Romans 6:12-23
Proper 8 (13) - Year A
Down through the years the traditionalist and literalists have accused those on the progressive portion of the Christian continuum of being libertines - those who abuse their freedom.
The expansive freedom of G*D does come with some built in testing points. It does travel beyond the limits of rules and commandments. G*D does sometimes change decisions mid-stride. In turn, we had heard it said and now we need to listen to what is being said anew and differently.
In listening to "grace" first and "law" second we do run risks. These are different risks than attending first to the "law" and then to "grace." The risks are different and folks do seem to find themselves gravitating or levitating toward one or the other polarity - law or grace.
Perhaps the best we can do at this point is not to argue or defend or apologize for the gifts we have been given, but simply use them - trusting that we will be provided an opportunity to change directions (an angel will open our eyes) or an opening to new knowledge about G*D and self.
May our freedom in G*D lead us to so care about others that we too will be accused of being too free in associating with the poor, the outcast, the sinners. May our freedom in G*D lead us to so care about G*D images that we will find a way out of the slave talk and sacrifice talk of yesterday into recognitions of the obsessions and compulsions of the day and the gift of participation in the fullness of life rather than having that being something merely done on our behalf.
Then let the accusations come that we do cast the net of grace too broadly and that we do recast images of G*D beyond those that have been codified and constraining of G*D's expansiveness. For now, this is our way to a "whole, healed, put-together life." This way does lead to eternal life. We rejoice that this is our path and trust others rejoice in their path.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2002/june2002.html
Gotta Serve Somebody by Bob Dylan [Lyrics -- Audio (Real Player) [MISSING URL]] sums up one of the many choices this passages puts before us. Do you know someone who can sing this from their heart? How far from Wisconsin are they and what are their fees?
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/june2005.html
Hospitality, like humility, gets a bum rap in a world where only "the" outcome is important, where victory at any cost comes first.
We go through all manner of rationalizations and justifications to sanctify our inhospitable actions. We seemingly cannot avoid calling down the angels to protect ourselves. When we have been treated inhospitably long enough we lash out to use the very techniques used against us.
This temptation for easy redemption, through violence, makes all actions such as the Truth and Reconciliation movement in South Africa that much more remarkable. A radical hospitality of truth-telling AND reconciling action does improve the pain level of people so we can pause, catch our breath, reorient ourselves, and choose a long-term view, a view long enough to allow us to choose mercy.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/june2005.html
Welcoming is bedrock evangelism. A first rule of thumb of expressing our discipleship is to love one another and, presuming we are expanding our "one another", its logical extension is that of hospitality.
So we need to welcome the unexpected goat or exile. It saves us from inbred craziness (slaughter of our own) and denial of our common family (if they have been away).
In so doing we will find G*D's absent face wasn't so absent after all and we are part of the generations who experience steadfast love in the midst of every wavering.
Thanks be that we are not limited to the sin of self-assurance and closed doors. Our escape from such sin is a participation in welcoming.
- - -
sit in a new house
experience its idiosyncrasies
wonder where its secrets lie
where children were hurt
what kept blessings from flowing
who was exiled here
or escaped exile
if walls talked
what shame and glory
would come forth
were its doors ever opened wide
or barricaded even more tightly
how will we interact
enough of sitting
though not enough
a start is a cup of cold water
taken through the house
sprinkled here
there and everywhere
that more cups
will be ready
when family and strangers
call
and beckon them in
before they know
their need
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_06_01_archive.html
There is an old saying, "Out of the frying pan, into the fire." Usually that is not a good way to go. But, if we begin to play with the fire of Pentecost we are only seven weeks away from, this can speak to us of the freedom of G*D. Pentecost involves us again with other people, strangers, even.
We need to learn to reframe our language for our own larger living. This reframing also lets us listen better to others that we might accurately understand their perspective. In listening we also become authorized to speak their language and to help reframe it.
As long as we avoid this business of sharpening our thinking and living out of a values code that contains an appreciation of ambiguity, we will find our freedom continually reduced to less than a mustard seed worth of it.
By seeing a freedom beyond our current intolerable situation we can step out of the situation we are in by looking inward and begin to move beyond the dead end of a frying pan. Jump now into the arms of a larger community and a multitude of sanctifying gifts - many of which are different than yours.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2008_06_01_archive.html
Sin — Righteousness
Death — Eternal Life
And for those of us who continually find ourselves between stops, backsliding from one and frontsliding from the other?
A significant problem I’ve not been able to get around is how to know beforehand the results of an action. There are so many surprises that have come along. Wonderful plans have large and small blowbacks. Intentional meanness clarifies needed changes.
That which is deemed morally righteous in one generation turns 180 degrees and can no longer be abided. Consider a new resource: Bisexuality: Making Visible the Invisible in Faith Communities.
As we move from one new learning to a next (sometimes going back and sometimes further) it is tempting to move from one codification to a next (shifting G*D’s if you will) rather than to learn how to live on the move.
It may be that the wages of surety are death and those of graceful learning are life (eternal or not). Prophets or Priest are the most dangerous to themselves and others when they are too cocky about projecting the present into the future.