cairns

Several things I have been reading lately caused me to check God’s first and last commands.  According to the narrative as we have it, God’s first command is not to obey or abstain, to toil or to behave in certain ways.  God’s first command to man, and all of creation is to be, period, to have life.  Then God enjoys fellowship with them.

Leaving alone for a moment all the things we muddle up in the middle, I turn to the final command.  Again it is none of the things we usually preach and teach.  It is also to come and share life.  To once again live in fellowship with creation and Creator.  Walter Brueggemann points out that one of the most obvious and overlooked predictions in the strange book of Revelation is that at the final full restoration of the Kingdom they are singing.  They are singing and God is saying, “Come in and share life with Me.”

Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life and life to the full!” And Jesus did NOT say we would only get the life God intends after a long life of woeful obedience to dogma when we finally die.  Jesus said that the Kingdom is here.   The church has long maintained that the Kingdom exists on Earth post-Easter.  If we believe it, really believe it, then I think these are the preeminent commands we should be declaring and living now!  And we have given them far too little attention!

In a world where people find the goodness of creation sullied by death, fear, uncertainty, and environmental destruction we have responded too long with platitudes and to do lists (mostly involving supporting the life of the corporate church!), dogma and damnation.  It is time to echo God’s primary commands.  Come and live!

Revelation 22:¹⁷The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.”

Come, love, sing, live.

peace

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Why is snow white? Ice can look blue, green, or I suppose even some other colors. But, snow is white.

My silly thought on the Grace of Creation is that we need the extra light it reflects in the dark of winter. Amazing how the dark of winter gives way to blazing brightness. Freezing cold outside, but the brightness and the squirrel sitting in the sun on the tree outside my window lift the gravity of winter darkness from my soul!

peace

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I rearranged the seats in my classroom the other day and a little girl who studies Buddhism ended up in the seat that had belonged to a boy named Christian. Later in the day, she didn’t feel like she was doing as well as she wanted and called me over to her desk to say, “I think I’ve caught Christian disease!” I started to walk away and had to go back and quietly tell her that was about the funniest sentence I had heard all day, especially coming from a student of Buddhism! She grinned ear to ear and said, “I know.” We both had a really good laugh. Moments matter. Thanks AW!

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Its OK that we do not know, because we are already known.
We don’t have to understand everything about God.
God understands everything about us and finds ways to break through our defenses to shower us with Love beyond comprehension.

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you already know, to those who don’t my words will not suffice.

But, I have waited for this day my entire life,

Since I saw JFK dare to call us to greatness and then die,

Since I saw MLK dare to call us to our true selves and then die,

So many miles marched,

So many nameless dead,

So many promises waiting to be fulfilled,

Thousands of years of European power and power in the hands of Euro descendants,

So much accomplished and so much damage done through hubris,

So many mistakes and lasting mistrust,

So hard for others to believe it is possible for all to matter,

Finally a son of another continent,

European descent as well its true,

But, a son of hope and promise,

An identification point for the disenfranchised around the world,

A day of vindication,

A day of prayers answered,

A day of possible new beginnings and ending excuses,

A day to dream again of what we can be and do,

If we care about greatness,

It we care about righteousness,

If we care about living out the Gospel,

If we care about our global family and our immediate neighbors,

I have lived and worked among those outside of power most of my life,

Today, we are looking up not down,

Today, a man of intelligence, literacy, and faith is a hero,

Today, I love my country.

[I do not care if you agree with his politics or mine, or secretly resent his color or background, or trust his words to be true.  Our actual way forward will be worked out in compromise within a system of government like no one else on earth has known, resilient and sometimes cumbersome, but carefully designed to allay your fears.  If you think today is a dark day, my words will seem like raving to you (but examine the content of the very phrase.)  Today is about something so much bigger, an affirmation of all people, a celebration of nonviolent transfer of power, of hope in the face of crisis, of celebrating the victory of both ourselves and the other!]

Today, I am weeping, laughing, singing, dancing, praying, praising, hoping, and loving.

I have waited long for this day.

Thank you, Jesus!

peace

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I am reading Christ and Empire, (Thanks for the recommendation Tim).  At the end of chapter two, Rieger is explaining how the early councils’ theologies of Christ’s oneness with both God and humanity open up the world of understanding of both God and each other.

“Is the divine somehow linked with the success of those in power (or other preconceived notions of the top down), or is the divine linked to the Christ who cannot easily be defined and whose power moves from the bottom up instead of from the top down?  Second, how do we understand humanity and its relationship to divinity?  If we understand humanity or divinity according to the private-property model (as if humans would “own” some part of God), we will not get much beyond an identity politics that closes the doors to deeper encounters with Christ and the complexity of his full humanity and full divinity.  Only if we do not own the divine can divinity in Christ yet surprise us by being other than we imagine.”

That gets at the darkness I am comfortable in — not darkness as the absence of the light I have been given so far — but darkness in comparison to the light I yet expect.  There is such joy in waiting to be surprised by the God who is both known and beyond all knowing! peace

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