Words Twice a Week 5.26
Ok – a few things to note before we get started.
1) I need to get back to doing both segments of Words Twice a Week – I am missing too many days! Just a few days ago, May 24, was both Bob Dylan’s birthday and Aldersgate Day, which is a big deal for Methodists, United Methodists, “Global Methodists”, and more. On that day, John Wesley “went most unwillingly to a meeting in Aldersgate Street, where while one was reading from Luther’s Preface to the Letter to the Romans, I felt my heart strangely warmed.” Really, Luther, and Romans, sounds like a yawn fest to me, but it did it (and the Holy Spirit) did it for Wesley. His brother Charles had had a similar experience a few days earlier, and out of that came “O For A Thousand Tongues to Sing”. So – big event.
Then way back in the Email a Day time, we wrote “poems with Emily (Dickinson)”. Here’s Emily’s, and the fill in the blank form, and one that came in with the initials “BD”?
It's all I have to bring today—
This, and my heart beside—
This, and my heart, and all the fields—
And all the meadows wide—
Be sure you count—should I forget
Some one the sum could tell—
This, and my heart, and all the Bees
Which in the Clover dwell.
It's all I have to bring today
This, and _____________ beside
This, and ________________________
And all _______________ wide
Be sure you count___________________ -
Some one ____________ could tell,
This, and _______________, and all the _________
Which ________________ dwell.
It’s all I have to bring today,
This, and my brand new leopard-skin pill-box hat beside
this and what’s blowin’ in the wind
and all ‘white dove seas’ wide
be sure you count the times that change
some one, where are you tonight Sweet Marie, could tell
this and a trip upon your magic swirling ship and all the songs
which young forever dwell
2) Frederick Buechner had this piece on “threadbare language” – about how the words Christians use – grace, love, forgiveness, etc., have just been bandied about for so many years that they have become worn-out and loose their meaning. He goes on to say that he keeps using them because they point to something so important. Anyway, I had two thoughts from that – first, here we are with another week from the Farewell Discourse, Jesus says “love one another”, Jesus says “I go to prepare a place for you”, Jesus says “Whatever you ask”,…...and I’m afraid it almost starts to get to “blah, blah, blah” for me, and I drift over to the Revelations or Acts. Just that we have heard them so often. We know what Jesus said. Well, secondly, I’m just getting so tired of all the “thoughts and prayers and hearts” that surface every time one of these mass shootings happens. Somehow the acid test would be if we all got up each morning and prayed “Dear God, keep us from shooting up another elementary school today” instead of waiting until it happens again. Well -
3) One more item – our son Christopher is in Cincinnati starting a 10 month stretch with Habitat for Humanity through Americorps, and I would have to say I am more proud of what he is doing than I am of anything I’ve done in my 75 years! I don’t mind praying “Dear God, bless him and the work he is doing.”
Ok – a few thoughts on some of the lectionary texts for this Sunday, Seventh (and last!) of Easter, although that’s not quite right – Easter goes on forever! Alleluia!
Acts 16:16-34
+ the second (the girl) and third (the jailer) stories of Paul in Philippi, after Lydia.
+ note Luke (the “we” of 16.11) has apparently bailed out. Or is this story out of place? Note the RSV says “As we were going…” NRSV says “One day, as we were going...”
+ the slave girl who was a soothsayer. Well, who or what have we “made use of” for profit, in our rise to power and well-being? If Paul took that away, how would we respond? If Paul said we had a systematic privilege and should pay reparations, how would we respond?
+ why is Paul annoyed? Is the girl just a nuisance, even if she is accurate and it would seem useful in drawing a crowd? Or it is a question of the girl being enslaved by demon/spirit? Demon possession was serious, even if it didn’t seem immediately harmful. Does the gospel confront demon/spirit, or does the gospel confront capitalism? Hmmm….
+ note this is not a conversion story – we hear nothing about the girl.
+ but her “owners” are upset.
+ “unlawful customs”? More likely just a trumped up charge.
+ the magistrates beat them and throw them in jail and Paul doesn’t say – “Hey, wait a minute, we’re Romans”?”
+ and the earthquake. And then “My chains fell off, my heart was free; I rose, went forth, and followed thee!” (And Can It Be)
+ So how did Paul know the jailer was going to kill himself, how did he know the other prisoners were all there still, how did the jailer hear Paul? All beside the point! Which is – an ironic twist where those who are imprisoned are really free, and those who are free are really imprisoned. Where are you in this story? Where/when do you fell free? Where/when do you feel imprisoned?
+ and the lesson ends with v34, but the story goes on to vs40. The magistrates tell them to move along. Now Paul points out that they are in fact Romans, and so the magistrates apologize and ask them politely to leave! “One way or another, we want you gone!” Do we sometimes want the bearers of good news out of our lives?
Psalm 97
+ starts off with a “theophany” – God’s power shown in battering the earth. (vs1-5).
+ then the heavens and all the peoples respond (vs6)
+ then the gods (?) respond (vs7)
+ then God’s people respond (vs8-9)
+ finally, readers/hearers of every generation are called to respond.
+ God guards the lives of the faithful, rescues them from the hand of the wicked. Really? I understand that there are things to consider – who is innocent, faithful, wicked? And how does God guard and rescue? But even so, after the events of the past few weeks – really?
+ righteousness and justice are woven into the very fabric of Creation (vs2). When they are not heeded, Creation itself starts to unravel. Note Ps 82.5! Is that what is going on today?
+ the importance of being in the room when God sits on the throne (seems like that is what is going on here) – righteousness as sacrament, not as action?
+ how are we, as God’s people, doing at being in tune with Creation.
Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21
+ without looking, what are vs15, 18, and 19 about and why does the lectionary skip over them, “protect us” from them? Ok – now you can look! Dualism – the good and the bad – is a crucial part of apocalyptic (end-time) literature. What do we loose by skipping these verses? Then the word from the Sandy Hook mother on NPR the other day – “there are only two kinds of people – good people and good people who are hurting.” Apocalyptic thinking would like to just “wipe out the bad” but life is not that simple.
+ starts and ends with “I am coming soon”. (vs21 is kind of an epilogue to the whole book.)
+ I am coming to repay – again, doesn’t sound like grace, sounds like “fair warning”. (Was that Buechner? I don’t know.)
+ Alpha/omega, first/last, beginning/end. Apocalyptic is about time, yes, but not about predictions of time and events (ie, the delay!), it is about the certainty that the God who was/is there before the beginning is/will be there after the end. And that God is there someplace in every event? Maybe?
+ “those who washed their robes” – Have you been to Jesus, are your garments spotless, are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
+ vs16 – He’s the lily of the valley, he’s the bright and morning star….
+ Come to the city where the Lamb is the light...taste of the tree and the river of life...
We-re having a veritable hymnsing!!!
+ vs18 – “don’t add or subtract!” Interesting that there are two footnotes about additions and subtractions!!
John 17:20-26
+ the end of the farewell discourse and the priestly prayer – in vs1-5 Jesus returns to glory, in 6-19 he prays for the disciples, now in 20-26 he prays for those who will hear – hey, that’s us!!
+ he prays for unity. What’s that look like in our day? Are protestants and catholics one? Episcopalians and Assembly of God folks? What does it mean to “be one”? AS individuals, who are you “one with”?
+ and it’s all laced through And held together with love. So if you just love does it matter why? Does it matter who/what you know? At least it’s forward looking, not trying to put a patch on what happened yesterday!
+ it serves a greater purpose, so that the world will know. What does our disunity say? Does that maybe have something to do with why more and more young people are unsure about the church, even the faith? Where do you see churches working together/being one today?
+ the Father-Son relationship is clear. What about the Father-Spirit? What about the Spirit-Son. Fortunately we’ve got Trinity Sunday coming up to sort all that out!
Then here’s a thought from Beverly Wildung Harrison (?) on connection, being one -
Our knowledge of God is in and through each other. Our knowledge of each other is in and through God. We act together and find our good in each other and in God, and our power grows together, or we deny our relations and reproduce a violent world where no one experiences holy power.
That – and a brand new leopardskin pillbox hat - is what I got for now…..
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