Hebrews 12:18-29
Proper 16 (21) - Year C
Here's the choice: You can go the larger than life route with fire and trumpet, unable to stand the order of distant glory that acts like a black hole taking all other glory into itself, or you can come to something better -- a huge celebration, festal, even, for the transformation of murder into forgiveness.
This section seems to begin and end on the same theme of reverence and awe before and after all things, as though that were the first and last and only thing there be. Yet the transformative lies within, a seed of growing life that will break open the cement around it. Key to this is the word beginning verse 22, "But".
It may be mandatory for expansive living to repeat moment-by-moment and day-by-day: "But there is a better word than we have yet heard."
In so repeating we can train our ear to catch the echo of a "clear, though far-off hymn that hails a new creation". [2212, Faith we Sing]
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2004/august2004.html
Shaken, not stirred. While it is a line from James Bond, it raises questions about the image that we have for the presence of G*D recognizably with us.
What is this "kingdom" that cannot be shaken? Is it a place you would like to spend much time?
Much of our iconography, folk-tales, and the like posit a static heaven where everything is in its place and there is a place for everything. We circle around a heavenly throne in ordered ranks (saintlier saints first or first born first - which leaves you and me where?). We are given serial numbered harps and magically learn to play our part in the music of the spheres (no improvisation, no jazz, blues, or rap). The will of G*D is has one purpose and many little hands to pull it off, each doing only G*D's thing. We merge with the cosmic consciousness and are no more (oh, except for that physical reconstruction business where we are our perfect moment of health and beauty extended forever). We are kindling for a G*D-warming fire.
Nothing stirs in heaven, not even a mouse, much less shakes. Everything that can be shaken out or winnowed away has been so.
Does this leave only space where everything was or does it put us in the shaken bits where we and G*D tumble and ride and are ridden?
Rather than look for a static, unshaken, state, let us look to something still better - righteousness going on to perfection (emphasis added). Hopefully this frees us to be in the presence of living neighbors, a living self of our own, and a living GOD. In this presence let us speak better words than blood-soaked earth and anticipate festivities.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2004/august2004.html
In the push and pull of the world, how do we best find the energy to change and to persist in such a change?
Is it in the presence of a fearsome firestorm that will destroy at the slightest misstep? It seems for some this is a powerful motivation. A question can be raised about how deep such transformation runs, but some bear strong testimony to its effectiveness.
Is it an invitation to a festal gathering that speaks a better world ahead than brother against brother? For some this is a most effective approach to transformation.
Is it some judicial application of both -- "we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken" and "indeed our God is a consuming fire".
It is important to note both one's own proclivity in this regard as well as that of the folks one is encountering. When both are similar there is probably the greatest chance of making a difference in one another. When dissimilar, the communication between the two styles may block every other good intention.
- - -
double trouble
bile and bubble
danger abounds
protected only by
greater dangerin such a world
Abel continually cries
out for revenge
even though Cain
is protectednever will there be
a surcease of gloom
without a better word
leading a better world
into renewed lifethis better world
goes beyond
a lick and a polish
a hope and a dream
to deeper festivityno surface Pollyanna
can ride this ride
for it takes one taller
and deeper than
an arbitrary standardhere one must stand
beyond shifting foundations
upon a surety of better
words and worlds
especially if delayed
- - -
Anonymous (Reader) said...
Nearly six years ago now, Herbert O'Driscoll commented on these words. We read them before September 11 but they spoke to him in the days and weeks after... what cannot be shaken in our world?
Saturday, August 25, 2007
- - -
Wesley (Blogger) said...
Thank you for your connection with Herbert. Here is an audio of him speaking about three defining moments where Jesus might have become bent over, but didn't - ego, community, systems of power. [Missing URL]
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_08_01_archive.html
Living G*D's are always dangerous. They leave chaos in their wake. Rules are made and remade. Rituals come and go. What will satisfy a Living G*D won't satisfy a reformed Living G*D that recognizes the previous way of doing business was no longer satisfactory for either G*D or creation or creature.
You thought the threat of fire next time was tough to bear up under, that's nothing compared to the blaze of requirements of this reformed Living G*D. In retrospect it seems that it was easier to deal with animal sacrifice for behavioral issues than it is to deal with doctrinal sacrifice for theological issues.
To circle back to the gospel lesson, can you hear Jesus talking to both the Living G*D of his tradition and the reformed Living G*D he was experiencing - and using the term hypocrite? You can't really talk about hypocrisy of priests without also talking about the hypocrisy of the power they represent or mediate.
Give thanks or else, is not a comforting word. Blessing on you for being able to give thanks by simply seeing life beyond wrath and calling out those who limit us to a fear-based approach to life. Blessings on you for being able to give thanks even while seeing the end of life as subservience and randomness and colluding with it. Blessings on you for being able to give thanks while convinced there is no hope and nothing to trust. Simply blessings on you for your thanksgiving, regardless of its etiology or degree.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2010/08/hebrews-1218-29.html