A peaceful neighborhood

Isaiah 32:17-18 And where there’s right, there’ll be peace and the progeny of Right: quiet lives and endless trust. My people will live in a peaceful neighborhood—in safe houses, in quiet gardens.

There are few less peaceful neighborhoods than in the Palestinian villages and Israeli settlements of the West Bank. I recently saw a documentary called Encounter Point that follows the work of Israelis and Palestinians who have lost family members in the conflict; out of their shared grief, they have begun not only talking to each other, but also working in their own communities to change the conversation about the conflict. They try to convey the futility of the current situation, where violence begets more violence, and argue for at least a change of tactics to a nonviolent approach. Both sides run up against suspicion and dehumanization of the other in their own communities, fully justified by the opposing sides historic acts. It is a tough sell. Yet here, in these verses of Isaiah, is what seems to be the best argument: you cannot build security on oppression and injustice, and peace is the only path to peace, as violence only engenders more violence. Each of these participants could be poster children for the violent movements in their communities, but they choose instead to put aside revenge, create their own meaning for their loss and engage in the difficult path of nonviolence, hoping to spare other families, even those on the other side, the painful loss they live with every day. This is true courage, and even though few, if any, of them are ”Christian” it seems to me that they are living Christ’s message nonetheless.

Prayer: Dear God, You have given me an example of fortitude and courage in the lives of these men and women who suffer every day from the effects of violence and historic hatred. Give me the same courage to stand up for justice not just with those who agree with me, but also with those who may challenge my views, that I may be an effective witness to the world’s suffering. Amen.

A towering, badly built wall

Isaiah 30:12-13 Therefore, The Holy of Israel says this: “Because you scorn this Message, preferring to live by injustice and shape your lives on lies, this perverse way of life will be like a towering, badly built wall that slowly, slowly tilts and shifts and then one day, without warning, collapses—

The prophets of old tell us over and over that a society built on injustice cannot survive. It has always made sense to me that I am concretely better off in a society where poor people have enough to eat and a place to live, where their children can get a good education, not just because of the ways these problems might “inconvenience” me by having to confront them in my everyday life (like seeing homeless people living on the street), but because the fabric of a society is stronger if its citizens basic needs are met. There are more human resources to deal with crises and natural disasters, there is more human capital for the running of the society and more brain power to address unmet needs and other problems that will continue to exist. We’re not going to get rid of inequality – even Jesus said “the poor will always be with you”, but the level of inequality is increasing steadily. Worldwide, the richest 1% owns 40% of the wealth (Everything Must Change, Brian McLaren). In the United States, the top 1% earn 20.3% of society’s income, a level bested only by the 21.1% in 1928, and we know what happened the next year. Can we stop this trend in that has already led to the greatest inequality in the U.S. since the Gilded Age, an age of robber barons and monopolies (if I have my historical eras correct)?

Interdisciplinary research is starting to look at not just the causes of inequality, but also some of the effects. It is pretty well documented that poverty and racism contribute to the poor health of African Americans, through such effects as high blood pressure, higher rates of illnesses such as diabetes and poorer outcomes with diseases such as cancer. What is surprising and interesting in this new research, which I read about in the Harvard Magazine (July – August, 2008), is that they are finding that even the well off in societies with gross inequalities between rich and poor also affects the health of the rich, giving them shorter lifespans than they might have enjoyed in a society with a lower level of inequality. And of course, there are the other, more political effects, of instability and, in many countries, armed conflict. But it seems to me, a more basic question is, “What kind of country/community do I want to live in?” God intended the Israelites to be a model community for the world, to show other nations how to care for their sick and disadvantaged, their “widows and orphans”. Because of their failure, God calls out judgment upon them. If I am called to the Christian path, I cannot ignore the call to address such egregious inequality not just in my personal life, but at a systemic level. How to do that is something each person must decide, but that God calls us there is undeniable.

Prayer: Dear God, You are opening my heart to the injustices of the world. Open my eyes also to ways to address these injustices, through my personal decision making and my participation in the larger political and economic structures of our society. Give me the courage to be a prophetic voice calling attention to the needs of those at the lower rungs of our socio-economic ladder, and to stand with my brothers and sisters in pain and need against the forces that oppress them. Amen.

I wrote this in June, when I was trying to get back in touch with this practice:

Isaiah 2:3 He’ll show us the way he works so we can live the way we’re made.

The Message

I love this idea: that God’s ways fit the way we are made; that learning to live by God’s laws is to put ourselves in the flow of life, rather than taking ourselves out of it or trying to live by some artificial set of rules. Of course, our ego, our desires, often work at cross purposes to the ways of the Divine, but that’s not because those ways don’t work for us. As anyone who has ever gotten into a mess because of the call of desire – whether it’s shopping, or love, addiction or just the determination to show that I know what I’m doing and I can fix my life myself and follow my own bullheadedness – ego often sets us up for self-defeat. I think that is what is meant by “pride goeth before a fall”. It’s not that we shouldn’t feel good about who we are and what we are able to do, but it’s the lack of perspective, that we rely too heavily on what we can accomplish ourselves, and leave God and others out of the equation.

I was listening to Sidney Poitier talk about his life the other night, and he was so intent on pointing out that there were many times in his life where he came that close to disaster, to ending up like so many other young, African American men either dead or in jail, that he could not credit himself fully with his success. He was aware that luck, or providence, or outside spiritual forces (forces was the word he used) had for some reason saved him from the potential results of his own behavior.

So I have been gone for a while, away from this practice, and I can see again the need. It helps me stay focused, centered, grounded in the idea of God, and what that means in my life. It reminds me that I am not the center of things, and that only by allying myself with the Divine Other will I find my true core, discover my purpose, and fulfill my deepest hopes and longings.

Prayer: Dear God, Sometimes I forget how deeply ingrained you are in my very being. Help me remember, take the time, create the space to feel Your Divine Presence, to follow the practices that bring me into Your Ways. Amen

Deathly and deadening silence

Isaiah 16:9b – 10 The joyful shouting at harvest is gone. Instead of song and celebration, dead silence. No more boisterous laughter in the orchards, no more hearty work songs in the vineyards. Instead of the bustle and sound of good work in the fields, silence—deathly and deadening silence.

This is god’s judgment on Moab, once arrogant, self-important, insufferable. These are hard passages to read. My heart hurts to think of all the people gone, the laughter silenced and replaced by mourning. I think of the many places in the world where such wholesale slaughter goes on, where people are suffering such terrible losses – due to tsunamis, earthquakes and floods, but also due to human conflict, violence and ethnic “cleansing”. It’s hard to even begin to take in all the human suffering this represents, the particular families and individuals who mourn the loss of family members and friends, of home and country, of health and physical wholeness.

There’s also, though, another, more prophetic word that speaks to me here: this is the fate of all empires, eventually to decline, their place taken by whoever arises next. Pride and arrogance can lead societies, just as it can individuals, into unsustainable relationships with both other cultures and the environment, as Jared Diamond so carefully documents in Collapse. It can take us out over our heads, past the point of no return – too far, as in the commercial about an SUV which can go “anywhere”, till it’s on a raft headed for a waterfall. Will we heed the call to mend our ways, to address the circumstances that threaten us – the growing gap worldwide between rich and poor, our unsustainable exploitation of the environment and natural resources, and the violence which erupts in so many parts of the globe, displacing and destroying whole communities? Or will we remain silent in the face of suffering, as did the false prophets of old?

Prayer: Dear God, It is overwhelming to contemplate the suffering in the world, and to wonder what I, one individual, can do about it. Give me the courage and the vision Mother Theresa talks about when she admonishes us to act anyway, even if our actions cannot change what we see, to love anyway, even if our love cannot be enough. Help me step out in faith, as Abraham did when he left his home to wander, with no vision of his future but God’s word. Amen.

Your everyday, ordinary life

Romans 12:1 So here’s what I want you to do. Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering.

I know, I know, I’ve skipped to Romans, and I’ve been in Isaiah, but I decided today I wanted to talk about an amazing process of listening to scripture called Lectio Divina. I was in a small group for about 15 years, and it became the main focus of our time together. We would choose the Gospel passage that was going to be preached on the following Sunday, and went through this process with it. So here is how it goes in a nutshell:

1. Someone reads the passage and everyone else listens. Then, after a brief silence, and going around the group starting with the person on the reader’s right (it’s important to have a plan for how to share, what the plan is is less important) people share what word or phrase stood out for them, or they say “pass”.

2. Someone reads the passage a second time and everyone listens. This time, they listen for how the passage touches their life, for some kind of sensory or emotional connection they make, putting themselves into the passage. When they share, they might answer the question: what do you feel, taste, see, experience? Or they say “pass”.

3. Someone reads the passage a third time and everyone listens. This time, they listen for an invitation for the next few days, something they are invited to say or do. They share that invitation, or say “pass”.

4. Everyone prays silently for the person on his/her right for 3 – 5 minutes.

OK, I’m sharing this with you because I have had the most extraordinary experiences listening to scripture in this way. I use a similar process with my reading – I notice which verse or verses stand out for me – but because I’m reading larger chunks of scripture I don’t read it 3 times. I also find it’s quite a different experience listening rather than reading. At my last, new small group meeting almost 2 weeks ago we used a passage from Romans that included this verse, and when the invitation step came around, this was what jumped out.

So I did it. For the next almost week, every morning as I sat in silence (my meditation time) I remembered to offer my ordinary life to God. Sort of a, “This one’s for you” thing. And what was amazing was the extraordinary peace and contentment I experienced during that time. It was enough! My life, just as it was, was sufficient, fulfilling, satisfying and rich. Now, I was on vacation, on a trip, but some of the circumstances were very trying, believe me!!! And, it’s also not that I haven’t found a level of peace and contentment in my life anyway, but somehow this just increased it to a new level. And helped me enjoy my trip even more, and the people I was with, and the circumstances surrounding it, and even the frustrations were much less aggravating.

What I’ve found particularly striking about my experience doing Lectio in groups is how often people will hear entirely different things! Now, that’s not always the case; sometimes, we’re all on a wavelength, and the invitation in the passage hits us in a similar manner, but often people are hearing wildly different things, things that are specific to their own lives. And when you approach this process with quiet and a sense of the presence of the Spirit, scripture can become your own personal Spiritual Director, addressing the particular needs of your current circumstances, and drawing you toward God, and an increasing awareness of God in your life, that can be quite extraordinary. I invite you to try it.

Prayer: Dear God, I have heard Your call recently to share the contemplative gifts You have brought into my life. I thank You for this call, and the encouragement You offer me. I offer up this blog, and my work and my relationships and my ordinary, everyday life to You as an offering of love, honor and joy, in gratitude for all You have blessed me with. Amen.

Harvest of Righteousness

It has been two months since I have written here. I spent a fabulous week in Mississippi working on houses damaged by Hurricane Katrina, and found freedom surrendering to the schedule they establish for you at Camp Coast Care. I have been celebrating with family and friends out of town my recent birthday. I spent another fabulous week writing an icon while on retreat (I'll post a picture when I finally finish it) which is one of the many contemplative practices that I enjoy, and a refreshing week with dear friends who have let me graft my branch on to their family tree. So it has been a time of travel, and fun, and relaxation, but I have gotten away from my daily spiritual practices, so here I am, wanting to re-engage with Eugene Peterson's The Message, his contemporary paraphrase of the Bible, and with all the history and tradition that stands behind it. I am also thinking about how to shift this blog, perhaps, just a tad, to bring in more of my practices and experiences, as I use Bible reading as spiritual guide in my call to live the Christian life. I would be happy to hear questions, suggestions, ideas that any of you have that I could incorporate here.

Isaiah 5:7b He looked for a crop of justice and saw them murdering each other. He looked for a harvest of righteousness and heard only the moans of victims.

Isaiah has just used the analogy of a vineyard and its owner to represent the relationship between the kingdom of Israel and God. God has lavished Israel with tender care and in return sees selfishness, greed, hatred and war.

Life is a gift. This incredible planet on which we live is a gift. Do I look at each day and all it offers me as a gift, as a manifestation of the love and care of a Divine Creator, or am I caught up in my own head – my problems, my feelings, my insecurities, my petty ego desires? In the half full/half empty debate, faith calls me to see the good that is in m life rather than bemoan what is missing. Einstein said that either everything is a miracle or nothing is, and my faith calls me to see the miraculous in every moment, the beauty that surrounds me, the good food I get to eat, the time that is mine to use, the people that I know and love that move in my life. Rather than focusing on what is missing, let me notice my blessings and be grateful.

Prayer: Dear God, I want to be sweet grapes for your delight, ro appreciate all that you have given me, and live out a blessing on the world. Help me keep to that path and be grateful for each day’s miracles. Amen.