Ezekiel 33:7-11
Proper 18 (23) - Year A
Who has played "warner" in your life?
For me some of the authors have been Kazantzakis, Ellul, Stringfellow, Rauschenbusch, Wesley, Luther.
I am struck with how male that group is. I am thankful for the living presence in my life of Brenda, the Kairos CoMotion planning team, Sharon, Kathryn and so many more women.
Together they have helped me be a "warner." Together they have convinced me that the warning that needs doing is a warning toward new life, as well as a warning away from old life.
"As sure as I am the living G*D, I take no pleasure from the death of the wicked (or the good). I want the wicked to change their ways and live (and the good to deepen their ways and live). Turn your life around (and keep it going in a healthy direction). Reverse your evil ways (and be drawn ever nearer the ways of abundant living). Why die (and why not live)?"
This business of "warning" seems to go way back "to be aware," "to watch," "to care." This is more and different than the kinds of warnings we get about terrorism these days (seemingly calculated to distract).
How aware are we of our own complicity in the consequences we have received? How much do we care that wickedness on both sides cease?
Being a warner is not easy if the warner heeds the warning as well as passes it on. Still it is a valued gift. Warn away!
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2002/september2002.html
Ezekiel 33:7-11 or Exodus 12:1-14
We watch for different things at different times. Our watching grows out of a particular past, is influenced by what is going on around us, and anticipates a future. In each of these ways our what we look for and what we see is shaped and constrained.
When we watch inward to avoid a danger going door-to-door we begin to set up a particular community that will have strengths and weaknesses based on what is experienced. When we watch outward to avoid a danger on the horizon we set up a related community that will have strengths and weaknesses based on what is believable. Each has its place.
One of the issues of the day is whether we look inward or outward. There is much to be said about hurricanes and a party people looking inward and sentinels looking outward who do not widen their horizon to encompass an inevitable event.
Yesterday I helped clean up after a tornado a half hour from here. Yesterday I thought it silly to attempt to clean up after hurricane Katrina. I could see new life coming back after the tornado but I couldn't see the worth of forcing habitation in a reverse Red Sea setting where the waters are set to roll over instead of part (we don't live constantly in a miracle, we cross over and move on).
Some of the same issues are alive and well between nations (Iraq, et. al., and USA, et. smaller al.) and between humans (sexuality being a key one in these days - fast and pray for Hearts on Fire [MISSING URL]being held this weekend).
Are you looking inward or outward on these and other issues closer to your home? Are you paying attention to details filled with devils or horizons of hope? Are you acting on what you see and helping to shape new communities? Are you hunkering down for a long haul or starting to move toward a known issue and engage it directly? Is this part of self-preservation or investment in others? Obviously these are not mutually exclusive positions but they do shape our basic responses to one another and others.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/september2005.html
Ezekiel 33:7-11 or Exodus 12:1-14
Psalm 149 or Psalm 119:33-40
Romans 13:8-14
Matthew 18:15-20
What time is it? Time to not let sin continue unchallenged.
A part of this is to remember the gift of blessing that came first so that we might sing a new song to one another and not just bring suit against one another, no matter how many witnesses we are able to round up.
There is more than enough to be divided up among us. To continue acting as though G*D and a religious impetus is a zero-sum game is false to the strongest and most steadfast tenet we have - wholeness / love.
So what will we bind on earth (another to our way of thinking) and what will we loose (a new song that is an old song - honor)?
- - -
my lamb is served with mint jelly
your lamb is tofu with mint leaves
both may be apportioned
according to the number present
both lambs are without blemish
in themselves or in our eyes
both remind us of the fragility
of life and death and beyond
both prepare us for a new journey
we will remember until the next
so we call out to one another
owe nothing but love
the lambs are gone into a good night
and awaken in honor fulfilled
of the flesh we are born and grow
with such flesh we travel together
for life takes pleasure in life
and adorns the humble with honor