John 10:11-18
Easter 4 - Year B
It is difficult to find a negative in our thinking about a Good Shephed. In today's New York Times online there was an op-ed piece, "Who wants to be a martyr" by Scott Atran. It says, in part:
"Like the best Madison Avenue advertisers, but to ghastlier effect, the charismatic leaders of terrorist groups turn ordinary desires for family and religion into cravings for what they're pitching.
"How do we combat these masters of manipulation? President Bush and many American politicans maintain that these groups and the people supporting them hate our democracy and freedoms. But poll after poll of the Muslim world shows opinion strongly favoring America's forms of government, personal liberty and education. A University of Michigan political scientist, Mark Tessler, finds Arab attitudes to American culture most favorable among young adults (regardless of their religious feeling) - the same population that recruiters single out.
"It is our actions that they don't like: as long ago as 1997, a Defense Department report (in response to the 1996 suicide bombing of Air Force housing at the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia) noted that "historical data show a strong correlation between U.S. involvement in international situations and an increase in terrorist attacks against the United States."
The motivations behind and focus of attention for a state of being that allows one to "lay down my life of my own accord" are quite powerful and can be used in many directions. Just claiming one's own actions as "good" does not automatically make them so.
How would you distinguish between the strength of character to be involved in non-violent resistance and not in violent resistance? What is it that would shift one from one form of martyrdom to another?
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2003/may2003.html
It takes a great deal of self-differentiation (knowing one's own and still staying connected with others) to know there is a power that allows the laying down and picking up of life without getting addicted in either direction. Beyond the knowing of this power is the implementing of it. Beyond the implementing is the trusting.
An important playing place is the intersection of power and gift. Again it brings us to the tension between what I have and the context in which I have it. Over and over we wrestle with being faithful in a situation that tends to domino in both directions. Add a bit of power here and life for others becomes unbearable. Add a tad of context there and life for one's self becomes intolerable.
Even knowing we stand on the knife-edge of these slippery slopes, we dance in the morning....
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2003/may2003.html
Definitions define. "I am the definer", to modify a phrase.
Is my life taken or given? I am the definer.
Are my actions loving or not? I am the definer.
Am I walking through a dark valley or a green pasture? I am the definer.
Is this healing from Jesus or spontaneous regeneration? I am the definer.
Are all definitions equal, dictionary-wise? Are all definitions up for grab, Humpty Dumpty-wise? Where does my definition end and yours begin? Can I define you out if you define me in?
What needs better defining in your life and in the life of the community of faith and of living that you participate in?
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2006/may2006.html
A "good shepherd" has the power and responsibility to know when to lay down their life and when to pick it up.
Followers of a "good shepherd" don't always get the power of this ambiguity. Some will claim the shepherd can only pick up life and so everyone must give up their life in the light of the shepherd's life. This will keep them from an ability to lay down their life for others. Seemingly, they can see only a crook as a mighty scepter.
Other followers make exactly the other error, that the shepherd must at all times and in all places, lay down (even if this is an active action against violence, it is still a laying down).
What we are still seeking is wisdom on how these fit together in our lives and in our times.
One beginning spot understands that goodness and mercy are ever present. This gives direction to our picking up and laying down of life. At which point does one reveal the background of goodness and mercy through a contrasting action and at which point does the other polarity kick in to better reveal a field of goodness and mercy against which everything else makes better sense? It is here we always find ourselves. Do we zap a fig tree or allow a rich, young ruler to go further down a dark path?
- - -
resurrectional power reveals
our basic bent in life
to narrow life down
one unique resurrection
to open life up
resurrection as commonplace
to see resurrection for Jesus
and claim it only for him
runs us afoul other sheep
claimed as part of all
runs us afoul of others who also
reduce resurrection to one
to see resurrection as ours
authorized and encouraged
by this resurrected Jesus
for the sake of lost sheep
ordains us transformers
of resurrection to resurrections
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_04_01_archive.html
What an openness to life! Teaching (being led forth), Fellowship, Feasting, and Communicating within and beyond - these are still key elements in a healthy community - whether of one faith or another.
These four qualities bind a community closely enough together that trust of their most prized possessions (even survival) to one another can take place. Without this vital communitarian impetus organic growth doesn't take place. Oh, there can be surface unity, but the lack of deep trust will eventually shine through and fracture will show.
In today's untrusting environment where winning and losing metaphors abound, what Teaching is most needed that would lead us toward trust? What Fellowship and Feasting? What Prayers? Note that teaching toward trust is different than teaching toward a particular doctrine.
There are undoubtedly many responses to these questions. Instead of waiting to come up with one grand theory of everything, you and I are encouraged to Teach, Fellowship, Feast, and Pray as best we can, leaving any later form of such to such a time.
- - -
called to endurance
is a strange gift
to receive
in a world valuing
this quarter's bottom line
only in light of the next
endurance will best be seen
in light of the flighty
expedient choices of today
which reveal the long-term
values worth investing in
today for tomorrow's sake
to pile value high
pack it down and heap it higher
is still a long-term strategy
with a proven track record
sustainability trumps a Vegas hit
enduring and guarding life
so our ancestors found
again and again and again
forgetting this teaching imperils life
hoarding goods and celebrations
to the fewest possible number entitled
diminishes possibilities
so our descendents call out
again and again and again
to be included in the bounty of life
and so we endure today
with ancestral solidarity
received and passed on
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_04_01_archive.html
Echoes of Baptism.
I have received authority – the authority of belovedness. I will be cared for, come hell or high water, first wilderness temptation or last crucifixion temptation. In this beloved care I can be bold to choose to pick up more life and to put down more life. The life I put down may not be anywhere equivalent to a life picked up, if similar it is as different as a river stepped into twice; if some other aspect of life is picked up it may not even come close to what was laid down.
This is my birthright as a creature of the cosmos standing at this end of a gene pool – to choose. "Hired hands" and "sheep" still need to move toward healthy choices, but witnessing to choices available to me is important whether the hired hands or the sheep can yet recognize it or follow. This is part of Ezekiel's watcher-on-the-wall heritage – to call out what is seen regardless of other's response.
This authority to choose need not separate us from one another, but further engage us as we see the consequences of a choice farther into the future than usual. With boldness we proceed to choose, to take the consequences, to trust.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2009_04_01_archive.html
Shepherds and sheep are mutually dependent upon one another. This is an ancient and deep relationship. They have an investment in one another’s well-being.
It is the investment that they have in one another that defines each of them.
We have often used this in a hierarchical model of G*D directs (has a plan for) Jesus. Jesus, in turn, directs (has a plan for) us (his sheep).
Listen again for the issue of inclusion (I have other sheep beyond this flock) and investment (I lay down my life for sheep far and near). While listening, take advantage of the opportunity to evaluate how your day is going in regard to inclusion beyond your usual contacts and your investment in larger living that will take your energy and resources to move relationships toward mutuality.
The United Methodist Church erroneously claims that baptized, gifted, and called gays and lesbians may not be ordained. Today I’ll be carrying a sign, still to be written, that will say something like:
It is right, and a good and joyful thing,
that GLBTQI UMs
always and everywhere give thanks to G*D
by praying
The Great Thanksgiving
Too subtle?
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2012/04/john-1011-18.html