The question was asked, "If you only could eat one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?"

"Turkey sandwich."

His answer was as quick and deliberate as a gavel rap. "No question about it, turkey sandwich."

I was thinking about the Bible, the Lord's Table and the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer's petition to g-d after the Eucharist...

Eternal God, heavenly Father, you have graciously accepted us as living members of your Son our Savior Jesus Christ, and you have fed us with spiritual food in the Sacrament of his Body and Blood. Send us now into the world in peace, and grant us strength and courage to love and serve you with gladness and singleness of heart; through Christ our Lord. Amen.

The entire Breaking of the Bread is washed over with edible language...

Alleluia.  Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.  The gifts of God for the People of God.  Take them in remembrance that Christ died for you, and feed on him in your hearts by faith, with thanksgiving.

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Okay - confession:  this is one of my most favorite dates - it is John the Baptist Day, the day the church remembers John the Baptist.  Why this date?  Think about it: what is the date?  June 24th.  Now remember this quote from John the Baptizer: "He must become greater; I must become less." (Gospel of John 3:30)

Jesus has become more popular than The Baptizer.  John's disciples quiz John about Jesus' popularity... "everyone is going to him."  John replies, "A man can receive only what is given him from heaven.  ...Jesus must increase, I must decrease."  The Prophet John is only a pointer to Jesus, a prophetic voice announcing the coming King and his kingdom.  Elijah has come and spoke.  Now it is time for him to decrease, to be taken... beheaded.  Jesus speaks highly of John - "what did you go out into the wilderness to see?  A reed shaken by the wind - nothing?  A man dressed in finery?  A man in a palace?  No I tell you!  There is no one greater than John in the kingdom of heaven.  But -- but -- even...

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"In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me, for I live and you will live" -- Alleluia!

I listened to the monks of Conception Abbey chant these words of Jesus.  I felt a peace settle within me:  it's the end of Easter - seven weeks after the Resurrection, then the next day is Pentecost (this year, May 31st). 

"Go and make disciples..." says Jesus at the end of Matthew's gospel.  We call this The Great Commission, but I think it should be called The Great Permission.  Jump to Acts chapter 1 (verse six) and we find the disciples asking Jesus, "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?"

The disciples wanted the kingdom to come, on earth as in heaven.  They wanted Permission to GO - to make it so.  The disciples were still, even at this last moment before Jesus' ascension, still thinking of "empire and conquest" - "Now Jesus, will you kick out the Romans and restore King David's reign when we were top nation?" 

"Yes, the kingdom is come,"...

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"My God, it is that gap and that distance which kill me."

-- Thomas Merton, Seven Storey Mountain, p421

I just came back from retreat.  Three days at Conception Abbey.  It wasn't that great.  I was befuddled, anxious, distracted.  I hadn't been on retreat since the end of March.  See, this is what happens.  I lost my rhythm.  And to boot, preaching, two funerals, and going to China in a couple of weeks.  Merton felt a gap between g-d and him.  He craved constant connection with g-d - constant Presence.

Truthfully, all I live in is gap.  It is the all-too-infrequent spark of the divine that snaps me to attention. But the sparks are few and far between... too far between. 

The answer:  flee, flee, flee.  Flee to silence.  Flee productivity.  Flee.  My hands got ahead of my heart and my mind.  I stopped taking every thought captive to g-d.  I settled in for Control of my universe.  And I do so naturally - control is my default setting. 

Flee inward to solitude.  Stare down the false self.  Cut deep.  Go to the dark night and wrestle all night and walk away limping.  But - also - get a new name: one who wrestles with g-d.  Yes.  Flee and wrestle.  There is no other way.  All else is just self-made sin management, meant to put me in control. 

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Parents spend much of their time raising children from the Expert perspective.  While this is reasonable, it doesn't convey Wisdom.  I suggest we think of ourselves more as Poets, Priests/Priestesses and Prophets/Prophetesses. 

Poet Emily Dickinson said, "Tell the truth, but tell it slant."  The parent doesn't have know poetry to act as poet.  Poets interpret culture and the world around them for others.  A parent must make a turn toward god - gain the eyesight to view all as god's.  The sounds in the woods are god's; the sky and stars, lightning and thunder are god's artwork.  The Expert explains such natural theology as Science.  But the Poet interprets them as belonging to god. 

The Priest ushers the child into the Divine Presence.  Priestess intermediates the reality of god in our world.  So to teach children how to pray is primary.  By prayer I certainly do not mean just asking god for stuff and goodness.  By prayer I mean listening for god's voice.  As Eugene Peterson puts it, "prayer must be a response to something god has said."  Centering Prayer is a practice of taking every thought captive to god... of echoing Jesus' prayer, "not my will but your will Father."  Frank X. Jelenek wrote "Journey to the Heart:  Centering Prayer for Children."  His children's book describes and walks a child through this deeper relationship with god.  The parent as priest takes the child through the gospel, makes it real, reads the scriptures to their child.  An easy way to do this is follow the liturgical calendar year, celebrating the seasons of Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, Pentecost and so on.  Lakeland provides family guides for these seasons, guides to be used around the kitchen table with candles and stories and prayers.

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I respond to Mint.com's recent visual comparison between the US and China. 

 

I read the Economist, so I tend to see/read this economic/political/spiritual stuff - at least from their paper's view.  And I read a few other items about China here and there, because I have my antenna up for anything on China.  The Newsweek special reports never satisfy me.  Just too entertainment driven.  So the Mint.com stats revealed more.

What gets interesting to me with the Mint.com and China "vs." USA  (vs?? really? they are our enemy?) scenario is this:  you have a cash-rich China, and no customers now (our money dried up).  If they can sell to themselves, good.  But they'll have to spread that cash (our cash btw) around.  Which they are attempting lavishly. 

But will it be enough?  Furthermore, China seems a little "angry" with the west b/c we aren't buying as much (amids other things like...

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"Whoever would save his life will lost it and whoever loses his life will find it" - Jesus, Matthew 16:25

The Apostle Paul repeats an anthem of the early church...

Though his state was that of God, yet he did not claim equality with God something he should cling to.  Rather, he emptied himself, and assuming the state of a slave, he was born in human likeness. (Philippians 2:5ff)

I am reading Cynthia Bourgeault's book, Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening.  She states that all great religions/faiths have as their goal "death to self."  True I suppose.  But let us not confuse "interior death" with a more holistic view.  I deeply embrace meditation and contemplation.  I lead retreats, guide people into silence, listening prayer, and centering prayer.  All of this rich spirituality is meant to "plug in" our heart and world to god.  It is not meant to simply a self---ish (self focused, self centered) spirituality, where god is just there to help us idolize our Self.  No.  Taking Jesus' prime...

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Why do you look for the living among the dead?  He is not here; he has risen!

 Why do we continue to look for Jesus amongst the graves of our dead ideas? ... the dead idea of war, where military violence is suppose to bring peace; the dead idea where Christian moralism replaces sitting at the feet of Jesus; where terrorists replace prophets; where busyness replaces significance; where consumption replaces contentment?

Jesus shows us what it takes to have peace: go and be with your enemy; how to pray - come together for daily worship and scripture contemplation; be the bold voice of truth! rest, re-create and wrestle in solitude with the Author of Life; and store up treasures in heaven. 

When British missionary Bishop Lesslie Newbigin was once asked when reflecting on the future, 'are you an optimist or a pessimist?' he answered: "Neither.  Christ has risen from the dead!" 

If Jesus is risen then all things are possible.  If he has not risen then all we have is religion.

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Going to Conception Abbey soon

On a crisp Spring day like this fine morning I'd love to be walking across the Abbey's hill toward prayer (Lauds) as the bells toll.  After prayers, go eat some simple breakfast with that particular taste of institutional coffee. 

Then later find a warm baking place in the sun, and like some content dog just BE, no worries.  And then listen for the Voice.  Windmills, flowering trees, orchard, the smell of dirt, the smells of the Abbey - frankincense and polish... my journal, a book maybe, a gritty Bible story about some despot ruler who failed to honor god - and as a result the price everyone must pay... imagine myself the prophet who 'told them so'... then wander out in a quiet field... find a tiny obscure rivulet to watch the water drip and gurgle, singing its happy tune of praise. Feel small.  Hear the Voice.

And we are redeemed, like turning in a lost muddy Coke bottle, you found in a ditch as a kid.  You walk into the grocery store, and...  Three cents! ...

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"Set the captives free, defend the poor, share bread and one cup with everyone"

We want to bite off more than we can chew in the inner city.

We want to purchase an apartment complex and rehab it, have spiritual retreats there, and work in the neighborhood.  This will be more than we can handle - and that is exactly the idea.

Those of us in the outer city (suburbia) never drift into rebuilding the inner city in the name of Jesus unless we own the problems, unless we get in over our heads.   This is a theological point, and a good point to make near Easter:  In Jesus, god comes to be with us, he lowers himself, empties himself (Philippians 2:5-11) and enters into "solidarity" with us - he...

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