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A group from our congregation is examining Franciscan Spirituality, as interpreted by Fr. Richard Rohr, himself a Franciscan.  The Franciscan motto is ‘Deus Meus et Omnia’, “My God–and All Things.”  The scripture readings many of us will share this weekend seem congruent with this concept of the Holy All:  that we are integrated into Creation, that as we are eager to love we therefore see and participate in goodness and wholeness of that around and within us.  Rohr says that “everything that happens is potentially sacred if you allow it to be.”

You may or may not accept Wisdom of Solomon as “scripture”; it’s part of the Apocrypha, the books between the testaments.  The first chapter includes the verse, “because God did not make death, and [God] does not delight in the death of the living.” (1:13)  We need to hear that God isn’t a vindictive judge, waiting and hoping for violations, and gleefully dismembering the guilty!  In the next chapter we read, “for God created us for incorruption, and made us in the image of [God’s] own eternity.” (2:23)  Maye now I can sit up straight.

We could easily table II Corinthians 8:7-15 as mere housekeeping, as Paul is raising funds for the mother congregation in Jerusalem.  But look at the 9th verse, “For you know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich.”  We’re talking about more than money–Jesus has given up his heavenly standing to walk the earth in disguise of a poor man, to ally himself with the exploited and enslaved, to become one with fishermen, carpenters and tax-gatherers.

The Gospel involves two healing stories as told by Mark, in chapter 5, 21 ff.  Jairus, an official of the local synagogue, had a gravely ill little girl, and begged Jesus to come and intercede.  On his way, a long-suffering woman grabbed his robe and was immediately healed!  Jesus felt that something had happened, and Wholeness had come into the woman.  “Daughter, your understanding has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.” (v.34)  This takes “faith” away from an action deserving healing, one reason why I like to call my healing services as SACRAMENTAL.  The rest of the story is that Jairus’ little girl was successfully awakened, a sign of amazement to Mark, and an announcement of God’s intention for the fullness of human life.

I heard recently that a hot-dog vendor was approached by St. Francis.  The saint reportedly told him, “Make me one with everything!”   May it be so with you.

God Bless Us, Every One                 Horace Brown King

Sometimes it’s just too much.  Well-meaning friends can tell us to buck-up, but nobody seen the troubles I seen….  World adversaries are many, but the ogres who threaten most are ‘way too huge to handle.  My parents’ generation thought Nazi-ism was bound to conquer all; my childhood was threatened by Communism, and my own grandchildren must deal with Terrorism.  Big Brother, Big Government, the military-industrial complex all take on huge dimensions–much too risky, impossible even, to take on.  Change can itself assume immense proportions:  it’s dangerous out there.

Is there a word which the Church can speak to those who cower against the dinosaurs?  I saw the trailers to You’reASick Park, and I don’t want to go there.  An old story brings confidence:  David & Goliath is revisited in I Samuel 17:32-49.  All good tales use hyperbole, the contrast of Supreme Power to Extreme Weakness.  Goliath was HUGE to the 98- lb. weakling, David.  But who is to stand in the face of God?  “…that all this assembly may know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord’s…” (v.47)  Not just for Israelite patriotism, but here the whole world is invited to be comforted and confronted by an ever-present, ever-concerned God.  David put himself on the Front Line.  Nice shot, Davie!

The Hugeness that was bothering the Corinthian congregations was probably Diversity.  Corinth was a seaport town, a trade center, a clearing house for Eastern & Western philosophies–and those who led the Church despaired of finding common threads.  Paul, in his letters, attempted to cheer them (and shame them) with the Common Denominator of Jesus who is the Christ.  Some of the Corinthian believers may have known the old stories of God’s rescue from impossible odds.  Paul tries to make these contemporary when he crows, “See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation!” (II, 6:2)

The Gospel story fits nicely with David & Goliath.  Mark 4:35-41 tells about Jesus asleep in the boat on the Sea of Galilee, even though an immense storm was raging.  Hyperbole, again:  the terror-stricken disciples in a tiny boat cringed before the Perfect Storm.  It takes audacity to go with the Lord!  David put himself on the Front Line, the Disciples got into a boat for The Other Side.  These are risky places!  Happy ending:  Jesus woke up and quieted the elements, which impressed the travelers. “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”   Once again, God managed what was Huge…

I hated YMCA camp, when I was 10.  One of the opportunities inflicted upon us was spending the night outside in a tent in the woods.  Naturally, the leaders told gruesome horror stories about monsters from the lake who would devour at least one camper every week!  Then came lights out.   After we got drowsy, a light appeared outside the tent wall, and a Terrible Shadow’s sillhouette was seen!!  The brave ones rushed out–to find one of the counselor’s making hand-shadows to scare us!  It worked…it was HUGE!   May they have many nightmares in their nursing-home beds…

God Bless Us, Every One!      Horace Brown King

Some days ago, we went to my favorite store, the Agway, because Marie wanted a hanging basket for the back porch.  While there, I looked around at all sorts of DRY stuff:  little brown & white nuggets, some in packets, some loose.  There were even some dry sticks–twigs?–for sale.  People were actually buying these!  Getting into the spirit of the moment, I too bought what seemed to be paper-wads but were advertized as onions.  Were we all being had?  In Agway we Trust.

Readings for the upcoming weekend begin with a message from God through Ezekiel:  “I myself will take a sprig from the lofty top of a cedar….I myself will plant it on a high and lofty mountain….in order that it may produce boughs and bear fruit, and become a noble cedar.” (17:22-23)   God’s planting will be a haven for all birds, and  “all the trees of the field shall know that I am the Lord.”  We think of this as a message to the Babylonian Exiles–or any oppressed who may wonder where God is.  There’s something comforting about perennial plants:  despite the rockets, despite the rhetoric, they’re coming back, they’re still here.  “The one who has a garden has a future.” (St. Hallmark?)

To read the whole of the assigned Epistle is just too much.  I’d rather limit it to the few verses of II Corinthians 5:6-10.  Paul stridently affirms, “So we are always confident….for we walk by faith, not by sight.”  We think of our spiritual journey through the Cloud of Unknowing:  stepping forth  into a fog-bank from the cave where we had sheltered from the stormy night.  We cannot see the path.  All we can do is to tightly hold the hand of One who Loves Us

St. Mark remembers that Jesus said,  “The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how.” (4:26-27)  No one does, really; and it’s nice to have a mystery!  We can describe the process, even draw a gene-map and manipulate the breeding–but when all’s said & done, the actual maturity of a plant is a holy occasion.   A few generations ago, our ancestors called it “rogation”, and there was a special Sunday in the fall to rejoice in these agrarian wonders.  “We plow the fields and scatter the good seed on the land.”  “God, Whose Farm is All Creation.”

This morning we had our first strawberries from Marie’s magnificent bed, big and red and sweet!  Roses are again blooming on shoots from stumps that surely seemed dead, earlier this spring.  And for the first time since our welcome rains, little green shoots are appearing in the plot where I buried those paper-wads…  I think they will grow!

“All good gifts around us Are sent from heaven above;                                                                       Then thank the Lord, O thank the Lord for all [God’s] love.    –Matthias Claudius

God Bless Us, Every One               Horace Brown King

Last night, we went to the movies:  The Avengers, with mega-decibles and constantly flashing fights.  After the two long hours, my synapses were completely shot–I could ingest no more explosions, laser fire or topsy-turvy scene changes.  I just wanted OUT.  Fortunately, even immortals come to end of their scripts, and The Avengers regrouped for yet another God-awful foray against Evil. (Coming to a theater near you.)  But for a while,we were indeed immersed in the Big Picture, a whole wall of weird sequences and poorly related visual segues.  Way, way too much….

God’s plan for simplicity would have worked, ‘cept for human ambition.  (Did God know that it wouldn’t work, and set us up for Original Sin?)  “Don’t eat the Fruit of Good & Evil”, God said.  No judging, no evaluation, no weight of morality or extended theological discussions.  But we ate:  and now we know we’re naked and have to hide.  (Genesis 3:8-11)  Richard Rohr says, “What [God]’s trying to keep us from is a lust for certitude, an undue need for explanation, resolution and answers.  Frankly, [these] make biblical faith impossible.”  (THINGS HIDDEN, p.38)

St. Paul reminds the Believers at Corinth, “we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.” (II Corinthians 4:18)  Some would call this double-speak, but I think that what’s being shown is again the Big Picture.  Our Original Sin vision focuses on the rational and the provable, but persons of Faith are encouraged to revere the mystery and cling to things which we’ll never understand in this life…

Mark’s Gospel remembers when even Jesus’ immediate family thought he was a bit tetched, and came to stage an intervention by taking him home for rest & relaxation.  They were evidently missing the point, for Jesus asked, “Who are my mother and my brothers?  HERE are my mother and my brothers!  Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”  (3:33-34)  Again, the humans around the Holy tried to limit and confine God’s work to the events and happenings they could understand.

We still do, and the Church is the guiltiest culprit!  How many times have I heard that the Plagues of Moses were predictable phenomena, that the drying of the “Red Sea” was seasonal, that Lazarus was merely in a coma, as were Tabitha and the son of the Widow of Nain.  Bartimeus’ blindness coulda been cured by anyone who took time to wash his eyes, and Naaman’s seven dips in the Jordan set him up for phosphorus cleansing….  Maybe.  If that’s what you have to think to satisfy your scientific bent, go ahead.  But I really go with what the astro-physicist supposedly said after seeing the precise wonders of the universe:  “Wow!  Do it again, God!”

God Bless Us, Every One      Horace Brown King