"My Cry is to All that Live!"

For Sunday, May 30th, 2010


(Mosaic titled “Creation – Day 2” as recalled in Proverbs 8, from the Palatine Chapel in Palermo, Italy. Circa mid 12th century, used under Creative Commons license.)

Lectionary Scripture - Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31 (NRSV)

Does not wisdom call, and does not understanding raise her voice? On the heights, beside the way, at the crossroads she takes her stand; beside the gates in front of the town, at the entrance of the portals she cries out: "To you, O people, I call, and my cry is to all that live. The LORD created me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of long ago. Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth. When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no springs abounding with water. Before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills, I was brought forth -- when he had not yet made earth and fields, or the world's first bits of soil. When he established the heavens, I was there, when he drew a circle on the face of the deep, when he made firm the skies above, when he established the fountains of the deep, when he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was beside him, like a master worker; and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the human race.”

“My Cry is to All that Live”

I love Wisdom! I love her calming effect. I love how she centers me and provides perspective. I love how ancient she is -- for as Proverbs states above, God created and brought her forth from the very beginning. Lastly, I love how Wisdom rejoices over you and me and our inhabited world and how she delights in the human race as a whole. Her presence in our lives opens our hearts open widely and we loosen our grasp on the things we cling to -- whether those are material and temporal or parts of our psyche that hold spirit and soul hostage. Sometimes it’s both!

Take for instance the Arts and Entertainment (A&E) Channel reality show “Hoarders.” It’s rather popular but can be depressing. When it first started, it showcased the hoarder and their lifestyle and how that lifestyle had isolated the individual and threatened their health and well-being. Early on, the show made painfully feeble attempts to help such persons. It brought in professional organizers, junk haulers, and mental health workers - some of whom had absolutely no business trying to help such individuals. Frankly, the early shows were tortuous and demonstrated little more than some A&E producer’s recklessness for doing what TV does best, i.e. make money off someone else’s misery. Lately however, it seems that Wisdom found her way into how the show does its thing.

So what’s different? Well first off, I think A&E producers finally discovered that people in these situations can be helped through Wisdom’s more respectful and compassionate approach than simply embarrassing and confronting and later abandoning these individuals. Wisdom, from wherever it came, helped producers gain a more complete understanding of hoarding as a debilitating mental health disorder. Wisdom then enlarged A&E’s generosity through which they sought and secured more experienced mental health professionals. More resources were then devoted to helping the persons they showcased through aftercare services for the individuals and their loved ones, families and friends. Aftercare now entails counseling to help persons move through grief and loss that are often a part of such situations. Aftercare also provides for continuing opportunity to meet with a professional organizer trained to help and support persons struggling with this particular illness. Lastly, the program now takes time to carefully respect the hoarder’s decisions of what goes and what stays. The realization that’s been made is that failing to honor and provide for such decision-making may force a person into crisis and even suicidal feelings. Lastly, A&E has learned another important aspect of Wisdom and generosity in its dealings with persons in such situations. What is it? Well, A&E now realizes that they must showcase the possibility for recovery, restoration, hope and resilience.

For me, I witnessed these things while watching an episode of the show this past week which gave significant time to videoing the transformations that had been accomplished -- transformations that were nothing less than amazing. One transformation involved a parents’ situation that in the end allowed for their children to return home from court-ordered foster placements. Another transformation allowed for a mother grieving the loss of her husband to restore the family home to its former elegance. The restoration thereby allowed surviving family members to visit the home again and begin a new life of creating new memories for the future that’s now lies ahead. Another transformation allowed for a hoarding boyfriend to keep his relationship with a long time girlfriend whom he was about to lose.

Yes, for all these hoarders some ancient residual of Wisdom within them called out and said, “My cry is to all that live!” Wisdom in others then responded bringing healing and hope through human beings who care and wanted to help and were capable of doing so in ways Wisdom that requires. A restored sense of calm entered these people’s lives. New perspectives found a foothold and gracious generosities -- in so many different ways and forms -- made a new life possible. As one hoarder stated about his self-discovery through the show’s process, “I realize now that for me this problem is like being an alcoholic. To stay on top of it I have to take things one day at a time and do what’s necessary each day so this doesn’t happen again.”

I don’t know at what exact moment in the show that Wisdom came upon me, but I went and grabbed one of my six personal junk drawers. I doubt that I had seriously looked at anything in the drawer for years. But with the show’s suggested guideline of not keeping anything I haven’t used in the past year and am unlikely to use in the next six months, I spent the next two hours cleaning out the drawer. After being carefully monitored by my dear wife so I didn’t toss any family heirlooms or anything recyclable, the drawer had only a few things left in it. Those things were a small piece of pottery from my oldest daughter when she was in sixth grade in which I stored lapel pins that say “support peace”, a ring with my church’s “peace” seal on it, and a couple of $2 dollar U.S. currency bills. The remaining items went into a small tin were I stored a small collection of foreign coins from our international travels as well as a set of hat feathers purchased in Austria for my Loden hat.

Looking at what I chose to keep and that much of it reflected our international vacations, my wife, never certain that I like travel as much as she does, then took the opportunity to say, “So when we downsize to our next house does this mean we can do more travel abroad?” In my mind, Wisdom is smiling at me sharing her delight over our world of which there is so much more to discover. Therefore I reply to Wisdom and say, “I guess so Sweetie.”

"Abba! Father!"

For Sunday, May 23rd, 2010


(Photo is of a mosaic of the Apostle Paul in the Palatine Chapel in Palermo, Italy. Used under Creative Commons License)

Lectionary Scripture – Romans 8:14-17 (NRSV)

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, "Abba! Father!" it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ--if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

“Abba! Father!”

The Apostle Paul used different approaches to help new Christians, especially Jewish Christians, comprehend the generosity God extended them for becoming followers of Jesus. For most Jews, their lives and upbringing centered completely on following a complex set of laws to earn God’s favor. Almost always, a person failed in one regard or another to measure up. Failure was therefore sin. To absolve oneself of sin, sacrificial offerings or purification rituals were required to get back on track and avoid God’s wrath. Over the centuries, the rigidity of the rules and laws for these offerings and rituals, as administered by the religious authorities, felt more like slavery. Naturally, fear of scorn and judgment was the byproduct awaiting your next misstep rather than feeling loved and right with God.

Becoming a follower of Jesus reframed all that negativity. It took some work however to help individuals make the leap in their understanding to “knowing” the generous love God intended for them. It had in fact been a generosity always available to them, but humankind -- as we tend to do – had so corrupted and controlled people’s sense of whom and what God loved, that an entirely new movement was needed to break people out of the slavery that bound their hearts, minds, and spirits. Jesus brought that movement into being and as vehicle of God’s generosity made it palpable and undeniable. It would then be up to Paul and many others to flesh it out.

For the Roman Jews, Paul found a means for fleshing things out through the concept of adoption as defined under Roman law. The Roman definition was quite clear that in the eyes of the law adopted children had the very same rights and privileges as biological offspring. The only requirement involved is that the adoption had to be witnessed by one other party. For Paul, induction into the family of God occurred through encounter with the Holy Spirit. The Spirit was therefore the witness that God’s generosity and love and adoption into God’s family had been conveyed to a person. The encounter itself might be like that of the early disciples and Pentecost or it might be something similarly ecstatic to the love of a parent that greets a newborn daughter or son.

For me, I would have to say that my experience of such love didn’t occur at my baptism or confirmation when I was a young child. No, that moment of God breaking through to me and completely reframing my understanding of how God saw and regarded me happened several years later. It involved a simple moment in the course of a routine day while working as a bank teller. Age nineteen and home from college for the summer, I was processing a night deposit bag in the company of other tellers doing similar work. Suddenly while consumed in total focus on processing the deposit, God’s Spirit broke into my awareness and completely overwhelmed me with a feeling of being loved and accepted. I had never experienced anything like it before and the sensation coursed so powerfully through me that I had to lean against the counter in front of me as I feared I’d collapse to the floor. Precious words then flowed into my mind, words that could only be God’s, “You’re okay Brad, you’re really okay.” From that point on I knew my life would be committed to this divine presence and helping others to find this feeling and affirmation for their lives.

We live in a world my friends not unlike that of Jesus and the Apostle Paul. It’s a world that remains fear-based. It plays on our fears in countless evil ways so as to contravene the generosity that could transform our humanity and heal the earth. Like Paul did, we need to help each other learn. We need to help one another see, sense, and experience being part of God’s family beyond the prejudices and particularities that separate and divide us or serve self-absorbed egos. One example of such endeavor is captured in a journalist’s story of Mother Teresa’s life in India. Unfortunately I’ve lost the name to properly reference and credit his work, but what he wrote if far too important to pass up:

In recent years before her death she was labeled an "impostor", a "religious imperialist" who surreptitiously converted millions of poor people to Christianity. In response, she was once heard to say, "I do convert - I convert you to be a better Hindu, a better Catholic, a better Muslim, Jainist or Buddhist."

People in Calcutta remember a particularly emotional day when Mother Teresa faced a delirious crowd of protesters. She had set up the Home for the Dying next to a famous Hindu temple in Calcutta and there she took in patients refused even by hospitals. Locals were enraged after rumors spread that those who died there were buried as Christians. After a public furor, a local official and a senior police officer went to inquire. In a room full of an intensely foul stench, they saw Mother Teresa hunched over a person whose face had turned into a large gaping wound. Unmindful of the smell, she was pulling away maggots from the patient’s raw flesh with the help of a tweezers.

On approach of the officials, Mother Teresa said, "You say a prayer in your religion and I will say a prayer in mine. Together we will say this prayer and it will be something beautiful for God." With tears in his eyes, the police officer returned to the angry crowd outside the Home for the Dying and said to the protesters, "Yes, I will send this woman away, but only after you have persuaded your mothers and sisters to come here and do the work that she is doing. This woman is a saint.”

God’s Generosity, it’s the only path forward for humanity’s healing and reconciliation. What can you share or let go of in order that others may know a Love so powerful it will take them to their knees?

"Oneness"

For Sunday, May 16th, 2010

(Stained glass at St. John the Baptist's Anglican Church in Ashfield, Sydney Australia; Creative Commons license)

Lectionary Scripture - John 17:20-26 (NRSV)

"I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. "Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them."

"Oneness"

Commentary for the above scripture notes that Jesus has completed his last supper with the disciples. Soon he will face betrayal, arrest, and then be crucified. Before this evil occurs, Jesus offers prayer on behalf of his followers and for the church that will arise from their witness. Commonly referred to as his high priestly prayer, Jesus petitions God that his followers be fruitful in their work and "that they may all be one" even as he and God are one.

All these centuries later, the phrase “that they may all be one” has become in one commentator’s opinion the rallying cry for many ecumenical actions among today’s denominations. As such, the commentator says the phrase has become a cliché for many persons, perhaps even a tired one at that. What the commentator observes is that ecumenical actions or implications were hardly on Jesus mind when Jesus prayed the words contained in the above passage. What the writer states specifically is this:

“It is important that this passage be examined in the context of Jesus' whole prayer, and his hope for the witness that would follow his death. Unless we believe that Jesus foresaw the future denominations of his church and left for us a slogan, it is important to search for Jesus' original meaning.”

The commentator then states that "oneness" is a central symbol in the Gospel of John. Jesus and the Father are one. Jesus desires all who come to faith to be one. There is to be one flock and one shepherd. John even mentions Jesus' seamless robe and the disciples’ un-torn net from a sudden and overwhelming catch of fish, all of which show wholeness and oneness. The work of Jesus has been to gather the people, save them, and unite them into one. When Jesus prays that the disciples will be one, he asks that they may all live in God as Jesus dwells in God. Lastly, "oneness" is to be desired while unbelief and distance from God is described as being lost or scattered.

For the commentator, the unity of believers is to be modeled on the kind of unity that exists between God and Jesus, a unity that is fundamentally a united purpose, expressing itself in a common mission and message. Our task therefore is gathering people from out of the darkness and lostness of their lives into life with God. In so doing, their world and life becomes what this blogger calls the “oneness community”.

I don’t know about you, but I have been looking for the “oneness community” my whole life and where I have had opportunity, I and others have tried to forge it into existence. After 34 years of hard and dedicated work through priestly ministry, it seems a vaporous and elusive dream. Why so? I think it’s because so many of us lack generosity.

We lack generosity for a whole variety reasons. We may lack generosity because we possess authority over other persons and don’t like their way of doing things. Our way is superior and so we inject ourselves into their situation or circumstance and try to re-order or re-do things. After a while, we find we can’t sustain the effort and in time achieve little more than worsening the situation and leave it mired in mediocrity and the heartache of abandonment. Sad thing is that it happens all the time. Probably there’s no better cliché for it than what the American President, Ronald Reagan, once identified as the most frightening statement in the English language, i.e. “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.” Or put in ecclesiastical terms, “I’m from the denomination and I’m here to help.” One frightening thing in that regard has been the failure to address forthrightly the matter of abuse by clergy members and failing to intervene immediately with any and all forms of abuse by clergy – no matter how subtle. It’s a catastrophe that will prevent “oneness community” for decades to come.

Where then is the spirit of generosity contributing to “oneness”? Well in an adaptation of recent counsel from the president of my denomination, I think it’s any circumstance where we refuse to remain in the shadows of our fears, or in the shadows of our insecurities, or in the shadowy places others try to create because they aim to pit one person’s loyalty against that of another. As our president counseled, “…move forward in the light of your divinely instilled call and vision.” Jesus summoned the courage to do just that throughout the whole of his earthly walk and it inspired person after to person into similar generosity. For some persons, the generosity of Jesus meant a healing or it meant special words of teaching and understanding and enlightenment. For others, their generosity involved leaving everything behind that had ever defined their lives to be an advocate of a message and mission of love that would transform the world bit by bit.

Who knows when or where the need for generosity might surface and whether that need will be large and significant or small and unanticipated. Having enjoyed a nice meal a while back in downtown Portland, Oregon during the middle of winter, my wife and I began the three or four block walk back to our car from the restaurant where generous helpings of food had necessitated take-home boxes. Both of us anticipated that our take-home would probably last another meal or two. Halfway into our walk, some homeless young adults stopped us and asked if they could have our leftovers. Cold and obviously hungry, we did not hesitate in giving them the food. We then stood and watched their eyes as they opened the boxes to see what they were getting. The gratitude was immediate on their faces is something I’ll not forget. “Thank you so much,” were the words that followed. “You’re most welcome,” we replied.

May you and I come to understand the many different forms of generosity that bless the needs and lives of others and how in a myriad of many diverse and simple ways, we can let go of something small -- or even something big -- and allow “oneness” with God to bring “oneness” to others. May Christ’s Peace be with you.

Sources for this post:

•  Homiletics Online resource and commentary titled "Voyager Church" for May 27, 2001 (subscription required, see http://www.homileticsonline.com/)
• New Revised Standard Version of the Bible
• Community of Christ worship helps for May 16th, 2010

"There Will Be No More Night!"

For Sunday, May 9th, 2010

(Photo is a model of a city on an altarpiece in the church of Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan Italy. Done in 1482 by Artist, Carlo Crivelli (1430-1500). Parallels between actual towns and the Heavenly Jerusalem were frequent during this time period. Used under Creative Commons license.)



Lectionary Scripture - Revelations 21:10, 22 - 22:5 (NRSV)

And in the spirit he carried me away to a great, high mountain and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God. I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. Its gates will never be shut by day--and there will be no night there. People will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. But nothing unclean will enter it, nor anyone who practices abomination or falsehood, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life. Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit producing its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. Nothing accursed will be found there any more. But the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him; they will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And there will be no more night; they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.

There Will Be No More Night!

Regarding the above scripture, my denomination asks a couple of questions. It asks what you and I and can do so our faith communities help the larger community become so close to God that there is no need for a church or a temple? It also asks that we express such a vision in our own individual words.

In my mind these are critically important questions if we are persons residing in cultures and societies now skeptical and dismissive of organized religion. For me, it seems that we can respond in one of two ways. We can engage in serious discernment and response to the issues involved and dramatically change our ways or we can act as though nothing is wrong and that our faith communities are fine as they are or at most just need a bit of tweaking.

For those who favor the tweaking response, good luck. Your faith community will probably be among the vast majority of houses of worship closing shop in the next ten to twenty years according to researchers studying the public’s penchant for moving away from organized religion. Trust me that there will be no amount of lipstick on a pig that’s going to save things for you. Furthermore, I doubt that Jesus is going to drop down out of the sky to save your faith community from itself. The kind of help you’re actually going to need my friends is open heart surgery. It’s about the only way to escape a fatal ending but you better plan on healing and recovery being long, uncomfortable, and quite painful. Lastly, like most heart patients, you’ll have to learn new ways of living if you want an enjoyable quality of life and prefer not be under the knife again anytime soon. For some, this kind of undertaking will be worth it and the choice will be clear. Yet there are those who will say, “Nothing about me or my way of doing things is going to change. The only way I’m going out of this situation is feet first.” There’s not a whole lot I have to say to the “feet first” persons other than to hope that God provides you opportunity to enjoy your fantasy in some way or another on the other side of the veil. Meanwhile, those of us left behind will be hard at work helping the world of faith become what it needs to be for the generations that have felt ignored, treated dismissively, and ultimately discounted for contributing anything meaningful to our world’s healing and reconciliation.

So while those who chose to calcify continue that particular journey, what I have much hope for is those of you who take seriously the question of what you and your faith community can do to make your city shine like a New Jerusalem; that is a New Jerusalem so close to God there is no need for a church or a temple. So what would you say that such a thing looks like, feels like, and act like in cultures and societies that are suspicious, violent, or skeptical that any such collective of faithful can bring genuine healing and transformation?

Well if I’m to give voice to such a vision in my own words then I must first acknowledge how limited I am in my own perception. I might be able to voice that vision in terms of being an educated middle-class white American male living in Washington State in the community of Vancouver however I will not be able to voice that vision for my ministerial colleague living in Orissa, India. I wouldn’t even be able to voice that vision for a fellow disciple in some rural setting of a Canadian province.

But understanding that limitation -- and understanding that even in seemingly disparate places certain things can still resonate and speak to us no matter where they might originate from -- I therefore share these thoughts for healing and transforming my skeptical and dismissive community into a shining New Jerusalem. I begin first with adopting something Gandi once said, “You must be the change you want to see in the world.” Therefore I’ll forego the notion of expending energy, time, resource, and effort trying to persuade any existing faith community to join this endeavor if calcification is well underway.

Next I will go to family, friends, neighbors and associates in the community and share a concept for touching and healing lives that’s substantive, real, personal, hands-on, inclusive and fully just; all of which will be understood as a new form of worship lived out while in the very act of helping and caring for others no matter who they are or what they have been or the particular path of faith or philosophical belief that has guided their lives. All will be welcomed and all will be served to the extent we have means and resources for doing so or can achieve such through joining forces with any others who seek after the Common Good (i.e. the greatest possible good for the greatest possible number of individuals). There will be no litmus tests such as, “Got Jesus?” Though being a follower of Jesus, or Mohammed, or Buddha, or some other great teacher and prophet will be fully affirmed and acknowledged.

In this new combined form of worship and service and fellowship, we will sing and pray and teach and share our stories with one another in the very moments that we’re also alleviating pain, suffering, hopelessness, and helplessness. Doing so whenever and wherever it best suits the needs of those immediately involved whether that’s in someone’s home, coffee shop, public meeting place, restaurant, shopping mall, or brewpub.

At first, we’ll gather the tithe or alms or whatever to resource and support functional needs directly related to this ministry and the expansion of it in our community. In time and with expansion, we’ll also use these resources to project our voice through entities capable of amplifying our message and mission so its witness can be useful and beneficial elsewhere. But ti shall also be our means for constantly re-evaluating and repositioning ourselves to provide the greatest benefit, service, and ministry possible.

Above it all however, will be our goal that the faces of children, women, and men in our community will shine bright with new life and empowerment for as the scripture says, “People will bring into it the glory….” And they will say, “Had it not been for these people who cast off their church walls and cloistered communities, I would still be suffering. I would still be hopeless and spiritual death my lot in life. Instead my life shines and because of the light of my life joins the light of many other lives here, there is ‘no need of sun or moon to shine’ for God resides in us and ‘there will be no more night’.”

"Who Am I to Hinder God?"

For Sunday, May 2nd, 2010

(Stained glass rendering of Peter's vision at the Church of St. Peter in Nottingham, Great Britain.  Glazier/artist unknown.  Possibly late 19th century.  Photo by Dominican friar, Lawrence OP.  Used under Creative Commons license.)

Lectionary Scripture - Acts 11:1-18 (NRSV)

Now the apostles and the believers who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also accepted the word of God. So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him, saying, "Why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them?" Then Peter began to explain it to them, step by step, saying, "I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision. There was something like a large sheet coming down from heaven, being lowered by its four corners; and it came close to me. As I looked at it closely I saw four-footed animals, beasts of prey, reptiles, and birds of the air. I also heard a voice saying to me, 'Get up, Peter; kill and eat.' But I replied, 'By no means, Lord; for nothing profane or unclean has ever entered my mouth.' But a second time the voice answered from heaven, 'What God has made clean, you must not call profane.' This happened three times; then everything was pulled up again to heaven. At that very moment three men, sent to me from Caesarea, arrived at the house where we were. The Spirit told me to go with them and not to make a distinction between them and us. These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man's house. He told us how he had seen the angel standing in his house and saying, 'Send to Joppa and bring Simon, who is called Peter; he will give you a message by which you and your entire household will be saved.' And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as it had upon us at the beginning. And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said, 'John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.' If then God gave them the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder God?" When they heard this, they were silenced. And they praised God, saying, "Then God has given even to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life."

Who Am I to Hinder God?

Poor Peter, stuff really has to happen in threes for him if things were going to sink in. The first set of threes is his denials of knowing or being associated with Jesus prior to the crucifixion. The second set of threes is when the Risen Jesus appears for the third time by the seaside and cooks Peter and friends some breakfast after they caught 153 fish. The third set of threes is when Jesus asks Peter three times after breakfast if Peter truly loves him. Now we have the fourth set of threes that come in the form of a vision recurring three times in which God lowers unclean things in Jewish tradition for Peter to eat yet God commands Peter to eat anyway. And then there’s the fifth set of threes which are the three men who arrive from Caesarea to see Peter just as the third occurrence of his vision ends. All the foregoing could leave a person wishing they were Peter in order to enjoy such an abundance of extraordinary experiences.

For me however, I need to stop and consider the dynamic that’s actually in play with the above scripture and repetition of things.  Peter probably draws the best conclusion about it all when he says to his fellow believers, “Who am I that I should hinder God?” I would probably expand that a bit and also ask, “Who are we that we should hinder God?” It’s a question that must rightly be asked at the individual level but also for the collective -- for if we human beings did not hinder God, might not the purposes of God and God’s Peaceable Kingdom already be fulfilled or at least a good deal further along than they are

If I genuinely ask that question of myself then I must face down the ways in which I have not loved as I should have loved. I must also face down the times when I chosen to maintain what's comfortable for me and my way of doing things while others have suffered or are suffering.  And I must face down as well when I have let the wrong kind of person or persons hold sway over some situation or circumstance when confronting it and doing the right thing should have been my path instead -- despite the discomfort or sacrifice involved!  Peter had to confront those dynamics and issues when he returned to his fellow disciples in Judea. There he was criticized for fellowshipping with non-Jewish persons and worse yet for baptizing them into the Christian church.  Only after Peter reported his spiritual experience did the early Jewish Christians get beyond themselves and finally accept that God intended Christ’s message and mission to be for all people.

Still today -- all these centuries after Peter’s experience -- we continue to hinder God. We do so by heading down paths that serve our own egos and/or sense of what we want rather than what God wants.  And all too often, rather than summoning the courage and conviction and resolve to go in a completely different direction – even what might seem like a profane direction, we do a Peter-like thing and say, “By no means, Lord; for nothing profane or unclean have I ever participated in.”  On that note, let’s stop and ask ourselves what history might have to say about Christianity if early Jewish Christians had kept Christ’s message and mission to themselves.  For me, my sense is that Christianity would have been consigned to some footnote in history as an obscure little sect of Judaism that ultimately amounted to nothing because Peter failed to listen to God and failed to take his fellow believers to task over the question of, “Who am I to hinder God?”  Had he failed to do all those things, the work and purposes of the Peaceable Kingdom would have probably died off with the first few generations of Jewish Christians.  But as we know, the message and mission was intended for all humankind, therefore billions claim themselves to be followers of Jesus today and seek for a just and peaceable world.

So ask yourself the question, “Am I hindering God? Is my faith community hindering God? Are we doing little more than consigning ourselves to some footnote in history?  Are we just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic?” If your answers sound like anything remotely similarly to rearranging deck chairs or putting lipstick on a pig, then you’re probably hindering God.  Rest assured however that there are generations of youthful and energetic persons about to rise up.  Organized religion as we have known it and as the generations of our elders have wanted it, will pass away.  Something quite new and fresh is about to happen and it will take us light-years closer to the reality of God’s Peaceable Kingdom here on Earth.

What will that fresh, potent, and new thing be? My guess is that first and foremost it will have a character of stewardship that no longer accepts resources being tied up in things that serve human ego. Instead, resources will go directly toward healing and alleviating all types of pain and suffering. Secondly, the generations authoring this approach will apply those resources with a spirit and form of generosity that gets the job done and done right the first time around.  Ministry and mission on a shoestring budget will no longer be acceptable. And also unacceptable will be resources existing in the form of idle inanimate objects.  For these generations and their families and children there will be an urgency unlike any in the past. Not because of those who promulgate fear over whether or not your soul is saved or you belong to the right faith or faith community, but rather because the Earth lies on the brink of being unable to sustain human life as well life in many other forms.

So who are you to hinder God? Who am I?  And just so it sinks in, let's do the Peter thing and ask ourselves those questions three times.