Lenten Reflection 2/18

Lenten Reflection 2/18

In Deuteronomy, Moses has been assuring the people that God will soon bring them into the land of milk and honey.  Today, he warns them: 

"When you eat and are satisfied, build pleasant houses and settle in, see your herds and flocks flourish and more and more money come in, watch your standard of living going up and up-- make sure you don't become so full of yourself and your things that you forget GOD... If you start thinking to yourselves, 'I did all this. And all by myself. I'm rich. It's all mine!'-- well, think again."

Paul often refers to the principalities and powers of the world.  In our world, oil companies and tobacco companies seem to fit that bill.  Intent on profits first, they wield their lobbying power over both the  government and consumers, despite the fact - and I do believe this is a fact - that their products do not contribute to the common welfare and good of all.  We know tobacco addicts and kills people.  We know that we are addicted to fossil fuels, even thought they are of limited supply and are leading to environmental ruin.  These industries throw into our faces that the dominant and most powerful operating principle of our society is Profits First.  "I did all this. And all by myself. I'm rich. It's all mine!"

Over 40,000 protesters gathered in Washington yesterday, raising their voices against oil company greed.  It seems like a lot of people, and it is!  However it is just a tiny voice compared to the principalities and powers of the oil industry.  It's at times like these that I need to remember that with God's help, little David slew a giant, and a stuttering shepherd named Moses was able to convince a powerful Pharaoh to let his people go.  And I need to remember that even plain old water can become the finest wine whenever Jesus is among us.  God often has surprises up God's sleeve.  And with God's help, our nation could 'come to itself,' like the prodigal son did that day in the pigsty, and turn away from our addiction to profits and return home to the true abundance of God.

Today's readings: Deut 8:11-20, Hebrews 2:11-18, John 2:1-12

On the topic of the XL Pipeline and one faithful reaction to it, I also highly recommend reading  this article about a little Baptist church in TX.

Open Hands

Fall is traditionally pledge drive time in churches, and we are having our Commitment Sunday today. As I write parishioners are travelling all over town visiting each other, talking about the church, sharing why it's important to them, and making their 2012 financial pledge by filling out their pledge cards. Later today, we will gather for a special service at 4:00, at which we'll gather all the pledge cards and dedicate our commiment to God and share in the bounty of God's abundant feast around the communion table. Then we'll enjoy a great supper together downstairs.

Pledge time can be an uncomfortable time for people in the church, because whenever you start talking about money, anxieties show up. Gertrude Stein said, "Money is funny," and I couldnt' agree with her more! But this year I have come to understand in a newly deep way how important it is for us to talk about money and to be generous in giving. I will be sharing at our service later today a quote from Bishop Mark Andrus of California, who wrote these words on his blog while attending the recent Bishop's Conference in Quito, Equador:

I was part of a group that stayed in Quito but journeyed a long distance in culture and economics, to Sector Comité del Pueblo, a community of poor and working class people who squatted some thirty years ago on a large swath of a valley that absentee landowners had left fallow. They finally received recognized land rights, and they have created a vibrant community, which has a wonderful Episcopal mission in it, Mission Cristo Libertador, Christ the Liberator. ... It was there I attended a worship service, and the opening song had this refrain: “May we always have hearts without doors; may we always have open hands.”

Immediately I remembered what I learned this past spring about the Guarani people - they call themselves the people with open hands. What that means is that as they receive something –money, material possessions, emotional investment, ideas – they are thinking about how they can enhance the gift, and pass it on.

The Guarani, through several centuries of experience with colonizing Western culture have learned to call us the people of the closed hands; people who immediately invest energy in how to hold onto possessions of all kinds.

I felt a sting of recognition when I was referred to here as a person of closed hands. And I have since been imagining how my life would be transformed by becoming a person with open hands. And I believe that is what Jesus calls me to be - even with my material possessions - even with my money -even though a voice inside me tells me I don't have enough and I'd better hold onto it just to be safe. I've been imagining how our church would be transformed by becoming a people of open hands - and how our community, our economy and our world could be transformed. This is a dream of no less than the kingdom of God - a vision of the gospel in action - this becoming and living as a people with open hands.

So I am grateful this year for our pledge drive, which reminds me in a kick-in-the-stomach kind of way that everything in this life is a gift, not a possession - and that as a disciple of Jesus I am called not to store up possessions, but to steward them, enhance them, and then give them away for the sake of God's love - in response to God's abundant love for me and for the whole world.

So I am praying this morning for Grace Church and for all our parishioners, out there talking to each other right now about the sometimes uncomfortable topic of money. And I'm praying that we may truly develop hearts without doors and become a people with open hands.

Day 7 - Appreciation

Here I am with my dinner last night - before I juiced it.  Look at the size of that bowl of vegetables!.  No wonder sometimes people call this a juice feast instead of a juice fast. 

Today, on day 7 of 10, I can finally say that I felt hungry at times.  Maybe a better way to say it is that today I became aware of the emptiness of my stomach.  This is not a feeling I usually allow my body to have.  So it wasn't like I was craving any particular foods - as in, "Oh a pizza would taste so good right now!"  This was different.  I just recognized hunger in my body.  When I felt it and thought about what I was hungry for, my next fresh juice actually seemed like a very appealling option.  Or maybe some vegetable soup with beans.  This was not just a craving.  That's what my "hunger" usually is.  Usually I crave things that taste good (and greasy and sweet or salty) and name that craving hunger.    Like I said, this was different.   This was my body simply asking me to give it nutrition.  To give it what it needs - not just craving what my mind wants.  Because my body and I experienced a lack of food it seemed like my fast really began today. 

But that lack of certain things has created a deeper appreciation within me of certain other things.  Like the smell of my fruits and vegetables. I juice each type of vegetable one at a time, so I can breathe in the the fresh cucumber smell, then the fresh lemon smell, then the fresh tomato smell. They don't just smell good to me. They smell absolutely delicious to me. Generally I eat so fast I don't take the time to smell my food at all, let alone notice the exquisite and abundant smell and taste of one simple unsalted, unseasoned ingredient.   Then there's certainly the keen awareness of and appreciation for the overabundance of food I usually have available to me.  A fast is a time of hunger with an endpoint for me.  There are hungry people all over the world who aren't fasting on purpose, and don't have plenty of food waiting for them on Tuesday like I do.

These are important things for me to remember.  I hope that the fullness of appreciation that the lack of food has given me will not be overtaken by overeating as soon my fast is over.