Touch

The leper had to be cured and Jesus could have done it with a word. Instead, he touched him.

Wanting to Walk on Water

Peter asked could he walk on the water and Jesus said yes. But the apostle was so busy listening to the words that he missed their meaning. The words made no sense and realizing this he began to sink. The message or the meaning was that he could trust and had to believe. That he hadn't understood even though it made all the sense in the world.

In many ways what we say and do and how we are, are not unlike what Peter had tried. It is like wanting to walk on water. Wanting but doubting it can be, so attuned to the prospect of "no" that we are unprepared when the answer is "yes." We know it should be able to be done, and so we are content labeling our wishes as strange and somewhat senseless.

But the meaning makes them real, more real than words. More real too than staying in the boat, more real than sinking. Beyond what is seen is the reality. Behind the words is their meaning. Aside from what should be is what really can become.

Standing

Eventually, even Buddha had to stand up. Only so much can be learned sitting under a tree.

Housing Court

The judge at housing court was a good person. He was very nice and spoke with civility. He wanted to be reasonable and tried very hard. I am sure he has done many kind things and had reason to think himself fair. But he was trying to listen to something he knew nothing about. He was deciding on what he had never seen, a quality of life he had never had to live. The facts were all there but had no flesh. The decision was not his to make.

Not Poets

They thought themselves poets because they could coin glib phrases. Really they were coiners of glib phrases.

Risks

Because I love you I may sometimes hurt you. Love is like that. If I trust you, you may one day cause me pain. It is that way with trust. But because we believe in each other it does not end with the hurt or pain, but grows into something more. If love is real, if we can risk its growing, it can be what God is and what we are meant to be.

Beyond Birth

How often do you see pictures of George Washington in swaddling clothes? When last did you see Columbus depicted in his mother's arms? Have you recently celebrated the boyhood of Marco Polo or the childhood of Lenin? The important thing about these people is not that they were children, nor that they were born. Those are foregone conclusions.

What makes them significant is what they would later do. Why then do we keep Jesus a child, in the celebration of his birth making him a baby once again, a child who for some never grows up? Why is it hard to let him climb out of the manger, and down from his mother's arms? Why don't we let him become a man, the one who lived and died and rose, the one who brought salvation? Are the aspects beyond his birth so hard to hold?

On Isaac

In Isaac's death, the sacrifice would be of what might have been, the loss of what might have been shared and of a life beyond his own. It would have been an invitation to loneliness and an emptiness too great for God to permit.

Knowing Around

We are often content to just know about a person, which may be like "knowing around" him. It is the opposite of knowing him as the vital person he is in and to himself. We can do this same thing with Jesus, about whom we have a few facts and a bit of conjecture. Most are content with such knowledge about or around him. Maybe because it frees us from having to see and touch or feel and understand the person he is, and to whom we might have to respond.

Accepting Ourselves

Accepting others is important. So is acceptance of ourselves, all of our selves, recognizing who we are and that we have limitations, shortcomings, hang-ups and a mountain of problems. But having these as part of us is all right. They are part of being human. They complete us in that role.

Naming Demons

Before he could call them out of the man Jesus had to ask the name of the demons that possessed him. It's that way with demons. The nameless ones retain their power, remaining hidden within. Name them, then call them out where you can convert or cast them aside.

What Has to Be Done

I think sometimes I may have to cry over every place we've been and over all we shared, knowing tears will make it no better. It is just what has to be done.

Welcome the Guests

The king went to all that trouble (sending our servants, letting them be killed, sending troops, burning cities, sending more servants and all the while keeping the banquet warm) just so someone would come, and when they get there he starts throwing them out. Hardly the most intelligent of actions, unless the throwing is not part of the story. Unless the king has begun to slip perhaps the story should end when he goes in to see and welcome the guests.

Divorce

At the best of times divorce is not good and it gets no better with time. Even when it is the most tolerable alternative it is, and remains, a source of pain. To be the parent leaving home somehow seems even worse. He is, of course, invited back from time to time. He is there to witness graduations, some birthdays and maybe a Christmas or two. He also sees the children on vacations or weekends.

But life does not get lived on weekends or holidays. Instead it is day to day, and when nothing too important is happening. It does not occur on those distracting and none too real days we call special.

Seeing Sadness

She is old and in mind is older than her body. She looks at so many people and things saying, "isn't it sad." The only sadness, however, is her seeing it where none exists.

Simplicity

Are we oversimplifying when we say God is love? Not really. Not if we realize the depth and beauty that love is, and has the ability to become.

Naming Things

At Creation God said to the man, "Your job is to name all things. Call them something and that's what they'll be." He would be giving identity and meaning, calling our their essence. The job hasn't changed and is given to each of us. Name the people and things in your world so they can have value, but this time begin with you. Begin by naming who you are within yourself so you can later say who you are, or wish to be, in relation to the rest of what you find.

Concert

The audience tried hard to feel what Brel had felt. They wanted to share the fear and hope and defiance of his music. They reached out to absorb the flame, hatred or passion they thought was there. But when the lights came up they sensed that for them it had to end. Their's was not the freedom of those whose hearts sing as fully as their voices. The show was over. Reality closed over them and they went home.

Sheep Gate

The man at the Sheep Gate did not answer the question. Jesus had not asked did he want to be pushed into the water.

Files

Because we have a file on someone it does not necessarily follow that we are dealing with his concerns. And the size of that file is no indication of the depth of our response.

Fine Line

It is uncertain whether he is being idealistic or self-destructive.

God's Power

If we say God has all the power we have taken away his inclination to trust us. If we say he has none we have taken away his ability to respond.

Holding Too Tightly

They hold tightly to what isn't even there and wait for a future that cannot come. Grasping air because they see nothing else they run from what threatens to be. To soon must it become real. The air will slip away. Make-believe life will be swallowed by a very harsh and real situation, one permitting no more dreams. Then they will become old, though they are hardly more than children. They will be bitter. They will be angry. They will have been cheated. What for others might have been, for them never had a chance.

Dad - 1 year.

Without

There will, I know, be other good things but without you, all that's best is over.

Church's Survival

The Church will survive. In spite of us and our need for or resistance to change, the Church will be. It will outlive our dreams and outlast our disappointments. It will live beyond our hope or weather our bitterness. Through all else the Church continues. I would like to hope it will be better, more complete and more itself, for our having been a part of it, a part that tried to make it do more than survive.

Logic

They came to a logical conclusion but fortunately were able to reject it.

Unreliable Time

Time as measurement is unreliable. What was so new now seems so old. What is over can look as if it was just beginning. Some things are so quickly over, even when we wished they would be forever. Others have no end when they should never have been.

Peacemakers

The Gospel says, "blessed are peacemakers; they will be called God's children." It fails to mention they will be called many other things as well.

No Need for Observers

Some have been "observing the situation." For so long have they been doing it that they became part of the extraneous scenery. Life has no need of observers. It is not a spectator sport. Nor does it need referees or judges. All life wants or needs are participants.

Prayer & Love

Prayer has at least this much in common with being in love: one can pray by oneself but it means more when shared with others, even though praying, like loving, can be difficult at the start.

Interpreting the Epiphany

The story of the kings, like many such, is a story for each who reads it. For me it is about looking, and wandering. They were, I'd like to think, people who knew something but wanted to know more, who had seen a part but knew there was more to see. Sometimes they looked in the wrong places, knocked at the wrong doors, doors like Herod's, but from the mistakes they learned, even if only that this was not what they sought.

I'd like to think too that maybe they'd followed other stars before seeing this one, that they'd seen Messiahs and would-be saviors to whom they could say, "goodbye" or "thank you," or whatever would signal a new search.

And when they got to Bethlehem, when they stood in this star's light, what could they say? Not very much that would make sense to a child. They could give only gifts, gifts which, like most children's toys, were inappropriate to his age and understanding. It seems all they could do was look, and hopefully see; be present and maybe understand what had happened. They'd come as kings seeking an equal, a fitting thing to do. He was one of them despite his stable. It was a kingship, not of royalty, but of humanity. They shared a common blood, as do we all.

The story ends with them being sent back another way, on a path through a different land and maybe one with a different star. I think maybe in our seeing of the Lord each is given a road and a star to follow. We can only go where it leads, stopping on the way to look and wonder, being glad to be where we've been and glad too about what is next, knowing the future like the past will be filled with God.