cairns

One of my daughter’s friends responded to my participation in Earth Hour by saying, “whatever makes him comfortable driving  his gas guzzling car!”  Then I saw this AP image on AOL.  Maybe next year we could try shutting off the engines for an hour?

peace

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I have started to put several quotes from this book up, it is worth reading. Here is one small sample.

Relinquishing Power

 

In order to acknowledge our real need for other people and to receive their unique perspectives and expertise, we will need to relinquish the power and control that keep us from being changed or influenced by them. This is not an easy thing to do…

…Little do we know, but it is “high noon” and we are wearied from our journey.  It is high time for us to recognize that we will die of thirst if we don’t acknowledge our real  need for others and empower them to give the water that only people different from us can bring.

Brenda Salter McNeil

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This morning as I read the trial of Jesus, something struck me in a new way — related to yesterday.  I have always heard descriptions of the crowd asking for Barabbas focused on the contrast between him as the murderer and Jesus, the innocent.  Usually the priests are blamed at least by implication for stirring the people to make an absurd request.  Today, the description of Barabbas as an insurrectionist gives me pause.

They wanted a revolutionary.  I have often heard that sermon theme, but not connected to this passage.  It makes me wonder.  Did their anger against Jesus  actually increase because Pilot found no fault in Him?  They wanted relief and a leader who would bring them from under the thumb of Rome.  Even the disciples struggled with  why Jesus did not assume that role.  Then here he is handed over and the ruler is saying, “I see nothing wrong with him?”  Was the request for Barabbas a slam at both Pilot and Jesus? Were they proclaiming their desire for a warrior rather than this speaker of truth who called them instead to change themselves?

Are we still proclaiming the same message as the crowd?  American revolutionary, Malcolm X was not killed while spouting hatred, only when he came home with a new message of reconciliation and changing hearts.  Why does the candidate who claims our current military aggression in the Muslim world is just, in spite of all evidence, have a strong chance of winning the presidency?

How deep is this desire for somebody who will lead us out against the oppressor?  How much of our focus on the evil other is avoidance of the mirror?  How much of our draw to go and “save” (or destroy) the world is the draw of dramatic external change rather than the hard work of internal heart change?

Just wondering….

peace

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I think it was Luther Smith’s wonderful little book on community and mission that brought me up short. He comments that churches are called to the communities in which they are located. If you are not impacting that community, you are not having your intended impact. Ouch.

It started me thinking about our church’s “call” to the urban areas of our city. The prayer meetings that have resulted have been very positive as ministers across divides of race, income, denomination, and many other barriers sit weekly in prayer together seeking God’s will. But, there just isn’t a clear answer to the question of what our suburban congregation can meaningfully do for the folks in the urban center. I applaud D for choosing a home for his family among the people he wants to work with. Not many are willing to put their investments and families on the line for what we talk so glibly about. I do not see our group pulling off a Reba Place, or even trying.

But, Luther started me thinking in a whole new direction. What if we prophetically proclaimed the gospel to our own folks in a way that truly changed lives? What if we SUV driving folks came face to face with the God who claims that our love for Him is only as real as our treatment of the”least?” In other words, what if the employer class truly encountered and accepted the Gospel of Jesus?

Would employee opportunities increase for the folks we say we want to help? Would pay? Would benefits for their families? Would access to financial and housing opportunities? Would we still tolerate a system that fails to educate, fails to graduate, and prefers to incarcerate? Would we tolerate the many forms of pollution which exist in greater frequency and intensity in the living areas of the poor?

Now I wonder. Perhaps the most important thing that our church can do for our urban neighbors is go home and confront ourselves with the call of Christ.  Or perhaps, we take as many people as will go to as many encounters with our new friends as possible — knowing that we are not saviors, but people in need of redemption.

peace

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I am imagining a headhunting service.

Wanted Surgeon — a woman comes in and says, “Hire me, my husband used to be a surgeon!” Wanted Bank President — a man comes in and says, “Hire me, my wife used to be a CEO!” Wanted US President — and a woman campaigns on, “My husband was a President!”

When did the role of spouse become job experience in the other person’s role?

I also watched too much talk TV last week.

Surfing the Internet and playing video games are now considered addictions. Great! Sex with strangers is an addiction, food is an addiction, gambling is an addiction, not concentrating on your job is ADHD, not caring for your family is depression, threatening to kill people is “a bad choice” as is spending $40,000 on prostitutes by a public official….

My problem? I was dumb enough to grow up addicted to honesty, responsibility, and the American work ethic!

peace

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It was a good week, a busy week, a tiring week, but a very good week.

My youngest and I have chosen a trip for this summer that will stretch us both in new ways and connect us to new people.

I also found out that I am switching what I teach again next year.  Looks like I will have a self contained room full of fourth graders.  Fourth was always my favorite grade before I moved into administration, and I love having the same group of kids all day so there is enough time to use different methods and to teach concepts across subjects.  Plus, it will keep my work with graduate students more real to be adjusting to a new format and experimenting in my own room.  There is also the possibility that I might be allowed to stay with the students for two years as their fifth grade teacher and make a real impact on their lives.  I am excited about it.

Still, there was my presentation of Missions 101 today.  There I was again, choking up when discussing God’s unrelenting mission to bring mankind back into full fellowship, celebration, and worship.  It went well.  People said, and were past expressing, that it struck some very deep chords.  And, I know my heart is longing to be doing this 24/7.  I am wired and called to teach things more eternal than multiplication facts and parts of speech.  They do matter.  The youngsters I teach, matter.  I enjoy doing it.  And, I live out the message, demonstrate their greater worth in every way I can, teach every concept within the knowledge that Jesus is there whenever we approach the “truth.”  But, I am not allowed to speak freely, to declare openly how divine they were created to be, to call them knowingly into the presence of God.

It was a good week — enjoyed in its own right — and in looking forward to new opportunities to  point far more directly to the cairns on the path into the kingdom.

peace

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By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Thou shall not pollute the Earth. Thou shall beware genetic manipulation. Modern times bring with them modern sins. So the Vatican has told the faithful that they should be aware of “new” sins such as causing environmental blight.

The guidance came at the weekend when Archbishop Gianfranco Girotti, the Vatican’s number two man in the sometimes murky area of sins and penance, spoke of modern evils.

Asked what he believed were today’s “new sins,” he told the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano that the greatest danger zone for the modern soul was the largely uncharted world of bioethics.

“(Within bioethics) there are areas where we absolutely must denounce some violations of the fundamental rights of human nature through experiments and genetic manipulation whose outcome is difficult to predict and control,” he said.

The Vatican opposes stem cell research that involves destruction of embryos and has warned against the prospect of human cloning.

Girotti, in an interview headlined “New Forms of Social Sin,” also listed “ecological” offences as modern evils.

In recent months, Pope Benedict has made several strong appeals for the protection of the environment, saying issues such as climate change had become gravely important for the entire human race.

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A few more thoughts on the ark. Maybe they should be obvious, or maybe others will disagree. But, these seem like part of what would become a sermon.

I have also read a lot of nonsense about what gave the ark its special powers. One even claimed that it was a nuclear device because of something in the tablets Moses brought down from the mountain. The text says the power was the holy presence of God.

So with everything they remind us of and cause us to contemplate;

the wood — nature, the power of earth — is not the power,

the gold — wealth — is not the power,

the law — instruction in the ways of God — is not the power,

the manna — souvenir and memory of God’s provision — is not the power,

the presence of the angels — the aid of powerful warriors of heaven itself — is not the power,

the mobile nature of the ark — moving, doing, serving, the work of heaven (so easy for me to mistake as the goal!) — is not the power,

only the presence of God; witnessed by the glory, the cloud, the fire; but not the glory, the cloud, or the fire — the very presence of very God brings the power. Because God is the power.

Compared to the presence of God, the rest is an intriguing antique.  When we meet, do we bring each other into that presence?

peace

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Our dear friend S just did a wonderful exhortation for the church’s mission community on this text.  It really is an amazing passage, and he did a wonderful job of bringing it to life for us.  And, it has taken on a life in my meditations.

One of the major things he emphasized–beyond what I have heard countless preachers do–was this interaction between  Peter and God over the “clean” and “unclean.”  It is worth stopping to spend some real time on just how completely this revelation to Peter violated his upbringing, his church’s understanding of propriety, his understanding of scriptures (which matched ALL current practice at the time!), and his understanding of God.  It is shocking just within the context of the story as told.  Without, the clear appearance of the Holy Spirit, Peter’s stature in the church was not sufficient for people to accept his word for what God had told him to do!  I think it could be dangerously liberating applied to our lives today and our willingness to receive new understanding from God.  Liberating because our shackles and blinders would be loosed.  Dangerous, because I cannot imagine anyone in the church today who would be above our reproach for proposing a change of such magnitude in response to God’s private revelation.

Are we willing to hear God speaking to us and saying, “Stop calling unclean what I have made clean?”  With the hindsight of 2000 years, we think its easy applied to Jew and Gentile.  Most of us would fail to qualify for inclusion if it did not.  That’s easy enough.  But, what if our current church teachings, reading of scripture, current practices, and understanding of God were suddenly challenged?  Do we hold our boxes lightly enough to be able to hear?

Who would those “unclean” be?  We speak easily, but act reluctantly or not at all, of it meaning our enemies and those we see as persecuting us.  But, Jesus said those clearly.  They are easy to believe, even if difficult to do.  Who else might it be?

Could it include the “men of peace” (male or female) we encounter in other cultures and religions who already fear God and lead lives of holiness and caring for the poor beyond our own?

Could it include the poor among us so often labeled as drug addicts, prostitutes, and welfare cheats?

Could it include a true respect for life, all life, as sacred and not just man?  Could God’s saving love be for “the world” in ways beyond anything we who quote 3:16 have ever imagined?

Could it include gays, especially those who profess deep love for God in spite of all the hatred and vitriol dispensed by so many churches?

Do we proclaim wait a minute!  The teaching of the church is clear, I can quote the scriptures that prove it cannot be, they have not rejected their unacceptable identity and adopted our ways, God requires…  We are quoting Peter’s thoughts.

God says, “Peter, look in the sheet!”

God says, “Go to those I have chosen.”

God says, “Give up your idolatrous images of Me, and learn my true heart!”

S also pointed out that many scriptures already in existence for Peter and his associates suddenly became clear in new and previously unimagined ways after the revelation.  Perhaps Acts 10 is such a passage for us.

Just how big is God’s sheet?  How shocking might its contents be?  Do we want to know?  What might it call us to surrender?  Who might it require us to embrace?

peace

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The following selection is from James Finley’s book, Merton’s Palace of Nowhere.  I keep losing the citation and going back to the shelf to rediscover it again and again when my soul needs its truth.  Enjoy.

            “Prayer understood as the distilled awareness of our entire life before God, is a journey forward, a response to a call from the Father to become perfectly like his Son through the power of the Holy Spirit.  But this journey forward can also be seen as a kind of journey backward, in which we seek to gain access to the relationship Adam had with God.

            In prayer, we journey forward to our origin.  We close our eyes in prayer and open them in the pristine moment of creation.  We open our eyes to find God, his hands still smeared with clay, hovering over us, breathing into us his own divine life, smiling to see in us a reflection of himself.  We go to our place of prayer confident that in prayer we transcend both place and time.

            In prayer, distinctions like outside and inside, past and future, no longer apply.  In prayer, we sit before the gates of Eden and the self of the Father created us to be appears, freed from layer upon layer of falsity and distortion in which we had become entangled and lost.  In prayer, we experience this going back to our origin as a going into the center of our self, where God holds both our origin and end in one eternal moment.”

peace

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