Questioning Capability

If you must demonstrate your capability at someone else's expense, were you so capable after all?

Simple Solutions

The advantage of simple solutions is that they are simple, which is unfortunately not always the same as correct.

Overlooking Ourselves

We are in greater danger of overlooking ourselves, and our needs, than we are of neglecting others.  Maybe we think their needs are more easily met, more permissible because not our own.

A Difference

A difference is that I have been observing holidays while you could celebrate them.

Saddling Santa

We have saddled Santa with traditions without much substance, diluting the value of what these new things are proposing to join.  They are the traditions generated by television or by music from rock to Rudolf, an unfair burden for so kindly a gentleman.  An example, perhaps, of our further abuse of the elderly.

The Ministry of Self-Criticism

Our conviction, and our fear, make some choices too easy.  Too quickly can we decide what is right or wrong, what ought to be and what is intolerable.  Our uncertainty lets us hide in some frightful places setting defenses we might never need.  This happens in all aspects of life, but fits least well in our understanding of Church.  For poor reasons we limit roles and deny the value of those with whom we disagree, simplifying positions with which we disagree.  We pretend it is not the role of orthodoxy to resist change, and not the function of all believers to consider the meaning of meanings already understood, wondering what more might be said and how belief might have greater depth.

To be faithful to itself, each aspect of Church must be critical in its appraisal of what it believes and free to question what is offered from any other quarter.  Where we run into problems is when any of us say that ours is the only answer, the only ministry, the single truth.  Resistance to change, a critical appraisal of what is newly proposed is a valid and true ministry.  Moving backward into tradition is as needed as is the consideration of what is on the horizon, an incorporation into faith of what was never before considered or known.

We may wish others were not part, and may try denying a relationship to those with whom we disagree, but denial does not make it so.  No matter the names we call each other or the indictments we offer, each aspect -- whether we call it progressive, conservative, radical, reactionary, or anything else -- is a legitimate and even necessary expression and reasonable formulation of Church.  Each offers a service to the rest, even if it seems no service at all.  A Church in which there were only agreement would eventually nod in boredom as much as it would in agreement, offering less validation than is available in the airing of differences.  We need not want each other, but we do have need of what each can provide.

Difference is a necessary part of any group larger than one (and is perhaps necessary even within that one if he or she is to be whole).  In the offering of differences, consensus can emerge and in that moment in marking of the entity's growth, a line drawn to say here is where we stood today.  It is a line from which some may look forward, and others back.  Here all may say, if only for now, this is where we grow from.

No member of this family has the entirety of the family's heritage or mission.  Even if we would want to avoid this family's reunion, or wish others had stayed away, it is a family made more complete for having us all.  Even if you were uninvited to the reunion you are free to come, entitled to its name, a sharer of its past, its future, and in this very moment.  You own its faults and successes.  At the reunion you may stand only with those who share, and reinforce, your view; and so you will have less to take from it.  It is your choice, but all of us are here and all of us belong no matter in which direction we pull, push, or drag our Church.  It is us.  To be itself it needs what each offers and what each would reject.  It is its fullness when it is all of its parts.

It is a big enough umbrella for all of us to stand under, and will even grow to continue over us as there come to be more of us offering even more to the rest of us.

Why We Need Dreams

In truth they may be no more than windmills, yet we need them and perhaps need them even more.  You see, it is the dream that makes waking a real and living thing.  They are the fire and passion, the hope and power that make us more than dust and smoke, symbols of the death that might otherwise have been.  It is because we have windmills, our visions and dreams, that we can begin to be who we will become and recognize the glory that is now.

The Focus We Need

Considering the number of people telling us what ought to be the focus there are not yet any saying, "Tell us more about poverty."

Then Again

If the publican continues to focus on his unworthiness, he may become as lopsided as the pharisee.

The Same Liturgy

There is a sameness to liturgy that may at times seem comforting in its predictability, but so often it seems but sameness.

Digging Through Old Arguments

They revisit old arguments, rehashing and digging through them as though somewhere amid the resentment and misunderstanding there was something worth finding.  They are like people routing for buried treasure at the dump.  It is unlikely anything is there, but if it is, is it worth the effort required and all that must be dug through before finding it?

Wanting to Walk on Water

No matter that we want to walk on water if the water is unresponsive to our effort and desire.  If you must, you can blame the water for the failure, though acknowledging its nature might make more sense.

Needing to Be Complete

Both were accurate.  The pharisee was better than most.  The publican had sinned.  What robbed the pharisee of justification was his need to compare himself with others.  He was that insecure.  He could not consider himself complete within himself, and so needed to lean on the weakness of others.

Nothing Personal

They accused him of saying he was king.  They would have accused anyone saying such a thing.  They were enraged that he had threatened the temple's destruction.  They would have had the same rage no matter who made what, to them, seemed a threat.  It was less personal a thing than we might think, and it was how they were being faithful to what seemed so essential.

The Door Opens

After knocking on the door and having it open, you need to decide whether you want to go in.  Having sought, you may question if what was found is what you had hoped for.

The New Normal

They are reporting such craziness as though it made perfect sense.  The outrageous has become for them the norm and reality seems so alien, so unwelcoming of them.

Moving Beyond Parenthood

He thought fathers of sons would at some time, if invited, like to move beyond parenthood and become friends, to become equals with their sons; to become someone with whom things could be shared and there be no judgment, no risk.  Maybe it is the same with mothers of daughters, for whom fathers lack the security that might urge them to change roles.

Forward Motion

Saying I have had enough never made it stop.

After the Decision

Decisions are easily made.  Implementing them brings on the problem.

Available Emotions

We have available to us all emotions and inclinations, including anger and even rage.  Having them makes them in that sense natural.  Whether and to what extent we call upon them is a choice.  Availability does not make their appearance necessary.

Stepping into the Stream

As that stream is never the same because it constantly flows, neither is the person stepping into it the same person each time he does so.  He is always new.

Tolerable Situation

He said the situation was intolerable, but because he continues to tolerate it that may not have been the case.

As Choices Change

Choosing opposite things at varying times can make perfect sense, since in the interim we have become different people with differing needs and awareness that asks new questions, or old ones in a different way, from a whole new perspective.

What to Do With Unresolvable Conflicts

There are conflicts that permit no resolution.  They can only become worse.  Like the tar baby, the more we poke at them the more entrapped we become, and what seemed so inviting, so clearly defined and in need of our investigation and probing became a frightful mess.  Better to leave some things alone.  Living around them beats trying to work through them. As you encounter those conflicts, better to remove them from the agenda.  That is the resolution.

The Politics of Choosing

If we make caricatures of the villains what have we done to the heroes we put in opposition to them?  If we simplify the evil, making it so stark, then what is the merit in choosing the other path?  Simply formulated truth permits a too easy choice, one overlooking and undervaluing what is more accurate, if also more complex.  Unless we truly state the picture of what we oppose, we make those villains too foolish to be taken with any seriousness.  Their faults are too prominent to be real, and unless the faults are balanced with some degree of virtue there is no real choice available.  Both the evil and the good, the villains as well as the heroes, are variants of good.  The choice is which is better.  There would be no merit, no value, in choice unless there were some measure of equality, some reason to wonder if the choice were a right one.  If the pharisees are so obviously evil, what is the value in choosing what Jesus offers?  It is true of other things as well.  Political systems, philosophies, moral options.  None is so simply chosen or rejected.  All have merit.  None are really made of straw.

Indeed it may be neater but consistency is not an obligation

Who Is God?

Who or what is God?  If he is, what is he like; if he is not, why then does he seem to be?  The question has been asked so often and so many answers were given, but what did they mean?  Some would say they meant nothing, since an answer was presumed even before the asking began.  The asking, they say, was a framework in which to put a proof for or against the proposition, rather than a response to a possibility.

It is likely there are as many Gods or non-Gods as there are people responding or denying.  But that is them.  What does God mean to me?  God means different things at different times.  There are also times when he seems not even to be.  His face keeps changing and his meaning as well.  Sometimes he seems good and real and very close.  He can make a good deal of sense and be trying hard to say something so terribly important.  Other times, he is gone or never was.  On those days his message is words saying nothing.

It is hard to speak in absolutes about who you do not really know.  it is describing in detail what you have never seen; and God is not so real or visible all of the time.

Some would like to say God is but a projection of the mind, a name given a feeling or idea.  They say he is what we call our need for goodness and justice, an embodiment of what ought to be and source of what we wish were so.  They feel there should be a type of presence, whether it truly is or not.  God in this formulation is a summation of our wishes, be they for holiness, goodness, power, creation, or anything else.  It is an explanation, an answer to the question.  Yet, I am aware of more - a personality rather than just personification, a Godness that is alive and real in more than a symbolic way.  Perhaps what I call awareness is my way of projecting, of fulfilling my need, yet it seems also to be independent of me.  It seems God is.

Seems is a word that fits the question, and beyond it would be hard to go.  To give God less than reality and more than non-being is maybe speculation as unfounded as the response that he is.  And if his being is conjectural, so too are his actions.  The evidence there is as contradictory since in the same day there is enough evidence to say both probably and definitely yes and no.  How God invests in human affairs is at any time arbitrary, benevolent, full, and devoid of meaning.  Whatever is chosen as evidence for either side is well balanced by contradiction.

It may be best to conclude God is because I feel he is, and that he is good because he ought to be.  He is also love and holiness, since I want him to be, or believe that he is so.  More might be said, but like all that has gone before it stands only on faith.  There is no resolution to the question of God, nor perhaps should there be.  The answer may be that God can be sought but never known, felt without being seen, grasped without being held.  Maybe we can simply say that today for me God is.

Categorizing Good and Bad

Everything fits into a category.  It is either good or bad.  If it is what I like, or what I want to agree with, then it is favorable.  If it will not fit, or seems reluctant to, then it is wrong.  There are no nuances, no grayness, no exceptions to the rule.  It is a simple rule, an efficient system.  Of course, it is also quite silly.

A Modern Sin

Did you ever wonder if nationalism might be a sin?

Hungry for Tradition

They have instant traditions.  What happened once should always be.  No matter that it signifies so little.  Unimportant that it was not there yesterday.  If hungry enough, there is little you will not swallow.