Luke 12:32-40

Proper 14 (19) - Year C

Want to be healed?

Ante up!

Here it is important to tell the difference between quid pro quo and expected outcome for an anticipated input.

When we lose track of these two dynamics and mistake one for the other, the word “unexpected” may be too mild for the expected results of such confusion.

So, will this be on some final exam or is it for the living now?

Do note that everyone get a beating, for who can read another’s mind or heart? There will be big or small slip-ups. This is simply the way a choice-based reality without sufficient information works.

Rather than read this as a rule to be memorized for a test, it is more helpfully experienced as a mirror. Really, what do you have? Really, what do you need? Really, what do others need? [Pause for consideration and action.] Now, really, what do you still have?

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2013/08/luke-1232-48.html

 

 

Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
[William Butler Yeats]

For some reason this poem came to mind as I read about G*D's good pleasure to give the "whole realm of nature."

Here is a treasure that never wears out - treading softly in one another's lives.

Where our treasure is, there also is our heart's dreams.

So, surprise, the action we are dressed for, the reason we have lit lamps is so we might tread softly enough hear the approach of our beloved and fling wide the portals before even there is a knock.

So, surprise, we will even care for dreams strongly enough that we will hear the beloved before they are even close to being a beloved, only a thief in the night.

take care
dream strong
smile gentle
and so go well

(a little ditty from long ago that we just put up in our new home beside the front door to remind us of the task ahead of us as we enter the world and lives of others)

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2004/august2004.html

 

 

Don't be afraid to sell your possessions and give the proceeds away.

This direct direction to arrive at a place of "real homeland security" is one that we are capable of subverting several different ways.

We can continue to be afraid. There is something about a satisfied mind that is important to the sense of quietude that strengthens us past temporary securities and lets us hold them lightly. A possession is a code word for security. Our treasure spot becomes the goal of our life. Fear keeps us tied to the treasures we have and away from greater treasure. Fear buries our treasure in the ground.

Supposing we are able to sell our possessions in anticipation of greater treasure it only makes sense to still have some strings to the proceeds that they might be added to by the greater treasure to come. Then we can have two treasures. So fear keeps us from giving away that which we have received from a sale.

Evidence of trusting Jesus shows up in the giving process -- giving time, giving energy, giving resources, giving etc.

This is the way to be ready and watchful -- dismissing the possessions that claim our attention. We are limited in what we can attend to at any point (see source of Executive Control of Cognitive Processes in Task Switching [MISSING URL] and its journalistic synopsis, "Multitasking is Counterproductive").

To attend to possessions is to not attend to that which is greater than now.

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2004/august2004.html

 

 

It is G*D's pleasure to be present.

It is our pleasure to be present, without possessions.

Where your presence is, there is your heart's treasure.

Just as we can measure our faith by looking at our bank balance, check book, credit card statement, etc., so we can measure our faith by where we put our presence, where we are active, where we bring some light to a given subject.

Blessed are those alert to presence with them and their presence with others.

- - -

how long we wait
for a presence worth waiting for

how often we jump
at any presence that comes along

how do you do
still waiting or jumping

when the right presence is noted
there is a veritable feast

servers are served
the served take their turn

yin yang unity turns and turns
each in and out of the other

we're not there yet
rejoice in how far we've come

our waiting has borne fruit
enough to wait some more

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_08_01_archive.html

 

 

We are still echoing the issue of testing in the prayer the disciples asked for without knowing what they were getting into. There are several hooks into the testing motif in this passage. For today we'll look at the test of independence or interdependence. Here is an extended quote from Richard W. Swanson in his Provoking the Gospel of Luke.

Sell your possessions.

Give alms.

This second bit of advice is palatable enough. Giving alms is an expected part of Jewish life. Every Sabbath includes the giving of tzedekah; every year includes structured times to remember the importance of such obligations. The bite comes when these two injunctions are linked to each other: sell your possessions in order to give alms. This envisions a radical sort of interdependence rooted in exchanged poverty.

It reminds me of the Lakota practice of giveaway.

After a death the bereaved family gives its possessions to their neighbors and family. Stated in more revealing terms, the family gives itself to its neighbors. If the family is to go on, the neighbors will have to carry it. Which, of course, is exactly what is required at such a moment. The giveaway reveals a basic truth of human life: no one can go on unless carried by neighbors. This is not a truth unique to a time of bereavement. Death just reveals what is always true: human life is a team sport.

The Lakota know this, and practice it, now as always. Jews know it, too. Worship requires the gathering of a minyan, a group of sufficient size to create a community. Study requires a partner, a chaver, someone who will sharpen the insights and deepen the comprehension, someone who will challenge and support. There is an old saying: One Jew is no Jew. Only in such a community could anyone (notice the number) give up everything and still have everything she needs.

--> "Radical interdependence rooted in exchanged poverty."
--> "Human life is a team sport."

How might these images inform your reading of this passage that gets judgmental and expects everyone to be at the same level of learning and experience at the same time?

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2010/08/luke-1232-48.html