Skip this meditation if you cannot use your imagination today.
In a scene from the spoof Spamalot, King Arthur is looking for a Jew, to help him succeed in a musical production on Broadway. This musical, which will be produced a thousand years in the future, will break the curse made in the Very Expensive Forest and allow the King passage. Normally, we’d think the King of England could walk where he pleases. But this is not an ordinary situation. You see, no one really cares that King Arthur is King of England. He has no power other than the power of persuasion and his own dream.
The King is despondent, depressed and discouraged. He shoulders the world’s problems on his shoulders and can hardly walk. Patsy, the faithful servant of King Arthur, walked hesitantly down stage toward the towering and handsome Lord, and tentatively offered,
Patsy: “Sir, I’m Jewish on my mother’s side.”
King: “Why didn’t you tell me this sooner?”
Patsy: “Sir, in the middle ages, it would seem a bit dangerous to tell this to a heavily armed Christian King.”
And the audience bellowed its approval with laughter as the musical once again poked fun at how religion, Christianity in this particular case, has a tradition of creating conflict, scapegoats, and seeking power so everyone gets in a straight line behind the banner of right belief. While this scene is improbable, the notion it delivers is real.
This is a comedy musical analysis of “Us vs. Them.” “Us vs. Them” is a close relative of “Haves and Have Nots”, “Over 21 and Under”, “My Race and Yours” “My Current Majority Status and Your Minority Status” and so on.
Our response to these issues of division and separation needs serious as well as comic attention. To be faithful to Jesus, our response-ability might need to include creative ways of engaging the enemy, which of course, is us and our sense of self-importance and self-righteousness. In fact, it’s our sense of self (aka narcissism) that can be the culprit.
If you’d like to drop some of your narcissism join us at Caffeine Dreams tomorrow morning at 8:30 AM. We’ll then carpool to a Habitat for Humanity site and a morning of work for “we don’t know who but that doesn’t matter because it’s not about us anyway.” Dress for the weather and with luck, we’ll have lunch together--in some place other than the Very Expensive Forest”.
Messengers from John the Baptist
18The disciples of John reported all these things to him. So John summoned two of his disciples 19and sent them to the Lord to ask, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” 20When the men had come to him, they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to you to ask, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?’” 21Jesus had just then cured many people of diseases, plagues, and evil spirits, and had given sight to many who were blind. 22And he answered them, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have good news brought to them. 23And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.”
Friday, November 9
Thursday, November 8
meditation on breaking bread
Meditation on breaking bread.
I can see why some people want to go to college. From a pragmatic point of view college is worth considering. There’s money in it.
Yesterday’s World Herald revealed that in Omaha, a high school drop-out in 1962 earned more income in a year than someone with a high school diploma today. The only way out of that downward spiral is advanced education, luck, or being extraordinary. This financial fact is about the accelerating chasm in Omaha between wealthy and poor people. The article reports, not surprisingly, that people without money see the world differently than those with it. On balance, it seems a person is better off with enough money than to be without it. The world looks better and is more “approachable” that way. Without much money, sections of the Big O become farms for racism: people see the world in through the lenses of poverty and tiredness. And I know how well I function when I don’t get enough sleep!
A previous article in the OWH (10/29 you can log in at Omaha.com and do a search on “bread and barriers” in the e-edition) noted how groups of people are overcoming this poverty/isolation way of viewing life by having dinners in private homes where racism is the topic of conversation. Now, call me crazy, but I think this is church! Comments are just like I heard for years in churches I served, “”We’re all afraid of the unknown. But when someone is sitting at your dining room table and you get to know then, it’s hard to be afraid. Barriers break down.”
Jesus, the prophets and the patriarchs all had a thing for getting together to eat with people they knew and people they didn’t. Eating is a God thing:
Genesis 18:
1The LORD appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day. 2He looked up and saw three men standing near him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent entrance to meet them, and bowed down to the ground. 3He said, “My lord, if I find favor with you, do not pass by your servant. 4Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. 5Let me bring a little bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on—since you have come to your servant.” So they said, “Do as you have said.” 6And Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah, and said, “Make ready quickly three measures of choice flour, knead it, and make cakes.” 7Abraham ran to the herd, and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to the servant, who hastened to prepare it. 8Then he took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree while they ate.
Luke 19
1He entered Jericho and was passing through it. 2A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was rich. 3He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature. 4So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was going to pass that way. 5When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today.
Matthew 9
9As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him.
10And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with him and his disciples. 11When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 12But when he heard this, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.”
In fact, I think there are more stories about food and eating together in scripture than just about any other setting. It seems eating together—with friends and strangers—is a good and holy thing to do.
Sounds like a model for church to me! (and campus ministry for that matter).And oh yeah, how about a movie to go with it? the good folks in Omaha will watch “Crash” and talk about how race plays a part in our perceptions, what we do, and where we work.
Hmmm. Dinner, a movie, and discussion. Now that’s church. College students can do this, and it may just be as helpful to life than that best paying job you’re after.
I can see why some people want to go to college. From a pragmatic point of view college is worth considering. There’s money in it.
Yesterday’s World Herald revealed that in Omaha, a high school drop-out in 1962 earned more income in a year than someone with a high school diploma today. The only way out of that downward spiral is advanced education, luck, or being extraordinary. This financial fact is about the accelerating chasm in Omaha between wealthy and poor people. The article reports, not surprisingly, that people without money see the world differently than those with it. On balance, it seems a person is better off with enough money than to be without it. The world looks better and is more “approachable” that way. Without much money, sections of the Big O become farms for racism: people see the world in through the lenses of poverty and tiredness. And I know how well I function when I don’t get enough sleep!
A previous article in the OWH (10/29 you can log in at Omaha.com and do a search on “bread and barriers” in the e-edition) noted how groups of people are overcoming this poverty/isolation way of viewing life by having dinners in private homes where racism is the topic of conversation. Now, call me crazy, but I think this is church! Comments are just like I heard for years in churches I served, “”We’re all afraid of the unknown. But when someone is sitting at your dining room table and you get to know then, it’s hard to be afraid. Barriers break down.”
Jesus, the prophets and the patriarchs all had a thing for getting together to eat with people they knew and people they didn’t. Eating is a God thing:
Genesis 18:
1The LORD appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day. 2He looked up and saw three men standing near him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent entrance to meet them, and bowed down to the ground. 3He said, “My lord, if I find favor with you, do not pass by your servant. 4Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. 5Let me bring a little bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on—since you have come to your servant.” So they said, “Do as you have said.” 6And Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah, and said, “Make ready quickly three measures of choice flour, knead it, and make cakes.” 7Abraham ran to the herd, and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to the servant, who hastened to prepare it. 8Then he took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree while they ate.
Luke 19
1He entered Jericho and was passing through it. 2A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was rich. 3He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature. 4So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was going to pass that way. 5When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today.
Matthew 9
9As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him.
10And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with him and his disciples. 11When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 12But when he heard this, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.”
In fact, I think there are more stories about food and eating together in scripture than just about any other setting. It seems eating together—with friends and strangers—is a good and holy thing to do.
Sounds like a model for church to me! (and campus ministry for that matter).And oh yeah, how about a movie to go with it? the good folks in Omaha will watch “Crash” and talk about how race plays a part in our perceptions, what we do, and where we work.
Hmmm. Dinner, a movie, and discussion. Now that’s church. College students can do this, and it may just be as helpful to life than that best paying job you’re after.
Wednesday, November 7
meditation on Keith Aldrich, part 1
Meditation on Keith Aldrich 1
Last night at ISS (meets Tuesdays at 8PM, Tower Room, MBSC), we listened to part one of a life lived “way out loud,” and struggled with impressions of authenticity, rights to sanity and how one person’s lifestyle and decisions can place an effect on the lives of others. Of course, this meant we had to bring up to our own senses of self and personal decisions. What values do we live out?
From the written introduction:
“Over the course of his life, Keith Aldrich was a child of the Depression in Oklahoma; a preacher-in-training in booming California; an aspiring Hollywood actor; in the 1950s, a self-styled Beat writer, and then a man in a gray flannel suit; in the 1960s, a member of the New York literati, and then a hippie; in the 1970s, a denizen of the suburbs with a partying, Ice Storm kind of life; and a born-again Christian when the Moral Majority helped put Ronald Reagan in office.”
Mr. Aldrich lived a life of serial monogamy, whether out of a reaction to life in the Church of Christ and its restrictive theology, or to something else, we don’t really know. We do know from the first person accounts of his children that he married, had children, and divorced a number of times (5?). Sometimes, children from one nuclear family came to live with a later family. This left us scratching our heads and a trail of Aldrich relatives struggling to find a sense of place and connection. You can listen yourself by joining us next week for part 2 or going for the whole enchilada at: http://www.thislife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=121
This is exactly one of our adult issues in life: claiming a sense of place and connection. We are eternally trying to find our way, too. Mr. Aldrich was making serial decisions, which he has a right to do, but we all wondered, “is this a good way to go about life? And what was going on in the minds of his wives? What were they thinking? Didn’t they invite this abuse?”
I’m reminded of other folks, particularly in Genesis, who seem to be drawn to dysfunction:
Genesis 19
8The child grew, and was weaned; and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. 9But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, playing with her son Isaac. 10So she said to Abraham, “Cast out this slave woman with her son; for the son of this slave woman shall not inherit along with my son Isaac.” 11The matter was very distressing to Abraham on account of his son. 12But God said to Abraham, “Do not be distressed because of the boy and because of your slave woman; whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for it is through Isaac that offspring shall be named for you. 13As for the son of the slave woman, I will make a nation of him also, because he is your offspring.” 14So Abraham rose early in the morning, and took bread and a skin of water, and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, along with the child, and sent her away. And she departed, and wandered about in the wilderness of Beer-sheba.
As adults, how do our decisions reflect our history? Are we looking for an anticipated and desired future? Can we move on to a higher calling and lifestyle? Or are we stuck?
Age old problems revisited, I think. And we are blessed with the ability to choose. (Of course, the judgment hammer is always meant for others, and not ourselves.)
“To love life and men as God loves them—for the sake of their infinite possibilities,
To wait like Him,
to judge like Him
without passing judgment,
to obey the order when it is given
and never look back—
then He can use you—then perhaps, He will use you,
Every moment has it’s meaning, its greatness, its glory, its peace, it’s co-inherence.
For this perspective, to “believe in God” is to believe in yourself, as self-evident, as “illogical,” and as impossible to explain: if I can be, then God is.”
--Dag Hammerskjold (1st Secretary General of the UN, written, 4/22/1956)
Last night at ISS (meets Tuesdays at 8PM, Tower Room, MBSC), we listened to part one of a life lived “way out loud,” and struggled with impressions of authenticity, rights to sanity and how one person’s lifestyle and decisions can place an effect on the lives of others. Of course, this meant we had to bring up to our own senses of self and personal decisions. What values do we live out?
From the written introduction:
“Over the course of his life, Keith Aldrich was a child of the Depression in Oklahoma; a preacher-in-training in booming California; an aspiring Hollywood actor; in the 1950s, a self-styled Beat writer, and then a man in a gray flannel suit; in the 1960s, a member of the New York literati, and then a hippie; in the 1970s, a denizen of the suburbs with a partying, Ice Storm kind of life; and a born-again Christian when the Moral Majority helped put Ronald Reagan in office.”
Mr. Aldrich lived a life of serial monogamy, whether out of a reaction to life in the Church of Christ and its restrictive theology, or to something else, we don’t really know. We do know from the first person accounts of his children that he married, had children, and divorced a number of times (5?). Sometimes, children from one nuclear family came to live with a later family. This left us scratching our heads and a trail of Aldrich relatives struggling to find a sense of place and connection. You can listen yourself by joining us next week for part 2 or going for the whole enchilada at: http://www.thislife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=121
This is exactly one of our adult issues in life: claiming a sense of place and connection. We are eternally trying to find our way, too. Mr. Aldrich was making serial decisions, which he has a right to do, but we all wondered, “is this a good way to go about life? And what was going on in the minds of his wives? What were they thinking? Didn’t they invite this abuse?”
I’m reminded of other folks, particularly in Genesis, who seem to be drawn to dysfunction:
Genesis 19
8The child grew, and was weaned; and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. 9But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, playing with her son Isaac. 10So she said to Abraham, “Cast out this slave woman with her son; for the son of this slave woman shall not inherit along with my son Isaac.” 11The matter was very distressing to Abraham on account of his son. 12But God said to Abraham, “Do not be distressed because of the boy and because of your slave woman; whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for it is through Isaac that offspring shall be named for you. 13As for the son of the slave woman, I will make a nation of him also, because he is your offspring.” 14So Abraham rose early in the morning, and took bread and a skin of water, and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, along with the child, and sent her away. And she departed, and wandered about in the wilderness of Beer-sheba.
As adults, how do our decisions reflect our history? Are we looking for an anticipated and desired future? Can we move on to a higher calling and lifestyle? Or are we stuck?
Age old problems revisited, I think. And we are blessed with the ability to choose. (Of course, the judgment hammer is always meant for others, and not ourselves.)
“To love life and men as God loves them—for the sake of their infinite possibilities,
To wait like Him,
to judge like Him
without passing judgment,
to obey the order when it is given
and never look back—
then He can use you—then perhaps, He will use you,
Every moment has it’s meaning, its greatness, its glory, its peace, it’s co-inherence.
For this perspective, to “believe in God” is to believe in yourself, as self-evident, as “illogical,” and as impossible to explain: if I can be, then God is.”
--Dag Hammerskjold (1st Secretary General of the UN, written, 4/22/1956)
Monday, November 5
Meditation on who we are; and check out the updated website
Meditation on being who we are.
“The Wiz” is a grooved up version of the 1930’s musical “The Wizard of Oz”. You know the story—it starts out in Kansas and a tornado whisks an approximately 15 year old girl off to la la land. There she meets witches, a talking scarecrow, tin man, a lion, the fake wizard and, of course, her real self. The movie used go from black and white to color about halfway through. The whole thing was great: evil and good witches, flying monkeys, and a scary, if happy resolution. I loved the movie. But then, I liked “Amahl and the Night Visitors”, too.
The story line of the main characters is as close to real life as you can get. It’s all about the main characters looking for their “missing piece.” They all feel incomplete, and if they just get that one “thing.” They will be complete and everything will be fine. To get that missing piece, they must perform a certain task. In the movie, it’s not spelled out so clearly. In the Wiz, it is: Dorothy and her companions must kill the evil witch to get help from the Wizard. This puts a great ethical pressure on Dorothy. She doesn’t want to kill someone in order to be rid of her demons. She understands that disconnect. On the other hand she does want to move on with her life.
Well, anyway, she pulls it all off with a flourish and a few skirmishes. Only then does she realize she already has what she’s been looking for. The Wizard couldn’t give her self-understanding.
This is a God story of sorts. Popular theology understands God as the great giver of understanding and meaning. This keeps God God and people people. We don’t want to mix the two roles. Some feel more safe as an “I’m hopeless and God will save me” attitude. Less popular theology claims understanding the self as the work of what it means to be human: “God’s self-disclosure comes when I am clearly myself and I know and appreciate who I am.” When we make no excuses (mistakes, yes, excuses, no), we are God’s creatures claiming our inheritance.
Genesis 5
1This is the list of the descendants of Adam. When God created humankind, he made them in the likeness of God. 2Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them “Humankind” when they were created.
Yesterday, a colleague was ordained a minister into the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)—one of our sponsoring denominations. In this personal and powerful service at 1st Christian Church (66th and Dodge, across from UNO) the man who brought the message was a good friend of the man to be ordained (there were a number of robed women in the service, too). His message was clear and powerful, centering on our human role of carrying the holy in jars of clay. This did not mean useless jars of clay, it meant imperfect jars of clay. That’s a good thing to claim.
Like Dorothy and her friends, we are not yet perfect, but we are linked to God and extraordinarily useful in carrying the sacred in this world. As the preacher said yesterday, “The problem is not in being who we are, the problem is our never ending fight to be who are not.”
“The Wiz” is a grooved up version of the 1930’s musical “The Wizard of Oz”. You know the story—it starts out in Kansas and a tornado whisks an approximately 15 year old girl off to la la land. There she meets witches, a talking scarecrow, tin man, a lion, the fake wizard and, of course, her real self. The movie used go from black and white to color about halfway through. The whole thing was great: evil and good witches, flying monkeys, and a scary, if happy resolution. I loved the movie. But then, I liked “Amahl and the Night Visitors”, too.
The story line of the main characters is as close to real life as you can get. It’s all about the main characters looking for their “missing piece.” They all feel incomplete, and if they just get that one “thing.” They will be complete and everything will be fine. To get that missing piece, they must perform a certain task. In the movie, it’s not spelled out so clearly. In the Wiz, it is: Dorothy and her companions must kill the evil witch to get help from the Wizard. This puts a great ethical pressure on Dorothy. She doesn’t want to kill someone in order to be rid of her demons. She understands that disconnect. On the other hand she does want to move on with her life.
Well, anyway, she pulls it all off with a flourish and a few skirmishes. Only then does she realize she already has what she’s been looking for. The Wizard couldn’t give her self-understanding.
This is a God story of sorts. Popular theology understands God as the great giver of understanding and meaning. This keeps God God and people people. We don’t want to mix the two roles. Some feel more safe as an “I’m hopeless and God will save me” attitude. Less popular theology claims understanding the self as the work of what it means to be human: “God’s self-disclosure comes when I am clearly myself and I know and appreciate who I am.” When we make no excuses (mistakes, yes, excuses, no), we are God’s creatures claiming our inheritance.
Genesis 5
1This is the list of the descendants of Adam. When God created humankind, he made them in the likeness of God. 2Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them “Humankind” when they were created.
Yesterday, a colleague was ordained a minister into the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)—one of our sponsoring denominations. In this personal and powerful service at 1st Christian Church (66th and Dodge, across from UNO) the man who brought the message was a good friend of the man to be ordained (there were a number of robed women in the service, too). His message was clear and powerful, centering on our human role of carrying the holy in jars of clay. This did not mean useless jars of clay, it meant imperfect jars of clay. That’s a good thing to claim.
Like Dorothy and her friends, we are not yet perfect, but we are linked to God and extraordinarily useful in carrying the sacred in this world. As the preacher said yesterday, “The problem is not in being who we are, the problem is our never ending fight to be who are not.”
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