Love, Love, Love

“You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot.  Matthew5:13

Nobody quite knows what Jesus was talking about when he refers to ‘salt that has lost its saltiness’ since it is one of the traits of salt that it does not lose its saltiness!

One possible explanation for Jesus’ words may be that in Palestine, salt was often used as an insulator under the stone floors of ovens.  After a while the salt ceased insulating and needed to be replaced.  When the old salt was removed from the oven floor, it was typically thrown out upon the roadways… probably to stop weeds from growing.  Perhaps that is what Jesus meant.  However, since nobody knows for sure, maybe it would be safe for me to suggest a different explanation.  How about this:

Some years ago, while traveling in northern Africa, I stopped at the Dead Sea.  An interesting thing about this foul body of salt water is that the salt content is so high that the rocks of the shoreline are encrusted with a layer of salt crystal nearly an inch thick!  

Out of curiosity, I broke off a chunk of crystal and tasted it.  It was horrible!  Sure it was salty, but it also tasted of all kinds of vile impurities.  It was salt and a whole lot more… none of it good to the tongue.  Maybe that’s what Jesus meant when he talked about ‘salt that has lost its taste.’

I believe that Jesus came to show us how love can enhance and beautify our world of relationships.  His message is clear: do not judge, do not condemn but love, love, love.  Love our God, love others and love ourselves.  Love is the seasoning which makes everything better.  And when we Christians keep that message pure and un-polluted by harshness… then our hearts and doors are wide open and we help in positive ways to build God’s kingdom.

Lent is a wonderful time to take a look at how our faith and the living out of our faith seasons the world around us.  We are all unique and beautiful people, but maybe we could be even more so!  Let’s try adding a few more pinches of love into everything we do, and take care not to add any of that other stuff that might spoil the taste. How does that old song go… “and they’ll know we are Christians by our love.”

All Things Matter

Luke 17:21

Nor will they say “Look, here it is!” or “There it is!” 

For in fact, the kingdom of God is among you.

If God is anywhere, He is on an elevator at Mayo Clinic, warming the plump hand of the boy holding mine.  We are, all of us here for this moment, one body.  The tender contemplations of life blur and blend with each soft exhale.

And so it is, that my father’s death is also Good Friday,

The neighbor’s divorce, and

The birth of a tree frog whose chortle will keep me from sleep when I leave the windows open in late July.

We are one, God is everywhere and all things matter.

In this confined stillness, the complex beauty of comfort and discomfort is infinite. Transformation is everywhere.  We are a constant moving expression of God’s love. and I realize the first step is always right now.

The warm hand of the boy squeezes mine and he smiles as the elevator doors ring,  releasing us back into the waiting arms of this magnificent world.  

 

Palm Sunday

When he had come near Bethphage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples, ³⁰saying, “Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. ³¹If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ just say this, ‘The Lord needs it.’” ³²So those who were sent departed and found it as he had told them. ³³As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, “Why are you untying the colt?” ³⁴They said, “The Lord needs it.” ³⁵Then they brought it to Jesus; and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. ³⁶As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road. ³⁷As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, ³⁸saying, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!” ³⁹Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, order your disciples to stop.” ⁴⁰He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.”

⁴¹As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it, ⁴²saying, “If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. ⁴³Indeed, the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up ramparts around you and surround you, and hem you in on every side. ⁴⁴They will crush you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave within you one stone upon another; because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.” ⁴⁵Then he entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling things there; ⁴⁶and he said, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer’; but you have made it a den of robbers.” ⁴⁷Every day he was teaching in the temple. The chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people kept looking for a way to kill him; ⁴⁸but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were spellbound by what they heard.

Luke 19: 29 - 48 NRSV

Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front

by Wendall Barry

                                                                      

Love the quick profit, the annual raise,
vacation with pay. Want more
of everything ready-made. Be afraid
to know your neighbors and to die.
And you will have a window in your head.
Not even your future will be a mystery
any more. Your mind will be punched in a card
and shut away in a little drawer.
When they want you to buy something
they will call you. When they want you
to die for profit they will let you know.

So, friends, every day do something
that won’t compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.
Denounce the government and embrace
the flag. Hope to live in that free
republic for which it stands.
Give your approval to all you cannot
understand. Praise ignorance, for what man
has not encountered he has not destroyed.

Ask the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millennium. Plant sequoias.

Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,

that you will not live to harvest.

Say that the leaves are harvested
when they have rotted into the mold.
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.

Put your faith in the two inches of humus
that will build under the trees
every thousand years.
Listen to carrion – put your ear
close, and hear the faint chattering
of the songs that are to come.
Expect the end of the world. Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts.
So long as women do not go cheap
for power, please women more than men.
Ask yourself: Will this satisfy
a woman satisfied to bear a child?
Will this disturb the sleep
of a woman near to giving birth?

Go with your love to the fields.
Lie down in the shade. Rest your head
in her lap. Swear allegiance
to what is nighest your thoughts.
As soon as the generals and the politicos
can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it. Leave it as a sign
to mark the false trail, the way
you didn’t go. Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.

Jesus Sets His Face...

Luke puts it this way (9:51)

 When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.

Gifts of the spirit for me are insight: to understand what the persons around you mean.  The gospel stories indicate that Jesus understood both faithful response and hateful criticism.  That insight was evident in his repeated telling his followers about the death which might be his death.  In spite of this, Jesus offered “life abundant”

Another gift of spirit is the choice given to us to act upon our insight.  Jesus chose to go to Jerusalem even if it meant standing against Roman authority or religious authority.  Remember, he cleaned the temple and asked for a house of prayer; he was asked by the Roman authority if he was a king.

Jesus acted again and again to demonstrate his Father’s will.  Touching lepers, learning to act in love for his mother, telling the stories of grace and love, listening to the words of faithful response.  So in this Lenten season we choose to follow in redeeming love for others, as did our Savior.

Lenten transformation for me asks insight into my place in gracious response to others, I need to choose to go this way, and the Spirit gives the reward of redeeming love: God’s love for me and my acts for others.

I can never give up enough, but I can endeavor to act in new and gracious ways every day.  The challenge for me is to know every day in Lent that I not only walk the way of the cross but I am learning to live in the resurrection.  I know life and life eternal now.  I endeavor to live with that insight, to choose it always, and to act in redeeming love for all persons.  

“You ask me how I know he lives, he lives within my heart.”  That has an ethical demand to walk faithfully, to  live graciously, to touch and lift others because I have known the Spirit faithfulness, the love that forgives every moment, and in the redeeming life that transforms.

Bruce Buller

 Two  prayers for transformation:

“Help me,

       Help me”

"Thank you, 

      Thank you!" 

Two Wolves

An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. “A fight is going on inside me,” he said to the boy.

“It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil – he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.” He continued, “The other is good – he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you – and inside every other person, too.”

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather,

“Which wolf will win?”

The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”