THE Rant Jesus Continually and Adamantly Shares as Gospel

 The Inclusive Bible translation begins today’s Gospel:

Someone in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, tell my brother to give me my share of our inheritance.” Jesus replied, “Friend, who has set me up as your judge or arbiter?

Then Jesus said to the crowd, “Avoid greed in all its forms. Your life isn’t made more secure by what you own ---even when you have more than you need.”

 

This is Jesus’ schtick. Little does the question asker know that Jesus’ buttons have been pushed. This is Jesus’ opportunity to continue THE rant.  Luke records THE rant in detail. An embodied rant articulated in parable after parable, healing after healing, confrontation after confrontation. From the moment of birth, in a stable, surrounded by shepherds- Jesus has been saying the same thing!

THE rant  -embody kindom  - live and bring God’s kindom now; right now! Always!

 

THE rant specifies NOW.

Jesus states I am not judge or arbiter… who cast me in this roll?

Humans, the church, theologians, preachers preaching judgement, that to live is to work toward one’s meeting their maker with a clean conscience, accumulating treasures in heaven, for some day when the next life will be better than this one, where all will be set right. 

Hogwash! That is not THE rant Jesus continually and adamantly shares as Gospel.

This statement, “I am not your judge,” is the clue that THE rant is about now and not some far off day or whenever your day of death comes.

Later on, THE rant embodied comes full circle in the Gospel’s telling of Jesus on the cross, not judging the criminal beside him, rather extending solidarity, hospitality, welcome, NOW - even in the messiness of suffering and dying. Right then in that moment kindom is embodied, lived, and brought.

 

THE rant uses parable to draw listeners in and to point out natural human impulses and their folly. This story explores the human impulse of greed.

THE rant, however we hear and interpret it, is not about greed.  Before the story Jesus clearly says, “Avoid greed.”

So avoid greed, attune your ears and heart to hear what THE rant is about.

There was a good harvest, better than good; there was an over-abundance.

In the background I hear the words from Psalm 107:

God has satisfied the thirsty and filled the hungry with good things.

But only, if more barns to store the excess are not built; only when people embody kindom -

Commonwealth. One body. Global community – is thirst satisfied, the hungry filled NOW; always!

THE rant Jesus is reiterating is embodying, living, and bringing kindom. There is abundance, the kindom embodiment and response is to avoid greed, the opposite of which is generosity.

Generosity; now! Always!

 

 

Psychology Today states that, “Greed is the disordered desire for more than is decent or deserved, not for the greater good but for one’s own selfish interest, and at the detriment of others and society at large.”

 

Greed is so bad…. How bad is it?... it is so bad it has a psychiatric diagnosis; according to an article on truthout.org greed is labeled Wealth Accumulation Disorder.

Greed comes with friends; well more like a gang – bringing stress, exhaustion, anxiety, depression, despair; behaviours that include gambling, hoarding, saving things for a rainy day, trickery, theft/fraud; addiction; consumption.

Oh, that humans would be cured of Wealth Accumulation Disorder.

Oh, that there was a psychiatric diagnosis for generosity; like Distributive Wealth Quotient or Collective Abundance Spectrum.

 

Embodied Greed – each of us embodies greed. We work in systems constructed on greed, participate in a culture fueled by greed, and live in a society built on a history of greed.

Emancipation day, the Doctrine of discovery, climate catastrophes, war in Ukraine, destruction of trees in the Public Gardens, et cetera… greed connects them all.

 

Jesus’ words throughout Luke are a retelling of ‘love God, love your neighbour.’ Avoid greed, Jesus says. Doing so is keeping the commandments: no killing, no stealing, no adultery, no coveting- all sins wrapped up in greed.

 

THE rant – the Gospel Jesus is preaching – is abundance and generosity; every story contains these things; every one of them… read the Gospel of Luke from beginning to end hunting for abundance, generosity; you will be amazed. And every encounter in the Gospel has God-embodied, kindom, in the person of Jesus – that’s why Luke’s Gospel contains the Advent-Christmas stories; so that we get it from the start.  God became human and dwells among us. God’s kindom has come near. Right then; right NOW; always.

 

THE rant – embodied kindom – embodied generosity – embodied abundance – pops up here there and everywhere there is greed; spewing Gospel on power, empire, systems, history, and disordered desires.  THE rant is not about judgement, it is not a future day, it is not preparing for death; THE rant is --- living embodied and generous lives in God’s abundance; NOW; always.

 

If you are the sort that likes a to-do list or a person who likes to make an action plan; do it – create a list and/or plan based on how to live generously and seek out abundance.  You can make a chart that reflects how embodied in kindom you feel; record what actions you take. Do what you need to do to live passionately the Gospel Jesus embodied and continually preached.

 

Avoid greed. Live embodied and generous lives in God’s abundance.

Online Summer Camp - AIR- Day 5

 Pics and poem - with Rev. Lidvald Haugen-Strand

Flying in the light

Dodging the clouds

Spinning and twisting

O Icarus, you dodged the sun

 one time too many

Feathers singed you fell!

 

How many people cried,

You can’t fly

Cling to the earth

Scrape the soil

But keep your feet on the ground

Remember Icaus

A warning to us all.

Have you flown a kite

The wind gusts and up up up

But tethered to the ground

It tugs in the wind

 

We hold tight to the ground

The harder we hold tight

The higher it gusts

 

The eagle soars

It jumps off a cliff and dives

While gravity clings and tugs down

 

Do you know

The secret of the eagle?

The way to break free

Is to embrace the wind

 

Open you arms wide

Let the wind caress your feather fingers

And fall into the updraft

 

July 6, 2022

In the comments please share a few lines of AIR poetry.

Online Summer Camp - AIR- Day 4

 

AIR - breath, life, communication

Breath and life make me think about bread. I have always been amazed watching bread dough rise, like there is air or something inside pushing the dough out so it can escape. I have tried many times to make bread with yeast and have failed every time. One time it was so dense  - not puffy and airy- it was like a rock. Today one of the recipes I present for AIR is a no fail tea biscuit recipe which I have used more than once as communion bread. 

When we share bread, we generally gather together, to communicate through story - passing AIR back and forth between us. God's peace and abundance. 

The second recipe I am sharing is a favourite red cabbage recipe that I picked up while serving a Danish congregation. This recipe was a food that was shared at most community meals.  There are many foods that cause AIR to pass through us: broccoli, cabbage, beans ... cooking the vegetables does help with the body passing less air. 

Both recipes are from cookbooks that many Lutheran households in Canada will be familiar with: "Canadian Lutheran Ladies Family Celebrations, Vol. 2" and  "Canadian Lutheran Ladies Family Favourites Cookbook." Perhaps you have already made these recipes, if not they are no fail and very tasty!

Enjoy!

RHEBA'S MAYONNAISE BISCUITS

4 cups flour  (I have made it with 2 cups whole wheat/ 2 cups white)

1 1/2 tsp. salt

6 tsp. sugar

6 tsp. baking powder

2/3 cup mayonnaise

1 3/4 cups milk

1 egg

Sift dry ingredients together. Add mayonnaise, mile and egg. Mix all together. Bake 375 F for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.

(I make the dough into 12 buns and put on a greased cookie sheet.)

----- from: St. Andrew's Lutheran Church, West Northfield, NS

DUTCH RED CABBAGE

1 small or 1/2 red cabbage   (I generally use a large red cabbage)

2 apples, chopped  

2 tbsp. vinegar (I like to use apple cider vinegar)

1/2 cup sugar

salt to taste (about 1/4 tsp.)

1 tsp. butter

Shred cabbage and put into saucepan with all remaining ingredients except butter. When cabbage is tender, add butter. Serves 4 to 5.

----- from: Ascension Lutheran Church, Calgary, AB

Public Art: Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread

 

Give us today our daily bread

 

Praying is an exercise that changes the pray-er. Those of us in this space have prayed the Lord’s Prayer many times.  We have prayed thousands of times, give us this day our daily bread.

 

Daily bread – recently for me when I think about the bread I need to live and survive, it is not so much physical bread, but rather, bread that feeds the spirit, the soul, my creativity, and my hope reserve. I don’t take much time these days to let news sink in; it is too much, it is overwhelming, and I can’t fix it. However, when I pause to ground myself and take time for self-care, there is ‘daily bread’ that always feeds me. The bread comes in two forms: one is creating folk-art pieces myself, usually items to ‘fix’ a problem like the recently built privacy screens to block the noise from the neighbour’s yard. The creative activity is healing and the ‘fixing’ something is satisfying.  The other bread form is public art, like the murals painted on Quinpool Rd. buildings for the recent Festival of Murals. The murals bring about joy, memories, new ideas, colour, expression, life in an otherwise dreary space.

 

This past week I was reminded that sharing daily bread multiplies the loaves. Wednesday’s walking group took in the public art on Quinpool. The conversation, the memories, the enjoyment of the walk was bread for the soul.

We too shared daily bread and multiplied the loaves.

Copying an idea that was seen on social media, the church yard received a new item: there is a little sign that says “Dog library. Take a stick.” Under the sign there is a pile of sticks. The sign was up for less than an hour when passersby started noticing, smiling, and taking pictures. Dogs, children, adult dog-walkers have taken sticks and placed sticks. Neighbours have brought friends over to see the sign. People have stopped to talk about their dogs, the sticks, the idea. Others have responded by social media that they are stealing the idea.

A tiny little sign has been like yeast, growing joy, conversation, and sharing.

From the front porch of the parsonage, I have so enjoyed watching the joy that the sign has brought others, that I too have had bread returned to me – many baskets collected – full of joy back on me.

 

It is perhaps a strange sign to see on a church yard, “Dog library. Take a stick.” What does it have to do with faith, God, or daily bread?  What does it say about the church? It says quite a lot!

·         We love all our neighbours including the four-footed kind.

·         We are aware of the dogwalkers in the neighbourhood.

·         We want to be part of what God is doing in the world.

·         We are about giving and sharing bread for the soul.

·         We share without strings attached – sticks and joy are free gifts.

·         We are engaged and up to date.

 

It doesn’t matter if passersby immediately think that the church is great or if they think of any of the bullet points I mentioned. Somewhere the joy of the moment is implanted into memory for when the person may need ‘daily bread,’ perhaps they will remember the church on the corner who cared for their dog.

 

The sign, the idea, is so simple.

In the Gospel we hear the disciples ask Jesus to teach them how to pray. The prayer seems simple enough – but it is so rich in content- give us this day our daily bread.

As part of the discourse Jesus says:

 

Ask and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. – Lk. 11: 9-10

 

In the 4^th century BCE prayer flags were incorporated into Tibetan Buddhist practice. Flags with prayers printed on them were hung outside for the wind to move through them. The idea is that the prayers of peace, good tidings, and blessing written on the flags would be etched on the wind. The prayers are prayed for the sake of others and for the healing of the world. The wind carries them out and beyond to the consciousness of the universe, the Creator, the Great Spirit. The etchings on the wind are breathed and exhaled, breathed and exhaled the world over– blessings, peace, good tidings inhaled, exhaled as the bread of life.

Prayers change the pray-er… and the breather of the etchings on the wind.

 

Today I am inviting you to enter the prayer give us this day our daily bread. I am inviting you to enter it in a way that also has you giving your prayer as bread to the world. You are invited to be bread-maker as a creative pray-er and also with the community create a piece of public art for the healing of the world.

These strips of fabric are waiting for your intentions and prayers. This strip’s ends have my prayer intentions for the world: compassion, peace, patience. It will go with your strips onto a cord to make a prayer garland. The prayer garland will go outside and festoon the Windsor street entrance with a banner that says, ‘Our Prayer intentions for the healing of the world.’ Publicly displayed prayers. Folk art. Public art – that will etch our prayers on the wind. For those who see the art, they will be changed in the moment – a smile, a happy thought, a recognition that something different is happening here; be blessed by a neighbourhood being filled with wholesome intentions,  a church that embraces creativity, homemade, free gifts, bread for the soul.

For those of you at home, you too can give yourself away as bread for the hungry. Take a strip of any kind of material, write your prayer words, and tie the strip on the branch of a tree. Invite your neighbours to do the same.

 

Wind-blower and Life-giver,

Give us this day our daily bread. So that we might share it by giving ourselves away as bread for the hungry, and in return be blessed to gather many baskets full of joy for the healing of the whole world.  AMEN.

Online Summer Camp - AIR - Day 2

 

Camp week 1 reflected on EARTH- grounded, determined, defined. 

Camp week 2 draws us to reflect on AIR- constantly moving and hard to nail down.

Thank you to the Rev. Lidvald Haugen-Strand for today's photo.

 

Take a look at the scene held (surrounded) by AIR. 

Breathe.

Take a deep breath. Hold. Breathe out.

Repeat a few times.

 

READ – John 20: 19-23

 

Although invisible (unless you are outside on a cold day), breath is powerful! Breath is life. Breath expanding our lungs is how we feel air. Air is invisible yet ever present. Air is seen in wind moving branches of trees or causing ripples on water. Air is life-giving: powerful and comforting, terrifying and liberating.

In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void (chaos) and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. -Gen. 1: 1-2

·         What does this “wind from God” look or sound like?

·         Have you felt or experienced God in the wind or AIR?

 

From the beginning AIR -wind, spirit, breath- created(s) and sustained(s) life. In Hebrew scripture ruach can be translated as all or any of these words (wind, spirit, breath, air). There is a lovely relationship woven with God’s breath being God’s spirit blown into matter to bring matter to life. 

·           If humans considered wind, breath, air, spirit to be God’s breath would the world relate differently to each other and creation?

 

Long after the wind from God moved over the waters,

Jesus said to them [the disciples] again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.  When Jesus had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.”  -John 20: 21-22

 

Peace be with you.

Jesus breathes on the disciples. Receive the Spirit.

·          Think of an experience where you have felt the power of AIR.

·          Have you experienced AIR as comforting, terrifying, or liberating?

·            Have you ever thought about breath, as breathing God/Spirit? What do you think/feel about this thought?

·          When you breath out do you fill the air with peace, offering God’s peace be with you to the world?

 

Breath of Life,

Fill us with fresh air. Blow out the dust and cobwebs in our minds and hearts that hinder us from breathing peace in the world. As your wind moves over us, push us to be refreshing breezes of hope and life in our neighbourhoods.

In your holy name, Amen.

The Good Samaritan Story in One Word

 based on the readings for Pentecost 5 - Amos: 7: 7-17 and Luke 10: 25-37

Tell me- in one word- the point of Jesus’ story.  …

Compassion

Luke’s Gospel has Jesus in a precarious and highly charged situation. An expert in the Law stands up to put Jesus, Jesus’ teachings and actions, to the test  - perhaps the group has gathered in a Synagogue, the courtyard of the Temple, the grounds of the Sanhedrin- somewhere where religious and political men regularly gathered to debate the Law and the application of the Law to daily life. In response to the question posed, Jesus is not unlike the prophet Amos, who, preaching in a time of economic prosperity, criticized affluence, misdirected authority, self-serving systems, and abuses in relationship and covenant living. Amos’ preaching was self- alienating; friends were not made; authorities disgruntled. Jesus’ approach does not argue points of the Law, but rather, focuses on needling the listeners with a lavish story of compassion. Compassion in an unexpected place, through unexpected hands, in an over-the-top outpouring – compassion full of danger and risk.

 

Where does one start with this passage from Luke’s gospel?  The story draws us into Jesus’ teaching, a teaching that is dangerous and risky. Wherever one starts in the text discussions promise to be highly charged.  The text speaks to politics, race, religion, Law, nationalism, marginalization.

Compassion.

 

Jewish philosopher Martin Buber wrote: “This is the kingdom of God - the kingdom of danger and of risk, of eternal beginning and of eternal becoming, of opened spirit and of deep realization, the kingdom of holy insecurity.”  

Amos. Jesus. Agents of God’s kindom through their words to the people and to the authorities of their time.  Life could have been easier, not so risky or dangerous, if they simply debated the Law like their peers. If they were particular about the dots and dashes, the politically correct wording, and philosophically approached kingdom living (not thinking about being agents of God’s kindom now).  If they closed their minds to notions of a better life for all, reduced their expectations of human action, and kept pipe-dreams of lavish compassion to themselves.

 

I read a meme where someone says, “I’m having a hard time wrapping my mind around that.” Another responds, “Try wrapping your heart around it.”

Is this not the conversation, the debate, going on in the Gospel reading?

Luke sets the conversation in a group who is asking and wrestling with questions, debating, weighing thoughts, trying to wrap their minds around the point being discussed.

Jesus interjects, challenging the process, by suggesting this is not a puzzle for the mind, but an exercise of the heart.

 

Try getting your heart around it...   compassion.

The text from Luke has a lot for our minds to puzzle over. It is these points that distract us from Jesus’ focus. When we hear the text our minds go crazy! We judge the characters in the story: how could a priest…, why would they do that, how terrible... Our minds get riled up, and holy angst misdirects our attention; passion and anger gets in the way of hearing Jesus. Our minds direct our emotions –  we focus on injustice, wrong doing, point fingers, and think “I’m better than that.” That is the mind talking, creating perceptions of reality.

Jesus’ story is doing something else. The story is presented as reality, a reality to be lived into, and thus created.

What happens if we take the text to heart? Listen to the story through our hearts. We will find that the heart moves on from the details that the mind gets caught up in. The heart notices and is well pleased sitting in the lavish compassion bestowed on the traveler.

For decades the confession most ELCIC and ELCA churches used contained the words, “we are in bondage to sin and can not free ourselves.”

Our minds have a habit of putting our hearts in bondage.  When the heart is in bondage it can not act on compassion.  Compassion is clouded by debating the risks, arguing who is neighbour, making lists of what we should or could be doing.  In the confession, we say that we are in bondage to sin...how often is it the mind that is the prison, the shackles, that stop us from entertaining and acting with compassion?

Jesus’ story is weaving its way into hearts this morning. Let us practice opening our minds to let our hearts wrap around the core --- compassion.

 

Jesus’ story of compassion teaches us something about living dangerously by speaking in a risky way – meaning identifying and articulating a heart perspective to a world that is not practiced at hearing this perspective and not so open to receiving it.

 

In recent years, we have heard an opening of the mind to wrap hearts around the point.  Have you noticed in the past number of years that media outlets avoid repeating the names of mass shooters, domestic terrorists? Taking a stand to not be the source that sets a name on its way to infamy; infamy not brought by our mouths repeating names of those who have acted unneighbourly. This change is a big change! I remember a number of cases where the infamous perpetrator is remembered by name and the victims’ names are all but forgotten.

The preaching of Amos, Jesus is this kind of change! A choosing to change one’s language, story, interpretation, and expression to create fuller change; to upend the newsreel of the mind and turn matters over to the heart.

 

There was a shooting on the Commons this past week, along with other shootings and stabbings throughout HRM. This piece of news is hard to get our minds around and I won’t pretend to get my heart around it either. My heart though can be wrapped around the Commons and it asks me about everything else that happened that day on the Commons: the number of bees that played in the white  clover, the acreage aerated by tunneling ants, the story of one who rekindled a love for roller-skating, the child who learned to ride a bike, the young adult who played catch with a parent; my heart saw hook ups and hang-outs;  passing of hand waves, smiles, nods, dog-pats, laughter, conversation; people enjoying relationship, recreation, life. This is the dangerous and risky story that I can choose to tell about that day on the Commons, rather than focusing on the one thing that is so far from life-giving. I can practice changing the newsreel by identifying and articulating Gospel – that which is life – heart.

It is risky and dangerous to opt-out of conversations that speak about news of the day or taking the news of the day and emphasizing the COMPASSION pieces of the event; to always be looking for the Gospel in moments of chaos, for heart in the presence of evil, for kindom growing in unexpected places. Our stories, our conversations, can follow Jesus’ example and change the world by needling listeners minds to open-up and turn their hearts to compassion.

 

In the end – or rather in the beginning and in the becoming there is one word:

COMPASSION