Friday, November 19, 2004
November 19, 2004
Lk. 19:45-48
Sore from lifting for meal last night, getting ready to leave for soa, reflections for next three days on passages.
What is relevance of this passage for us: Master Eichart wrote: So like Himself has God made the human soul that nothing else in heaven or on earth, of all the splendid creatures that God so joyously created, resembles God so much as the human soul. For this reason God wants this temple cleared, that He may dwell there.
Our souls are cluttered so often with greed, hate, resentment. 21 year old jordie dropped by, at 3: am. Filled with anger and resentment because he could not get money for dope, jonsing for a fix, all he could think about. A local congregation is building a high rent senior citizen housing in order to get money to retrofit their building, only having a few slots for low income people. Jesus wants to come in and cleanse our temples, to fill us up with joy and love. Deo Gratis! Thanks be to God!
November 20
Luke 20:27-40
Always the question is asked “what gives u hope.” This morning I bought breakfast for two guys as they came off the street. One has been on street for years, speed has destroyed his brain, can hardly put two words together. The other one is on the way down that road. So what gives me hope. Ultimately for me the only hope is the resurrection—without it all would be futility, no reason to go on living. As I get older I find that all I can do is trust in God and that no matters what happens I am in those hands. Deo Gratis! Thanks be to God!
November 21 “Christ the King”
Lk. 23:35-43
Why protest the school of americas? Each protest, each witness is a witness to the presence of the God, God’s realm, God’s kingdom in our midst.God’s kingdom is present here and now. Night before last there were some fundies witnessing to the coming of Jesus and his glorious kingdom. In todays lesson we see Jesus reigning from the cross in the midst of the darkness, the evil of the world. Origin wrote: Until you hand your life to the Father, Christ’s life is not fully handed over. Without you he can not receive his full of glory. Without you: that is, without his people, who are his body and limbs.
The realm of God is in midst and it is in our living out our faith that that realm continues to come into the world. Deo Gratis! Thanks be to God!
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Thursday, November 18, 2004
November 18, 2004
Lk. 19:41-44 “Jesus Wept”
Spent today preparing for dinner tomorrow night, took my friend peter out for his 16th birthday; gave rich a gift for his 30th, as he said I was the only one to give him a gift for both xmas and birthday. And as Jesus wept over the City for not hearing his message, so I weep as well: for bobo, who was robbed, beat up for his drug money, as he sits crying, “what am I to do, what am I to do?” for samantha, 21 as she spends her days dealing drugs and using; for all the “good people” who pass by daily and close their eyes tlo their responsibility in the suffering in their midst; and i weep because long before my time and long after my time people have, and will continue to hear the message of Jesus of love and justice.
The “Christians” were out tonight. they gave out drinks and washed people’s feet and read scripture to them—what use is that—just simple acts of love and touching—ultimately that is what it is all about,
I weep, and yet I rejoice in the resurrection, and hold the hope in Jesus Deo Gratis! Thanks be to God!
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Tuesday, November 16, 2004
November 16, 2004
Lk. 19:1-10
Steamboat, 19 rings me from downstairs, I get down there and he is outside door changing clothes on the street, face bleeding from picking his scabs; johnny, 22, hanging out late trying to pick up a date; I give him something to eat, he talks of wandering the country aimlessly.
Zachaes he tax collector, not acceptable by any Jewish standard, but Jesus calls him to eat with him; he sees beyond the outer to the inner person.
People often asked me how I can not judge people, how I can see johnny and steamboat as just two needy individuals who are struggling and I think of what Julian of Norwich wrote:
Human judging is mixed because of the different things we see—sometimes it is good and understanding, sometimes harsh and distressing. Where our judgment is good and understanding it belongs to God’s justice; where it is harsh and distressing our good Lord Jesus corrects it by his mercy and grace through the power of his holy Passion, and so makes it conform to his true justice. .Sinners sometimes deserve God’s blame and wrath—yet I could see neither of these in God. So my longing was greater than I can express.
November 17
For ten years I have given of myself and sought to empty my life more and more and have found that this parable is true---a story I like tells it all:
Imagine this: a mountain stream, dancing down between the stones, full of freshness and music. But a small volume begins to think—why am I constantly losing my boundaries, giving myself away to the rest of this water? Let me claim my rightful boundaries and not mix with all of this flood. It pours itself out into a small pool and there is great peace for a number of days. But after a few days, algae forms, and the water becomes in two weeks a stinking puddle. In a suicidal moment this pool thinks of pouring itself back into the stream, fearful of losing its identity, but then it does and suddenly all the light, movement and music begin again. The isolated self, the pool had found life again.
There is no life without spending oneself, risking oneself, giving oneself away. Deo Gratis! Thanks be to God
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Monday, November 15, 2004
November 15, 2004
Lk. 18:35-43
A blind man is one who sees no body—and a beggar is one that no one sees.
Egyptian Beggar by Terence Tiller:
. .his crushed hand
as inexpressive as a bird’s face, held
out like an offering, symbol of the blind,
he gropes our noise for charity. .
Soul’s
And body’s terrible humility,
Stripped year by year a little barrer, wills
Nothing: he claims no selfhood in his cry. .
His eyes
White pebbles blind with deserts. .”
Today I visited 24 year old smoke in the hospital. He may lose his leg from an abscess, in fact his life is in danger. He has had no visitors, and he lays there alone; 22 year old d, has his bike hit by a car, a police officer tells him” forget it, no one will care about an addicts bike”; a drunk sleeps in the doorway, people walk by laughing; the prepositions to provide housing for the homeless are voted down—
The beggars like d, smoke, and the drunk are never seen, and our society is blind to them in their midst. But one thing I know: God sees, and God cares, and ultimately all will be completed in resurrection. Deo Gratis! Thanks be to God!
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November 12, 2004
Lk. 17:26-37
Jesus refuses to answer “when”—leaving it up to the disciple to figure out when the son of man would return. Maybe that coming is every day in each act of kindness we do, or in each act of justice done, and finally at death. I feel bruised from the past weeks—the fundies last night took an all out attack on me in a presentation; the constant struggle with the roman school and people using me as a scape goat; and by friends who do not have time to spend with me. Maybe in these moments of being bruised---Jesus has come reminding me that in whatever bruisuing, he is present, and that my call is to be steadfast. A young college student asked me last night: “Do you ever doubt?” and all could say was, “hell yea I doubt all the time.” I doubt myself, God, people, and the list goes on., but faith is like a muscle, u simply keep exercising it, even in ur doubts, u keep showing up, and God keeps showing up with us as well. Deo Gratis, Thanks be to God
November 13
Lk. 18:1-8
I have slept all day. Getting up long enough for the bathroom, and to write this. The past few days have been exhausting—I seem to put my foot in my mouth, I have been attacked, condemned and wonder if it is all worth it. And then the final verse of the scripture brings it home to me:
YET WHEN THE SON OF MAN COMES WILL HE FIND FAITH ON EARTH?”
I am reminded to keep showing up, and to show up means to put my absolute trust in this God who has come, comes daily, and will come again. Deo Gratis! Thanks be to God!”
November 14, 2004
Lk. 21:5-19
THROUGH PERSEVERANCE YOU WILL POSSESS YOUR OWN SELVES.
The questions I am most often asked by people are: how can u keep on doing this, what makes you stay at it, how can you continue to believe. And the answer for me is in this final verse of scripture—a more elegant expression of what I see as a part of my philosophy of life: “keep showing up.” that is all I do in the worst of times “I show up.” A friend, donor, took me out to lunch yesterday, and his words were the Word for me this day in which I needed to hear the Word: “River, you and friends of your slike Glenda Hope, Bernie Gavin, are the ones who when the whole world crashes in keeps going, as long as you breathe, u will keep on doing the ministry.”
He is right for the one thing I have learned through the years, that never fails, is that to persevere in ministry is the one way in which I find ultimately possess my self. Deo Gratis! Thanks be to God!
QUOTE to think on: “Do not let the fact things are not made for you, that conditions are not as they should be stop u. Go on any way. Everything depends on those who go on anyway.” Robert Henri
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