1 Thessalonians 2:9-13
Proper 26 (31) - Year A
There is a sense in which we progressive Christians have been gadflies, moving from one issue to another without explicitly making the connections present in the moves. How is sexual identity connected with economic justice connected with war connected with church growth connected with spiritual formation connected with propaganda connected with environmental ethics - etc.?
What is (y)our theory of everything? You might want to check out the work of Ken Wilbur. You will need to spend some time with him, just like you need to spend time with the scriptures or your mission field, to begin seeing how the connections actually do build upon one another. Once seeing this you may be able to begin shifting to descriptive language rather than prescriptive.
Connecting the dots, teaching step-by-step, is one of the places we need to be challenged by the energy and investment by Paul. This is not a call to easy consistency, but to difficult wrestling with underlying paradigms.
Another way to talk about this is that we need to continually describe the vision of "heaven come on earth" so that folks will eventually see it with some sense of wholeness rather than a bunch of disparate parts. This will help us live well with G*D and Self and Neighbor.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2002/november2002.html
We have worked hard at sharing our experiences of G*D. We have striven mightily in the past. Others have seen our toil and benefited from it. Note that it was not the work, striving, or toil that was received, but the urging, support, and encouragement to keep moving on, to not stay stuck in the world as it was.
In this sense, folks do not respond to the due diligence of our workaholism, our human words, but to the best in us, G*D's presence/word/messiah, that is also available in every person. This presence/word/messiah of G*D is our connecting point. When it is reveled in we grow, when it is suppressed we falter.
G*D's incarnated word is at work in you. Watch out for it will not rest until revealed. G*D's incarnated word is at work in others. Watch for it lest you miss its support and correction of your present life that you might be more wholly revealed.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/october2005.html
You are witnesses of our behavior, and G*D also. [verse 10a]
So often we appeal to our good intentions, to G*D having our back, to having followed the rules to justify our behavior. This won't suffice. It needs the witness of those who have experienced the consequences of our behavior in their lives.
To claim any form of trickle-down theory needs the witness of those currently being harmed by it. We cannot rely on some future betterment if folks are not being bettered in the moment.
To claim any form of just-war theory needs the witness of those who are harmed by it. There is no collateral damage, there is only hurt people, dead people.
Instead of thinking about how G*D might measure our behavior, we would do better to ask how those affected by our behavior, right here, right now, are measuring us. In many ways the whole religious charade is propped up by always substituting G*D for Neighbor and never hearing from our neighbor about how we have injured them, right here, right now. We need to hear both parts of the commands to Love G*D and Love Neighbor.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/october2005.html
1 Thessalonians 2:9-13
Joshua 3:7-17 or Micah 3:5-12
Psalm 107:1-7, 33-37 or Psalm 43
Matthew 23:1-12
A place of honor requires stepping into a flood rush and standing still while the waters rush by, not yet calmed upstream. To bear the holy is both honorable and dangerous. When we try to disentangle these two to provide executive privilege, or any other kind of privilege, we have failed in our leadership.
To bear holiness, in ourselves and not just on our shoulders, requires entering all manner of metaphoric flood waters. We will stand in a flood that rejuvenates the land, building a part of a new delta with the few molecules of flesh and bone we have at our disposal. We will stand in a flood of prejudice, uncertainty, and fear that has rushed on for a longest time as a sign and witness it shall not always be so – though not yet seen, a cessation is on its way [and again a "nothing" has become a "something" :) ].
Still, it is time to stop by woods or flood and choose a path less traveled. It will make all the difference.
- - -
some prophets cry peace
to a raging river
a rising tide
as though desire
for continued comfort
were sufficient
being thus out of tune
with what is coming
for fear of losing
what little purchase
we have on the bronco back
of a living G*D
our cry of peace
echoes hollowly
within a hollow people
empty of hallowing
coming change
in present living
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_10_01_archive.html
From whom have you been effectively orphaned?
Who do you long, with great eagerness, to see?
These direction-setting questions, mission-orienting queries, are as relevant today as they were in Paul's day. These are also questions that can be applied all along an election campaign, whether for secretary of a service organization or president of a small or large constituency.
What Paul is not catching here is that he is as orphaned from those he terms "Jews" as from those he knows as "Gentiles". His language further enhances his distance from those who do not see the world as he does.
What would you advise Paul about his blinders or decision to draw such a sharp distinction?
What would you then advise yourself regarding the separations and gatherednesses in your own life?
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2008_10_01_archive.html
Isn’t it wonderful to be identified by someone as their pride and joy? This is a great motivator to keep on keeping on. It grants permission to forge ahead into new territory where we can engage our fear and trembling with new relationships and ways of being together.
Pride and joy are also a great manipulation techniques. They let us hear about limits on the present enforced by the past. We hear about the need to imitate those who were before us. The pride and joy we receive is for not going past past limits, which makes it conditional. Now we fear and tremble should anything begin to shift or change.
Are we in the presence of G*D overflowing with pride and joy?
Are we in the presence of G*D ever ready to break into wrath?
Are we in the presence of G*D who arbitrarily fluctuates between these?
How we see G*D may have much to do with how we, in turn, respond to events in our life. Once again, choose this day what of G*D you will reveal.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2011/10/1-thessalonians-29-20.html
We parent one another into being. For a moment I am parent to you and then you are parent to me. When this works well we are “pure, upright, and blameless in our conduct toward one another.”
Of course this suggests that we also are growing uniquely, regardless of the parenting we receive. This is not as easy to put into categories of behavior. I am a child for you; pushing your boundaries. You are a child for me; pushing mine.
From either perspective it is possible to give thanks for solidity when it is needed and play in its time. The “word of G*D” is not just something received, but brought forth. If we haven’t wrestled with G*D as parent and playmate, we haven’t met G*D. It will be important here to note where Paul doesn’t act as a parent, but pushes at the boundaries of cultural protocols. If we haven’t met both in Paul, we haven’t met Paul. Now, of course, we need to look in a mirror and see if we are only inhabiting one role in life. Blessings on parenting and your pushing.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2014/11/1-thessalonians-29-13.html