1 Corinthians 7:29-31
Epiphany 3 - Year B
The present form of the world is passing away. Given a living GOD moving toward a new heaven and a new earth, how could things be any different?
In this context it is important to first let go of the old before grabbing on to the new. In between release and connect we will be working out issues of faith in fear and trembling.
This is simply the way we begin to live - through non-attachment and toward renewed non-attachment in a new context. Check with a Buddhist friend about how non-attachment frees one to be compassionate and loving. Through this difficult-for-us negation comes a "greatest of these" affirmation.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2003/january2003.html
"I do want to point out, friends, that time is of the essence. There is no time to waste, so don't complicate your lives unnecessarily. Keep it simple - in marriage, grief, joy, whatever. Even in ordinary things - your daily routines of shopping, and so on. Deal as sparingly as possible with the things the world thrusts on you. This world as you see it is on its way out." [The Message]
There is no time to waste. This means time cannot be saved (as in storing it away, saving it for a rainy day). I highly recommend reading Momo by Michael Ende. Here is a review by a reader at Amazon.com that I agree with and it brought back memories of our reading Momo to our children in a chapter-a-day fashion.
***** [five stars out of five]
I could never forget this book..., December 11, 2002
Reviewer: Kenia from New Jersey, USA
I read this book when I was very young. I was twelve years old, and I was still back in my country. I remember this story and the impact it had on me, even as a young teen. I remember not being able to put it down. Not the first, second or even the third time I read it. Although I read this masterpiece in Spanish, it still carried the same message. A message about life and how important it is to make the most of it. A message about time, about how we often misuse it, applying it to things that are wasteful and don't have much meaning. It really shows how we can get wrapped up in society and its needs, forgetting what's really important. I loved the characters, the metaphors and analogies, the narrative, the set up. I remember reading chapters over just be able to absolutely comprehend what something meant. Although many think this book is for children, I disagree. Adults should be familiar with this story, for we are the ones that forget what's really essential. I am ready to purchase it and re-read it. Ready to get sucked in it all over again. Ready to cry my eyes out at the end one more time... It is an unforgettable experience... I read it more then 10 years ago... and never forgot.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2003/january2003.html
The present form of the world is passing away. So, what's new?
How tightly we will hang on to that which is passing and how lightly we will hold any new beginnings entrusted to us?
These questions move us into solidarity with our Buddhist sisters and brothers. Their gift of open-eyed detachment will aid us into a radical openness to what we experience as the expansive and expanding love of G*D.
What has been weighing you down these days? What has been heightening your anxiety? Let's look at these situations again, this time through eyes focused on the presence of G*D in the midst of these and every event.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2006/january2006.html
And just what happens to people who deny, repress, avoid their participation in relationships? their connection with their emotions, such as mourning and rejoicing? their connection with society as represented by an engagement with the current economy? their connection with the thought patterns of a culture?
Are they thereby mechanically, automatically kept from some distress or anxiety that Paul bookends this pericope as his major reason for so behaving?
Is there not a blessing available for those who have a vocation to these parts of life? Did not Jesus return a boy to his widowed mother, a daughter to her parents? Did not Jesus enter into weeping and feasting for the bridegroom is present, not just coming? Did not Jesus counsel paying taxes and accept the welfare or charity of many? Did not Jesus use the thought patterns as a basis for his parables that begin to shift those thoughts, not deny their presence?
For what purpose would you disengage from life? For some supposed more life? To attempt to reduce your anxiety?
For what purpose would you engage more deeply with life? For some supposed more life? To attempt to fill your life?
See if you can apply this quote from Paul Tillich's, "An Ontology of Anxiety," The Courage to Be.
"Fear, as opposed to anxiety, has a definite object (as most authors agree), which can be faced, analyzed, attacked, endured. One can act upon it, and in acting upon it participate in it--even if in the form of struggle. In this way one can take it into one's self-affirmation. Courage can meet every object of fear, because it is an object and makes participation possible. Courage can take the fear produced by a definite object into itself, because this object, however frightful it may be, has a side with which it participates in us and we in it. One could say that as long as there is an object of fear, love in the sense of participation can conquer fear. But this is not so with anxiety, because anxiety has no object, or rather, in a paradoxical phrase, its object is the negation of every object. Therefore participation, struggle, and love with respect to it are impossible. He who is in anxiety is, insofar as it is mere anxiety, delivered to it without help."
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2006/january2006.html
There are many great balancing acts where we are not shaken, where we rest. Among the greatest is that of "none."
Are you seen, do you see yourself, as being of little value, of great value? The difference is smaller than a jot or tittle. It takes nothing to push a balanced scale, an empty scale. Let it go.
Fisher of fish or fisher of folk? Net leaver or family leaver? First journey or second journey to Tarshish or Nineveh? We tell ourselves stories that one is better than the other.
In a time of fulfillment "all" and "nothing" lose significance.
Let me have all things, let me having nothing, I freely and heartily yield.
Let me have repentance, let me have good news, I freely and heartily yield.
Let me have mourning, let me have rejoicing, I freely and heartily yield.
Let me have prison, let me have Galilee, I freely and heartily yield.
What has been the tension you have been holding on to to define your present time here? Might this be a time of fulfillment where you can yield to both rather than wait for one to knock off the other?
- - -
rock against rock
devil against sea
addiction against addiction
we set our dilemmas
wavering between them
holding both so precious
we could never put one downtime against space
matter against energy
galaxy against quark
we set our paradoxes
choosing one and then
favoring the other
once, twice, and thricedoctrine against doctrine
hymn against praise
faith against hope
we set our institutions
burning with passion
burning each heretic
loving sets more than love itself
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_01_01_archive.html
"I do want to point out, friends, that time is of the essence. There is no time to waste, so don't complicate your lives unnecessarily. Keep it simple —in marriage, grief, joy, whatever. Even in ordinary things—your daily routines of shopping, and so on. Deal as sparingly as possible with the things the world thrusts on you. This world as you see it is on its way out." [The Message]
Time is important. It is always coming to an end and opening up. In this regard it is as tricky as particularly wavy light that can't be pinned down to one state or another. Whatever the reigning paradigm, early or late, it will be gone soon enough. This whether it is desired or not.
Referencing the recent transfer of power between George W. Bush or Barack Obama, regardless of political perspective, the world as it has been known or is currently known is on its way out. So, don't complicate things. Be whom ye be. Barack was Barack before entering professional politics. George remains George after his political run. Every pastor and president and teacher and doctor and reformer knows how quickly their effectiveness fades when their presence fades. All one can do is all one can do. Opportunities pass and opportunities arrive. Take advantage of your time without taking advantage.
Run toward good news or away from bad news: pause between runs to reflect that time is of the essence. Have a Powdermilk biscuit and do what needs to be done. May you leave a freshness stain wherever you go.
- - -
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2009_01_01_archive.html
If we are going to affirm that the present configuration of love and power is out of balance and passing away, there comes a new challenge.
Continuing to live as though we were perpetually confined to the present is expecting a different outcome from the same behavior. However you were living a day ago, change it today that tomorrow might blossom and grow.
Moving on is a given, treat it as such. Hop to.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2012/01/1-corinthians-729-31.html