

let alone a home

and lie in a wet doorway

watching the rich drive by

unseeing

 

People transformed by lust

seekers of power

insatiable

turn obscene abundance into want

 

sucking the resources of the earth

into a gaping maw

of greed

 

the few leaving the many

destitute and hopeless

 

I have no answers

I have no power

I cannot stop the encroaching darkness

 

I can only watch

and feel

holding the pain

knowing I cannot

undo what has been done

 

I want to unsee

I want to feel nothing.

 

I do not want to know

what fresh horror has been unleashed

by people who, in the name of God

sell hate

and seek to punish and control

 

I do not want to hear that voice

of unreason

and listen to the jumble of words

and watch people who know better

support and enable

terrorism

 

but there is no escape

 

so who do I do?

What can I do?

 

Pray?

I have been praying

Seek to do good?

It barely dents the evil.

 

Lament runs deep, woven into my soul

I have been told, Beloved

That you embrace the brokenhearted and

save those who are crushed in spirit

 

O God of love,

this would be a good time

to feel your presence

 

before I forget how to love

and how to hope

Keep on keeping on

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“I do the very best I know how, the very best I can,

and I mean to keep on doing so until the end.”  

                                                           Abraham Lincoln

_________________________________________

 

I am scared

I mean it

 

Some very sick people

(it is a sickness unto death)

Have almost unchecked power

 

And it feels as if they are tearing the world

And my soul

Apart

 

God is

God is good

 

But people have an immense capacity for destruction

It appears even God gets tired of it all

Sometimes

 

“Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain,

Who destroys the whole earth,” declares the Lord,

 

How do we keep on keeping on

In times like these?

 

How did Abraham Lincoln keep going

As he looked at the unfinished dome of the capital building

Saw the campfire smokes of the confederacy

And felt deeply how fragile our democracy really is

 

How did he get the strength to say

All I can do is what I can do

I will keep doing it!

 

How can we reach the place where we say

I will not tire of doing good

 

Because I am tired

I am tired of trying to get people to do their homework

Find the truth

Trying to counter the lies that flow over us

Like a river of ooze and slime

 

Tired of standing up against an ideology of hate and fear

And of resisting people who care about money and power

And not people

 

I am tired of trying to be positive and not angry

I am tired of the knot in my stomach when I read the news

And see the damage being done to the planet

And to the creatures who live upon it

 

And as I look into this New Year

What I see is division and destruction

Hate and violence

Injustice and inequity

 

How do I keep going in the face of all this?

 

I guess this is where faith comes in.

The belief that, despite what we see and hear

Despite what some churches tell us

 

God is compassion, inclusion, acceptance,

God abhors injustice and inequity

God is anguished when people refuse to share

 

God is willing to give God’s self completely

That all people might find life, and find it more abundantly

 

Can I, in faith, do the very best I know how, the very best I can,

until I am completely used up

Can I follow in the footsteps of Jesus

 

Can I live love even as hate does its worst?

Can I stay welcoming

Can I continue to listen and seek to understand

Can I work to help and heal everyone

Who crosses my path?

 

I believe that although I am a beautiful mess

That God is there for me, will always be there for me

 

And I believe that God is there for all others

All

Others

 

That God is waiting

to welcome them into the circle of love

 

Can I live that belief?

And be present, radically and sacrificially, for others?

Honestly, I don’t know

 

But I will try, and keep trying

Because I don’t know what else to do

 

________________________________

 

This is my anthem (my theme song) for the New Year

 

Praise to the Lord of the small broken things,

who sees the poor sparrow that cannot take wing.

who loves the lame child and the wretch in the street

who comforts their sorrows and washes their feet.

 

Praise to the Lord of the faint and afraid

who girds them with courage and lends them His aid,

He pours out his spirit on vessels so weak,

that the timid can serve and the silent can speak.

 

Praise to the Lord of the frail and the ill

who heals their afflictions or carries them till,

they leave this tired frame and to paradise fly.

to never be sick and never to die.

 

Praise him, O praise Him all ye who live

who’ve been given so much and can so little give

our frail lisping praise God will never despise-

He sees His dear children through mercy-filled eyes.

                                           Words, Johanna Anderson

                                           Music, Dan Forrest

New Year Redux

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Every moment is a new beginning.

          Elie Wiesel

 

As each breath goes out, let it be the end of that moment and the birth of something new. . .

          Pema Chodron

 

To new beginnings. To the pursuit of...somethingness.

Cecelia Ahern

________________________________________

 

Happy New Year

Or not

 

We count the seconds

And celebrate

Happy New Year!

It is time for a fresh start

 

It is a time to think of change

Of new beginnings

 

And yet this New Year has barely begun

And I am thinking mostly of endings

 

Of lives ending (RIP Finn)

Of peace ending in the explosions

In Gaza and Venezuela

 

Of justice ending

As a tainted SCOTUS bought and controlled

Deals injustice

 

Of freedom ending

Not just for immigrants and refugees

But for all who do not bend the knee to a tyrant

(and for those who follow as well, they just don’t know it)

 

Of decency ending

As Pedophiles and rapists

Sit in positions of power

Protected and praised

 

Of truth ending

As policies and actions are based

On lies

 

Of hope ending

With each new morning revealing

That the forces of hate and fear

Reign

 

Yes, I know

The old has to die for the new to be born

But there are good deaths

And there are bad deaths

 

We are dying a bad death

A death full of pain and denial

Hate and retribution

 

An ugly death

 

I want to believe in the Phoenix

That something good will rise out of the ashes

 

I want to believe in the gift of impermanence

And move from attachment to appreciation

Living in this moment

Anticipating the next

 

I want to believe in resurrection

Now

That the old will pass away and

The new will come!

 

Hallelujah

 

But it is hard to see

Beyond the deaths

The endings

 

I feel no hope

But may I have enough faith

To live it

 

“...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

Sitting in the detitrus of Christmas

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We bloomed in Spring

Our bodies are the leaves of God

 

The apparent seasons of life and death

Our eyes can suffer;

 

But our souls, dear, I will just say this forthright:

they are God

Himself

 

We will never perish

Unless God

Does

St. Teresa of Avila

 

_________________________________________

 

O Lord

for many the celebration is over

the trees are looking dry and tired

the presents are opened, and

the food consumed

 

Already people begin

to turn away from the season

(although strictly speaking, there are 12 days to celebrate)

 

and perhaps

 

from one another too,

as families scatter

that momentary togetherness gone

 

off to their offices

or to their rooms

back to lives as usual

 

how quickly, O Beloved

we turn back into our daily lives

how quickly, too, we lose our sense of you

 

that sense of presence

which is, after all, what the season is all about

 

You with us

Real

Palatable

The insistent crying of a baby in the night

 

How quickly, O Beloved,

we return to fear and all that goes with it

How quickly we return to hate, violence, judgement and exclusion

 

And fail to remember

that You are with us always

That we participate in you, (or you in us, I am never sure)

 

You are birthed in us

and we are never alone

 

We carry you, cling to you,

Much as Mary clung to the baby,

And that even though the unreality of Christmas is over

The reality of Christmas

Remains

 

And that reality,

That we are loved by God

And we can love ourselves and others.

In spite of reality

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“Hope is living the reality and yet investing in a different one.”

          Mitri Raheb, Faith in the Face of Empire: The Bible through Palestinian Eyes

 

____________________________

 

Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love.”

(Hamilton Wright Mabie)

 

Or maybe not

 

Merry Christmas to all, including the scum and sleazebags  (DJT)

 

It was not exactly a season of peace, love, and joy

With rumors of wars

And military strikes in Nigeria orchestrated to salvage a ravaged ego

And keep a hate-filled base titillated.

 

Our reality is a thing of horror

As the foul beast that is MAGA

Slouches toward the future

 

Ready to destroy and devour

 

Tragedies about

In Ukraine, Gaza, Venezuela, Nigeria

Tragedies manufactured by people

obsessed with power, and themselves

 

people who are literally

the horsemen of the apocalypse

 

They are our harbingers of destruction,

division

violence

economic collapse,

and mass death.

 

This is what we face, even as we face our own

personal tragedies and struggles

 

One wants to quit

 

We mourn the losses (such as my wonderful dog, Finn)

and the injustice

the manufactured violence

We feel the pain

 

and it feels like a conspiracy of hate, not a conspiracy of love

 

And yet

Christmas calls us to one thing.

 

To hope

 

We can think of that baby,

That strange gift, that met such a devastating end

But came to teach us to love

 

To love despite it all

To heal, despite it all

To welcome, and give, and forgive

 

In the face of the worst the world can do

 

To live in this world,

But to invest in a different reality

 

Hope, as the Palestinians say

Is not something you feel

It is something you do

 

So let’s “do hope”

Let’s stay engaged

Let us never tire of doing good

 

For who knows what will happen

If we don’t give up

Hope is what we do

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Empire behaves like God

Who can stop them?

It seems omnipresent

And all-powerful

 

It comes into the streets with violence

Masked thugs in camo

Beating down

the black person

brown person

 

mother mary

pregnant

dragged through the snow

sobbing

 

bulldozers come

and destroy another home

and rip up another olive tree

 

drones fly

death on the wing

 

it is everywhere

 

and where the H3!!

Is God?

 

The heavy foot of empire is not new

Always the powerful

The rich

Have tried to keep us all down

 

And we the people

Have cried to a God who doesn’t respond

 

It seems hopeless

Indeed, so many no longer feel hope

 

It is all too much

The evidence piles up

As Empire God steals hope

 

And yet against all hope

When there is no reason for hope

We must have hope

 

Not hope as optimism

Or wishful thinking

 

Not hope as a feeling

 

Hope is not what we feel

It is what we do

 

This is what I learned from the people of Palestine this last week.

Hope is what you do!!

 

We may not be able to feel hope.

 

But we can live hope

We can live each day as if love wins,

As if compassion and empathy are good

As if every person, no matter their color, country of origin, or language (or even faith system), is a child of God and a treasure

 

We can care. 

Give. 

Forgive. 

Help.

Welcome

 

It is like Christmas

Where God did not send thoughts and prayers

Did not say what needed to be said

But did what needed to be done

 

Sent the light into the darkness

Do Hope

Be Hope

Shine

Sacred as food

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[God] is giving us the full Jesus-Christ self—that wonderful symbiosis of divinity and humanity. But the vehicle, the medium, and the final message here are physical, edible, chewable—yes, digestible human flesh. Much of ancient religion portrayed God eating or sacrificing humans or animals, which were offered on the altars, but Jesus turned religion and history on their heads, inviting us to imagine that God would give God’s self as food for us!

          Richard Rohr

_______________________

 

Looking down into the Valley of Gehenna

that place where children were killed

that smoldering, smelly place

 

where that which is not wanted,

is not welcome

goes

 

Garbage, thrown away

into the fire

 

I think of that God

who asked Abraham

to sacrifice Isaac

 

My soul is appalled by this ask

 

What kind of God would ask that

of a parent?

 

Oh yes, I know

that even then

in that time when people believed

God asked for that which was most precious

most dear

 

and then consumed it

leave the giver wanly gazing

at the smoke drifting into the sky

and hoping

that the gift was enough

 

God provided Abraham

With the gift to be given

 

And yes, I know

That in Jesus God, gave up God’s self

 

and became both gift and giver

so as to lift us up

into something fresh and new

 

I know that in a place, not so far away

Up the valley, somewhere on Zion

That gift was given

 

It almost seems

as if we have not seen

 

as if, instead, we have blindly stayed

with a wrathful God

a God of domination and violence

 

who breeds violent children

all too willing

to oppress and kill

 

to see other as garbage

to be thrown away

 

What if we took the cross seriously

If we wandered from Gehenna to Calvary

And saw God taking on all

the misery of human kind

 

and then transforming it…

 

Could we

In the name of this giving, sacrificing, serving God,

Call Somalians garbage?

Women stupid?

 

Could we deny the humanity of unknown souls on boats?

And impersonally destroy them

Without a second thought?

 

Could we kill children with our bombs?

Or send masked thugs to assault and abuse

 

Could we fail to see the image of God

in all we meet?

 

O God, who is gift and giver, servant and lover

 

Do not let us be overcome by the world

And pretend

Our hate and violence

Our coercion and control

 

And pretend our desires to build earthly kingdoms

Be crushing others

 

Are about you

Because they aren’t

The case for compassion

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“There are many people who have no idea what they should be living for, or the meaning of their lives, nor have they any guide to tell right from wrong. God looks down at people in that kind of spiritual fog, that spiritual stupidity, and he doesn’t say, “You idiots.” When we look at people who have brought trouble into their lives by their own foolishness, we say things like “Serves them right” or we mock them on social media: “What kind of imbecile says something like this?” When we see people of the other political party defeated, we just gloat. This is all a way of detaching ourselves from them. We distance ourselves from them partly out of pride and partly because we don’t want their unhappiness to be ours. God doesn’t do that. Real compassion, the voluntary attachment of our heart to others, means the sadness of their condition makes us sad; it affects us. That is deeply uncomfortable, but it is the character of compassion.”

          Timothy Keller

 

(Note: Keller is a mixed bag for me.  He believed, and said, stuff I didn’t agree with.  And stuff I agreed with.  This, in his book on Jonah, seems helpful to me.  And it has profound implications in terms of what is happening right now).

_________________________________________

 

I see them

With their hats and t-shirts

The harbingers of hate

 

I watch as thugs

hiding behind military gear

guns

and masks

prowl the streets seeking to intimidate and harm

 

I hear a president (small P)

Call a woman reporter a pig

And order her to be silent

 

He likes women who are silent

And, apparently,

Compliant

 

And I hear God calling me to reach out to them

To seek to get through the veneer of hate

And wake them up

To the way of Jesus

The way of compassion, forgiveness, welcome, and generosity

 

And I don’t want to do it

 

I would rather turn my back on them

And leave them to face the consequences of their

Blind loyalty, cruelty, and hate

 

I would rather hide in the belly

Of my own self-righteousness

And my own version of arrogance

Then try to love them

 

But every time I try to

Reject and neglect

A person I have judged as hopeless

Does something kind for a neighbor

 

Every time I try to relegate them

To a spiritual trashcan

I see them with their family

And see the love exchanged

 

And it is as if God

Throws up

Poisoned by MY disgust and failure

 

By my inability to see “them”

As sacred children

Lost, perhaps, prodigal

 

Eating the messy slop

They are being fed

But capable of being so much more

 

And I am left on the beach

Naked and ashamed

Knowing

That I must pick myself up

And head off to Ninevah

With a word of hope, peace, joy

And yes!

Love

 

Yes, God asks us to change

to be accountable to love

to love our neighbor

 

but

God never gives up on anyone

Never

Ever

 

And neither can I

 

I will never hate anyone into the Kingdom

But I might draw them in

With compassion, forgiveness, and love

 

With the same love that looked down from the cross

And said

Father, forgive them…

 

 

 

 

 

Words

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‘Then the thief who was being crucified on the cross next to him said,

‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ Jesus

replied, ‘Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.’

Luke 23. 42-43

 

Dying Jesus,

at the end of yourself

you turned

and spoke words of

togetherness

in the places of the torn.

May we always find

words to

hold, especially in times

 when the world

harms.

Because sometimes

words

can heal.

Amen.

          Pádraig Ó Tuama (Daily Prayer)

________________________________________

 

In the silence

Of my heart

Words come

Words of truth that challenge and distress

 

Words that calm and heal

 

There are ugly words, too.

Words of hate and division

That rip and rend

And leave holes in my soul

 

I am white and male

Straight, educated, affluent

 

I get to speak my words

For good or for ill

With my words, I can hurt or heal

Build up or tear down

 

Lord help me choose my words well

And use the carefully

 

And may I always remember

Those who have no voice

 

I refuse

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For sin is ultimately a refusal to grow

          Jean Danielou, reflecting on Gregory of Nysa

 

Why am I confident that the people of faith… will keep moving forward?

 

… because of the reality and presence of the creator with creation.  This is God’s world.

… because of Jesus.  We are stuck with Jesus, and he won’t go away… Jesus cannot be contained.  He rises again. He keeps coming back…

We also have the presence of Jesus, the Spirit of Jesus, the Spirit and breath and Wind and Fire of God, alive and active in us and all around us.

          Biran Mclaren, “A New Kind of Christianity”

___________________________

 

God

Creator, Savior, Enable

What must you think of us

 

Are we a blot on your amazing creation?

Do we walk away from your grace?

 

We rebel

We do deplorable things in your name.

 

We pout, we cower

We hide behind lies

We become fearful hoarders

 

And the world disintegrates,

The human family becomes dysfunctional?

 

The evidence is there

A pastor with asphalt burns on his face

The immigrant, terrified in the grasp of brutal creatures in masks

The young girl, curled embryonically on the seat of a private jet

The mother whose EBT card is as  empty as her children’s stomachs

 

Some say it has always been this way!

So?

 

We cannot afford the sin of apathy

We cannot do nothing

So, remind us, Lord, what it means to be blessed

To be a blessing

 

Awaken us, speak to us, teach us

Fill us

Again and again

 

Be relentless,

Come, find us as we hide

Inspire us as we flounder in the ooze and slime of old decay

 

Creator God, Serving God, Present God

Make us new every day

Change us

 

That we might be yeast,

Seeds of change

The light of hope

 

For you are love

And you love us

Always

Amen 

Pedaling in reverse

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Most of us pedal pretty hard to avoid going in the direction of Jesus’ Beatitudes. We read books that promise to enrich our spirits. We find all kinds of ways to sedate our mournfulness.

          Barbara Brown Taylor

 

We often imagine billionaires as winners in the grand game of life. But what if they are the most starved among us? What if accumulating unimaginable wealth is not a sign of success at all, but a symptom of profound inner emptiness? An addiction that has no endpoint?       

          Christy Lubbers Berghoef

__________________________________

 

I am

I admit it

An emotional eater

 

When sadness drains me of joy

When anxiety robs me of peace

When fear hovers over me with dark wings

 

I want to consume

Food yes

But more

 

I want to fill my mind with more information.

I want to fill my time with busyness,

My stomach with food and drink,

My nights with entertainment.

 

I want to fill my emptiness

Sedate my feelings

 

So I strive

I want to be a winner, a success

I want to be respected and valued

I want comfort and wealth, influence and power

 

Maybe if I have enough money and power

I will feel contentment, peace, and even joy

 

Maybe

 

But in my better moments

When I let the wind of the Spirit blow and the fire of God’s love burn

 

I know this is NOT the way taught and lived by Jesus,

Who said, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”

 

Who said “The first shall be last and the last first” and taught that true power lies not in domination, but in giving up self-interest to serve others (kenosis)

 

The reality is that I can have it all

And still be empty

Afflicted with an insatiable hunger

That can never, ever be satisfied

 

I know this

I feel this

I live this

 

And I am not alone

I see this hunger that cannot be satisfied everywhere.

 

I look at the addiction to wealth, the desperate need for power.

I watch as beautiful simplicity is torn down

And replaced with gilded, bloated extravagance

 

I watch while my government actually

Appeals a court order to feed the hungry

So that the unsatiable rich might become even richer

 

When people are addicted to wealth and power

There is no endpoint

They are consumed by a need that will eventually devour them

 

When a country is led by such people

This insatiable hunger destroys that nation

As surely as addiction to alcohol, drugs, or sex

Destroys a family

 

Donald Trump, Stephen Miller, Michael Johnson

Bezos, Musk

All of them

Are starving

 

I get it.  Because I sometimes, all too often, I am where they are

 

We cannot survive the terrible choice to try and fill emptiness

With that which does not satisfy (thank you, Isaiah)

 

The outcome of this addiction

Is inequity, oppression, injustice, and cruelty

 

We build banquet halls rather than feed children

We grind justice into the pavement

We kill people for political talking points

 

Khalil Gibran once wrote,

“Pity the nation that is full of beliefs and empty of religion…

 Pity the nation that acclaims the bully as hero, and that deems the glittering conqueror bountiful…

Pity the nation whose statesman is a fox, whose philosopher is a juggler, and whose art is the art of patching and mimicking…

Pity the nation divided into fragments, each fragment deeming itself a nation.”

 

I do not want to be that person

Always hungry, always grasping, always focused on myself

 

I need to be willing to be hungry

 

I believe that God does God’s best work when we are empty

But we must let God bring us what we need

Let the Spirit fill us with all good things

 

When God fills us

We may not end up wealthy, and we may not have earthly power

The world may not even value us

And may see us as fools

 

But when we are filled with Sacred Presence

When we are filled with the overflowing, everflowing love of God

And have some of God’s compassion, kindness, generosity, hope, and love

 

We might well have peace

And be people who can pass that peace along

 

 

 

Heaven begins now

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Heaven begins now, for any saints willing to sign up.

                     Barbara Brown Taylor, Always a Guest

 

[The beatitudes] are steps into the kingdom, the stairway to spiritual life…. These are not blessings pronounced upon different kinds of people—the meek, the merciful, the pure in heart, and so on. Rather, they are stages in the experience of only one class of people—those who are entering the kingdom and who at each stage are blessed. The kingdom, of course, is the blessing, and each step into it partakes of its blessedness. This blessedness comes with the taking of the step, and is not postponed as a future reward. Jesus said, “Blessed are…”. 

                     Richard Rohr (Daily Meditations 11.5.205

__________________________________

 

Who doesn’t want to be blessed?

Bless me, God, for I have sinned

There will be showers of Blessing

 

Blessed

It is a description of the citizens

Of the Kingdom of God

 

All you have to do

Is open yourself up to Sacred

And there it is

Blessing

 

But what does a blessed soul look like?

Is one blessed if one is rich?  Powerful?

Is blessing having power over others?

Having a wonderful life?

Having amazing and wonderful things?

 

In reality

Jesus gives us a very different picture

Blessed are the poor, the sad,

The hungry, the persecuted

 

Not because they are poor, sad, hungry, or persecuted (Luke’s version)

But because God is with them

Always

 

Not what we expected

To hear that the denizens of heaven

The citizens of God’s Kingdom

Those most surrounded by God’s love

Are the immigrants

The people who worry about losing SNAP

The people who are worried that a retributive leader will persecute them

for not adoring him?

Those whose hearts hurt because of what has happened to them

Or because of what they see happening to others

 

God says, “You are blessed.  You have a special place in my heart

I see what the world is doing to you,

But you are the ones closest to my heart.”

 

I expect the poor, the hungry, the sad, the persecuted

might well respond with

Really?

Don’t talk of love, show me.

 

That, perhaps, is where Matthew comes in.

 

Blessed are those who are humble (poor in spirit)

Who see the pain of the world, and allow their hearts to hurt

Blessed are the meek, who are gentle, patient, and kind

Blessed are those who hunger for justice and act with mercy

 

Blessed are the pure in heart, those who are honest

And those who make peace and are non-violent

Blessed are those who are willing to pay the price

For doing what is right

 

It seems as if it is a progression,

Kind of like the 12 steps

Steps into the kingdom

 

It starts with humility

If we are humble (and it is not all about us)

We can see others, and see their pain

And to those in pain, we can offer kindness and comfort

And for those who are the victims of injustice

The victims of pogroms,

Those stalked, beaten, detained, and deported

We can seek justice

 

We can strive to make sure justice happens.

 

And we can be people who strive to bring all people together

All people

 

We can be people who don’t abandon the immigrant,

The young person who is trans,

The person with a mental illness or addiction,

And yes, the person who has been swallowed up by MAGA

Caught up in an ideology based on domination

 

And we can be people who are willing to stand up for

The poor, the anguished, the hungry

The ones targeted by ICE

 

We can be one way God shows love to them

 

Sometimes this feels vague

(at least it does to me)

But still, I think it is true

 

As we accept Sacred Love

We can offer love

 

As we trust that God stands with us

Even when everything is going wrong

We can stand with others

 

I wish, in my moments of pain

I could feel blessed more often

I wish, as I walk through each day

I could be a blessing more often

 

Because this, I believe, is how the Kingdom of God becomes real

 

As we see that we are blessed

And then become a blessing

 

New self on a new path

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It’s not to the old self on the old path, which would be non-conversion and non-enlightenment. 

 

It’s not to the old self on a new path, which is where most religion begins and ends. It involves new behavior, new language, and practices that are sincere, but the underlying myth/worldview/motivation and goals are never really changed. My anger, fear, and ego are merely transferred to now defend my idea of God or religion. 

 

Jesus is leading us to the new self on a new path, which is the total transformation of consciousness, worldview, motivation, goals, and rewards that characterize one who loves and is loved by God. 

                     Richard Rohr

________________________

 

The time has changed

The sun rises earlier,

Bring light to the day

 

But night falls earlier

Casting us into darkness

And the bitterness of a winter night

 

Time has changed

But something is gained and something is lost

And in the end, nothing has changed

Really

 

When Jesus said, “I make all things new”

He meant it

 

He did not simply call us to

Adopt a new ideology

Or embrace a creed

 

He did not even call us to accept a new set of rules.

 

He did not call us to pack up our baggage

And with a few adjustments to our thinking

And a somewhat childish (not childlike) concept of who he is

And a resolve to be better

And set out on a new path, go a new way

 

Faith is very much about all of that

New thinking, new behaviors

A new way of doing life

 

But to walk this new path

To follow Jesus

Takes something else

 

It takes death

It takes resurrection

 

We can’t follow Jesus.

We can’t walk the new path

Without a new self

 

Without dying to the old

And allowing the power of the Spirit

To make us new

Creations

 

This is not a magical, mystical transformation

Jesus doesn’t wave a wand

And suddenly

Everything is fresh and new

 

Too often, we don’t die to the old

We let the old self cling to us

(or we cling to it)

 

We are called to love God

Totally

All in

 

But we have so many other allegiances.

 

We are told to love everyone

But we don’t

 

We are called to forgive

But resentment and anger cling to our souls

 

We are told to be generous

But we are afraid

To take the risk of generosity

 

We are told to fear not

But we are so afraid

 

The old self stumbles on the new path

And our love of God,

Our desire to be faithful and obedient

 

Become a love of religion

A fixation on the rules

Judgment and exclusion

 

Suddenly, it is not God saving us

It is us saving God

OMG

 

Here is the deepest truth

 

We die to live

We lose everything to gain everything

We empty our hearts and hands

That our hearts and hands might be full

 

Not a new self on an old path

Nor an old self on a new path

 

Only a new self on a new path

will allow us to walk in the footsteps of Jesus.

 

We have to go deep,

Into the terrifying darkness of the soul

So the light can come into the darkness

And we can start

anew

Participatory Eschatology

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What is our quest?

 

“…to heal what we have so disastrously broken…

To unify and liberate what we’ve tragically divided and conquered…

To rediscover a larger and more beautiful whole rather than pit part against part in deadly conflict…

 

It is a quest for what is named and sought in every language and culture:

Salaam

Sidi

Mir

Elohe

Ukathala

Wolakota

 

We could call it peace… perhaps ubuntu, a rich word meaning one-anotherness, interconnectedness, join in the common goodness, and profound commitment to the well-being of all [would be better].”  (Brian D. McLaren)

 

Perhaps we are looking for the wrong things

Seeking desperately, like a person addicted

For things that destroy

 

Substances

Power and domination

Wealth

Retribution

 

Maybe we are just not ready.

Somehow

Like babies not ready for solid food

 

It might be that peacemaking

The work of creating Ubuntu

Is simply hard work

And means we must accept

“inconvenient truths”

 

Realities that are harsh

And demand changes we do not want to make

Sacrifices we find painful.

 

Change is difficult

We are such spiritual juveniles

So caught up in immature quests for

Safety and power

Safety and power

 

Think on it

How many of the world’s ills

Come from people with power

Seeking to keep their power and wealth

Safe

Untouched

 

Spiritually trapped

At nascent stages of development

Where promise is

Unfulfilled

We see others as dangers

Obstructions

Terrorists

 

And we destroy Ubuntu

 

We can never stop evolving

Growing

 

As we stumble through

Our pursuits for domination, elimination

Us over you

Us without you

Us taking you over

 

We must move toward a new way

Where we seek

Us in you

You in us

Some of us for all of us

Something good for ALL of us

 

It will be hard to get there

To this Ubuntu zone

And we will have to work

Hard

To stay there

Even for a while

 

But this is the call

The call of Jesus, who says

Follow me

Live like this

 

The journey with Jesus is

uncertain and daring

Always

 

But it is the only way to find

Healing, unity

Liberation

And (paradoxically) community

 

Are we ready?

I hope I am.

I hope you are

It will take all of us

 

(again, thanks to Brian McLaren for his thoughts and words, which I have unabashedly used in this piece)

 

 

 

Participation eschatology

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In participatory eschatology, when we ask, “What does the future hold?” the answer begins, “That depends.  It depends on you and me.  God holds out to us at every moment a brighter future; the issue is whether we are willing to receive it and work with God to help create it.  We are participating in the creation of what the future will be.

          Brian McLaren

______________________________________

 

How shall we then live?

As leaders lie

And propaganda floods the media?

As masked thugs stalk the streets

Looking for stereotypes?

 

Where brutality is the modus operandi

And destruction is the coin of the empire?

 

How shall we respond

As the planet burns?

And the existence of precious souls is denied?

As war morphs into war into war?

 

What does the future hold?

What is going to happen to us?

 

Is Jesus going to return

Bloodied and brandishing a sword

To slay the evil doers and save the righteous?

 

Is God going to come and rip creation apart?

Like a painter slashing his or her own painting?

 

Who’s going to make it?

Who’s going to cease to exist?

Who is going to win and who will lose

Who will find their way to “the Father’s House”

And who will be “tormented in the flame?”  (Rich man Dives/)

 

Perhaps it wrong

To think of an avenging God

To think of a Jesus who is almost the antithesis

Of the Jesus walked the earth

 

As Jesus becomes the Christ (Christus Victor)

Does he suddenly become a judger rather than a forgiver?

A hater rather than a lover?

One who deals in death rather than life?

An excluding punisher, who wreaks vengeance and destruction?

 

I don’t think so

I don’t think Jesus can deny himself

 

What I think is that Jesus the Christ,

Who dwells within us as Spirit

Works with us every day

Creating and recreating

 

I think that God became incarnate in this creation

And that God will not abandon it

I believe that Jesus was another incarnation

Creator coming into creation

 

And I believe that the incarnation happens

And happens

And happens again

 

In us, where God becomes real in the person of the Holy Spirit

Through us, as we

Follow

 

As we forgive and give

As we take care of the planet

As we feed the hungry and welcome the stranger

 

And become the voice,

And the hands and feet of Jesus

 

Become Jesus saying

“Suffer the little children”

Which does not mean to make children suffer

But embrace them

 

Become Jesus, healing, reconciling,

Making peace

Creating justice and equity

 

And in doing so, we participate

We determine

The future

 

What does the future hold?

It depends on us

 

Every moment

With every word, every act, we make the world better or worse

We make the future better or worse.

 

We co-create the future with God

We have that power

A power Donald Trump can only dream of and MAGA will never have

 

We are the incarnation of Love

We are the creative power of God enfleshed

And we should live accordingly