A Rabbi had a guest staying with him who heard him speak one Sabbath. Said the guest to Rabbi Baruch, “Rabbi, you speak so beautifully.” Said the Rabbi in reply, “I should rather be mute than to speak beautifully !”
I am one who would speak beautifully. I want to be one who ‘in the afterglow of a religious insight’ is a wordsmith inspired to pen words of profound wisdom. My problem is too often my words of passionate, precise intensity are not always matched by action.
Movement in response to spiritual insight is not beautiful words - lilting as they are longing, playful or subtle. Abraham Heschel says our response to the afterglow of spiritual insight is to “see a way to gather up our scattered lives to unite what lies in strife… a way that is good for all men as it is for me.” The litmus test of moments touched by the finger of God is the concrete expression of actions accessible to everyman.
If words accompany meaningful action, shouldn’t they be spoken clearly & plainly, out of the long silence that accompanies profound humility ?
Authenticity, humility, transparency - a life lived consciously; sometimes well and focused, sometimes scattered. Life is too short to speak beautiful words only. I want to speak out of my experience of concrete action – conscious, focused, deliberate action for which I am profoundly accountable. Imagine simple accessible words of true power connected directly to my very movement. I tremble at the thought of speaking such words.
I want to experience the dilemma of Jeremiah, ‘For the word of the Lord has become for me a reproach & a derision all day long. If I say, “I will not mention him or speak any more in his name” then within me there is something like a burning fire shut in my bones. I am weary with holding it in and I cannot’.
Life is too short to speak beautiful words… only.
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
Friday, May 04, 2007
Resurrection Deconstruction...
Death, extinction, expiration… equilibrium ?
What’s the difference between peace & death ? Is it merely the absence of life ? Jesus’ death speaks of the violence of men, of life beaten out of his body… of a body breaking & screaming out to its last breath about the imbalance & the dis-equilibrium of a world that breaks too many people.
I have never understood this idea of celebrating the death of Jesus.
Surely this is THE Dark Mark on the very broad horizon of the actions of men… and the women weep again - as well they should for men - and the death of their compassion – the death of sensitivity. “What manner of action is this… that men would extinguish hope, something new given from the aching heart of God ?”
That men would seek to undo the purposes of God… to destroy righteousness & justice and drown mercy in their deep arrogance that flows as a never ending steam is dissonance & more of the same.
Oh the anger & the rage of the Center when it is defied and disturbed, when it is made to feel irrelevant. The violence of the Center when it is shown to be hollow & without substance – diminished & lacking in pity.
That the Crucifixion of Jesus could be the path of intensified living, life fulfilled in humility with men sensitive & wholly attending - is Holy irony. It is truly the awful presence of God in proximity to Babel.
The birth of something truly new often means allowing something held too tightly, to be truly extinguished, to die in dust & ashes and then to rise up reborn as the phoenix.
This is the concrete action, the light of life we call Resurrection.
What’s the difference between peace & death ? Is it merely the absence of life ? Jesus’ death speaks of the violence of men, of life beaten out of his body… of a body breaking & screaming out to its last breath about the imbalance & the dis-equilibrium of a world that breaks too many people.
I have never understood this idea of celebrating the death of Jesus.
Surely this is THE Dark Mark on the very broad horizon of the actions of men… and the women weep again - as well they should for men - and the death of their compassion – the death of sensitivity. “What manner of action is this… that men would extinguish hope, something new given from the aching heart of God ?”
That men would seek to undo the purposes of God… to destroy righteousness & justice and drown mercy in their deep arrogance that flows as a never ending steam is dissonance & more of the same.
Oh the anger & the rage of the Center when it is defied and disturbed, when it is made to feel irrelevant. The violence of the Center when it is shown to be hollow & without substance – diminished & lacking in pity.
That the Crucifixion of Jesus could be the path of intensified living, life fulfilled in humility with men sensitive & wholly attending - is Holy irony. It is truly the awful presence of God in proximity to Babel.
The birth of something truly new often means allowing something held too tightly, to be truly extinguished, to die in dust & ashes and then to rise up reborn as the phoenix.
This is the concrete action, the light of life we call Resurrection.
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
Dirty Fingers...
John 8:1-11... a woman caught in adultery… it is the portable passage. This narrative has also been placed after Jn 7:36 & found at the end of the John’s Gospel. In other writings, it even jumps over into the 21st chapter of Luke’s Gospel. I love that this passage is so movable – a liminal narrative – a safe place for all those who are weak & guilty. It is the narrative that exists in-between; the marginal story of Jesus standing up in defence of the marginal one without a defence.
The context for this tale is Jesus at a Center - teaching people in the Temple. This is God’s place but it is a dangerous place ! The story is old & too familiar – a group of men bring a woman caught in another man’s bed before Jesus… ‘Where is the man ?’ A woman caught in a concrete act – shamed – nakedness beyond nakedness. Shame and a double bind. The real motive is to catch out Jesus, the defender of outcasts, the marginal, & the unrighteous ones.
The narrative turns on a question ! ‘What will Jesus do in the face of an ethical principal set on behalf of the many & his ethical responsibility in the face of this particular other ?’
The tale unfolds & Jesus is bending down, writing with his finger in the dirt… the image of a pondering judge that invokes the writing of the 10 commandments. Keep paying attention as we step between – the creative movement sideways – on behalf of compassion, mercy & justice. Jesus never says this woman isn’t guilty. He posits no clever theological formula, nor calls down any miraculous intervention. Instead, he gives permission… “You may throw the stone if you are without sin…”. The question is answered. And once again, this moment of undeserved mercy is bounded by an image of justice – of Jesus bending & writing in the dirt… the sins of each of the woman’s accusers.
How much easier it is to gather around the sins of another to relieve our own inner strife.
Yet beyond dispassionate judgement, beyond the structured institutionalism of the Law applied by men is grace – the step sideways, the opportunity to begin again. The humility we need is the truth that we are all bound together in unholy community by our sinful acts. Jesus doesn’t freeze or define people by the litany of their selfish actions. I love it that in its usual place in John 8, in the very next passage Jesus says, “You judge by human standards, I judge no one… Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life” (Jn 8:12-15).
The light of life accompanying the concrete action of following Jesus.
The context for this tale is Jesus at a Center - teaching people in the Temple. This is God’s place but it is a dangerous place ! The story is old & too familiar – a group of men bring a woman caught in another man’s bed before Jesus… ‘Where is the man ?’ A woman caught in a concrete act – shamed – nakedness beyond nakedness. Shame and a double bind. The real motive is to catch out Jesus, the defender of outcasts, the marginal, & the unrighteous ones.
The narrative turns on a question ! ‘What will Jesus do in the face of an ethical principal set on behalf of the many & his ethical responsibility in the face of this particular other ?’
The tale unfolds & Jesus is bending down, writing with his finger in the dirt… the image of a pondering judge that invokes the writing of the 10 commandments. Keep paying attention as we step between – the creative movement sideways – on behalf of compassion, mercy & justice. Jesus never says this woman isn’t guilty. He posits no clever theological formula, nor calls down any miraculous intervention. Instead, he gives permission… “You may throw the stone if you are without sin…”. The question is answered. And once again, this moment of undeserved mercy is bounded by an image of justice – of Jesus bending & writing in the dirt… the sins of each of the woman’s accusers.
How much easier it is to gather around the sins of another to relieve our own inner strife.
Yet beyond dispassionate judgement, beyond the structured institutionalism of the Law applied by men is grace – the step sideways, the opportunity to begin again. The humility we need is the truth that we are all bound together in unholy community by our sinful acts. Jesus doesn’t freeze or define people by the litany of their selfish actions. I love it that in its usual place in John 8, in the very next passage Jesus says, “You judge by human standards, I judge no one… Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life” (Jn 8:12-15).
The light of life accompanying the concrete action of following Jesus.
The Guardian
The other evening I was watching ‘The Guardian’ – the new Kevin Kostner and Ashton Kutcher movie. I was reminded that to be plunged into an angry sea is to be immersed in life beyond my control – to be treading water in a world that doesn’t think a moment on my comfort or safety. To be effective in such a place is about self-care & preparation – a learning that leverages presence and possibility out of otherwise annihilating conditions. There is an intuition at work here, a determined purpose of fixed focus & particular choices. There will always be the other others but out here I attend to those in close proximity. Always my own safety is paramount – my health and effectiveness depend upon it.
An angry sea is a reminder of the fragility of life, of my nakedness – my exposure in the world. There is a destructive randomness & violence about this planet – a tremendous power that puts men in their place. For those who dare to dwell here - legends attach themselves like molluscs – accretions of men being more – intensifying their presence.
The world of technology, of structure on the edge of chaos allows men to get unnaturally close to raw nature. Yet to enter the angry sea, the fisher of men takes an old fashioned jump – a leap of faith beyond comfort & safety – the possibility of death increasing exponentially – extinction – irrelevance – a step beyond rationality, a dunking in the death zone.
Ours is a fragmented humanity, broken by circumstance, traumatised by incident, marked by particular choices. The chance of redemption is life for those past the point of no return. To save the ones you can and to let the others go is the choice of one who would be a Guardian.
An angry sea is a reminder of the fragility of life, of my nakedness – my exposure in the world. There is a destructive randomness & violence about this planet – a tremendous power that puts men in their place. For those who dare to dwell here - legends attach themselves like molluscs – accretions of men being more – intensifying their presence.
The world of technology, of structure on the edge of chaos allows men to get unnaturally close to raw nature. Yet to enter the angry sea, the fisher of men takes an old fashioned jump – a leap of faith beyond comfort & safety – the possibility of death increasing exponentially – extinction – irrelevance – a step beyond rationality, a dunking in the death zone.
Ours is a fragmented humanity, broken by circumstance, traumatised by incident, marked by particular choices. The chance of redemption is life for those past the point of no return. To save the ones you can and to let the others go is the choice of one who would be a Guardian.
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