The Nuance of Words

6^th Day Within the Octave of Christmas

1 John 2:12-17

Palm 96

Luke 2:36-40

Comparing translations can sometimes really stoke the imagination. 

Do not love the world or the things in the world. 
The love of the Father is not in those who love the world; for all that is in the world—
the desire of the flesh 
(sensual lust, cravings of sinful people), 
the desire of the eyes 
(enticement for the eyes, lust of their eyes), 
the pride in riches 
(a pretentious life, and their boasting about what they have and do)
—comes not from the Father but from the world. And the world and its desire are passing away, but those who do the will of God live forever.   

(1 John 2:15-17 NRSV, NAB, NIV)

How a word strikes me can make or break the impact of the underlying message.  Pride of riches did not indict me.  Boasting about what I have and do started to knock at my door.  But Pretentious life …well…I was nailed!

Cravings, enticement and boasting.  These are words that ask for my attention.  They echo back to me the same line I use on my sixteen-year-old son:  Be careful about what impresses you (in others and in oneself).  As Yoda might say:  Christlikeness it should be.

Imitating the Right Walk

Fifth Day in the Octave of Christmas

Remembering St. Thomas Becket

1 John 2:5-6

This is the way we may know 
that we are in union with him:

whoever claims to abide in him 
ought to walk just as he walked.

This line from the first Letter of John reminded me of an old sketch by Cartoonist Jules Feiffer:

Ever since I was a little kid I didn’t want to be me.  I wanted to be Billie Widdleton.  And Billie Widdleton didn’t even like me.

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I walked like he walked.  I talked like he talked.  I signed up for the high school he signed up for---

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Which was when Billie Widdleton changed.  He began to hang around Herby Vandeman.  He walked like Herby Vandeman.  He talked like Herby Vandeman.
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He mixed me up!  I began to walk and talk like Billie Widdleton walking and talking like Herby Vandeman.

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And then it dawned on me that Herby Vandeman walked and talked like Joey Haverlin, and Joey Haverlin walked and talked like Corky Sabinson.

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So here I am walking and talking like Billie Widdleton’s imitation of Herby Vandemans’s version of Joey Haverlin trying to walk and talk like Corky Sabinson.

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And who do you think Corky Sabinson is always walking and talking like?  Of all people---dopey Kenny Wellington---That little pest who walks and talks like me.

I smile to myself because it is still so true!  I mean…true of me…right now!  How likely am I to walk like HE walked with so many Billies and Herbys and Joeys and Corkys attracting my attention!

Balancing the scales with enough Thomases and Marys and Stephens and Elizabeths will take attention and more than a little help from my friends!

…oh that another may walk like me because I walk like Him!

...the fullness of Joy

Feast of the Holy Innocents

December 28, 2015

The instinct to acknowledge that the joy of Christmas doesn't come easily to many is a good one.  Many churches have "Blue Christmas" services earlier in December.  But with patience, the liturgical calendar will tell the whole story.  Joy, after all, is not the absence of pain or suffering but the presence and companionship of God.

Holy Innocents...they are all around me...all around the world.  They are those who have no room in my society, unwanted and unseen, lest my joy become too complicated.  

Refugees.  They are the image of Holy Innocents for me this year.  My mind’s eye sees the images from months ago…frightened, peace-seeking, thousands with no ground beneath their feet...no safe place...no welcome.  

What, in my little, safe, comfortable corner of the world, might I offer on this feast day of remembering?  Perhaps, it is to remember well beyond this feast day...to remain attentive to small opportunities to offer safety and comfort...to holy innocents whose life in the flesh meets mine.  That is the presence I must see to make my joy real.

Heartfelt Mercy

Feast of the Holy Family

Clothe yourselves with heartfelt mercy (Colossians 3:12)

Pope Francis calls us to a yearlong reflection on Mercy.  To clothe oneself in heartfelt mercy is the title of the recipe...but there is a long list of ingredients.  Paul concludes this passage by calling for all our "speech and action" to be done, not in our own names but in the name of the one who sends us.  In Christ...Mercy just is!  So...all I have to do is stop confusing my name with Christ's!!!