Pentecost 2020

Pentecost 2020

She is there

brooding over

nesting the

darkness, confusion

uncertainty, chaos

then

Word spoken

sparks

Life

darkness, confusion

uncertainty, chaos

the soil – the seedbed of

life

clay molded, dirt shaped

all and each bearing

the fingerprints

of their Maker

lifeless in the mud

until

He breathes

then…

Life erupts

and the mud

dances

all gathered

Body parts assembled

lifeless in

uncertainty, confusion

doubt, fear

until

Wind roars

sparking fiery

Life

today

sitting alone together in

anguish, confusion

darkness, chaos

waiting – longing –

praying

Holy Spirit… come

spark

Life in this

soil, this seedbed

of darkened dismayed

clay…

let the mud

dance

again

darkness, confusion

uncertainty, chaos

the soil – the seedbed of

Life

A Modern Horror

A Modern Horror

Readers, take warning. It is as horrible a story as I have read anywhere, all the more so because it is found in Scripture – Judges 19. If you must, read it cautiously, in the daylight. It is an ancient modern True story illustrating what happens when we lose the connective tissue – when we all do what is right in our own eyes – when we acknowledge the rule of no one. The story ends with a graphic – a grotesque – image, driving home the point: “This is what we have become. This is now who we are.” We are fragmented, torn, at odds with one another – the center has failed – we treat each other as enemy strangers, and worse. It would be nice to report that Israel, confronted with such clear evidence, repented. But that is not what happened. Instead, revenge drove the division stupid deep, lasting for generations – proving, again, that if I can’t answer, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” in the affirmative, my brother is at greatest risk from my hand.

The parallels are not exact – but they are close enough. For each name reaching social media outrage because of the coincidence of a cell phone video, there are many more unknown, unnamed – but the number of, and the heart-breaking, infuriating, regularity of those that do break the surface of our consciousness shout to the nation, “This is what we have become. This is now who we are.” From the top down, we are fragmented, torn, at odds with one another – the center has failed – we treat our brother as stranger, as enemy, and worse. We decry bullying – but then bully the bullies! And often, in our spasms of justice, we are reduced to paroxysms of self-justified revenge – which is met with yet more tearing, more dis-integration.

It is to just such horror that Jesus came as peacemaker – seeking, in the surrender of His own life, to reconcile us, first to God, but then to each other, and to ourselves. They are not different reconciliations – they are all of a whole – one not complete until all are complete. This is why Jesus linked our forgiveness to our forgiving – our loving of God to our loving of brother. And not just the brother who was victimized, but the brother who victimized him. And the brothers who stood and watched – or who looked the other way – or who are heart-hardened. That must be why love is not an option, but a command. It is hard, hard work. It may kill us. That often happens to peace-makers. Perhaps that is why they are called the children of God. Perhaps that is why he suggested we bring our own cross – and take it up daily.

On Being Kind

On Being Kind

Kindness is linked to “kind” - as in, type or species. The Genesis 1 mandate, which requires collaborating community, is enabled to the degree to which we are kind - and disabled to the degree to which we are unkind. Kindness, then, is not simply icing on the cake – a kind of option for those wearing cardigans and are so inclined – it is a primary mark and maker of the Kingdom. It is especially necessary for communities comprised of people who are not like us – which is to say, every community. The non-negotiable and necessary reality of community, framed in our communal identity as the Image of God, is that we must both be fully ourselves, without defining reference to others, and must respect and honor the other selves with whom we are in proximity – and without whom we could not be Image – to be fully themselves. We live, then, in the co-creative, life-expressing tension of needing to mind our own business – and also to mind the business of others but without seeking to control them. The purpose of our minding their business is that we may know how best to support and encourage it – without seeking to control or manage it – much in the way God does with us.

Kindness is most important when things inevitably go wrong in community – we get sideways to one another, rub one another the wrong way, offend one another inadvertently – and advertently – we do dumb things and then do them again… Without kindness, we would be left with nothing but sharp edges, slicing and dicing one another, melting in our private puddles of self-pity, resentful, angry – looking for the moment to retaliate with maximum damage inflicted – feeling fully justified in every hateful imagination. And without any way to leech the poison out of the system, it would just build up until all our life would be painful, and hostile, and destructive. We would be constantly glancing over our shoulder on the lookout for the next enemy – ready to deliver pre-emptive strikes based on nothing more than imagination. But kindness  forgives pre-emptively – enabling face-saving repentance without shame. Kindness extends mercy to those who least deserve it – which is to say, all of us. Kindness doesn’t forgive strategically – to enforce an action. It does so because that is its nature – and so enables, creates space, for an action.

Admittedly, it is easier – sometimes – to be kind to those we have some affection for. Although, if I am any indicator (I pray God, not!), we don’t do that consistently either. But it is not enough to be the Image of God to and with those to whom we are naturally inclined. Jesus is clear – even those without awareness of God do that! No, if we are to be regarded as children of our Father, we must practice the kindness offered to friends, so that the muscle memory begins to inform our treatment of those who regard themselves as our enemies.

We are never more like our Father than when we are kind – when we show mercy – when we forgive. Kindness is how He is oriented towards all those who are at enmity with Him – enabling Him to treat them, not as they may deserve, but out of His own character. In so doing, He invites us to join the conspiracy of kindness – to remember that we are all the same in our differences – to then treat others as we would like them to treat us. To love, as He loves. To be perfect in this, as He is perfect.

Lord, have mercy!

Oh wait… He already has.

for every green pasture

for every green pasture

for every green pasture

for every still water

for every soul restored

     a right path

     leading to a place,

     prepared

dark valleys

shadowed with loss

echoing with grief

overhung with fear

     met with

Presence

for every dark valley

for every shadowing loss

for every resounding grief

     a right path

     leading to a place,

     prepared

a war zone table

a cup poured

a head anointed

awareness…

     every place is the

     house of the Lord

for every table spread

for every cup poured

for every head blessed

     a right path

     leading to a place,

     prepared…

finally

     home.

     again for the first time

How Joy Is Strength

How Joy is Strength

After a post a couple of weeks ago, I was asked by a friend how it is that joy is strength. It’s a good question – probably one with a number of entry points and no easy answer. The challenge comes in recognizing that joy is both source and expression – both foundation and outcome. Joy is sometimes mistaken for happiness. But it is not quite the same. Happiness tends to be circumstantial and consequential – icing on the cake of expectations met or exceeded – more caboose than locomotive. But joy is bigger than circumstance. Joy is fully aware of the circumstances, but doesn’t look to them for cues – it does its own thing, and thus reframes any circumstance as a place of encounter.

Joy is the fuel cell at the center of the soul – maybe at the center of the universe – which energizes and gives capacity for life as it is. Joy is able to enter in with the grit required for the trudging tedium of the everyday; to vibrate with a gentle, sustaining stillness underneath the deepest pain imaginable; to explode with mind-blowing wonder in a fireworks of celebration. No wonder Paul challenged us to rejoice – again and again!! He was not telling simply to be happy. It was, instead, his charge to re-fill with joy as often and as much as possible because joy fuels the graced life.

Joy is the means of transformation that resists being conformed to the world – or, for that matter, to any external pressure. It goes on, gently insisting on its own reality in which all will be well, and all manner of things will be well. There is an organ in fish which regulates the internal pressure to offset the crushing pressure from the outside such that at great depth, beset by hundreds of pounds of pressure per square inch, they can swim effortlessly and with beauty. Joy is like that. Life can be pretty crushing – the pressures can be overwhelming. Joy is what enables us to live calm, non-anxious lives – seemingly effortlessly and with great beauty.

To rejoice, then, is to deliberately sit in the long journey of Holy Week – to feel the calloused hands of Jesus wash our feet – to sit in the bleakness and shock of betrayal in the garden and the courtyard – to stand in the horror of Friday as life bleeds out into the thirsty ground – to be paralyzed by the fear, confusion, and isolation of a black Saturday – and to be jump-started into new-life wonder with Sunday’s resurrection dawning! Entry into each day is part of the discipline of rejoicing – each day has its parallels in our lives – each day carves out and creates space for the soul shaping reality of Resurrection Life. If God can raise the dead – and He can - let’s live like it! Regardless of our circumstance – lets live like it! Life is victorious over death! That awareness is what enables joy expressed in tear-stained laughter – to recognize that nothing fatal is ever final!! Even to grieve – with hope.

It was joy that enabled Jesus to endure the cross – and it is joy that will enable us for our life and death. No wonder He wants to give us His joy so that ours might be made full. He knows, probably better than anyone, that we are going to need it!