Grieving-Believing-Perceiving September Worship Series

Grieving-Believing-Perceiving

Series Anchor: the image above

Frames: Grieving, Believing, Perceiving

Thread:

September 9—Grieving

The time of grieving is already upon us. Leonard Sweet tells us that the generations of those who are middle-aged or older (baby boomers, builders, and more and more even Gen X-ers) have become immigrants in our own land. We no longer speak the native language.

The image that came to my mind when I think of the situation of the Church is that of a family working desperately to keep the beloved old jalopy running. The floor boards are rusting through, the gauges no longer register. They don’t even make replacement parts any more. But those difficulties notwithstanding, they will work tirelessly to keep the flivver sputtering along. The problem we face is not just keeping the car running. The fact of the matter is that even if it runs, the coming generations do not want to get into that rusty, smelly, clunky old car. The new native generations have different values. They want to drive their own kind of vehicles, not make-do with ours.

And so we grieve the beloved old car. We cherish the memories of kisses stolen in the back seat, of the family vacations, the driver’s licenses earned driving this faithful steed. But we are faced with a time when we must decide whether we will devote our limited resources to keeping the rust at bay and hoping the belts don’t break, or if it is time instead to look toward investing in new transportation. Even when the need is apparent, it is heart-rending to call the tow-truck and let the wrecker taker it away.

Matthew 23:37-24:2

‘Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you, desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of God.”’

As Jesus came out of the temple and was going away, his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple. Then he asked them, ‘You see all these, do you not? Truly I tell you, not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.’

Jeremiah 8: 18-22

My joy is gone, grief is upon me,

my heart is sick.

Hark, the cry of my poor people

from far and wide in the land:

‘Is the Lord not in Zion?

Is her King not in her?’

(‘Why have they provoked me to anger with their images,

with their foreign idols?’)

‘The harvest is past, the summer is ended,

and we are not saved.’

For the hurt of my poor people I am hurt,

I mourn, and dismay has taken hold of me.

Is there no balm in Gilead?

Is there no physician there?

Why then has the health of my poor people

not been restored?

September 16— Believing

The solid ground of John Dorhauer’s “Believing” section is to remind us what the real values we must hold on to are. To use the image above, it is the road we travel upon that is of ultimate importance, not the means of transportation we take. For us in the UCC, that way is incarnated in the ongoing testament of a still-speaking God, and in the extravagant welcome of all travelers upon this road. It is the Way of Jesus that we are on, not the way of the Church. This road takes us into a hurting and tearful world that needs to hear our proclamation of welcome and renewal. There are many ways of traveling upon this road (even as there are parallel routes and other highways that God is guiding people upon). It is the traveling, not the method of traveling that is our ultimate calling.

John 14:1-7

“Don’t let your hearts be troubled.

You have faith in God; have faith in me as well. In God’s house there are many dwelling places; otherwise, how could I have told you that I was going to prepare a place for you? I am indeed going to prepare a place for you, and then I will come back to take you with me, that where I am there you may be as well. You know the way that leads to where I am going.” Thomas replied, “But we don’t know where you’re going. How can we know the way?” Jesus told him, “I myself am the way—I am Truth, and I am Life. No one comes to Abba God but through me. If you really knew me, you would know Abba God also. From this point on, you know Abba God and you have seen God.

September 23— Perceiving

Who are the prophets and mystics in our midst? I chose an image of a spaceship from the scifi series “Firefly” to embody this idea. Just as the designer of the old Ford might have no concept of a means to travel between the stars, there are those visionaries who can imagine it. Science fiction visionaries have cast their visions upon the waters of our culture and drawn us into many transformations. While I don’t think that the Firefly ship is an accurate representation of what star travel may eventually be like, it is precisely the ability to dream that we need to take us into an unformed future. This is the time to dream, to listen, and to watch. The prophet Isaiah brings this same word in the midst of the interminable exile: I am doing a new thing, do you not perceive it? We never will until we are ready and willing to dream of a time of homecoming and restoration.

Isaiah 43: 18-20

Do not remember the former things,

or consider the things of old.

I am about to do a new thing;

now it Springs forth, do you not perceive it?

I will make a way in the wilderness

and rivers in the desert.

The wild animals will honor me,

the jackals and the ostriches;

for I give water in the wilderness,

rivers in the desert,

to give drink to my chosen people.

Highlights from John Dorhauer’s Annual Meeting Address

Prologue

            I. Be prepared to fail and fail often

                        1. the paradigm has shifted

                        2. we need to take the kind of risks that others are unwilling to take

                        3. in so doing we will fail, but we will learn important lessons

            II. We bring the gift of experimentation

                        1. We are risk-takers

We have three major tasks in this time: Grieving – Believing – Perceiving

Grieving

            I. There is and will be plenty to grieve about

                        1. Churches are closing

                        2. Churches are struggling financially

                        3. Pastors are losing benefits, salaries, and even their employment

                        4. This pattern will only continue in the future

            II. This is nothing short of a second Reformation in our time

1. The models, structures, and ways of being church which have fed the missional life of the church for the last 500 years cannot sustain that mission in the coming 500 years

2. Those coming behind us (who faith will be kept alive by the Holy Spirit} will no longer look to the structures and institutions and ways of being church that we know in order to feed their missional zeal.

III. This is not to be feared

            1. Trust the power and movement of the Holy Spirit

            2. God’s Spirit has not abandoned any of us

Believing

            I. We need to shift away from answering these kinds of questions:

                        1.”How do we preserve the institutional identity of the UCC?”

                        2. “How do we preserve the institutional identity of our local church?”

3. “How do we maintain a budget that affords us and allows us the opportunity to sustain a called, ordained pastor, a building and property?”

            II. We need to ask this question:

1. “How does the unique proclamation of the Gospel owned and claimed by the UCC continue to be proclaimed in such a way that lives are transformed?”

III. The unique nature of our Gospel proclamation

1. Michael Kinnamon (General Secretary of the National Council of Churches)  says: “Denominations exist in order to perpetuate an aspect of the Gospel  that without that denomination would be imperiled of extinction or diminishment.”

2. Claiming our UCC core values:

            a. The continuing testament of a still-speaking God

            b. An extravagant welcome that believes “no matter who you are or where you are on life’s journey, you are welcome here”

            c. believing these 2 core values still have the power to change and transform lives

            d. the proclamation of the embodiment of God’s justice and love is what we are called to maintain

3. Our focus is on our fundamental belief and core values, making sure that what we do and the resources we steward are used to perpetuate that aspect of the Gospel that without the UCC is in danger of extinction or diminishment

Perceiving

I. Practice perceiving, discerning, slowing down, stepping back, and looking forward

            1. Trusting that where the Spirit moves we will follow

2. It is time to call for the shamans and spiritual directors whose way of perceiving has not often been valued in the life of the church

                        a. when they speak we shall ever and again be willing to take some risks

                        b. being prepared to fail and fail often

Gardening in the Desert Week 4 - Harvest

Series Title: Gardening in the Desert

Anchor Image:  Gardening in the Desert (get some videos at the Desert botanical Gardens?)

Threads:  Isaiah 58:11

GOD will always guide you,

    giving relief in a sun-scorched land,

    and giving strength to your bones.

    You will be like a well-watered garden,

    like a spring whose waters never fail.

Each week we will explore

1.      the concepts as applied to the physical world

2.      the concepts as applied to my personal spiritual struggles

3.      the concepts as applied to how we are called into the wider world (justice and compassion)

Week 4 – August 26

Frame: Harvest

Deuteronomy 24:17-22

 You shall not deprive a resident alien or an orphan of justice; you shall not take a widow’s garment in pledge. Remember that you were a slave in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you from there; therefore I command you to do this.

 When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be left for the alien, the orphan, and the widow, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all your undertakings. When you beat your olive trees, do not strip what is left; it shall be for the alien, the orphan, and the widow.

                When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, do not glean what is left; it shall be for the alien, the orphan, and the widow. Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I am commanding you to do this.

                My favorite table grace, I am told, comes from Argentina. In its original Spanish it goes: “Bendice Senor nuestro pan y de pan a los que tienen hambre y hambre de justicia a los que tienen pan

Bendice Senor nuestro pan.” In English it says: “God bless to us this bread. Give bread to all those who are hungry, and hunger for justice to those who are fed. God bless to us this bread.” I like this prayer (which also has a musical setting)because it captures the biblical connection between our food and the hunger of the poor. There is a direct link between food and justice. Food is not given to us to sate our own desires. Our food is in effect everybody’s food. Anyone’s hunger is an indictment of our selfishness.

                This is seen in the instructions given in Deuteronomy (as well as Leviticus) that fields are not to be harvested completely. In fact much of any harvest is already spoken for. Of course there was the temple tithe, ten per cent right off the top- the first fruits. But beyond that this instruction is given to leave intact the edges of the field, to leave in place any forgotten sheaves, and to allow grapes to remain on the vine. In each case, these are for “the alien, the widow and the orphan.” In Leviticus it says more directly that these are for the poor. It was Israel’s social safety net, their social security. And moreover, these instructions are not given in the spirit of what our culture derisively calls charity. These acts of compassion are directly indicative of the character of the people of Israel. Israel is not ultimately concerned with the bottom line (i.e. making every available dollar from the fields of crops). It is more important that there be food available to the unprotected poor and even non-citizen aliens because “you were aliens in the land of Egypt.” This is the essence of the Christian idea that we are “in the world but not of the world.” In some sense, we are still strangers in a strange land. Remembering that, we hold compassion for other sojourners as a core value.

                And so as we come to the culmination of our series on Gardening in the Desert, we arrive at harvest time. But that arrival beckons us to recall that this harvest is not just for us. My peace gardener friend says that gardening is an act of hospitality because it provides food for whatever strangers may darken our door. We are ready for unexpected visitors. Spiritually speaking, when our lives bear fruit it provides a harvest for something beyond just our own benefit. God blesses us so that we might also be a blessing to others. Just as our physical garden may bring bounty enough to feed the poor, so our spiritual gardens may produce that harvest of grace, love, or justice that those around us are hungry for.

                In that spirit of sharing our bounty, maybe this Sunday should in some way be a “spiritual farmers’ market.” It may be empowering to name what grows in our gardens, what we have been given and what we are willing to share. How are our spiritual gardens empowering us to do the acts of extravagant hospitality?

                I offer the table grace as a framework for Sunday’s Studio: 1. blessing, 2. hunger for food, 3. hunger for justice, 4. blessing. It is a cyclical movement. We give thanks for what our gardens grow. That gratitude can feed the hungry. That awareness opens our hearts to the needs of others. Which brings us back to gratitude.  In the framework of Deuteronomy: we give thanks for the harvest, leave the edges of the field for the poor, working for the day when all are fed equally, which will be a day of great thanksgiving indeed!

Gardening in the Desert: Week 3 - Nurture

Series Title: Gardening in the Desert

Anchor Image:  Gardening in the Desert (get some videos at the Desert botanical Gardens?)

Threads:  Isaiah 58:11

GOD will always guide you,

    giving relief in a sun-scorched land,

    and giving strength to your bones.

    You will be like a well-watered garden,

    like a spring whose waters never fail.

Each week we will explore

1.      the concepts as applied to the physical world

2.      the concepts as applied to my personal spiritual struggles

3.      the concepts as applied to how we are called into the wider world (justice and compassion)

Week 3 – August 19

Frame: Nurturing and Waiting

Matthew 13:24-30

Jesus presented another parable to those gathered: “The kin-dom of heaven is like a farmer who sowed good seed in a field. While everyone was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and then made off. When the crop began to mature and yield grain, the weeds became evident as well.

“The farmer’s workers came and asked, ‘Did you not sow good seed in your field? Where are the weeds coming from?’ “The farmer replied, ‘I see an enemy’s hand in this.’ “They in turn asked, ‘Do you want us to go out and pull them up?’ “‘No,’ replied the farmer, ‘if you pull up the weeds, you might take the wheat along with them. Let them grow together until the harvest, then at harvest time I will order the harvesters first to collect the weeds and bundle them up to burn, then to gather the wheat into my barn.

Luke 13:6-9

Jesus told this parable: “there was a fig tree growing in a vineyard. The owner came out looking for fruit on it, but didn’t find any. The owner said to the vine dresser, ‘Look here! For three years now I’ve come out in search of fruit on this fig tree and have found none. Cut it down. Why should it clutter up the ground?’  “In reply, the vine dresser said, ‘Please leave it one more year while I hoe around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine; if not, then let it be cut down.’ ”

                It struck me as significant that in both of these parables of Jesus, the key ingredient of nurturing the growing crops (grain in one, figs in the other) is time. In Matthew, rather than put the crop grain at risk, the farmer says to let them both grow. Time will tell which is grain and which is weeds. In Luke, the vine dresser begs for the time to cultivate and fertilize the poor little fig tree (and just what is a fig tree doing in a vineyard?). The tree seems to have a special place in the vine dresser’s heart. Saving that tree is a special project that the vine dresser takes on.

                When thinking about our spiritual gardens, there are all sorts of fertilizer that we can apply: meditation, prayer, readings, exercise (the physical and the spiritual are closely connected). We can try to control the bugs and grubs. Maybe we can prune back the suckers and volunteers that divert our energy from our core. But one of the elements that Jesus reminds us is essential for grow is time. Time is grace. Time is a gift we give ourselves. It is the grace to grow at our own pace.

                So I suggest we have four stops along the way on Sunday: 1. cultivate, 2. fertilize, 3. prune, and 4. wait.

                1. Cultivate – to break up the soil and make it easier for the roots to spread and grow. In our spiritual gardens we have to break up the ruts and routines we get stuck in. Our ground can become tamped down and hard. We need to break free every now and again in order to grow.

                2. Fertilize – one of the translations of the story in Luke actually says “apply manure” where most choose the more genteel verb “fertilize.” It may not smell great, but it is full of nutrients and good microbes. Sometimes the crap we endure can become the fertilizer to strengthen our hearts and spirits.

                3. Prune – just as the dead wood and volunteer shoots need to be trimmed so the plant can direct its growing energy into the main stem, so we too need to trim up our lives from time to time. What habit or practices are no longer fruitful? What desires or occupations would we be better off without? Simplifying our lives can help us direct more energy toward our health and well-being.

                4. Wait – just as we can’t make the plants grow any faster no matter how impatient we are, so our own growth takes its own pace. Likewise, another person’s growth will not happen at a pace of our choosing. We have to let them grow at their pace, not ours. It takes patience to allow the fruits, vegetables, or flowers to reach maturity. A large part of tending our gardens is the waiting for things to grow. And such patience is a gift.

Gardening in the Desert, Week 2: Planting

Gardening in the Desert – Worship Series for August, 2012

Series Title: Gardening in the Desert

Anchor Image:  Gardening in the Desert (get some videos at the Desert botanical Gardens?)

Threads:  Isaiah 58:11

GOD will always guide you,

    giving relief in a sun-scorched land,

    and giving strength to your bones.

    You will be like a well-watered garden,

    like a spring whose waters never fail.

Each week we will explore

1.      the concepts as applied to the physical world

2.      the concepts as applied to my personal spiritual struggles

3.      the concepts as applied to how we are called into the wider world (justice and compassion)

Week 2 – August 12

Frame: Planting

                Last week we did the work of getting the soil ready. The “ready” is for the seed.  The soil supports and nurtures the seed. It provides an environment that signals the seed that it is time to crack open its hull and start growing. The soil of our spiritual garden provides the same environment for our own growth.

Planting takes an act of volition. We choose what to plant and where. But in an odd oxymoron, planting is also an act of giving up. We give up the seed to the soil and the sun and the elements and hope that it sprouts and grows. We can plant the seed but we can’t make it grow. We can water and fertilize and weed around it but we do not have the power to make it grow.

                Again to talk about our spiritual lives, we can put ourselves in an environment that can nurture and support our growth, but we can’t make ourselves grow. Planting spiritual seeds is an act of surrender to the soil and elements of God’s love.

John 12:24-26

The truth of the matter is,

    unless a grain of wheat

    falls on the ground and dies,

    it remains only a single grain;

    but if it dies,

    it yields a rich harvest.

    If you love your life

    you’ll lose it;

    if you hate your life in this world

    you’ll keep it for eternal life

The obvious action this week is to actually plant some seeds, but we’ve chosen not to do the obvious. So the question becomes how to evoke the feeling and experience of planting? How do we invite both the act of intention (choosing to plant a seed) and the act of surrender (giving the seed to the care of the earth)? We will still have our tub of soil that we can use symbolically, as well as our gardening tools. One idea may be to invite people to help water the soil  (we have ended up with a number of watering cans, and if we ask for plastic ones instead of just the galvanized ones, I imagine we could have quite a few more). This is not the season for planting in the physical world, so even handing out packets of seeds seems a bit out of place.

                A friend of mine is also planting seeds of a different kind. Blair Frank is a Peace gardener. For the last number of years he has worked on creating a Peace Garden on his property in Iowa. Each choice of seed or plant was both a gift to the earth, allowing nature to be nature, but also a gift to his neighbors as the garden becomes a place to come and rest and restore. Blair has written a book about his vision and experience entitled “Waking Up and Getting Ready: About Gardens, Spirituality, and Wellness.” Blair has told me that he would be available for a Skype conversation. I’m not sure about his availability on Sunday mornings, but I believe we can record a skype conversation. He has also said that he has pictures of his garden. One interesting twist in this is that Blair is moving to a new location, so it seems that he is beginning a new Peace Garden, too. The first video is a little long and rather disjointed, but it gives you a look at Blair and his perspective on his garden and the world. The other two are shorter and a more usable: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdJp6obn3NY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hho2bjpBmNM&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5-EKL8N2jI&feature=relmfu

Planting is an act of hope. It is an act of vision. We plant for the future harvest. Sy Kahn is a folk singer who wrote a song called “Gone, Gonna Rise Again,” which includes the verse about his grandfather: 

These apple trees on the mountainside

He planted the seeds just before he died

I guess he knew that he'd never see

The red fruit hanging from the tree

But he planted the seeds for his children and me

We plant in the hope of a future harvest, be it food, or health or peace.

Gardening in the Desert - Week 1

Gardening in the Desert – Worship Series for August, 2012

Series Title: Gardening in the Desert

Anchor Image:  Gardening in the Desert (get some videos at the Desert botanical Gardens?)

Threads:  Isaiah 58:11

GOD will always guide you,

    giving relief in a sun-scorched land,

    and will give strength to your bones.

    You will be like a well-watered garden,

    like a spring whose waters never fail.

Each week we will explore

1.      the concepts as applied to the physical world

2.      the concepts as applied to my personal spiritual struggles

3.      the concepts as applied to how we are called into the wider world (justice and compassion)

Week 1 – August 5

Frame: Planning and Preparation

            Preparing the earth is a vital step in gardening. Most of the soil in our area needs a lot of help; much of it is too sandy and dry. One has to plan the garden: what will be raised? local flora? herbs? vegetables? flowers? To raise vegetables or flowers the soil needs a lot of compost and fertilizer. Timing is different here than other parts of the country.

            One of the issues we talked about was how we care for the earth, both the planet and the soil in which the food of the world grows. In fields like in gardens, crops need to be rotated so that the nutrients in the soil do not get depleted. Crops raised with ever increasing demand for higher yields stress the land, chemicals contaminate the soil (and run off, tainting the watershed), and threaten the sustainability of the land. Part of our planning is to insure that our earth can continue to grow food and life for the coming generations.

            Which, as we shift from physical issues to spiritual ones, raises the question as to what in our spiritual gardening are we planning that can survive and grow for the coming generations? What in the garden of our faith is worth planting and growing and giving to others? Like heirloom seeds, we may have to reclaim something of the past even as we decide what has had its flavor or succulence hybridized away.

            More personally, as hectic as daily life can become, if we do not plan our spiritual garden the weeds of obligation will overgrow the land. Even taking time to worship together gets squeezed out by all the other things we want to do. Time for personal growth and reflection becomes almost impossible to come by. We have to plan time to garden, just as much as a plan to garden. The Open Studios are a good example of this. Some of realized the need for us to plan time to create art. We were not taking the time every day, so we planned to take the time and make it happen.

            The gospels show us that Jesus was known to step away from his daily obligations and routine in order to be alone with God. In the terms of our series, I would say that he was tending his garden.  Luke 5:15-16 says “But now more than ever the word about Jesus spread abroad; many crowds would gather to hear him and to be cured of their diseases. But he would withdraw to deserted places and pray.” Along these lines, the importance of Sabbath time for God’s people is constant throughout the bible. Sabbath is time to rest, restore, and enjoy God’s presence (much like a fallow field is restored by resting).

            So I propose that we begin our series by planning and preparing the soil. We might talk about the kinds of things our spiritual soil needs to be ready to support growth. As we name each need, we can add loam or compost to a tub of sand up front, mixing it all until we have healthy soil. We noted in our brainstorming session that “The feel of your hands in the dirt has a spiritual dimension.” We can invite those who wish to do so to come forward and place their hands in the prepared soil. I think we also need to think about how this soil will eventually get used, even if it is given to a gardener to us in their beds.

            A simple video that speaks about gardening (though not gardening in the desert) is on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dcVpKkt49I&feature=related  I think it can give us some good starting places.

July 29 Prospecting Week 4 Eureka!

July 29, 2012  Week 4 Prospecting

Series: Prospecting for Gold: Finding Treasure in the Bible
Anchor: Prospectors and Miners
Frame: God is full of compassion, and passionate for justice
Thread: Prospectors skits, “God Is Still Speaking” song

Luke 4:16-21

When Jesus came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:

‘The Spirit of God is upon me,

   who has anointed me

     to bring good news to the poor.

and has sent me to proclaim release to the captives

   and recovery of sight to the blind,

     to let the oppressed go free,

to proclaim the year of God’s favor.’
And Jesus rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’

From Marcus Borg:

…God is a God of justice and compassion. The God of the Bible is full of compassion and passionate about justice. God’s passion for justice flows out of the very character of God. God cares about suffering, and the single greatest source of unnecessary human misery is unjust and oppressive cultural systems… (This) God…wills human well-being and rages against all humanly constructed systems that inflict unnecessary wounds.

God’s passion is the ground of a biblical ethic centered in justice and compassion. Both words –“justice” and “compassion” - are needed. Justice without compassion easily sounds like “just politics”; compassion without justice too easily becomes individualized and systemically acquiescent.

            For me, this is one of those hidden veins of ore that digging into the bible exposes: “The God of the Bible is full of compassion and passionate about justice.” The passage from Luke’s Gospel has Jesus announcing what his ministry is going to be all about. Jesus has just endured the temptations in the wilderness and this is the first speech put on his lips. He quotes a passage from Isaiah which proclaims good news for the poor, release for captives, restored sight, and liberation from oppression. The year of God’s favor is understood by most scholars as a reference to the jubilee, when all debts are forgiven and all family lands lost are restored. Jesus specifically chooses this passage to read and then announces that it is “fulfilled in your hearing.” Luke is telling us that this is a laundry list of the things Jesus will be concerned with. And if we understand Jesus as God’s metaphor in human terms, then this is a list of God’s priority’s too.

            And yet we live in a world where injustice all too apparent. Just today a news report came that we are headed for the highest poverty rate in the U.S. since the 1960’s. Religious intolerance is just one example of blindness that continues to be unenlightened. Again in the U.S. we incarcerate more of our own citizens that any other country on earth, and we are building more prisons. There are more definitions of oppression here and around the world than we can count. If we understand Jesus’ announcement that this passage is “fulfilled” meaning that it is accomplished, then things are in a sorry state indeed. It is all too clear that this agenda has not been accomplished. Rather, it is fulfilled because Jesus is the anointed one. The work is just beginning.

            The ore worth mining is the hope that the world can be better than it is. More than that, it is God’s passion and desire that the world transforms into a place where suffering is diminished, and life is worth living. God is full of compassion and passionate about justice. While we each find our own way of doing so, it is our call to be filled with compassion and to become passionate about justice as well.

            Last week we talked about the overburden in the bible: those many passages of violence and inhumanity which make the bible so difficult for us to deal with. But underneath all that rock and rubble lies this ore, the ore of God’s passion and compassion. This is one of the things worth all the digging and toil. This is the treasure we have been seeking (at least in part). It is a real “Eureka!” moment when we discover the character of God.

            Rob suggested that we bring back the talking rock, and I’m all for it especially if we can frame it creatively and appropriately. I have to admit that I can talk about God’s sense of justice and compassion at length, but I am working hard to put it in the frame of our mining metaphor. I think the connection is there, it just isn’t leaping out at me yet. I also think we need to find some examples of God’s compassion and justice breaking through in our world. 

Prospecting Week 3 - Transformation

July 22, 2012  Week 3 Prospecting

Series: Prospecting for Gold: Finding Treasure in the Bible
Anchor: Prospectors and Miners
Frame: The Path of Personal Transformation
Thread: Prospectors skits, “God Is Still Speaking” song

Psalm 137
1 By the rivers of Babylon

    we sat and wept, remembering Zion.

    2 On the willows there

    we hung up our harps.

    3 For there our captors taunted us to sing our songs,

    our tormentors demanded songs of joy:

    “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”

    4 But how could we sing a song of Yhwh

    in a foreign land?

    5 If I forget you, Jerusalem,

    may my right hand forget its skill!

    6 May my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth

    if I ever forget you,

    if I ever stop considering Jerusalem

    my greatest joy.

    7 Remember, Yhwh, what the children of Edom did

    the day Jerusalem fell,

    when they said,

    “Tear it down!

    Tear it down to its foundations!”

    8 Brood of Babylon, doomed to destruction,

    a blessing on those who will repay you

    for the evil you have done to us!

    9 A blessing on those who will seize your infants

    and dash them against the rock!

Shirley J reminded me that we have not talked about another kind of mining: strip mining. It is a devastating example of human hubris and greed. We will shear off whole mountains in order to get to the minerals. And it isn’t only mountains. Growing up in North Dakota I saw where they were strip mining for lignite (a soft form of coal). Huge trucks, as big a buildings, scraped off the layers of soil and rock until the lignite was exposed and then huge drag buckets gathered it in. I remember hear that they saved all the soil and upper layers because they were required by law to restore the landscape to “its original contour or better” (emphasis mine). Not only did we humans think that the earth was ours to do with as we pleased, but then we got the idea that we could improve upon it when we were done. Now the requirement to restore the land is not bad. I have seen the remnants of early strips mines which were not constrained by that requirement. Huge piles of dirt in ugly spires and trenches gouged like huge scars still exposed to the sky.

I was reminded that sometimes we strip mine the bible. We shear off and dispose of material that we find distasteful, violent, undecipherable. My fear about this kind of editing is that it leaves us with a bible that simply reinforces the way we live our lives and the way we see the world. Strip mining the bible makes it safe and keeps it from challenging us to engage in any kind of inner transformation. And Borg contends that transformation is what the spiritual path is all about:

“As the path of life, this relationship is the path of personal transformation. It is the path of liberation from existential, psychological, and spiritual bondage to the lords of convention and culture. It involves dying to an old way of being and being born into a new way of being. It is a life lived in accord with radical monotheism: centering one’s life in God rather than in the rival lords of culture and convention.”

So I wonder if some of those difficult parts of the bible, the parts we don’t like, might be the grist that brings us into transformation. The teachings of Jesus are like that. Jesus did not only heal and feed people. He not only told parables about good Samaritans and spendthrift children welcomed home by prodigal parents. He also said that to follow him one must take up their own cross first. Again Borg points this out: “for John the way or path of Jesus is the path of death and resurrection understood as a metaphor for the religious life. That way—the path of dying to an old way of being and being born into a new way of being—is the only way to God.” And unless we are suicidal (and I hope we are not) the subject of dying, of our own death is often a difficult one to approach.

I am aware of my mixed metaphors here. Strip mining is a terribly destructive way of transformation. The spiritual life, though, is also about transformation and when we allow ourselves to practice Borg’s “radical monotheism” we give up ourselves as the center of our universe and allow God to be that center. The death of the ego may well feel something like strip mining. It is no mystery that many of us resist transformation until there is no other alternative.

Psalm 137 is an example of a thoroughly strip mined passage. It opens with a beautifully poignant lament about how the Israelites in their exile hung their harps on the willow trees because they could not sing their songs for the amusement of their captors. We have kept and treasured that mournful image. What we have strip mined away is the last half of the psalm. The mood changes from mourning to anger, violent anger. The poet want retribution, wants the Babylonians to feel the kind of pain Israel has felt and more. And then that shockingly naked rage that prays a blessing on those who kill their oppressors’ little children.

Would the psalmist really have rejoiced at such infanticide? I hope not. But by excising that part of the psalm we insulate ourselves from that part of us that sometimes rages nurtures murderous thoughts. What are we to do with such raw emotion? What are we to do with parts of the bible that are this humanly honest? I pray that we allow it to transform us. Maybe by hearing the awful violence of our rage spoken aloud, we can recognize it for the insanity it really is. It may shock us into letting go of our anger instead of acting upon it. That kind of rage is all about our own pain, all about us. To release that anger may be a step toward the transformation allows God to be the focus of our lives and not the pain inflicted upon us by others (no matter how horrific).

I think the gopher I’m chasing here is that real transformation is not at all easy, and our attempts to make it easy in fact can keep us stuck in our sameness. And my point with Psalm 137 is not just to introduce an “R” rated passage from the bible. My hope is that people may experience some reassurance that when life is difficult and painful and rage-filled that we may in fact be in the crucible of transformation. Real life hurts like hell. But we are not created only to suffer. We are created to experience the kind of love that sees us through hell until we are transformed into that life-giving love itself.