Acts 3: 17-21 – Times of Refreshing
17And now, friends, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. 18In this way God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, that his Messiah would suffer. 19Repent therefore, and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out, 20so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Messiah appointed for you, that is, Jesus, 21who must remain in heaven until the time of universal restoration that God announced long ago through his holy prophets.
What is happening in this text? – Peter and the other Apostles are talking to the witnesses (Israelites) just after a public healing of a well known beggar who was a cripple. They are gathered in the Columnade of Solomon, a local gathering place, not far from the Temple. Peter has asked them why they are astonished, and if they thought it was with their own power that they have healed this man; who, by the way was over 40 years old. Peter explains that it was the man’s faith in the name of Jesus as the Christ that healed the man, and then he reminds them that they chose a thief over this man and they had him killed. Peter then adds this further explanation, speaking of how they acted out of ignorance and that God was acting behind it all. Peter then beseeches them to turn towards God, to repent, so their sins could be wiped out; so that times of refreshing may come to them from the presence of the Lord.
How is this happening in the world today? - Have you seen or known of times where people have turned back, back towards their faith in God, in Christ, and have experienced refreshment? Who is “the Christ” for you? What does that term really mean to you? What does this refreshment feel like, look like? How do we discern it in our world today, if we do? Do you see anyone turning back towards God? What form does that take? How do you know when it is legitimate?
How is this about you and me? – Questions to Ponder:
1. How are you and I like a 40 yr old beggar, crippled and waiting to be given a coin to survive?
2. What do you know about “the name of Jesus the Christ” and how it refreshes, restores, causes people to walk again?
3. In this text, the Holy Spirit works through disciples. How does God work his healing and refreshing through you? Do you resist that power, or go with it? Do you take credit for it or remind people of its true source?
4. Have you ever thought of yourself as a vessel or instrument for God’s healing power? Why or why not? What needs “refreshing” in you? What turning back needs to happen to receive that?
Wednesday, August 06, 2008
Sunday, August 03, 2008
The Living Word
The Living Word
Ever get so caught up in a book that you forget where you are or what time it is? Ever go to a movie and become so wrapped up in it that you forget the red glowing exit signs in front of you? Jesus taught, as many other mystics down through the ages, in the form of story. His stories were parabolic. Stories about him became parabolic. That is, they contain within the telling, deep and unique truth and particular meaning for each and every one who enters into the story at the telling.
Remember when you were a very young child and someone told you or read to you a story? Remember how real it was, and how some stories became your favorites? They touched and resonated with some part of you and you responded in a way that cannot be put into words. It is the same with the sacred encounter that we have frozen and called faith.
What if we allowed ourselves to hear the Word as we heard stories as a young child? What if we encountered the Bible not as analytical adults but as witnesses to events that were happening right in front of us, right now? I don’t mean as a literal truths, but as witnesses to a creative eternal moment. As children we knew dragons didn’t exist, and yet they did. We knew monsters didn’t live under our bed, and yet they did. Children don’t usually argue with each other about whether or not the characters in Narnia or Harry Potter are real. Like the mystics, we were un-impeded in our dialogue with the miraculous, until the adults taught it out of us.
There are several stories in the New Testament of Jesus encountering people who were desperate. There is the one about the lame boy lowered through the roof of a house by friends or family, where Jesus was teaching and healing; the woman with the flow of blood that no one could stop; the Syro-Phoenician woman half crazed with fear and anguish because her daughter had a demon; the woman who washed Jesus’ feet with her own tears and hair, and spread ointment from an alabaster jar on his feet. They interact with Jesus, right in the moment. There is no holding back. There is no analysis. They don’t even pay attention to the social laws of the culture they live in. They are desperate, and desperately in the moment. We’ve all felt that kind of pain, that kind of being lost, and when that happens, rules fly out the window. Jesus responds to that, and the dialogue and encounter between the person and Jesus is part of the healing. He tells several of them that their faith has saved them or to one particular woman who has changed his mind in her appeal, that she has spoken well.
What do these stories say to you about the nature of God? To me they say that it is all about relationship and dialogue, born perhaps out of our human predicament of being alive, in pain, separated from what we used to know or what we never knew, and about crying out to God in that pain, that mis-fitness, that loneliness, and that bleeding that no one can stop.
The mystic knows that the story, the parable, is happening, right now, right here, in this moment, to you and to me. The Jewish philosopher of religion, Abraham Joshua Heschel *wrote:
What is intelligible to our mind is but a thin surface of the profoundly undisclosed, a ripple of inveterate silence that remains immune to curiosity and inquisitiveness like distant foliage in the dusk. The universe is a score of eternal music and we are the cry, we are the voice. …Religion…comes to light…in moments of discerning the indestructibly student within the perishably constant. Faith is a blush in the presence of God.
He goes on:
Wonder is not a state of aesthetic enjoyment. Endless wonder is endless tension, a situation in which we are shocked at the inadequacy of our awe. It is His otherness, ineffable and immediate as the air we breathe and do no see, which enables us to sense His distant nearness.
And this quote by Heschel, which once again reminds me of the healed people in these stories,
We are the creatures of a Creator who creates the world anew at every moment. Even our freedom is sustained in that divine grace. We discover God’s presence through the ineffable that we encounter in all things, and in our response to the ineffable we know ourselves as known by God. We find the meaning of our lives (or the healing-my words)
not in ourselves, therefore, but in our relation to what transcends us.
“To be is to stand for” - RSP
* Quotes from The Affirming Flame, Maurice S. Friedman, 1999, Prometheus Books.
Ever get so caught up in a book that you forget where you are or what time it is? Ever go to a movie and become so wrapped up in it that you forget the red glowing exit signs in front of you? Jesus taught, as many other mystics down through the ages, in the form of story. His stories were parabolic. Stories about him became parabolic. That is, they contain within the telling, deep and unique truth and particular meaning for each and every one who enters into the story at the telling.
Remember when you were a very young child and someone told you or read to you a story? Remember how real it was, and how some stories became your favorites? They touched and resonated with some part of you and you responded in a way that cannot be put into words. It is the same with the sacred encounter that we have frozen and called faith.
What if we allowed ourselves to hear the Word as we heard stories as a young child? What if we encountered the Bible not as analytical adults but as witnesses to events that were happening right in front of us, right now? I don’t mean as a literal truths, but as witnesses to a creative eternal moment. As children we knew dragons didn’t exist, and yet they did. We knew monsters didn’t live under our bed, and yet they did. Children don’t usually argue with each other about whether or not the characters in Narnia or Harry Potter are real. Like the mystics, we were un-impeded in our dialogue with the miraculous, until the adults taught it out of us.
There are several stories in the New Testament of Jesus encountering people who were desperate. There is the one about the lame boy lowered through the roof of a house by friends or family, where Jesus was teaching and healing; the woman with the flow of blood that no one could stop; the Syro-Phoenician woman half crazed with fear and anguish because her daughter had a demon; the woman who washed Jesus’ feet with her own tears and hair, and spread ointment from an alabaster jar on his feet. They interact with Jesus, right in the moment. There is no holding back. There is no analysis. They don’t even pay attention to the social laws of the culture they live in. They are desperate, and desperately in the moment. We’ve all felt that kind of pain, that kind of being lost, and when that happens, rules fly out the window. Jesus responds to that, and the dialogue and encounter between the person and Jesus is part of the healing. He tells several of them that their faith has saved them or to one particular woman who has changed his mind in her appeal, that she has spoken well.
What do these stories say to you about the nature of God? To me they say that it is all about relationship and dialogue, born perhaps out of our human predicament of being alive, in pain, separated from what we used to know or what we never knew, and about crying out to God in that pain, that mis-fitness, that loneliness, and that bleeding that no one can stop.
The mystic knows that the story, the parable, is happening, right now, right here, in this moment, to you and to me. The Jewish philosopher of religion, Abraham Joshua Heschel *wrote:
What is intelligible to our mind is but a thin surface of the profoundly undisclosed, a ripple of inveterate silence that remains immune to curiosity and inquisitiveness like distant foliage in the dusk. The universe is a score of eternal music and we are the cry, we are the voice. …Religion…comes to light…in moments of discerning the indestructibly student within the perishably constant. Faith is a blush in the presence of God.
He goes on:
Wonder is not a state of aesthetic enjoyment. Endless wonder is endless tension, a situation in which we are shocked at the inadequacy of our awe. It is His otherness, ineffable and immediate as the air we breathe and do no see, which enables us to sense His distant nearness.
And this quote by Heschel, which once again reminds me of the healed people in these stories,
We are the creatures of a Creator who creates the world anew at every moment. Even our freedom is sustained in that divine grace. We discover God’s presence through the ineffable that we encounter in all things, and in our response to the ineffable we know ourselves as known by God. We find the meaning of our lives (or the healing-my words)
not in ourselves, therefore, but in our relation to what transcends us.
“To be is to stand for” - RSP
* Quotes from The Affirming Flame, Maurice S. Friedman, 1999, Prometheus Books.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
From A Distance
From A Distance
What is friendship? I believe, as the great Jewish Hassidic theologian Martin Buber, that it’s all about relationship. The problem is that relationships are complicated. We disagree with each other sometimes. And if those disagreements are about values, it’s very difficult to maintain a sense of comfort and mutual respect. It wasn’t always this way, but I perceive that I live in a culture that is very polarized right now. This is the same polarization that was seen prior to our Civil War, which I don’t think ever really ended.
Our political, religious, and economic differences seem to keep us separate and apart from each other. A recent author wrote a book about how we Americans are doing a lot of “clustering”. The author’s research indicated that we cluster ourselves around people of like-minded opinions for comfort and perhaps a sense of safety or validation. My experience is that the culture has gotten so emotionally reactive and mean spirited that I find myself not even talking about certain issues that are very important to me with other people. The result of this is that I hold back a large portion of who I am and that keeps others from really getting to know the real me.
In my opinion, what seems to be lacking is grace. I don’t see a lot of graceful respect or mutual grace in spite of the differences we hold. I would like to believe that the quality of the relationship and the Christian respect we are supposed to show for each other would over-ride our differences and our anxiety.
We are a very media-driven society. And the political campaigns remind us, every time we turn on the TV or radio, of our differences. A few years ago, I don’t exactly know when, but liberal and conservative became dirty words, depending on the camp from which you voted. Experts in the manipulation of opinion know how to create phony cultural norms, fears, rumors and subtle half-truths in order to help their candidate/client win elections. And we are the lab rats for all of this. Sadly, the reason so much negative campaigning, personal attacks, outright lies, and just pure meanness continues is that with the public it seems to work.
I think as Americans, as humans, as earthlings, we are much more alike than we are different. A bumper sticker I see everyday has a picture of the planet earth on it, with the words “We are all in this together”. And of course we are. Truth is, we all have the same spiritual source and we need each other. If we cannot learn to live together peacefully and constructively, we will perish. Just look at all the species on the planet that are now extinct because they could not adapt to change. As the song goes, From a Distance, God is Watching Us. I wish we could all believe that and live it out. - RSP
What is friendship? I believe, as the great Jewish Hassidic theologian Martin Buber, that it’s all about relationship. The problem is that relationships are complicated. We disagree with each other sometimes. And if those disagreements are about values, it’s very difficult to maintain a sense of comfort and mutual respect. It wasn’t always this way, but I perceive that I live in a culture that is very polarized right now. This is the same polarization that was seen prior to our Civil War, which I don’t think ever really ended.
Our political, religious, and economic differences seem to keep us separate and apart from each other. A recent author wrote a book about how we Americans are doing a lot of “clustering”. The author’s research indicated that we cluster ourselves around people of like-minded opinions for comfort and perhaps a sense of safety or validation. My experience is that the culture has gotten so emotionally reactive and mean spirited that I find myself not even talking about certain issues that are very important to me with other people. The result of this is that I hold back a large portion of who I am and that keeps others from really getting to know the real me.
In my opinion, what seems to be lacking is grace. I don’t see a lot of graceful respect or mutual grace in spite of the differences we hold. I would like to believe that the quality of the relationship and the Christian respect we are supposed to show for each other would over-ride our differences and our anxiety.
We are a very media-driven society. And the political campaigns remind us, every time we turn on the TV or radio, of our differences. A few years ago, I don’t exactly know when, but liberal and conservative became dirty words, depending on the camp from which you voted. Experts in the manipulation of opinion know how to create phony cultural norms, fears, rumors and subtle half-truths in order to help their candidate/client win elections. And we are the lab rats for all of this. Sadly, the reason so much negative campaigning, personal attacks, outright lies, and just pure meanness continues is that with the public it seems to work.
I think as Americans, as humans, as earthlings, we are much more alike than we are different. A bumper sticker I see everyday has a picture of the planet earth on it, with the words “We are all in this together”. And of course we are. Truth is, we all have the same spiritual source and we need each other. If we cannot learn to live together peacefully and constructively, we will perish. Just look at all the species on the planet that are now extinct because they could not adapt to change. As the song goes, From a Distance, God is Watching Us. I wish we could all believe that and live it out. - RSP
Monday, July 21, 2008
Matthew 26:36-46 “Let this cup pass from me.”
Matthew 26:36-46 “Let this cup pass from me.”
36Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane; and he said to his disciples, "Sit here while I go over there and pray." 37He took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be grieved and agitated. 38Then he said to them, "I am deeply grieved, even to death; remain here, and stay awake with me." 39And going a little farther, he threw himself on the ground and prayed, "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want." 40Then he came to the disciples and found them sleeping; and he said to Peter, "So, could you not stay awake with me one hour? 41Stay awake and pray that you may not come into the time of trial; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." 42Again he went away for the second time and prayed, "My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done." 43Again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. 44So leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words. 45Then he came to the disciples and said to them, "Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. 46Get up, let us be going. See, my betrayer is at hand."
What is happening in this scripture? - Jesus has gathered his closest followers and after the emotional meal in the upper room, he takes Peter, James and John and goes to a garden called Gethsemane. He asks these three to sit while he goes a little distance to be alone and pray. Some say John was the closest of his friends, and James and John were the two who had asked of Jesus to sit at his right hand when he was exalted. Jesus becomes very agitated and sad. He tells his friends how he is feeling, “even unto death”, and asks them to stay awake with him. He is ambiguous about what he is to face, throws himself onto the ground and asks his Abba, if there is any other way…but adds “but not what I want but what you want.” He finds Peter and the others asleep and asks them twice to please stay awake. The third time he doesn’t even try to wake them. The third time he returns and seems resolved to his fate now. With anger and frustration now sounding more like gentle tenderness he asks them, “Are you still sleeping?” He tells them to awaken and get up as he sees Judas and the soldiers approaching.
If anyone wanted to see the difference between stories about so-called divine kings, such as Caesar, or heroes like Hercules, or the Greek or Roman gods and the stories about Jesus, let them read these passages. This is not a dramatic soliloquy of a warrior about to go into battle, or a gladiator about to die in a blaze of glory. This is more the talk of a man facing execution, abandonment, humiliation, shame, and annihilation. This is a man staring a painful agonizing death and utter betrayal in the face. In the gospel of John, we see a Jesus in charge, but here, we witness a Jesus fully human.
How is this about you and me? - Do you ever feel not quite up to the task of being a follower of Jesus? Do you feel like saying, as Peter once did, “Leave me, for I am a great sinner?” These lines remind me that Jesus was a person, and had doubts just like we do. Otherwise, where would the connection to us be? He is not a marble statue in a temple. He is not a stained glass picture. He is not even a wooden figure on a cross. He is real. And the mission he gave us continues. Thanks be to God.-RSP
36Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane; and he said to his disciples, "Sit here while I go over there and pray." 37He took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be grieved and agitated. 38Then he said to them, "I am deeply grieved, even to death; remain here, and stay awake with me." 39And going a little farther, he threw himself on the ground and prayed, "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want." 40Then he came to the disciples and found them sleeping; and he said to Peter, "So, could you not stay awake with me one hour? 41Stay awake and pray that you may not come into the time of trial; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." 42Again he went away for the second time and prayed, "My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done." 43Again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. 44So leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words. 45Then he came to the disciples and said to them, "Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. 46Get up, let us be going. See, my betrayer is at hand."
What is happening in this scripture? - Jesus has gathered his closest followers and after the emotional meal in the upper room, he takes Peter, James and John and goes to a garden called Gethsemane. He asks these three to sit while he goes a little distance to be alone and pray. Some say John was the closest of his friends, and James and John were the two who had asked of Jesus to sit at his right hand when he was exalted. Jesus becomes very agitated and sad. He tells his friends how he is feeling, “even unto death”, and asks them to stay awake with him. He is ambiguous about what he is to face, throws himself onto the ground and asks his Abba, if there is any other way…but adds “but not what I want but what you want.” He finds Peter and the others asleep and asks them twice to please stay awake. The third time he doesn’t even try to wake them. The third time he returns and seems resolved to his fate now. With anger and frustration now sounding more like gentle tenderness he asks them, “Are you still sleeping?” He tells them to awaken and get up as he sees Judas and the soldiers approaching.
If anyone wanted to see the difference between stories about so-called divine kings, such as Caesar, or heroes like Hercules, or the Greek or Roman gods and the stories about Jesus, let them read these passages. This is not a dramatic soliloquy of a warrior about to go into battle, or a gladiator about to die in a blaze of glory. This is more the talk of a man facing execution, abandonment, humiliation, shame, and annihilation. This is a man staring a painful agonizing death and utter betrayal in the face. In the gospel of John, we see a Jesus in charge, but here, we witness a Jesus fully human.
How is this about you and me? - Do you ever feel not quite up to the task of being a follower of Jesus? Do you feel like saying, as Peter once did, “Leave me, for I am a great sinner?” These lines remind me that Jesus was a person, and had doubts just like we do. Otherwise, where would the connection to us be? He is not a marble statue in a temple. He is not a stained glass picture. He is not even a wooden figure on a cross. He is real. And the mission he gave us continues. Thanks be to God.-RSP
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
The Jesus I Want To Know
We have a lot to overcome if we want to really think about the man. We know the ending of the story, and we are surrounded, haunted, by icons, carvings, paintings, stained glass windows, songs, movies, plays, theories, arguments, books,sermons, even rock operas, about Jesus. Most of this is about a divine Son of God.
When I was a very young child in the Baptist church I was taught some wonderfully simple and beautiful stories of Jesus. As I got a few years older as a child I was introduced to Jesus as a perfect, more than human Son of God. I really didn’t think of him any longer as a real man, and the only picture I had of him as vulnerable was in the manger. But even there he was always quiet, or always sleeping, never crying or pooping in his swaddling clothes. And of course I know why. We were supposed to know that he was different, not like any person who had ever been born before, or since. My point here is, as I said before, It’s hard to think of Jesus as fully human too.
One so-called Jesus historian, John Dominic Crossan, has helped me at least to feel okay about asking questions that I would maybe ask about a human in history, but not a Son of God. Questions like what was the social and political context of his life? What did living in Nazareth, under Roman occupation, and under Herod Antipas tell you about life? You wouldn’t ask this about God would you? God is the source of the context, not a figure woven into it. Or is He? If Jesus was God in the form of human being, then that means he hungered, thirsted, bled, cried, ate, got sick, defecated, perspired, slept, maybe snored, got angry, got scared, just like we do. In my earlier years I think I sensed that it wasn’t proper to think of Jesus in those ways. I know adults who still feel that way. They see him with reverence and as part of the Holy Trinity. He is too perfect, too divine to think of as a human being. But at least sometimes I like to think of him as human, because otherwise, in my mind, he’s the quintessential goody two shoes, the perfect child or student, who always made straight A’s and always knew what to do and say; walking around Jerusalem and Capernaum spouting platitudes; nothing like me. And if he was nothing like me, how could he really understand or teach me? But he was like me. So he knew, and still knows.
Another central question seems to be, what do we get from Jesus, not just what does he expect from us? He apparently taught in the form of parables, stories that were an old oral tradition in those days. In telling those stories, it wasn’t like a minister giving a homily or sermon, in a church with a congregation politely quiet and with no two way exchange. There would have been dialogue, questions, reactions, laughter, anger, people saying phrases in response like “That’s crazy!” or ‘Now, wait a moment. What do you mean by that?”, whispers like “You know, he’s right!” or “He’d better be careful what he’s saying. It’s really going to offend some powerful people, and then there will be hell to pay!”
That is why I prefer reading the Bible to seeing movies about the Bible. Movies about divine figures tend to make them one dimensional, greater than reality, super stars. I really don’t want my Jesus to be a super star. I want him to be enough like me that I am able to identify with his joy, his sorrow, his frustration, and his pain. This makes Jesus a fleshed out real being for me, not just a pretty Sunday School painting.
No. I don’t think Jesus was a real life human with the exception that he was the divine son of God, complete with special effects. I think he was a real life human who God chose to connect with my humanity like no other leader or prophet or teacher had ever been able to do. I think he made mistakes, I think he changed his mind, like the story of the Canaanite woman tells us, and I think he got really really terrified when he realized he was on the verge of being abandoned, arrested, beaten, tried and crucified for insurrection and blasphemy. I think he was a Jewish mystic who, because of his close relationship to God, could heal, transform, and bring people back to life who were thought to be dead. If that makes him the Son of God, then I’m okay with the term. And he didn’t do his teaching, healing, and debating in a church building with a cross on top of a steeple. He did these things in the countryside, people’s homes, on the dusty hot roads, near the shore of lakes, and on the sides of hills, and in hometown synagogues or the great Temple itself.
In other words, he lived his life, his mission, out there, in the real world, the ugly world, full of thieves and prostitutes and lepers, and homeless beggars, and crazy, screaming people, some of whom had no power in the culture and weren’t even Jews. He might as well have been in Harlem, or Watts, or Calcutta, or New Orleans, or Gastonia. But he was so close, so close, to his God, that he called him Papa (Abba). And he loved the Psalms and the laws of Moses so much, that he couldn’t help but confront the culture he lived in when he saw these laws twisted, watered down, broken, or ignored. He couldn’t ignore the sick, the dying, the marginalized, the ones cast out. He would rather be with them because he knew that’s where his Father’s justice and love would be. And he couldn’t resist being close to his Father. God and everything God loved, which was everything in the world, was irresistible to him. He saw the holes in life and he went around filling them, empty stomachs, empty hearts, empty souls. And he kept doing it until they started punching holes in him. They killed him, and put him in another hole. And he filled that one too. He filled it until it couldn’t hold him. It still can’t. He simply won’t die. And that’s the part of him that wasn’t like me. He did everything he did from pure, unadulterated love. And he wants to give that to me too. That’s the Jesus I want to be more like. That’s the Jesus I want to know more about. -RSP
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Re: Talking About Love
I received this letter from my minister and one of my best friends, Chuck. I want to share it and the amazing poem and the woman who wrote it with you all. Thanks, Chuck, and thank you Becky. And in her honor, here is the letter, and the poem. -RSP
Ron,
I've just gotten back from attending the funeral of Barbara's college suitemate and closest college friend, Becky. She died of leukemia last Friday. For you to understand the context of this poem, I need to give you a little background. She was first diagnosed with leukemia 5 years ago, and went through radiation, chemo and then the ordeal of a bone marrow transplant. All seemed to be working, and she was declared cancer free. Then in early '05 her husband was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He battled it for three years, but he died in February of this year. A month ago, we learned that her leukemia had recurred. She went back to Houston hoping that there might be something that could be done, but she died last Friday. She has two children--25 and 28. I cannot imagine the grief they must be feeling and how overwhelming all of this must be to them.
Anyway, Becky--like you--was a poet. She wrote this poem after her transplant ordeal and after learning that her husband had cancer. It was read at her funeral. Your comments about love brought it to mind, and of all people I know you will appreciate it!
"No Small Thing" by Becky McCutchen (December, 2005)
God loves me.
I sit quietly
and let it soak in.
God loves me.
No matter what
I have done or left undone.
This Abba Father
This Mother Creator
loves me.
Before time began
beyond infinity.
I am known. I am loved.
It is too deep to grasp
too deep to feel
too deep to believe
It could possibly be true.
And...yet...
I do know.
And in that split second of knowing
I am a perfect being
created in her image.
A perfect being
of grace and love
a quiet stillpoint of light.
In that second
I am the fullness of time
I am sure of my feet
I am at peace
I am all things
and they are me.
I am the perfect balance
of what has been
and what will be.
I am loved.
It is no small thing.
Ron,
I've just gotten back from attending the funeral of Barbara's college suitemate and closest college friend, Becky. She died of leukemia last Friday. For you to understand the context of this poem, I need to give you a little background. She was first diagnosed with leukemia 5 years ago, and went through radiation, chemo and then the ordeal of a bone marrow transplant. All seemed to be working, and she was declared cancer free. Then in early '05 her husband was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He battled it for three years, but he died in February of this year. A month ago, we learned that her leukemia had recurred. She went back to Houston hoping that there might be something that could be done, but she died last Friday. She has two children--25 and 28. I cannot imagine the grief they must be feeling and how overwhelming all of this must be to them.
Anyway, Becky--like you--was a poet. She wrote this poem after her transplant ordeal and after learning that her husband had cancer. It was read at her funeral. Your comments about love brought it to mind, and of all people I know you will appreciate it!
"No Small Thing" by Becky McCutchen (December, 2005)
God loves me.
I sit quietly
and let it soak in.
God loves me.
No matter what
I have done or left undone.
This Abba Father
This Mother Creator
loves me.
Before time began
beyond infinity.
I am known. I am loved.
It is too deep to grasp
too deep to feel
too deep to believe
It could possibly be true.
And...yet...
I do know.
And in that split second of knowing
I am a perfect being
created in her image.
A perfect being
of grace and love
a quiet stillpoint of light.
In that second
I am the fullness of time
I am sure of my feet
I am at peace
I am all things
and they are me.
I am the perfect balance
of what has been
and what will be.
I am loved.
It is no small thing.
The Parable of the Untrustworthy Slave
Matthew 25:14-30 The Parable of the Untrustworthy Slave
14"For it is as if a man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them; 15to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away.
16The one who had received the five talents went off at once and traded with them, and made five more talents. 17In the same way, the one who had the two talents made two more talents. 18But the one who had received the one talent went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.
19After a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. 20Then the one who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five more talents, saying, 'Master, you handed over to me five talents; see, I have made five more talents.' 21His master said to him, 'Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.' 22And the one with the two talents also came forward, saying, 'Master, you handed over to me two talents; see, I have made two more talents.' 23His master said to him, 'Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.'
24Then the one who had received the one talent also came forward, saying, 'Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed; 25so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.'
26But his master replied, 'you wicked and lazy slave! You knew, did you, that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I did not scatter? 27Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have received what was my own with interest. 28So take the talent from him, and give it to the one with the ten talents.
29For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.
30As for this worthless slave, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'
Who is the hero of this story? – I have never agreed with what I hear most people say the point of this parable is. Most tell me this is about using what God has given you and making the most of it. But the slave owner in this story is a man, and a distant owner, who rules by remote control and fear. Not my image of God. Not my idea of the nature of the Kingdom of God, which is what these parables describe.
I think the hero of this story is the slave who did not participate in the system, the way things were set up, by the wealthy man who would both own and control people, even if he did entrust them with some of his money. That is why I changed the name of the parable from the Parable of the Talents, to the Parable of the Untrustworthy Slave.
The untrustworthy slave admits to the master upon his return: "Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed". The master responds with “You knew, did you, that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I did not scatter?” Jesus, the author of the parable, puts these words into the slave owner’s mouth in the story: 29 "For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away."
The uncooperative slave pays a big price for his failure to go along and is thrown into the outer darkness, a place of weeping and gnashing teeth.
What makes the untrustworthy slave the hero? In the Torah, the kind of financial transaction the slave owner expected his slaves to participate in was called “usury” and it was forbidden by the Jewish tradition to lend money at interest and at the expense of those needing the money, especially the poor.
I was surprised to discover that a relatively famous theologian and author, William Herzog, agrees with me. Herzog is a scholar who has done much study on the parables as subversive speech given by Jesus against the economic domination system of Herod and Caesar’s “systems”, which were taking land away from families and marginalizing many peasants into dire poverty and day labor status.
I don’t think Jesus was trying to teach us to be wise investors, at least in this story, and I don’t think he was telling us to “Be all we can be” in this story. I think he was a faithful Jew, faithful to the Torah, and telling people not to allow their greed to overshadow God’s expectation that the poor and those in needed to be treated with compassion, and that once we get in bed with profit oriented thinking, it is easy to lose the hearts we need to live with others, especially those on the margins of life.
Edmund Burke once wrote, “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.” I think Jesus is saying here, “All that is necessary for evil systems to triumph is for good men and women to quietly go along with the status quo, especially if it’s going to make you rich, even if it’s on the backs of the unfortunate".
Look at what has happened in our country lately with the mortgage industry. Amazing how these ancient parabolic views of the Kingdom of God are so relevant to us today.
Is there room for the Kingdom of God in business? What would need to change?
What price would we pay for not cooperating? Where might we be thrown? - RSP
14"For it is as if a man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them; 15to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away.
16The one who had received the five talents went off at once and traded with them, and made five more talents. 17In the same way, the one who had the two talents made two more talents. 18But the one who had received the one talent went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.
19After a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. 20Then the one who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five more talents, saying, 'Master, you handed over to me five talents; see, I have made five more talents.' 21His master said to him, 'Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.' 22And the one with the two talents also came forward, saying, 'Master, you handed over to me two talents; see, I have made two more talents.' 23His master said to him, 'Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.'
24Then the one who had received the one talent also came forward, saying, 'Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed; 25so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.'
26But his master replied, 'you wicked and lazy slave! You knew, did you, that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I did not scatter? 27Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have received what was my own with interest. 28So take the talent from him, and give it to the one with the ten talents.
29For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.
30As for this worthless slave, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'
Who is the hero of this story? – I have never agreed with what I hear most people say the point of this parable is. Most tell me this is about using what God has given you and making the most of it. But the slave owner in this story is a man, and a distant owner, who rules by remote control and fear. Not my image of God. Not my idea of the nature of the Kingdom of God, which is what these parables describe.
I think the hero of this story is the slave who did not participate in the system, the way things were set up, by the wealthy man who would both own and control people, even if he did entrust them with some of his money. That is why I changed the name of the parable from the Parable of the Talents, to the Parable of the Untrustworthy Slave.
The untrustworthy slave admits to the master upon his return: "Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed". The master responds with “You knew, did you, that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I did not scatter?” Jesus, the author of the parable, puts these words into the slave owner’s mouth in the story: 29 "For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away."
The uncooperative slave pays a big price for his failure to go along and is thrown into the outer darkness, a place of weeping and gnashing teeth.
What makes the untrustworthy slave the hero? In the Torah, the kind of financial transaction the slave owner expected his slaves to participate in was called “usury” and it was forbidden by the Jewish tradition to lend money at interest and at the expense of those needing the money, especially the poor.
I was surprised to discover that a relatively famous theologian and author, William Herzog, agrees with me. Herzog is a scholar who has done much study on the parables as subversive speech given by Jesus against the economic domination system of Herod and Caesar’s “systems”, which were taking land away from families and marginalizing many peasants into dire poverty and day labor status.
I don’t think Jesus was trying to teach us to be wise investors, at least in this story, and I don’t think he was telling us to “Be all we can be” in this story. I think he was a faithful Jew, faithful to the Torah, and telling people not to allow their greed to overshadow God’s expectation that the poor and those in needed to be treated with compassion, and that once we get in bed with profit oriented thinking, it is easy to lose the hearts we need to live with others, especially those on the margins of life.
Edmund Burke once wrote, “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.” I think Jesus is saying here, “All that is necessary for evil systems to triumph is for good men and women to quietly go along with the status quo, especially if it’s going to make you rich, even if it’s on the backs of the unfortunate".
Look at what has happened in our country lately with the mortgage industry. Amazing how these ancient parabolic views of the Kingdom of God are so relevant to us today.
Is there room for the Kingdom of God in business? What would need to change?
What price would we pay for not cooperating? Where might we be thrown? - RSP
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Talking About Love
Talking About Love and Loving God
The thing that we all want, the thing that people are all looking for, the thing that many of us substitute other things for, (and these things never work) is love. The problem with love, especially being loved by God, which I think is the source of all love, is that the very second you try to talk about it, you’re off the mark. I think that is the problem with all discourse, all debate, all talk, and all theology. And once you start down the road of thinking or discussion about something as intangible and ineffable as the encountering of this transcendent, immanent “thing” we call love, you are at least once removed from the encounter itself. I think that is why people like Jesus taught in parabolic language, and why he and others tried to talk about love by telling stories. But the stories, the texts, the scriptures, the parables, aren’t the reality of God. They simply point towards God.
Ever tried to write a love letter, or love poem? Ever tried to explain to a your child or best friend what they mean to you? It’s always a challenge and it never carries the full message you are trying to convey. Music or art probably come closer.
Maybe, for the sake of authenticity, and because as we all know, talk is cheap, it is better to participate in the reality of love by the way we act, the way we live. If we love God, then we love what God loves. If we want to know about the nature of God, maybe we ought to pay attention to the nature of love in its purest form. How do you know when someone loves you? First of all, they are, for some reason, interested in you. They seek out dialogue and relationship. Secondly, they are sensitive to your feelings and your welfare. Thirdly, they accept you, even your faults, and they are willing to forgive you when you are really sorry for harming or offending them. In other words, they love the behavior you show to them that tells them the same thing: you love them. The spiritual word for this is grace, and as a counselor I have witnessed that it truly is amazing, just as the song says, and it truly does transform us from wretches to those who are given a new chance, a new life, a second birth.
The other difficult thing about love is that we cannot accept it unless we face our own human failures, admit that we have them, and accept that grace that is offered. Sometimes that fact is made even harder, if not almost impossible, because we aren’t around anyone who is graceful enough, and humble enough, to give us another chance, at least on any given day. That is why, for me, the invitation given to me by the love of God I experience through the life and death of the one we call the Christ, is irresistible and the most real thing I have ever encountered in my life. It may not be the only path towards God, but it’s the one I was given.
Maybe the reason it’s hard to talk about love is the same reason it’s hard to talk about God. We sense that the minute the conversation begins, we are once removed from the reality of the encounter. That is why I know that the only way I can really experience the reality of God’s love is in relationship, with the world he created and loves, the people he created and loves, and in learning to accept his graceful acceptance of me, warts and all. This is the cross Jesus told us to pick up and carry, if we wanted to follow him. It’s not easy. It’s not convenient. It’s not cheap. We have to decide. And it’s something I have found that I simply cannot live without and feel really alive, completely happy or at peace in this crazy world.-RSP
The thing that we all want, the thing that people are all looking for, the thing that many of us substitute other things for, (and these things never work) is love. The problem with love, especially being loved by God, which I think is the source of all love, is that the very second you try to talk about it, you’re off the mark. I think that is the problem with all discourse, all debate, all talk, and all theology. And once you start down the road of thinking or discussion about something as intangible and ineffable as the encountering of this transcendent, immanent “thing” we call love, you are at least once removed from the encounter itself. I think that is why people like Jesus taught in parabolic language, and why he and others tried to talk about love by telling stories. But the stories, the texts, the scriptures, the parables, aren’t the reality of God. They simply point towards God.
Ever tried to write a love letter, or love poem? Ever tried to explain to a your child or best friend what they mean to you? It’s always a challenge and it never carries the full message you are trying to convey. Music or art probably come closer.
Maybe, for the sake of authenticity, and because as we all know, talk is cheap, it is better to participate in the reality of love by the way we act, the way we live. If we love God, then we love what God loves. If we want to know about the nature of God, maybe we ought to pay attention to the nature of love in its purest form. How do you know when someone loves you? First of all, they are, for some reason, interested in you. They seek out dialogue and relationship. Secondly, they are sensitive to your feelings and your welfare. Thirdly, they accept you, even your faults, and they are willing to forgive you when you are really sorry for harming or offending them. In other words, they love the behavior you show to them that tells them the same thing: you love them. The spiritual word for this is grace, and as a counselor I have witnessed that it truly is amazing, just as the song says, and it truly does transform us from wretches to those who are given a new chance, a new life, a second birth.
The other difficult thing about love is that we cannot accept it unless we face our own human failures, admit that we have them, and accept that grace that is offered. Sometimes that fact is made even harder, if not almost impossible, because we aren’t around anyone who is graceful enough, and humble enough, to give us another chance, at least on any given day. That is why, for me, the invitation given to me by the love of God I experience through the life and death of the one we call the Christ, is irresistible and the most real thing I have ever encountered in my life. It may not be the only path towards God, but it’s the one I was given.
Maybe the reason it’s hard to talk about love is the same reason it’s hard to talk about God. We sense that the minute the conversation begins, we are once removed from the reality of the encounter. That is why I know that the only way I can really experience the reality of God’s love is in relationship, with the world he created and loves, the people he created and loves, and in learning to accept his graceful acceptance of me, warts and all. This is the cross Jesus told us to pick up and carry, if we wanted to follow him. It’s not easy. It’s not convenient. It’s not cheap. We have to decide. And it’s something I have found that I simply cannot live without and feel really alive, completely happy or at peace in this crazy world.-RSP
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