Last Friday I noted that we were going to look at five points Walter Brueggemann suggests we need to consider as we look to the future of the church. Here is #2:
The church's place is in exile with other displaced persons, practicing the gathering that is the work of the gathering God. But that poses the urgent question: Who can be gathered? This most astonishing Isaiah 56 names two most objectionable classes of folk to be gathered in that ancient society:
Do not let the foreigner joined to the Lord say,
"The Lord will surely separate me from his people";
and do not let the eunuch say,
"I am just a dry tree."
Foreigners and eunuchs! People most unlike "us"! My thesis is that the church's work is the gathering of the others, not the ones that belong obviously to our social tribe or class or race.
There appears to be no limits to that "gathering." Usually we gather our own. Usually we make sure that everyone in our family or our group is safe and on board before we take off to do our own thing. And yet, the gathering is to have no limits. We are invited to gather everyone home. That may mean that we are given the opportunity to turn any place into a home - a home that will be home to more people than I can imagine. Gathering takes in the scattered and the excluded and the ones who have been included forever.
In our church building, we have a "gathering" space. I still call it the narthex. During our last building project, this kind of space was probably the item highest on the list of things we needed to do with our building. A space to gather...to simply gather. That meant a place to meet and greet and a place to spend some time talking. To our amazement, it works quite well. Sometimes, it is difficult to bring people into worship because of all the "gathering" going on. But then again, what is often the case is that few people actually extend themselves out to the "others" who come to worship. That can mean visitors or even members who are not very outgoing. There are those who come in and are left in a corner or standing alone without being engaged as people who also belong to this place.
It is always a wonderful sight to see people who are not labeled as "greeters" take the lead to make sure that the stranger is made known among us. That gift of hospitality becomes such a community treasure because those who question their ability to be there are assured of their place within the community without qualification.
Connection: It doesn't take much time or energy to step out of our circle of self-concern and engage those who are not connected or seem to be outside of any other circle. Sometimes it is that important connection that takes place as we pass by one another along the way. From that moment, new moments to connect will present themselves to us.
When you gather in your people, O God, we don't often see the expansiveness of your reach. Rather, we only see how long our own arms are. Lift up our eyes so that we can see those outside of our reach and then we can move out of our reach to those you are already inviting into our gathering of saints. Amen.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Thursday, June 7, 2007
Monday 11 June 2007
In dealing with the situation of the Jewish Exiles coming home to Jerusalem from Babylon, Walter Brueggemann uses Isaiah to offer us a word about welcome. He will have five accent points to help us consider our own thinking about the future of the church. I will spend a few days on #1.
He continues by setting up this important notion of the reality of exile and how the "homegrown props of established society are now largely gone"....and "that reality of loss generates enormous, amorphous anxiety among us.
Thus, I propose that the church is now God's agent for gathering exiles of which I can think immediately of two groups. First, there are those exiles who have been made exiles by the force of our society, those who are rejected, ostracized, and labeled as outsiders. This, of course, includes the poor, and inevitably we would also think in one way or another of gays and lesbians. We have and exile-producing culture that displaces some folk who are variously visible and vocal among us. But second, after the obviously excluded, I suggest that the category of "exile" also include those whom the world may judge normal, conventional, establishment types. For the truth is that the large failure of old values and old institutions causes many people to experience themselves as displaced people...anxious, under threat, vigilant, ill at ease, and so in pursuit of safety and stability and well-being that is not on the horizons of contemporary society. It is not obvious among us how the dream of well-being can come to fruition among us.
Wow. When he throws the net out in order to bring folk home, he throws it out. This second group of people is one of the best ways of describing the anxiety and fear within our society and church. For many reasons, some folks have been left behind and unable to deal with how we are moving into the present and setting our eyes on the dreams of a new age of grace. It is not wonder that we are so at odds when it comes to discussions about gay and lesbians in the church. One group has been pushed out and the other group has is unsure of what it is that keep us all afloat. That is a legitimate concern. And yet, the only way to become a community of hope is to walk together through this great gap that is between us.
Both side, as Brueggemann suggests, seem to be wounded. The wounds may be different but we are still wounded people who long for the saving grace of our God to establish this blessed Home. In the present, it is difficult for some people to see how we can be the Church if we make changes in regard to who can be among us - especially if it changes the way we have walked for so long. Then again, even after a long period of time, we must remember that God's Reign continues to unfold and become known to us in new ways that keep us grounded in this God who gathers and call us out into a new dimension of life that is not a mere reflection of the world and its powers as they go on their way. We live in a community that needs this tension...a tension that demand honesty, faithfulness, and a love that is generated from our God who saves us - all.
Connection: So we must remember that there are two side...at least two sides. The day will be filled with two or more sides. All sides are longing for life. What we must look at today is whether life is grasped at the expense of the "other" or is this life something we all work toward together.
Come, O Lord of All Life. Come and help us to face our fears and everything that attempts to break us down and separate us. When we come up with the best reasons for excluding the other side, draw us into the vision of your love and remind us to walk prayerfully forward into this day. Amen.
He continues by setting up this important notion of the reality of exile and how the "homegrown props of established society are now largely gone"....and "that reality of loss generates enormous, amorphous anxiety among us.
Thus, I propose that the church is now God's agent for gathering exiles of which I can think immediately of two groups. First, there are those exiles who have been made exiles by the force of our society, those who are rejected, ostracized, and labeled as outsiders. This, of course, includes the poor, and inevitably we would also think in one way or another of gays and lesbians. We have and exile-producing culture that displaces some folk who are variously visible and vocal among us. But second, after the obviously excluded, I suggest that the category of "exile" also include those whom the world may judge normal, conventional, establishment types. For the truth is that the large failure of old values and old institutions causes many people to experience themselves as displaced people...anxious, under threat, vigilant, ill at ease, and so in pursuit of safety and stability and well-being that is not on the horizons of contemporary society. It is not obvious among us how the dream of well-being can come to fruition among us.
Wow. When he throws the net out in order to bring folk home, he throws it out. This second group of people is one of the best ways of describing the anxiety and fear within our society and church. For many reasons, some folks have been left behind and unable to deal with how we are moving into the present and setting our eyes on the dreams of a new age of grace. It is not wonder that we are so at odds when it comes to discussions about gay and lesbians in the church. One group has been pushed out and the other group has is unsure of what it is that keep us all afloat. That is a legitimate concern. And yet, the only way to become a community of hope is to walk together through this great gap that is between us.
Both side, as Brueggemann suggests, seem to be wounded. The wounds may be different but we are still wounded people who long for the saving grace of our God to establish this blessed Home. In the present, it is difficult for some people to see how we can be the Church if we make changes in regard to who can be among us - especially if it changes the way we have walked for so long. Then again, even after a long period of time, we must remember that God's Reign continues to unfold and become known to us in new ways that keep us grounded in this God who gathers and call us out into a new dimension of life that is not a mere reflection of the world and its powers as they go on their way. We live in a community that needs this tension...a tension that demand honesty, faithfulness, and a love that is generated from our God who saves us - all.
Connection: So we must remember that there are two side...at least two sides. The day will be filled with two or more sides. All sides are longing for life. What we must look at today is whether life is grasped at the expense of the "other" or is this life something we all work toward together.
Come, O Lord of All Life. Come and help us to face our fears and everything that attempts to break us down and separate us. When we come up with the best reasons for excluding the other side, draw us into the vision of your love and remind us to walk prayerfully forward into this day. Amen.
Friday 8 June 2007
In dealing with the situation of the Jewish Exiles coming home to Jerusalem from Babylon, Walter Brueggemann uses Isaiah to offer us a word about welcome. He will have five accent points to help us consider our own thinking about the future of the church. I will spend a few days on #1.
The problem that the dispute addresses is the reality of exile, the pain of deportation, and the acute sense of displacement.
(The dispute is between those who have been in exile in Babylon, those who remained in Jerusalem, and those who were deported to other places. Now they must deal with their differences as a people who are called to be one.)
Here are the words of God in Isaiah (56:8)
Thus says the Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel,
I will gather others to them besides those already gathered.
The God present to the dispute is the God who gathers. The term "gather," a technical term for ending exile, is used in the verse three times...The statement is a disclosure of the intention of God who wills that all should be gather home to well-being.
There will be no more separation. It does not matter where you have been. It does not matter what has gone on in your live previously. This God of our - gathers...puts an end to the displacement and separation and all the places considered privileged and those considered worthless. Our God gathers. What we hear from God in Isaiah is a voice that does not care about the good, sound thinking of those on any side of this dispute. Yes, they all have their own voices and those in power tend to be able to make the most of their thoughts. And yet, the only voice that brings a vision and a word of hope is the word of God announcing the way God will be gathering.
A person may be able to come up with good reasons why someone is to be shunned or put to the back of the bus...but they do not fly within this Reign of God. The only place that this kind of life together is able to take place is where God sets it up - according to God's standards. It is God's will that all will come home. There are to be no road blocks put in front of anyone. God wills that all God's people -no matter what the situation may be- will come home.
There are many reasons to want to maintain control of who is in and who must be kept out. It is also important to some that there would be a way that those unlike us would have to go through some type of experience in order to come home. But this God of ours who opens up the lips of Isaiah is the God who proclaims the reality of home for all - a gift - a mandate - a blessed reality...in spite of what we would argue is best for us.
Connection: It is so easy to gloss over the differences that must have existed in the middle of these disputes...so way back in time. Scripture brings us an ancient voice and sometimes we keep it out there at a distance. Then again, who is in and who is out...who is like us and who is different - becomes the agenda of every day. Constantly, we must remember how God's will to bring us all home shapes how we go about the everyday routines we run through along the way.
Come, O God, and unite all who are separated. Remind us of your will to have us all gathered into your Reign and to be made well and whole within your sweet home ruled by your love and your wisdom and your gracious law. Come, Lord God, Come, and inspire our living. Amen.
The problem that the dispute addresses is the reality of exile, the pain of deportation, and the acute sense of displacement.
(The dispute is between those who have been in exile in Babylon, those who remained in Jerusalem, and those who were deported to other places. Now they must deal with their differences as a people who are called to be one.)
Here are the words of God in Isaiah (56:8)
Thus says the Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel,
I will gather others to them besides those already gathered.
The God present to the dispute is the God who gathers. The term "gather," a technical term for ending exile, is used in the verse three times...The statement is a disclosure of the intention of God who wills that all should be gather home to well-being.
There will be no more separation. It does not matter where you have been. It does not matter what has gone on in your live previously. This God of our - gathers...puts an end to the displacement and separation and all the places considered privileged and those considered worthless. Our God gathers. What we hear from God in Isaiah is a voice that does not care about the good, sound thinking of those on any side of this dispute. Yes, they all have their own voices and those in power tend to be able to make the most of their thoughts. And yet, the only voice that brings a vision and a word of hope is the word of God announcing the way God will be gathering.
A person may be able to come up with good reasons why someone is to be shunned or put to the back of the bus...but they do not fly within this Reign of God. The only place that this kind of life together is able to take place is where God sets it up - according to God's standards. It is God's will that all will come home. There are to be no road blocks put in front of anyone. God wills that all God's people -no matter what the situation may be- will come home.
There are many reasons to want to maintain control of who is in and who must be kept out. It is also important to some that there would be a way that those unlike us would have to go through some type of experience in order to come home. But this God of ours who opens up the lips of Isaiah is the God who proclaims the reality of home for all - a gift - a mandate - a blessed reality...in spite of what we would argue is best for us.
Connection: It is so easy to gloss over the differences that must have existed in the middle of these disputes...so way back in time. Scripture brings us an ancient voice and sometimes we keep it out there at a distance. Then again, who is in and who is out...who is like us and who is different - becomes the agenda of every day. Constantly, we must remember how God's will to bring us all home shapes how we go about the everyday routines we run through along the way.
Come, O God, and unite all who are separated. Remind us of your will to have us all gathered into your Reign and to be made well and whole within your sweet home ruled by your love and your wisdom and your gracious law. Come, Lord God, Come, and inspire our living. Amen.
Thursday 7 June 2007
Today we will enter the chapter "A Welcome for the Others" in "Mandate to Difference" by Walter Brueggemann.
This chapter uses as one primary text, Isaiah 56. It deals with the exiles in Babylon coming back to the city of Jerusalem. It is filled with hope and the reality at hand.
As they approached the future in the city, the returning Jews from exile immediately entered into dispute, a contest between various notion of the future. One claim in the dispute had to do with the constitution of the community. They asked who in fact now constitutes Israel, the restored community of the people of God. And that question pressed them to ponder, "Who is in and who must be excluded?" The people who undertook that dispute, moreover, were those who returned from exile and to Persian auspices. They are the ones labeled, in current scholarship, "the urban elites" who monopolized power and who thereby had the capacity to define the community and its constituents.
I find it important that the question that is held up here is the negative one. It is not "Who is to be included." That was not the issue. There were strong feelings about "them" and "us." It seems we always base the future of the world on what goes with me. It also looks like the elites of a society are the ones who have the ability to define who is in and who is to be out. It is in situations like this and in our own day that the voice of prophets must be lifted up. We will spend time looking at the words of the prophets within the next week. For now, it is important to take a look at how we "define the community and its constituents." We all do it - even if it is simply the community that is most closely drawn into our lives. This can be and is something as basic as family. The need to protect and care and help those who are like us and close to us is so very real to each of us. This is the primary piece of our lives that we consider when we look out into the future. How do we keep them safe? This question is often set within a world that is filled with "them." I just finished writing a short article about living together faithfully in the midst of our disagreements. This assumes that we are not all alike and we do not all agree on what is to be. I have found that it is most difficult for people to expand the circle of the community when there is anxiety about what could happen to my own - even if the speculation has no basis in fact or experience. It is at that point that we begin to see what we are willing to do to placate our anxiety. It is often a picture of projections and judgements that are not grounded in real life community. Rather than set up community with everyone inside so that we can actually live through life together and find out what is the truth about who we are, it is easier to exclude...shut the doors...keep our own close and untouched by others.
Connection: There are so many ways to open up the doors of our lives. Every time we do it, it is a risk - that is life. And yet, in that risk within even the smallest exchanges, we begin to have our world view opened. The risk is that we put ourselves out there and may be rejected. We also may find that there are some folk with whom we would rather not spend much time. All in all, we can still be a part of the same community.
O Lord who Gather Us In, you make us a people in your image and we long to have your love be the light of our life together. When we are afraid of this brilliant vision of life, be our courage and helps us open the doors or walk through into a new experience of the fullness of your Reign. Amen.
This chapter uses as one primary text, Isaiah 56. It deals with the exiles in Babylon coming back to the city of Jerusalem. It is filled with hope and the reality at hand.
As they approached the future in the city, the returning Jews from exile immediately entered into dispute, a contest between various notion of the future. One claim in the dispute had to do with the constitution of the community. They asked who in fact now constitutes Israel, the restored community of the people of God. And that question pressed them to ponder, "Who is in and who must be excluded?" The people who undertook that dispute, moreover, were those who returned from exile and to Persian auspices. They are the ones labeled, in current scholarship, "the urban elites" who monopolized power and who thereby had the capacity to define the community and its constituents.
I find it important that the question that is held up here is the negative one. It is not "Who is to be included." That was not the issue. There were strong feelings about "them" and "us." It seems we always base the future of the world on what goes with me. It also looks like the elites of a society are the ones who have the ability to define who is in and who is to be out. It is in situations like this and in our own day that the voice of prophets must be lifted up. We will spend time looking at the words of the prophets within the next week. For now, it is important to take a look at how we "define the community and its constituents." We all do it - even if it is simply the community that is most closely drawn into our lives. This can be and is something as basic as family. The need to protect and care and help those who are like us and close to us is so very real to each of us. This is the primary piece of our lives that we consider when we look out into the future. How do we keep them safe? This question is often set within a world that is filled with "them." I just finished writing a short article about living together faithfully in the midst of our disagreements. This assumes that we are not all alike and we do not all agree on what is to be. I have found that it is most difficult for people to expand the circle of the community when there is anxiety about what could happen to my own - even if the speculation has no basis in fact or experience. It is at that point that we begin to see what we are willing to do to placate our anxiety. It is often a picture of projections and judgements that are not grounded in real life community. Rather than set up community with everyone inside so that we can actually live through life together and find out what is the truth about who we are, it is easier to exclude...shut the doors...keep our own close and untouched by others.
Connection: There are so many ways to open up the doors of our lives. Every time we do it, it is a risk - that is life. And yet, in that risk within even the smallest exchanges, we begin to have our world view opened. The risk is that we put ourselves out there and may be rejected. We also may find that there are some folk with whom we would rather not spend much time. All in all, we can still be a part of the same community.
O Lord who Gather Us In, you make us a people in your image and we long to have your love be the light of our life together. When we are afraid of this brilliant vision of life, be our courage and helps us open the doors or walk through into a new experience of the fullness of your Reign. Amen.
Monday, June 4, 2007
Wednesday 6 June 2007
We will end this section on Sabbath with a short chapter ending note directed to all who live by the promise of this rest we are handed by our Lord.
As you come to the table, expect yourself to be subverted by abundance, and by freedom and by truth and by hope...
This is God's gift. This is the reality of the Reign of God when we also live within the world of the powers that attempt to reign over us. We we come to the table of the Lord's Supper, we are taking part in the subversive Reign that becomes more than just a meal. It becomes for us - our life. Within this life we can be assured in all times that there will be enough - for our God is one who fills lives to overflowing. Does this mean "cash" is coming our way? No. It means our God of abundance, who creates all things -even when there appears to be nothing from which anything can be made- will provide for life that will bring rest and satisfy our wounded lives. It is within the promise of that abundance that we experience freedom from those "brick yards" of oppression that always attempt to reestablish themselves over us. When we are certain of God's gift of life, our lives and our tongues and our actions are set free to live as though there is one Lord, one God. Out of this present Reign, we are then able to walk out into a future of promise that bids us to come and rest - come and live. This simply may be a symbolic meal to some. And yet, for me, it is the promise alive and the life available and the community ready to live together through all things.
Connection: As this day goes on the way it usually moves, remember that we have come from a table that sets up life in a new way and in a new order. From that position of hope, live!
Lord of the Table of Life, we are moved by your love and we leap into your future already aware of how you shape what will be. Grant us the courage to abide within the promises of your Reign. Amen.
As you come to the table, expect yourself to be subverted by abundance, and by freedom and by truth and by hope...
This is God's gift. This is the reality of the Reign of God when we also live within the world of the powers that attempt to reign over us. We we come to the table of the Lord's Supper, we are taking part in the subversive Reign that becomes more than just a meal. It becomes for us - our life. Within this life we can be assured in all times that there will be enough - for our God is one who fills lives to overflowing. Does this mean "cash" is coming our way? No. It means our God of abundance, who creates all things -even when there appears to be nothing from which anything can be made- will provide for life that will bring rest and satisfy our wounded lives. It is within the promise of that abundance that we experience freedom from those "brick yards" of oppression that always attempt to reestablish themselves over us. When we are certain of God's gift of life, our lives and our tongues and our actions are set free to live as though there is one Lord, one God. Out of this present Reign, we are then able to walk out into a future of promise that bids us to come and rest - come and live. This simply may be a symbolic meal to some. And yet, for me, it is the promise alive and the life available and the community ready to live together through all things.
Connection: As this day goes on the way it usually moves, remember that we have come from a table that sets up life in a new way and in a new order. From that position of hope, live!
Lord of the Table of Life, we are moved by your love and we leap into your future already aware of how you shape what will be. Grant us the courage to abide within the promises of your Reign. Amen.
Tuesday 5 June 2007
Once again we will use Walter Brueggeman's comments about sabbath.
Sabbath - actual, concrete, visible, regular discipleship - is a sign. It signifies an alternative life. It is an invitation to get our public performance in sync with our inner selves so that there is no need be no gnashing of teeth or self-hatred or sense of failure. But it is more than public and personal congruity; sabbath is an invitation to get our public performance and our personal brooding both in sync together with our true self in the Gospel:
To come to trust in assured abundance that characterizes our creation;
To embrace freedom that is given that our culture resists.
I not sure when and how we arrive at this vitally important time - this sabbath rest that renews our mind and our spirit. I do know that it is so important to kkeeping me in touch with what is noted here as "our true self in the Gospel." I do know that setting aside a specific time as a "sabbath" time is not always the way to move into this space and this life. Set aside times, can often be nothing more than time that does not refresh and refocus and renew. I think about the times I go to read on a Sunday afternoon. I do it to relax or to be challenged or to be taken up into another realm of thinking about my life.
Sometimes I sit at the coffee shop and simply fall asleep...going over the same paragraph or sentence...again...and...again...and... Trying to force a time to serve as a sabbath time in the way I want it to be sabbath time seems to contradict the very spirit available in such a gift of time.
Then again, I remember a grown man talking about his mother when she would go to worship. She worked a long week. In worship she fell asleep - every week. At her funeral he acknowledged that he was embarrassed of her sleeping. He then said he learned that this was just what a gracious God would accept. God would not care that she was sleeping. In fact, I recall thinking about Jesus urging those who are heavy burdened to come and rest in him. She did...and her son "got it."
Within the Reign of God we are offered this time to rest and to be assured of how the abundance of our God's creation allows us to rest and sleep and dream and imagine. All this takes place in contrast to a world that pushes for precise logic and patterns and strategic plans for success as it is defined by the ways of our world.
Connection: We all need some time to enter into a forgiving and life-respecting rest so that we will be able to experience how God grants us vision and pulls us into God's hopeful Reign. Let yourself rest and review all things.
Blessed Lord of Vision and Hopefulness, it is by your assurance that we can let go and begin to experience the wide open and welcoming arms that you extend to us so that we can enter the peace of your promised Reign and then walk out into this world in your name. We give you thanks. Amen.
Sabbath - actual, concrete, visible, regular discipleship - is a sign. It signifies an alternative life. It is an invitation to get our public performance in sync with our inner selves so that there is no need be no gnashing of teeth or self-hatred or sense of failure. But it is more than public and personal congruity; sabbath is an invitation to get our public performance and our personal brooding both in sync together with our true self in the Gospel:
To come to trust in assured abundance that characterizes our creation;
To embrace freedom that is given that our culture resists.
I not sure when and how we arrive at this vitally important time - this sabbath rest that renews our mind and our spirit. I do know that it is so important to kkeeping me in touch with what is noted here as "our true self in the Gospel." I do know that setting aside a specific time as a "sabbath" time is not always the way to move into this space and this life. Set aside times, can often be nothing more than time that does not refresh and refocus and renew. I think about the times I go to read on a Sunday afternoon. I do it to relax or to be challenged or to be taken up into another realm of thinking about my life.
Sometimes I sit at the coffee shop and simply fall asleep...going over the same paragraph or sentence...again...and...again...and... Trying to force a time to serve as a sabbath time in the way I want it to be sabbath time seems to contradict the very spirit available in such a gift of time.
Then again, I remember a grown man talking about his mother when she would go to worship. She worked a long week. In worship she fell asleep - every week. At her funeral he acknowledged that he was embarrassed of her sleeping. He then said he learned that this was just what a gracious God would accept. God would not care that she was sleeping. In fact, I recall thinking about Jesus urging those who are heavy burdened to come and rest in him. She did...and her son "got it."
Within the Reign of God we are offered this time to rest and to be assured of how the abundance of our God's creation allows us to rest and sleep and dream and imagine. All this takes place in contrast to a world that pushes for precise logic and patterns and strategic plans for success as it is defined by the ways of our world.
Connection: We all need some time to enter into a forgiving and life-respecting rest so that we will be able to experience how God grants us vision and pulls us into God's hopeful Reign. Let yourself rest and review all things.
Blessed Lord of Vision and Hopefulness, it is by your assurance that we can let go and begin to experience the wide open and welcoming arms that you extend to us so that we can enter the peace of your promised Reign and then walk out into this world in your name. We give you thanks. Amen.
Sunday, June 3, 2007
Monday 4 June 2007
Today is another one of those texts that can help us all to live in the midst of hope even when there appears to be evidence that we can stake a claim in that wondrous life - from "Mandate to Difference"- Walter Brueggemann
Take sabbath rest by taking a break from our contradicted life of silenced coercion. A you tell the truth that breaks denial, so become a "hope-teller" that breaks the spell of despair. Do you imagine, as many do, that there is no way out of our moral morass, our ideological fantasies, our burden of a world mismanaged and irreversible? Do you imagine a church so preoccupied with ideological passion that it has no energy for mission and leaves you weary and without hope? Well, take a sabbath rest and become hope-teller, a poet of "assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." Take a sabbath from despair by the staggering truth that Christ is risen and that creation surges with the Easter power of new life that God is now giving.
Telling the truth demands that we begin to speak. We are invited to "break from our contradicted life of silenced coercion." That break happens when we step up and speak up. In some ways, it is like a sabbath rest. To speak up and witness to the truth rather than being coerced in the silence that kills is to step out of that silence and begin to be refreshed within a domain of hope and renewal. We take a rest from the work of the world when we take part in the life on the sabbath. Well, we also can take a rest from the world of silence that goes along with the ways and coercive powers of the world. We do not have to live as though we must pledge allegiance to any power that attempts to rule by coercions and fear. Sabbath rest from such a life means that we resist what is. The rest -within that resistance- is that we do not put up with its definition of life...we do not remain in the prisons of despair that is ruled by a story that does not allow us to imagine a different way or a new life. Sabbath rest, gives us the space to dream and imagine and hope...and then we are ready to live within our world with a voice. That voice comes because we have experienced an atmosphere of life in which we are not beaten down in an attempt to keep things as they are. Sabbath rest is the beginning of all hopefulness. I simply would say it happens because we give ourselves the time and space to let our minds wander and wonder without limits. Out of that expansive world of sabbath rest, the boxes in which we often live our lives begin to collapse because we have come to see that they are not necessary to keep our lives together.
Connection: I would say rest. No only that...dream. It would be my bet that if we would rest, we would dream. There is no work involved in such a time. We may regain some energy for living and find that we have a spark for life that we did not let ourselves see.
Lord of Life, as you ignite our lives by your Spirit, encourage us to stop and listen and feel the breeze of your Spirit. Guide us so that we may be moved by your Reign and step aside from the rushing lanes of a world trying to move ahead of itself. We long for the rest you promise and the hope that revives us - even now. Amen.
Take sabbath rest by taking a break from our contradicted life of silenced coercion. A you tell the truth that breaks denial, so become a "hope-teller" that breaks the spell of despair. Do you imagine, as many do, that there is no way out of our moral morass, our ideological fantasies, our burden of a world mismanaged and irreversible? Do you imagine a church so preoccupied with ideological passion that it has no energy for mission and leaves you weary and without hope? Well, take a sabbath rest and become hope-teller, a poet of "assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." Take a sabbath from despair by the staggering truth that Christ is risen and that creation surges with the Easter power of new life that God is now giving.
Telling the truth demands that we begin to speak. We are invited to "break from our contradicted life of silenced coercion." That break happens when we step up and speak up. In some ways, it is like a sabbath rest. To speak up and witness to the truth rather than being coerced in the silence that kills is to step out of that silence and begin to be refreshed within a domain of hope and renewal. We take a rest from the work of the world when we take part in the life on the sabbath. Well, we also can take a rest from the world of silence that goes along with the ways and coercive powers of the world. We do not have to live as though we must pledge allegiance to any power that attempts to rule by coercions and fear. Sabbath rest from such a life means that we resist what is. The rest -within that resistance- is that we do not put up with its definition of life...we do not remain in the prisons of despair that is ruled by a story that does not allow us to imagine a different way or a new life. Sabbath rest, gives us the space to dream and imagine and hope...and then we are ready to live within our world with a voice. That voice comes because we have experienced an atmosphere of life in which we are not beaten down in an attempt to keep things as they are. Sabbath rest is the beginning of all hopefulness. I simply would say it happens because we give ourselves the time and space to let our minds wander and wonder without limits. Out of that expansive world of sabbath rest, the boxes in which we often live our lives begin to collapse because we have come to see that they are not necessary to keep our lives together.
Connection: I would say rest. No only that...dream. It would be my bet that if we would rest, we would dream. There is no work involved in such a time. We may regain some energy for living and find that we have a spark for life that we did not let ourselves see.
Lord of Life, as you ignite our lives by your Spirit, encourage us to stop and listen and feel the breeze of your Spirit. Guide us so that we may be moved by your Reign and step aside from the rushing lanes of a world trying to move ahead of itself. We long for the rest you promise and the hope that revives us - even now. Amen.
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