Crossing the Jordan and the Prodigal Son ?????

 Year C Lent 4 2025

This is one of those Sundays when the lectionary seems to me to have a plan.  While the connection between our first lesson about the Israelite’s entry into Canaan and the reunion of a wayward child with his father might not be apparent at first look I think it may gain some clarity with a look at the surrounding texts in both Joshua and in Luke.

In the first 4.5 chapters of Joshua we hear the story of the wilderness wanderers making their way to the promised land of milk and honey.  Moses has died before the crossing of the Jordan and he had laid hands on Joshua making him the new leader of God’s people.  When they arrived at the Jordan River Joshua instructs the bearers to carry the Ark of the Covenant into the river and the leaders of the twelve tribes to follow.  Each of the tribes is to select a round stone from the river and carry it to the other side where they placed the stones in a circle.  That place was called Gilgal and it is there that three of the wilderness traditions are broken. 

First all of the men who were born after leaving Egypt were circumcised.  The practice of circumcision had not happened in the wilderness and so the first act of obedience to God was to mark the tribes with this sign of the covenant.  When this is done Joshua declares that the disgrace of captivity is ended. 

The second mark is the celebration of the Passover.  Passover had first been celebrated on the night of the Exodus itself, with blood on the doorposts and the lintel of their houses, as a sign of their faith and their identity.  Passover had not been celebrated in the Wilderness and so this Passover would forever become a time to teach the children about the what, why and where of the first Passover. 

And the third change in the lives of the Israelites was the move to dependance on the produce of the land for their food.  They are no longer dependent on the daily provision of manna.  With that change the manna ceases.  In the next verses the conquest of the land begins with the attack on Jericho. 

The Gospel for the day is the parable of the Prodigal Son, (who in my mind never truly repents but that is a story for another day – perhaps this week’s Bible study…) It has always seemed to me that we fail in our study to pay attention to the actions and feelings of the elder jealous brother, who was bent out of shape because the father had killed a fatted calf to welcome the prodigal brother home.   Of course the father threw a big banquet over his son whom he thought to be dead but who was now alive. But every other day he kept the elder son alive with plenty of food.  Parents who have children living close and others who live far away to this sort of thing all the time.  When Barbra comes to visit I always roast, barbq and bake her favorite recipes – not so much for the children who come to eat supper once a week.  That is more likely to be red beans and rice.  For right or wrong both are ways of showing love for all our children.  Jesus tells this story in response to the Pharisees and scribes criticizing him for associating with people who were outsiders, people not good enough for them.  They want to question his authority.  But what he is telling us is not a claim to authority…  rather Jesus wants us to know without a doubt that God is a god of compassion who welcomes all with joy and celebration

 Sunday after Sunday God invites us sinners to this Table for Eucharistic sustenance.  Others choose to come once or twice a year, (we call them C&Es).  But God receives us all with open arms, not counting - just welcoming.   And for all of us the joy, the love, the forgiveness, the affirmation at the table is so real that we can taste it.  Perhaps the link between these two lessons today is to remind us that our daily supply of food is not to be taken for granted and minimalized as if receiving it meant nothing and even when we have lost our way God welcomes us with the best cut of meat and loads of desserts.

These two stories are really about how human brokenness separates us from God’s love and God’s forgiveness.  We all participate to a greater or lesser degree in all forms of human brokenness.  There is no offense, no crime, no act of violence that does not have its seeds in our own hearts… as and if we choose power and wealth over humility, generosity and repentance.  What does God ask of the Israelites, but faithfulness to the Covenant.  What does the prodigal’s father ask of the sons, but the willingness to put down the jealousy and selfishness and to be reunited to the family.  What does God ask of us?  I think Micah is hard to beat – to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God.

Perhaps that is where we are on this fourth Sunday of Lent.   Perhaps it is time for us to turn from our fasts and our penance and allow God to welcome us sinners.  The Lord said to Joshua, "Today I have rolled away from you the disgrace of Egypt."   Come join the party, Jesus says. What do you care if others come late, or have checkered pasts — you’re already here with me, and these are your brothers and sisters, so welcome them home! Don’t miss out on an opportunity to rejoice!

The hardest thing Jesus asks of us to show compassion just as God shows compassion.  Not only to be forgiven ourselves, but to forgive others.  This is central to Jesus’ message because we are heirs of God, children of God, created in God’s image.  As long as we belong to this world we act as outsiders, but if we belong to God who loves us unconditionally …then we can also love unconditionally with the radical love of enemy as well as friend  of sinner as well as righteous or white as black, gay as straight, Muslim as Christian

This past week as we considered the parable of fig tree in our mid week Bible study we asked ourselves “who in my life is fertilizer for my faith?  Who or what might be preventing me from blossoming?”  Perhaps a takeaway for us this week and fodder for Bible study is to ask ourselves… What Gilgal have I missed as I hurried past in search of power, money, or comfort”  What gift from God have I forgotten to acknowledge or to tell my children about?  Who is the elder brother in my life that I forgot to invite to the party?  Who would I rather not invite? Who do I wish to exclude?  Reconciliation and repentance here is communal, not individualistic.  God’s love is communal and there for all who choose life. 

Let us pray:

Loving Creator,  I feel the pace quicken, the time draw near.   I am filled with joy as I move toward Easter and to be more fully reconciled with you. 
 Teach me to follow the example of Joshua and the people of God in faithfulness and of the father in love, generosity and forgiveness.  Help me to live each day as Jesus did - turning hatred to love and conflict to peace.  I await the new promised life with eagerness, faith, and a deep gratitude.  Amen

Comments on the Innaugration Sermon by Rt Rev Marianne Budde Delivered Jan 21 at the National Cathedral

It has been a tumultuous week.  We began the week with Annual Meeting, which was a relatively calm meeting as Episcopal Church meetings go.  Then on Monday there was a big thing in Washington DC, a cease fire declaration in Gaza, and on Tuesday an epic snowstorm that brought quiet to the busy highways of the Gulf Coast.  What we might have missed as we frolicked in the snow was a sermon preached by The Right Rev’d Marianne Budde, Bishop of Washington DC and current occupant of the see of our National Cathedral.  In classic prophetic form and the Inauguration Prayer Service, she preached truth to power without regard to her own personal safety.  If you did not hear it here is the link.  It is well worth you time.

With pastoral sensitivity and grounded in Gospel truth, she called for unity in our country that is formed by extending dignity to all, being honest with each other, and walking with humility.  In closing she asked the president for mercy in dealing with those who are scared that they might not be safe in our country now.    

Some will think she was too direct in her sermon and that she should not have addressed the president’s actions in such a public way.  But the prophetic voice in our faith tradition always seeks the openness of public gatherings to call out sin.  This week our lessons begin with Ezra reading the law of Moses in the town square in a way that the “people understood the meaning”.  Paul calls for unity among the Corinthians telling them that they are part of the Body of Christ and all essential to God’s Reign.  And Jesus declares in the synagogue he is sent by God to bring good news to the poor and to let the oppressed go free and all eyes were fixed on him.

Bishop Budde, is the author of How We Learn to be Brave, Decisive Moments in Life and Faith.  She writes: "our relationship with God cannot be based on correct belief, but rather it is based on our willingness to trust and to step out in faith" even when it might not be the convenient place to be.  Epiphany begins with Light.  The light of the star leading the Magi to the Manger.  And Epiphany begins in the waters of Baptism washing us, naming us, marking us.  We come to the waters of baptism as individuals, independent and relatively self-contained, but we come out of that water changed. We are no longer solitary.  We can no longer truly be known without reference to that community into which we have been incorporated- sealed and marked as a beloved and necessary part of the Body of Christ.  After baptism we are more than just ourselves, we are by definition beings in relationship with each other and with God.  Where the spirit of God once moved over the face of the deep and brought life to the world, the Spirit of God remains the source of all life, the breath of the church, moving among us and within us.

Image attribution: Jesus Mural of Faith, Hope, Love, and Peace, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=56412 [retrieved January 22, 2025]. Original source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/36847973@N00/3342340183 - CC BY 2.0

The World feels like it is falling apart....

The Second Coming   By William Butler Yeats

Turning and turning in the widening gyre   

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere   

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst   

Are full of passionate intensity.

 Surely some revelation is at hand;

Surely the Second Coming is at hand.   

The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out   

When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi

Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert   

A shape with lion body and the head of a man,   

A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,   

Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it   

Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.   

The darkness drops again; but now I know   

That twenty centuries of stony sleep

Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,   

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,   

Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

Lest we fool ourselves into thinking that we are living in an unprecedented time of chaos and confusion about what the future holds, WB Yeats speaks to us of the unravelling of society that was World War 1.  It is a dark poem that holds little hope for the redemption of mankind.  Instead of the second coming of Christ as savior Yeats sees a mythical beast - of our own making - draping the world in shadow.  The fact that our world has been subject to tyranny, hate, oppression and greed on more than one occasion lends little consolation today for those who live in fear.  It will be no surprise that when such chaos reigns the human spirit searches for some hope, some promise of a better outcome. 

The Gospel of Mark is scholars believe the first of the surviving Gospels to be written.  In Mark we hear the struggle of the early church that was confronted with daily turmoil from the occupation of Rome and a world was coming apart at the seams.  Mark tells us that Jesus had tried to teach his followers not to depend on the structures of the world in which they lived, but rather to trust in the abiding presence of God in their lives and the promise that God would not abandon them to the chaos.  Today the disciples ask Jesus for the signs that might give them a heads up so that they might have time to take cover or perhaps prepare for what is to come.

Apocalyptic literature, like these passages about “end times”, comes from a worldview that believes that everything happening on earth represents and correlates with a larger, heavenly struggle between good and evil.   It reads into earthly events a kind of cosmic significance and anticipates future events on earth in light of the coming battle between the forces of good and evil.   And because this literature tends to be highly symbolic, it’s ripe for reading all kinds of sometimes unhealthy things into it – like predictions about the end of the world!     But this chapter in Mark – and other passages,  – were not written to ferret out signs of the end.   Rather to offer comfort to believers struggling to make sense of their world and their lives.   Mark’s people were literally caught up in “wars and rumors of war” and probably found comfort in the belief that Jesus had already anticipated this and was offering words of encouragement to them through this Gospel.

When it comes to our own day and age, that kind of encouragement is still valuable, for though our wars may be different, we are still harassed at times by a fear that the world is falling apart.  If you don’t believe it just turn on the TV.  To twenty-first century believers, just as to first century disciples, Jesus says the same “do not fear.”

This Sunday is the last of our year in the Gospel of Mark.  So it is a perfect time to give some thought to what we have encountered this year and what the take-aways for us might be.   Mark left us breathless as we jumped from encounter to encounter, but over and over we hear Mark telling us that even in the midst of despair Jesus is present and that the world is moving toward a new era of healing, liberation, and love.  God is at work turning the world upside down, serving all, restoring health, freeing captives, doing justice. Our job is to keep watch, to stay alert for God’s coming, take heart — and come!   Be a part of the movement!

While Yeats offers a bleak vision of the future of humankind, one which presents morality as a kind of collective dream that is now turning into a nightmare, Mark is inviting us to move our eyes away from the Beast slouching toward Bethlehem and to remember Jesus’ promise that God will be with us even in the muck that is our world, even when all of our technology fails to reveal God’s presence.   Jesus contends that God is on the move, even and especially where all hope seems lost. For sure the movement is elusive at times…  hard to identify in the midst of exploding bombs, hunger, and hurting neighbors.   But it is my experience that God’s love is often revealed in deeply hidden and unexpected ways, surprising, shocking even, and yet reassuring.  

This Gospel of Mark from beginning to end is about real people, real problems, real relationships, real responsibilities, real decisions.  The first story Mark tells is how Jesus goes out into the wilderness to be baptized by John – a reorienting of his life around the work that God is asking him to do.  By verse 14 in that first chapter Mark tells us that Jesus returns to Galilee with a message for all that God has come near and they are all welcomed at God’s Table.  What follows in Mark is healing, teaching, gathering, feeding – all in the midst of a society where such blessings were rare.  One of the great things about Mark is that he makes no bones about Jesus’ disdain for the oppressive rulers around him and for the injustice that he sees.  Now right before Mark’s Passion Gospel begins Jesus reassures us that the despair we feel when our world comes caving in is not all that there is.  Good things are coming, thanks be to God. And precisely because of this, all of us are called to be watchful and alert, cultivating a mindful attentiveness so that we will recognize and be in awe of God in our world.  Mark reminds us over and over to notice the signs of hope and wonder all around us every day.  Jesus does not make empty promises.  Jesus sets out a way to live that does not focus on either the crumbling of the stones of the temple or on the unrelenting approach of the “rough beast slouching” into our lives.  Jesus offers life….

For sure things may seem like they are falling apart and it’s really hard to find that nugget of hope.  But the message of this short Gospel is that the center will hold because God is at the center and that in this wobbly future there is much faithful work for us to do.  Amen

Reflection on my travels from 2003

 A few years back I spent some time in Israel traveling back and forth into the West Bank.  I want to share with you a reflection that I wrote then.  Given the wars raging around the world and the hostility among those who could be friends we have not made much progress this millenium.   I asked again and again as we went from one devastated town to the next, "Lord, where are you?  How can these atrocities be happening?  Don't you care?  This is what I wrote in my journal.

 “Last Sunday we woke up early and boarded our bus at 7:30.  We had planned to attend the 10 AM Eucharist at St. Andrew's in Ramallah, but we had not been allowed to pass through the checkpoint and so we had continued on our journey the long way, crossing through the occupied territory on roads made for Israelis and internationals only and then heading north on the eastern border with Jordan to make our way to Nazareth.  That is how we ended up, unexpectedly, on the shore of the Sea of Galilee near where Jesus had prepared breakfast for his disciples after the Resurrection.  We had some extra time on our hands and we were hungering for a Eucharistic celebration that the soldiers had denied us earlier in the day.

The beauty and the peaceful quiet of the place contrasted sharply with the grotesque, harshness of the checkpoint.  As I was standing in the shallow water letting the waves wash around my ankles Bishop Tom came up and began to tell me about the topography of the place.  There is a valley running between two mountains through which the wind is funneled onto the lake.  That wind is the cause of the sudden and violent storms that are typical of the Sea.  Tom reminded us of the story in the gospels of Jesus who had wanted to get away for a while and so he asked the disciples to put to sea and to go to the other side of the lake.  But on the way a great storm arose and these fishermen who were thoroughly familiar with the dangers of storms at sea and who should have been able to handle the boat - panicked and ran to Jesus for help.    In response Jesus calmed the wind and the waves and then asked the tense disciples, "Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?" 

In Israel today there is a lot of fear.  The fear manifests itself in suicide bombers and snipers - in bulldozers and tanks, rocket firing helicopters and a system of oppression that is intent on the eradication of the Palestinian people from the Holy Land.  The fear is manifested in a gigantic wall.  You see there is this gaping hole that weaves in and out of the landscape there that takes the form of a gigantic wall of concrete, razor wire, and guard towers.  Cities have become isolated from each other and the barren earth has been violated by with bulldozers and cranes. The Israeli government calls it a security fence.  It is an Apartheid Wall.  It is designed to protect Israel from terror, but in fact only serves to isolate and alienate people who are trying desperately to live their life with some sense of normalcy in a place that is far from normal.  Surely, there are kind, generous, faithful people on both sides of the Wall, but there are also those who are consumed by fear and hatred and their will seems to be dominant. 

Dear Lord help us to learn from our mistakes and not repeat them.....

We want a King!!!!

Year B Proper 5

1 Samuel 8:4–11, 16–20 and Mark 3:2–35.  

         There is an old saying:  Be careful what you wish for – you might get it.  In our first lesson today the people of Israel are ready to riot.  What do we want?  We want a king!  When do we want it?  Now!!!!  The chant echoing through Ramah to the beat of an upside down Home Depot bucket….

The Israelites were just coming off a significant victory against the Philistines.  Samuel had been their shepherd and guide through years of war and he made sure that the people knew that their victory was all because of the power and faithfulness of God.   God had delivered them from their enemies, because they had put their trust and faith in God.  That’s what covenant is all about…faithfulness.  It is a truth though that faith is easier to maintain when life is in shambles.  And now – in these times having defeated all their enemies for the time being – well these were the good times and awareness of the importance of God in their lives had begun to wane in the face of great prosperity.

Samuel was getting on in years and he wanted to turn the reins over to his sons.  But alas the sons were embroiled in bribery and corruption scandals, totally unfit to hold office and the people knew it.  So they went to Samuel one more time and demanded that he appoint an imperial leader to govern them in the way that other countries were governed.

Their demands did not find welcome in Samuel.  But ever the faithful servant Samuel prays to God to give him guidance – fully expecting God to rein down wrath on the demonstrators.  Surprise surprise – God tells Samuel that if a king is what they want - then give it to them.  God sees this demand as just one more Golden Calf in a long line of infidelities.  They are doing what they have always done – rejecting the God who has delivered them.  But God says to Samuel, be sure and warn them about what happens when a king has power over them.  When their taxes go up, unemployment is rampant and inflation rules the economy under a human king, they are not likely to be happy with the decision to subject themselves to tyranny. 

Taken in the context of the ongoing convenant though there is more to this demand than a superficial reading exposes.  For one thing, putting their faith in an earthly ruler means that they are no longer a distinct people in the world, no longer the chosen of God.  They are turning their backs on that covenant they made with God when they were in the wilderness.  They want to be like everybody else.

Samuel tries to tell them that they have a king – God.  It was God who created the heavens and the earth, it was God who delivered them from Egypt, it was God who won the victory over the Philistines.  He really just can’t believe that they are being so stupid.  So he asks God again and gets the same answer.  If it is a king they want then give them one.  BUT he tells Samuel, let them know what they are getting into.  “Warn them.”

So Samuel says to the Israelites, “This leader you’re asking for? He and his henchmen will conscript you sons for the military.  They will fight war after war at your expense.  They will abuse your daughters, take your land, put heavy burdens of tax on you.  You will be enslaved by power hungry, narcissistic kings who have no compassion for you.  And when you have had enough and you come crawling back to God for help – don’t expect God to jump to your aid.  You have made your bed and you must lie in it!  Typical of human nature though they don’t listen to Samuel.  They have made up their minds and they turn their backs on God.  “What do we want?  A king!!  When do we want it?  Now! 

The covenant with God is broken.  The people of God choose the siren call of earthly power.  The people get a king.  And their world changes forever.

In our Gospel reading today Jesus comes home for supper after a long day of teaching and healing and casting out demons.  But the crowds followed him home causing a huge disruption.  I mentioned last week that Mark has a decidedly political edge to its teachings.  Had he been alive back when Samuel was judging, Jesus would not have been one of those in the crowd demanding more governmental or temple authority and control.  Jesus would not have called for a King.  Jesus called for faithfulness to God.   So much so that his family thought he had fallen off his rocker and they feared for his safety and probably for their own too.  But before they can muzzle Jesus the temple authorities come in to challenge him.  In effect they were saying that if you challenge our authority then you are opposing the temple authority and therefore you must be from Satan. 

Jesus counters with logic.  Spock would have loved it!  “You say that it is Satan who gives me the power to cast out demons…  that is not logical, Jim – if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, then he cannot stand”  …  OK I digress….  But this much is clear, Jesus is taking a stand on being faithful to God and to his teaching rather than to the human authority that uses devotion to God for their own end.  He is saying that if God is a God of love, compassion and mercy and if we are called to be the same - then we have got to bind up those things that pull us away from God both individually and communally, and follow in the way of justice and mercy and love. 

For Mark, when Jesus says, “Follow me,” he means follow him into the maelstrom of life, into the darkness of suffering, into places where we will confront the Satans of the world.  Confront the hatred, the racism, the homophobia, the poverty, the addiction, the abuse, the wars, the whatever Satan you want to name.  He means follow him into the good-and-difficult work of repairing the breach, building up the weak, healing the sick places of our society and of our church.  And for sure when we take a stand for justice and mercy and love we will meet opposition.  But the Good news is that we don’t have to start from scratch.  God is already on it.  We just need to sign on for the long haul. 

The Gospel according to Mark can become a grenade that causes angst and discomfort.  And I have no doubt that before this liturgical year is over we will encounter that discomfort.  There is little doubt that the stories and parables can be unsettling to those who feel bound by social constraints, or religious regimen, or strict beliefs that exclude or diminish others.     Mark’s theological rhetoric has a way of highlighting welcome and belonging, healing and restoration. 

The German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was executed by the Nazis, once argued that the decisive, heart-breaking “fall” away from God isn’t the point in the story when humanity eats the forbidden fruit, but rather the moment when they hide from God afterwards, in effect turning away from their Creator and at the same time from their true identity.  Perhaps it’s time for us to ask ourselves “What are we hiding from?  What is our true identity?”  “Who is our king?”

Amen   

Trinity Sunday

         Today is Trinity Sunday – a day that is – if nothing else cloaked in mystery.  The early fathers of the church tried to contain the mystery of God in the creeds that we profess, but containment is never a possibility when the Spirit of Pentecost is swirling around.  Sometimes it’s best just to let mystery be mystery and enjoy the view.  Barbara Brown Taylor wrote:  “We would probably be better off if we left the whole subject alone, but if you’ve ever lain on your back looking up at a summer night’s sky full of stars then you know how hard that is to do. You lie there thinking unthinkable things such as what is out there, exactly, where it all stops, and what is beyond that. You lie there wondering who made it and why and where an infinitesimal speck of dust like yourself comes in. After a while you either start making up some answers or else you go inside where it is safe and turn on the television.”  ~Barbara Brown Taylor

I think that if there had been televisions around in the 1^st century Nicodemus would not have turned it on - even though he certainly was confined by the same ole same ole of religious life.  If John’s Gospel is correct about his spiritual journey, he was a restless sort of person.  He was the one thinking the unthinkable thoughts and wondering about the who and the why of Creation.  Today’s reading is the first of three times that we meet Nicodemus in John.  The most familiar encounter with Jesus is the one we heard today.  Nicodemus was a religious leader, a teacher of the law and familiar with the writings of Hebrew scholars and of the prophets.  He was a respected member of the Sanhedrin.  People came to him for counsel, for help with interpretation of the scripture, for decisions about how the Law impacted their daily lives. 

Nicodemus was a pretty important figure and I think he must have been pretty savvy as he knew that given his station in the Sanhedrin he should not be seen associating with Jesus.  From the religious establishment’s perspective Jesus was a trouble maker, a thorn in the side of the Temple authority which Nicodemus represented.  And yet it seems that Nicodemus saw something in Jesus that his heart longed to know.   Nicodemus saw in Jesus a spirituality that seemed to him to be firmly rooted in God.  And he wanted a taste of that.

So under the cover of darkness these two spiritual leaders met and talked.  Nicodemus is curious about the “signs” that Jesus has done.  He has heard stories of healing, of compassion, and of wisdom that go beyond the ordinary and he wants to understand how all of that fits into the tradition, law, and praxis of being a good Jew and a learned rabbi.  But just as he is about to say what he perceives about Jesus is true, Jesus slips him a riddle.  “No one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.”  I always get this picture of Nicodemus with a look of incredulity “Say whaaaaaaat?”  That does not make sense.  Perhaps Nicodemus was stuck in the literal – only seeing things through the lens of this world - rather than the lens of God’s world…because his response to Jesus’ nonsensical statement assumes that limited vision.

“How can someone reenter the mother’s womb”  But Jesus is far from that literal train of thought.  Jesus is using symbolic, spirit-filled language.  He is trying to get Nicodemus to understand that unless he can think outside the box of religious rigidity and absolutes, then he will not be able to understand the gift that God has given.  Acceptance of God’s love and the willing discipleship that follows, says Jesus, is more than the correct observance of particular religious practice or belief.  In fact, being bound by routine or literal thinking may in fact hinder one’s ability to see God’s love swirling around them.

Jesus tells Nicodemus that he of all people, a leader in the synagogue, a pillar of the religious community - should be able to see God’s work being done all around him.  

“ Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” 

In the newsletter I offered a poem from Mary Oliver which reflected her deep spirituality focused on the mundane things of life – birds, trees, walks in the garden or on the seashore – but it was the final lines that really drew me in to her poem… 

“Let me keep my distance, always, from those
who think they have the answers.

Let me keep company always with those who say
“Look!” and laugh in astonishment,
and bow their heads.”

It is never much fun to be in a conversation with someone who believes that they have all the answers to every situation or question - most especially when that situation or question involves faith or belief.  In all honesty I suspect that we have all been “that person” at some point.  I know I have.  When we think we have the answer to the question in hand we become like a cigar boat at Thunder in the Sound, racing ahead and leaving everyone else in our wake.   

For Nicodemus it may just be more than he can comprehend.  Jesus asks Nicodemus how can he know about the things of God when he cannot see past the nose on his face.  We, as the 21^st century readers of this gospel, already know the story of how we can know these things of God.  We know them through the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus himself.  But Nicodemus does not have this advantage, and so Jesus tells him of God’s unlimited love, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that everyone who believes in him shall not perish but shall have eternal life”.   It is also through God’s gift of redemption that we come to be in relationship with God.

God’s intention for us is never to condemn or to alienate.  God’s intention for us is pure unadulterated Love.  God so loved the world that God gave God’s self so that we all might resonate with that Love.  But like Nicodemus, unless we first reach into the darkness of our souls and ask “what is it that draws me into the fullness of God”, then we will be in the same hole as Nicodemus.    Jesus’ answer to us is the same as it was to Nicodemus, we must open ourselves to the transforming Spirit of God that comes from above.  We must be born again, not of flesh and not of our doing, but through the Grace of God.  Amen

Veteran's Day 2023

 This weekend we mark 105 years since “the 11^th hour of the 11^th day of the 11^th month” or Veterans Day – “the end of the war to end all wars”…   Now we know that the end of that war only paved the way for the next war to come.  And on and on it goes.  That’s actually why the name was changed in 1954 to Veterans’ Day – to mourn and to give thanks for all the lives lost to war – because clearly war had not ceased in our world. 

 

There is a lot to mourn right now – the staggering loss of life, the constant barrage of insults hurled at whoever doesn’t see things the way I do or you do or he/she does.  One thing I do know…  violence begets violence.  Just as the outcome of WW1 set the stage for WW2 which pushed us into Korea, the cold war, Vietnam, Kosovo, Granada, Iraq, Afghanistan and dozens of other places – violence between gangs, political groups, family members, countries, religious groups – all that violence sets the stage for even more violence.  “You kill my child and I’ll kill two of yours”   “You attack my land and I will blow up yours”.  The only way I can imagine for that cycle to stop is for someone to say “enough is enough, I am grieving, but I will not strike back”  I believe with all my heart that Jesus is saying to us that forgiveness driven by compassion is the only way to overcome hatred driven by fear.  But, Lordy, who is willing to be first?   I want to share a portion of an op ed sent to me by a prayer buddy…

 

 The United States Congress declared that the date “should be commemorated with thanksgiving and prayer and exercises designed to perpetuate peace through good will and mutual understanding between nations.”

A day of thanksgiving: for the service of veterans, living and dead; for the service of  caregivers...

A day of prayer: for people of all faiths (or no faith at all), a time of prayer, meditation, or reflection on the stillness of armistice…

 

A day of exercises designed to perpetuate peace through good will and mutual understanding between nations: …

  

...To  sing with our ancestors  that  we,  too,  will lay down our swords and shields, “down by the riverside, and study  war no more”  —

 

May God’s peace be with you on this Veterans Day, this Armistice Day, and may we lay down all of our arms, all of our burdens, in God’s great Shalom rising up even now, like soldiers climbing out of trenches  a century ago.

Excerpted from ~ The Salt Project, www.saltproject.org, 11/3/2020