Extravagant Community

I cringe when I hear Christians respond to the "spiritual but not religious" by extolling the importance of community. Yes, we all need community for spirituality. We are social creatures. 

They laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each
as any had need. Acts 4:35 NRSV  Photo by Tim Graves

But, while there is truth in this response it is based upon an unproven assumption. That is, that the "spiritual but not religious" lead the lives of hermits never talking with friends about their faith journeys. The community-defense also assumes that community must take an organized form. It does not.

More troublesome about the community-defense, however, is that it allows followers of Jesus to avoid our own failings. Too often churches are not places of community. Community is about caring for one another in deep ways. It is about assuring that everyone has their basic needs met. The reality is we spend more time worshiping consumerism and capitalism than we do sharing with our neighbor--even those within our churches. 

Too many churches have within their midst those struggling in very real ways while others live in relative laps of luxury. Aside from this being contrary to the teachings of our purported savior, the attitude of the relatively wealthy community members disturbs me. In my experience, when help is provided it comes with strings and pettiness. We reflect the resentment of a culture that elevates rugged individualism to idolatry.

Within this context of blaming the victim, we operate not out of extravagant love but out of begrudging duty. We do not believe that Jesus fed the whole crowd with a few loaves and fish. We fear that if we give too much to someone, even someone within our own community, there will not be enough for us. 

Jesus answered, ‘The first is, “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” The second is this, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” There is no other commandment greater than these.’ Mark 12: 29-31 NRSV (Read in context.)

Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common. With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. They laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.  Acts 4: 32-35 NRSV (Read in context.)

Trustworthy God of Abundance,

You give extravagant,

   undeserved grace.

We give out of love,

   limited by our human fears and worries.

Help us to trust in your abundance,

   help us to love you as you love us.

Help us to give lavishly to others,

   within the koinonia,

   and to the whole human family.

Amen  

A Trip Up the Mount

A trek along the rocky trail through the cool damp woods,

 leads me across a meadow of swaying grasses and wildflowers.

Finally within sight of the summit, 
   the walls of earth fall away leaving me vulnerable to craggy rocks,
      above the emerald river.

The sun above rises predictably toward mid-day,
   warming my skin in the cool morning.

Blowing and gusting winds from the west,
   threaten to take,
      my hat (or life) with one swift powerful burst.

Fearful of a trail-less descent, I continue my climb baboon-style,

   finally sitting before reaching the apex.
   

The rock beneath my bottom is, 
   hard, jagged, and solid.
Between sky and heavens,
   I exist on a narrow swath of earth.

Encompassed by the cloudless azure,
   I rest in the home of the eagle,
   the creature who soars closest to the Divine.


The topmost crest taunts me with its proximity;
   it is only twenty-five steps away.

The windy breath of God,
   whispers in my ear that peaks are not journey.


Ahead, a few paces beyond reach, is the land where the birds meet the One.
   It is where God,
      Yahweh,
         Allah,
            Father Spirit,
                Jehovah,
                    the Holy One communes with the winged.

The pinnacle above the raging waters, 
   atop the weathered rocks, 
      and guarded by billows that move my body against my will,
         is the place where love culminates.


Yet it is not time to reach the One.


It is time to follow,
   to rest,
      meditate,
         to learn to be.


Vulnerable.


Desirous.


Frustrated.


I sit.

I yearn for the view from above,
   the vista that answers all. 
Like the wanderers, I whine in the wilderness.
   At least as a slave I had regular meals, I rage!


I contemplate opposing the very gusts of the One,
   to be reminded that on this precipice my humanity could cease.

Stopping. Being. I trust.
   I listen to the heedfulness, the spirit within, that tickles my core and spine,
      and prevents my bodily ascent.


I sit on solid rock in the land of broad-winged birds,
   and feel the extravagant, loving breath of God on,
      my neck,
         my face, 
            and my heart.


And I journey.

Good Soil Among the Rocks

‘Let anyone with ears to hear listen!’ Mark 4: 9 NRSV

In our too-human rush to judgement, we can miss the central point of the teachings of Jesus. In the parable of the sower, Jesus emphasizes the receptivity of the soil - of our hearts - to hearing the Good News of love for all. He does not suggest the sower should withhold seed. Rather, he describes what we see all around us. Not all seeds or love we share take root. 

Nonetheless, Jesus calls us to plant seeds of love extravagantly. We may fear there is not enough love, withholding seeds from those we deem unworthy or bad risks, but this is not what Jesus teaches. It is not our role to pre-judge others and withhold our love-seeds from the rocks. To do so, is to assume that we know where the Realm of God will take root and blossom. Sometimes the seed planted among the rocks, finds good soil where we least expect.

Photo by Tim Graves

Again he began to teach beside the lake. Such a very large crowd gathered around him that he got into a boat on the lake and sat there, while the whole crowd was beside the lake on the land. He began to teach them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: ‘Listen! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and it sprang up quickly, since it had no depth of soil. And when the sun rose, it was scorched; and since it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. Other seed fell into good soil and brought forth grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.’ And he said, ‘Let anyone with ears to hear listen!’ Mark 4: 1-9 NRSV (Read in context.)

Wings

You have seen . . . how I bore you on eagles’ wings
 and brought you to myself. 

Exodus 19:4 NRSV (Read in context.)

An eagle as seen from Coyote Wall in across the 

river from Mosier, Oregon. Photo by Tim Graves.

Their broad, protective wings surround me in the the sky above the tiny Oregon town in which I live. I've seen them - as many as seven in number - surveying the town when I return home in the early evening. In the early morning I've seen them circle in a spiral to the surface of the river to catch a fish. When the winds for which the Columbia River Gorge is famous, bring out human windsurfers and kiteboarders, these magnificent birds can be seen rising thousands of feet above colorful kites and sails to catch the wind currents. Watching, they seem to float in mid-air in even the most powerful gale. 


When I walk along the Columbia, I eye the shore where they sometimes perch just beyond human reach. When I journey to hike the Coyote Wall and Labyrinth trails across the river in Washington state, they follow me reassuring me that I am not alone nor far from home. 


And, today, a feather lay across my path reminding me that the One is blessing my journey.

What if?

What if following Jesus isn't about the big things? What if it is about the small things we do: kindness, forgiving, smiling and laughing, listening, and even self-care? What if it isn't about professional ministry or earning a living but about a way of life lived in humble service? What if this service lacks vestments and collars or professional titles but is marked by our giving of ourselves emotionally, physically, and spiritually? What if the barely noticed, little things we do out of love are what God calls us toward? 


What if it is in each of these moments we allow God to speak through us? What if this is truly following Jesus, the One who took the very breath of God (1) into himself, and breathed it out into a broken world? What if we can be the very breath of God?


It could change the world.

...and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters. 

Genesis 1:2a RSV

Read this in context.

****

(1) Robert Alter, The Five Books of Moses, Kindle Book edition, loc. 994. Robert Alter translates the Hebrew rua  as breath. It is variously translated as wind, spirit, and breath.

I Couldn't Have Picked Anyone Better!

One of amazing things about fatherhood is that my adult children have increased the size of my family. I'm not talking about grandchildren; that joy may come in its time. I'm talking about my children's significant others.


As my daughter and son have found life-partners, I've been blessed by a doubling of my children. It wasn't until Frances and, now, Breetel joined our family that I felt the depth of my father's words the first time I brought my beloved home. He said, "We couldn't have picked anyone better for you." 

My amazing children...all four of them!

My daughter and son are remarkable, phenomenal individuals.  (This is a fact not a father's pride.) Still, the love of another, somehow reveals a depth, a wholeness that I never saw in Isaac or Jessica before. Their love is more than a skin-deep affectation. Their love has added a vibrancy to who they were before.


Love is powerful in all its forms. Love transforms, makes us each more than we were. It defies the laws of physics. There is always an abundance and extravagance about love. Love reveals the Divine within us and in our relationship with others.

"...and the greatest of these is love."

1 Corinthians 13: 13b NRSV (Read this passage in context.)

It's All Made Up Anyway!

Painting by Anthony J. Kelly. Image retrieved 
from Rev. David Eck's blog.

"The Holy Trinity is all made up, anyway!" My friend thought I was joking. I wasn't and I'm not. I'm not an atheist; I believe in God. I'm even trinitarian with a higher sense of the Holy Spirit than many other mainline Christians. Still, it's pretend.


I perceive a divinity that connects us, that flows through us, and encourages us to lovingness. Our stories and theologies -- including trinitarian theology -- reveal truths that are beyond the rational, scientific explanation. They are not, nor were they ever intended to be literal, historical retellings of facts. 


Through the Christian biblical narrative, however, God continues to speak. For me, Jesus is,

"the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you have really known me, you will also know the Father." (John 14:6-7b CEB Read this passage in context.)

This is the path upon which God has lured me. This is the only way for me to be the loving, unique person that God created me to be. It is in the life of Jesus, that I enter into a relationship with the love that underpins all of creation. It is in the human Jesus that I learn how to be who God calls me to be.


Jesus functions as a gate for me (John 10: 1-10 CEB). However, just as it is naive and ineffective to expect all children to learn via only one modality (e.g.; visual, auditory, or kinesthetic), it is naive to think that God's love only opens through one gate. The arrogant teacher is one who thinks there is one -- and only one -- way to reach all children. This assumes the gifts, skills, challenges, and experiences of each individual is the same. 


Arrogant Christian spirituality, is one that projects its own gifts on all. When we do this we deny the truth reflected in Paul's writings to the Corinthians. That truth is that as we seek to follow the One, we each have unique roles and gifts.

Certainly the body isn’t one part but many. If the foot says, “I’m not part of the body because I’m not a hand,” does that mean it’s not part of the body? If the ear says, “I’m not part of the body because I’m not an eye,” does that mean it’s not part of the body? If the whole body were an eye, what would happen to the hearing? And if the whole body were an ear, what would happen to the sense of smell? (1 Corinthians 12: 14-17 CEB Read this passage in context.)

Though Paul wrote to a squabbling community of Jesus followers, to expand this truth beyond Christianity is to hear the voice of God in a new time and place. Paul -- and the other authors of the canon -- wrote contextually. That is, the biblical writers spoke to specific people in a specific era, place, and culture. When we read and study the texts thoughtfully, communally, and prayerfully, we hear God's voice for today. We can find truths.


The gospels interpret the life of Jesus as he challenged the prevailing human-defined circle of acceptable behaviors and the people that were worthy of God's love. The Good News of the unfolding Realm of God (love) is that it is for all of us. God's love is expansive and extravagant! The One is love. The One, who I call God, reflected in the Hebrew Bible and the Christian New Testament reveals an arc of loving inclusiveness and justice for all.


To find God through Jesus, does not require dismissing others. On the contrary, to follow the teachings of Jesus is to engage in loving, respectful relationship with others. Other peoples have stories, metaphors, and narratives that describe their experiences of the One, the divinity that I perceive. Just as the Christian Bible reveals truths, the sacred writings (or verbal stories) of Buddhists, Muslims, Jews, Rastafarians, and others reveal truths. They reflect the ways that others have experienced the One. Is it really that hard to believe that the mysterium tremendum that is God, might speak to others in ways that make sense to them?


Rather than limiting God, I accept the Trinity as a metaphor that helps me to describe how I experience the One. It helps me to follow the Divine's call on my life. I don't need to idolize it into a literal fact anymore than I need Jesus to be the only way to the extravagant, expansive love of God. 

The Journey of the Bent Tree

Another rainbow crosses the Columbia River as I write this morning. I do live in a magical land filled with rainbows. It is also a place in which trees are deformed by the same robust winds that lure windsurfers to the area. 

photo by Tim Graves

These are not the model Christmas trees, shaped like so many isosceles triangles. Giving up their westward facing branches, they more accurately resemble right triangles. Hunched over, they bend away from the wind.

photo by Tim Graves

This is particularly true of those trees on the edges of groupings, along the river, or at the top of hills. Exposed, they match the persistence of the wind as they reach upward toward the energizing sun. Sometimes damaged, or appearing dead, the trees resurrect in the spring.

photo by Tim Graves

photo by Tim Graves

The trees remind us that beauty is not found in chiseled abdomens or wrinkle free skin but in the Divine journey.

Though I am barraged by fierce winds,

I will reach upward to the One.


Matching the tenacious gale,
I persist under blue skies and grey, wet blankets.
I dance with the wind making him my partner.


As I journey toward the One,
the Divine is already with me,
surrounding me in the mossy green of winter,
and the purples and reds of spring and summer.


And when I finally succumb to el viento,
I will be the soil that feeds my offspring,
living within all those who follow,
and seek the divine One.

photo by Tim Graves

Hope in Wholeness

photo by Tim Graves

When I get too focused on protesting or on politics, I become discouraged and cynical. I see evil behind every human frailty; I see conspiracies at every turn. I see a battle of good versus evil. Eventually, I become a miserable person. I feel betrayed, impotent, and angry. Hopelessness descends. Despondent, I give up.


Focusing on the One whose love envelopes me and connects me to each grassy blade, each sea anemone, and each human being, results in optimism. I find hope in wholeness. That wholeness -- that for Christians emanates from the Table set by Jesus and manifest in love that overcomes death -- is powered by the extravagant love of the Divine. When I focus and respond to that loving grace, I am compelled to act for justice, love with abandon, and strive to be my best self. 


Attuned to the divinity that coarses through you, me, and all of creation, I see see goodness despite human frailty. Filled with hope, I strive to do my part for the whole knowing that I am not alone. Goodness is within every annoying bureaucrat, murderer, and abusive parent. When I respond in love, love multiplies and ripples powered by the One. 


At its core this is the Good News, love always wins in the end. It is more powerful than death, conspiracies, or greedy politicians. When we respond from the divine love within us, justice will "roll down like waters, and righteousness an ever-flowing stream." (Amos 5: 24 NRSV Read this passage in context.)