Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Woe to Us Pharisees!

Wednesday, October 31, 2012 -- Week of Proper 25, Year 2
Paul Shinji Sasaki and Philip Lindel Tsen,
Bishop of Mid-Japan, and of Tokyo, 1946; Bishop of Honan, China, 1954

[Go to http://www.missionstclare.com/english/index.html for an online version of the Daily Office including today's scripture readings.]

Today's Readings for the Daily Office
     (Book of Common Prayer, p. 991)
Psalms 119:49-72 (morning)       49, [53] (evening)
Ecclesiasticus 28:14-26 (found in the Apocrypha; also called Sirach)
Revelation 12:1-6
Luke 11:37-52

"But woe to you Pharisees!  For you tithe mint and rue and herbs of all kinds, and neglect justice and the love of God; it is these you ought to have practiced, without neglecting the others."  (Luke 11:42)

Because the Pharisees became the visible opponent of the early Church, we have inherited a lot of words against them in our New Testament.  We seem to think of them as those "others."  We think of them as different from the Christians, hostile toward us.  We may even think of them as professional hypocrites, since that's the description that accompanies so many New Testament references.

But many of those who were attracted to Jesus and became his followers were Pharisees, such as Paul, the singularly most important figure of the early church.

In so many ways, the Pharisees are the kind of people that serious Christians strive to be. 

First, the Pharisees took the practice of their faith seriously.  They sought to put into practice everything that had been revealed in scripture.  They sought to observe the Biblical law in its entirety.  They were serious about obeying God and living religiously observant lives.

Second, the Pharisees had a teaching mission to make the practice of the faith accessible to all people.  Many peasants believed that it was impossible for them to follow the Torah because of their poverty, they lived in close proximity to defiling and unclean things.  The Pharisees inspired and taught peasants to observe the law despite their environment, and showed them ways to be faithful in contexts where they believed themselves to be outside the circle of blessing. 

These are good things -- being faithful to God's laws and helping others live more faithfully.  How many exemplary Christians strive to live just so.  We all know conscientious Christians who live lives of faithful observance; we all know people who try to help others live according to the wisdom and teaching of our faith.

But Jesus has some major issues with the Pharisees, including Christian Pharisees of our own day.  It doesn't matter how disciplined, pious and observant you may be or how conscientiously you may teach others in the way, if you practice your faith "and neglect justice and the love of God," you have missed the mark.

It's important to unpack that word "justice."  Justice is the social form of love.  In the Bible, justice most often means "economic justice" and "political justice."  Some theologies tend to speak of God's justice as God's punishment of our sins, and it's opposite as God's mercy.  More often, the opposite of God's justice is human injustice. 

Jesus proclaimed the Kingdom of God -- how earth would be if God reigned.  God's reign of justice is contrasted with the realities of human systems of political oppression favoring the wealthy and powerful.  God's reign of justice is contrasted with economic exploitation that concentrates wealth among the few and abides poverty, subsistence living, malnourishment, disease and vulnerability. 

Woe to you Pharisees!  For you neglect justice and the love of God! 

A religious practice that emphasizes good behavior and morality, faithfulness in prayer, tithing and other religious practices, and outward witness to God's word is not enough.  We are Pharisees if we participate in systems that allow the wealthy and powerful to concentrate wealth and power; systems that allow poverty and suffering; systems that let children go hungry without feeding them; systems that do not include universal access to medical care.  Unless good Christians are actively working to promote justice -- the love of God in its social form -- we have cleaned the outside of the cup, but inside are full of greed and wickedness; we are "like unmarked graves."

Jesus speaks in the tradition of the great prophets who declared God's word on behalf of equity and economic justice for the poor -- Amos, Isaiah, Micah and others.  Christians who live lives of exemplary religious observance and who neglect economic and political justice on behalf of the least of these are today's Pharisees.

One more word, and it's an important one.  Love.  It is too easy for serious religious observance to slip into moralism and the practice of rules.  It is easy for the observant to judge and to look down on the unobservant -- we are doing right and they aren't.  When that happens, love has slipped out the back door.  Jesus teaches us that every law -- every belief and practice -- is subsumed under the rubric of love:  Love God, and love your neighbor as yourself.  Religious practice and pious observance without the gift of extravagant love toward others and toward self is anemic moralism and ritualism. 

Woe to you Pharisees!  For you neglect justice and the love of God!


Lowell
___________



Audio podcast:  Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week.  Go to: http://www.stpaulsfay.org/id244.html

About Morning Reflections
"Morning Reflections" is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.

Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117
An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at http://www.missionstclare.com/english/index.html

Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this location

The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church
is to explore and celebrate
God's infinite grace, acceptance, and love.

See our Web site at www.stpaulsfay.org

Our Rule of Life: 
We aspire to...
    worship weekly
    pray daily
    learn constantly
    serve joyfully 
    live generously.

Lowell Grisham, Rector
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Seeing What We Expect to See

Tuesday, October 30, 2012  -- Week of Proper 25, Year 2
John Wyclif, Priest and Prophetic Witness, 1384

[Go to http://www.missionstclare.com/english/index.html for an online version of the Daily Office including today's scripture readings.]

Today's Readings for the Daily Office
     (Book of Common Prayer, p. 991)
Psalms 45 (morning)        47, 48 (evening)
Ecclesiasticus 24:1-12 (found in the Apocrypha; also called Sirach)
Revelation 11:14-19      
Luke 11:27-36

Most of the time we see what we expect to see. 

The goal of the spiritual journey is to be in constant conscious awareness and union with God.  If you expect to see God, you probably will.

Today Luke's gospel tells us, "Your eye is the lamp of your body.  If your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light; but if it is not healthy, your body is full of darkness."

This time of year it is easy for the eye to be grasped by the beauty of the colors.  The landscape seems to shout "Look!"  And in that moment when the leaves or the panorama catches our attention, we are filled with gratefulness and joy.  It only takes a second.  But that second is a clue to the possibility of a constant state of awareness.

It only takes a little turn of the attention to become aware of the leaves.  It only takes a little turn of the attention to be aware of the light that surrounds each moment.  To be awake is to be looking constantly for the Presence.  It is an open and grateful heart that is constantly aware of the wonder of the moment. 

But so much of our consciousness is preoccupied by other things -- worries and anxieties, the next task, resentments and frustrations.  We literally are pre-occupied.  Our mind and heart is already occupied by worrisome stuff and so there is no openness for the presence of wonder.  When we are preoccupied with anxious matters, we are blind to everything but our anxieties.  During ordinary times -- ordinary weather -- we become blinded by our ordinary anxieties.  During extraordinary times -- as many in the northeast are experiencing an apocalyptic storm today -- we can become blinded by our extraordinary anxieties.

Jesus has a lot to say to the crowds who ask for a sign but fail to see him for who he is.  They wanted to be entertained, but not changed.  So they were blind to what was present before their very eyes.  Have you ever thought how lucky it must have been for those people in Capernaum?  Have you ever thought, "I wish I would have been alive then to see Jesus in person during his earthly life"?  Well, we probably would have been as asleep and unaware as the people he talks to in today's story from Capernaum.

Wonder is all around us.  Joy is in the air.  God is no more present and real somewhere else or at some other time than God is present and real right here, right now.  If God is to be present and real for me, that will have to happen right here, right now. 

All it takes to be conscious is a little turn of the attention, just a touch of discipline and awareness. 

It's like intending to notice the leaves.  Just as you go outside, you remind yourself it is fall.  Look around.  Just as you enter the next moment, you remind yourself, God is present.  Everything is amazing.  Look around.  Wake up.

Whatever you expect to see is probably what you will see.


Lowell
__________



Audio podcast:  Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week.  Go to: http://www.stpaulsfay.org/id244.html

About Morning Reflections
"Morning Reflections" is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.

Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117
An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at http://www.missionstclare.com/english/index.html

Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this location

The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church
is to explore and celebrate
God's infinite grace, acceptance, and love.

See our Web site at www.stpaulsfay.org

Our Rule of Life: 
We aspire to...
    worship weekly
    pray daily
    learn constantly
    serve joyfully 
    live generously.

Lowell Grisham, Rector
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas

Monday, October 29, 2012

A Vision of Inner Reality

Monday, October 29, 2012 -- Week of Proper 25, Year 2
James Hannington and his Companions, Bishop of Eastern Equatorial Africa, Martyrs, 1885

[Go to http://www.missionstclare.com/english/index.html for an online version of the Daily Office including today's scripture readings.]

Today's Readings for the Daily Office
     (Book of Common Prayer, p. 991)
Psalms 41, 52 (morning)        44 (evening)  
Ecclesiasticus 19:4-17 (found in the Apocrypha; also called Sirach)
Revelation 11:1-14
Luke 11:14-26

There is an inner reality that is safe, at peace, and always one with God, regardless of the outer circumstances. 

When speaking of our personal lives, we describe this as our inner union with God, which is our true self, the person God has created us to be.  At the core of our being, we are always and have always been one with God -- that is our true self.  Because we experience ourselves as being  threatened, we become fearful and reactive.  We create an adaptive self, a false self.  The false self is attached to our exaggerated needs for security, affection/esteem, and power/control.  Most of us get pretty dysfunctional trying to secure on our own terms what God gives us at our deepest being -- perfect security, unqualified love, divine power. 

John writes of this symbolic territory in his Revelation.  He is speaking to a community rather than to an individual.  At the core of the community, the church, there is the temple and the altar -- the union between God and God's people.  At that center, we are always one with God and the heavenly hosts who worship and praise God continually.  The core is always connected and secure.  Though the outer realities of political, social and economic well-being may be attacked, crumbling and chaotic, the center holds forever.  The reign of evil and destruction -- the reign of empire -- is merely temporary, it is passing away.

Our call is to stand as witnesses during the passing period.  John gives us a symbolic picture of that, using numbers.  The period of evil is always incomplete and broken -- forty-two months = 1,260 days = three and one-half years = half of seven.  Seven is the symbol of perfection -- the sum of three [the spiritual order] and four [the created order].  So half of seven, the period of evil, is incomplete and broken.  Six is one less than seven -- imperfection, incompleteness.  The symbolic numbers associated with evil and empire are always incomplete, imperfect and broken.

John gives us the image of two witnesses, who like Jesus (and like the community) are both conquered and victorious.  We are God's witnesses.  We are a community of priests and kings, two olive trees.  As part of our memory and heritage, we know the two great prophet-witnesses Moses (who commanded the plagues) and Elijah (who shut up the sky).  We join their struggle against the empire.

We are in conflict with the values of the empire -- the lure of wealth and luxury and greed, the abuse of power and its inevitable violence.  But our weapons are always the weapons of the Word.  Our weapon, John says, is the "testimony."  (In Greek the word "witness/testimony" is "martus" -- the same root as "martyr.") 

So we live in the conflict between empire and community.  The witnesses may appear to be defeated, but their apparent defeat is only temporary.  God always intervenes on behalf of truth.  Resurrection happens.  "The breath of life from God" reanimates; the Spirit breathes new life. 

John is setting the scene for the announcement of God's reign.  God reigns now.  The internal victory is ever present.  Yet in the conflict of our world, the victory is anticipatory, partial, and surely coming.  We are victorious now, at one with God; we are struggling now, giving witness to the evil of this passing oppression.  Like Jesus the Lamb, we are both conquered and victorious. 

John is describing every person, every community, every age.  Here is the key to this part of his message:  The experience of being conquered or assaulted by evil is always temporary and passing.  The triumph of the Lamb is eternal and eternally present.  Hold fast.  Do not fear.  The empire always crumbles and decays.  True community, grounded in divine love, eternally triumphs.  Embrace the triumphant vision and live by its light.  Be compassion, love and justice in a world of greed, pride and injustice.  The center holds forever.


Lowell
____________


Audio podcast:  Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week.  Go to: http://www.stpaulsfay.org/id244.html

About Morning Reflections
"Morning Reflections" is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.

Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117
An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at http://www.missionstclare.com/english/index.html

Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this location

The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church
is to explore and celebrate
God's infinite grace, acceptance, and love.

See our Web site at www.stpaulsfay.org

Our Rule of Life: 
We aspire to...
    worship weekly
    pray daily
    learn constantly
    serve joyfully 
    live generously.

Lowell Grisham, Rector
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas

Friday, October 26, 2012

"My child, do not busy yourself..."

Friday, October 26, 2012 -- Week of Proper 24, Year 2
Alfred the Great, King of the West Saxons, 899

[Go to http://www.missionstclare.com/english/index.html for an online version of the Daily Office including today's scripture readings.]

Today's Readings for the Daily Office
     (Book of Common Prayer, p. 989)
Psalm 31 (morning)     //     35 (evening)
Ecclesiasticus 11:2-20  (found in the Apocrypha; also called Sirach)
Revelation 9:13-21
Luke 10:38-42

For most weekdays during the past eleven years I've been writing a few thoughts about the readings for Morning Prayer.  My Journal software allows me some options to search for content from previous reflections.  Today when I read one particular phrase from Ecclesiasticus, it jumped out at me enough for me to search to see if I had quoted it and commented on it previously:  "My child, do not busy yourself with many matters; if you multiply activites, you will not be held blameless." (11:10)  I searched that phrase in my Journal.  I got some hits.  In fact, every time this verse has come up in the lectionary, every other year since 2004, I have written to myself about it.  That's because being over-busy, over-committed is an abiding sin of mine. 

In 2004, I reminded myself of a photo in my yearbook from junior high.  It's one of those candid shots that populate student annuals.  I'm leaving school for the day, and I'm leaning over to counterbalance about a dozen books that I'm carrying home under one arm as I walk away from the school exit.  My wrist barely reaches under my notebook, and the books stretch up to just under my armpit.  There's room for maybe a tiny paperback to wedge in there.  It's in the school annual because it's funny.  It's also the image I projected.

In 2006, I cited the T-shirt "The One Who Dies With the Largest Checklist, Wins."  I wished I could be more like Mary -- choosing the better part -- just being with Jesus, instead of distracted by the doing of many things.

In 2008, I quoted from a chapter titled "The Unhurried Life" in a book I was reading then.  It tells of a man asking advice from a wise friend.  "What do I need to do to be healthy?"  The answer:  "You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life."  "Okay, that's a good one," he wrote it down.  "Now, what else?"  Long pause.  Nothing else.  "You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life."

In 2010, I challenged my habit of always wanting to say "yes" to every good possibility that presents itself.  If it seems like a good thing, I say to myself, why shouldn't I do it?  It's a better question to ask, In a world with so many gifted people called to carry out their ministries, why should I be the one to do this next opportunity?  Is it really my calling?

Twice previously in my Journal I've reminded myself of the the discipline of hedging.  The image comes from Biblical agriculture.  Farmers are told not to harvest border to border, but to leave a margin between their work and the ends of their fields.  Two reasons:  (1) As a protection against accidentally crossing over into a neighbor's property and trespassing upon his harvest.  (2) To leave the gleanings for the needy.  The poor had the right to follow behind the harvesters to pick up whatever may fall to the ground or be overlooked.  And they had the right to the full produce on the edges of the fields, the harvest of the margins.

My field is time.  If I fill every minute of the day with responsibilities and obligations, there are no margins.  I am likely to trespass on another's time -- it is so easy to get behind or, as I did a couple of days ago, forget an appointment.  And there is nothing left for the needs of the moment.  I've left nothing for the needy, including myself.

The one encouraging thing that shows up in nearly all of these entries about my habitual disease of busy-ness is the helpful medicine of Centering Prayer.  That practice has been the counterweight that can keep me from spinning into chaos.  From the place of still silence I can sometimes move into a full life with intention rather than compulsion.

So, as I write my bi-annual entry from eight years of engagement with Ben Sira's words, "My child, do not busy yourself with many matters," I find myself doing what I've been doing since at least 2004.  I'll conclude this little bit of writing (another activity checked off today's "To Do List"), and then I will stop in order to practice Centering Prayer.  That's good.  I'll be better in about twenty minutes. 


Lowell
_______________



Audio podcast:  Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week.  Go to: http://www.stpaulsfay.org/id244.html

About Morning Reflections
"Morning Reflections" is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.

Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117
An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at http://www.missionstclare.com/english/index.html

Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this location

The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church
is to explore and celebrate
God's infinite grace, acceptance, and love.

See our Web site at www.stpaulsfay.org

Our Rule of Life: 
We aspire to...
    worship weekly
    pray daily
    learn constantly
    serve joyfully 
    live generously.

Lowell Grisham, Rector
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas