Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30
Proper 9 (14) - Year A
The left-out section is where Jesus might be seen over-trumping the crowd's disrespecting of John and himself by calling down Doom on places that had not responded positively to his presence. You might almost see GOD's spirit at work knowing that "Doom" is not the last or best word.
So - abruptly - Jesus breaks into prayer. (Was that GOD's prayer being prayed through Jesus or Jesus remembering his own prayer for forgiveness?) Either way - Oh how I wish our current Doom-sayers or Terrorist-baiters would learn to pray in response to their pronouncements of Doom on others.
Jesus' prayer changes things, abruptly.
Before prayer, "Doom!" After prayer, "Tenderness" for the listeners. Jesus is willing to say what he has said, one more time and one more time, again.
Is it lack of prayer that keeps us from the tenderness of working with people instead of pronouncing upon them and leaving them to their Doom?
So, when burned out (like Jesus when he resorted to Doom-talk?), come away with Jesus into a time of prayer about ordinary things and the way GOD is already present in the ordinary. Here are the "unforced rhythms of grace." And don't you really want to live within that freedom and lightness.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2002/july2002.html
If we are going to start with 16-19 we need to include 20-24. We can't compare right hands, but need both the right and the left. In fact, we may need more than right and left and to call on Kali.
How do you foreground learning gentleness, if not against a background of bringing Hades?
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/july2005.html
Might you be burdened by not knowing GOD? Have you been striving for that and seemingly spinning your wheels? It's good to know we can blame Jesus for not letting us in on the unity game.
The sadism of this kind of predestinarianism is supposedly mollified by having this burden recognized and being relieved of it. Somewhere in here things start careening around barns at a crazy tilt.
Tell you what, it is possible to have rested souls, no matter what. Wisdom is vindicated by her deeds and sabbath is proved by resting in GOD (which, of course, can be very active, indeed!).
We are sometimes burdened through laws that turn us into fodder for sabbath blue laws. We look for the manner in which the sabbath is intended to energize us. When we find that rest, our behaviors are set free and we can dance to any tune and eat at any feast.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/july2005.html
A first or most recent glance at a beloved calls forth action. A first or most recent whisper of a beloved calls forth action. Whether from or toward a beloved, we are called beyond sitting and theorizing/creedalizing/speculizing.
Even with the threat of messing up, of mistaking a dream of a beloved for a beloved, there is no real option (though lots of unreal ones) for following a heartbeat that resonates with one's own. There are no guarantees where such action will lead, simply a prayer that love will find its way.
Such love is our birthright. It is G*D's way that we re-image. It is a source of thanks that eases our journey through life.
- - -
stamp your foot
play your flute
throw your tantrumthere is no getting around
a wisdom of deeds
lived into and througheventually we all
arise and come away
to a beloved spacein such wise
prisoners are freed
from dryness unto deathin such wise
prisoners are made
of restored hope
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_07_01_archive.html
I not only like it when things go as I expect, I demand that they do. Elseways I am not able to keep my entitlement quotient where I am comfortable.
Outcomes be hanged, I am only interested in having intentions with plausible deniability. This keeps my ability to demand in good shape from having been exercised so much.
So let us give thanks for all those times when everyone is wrong in their anticipation of being justified. There is an opening here giving hope that we might yet rest from living out of speculation and appreciate actual deeds all the more.
When not trapped in our own speculative expectation, or those of others, we find a reenergizing that comes with dropping that huge burden.
The burden of expectation is not easily identifiable as either being present or a burden. It is simply the water in which we swim. One way of looking at how Jesus was able to be so connected with G*D is his ability to not get caught in the usual expectations with which our cultures surround us. Be freed from expectations and vision is cleared to be able experience the presence of G*D.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2008_06_01_archive.html
Many of us have been attending or following the Wisconsin United Methodist Church trial of Rev. Amy DeLong this last week. It is good to have that completed so wonderfully well with the trial court bringing a restorative justice decision that so minimized a so-called "penalty" that it actually became anOpportunity. Rev. Amy has been asked to lead the conference where it has not been able to go on its own - to find unity in inclusiveness.
Up to this point, the Wisconsin Conference has been very narcissistic, just like "spoiled children whining" [The Message]. Everyone has gone their own way, picking one out of many streams of tradition that suits an individual's bias, and demanding it be the only legitimate way to interpret the future. This is like trying to drive forward by only looking in the rearview mirror. There is not going to be a pretty outcome.
Captive to ideology, both left and right, it becomes impossible to recognize the release of "power" ["dynamis" - inherent power, power residing in a thing by virtue of its nature, or which a person or thing exerts and puts forth]. Everyone has been captured by their own "Law". This is a continuation of Mt. 5:18, in the Common English Bible, that indicates Law functions "until everything there becomes a reality". In the meantime Law, whether yours or mine, blinds us to a reality already among us (the rapture has already happened, G*D's presence is already here - listen to Janet Wolf). When we take our eye off the miracle of reality, we are ripe for capture by one Law or another, masquerading as some end-all or be-all.
Here are two signs of health from the just concluded trial.
A trial court able to bring a restorative justice opportunity instead of a "penalty" and A T-shirt graphic by Rev. Amy that doesn't demand she be you or you be she.
With these we can dance together rather than demand another dance for us by shooting at their feet.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2011/06/matthew-1116-19-25-30.html
To what shall we compare our usual systems and structures? A narcissist? Processes that want what they want and that right now.
How shall we talk about a longer-term way; wide where wideness helps and narrow where such assists our way together. A yoke is the image used here.
A yoke can be like that of oxen. Stick your neck here and be yoked to Jesus. What Jesus would do, you will do. Gee. Haw.
A better image of a yoke is that which can be placed across your shoulders to assist you to balance and carry more than you thought you could; more than arms alone could support for any distance.
Here life is a bit more exciting. Depending on the load and the destination things will be spread out or brought in. Though ancient in design it is modernly ergonomic. A single weight can be distributed. The weight of a whole spiritual life can be divided into acts of piety with G*D on one side and acts of mercy with Neighb*r on the other. Together, balance.
Having difficulty balancing your life? Here, take my yoke. No, no joke. I can make another. Make it your own—use it according to your load, not mine. See, the ease of work. Let there be ... —now where does that fit and what will have to change because of this new word become present?
Got a heavy burden? Who doesn’t? Remember the yoke. It is not a cross to bear; it is a community that carries one another, weeping as well as laughing. It is with this yoke that all is brought in, even the heaviest of burdens such as Tyre and Sidon (well, beside you and me). Carry and be carried—a wonderfully recursive fractal (well, not really as I don’t know what I’m talking about here, but it sounded good). Perhaps someone can give a better mathematical model for a meaning schema. Put that on your yoke and carry it!
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2014/06/matthew-1116-30.html