Those who make us blossom

Presbyterian Bloggers

Powered By Ringsurf

“Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.”

                               Marcel Proust

_____________________________________

 

It is easy these days to be churlish

From the moment we wake up (in the dark)

To the moment we go to sleep (many hours after dark)

 

We are assailed by annoyances and aggravations

Some minor, some profound

 

From the cat scratching at the bedroom door at 2am

To the dog growling at mythical beasts at 4am

 

From the empty shelves at the grocery store

To the myopic and thoughtless responses on Facebook

 

From the latest political polls

To the hate filled, lie filled venom of some political rallies

Where there is no plan for the future, but only promised retribution and cruelty

(cheered on by people caught up in the hate)

 

From the stark pictures of humanity’s inhumanity to humanity

The devastation in Gaza, the horror of Hamas

The warming world,

To the hard reality that your family will not be with you this Thanksgiving

 

We are assailed by the negative

and if we are not careful, soon find ourselves sinking

into the ooze and slime and old decay

into the swamp of our own resentments

 

and yet

we are Sacred children

gifted children

beloved children

 

we have something that, if we can stop

and breathe

go deep and settle,

 

will lift us up

 

Paul says it well in Philippians (4)

"I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me."

 

I am not suggesting some sort of simplistic piety

Sometimes life sucks and we are brought low

 

But we can rebound

And even in the face of need and want

We can find abundance

 

As Mary Oliver so beautifully puts it

“Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darkness. It took me years to understand that this too, was a gift.”

 

This day as I struggle with many things

(I will not list them for they may not be your “things”)

It is time, is it past time

To be grateful

 

and this day I am grateful for people

I am grateful for my family who love me

I am grateful for friends, who seem to be able to look past my flaws

I am grateful for the dedicated people I work with, for their determination and compassion

I am grateful for those people who grace the pews and (these days) the computer screens on Sunday morning

I am grateful for those I agree with

I am grateful for those I don’t agree with (they keep me honest and humble)

 

I am grateful for all those who, in so many ways

Till the soil of my soul

And make me a better person

 

Blessings to those charming gardeners who make my soul blossom

You may not know who you are (although I hope you do)

But I do

 

Thank you

like a mighty wind

Presbyterian Bloggers

Powered By Ringsurf

And Jesus

When he had cried again with a loud voice

Gave up the Ghost

 

The nephesh,

The pneuma

The breath of God which had filled him to overflowing

 

So that God poured out of him like a mighty wind

Left

 

Ah, Holy Spirit

Breath of God

 

It makes sense to me

To think of the Presence of the Almighty as breath

It makes sense to think of it filling Jesus

Empowering

Defining

 

Until he was the Son of Man

God with us

 

But there were others who also

Who inspired Sacred Presence

Breathed it in

 

People who were mostly good

Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob

People who had their issues

Ananias, Sapphira, Herod

 

All we are told “gave up the ghost”

Which meant, they all had it.

It was there, in Jesus and Herod

 

It is there in me and in you

We all, this is the mystery of life and grace

Have inspired Sacred

 

God is in us

As close as our breath

 

When we were born

God became a guest

Incarnate if you will

 

When we were born

We became the cradle into which Christ was born

 

And we carry the Sacred with us

Throughout our lives

The more open we are to that Spirit

The more we breathe God in

The more our lives are shaped by God’s presence

 

But all of us

From Jesus to Herod

From a person like Rosemary Carter

To the worst person you can think of

 

Carries the pneuma

In Spiritu

 

And that presence will not leave

Until our time on spaceship Earth is done

Only then

Do we give up the ghost

 

Today I am going to look for the “ghost”

The nephesh/pneuma of God

 

I am going to look for it in the wind that bends the trees

In the frosty breath of the horses

 

I am going to look for it in each person I meet

Each person I see on the news

 

In the rise and fall of each chest

I am going to seek God

Love

Presence

 

And I am going to know

That as long as there is breath, there is God

 

And there is hope

For change, for transformation,

For goodness

For love

 

What have I (we) become?

Presbyterian Bloggers

Powered By Ringsurf

it is dark

too dark, too early

there are a plethora of things

"not working"

a myriad of things unfinished

a today I got a look in the mirror

one of those moments when someone special and honest

laid it on the line

and what i know is that I don't like what I have become

it is not just the age

and the chronic pain

and the mind that no longer remembers appointments

its not just the voice that is no longer clear

or the house, which after 20 years, is showing its age

it is not vendors who don't come through

it is me

it is what those forces that I see as negative

are doing to my soul

I have to admit

A lot of what is going on in American hits me hard

And I am confused and pained by trends I see as

wrong

But those movements I disagree with

those people I find difficult

are winning

they are winning because they change me

they make me fearful

harsh

negative

angry, yes angry

and all of that seeps out of my soul

it is not that i think I am wrong about what values and priorities

we need to hold

it is that I think my response is wrong

There needs to be challenge.

Honesty.

A calling out

But it is the “how”

and i have allowed those things that are problematic

those people I think are problematic

to change me

and make me, fundamentally

the same as them

In all faith I say, we have to fight hate with love

but functionally I slip into hate myself

I lament judgementalism and exclusion

and I get sucked into judgementalism and exclusion

We can overcome

Love can overcome

I believe that

But that will not happen

if we become what we resist

There is plenty of room for mea culpas here

maybe maxima mea culpa

But all one can do is look in the mirror

do some repairs

say, "I was wrong"

and keep walking

trying to be the change

Be yourself

Presbyterian Bloggers

Powered By Ringsurf

In his book Seeds of New Hope Thomas Merton observes that “a tree gives glory to God by being a tree.”  I often recite this phrase like I mantra in my head as a reminder that my only job is to be my most authentic self.  I’ve discovered that the more I embrace the person God made me, the more I’m able to love God.  And, really, that’s the only thing I can offer to God and to the world.

          Ann Kansfield, Be the Brave One

______________________________________

 

Here is to the weird ones.

The skinny late bloomer ones.

The quiet ones

The loud ones

The confused ones

The Lost ones

 

Here is to the macho ones

Roaring down the road in their pickups

Here is to the musical ones

The creative ones

The queer ones*

 

Here is to all those who are different

And are trying so hard not to be

All those who feel as if they are not enough

And are trying so hard to be

 

Someone others value

Accept

Ah, yes, and love

 

You are a child of God

Just as you are!

 

Try, yes try

To be your authentic self

Your

Authentic

Self

 

Not someone else’s

 

Just be who you were born to be

Quiet and shy

Loud and confident

Cis

Queer

It doesn’t matter

 

You are

You might never have been,

But here you are!

 

And the world would be incomplete without you

 

You are loved

You participate in the love

The love that brought all into being

 

And you are here for a reason

Not sure what that reason is?

 

Then stop

Breathe

Be your self

That is your one job

 

Stop

Breathe

Look around

“The place God calls you to

is the place where your deep gladness

and the world’s deep hunger meet.”  (Frederick Buechner)

 

Not your greatest guilt

Your greatest joy

 

In all joy take your authentic self

And touch the pain with the joy of you

 

“Where your feet take you

That IS you” (Buechner again)

 

So don’t hide

Don't try so hard

Don’t live in fear

Don’t be led into evil by people

Who hate everyone (and probably themselves too)

 

Be your authentic

Self

One loved by God

And thus able to love yourself

And those around you.

 

It is as simple and complex

As that

 

For you give glory to God

Simply by being you

 

____________________

*The word queer is used intentionally in this post to refer to people whose identities are outside of heteronormative, binary gender or sexuality. Queer was once a pejorative term used in ridicule, but today the word has been reclaimed as an expression of LGBTQIA+ pride.

extended beyond

Presbyterian Bloggers

Powered By Ringsurf

Rebirth is about being adopted into a new family – without borders…  Jesus is using some strong language to stretch our vision of family and kinship, extending rather than stifling our love. 

          Shane Claibourne

____________________

 

I once read (Tony Campolo) about the principle of least love.

The one who loves the least, has the most power!

 

Scary idea, that!

The idea that if I don’t care about you, but you do care about me,

I have more power over you than you do over me.

Because you will try not to hurt me (after all you love me)

 

But, as for how I treat you?

I just don’t care!  I can treat you poorly, because you don’t count (unless I can use and manipulate you)

 

I’ve been thinking about Christmas.

Yeah, I know, it is not even Thanksgiving!

But I have a Christmas Eve Service to prepare, and so I have been pondering

 

What can I say in this time of darkness!

“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness— on them light has shined?”

 

Yeah!  But…

 

It doesn’t feel as if those words are real!

I believe that they are, or will be.

But we still seem to be sliding into darkness

Into one of those episodic dark moments when hate has the upper hand

 

In such a time how do we make Christmas real?

I keep thinking about Jesus

And I think perhaps the key is keeping Christmas Weird

And keeping Jesus Weird

 

We can’t domestic Christmas, nor the One who came

(although we try)

 

If anything is obvious about Jesus

It is that he came to tear down walls.

He came to tear down the wall between people and God/the Sacred

He came to tear down the walls between people

 

Paul makes this perfectly clear when he writes

“For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us”  (Ephesians 2:14)

 

We see it from the beginning!

Where is Jesus born? Among the animals! 

Who attends his birth? 

The poor.  The dirty. The rejected.  The unimportant

Strangers, immigrants, heretics (The Magi)

 

When he does this ministry, who does he gather around him?

With whom does he “break bread.”

Pretty much everyone!

Fishermen.  Farmers. Tax Collectors. Soldiers

Pious prigs.  The entitled rich.

 

And what does he teach?

He teaches, in so many ways, love

Sometimes he just says it.  “Love your neighbor!”

 

But Jesus also realized that we are experts

At narrowing our love down.  Or to put it another way, building walls.

That we define our “neighbor” in such a way as to exclude.

 

So sometimes he said things that shocked and confused.

“If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple.”

 

Wait! What?

 

Love your enemies!

Bless those who curse you.

Does Jesus really expect us to hate our own family

And love people who want to destroy us, or deny our reality?

Those who want to harm us or control us?

 

Seriously?

 

What Jesus is saying (I think)

Is that when we are reborn, we have a new family

The family of God

And (as Claibourne insists) this new kinship EXTENDS our love to include everyone

We have a new family

That includes everyone!

 

But we can’t get to this new extended family unless

At some level, we die to our old definition of family

 

So I have a family.  My biologically family

But I have to die to the idea that is my true, my primary family

I have my faith family, my ideological family, my tribal family (nation, party)

 

But all those definitions of family

Are limited

They limit my family to those like me, or those I like

 

And we must let them go, in order to embrace a family that is “broader than biology… deeper than nationalism”

 

Right now, we have people, a movement

That is pushing us toward division, toward defining our “family” along hard lines

Toward a narrow, tribal, fearful definition of family that calls on people to hate.  To exclude.  To reject. To control. To suppress. To use and manipulate

To dehumanize

 

This is the antithesis of what Jesus taught

 

Unless one hates one’s (let’s count this down here)

Ideology

Tribe (nation)

Political party

Political leaders

Personal rights and wealth

Church (religion?)

Extended family

Biological family

One’s own life….

 

Unless one is willing (to put it another way)

To let go of all those allegiances and have one allegiance

To love

And one family, the family created by Sacred love

 

We have no part of Jesus

 

The bottom line is this

Our earthly allegiances create a narrowness that stands in the way of God’s vision and justice and denies the Kin-dom of God

 

This Christmas, in this pluralistic time

We are called to die to the divisions we embrace (and even cherish)

And become born again

Into a new family

A messy family

The family of God

messed with

Presbyterian Bloggers

Powered By Ringsurf

The universe is immeasurably vast. God only Out There, looking on does not help me.  I seek and know a closer God.  God not only within all that has been made, God not only within during the lifetime of Jesus of Nazareth, but God within, right now, within me, in the salt of my tears the beating of my heart.

          Madeleine L’Engle

 

The reality of our rebirth should mess with us.

          Shane Claiborne

__________________________________

 

The universe is immeasurably vast

Each sunrise and sunset gives us a mere glimpse of this vastness

In the black of night

As the stars go on, literally forever

Into the vastness

 

We understand, as Sagan reminded us

That this planet

Our home

Is “a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.”

 

It is easy to get lost in this vastness

And frighteningly easy to be afraid

 

And yet

I believe, however foolish it might seem

That there is a force behind all this

A reality that creates beauty

An entity that not only loves but is love

That is beyond my capacity to understand

 

That there is something “beyond” that is woven

Into the trees that surround me,

Into the mountain that glistens gold in the fall sun

Into me

And into all creatures great and small

 

A reality that when it touches us

When we are open to it

Transforms

Empowers

Surprises

 

And, importantly

Because it is our common DNA

Binds us together

 

We are Sacred Children

 

And that Jewish person, who is terrified by the brutality of Hamas

Is my family

And that Palestinian mother, hugging the tattered remains of her child

Is my family

And that person who wants to Make America Great Again,

Is my family

 

So is that vegan who wants to protect all sentient beings

And that environmentalist

And that radical capitalist

And. . .

 

There are no exceptions

And THAT

Messes with my mind

 

It messes with my celebrations when my side “wins”

And with my anger when my side “loses”

 

It messes with my desire for retribution

And with that fear that wants to exclude

And with my need to accumulate and hoard

 

Jesus suggested that unless we “hate” our own family

We are not ready to be his followers (Luke 14:26)

 

Really?

Some see that as weird, even wrong!

Jesus!  What were you thinking?

 

What Jesus was thinking was that unless we can extend our concept of family

Beyond our actual family, beyond our political party

Beyond our country

Beyond our religion

We cannot love people the way we are called to love

We cannot extend our love

To the other members of our “family”

 

We cannot sit in the dust of a destroyed house in Gaza

And feel the pain of those whose lives have been shattered by war

Because we can only see things from one side.

The side of “our’ family

 

We cannot feel the fear of a nation in fear of its existence

We cannot understand the despair of a person whose world is changing

And who is being told by people he/she trusts, that those who are changing it

Are evil

 

We cannot love our neighbor as ourselves

 

Instead, we are driven into factions

We are divided and polarized

 

And our world, this tiny speck of dust

Is filled with hate, not love

 

We need God

We need Love

We need that presence to be as near as our next breath

And we need that presence

 

To mess with us

Ordinary time

Presbyterian Bloggers

Powered By Ringsurf

It is ordinary time

a time I have been told

for growth and maturation,

a time in which the mystery of Christ is called to penetrate

ever more deeply into history

until all things are finally caught up in love

As such, ordinary time is far from ordinary

And yet in the sameness of each day

We trod

So caught up in the ordinary

In the work

The drudgery

In the asphalt and concrete of this life

That we fail to see the extra-ordinary

That makes us whole

Complete

Alive

Worn down we trod

Tired and hopeless

While malignant souls

Plot and lie

Selling their wares of wealth and power

Stealing freedom in the name of freedom

Leaving us carcasses

Picked clean

Of life

We wander into the buildings of faith

Hoping to find that spark of life

That fire that consumes

That wind that moves us

Come Holy Spirit

We wander into buildings hoping to find

Love and hope, peace and joy

And instead, find all the miseries of humankind

Fear and hate

Guilt and exclusion

For we have turned faith into collusion rather than rebellion

Maintenance rather than transformation

Power rather than service

Wealth rather than radical generosity

It is ordinary time, again

And in the shortening days

There is a message

About how the darkness grows

And how things grow cold and hard

But even as the darkness grows

Even now

As things foul and deadly

Seem to grow

There is the sunrise

That moment when the darkness is shattered

There is the frost on the trees,

The glittering mountain thrusting into startling blueness

There is God

There is love

I stand some mornings in the cold

Staring in awe at the mountain

Embraced by Sacred love

There are moments when

The ordinary is shattered

By the advent of love, the surprising arrival of grace

And even as the darkness grows

I wait

For the advent of Love

And God’s extraordinary new thing

Faith and politics

Presbyterian Bloggers

Powered By Ringsurf

My faith can drive to me to be (gasp) political

I am not by nature interested in the necessary structures that order our life together

But I respect the power of our systems

For good or for ill

 

And I respect the fact that my faith should shape my choices

About what I support

And who I vote for

 

It's not a simple matter

We can easily ignore faith, tear it in an unnatural way from faith

Separate faith and our political stances to the point

We ignore the very tenants of our faith in our political choices

 

Or we can blend them together in such a way

That our faith does indeed shape our political choices

 

And the problem is this

Faith should impact our relationship with the systems of power

And should shape how we approach them

 

And both separating our faith from our politics

And merging our faith and our politics

Can lead to the same toxic place

 

If we ignore faith we can embrace wealth and power

(after all, Mary wasn’t serious when she predicted that Jesus would bring low the mighty)

But if we merge faith with our politics, the expediencies of power

Can end up conquering our faith (not the other way around)

 

It seems we must make these assertions.

We cannot allow politics to use our faith

(as is happening with the American right, where bad people manipulate people of faith and get them to support things decidedly not Jesus).

 

But we must engage in politics from the perspective of faith

Faith in what?

 

A friend posted this quote

America doesn’t need Republicans

It doesn’t need Democrats

It needs Jesus

 

Sounds good! Right?

But which Jesus?

The Jesus of the American right, who is about power and wealth

About winning and controlling

About coercion and punishment?

 

That is a Jesus who has been re-created in the image of toxic individualism

And greed

And dominance

 

That is a Jesus who listened to the tempter in the wilderness before his ministry started

And coopted the systems of power of his day

To become “King” 

Who took over the Sanhedrin, collaborated with the Pharisees

And somehow made the Romans his tools.

 

But that is not the Jesus who came

That is not the suffering servant who, as Isaiah reminds us

‘was so marred, beyond human semblance… that we should look at him…

He was despised and rejected…”

 

This is the Jesus of Mary

(I am so glad I am related to Jesus on his mother’s side)

The Jesus who stood against the politically powerful

Stood against a misguided faith system that burdened and excluded

And did not welcome and affirm all

 

The Jesus who came was about love

About taking care of the vulnerable

Comforting the hurting (and afflicting the comfortable?)

Healing the wounded

 

Jesus came bringing love

He died speaking words of love (Father forgive them)

And the rule of Jesus thus will always be about love

Not about controlling women

Sending people to hell

Taking over political power (as our current Speaker of the House would like to do)

In the “name of Jesus.”

 

Using faith as a political pawn

 

Even what is called the “Second Coming” is about love

As Madeleine L’Engle puts it

“The Second Coming is an action of Love.  The judgment of God is the judgment of love, not of powerplays, vindication, or hate.  The Second Coming is the redemption of the entire cosmos, not just one small planet.”

 

Or as Paul puts it,

The creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God… the creation itself will be set from its bondage of decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans)

 

For me then, my politics must always be guided by love

Not about power

Not about control

Not about retribution

Not about hate

Not about (even) winning

 

So I ask these questions when I make my choices

Who is functioning from the perspective of love?

Who is taking care of the vulnerable

Whose policies are more about the “common good” than about privilege

 

I can’t make my decisions based solely on my

My power and privilege

My bank account or retirement account

My comfort

 

Who takes care of the poor

Who supports food security

Who promotes peace

Who is willing to fight for gun control

Who is looking out for the planet

Who is about welcoming the stranger (functional immigration policies)

 

That is the person I am going to support

That is the person I am going to vote for

 

No

No one does it totally right

(Sadly such a person could never get elected in America)

 

But who leans toward love and compassion

Who leans away from coercion and retribution

Who leans toward the common good

Who leans away from economic inequity

Who protects the planet (which is an incarnation of God)

Who is not willing to plunder it for profit

 

The GOP is antithetical to most of my values

They would benefit me.  I am white and reasonably well-off

My retirement is not at its best right now

But

 

People are hurting

And that should not be

We have enough wealth to take care of all

But not enough to satisfy the greed of the wealthy and those on the right

 

The Democrats fall far, far short as well

 

There is no one (especially no politician?) who really lives out a faith in the

Jesus who emptied himself and gave everything for everyone

 

So I will go with those whose policies, words, and actions best fit my faith

However imperfectly

And speak out against those who clearly do not

Those are greedy, liars, cruel, hypocritical

 

People ask me why I a liberal politically

That is why

 

I simply do my best to let the Jesus of the cross

The Jesus who welcomed all

The Jesus who forgave and healed and fed the strugglers

Shape my agenda

And determine who I support

 

Knowing I will sometimes be wrong

But believing that I must side with love.

 

Time to stop

Presbyterian Bloggers

Powered By Ringsurf

“Who are the pagans?” A child, asked this question in Sunday School, replied, “The pagans are the people that don’t quarrel about God.” 

          Madeleine L’Engle, A Stone for a Pillow

______________________________

 

Isn’t it sad,

That we use that power that is all Love

All unity

All wholeness

All peace

And creativity

 

And use it as an excuse for

Division

Dis-ease

Strife

And destruction?

 

We with our sacred tomes that we use

To batter each other

We who take the Bible, the Torah, the Koran

(or whatever)

 

And turn words written by seekers

Into the end of the search. 

 

How dare we!?

 

Jesus made it clear that our old

Systems

Beliefs

Traditions

Rules

 

That our old literalism

Miss the mark

 

And is it missing the mark that is Sin

And is it turning around and going another way

That is redemption

 

That is why he told us to die to the old

Perhaps even murder it?

In order to find the new

 

That is why he spoke in absurdities

That if rightly understood

If seen from the perspective of love

Are not absurd at all

 

Blessed are you when you are poor

When you mourn

When you fight for just

 

Not blessed are you IF you are poor

But even if you are poor, sad, lost, confused, angry

You are still blessed by the power

That pours out blessing on us all.

 

And knowing that we are always blessed

We are free

Alive!

 

Free to walk the second mile

Turn the other check

Love our enemies

Bless those who curse us

 

And we can say with the great Nez Perce chief

Chief Joseph (the mountain I see every morning is named after him

And this was his land, before we stole it)

 

“I am tired; my heart is sick and sad.

From where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever.”

 

We can join in those words

While we are sick, and sad (again the beatitudes)

Because we are loved by Love

And we are free to do life another way

 

The Jesus way

 

On the cross, Jesus said, essentially,

As he forgave and blessed,

This

This hate

This violence

This division

This exclusion

This

 

Stops here

 

We need to join him

We have seen enough

We have experienced enough strive

Created enough pain

 

It is time to stop

 

The Nature of God

Presbyterian Bloggers

Powered By Ringsurf

What is the nature of the Sacred?

Or if we must be anthropomorphic, what is the nature of God?

And thus what, if we are the bearers of the Sacred or those created in the image,

Should be our nature?

 

Is the power that brought all into being

And sustains it, one way or another,

Restorative, or Retributive?

 

It is I think, an important question.

Is nature restorative or retributive?

After all, we abuse our planet!

 

Is it the nature of our planet to restore itself,

And thus bring gifts of plenty to us?

Plenty of water, grain, and fruit.  The warmth of the sun.  The refreshment of the rain?

 

Can we sing the words of the old hymn (yeah, I know, Godspell too)

“All good gifts around us are sent from heav’n above.

We thank you, God, we thank you, God, for all your love’

 

Or is nature retributive

Paying us back for our “sins’ with hurricanes,

Tornadoes

Drought

Floods

Earthquakes

Fire?

 

Is that mystical force that is in nature

And in us (I believe)

Woven into the fabric of everything

Retributive or restorative

 

Or to use more classical terminology

Does “God/Sacred/Love, who is we insist, all about justice

Use retributive justice or restorative justice.

 

We know all about retributive justice

An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.

Or, as we in America still, sadly practice it

A life for a life.

 

Seems reasonable at first glance.

That person who killed that child ought to die.

Those people who caused 9/11 should be destroyed

Hamas, those bloody perpetrators of terror should be eradicated

 

Make them pay!

Our souls scream

 

But it seems that all too often we do more than get even

We battle evil, using the tools of evil, and evil rubs off on us

As Nadia Bolz-Weber puts it,

“we can actually absorb the worst of our enemy and on some level

 even become them.”

 

When I hold on to hate.

When I lust for revenge.

Something bad happens to me (and you)

And I don’t end up reducing evil, I feed it.

 

Think about what America did after 9/11

Over 20 years now of a destabilized and increasingly violent world

We did not make it better with our bombs, and our invasions.

We made it worse

 

I worry about how we respond now.

On so many levels

We see the right engaged in the rhetoric of retribution.

They promise that if they get back in power people will pay!!

And on the left, we see a lust for vengeance

And rejoicing when those on the far right pay the price of their extremism

 

Jesus said, (Matthew 5, Sermon on the Mount)

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.

 

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor[b] and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.”

 

Seriously, Jesus?

What about accountability?

What about protecting ourselves?

What about…?

 

How far do we go!?

Jesus says, “As far as the cross”

(Or so it seems to me)

 

Mind you, I believe in justice!

But justice should be restorative in nature

Jesus responded to violence by dying and refusing to be retributive

Instead, he turned that event into something restorative

 

This is how you live, the cross cries

This is how you die

For others!

Father forgive them

Today you will be with me in paradise.

This (the violence and the hate stop here)

 

I know, it doesn’t seem to work!

Or does it?

That mystical difficult faith Jesus taught is still around

And people have changed the world with a restorative approach

Martin Luther King Jr.  Gandhi, Mandela… more

 

This is why I can’t go with the classic view of hell

The way it is presented it is retributive

Turn or burn, for all eternity

 

I believe God’s dealing with us, even when they might hurt

For a moment

Are always about restorative

About bringing us back to the way of love.

 

I have no answers for the complications

I understand the “practical” issues with the way of Jesus

I am not sure how I would respond to Hamas, the “Jesus way.”

 

I believe in accountability

I just struggle with what that looks like.

 

However, we respond to violence

To hate, and racism, and all the ills of humanity

Our goal cannot stop with accountability and retribution

We must always look past those to restoration

 

What would the world look like today?

If we had sought to bring restoration of prosperity and peace to the Middle East

After 911

 

If Israel had sought to truly bring peace and hope to the Palestinians after the conflicts there?

 

If the GOP or the Democrats truly wanted

ALL people, even those on the other side to find peace and hope and healing?

 

I have no clear answers

But I do believe that God is restorative, not retributive

And that God loves all

 

And I believe that I should reflect

The image of God

 

God help us all

The

love and power

Presbyterian Bloggers

Powered By Ringsurf

Both love and power are necessary building blocks of God’s peaceful realm on earth. Love utterly redefines the nature of power. Power without love is mere brutality (even in the church), and love without power is only the sentimentality of individual lives disconnected from the Whole. The gospel in its fullness holds love and power together, creating new hope and healing for the world.

          Richard Rohr

Preface to Near Occasions of Grace (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1993), xvi.    

 

Ah, those who hold power as the ultimate end

Who seek it.

Grasp it,

Abuse it.

 

Who wield power without love.

 

Love cannot be the servant of power

Power must be the servant of love

 

Power without love is expressed in cruelty and control

It is violent.

It is an old landlord, one of great zeal for his religion

Stabbing a 6-year-old boy to death

It is Christians rejoicing a border wall

It is Christian leaders lying, and committing fraud, and promoting violence

It is a candidate for President claiming all Palestinians are anti-Semitic and do not deserve our compassion.

It is Christians excusing the violence of Hamas because of the oppression of Netanyahu

 

When power is the servant of love

Children are embraced and nurtured, not stabbed.

Immigrants are welcomed

Politicians tell the truth, are ethical, and above all else,

Seek to enact policies that benefit all, that promote the common good.

People who lie, are dishonest, abusive, and promote hate are not even considered as a viable candidate for President

Compassion is for all

 

When power is the servant of love

We feed the hungry, clothe the naked, house those without homes

Pay for good medical care for all

Educate our children

Provide adequate mental health care

Take care of planet Earth

 

We see the faces of those who are in danger

And in need

And we use power

 

To heal

To restore

To reconcile

 

I am tired of war

I am tired of lies

I am tired of the greedy rich becoming richer

And the poor being neglected

I am tired of our planet being wounded by our need for profit

I am tired of CEOs who make more in a day than their workers,

Saying they “can’t afford to pay more”

 

We need to let love redefine power

Redefine greatness

 

The leaders of the American right

(you know their names) are, if power serves love, is not great

Their vision of America is not great

The other side is better (but frankly not much)

 

It is time we listen to the prophets of old

Who as a person decried the worship of power

And the failure of love

 

That is what sin is.

It is the failure of love

Salvation is when love goes to work

And life is healed

 

Hope, as Norman Wirzba suggests

Is when love is “all in all”

And heaven and earth meet

And life is heaven

 

There is a time to love, we are told

And a time to hate

 

We have tried hate

Perhaps it is time for love

 

following

Presbyterian Bloggers

Powered By Ringsurf

Following Jesus is moving away from fear and toward love

          Henri Nouwen

 

Breathe it all in, love it all out

          Mary Oliver

_______________________________________

 

This is a world of looming fear

The Middle East is in chaos

Factors within America are seeking to create chaos

 

There are wars and rumors of wars

It seems as if all the miseries of human-kind are on the rise

 

I sit, thousands of miles away from home

Thinking of friends in trouble

Thinking of a voice I do not know, barely holding it together

Asking for help, when I have no practical help to give

 

I have no answers

I have no extra housing to offer

I cannot bring sanity to a political party

That has lost all semblance of order and propriety

 

We live in a world full of what we call “sin”

But what is sin but wrong choices?

What is sin but the denial of love?

 

And all I have to work with, really

Is love

 

Do I believe in love?

Do I believe that when love goes to work, healing happens?

 

Which may be the same as asking,

Do I believe in God?

For God is love

Do I believe in Jesus, love become flesh?

 

Do I believe that Love is present?

And love has the power to touch

Hamas, Netanyahu

Trump, Biden, Jordan, Jeffries

That pained voice on the phone

 

To touch and transform the power-hungry

The greedy hoarders

The abusers and users

 

To touch that angry, empty, scared place within me?

 

Can I hope again hope?

And believe love will win?

 

Grace  Ji-Sun Kim (as quoted by Diana Butler Bass) puts it well

 

“The Christian faith is not ‘seeing I believing,’ but rather

‘believing is seeing.’”

 

Love can win if we can see Jesus, love

“in the places that we dare not look and dare not think about.”

 

Can I see love in the face of that person I struggle with?

Can I see love working in the struggles of a family to survive mental illness?

Can I see love in a relationship that is not working and is cracked by fear and anger?

Can I see love in the posturing proud souls so desperately seeking power?

In the person frantically gobbling up money and turning a blind eye to the poor?

 

Can I see?

Can I move far enough away from my own fear to see?

Can I breathe it all in

And love it all out?

 

Can I?

 

The day I will breathe in

Left foot, right foot, left foot, breathe

And I will do my best, my very best

To see love

And be love