Beware the Quick Fix

Thursday After Ash Wednesday

Psalm 1

Blessed the man who follows not

       the counsel of the wicked,

Nor walks in the way of sinners,

       nor sits in the company of the insolent,

but delights in the law of the Lord

       and meditates on his law day and night.

Hmmm…

What I hear is---Watch out for that which attracts crowds. 

Where crowds gather swiftly…chances are there is ‘death’ at the center.

Someone being mocked or pointed at or even ogled

Delighting in the law of the Lord might mean that if I find myself

Following…walking…sitting

In such gathered company

My voice best be in support of the one left out…the scapegoated one

The one whose purpose is to produce a sense of righteousness for the giddy crowd

He is like a tree

       planted near running water,

that yields its fruit in due season,

       and whose leaves never fade.

       Whatever he does, prospers.

Hmmm…again

Why does it prosper
(think fruitful and flourishing…not 401k)

I can see the roots

Deep and satisfied as they dig into the healthy soil

Being fed through deep roots

Not fast food from the surface

Prospering…NOT quick fix

Not so the wicked, not so;

       they are like chaff which the wind drives away.

For the Lord watches over the way of the just,

       but the way of the wicked vanishes.

Hmmmm…a third time

Does it vanish because it is a ‘famished craving’?

The satisfaction lasts but an instant?

There is no real sustenance?

The fast-food vs rich accompanied meal holds up here

The event of sharing at table feeds the whole

Through those deep roots of communion

And it lasts

It more than lasts

It grows…and feeds…and grows

Those Demons

Monday of Week 7 in Ordinary Time

Mark 9:14-29

What do we have?

A Father: Eager in his budding faith

A Son:  Possessed and in need of healing…liberation…

Jesus:  Getting a little impatient?

The Disciples: Just off the the transfiguration and appearing in need of a little fine-tuning

A Particular Demon:  Who responds only to prayer

Matthew names it epilepsy

Mark isn’t interested particularly

For Mark it is a case of demonic possession and the terrible affliction and suffering that goes with that

Getting beyond the theological problems, which can be worked out here, I can see in my own life, a kind of slipping into ‘possession’ and having it afflict me…in fact.

It isn’t that hard for me to imagine myself somewhere in this story of healing, hope, and faith.

But faith in what???

Maybe it is faith in change as a possibility?

Faith in the companionship of the Holy Spirit?

Faith in the possibility of living an accompanied life?

Faith in receiving healing and wholeness and participating in an-other’s reception of the same?

That’s a good start

It has happened

It continues to happen

It will happen again

Love Who?

You have heard it said…

But I say…

Part II

Matthew 5:38-48

The sermon on the mount continues…

When the whole “an eye for an eye” system of justice came about

You can bet it was an improvement

“An eye for an eye” meant no more overkill

No more wiping out whole clans because someone stole a loaf of bread

…an improvement

But we human beings can do better

Enter Jesus

It’s time for another improvement

The cycle of violence

Fed by revenge and vengeance

Escalates in the absence of the courage to speak a word of mercy

There is not a conflict between Justice and Mercy

The refusal to return evil for evil opens up a new arena for a deeper realization of justice

The call to love is a call to step outside the feeding frenzy of sacred violence*

But the frenzy is lightening fast

And getting swept up can happen in an instant of spiritual sloth!

Love your enemies

Just do it

And see what happens

*which disguises as gossip, shunning, oooh...and a lot of stuff I do on a regular basis

Need a Spit Shine?

Mark 8:22-26

His sight was restored

And he could see everything distinctly

When I was young

My Dad had a careful routine surrounding

Polishing his shoes

There was the old shoebox

The cloth

The tins of polish in brown and black

And all shades in between

Finally, was the brush

He would wrap the cloth around a fingertip

Dab it in the polish

Put his left hand in the shoe to mold it firm

And buff with intense pressure

In circles

Dab again

Rub again

Dab again

Rub again

And then he would hold the shoe

at arms length

and observe his work

Tilting it from side to side

A few more dabs and rubs

Another observation

Then my favorite part

The buffing

He would take the brush

And as if the brush were a fighter jet

He rhythmically swooped that brush down and across the shoe

Swooping up and down

With swiftness

And at differing angles

…as his left hand

moved the target strategically

Oh yeah…and he periodically spit on the shoe as he did so

Jesus heals the blind man in today’s gospel with spittle.  And the healing happens in stages (the scholars make much of that)

As I read the text

I thought of my Dad’s shoe shining ritual

In the Gospels, healings happen

And they are once and done

That is what narratives capture

But as for me

The ritual needs repeating

Like shoe-shining

Dulling happens

I don’t usually notice

The gradual blurry-ing

But when thanksgiving wells up inside

I know that I have been healed once again

The sacramental life

With its rhythm

And predictability

Works on me like the

contents of that shoe box

in my Dad’s careful hands