Math has meaning
Mode such a useful word
The number that appears most
The data set doesn't need to have one
What kind of function is that
I like it
One of a myriad functions
Tuesday, December 31, 2019
Monday, December 30, 2019
Blame
Plenty to go around
Not the end of the world
Just not here that world I had envisioned
20/20 the year a pun
Time = joke
No better proof exists
Pain comes from wrong conditions
Tragic apologies Helen called them
Such a phrase I was never witness
One cut to the bone
Not the end of the world
Just not here that world I had envisioned
20/20 the year a pun
Time = joke
No better proof exists
Pain comes from wrong conditions
Tragic apologies Helen called them
Such a phrase I was never witness
One cut to the bone
Tuesday, December 24, 2019
Name Game
At the end of wars there are new names to learn and remember
When things come to an end and rebirth themselves
Names are like the rain and come and go
You'd think you would always be wet
Saturday, December 21, 2019
21
I'm on the other side of many things
Watched the sunset down my shore
Days longer out back across the water to come
We did not always live in building whatever you believe
It used to get darker and we could see farther
We saw the sky circle around
The first obsession
We have all always stared at something
Days longer out back across the water to come
We did not always live in building whatever you believe
It used to get darker and we could see farther
We saw the sky circle around
The first obsession
We have all always stared at something
Friday, December 20, 2019
Vision Twenty One
Here we are together safely on the other side. I always like to mark the time of year when I preach here. Days finally starting to grow longer. Since the first time we looked up we tried to find meaning with every observation.
This time of the year the sun stops moving across the sky and stops a bit and returns back the other way. I often think of a time when the heavens were a very entertaining place to look. When there were no lights and so many fewer distractions.
In my life I mostly notice the sun set move down the horizon and then comes back out from the shore. Six months one way six months the other. This was certainly one of the first things we came to understand about the heavens. It took long term thinking to see the pattern. We used to be better at finding patterns because they were so new.
We have found patterns everywhere we have looked. We found meaning or we gave meaning. The winter solstice in the north feels like the high water mark of the season even though it marks the beginning. The other side feels down hill to spring to me.
I think there was good reason for festival and celebration at this difficult time of year. The long nights getting shorter finally. Almost a rebirth before the birth. Inevitable feeling.
We are also coming closer to 2021 and the two hundredth anniversary of the founding of our first class. They didn't call it church then who knows maybe that's how they got people to come. Sometimes people think they know what church is about. Feel like they don't need it. Superstition and wishful thinking, but when you come into a church you find mostly broken people in need of healing.
The human heart doesn't work without God. In many places it is described as flawed, but that doesn't seem right. A design feature of a creator so in love with each of us that what was created was created dependent. How would you create? The best proxy we have is our children and there is more their than logic. If people who care could stop caring they would. Sometime the simplest of truth sound harsh, but you need to remember the context of the conversation I want to have today.
By objective measure our economy has not been better in twenty years. And also objectively as a world community we are doing less planning for the future than we have done in twenty years. To quote a young woman from Sweden.
"You say you hear us and that you understand the urgency. But no matter how sad and angry I am, I do not want to believe that. Because if you really understood the situation and still kept on failing to act, then you would be evil. And that I refuse to believe.
The first Earth day summit in 1992 I was 21 and already old. It wasn't until 1997 that I began working on the main project that came out of that happening: Local Agenda 21. The core realization was that public polling and expert opinion actually agree when assessing environmental priorities. The implementation made perfect sense to me: every local area would solve its local issues.
By one estimation the Local Agenda 21 campaign has had more people involved on one project in the history of humanity. I like to think that the kingdom of God has involved more people, but the priorities don't always match. Instead of looking to bring people together we often focus on finding ways to divide us.
There are those Christians who will tell you that Jesus coming back kind of is our get out of jail free card. Surely at this point in history Jesus must be well on his way back. So we say it doesn't really matter what we do, We expect the thief in the night to do our dishes. Well there certainly were those among the first twelve disciples that agreed. Course they already 2000 years off. What is it to you if he should tarry?
It is our faith that gives us strength. We seem like those dejected followers of Jesus who thought he would destroy Rome in one fell swoop. We still try to understand that he was the one destroyed. He went one way: death. Then he came back the other way: life. Those stones surely would celebrate as the heavens do these basic truths. Those things that can only be built upon.
The latest meeting, the COP 25 climate change talks, had to be moved from one continent to another due to civil unrest in the host nations. Chile first backed out of hosting then a return to Brazil was not seen as possible. The conference in Madrid was the longest in the twenty-five year process and produced the least. We are failing them. The reason is the same one that lead Jesus to sit with the sinners. The short term all so much smoke and mirrors.
People can be labeled or people can be saved, they can't be both. In the process we need a new beginning Doesn't really make any sense. Grace and love. Easy answers and easy burden. The heart not so much fixed as home and loved unconditionally.
We are focused on finding agreement between states that have little agreement within them. It is the local community that is the foundation of our world. Think global act local we just need to act more local. Nothing wrong with that plan. In a long-term approach it is easy to see the sinner at your table or in your heart can be redeemed.
The natural world is where our faith came from. We were seasonal before we were spiritual. As a species we have taken more wrong roads than right in my estimation. If I didn't have faith in God I don't think I would have faith in man. People say how can you have faith in God, but I would turn the question around ans ask what can you have faith in?
I do love math and telling my students that numbers are one thing you can always count on. There isn't much in this life. I usually find more than one way to tell them. Funny thing about working with children you often hear more about God than in Church.
I don't think evolving intelligent life in this universe is hard, but most I think would destroy itself. There is no way to know for certain that we haven't already polluted this world too much
SO we listen to the prophets :
In all their distress He was distressed The universe such a large place that we make such a small place with all our divisions. If you believe God created you is it much to believe that countless galaxies were also created. There is enough certainly to fill a galaxy full of God's love for each of us. We could find seven billion galaxies rather easily. Maybe those scientists don't really see all those galaxies? I don't think so, but there is plenty of room for God. More unknown about the universe than know. Dark matter dark energy sounds like room to me. The abundance of such a large universe.
In our Mathew reading today we find our Christ a refugee. The be silent night if you will. One thing i will tell you about refugees they gather on the best corners of the world. I've worked with refugees and displaced people for twenty years finding jobs for them here in Cleveland half that time.
You ever wonder how a city like Cleveland can accommodate so many refugees. One thing I have found is there are always jobs around. People here always have drama. Like a clock work universe. Keep winding and you get there.
Drove groups of up to fifteen around town. As the van cleared out to go to work new arrivals from other continents. I drove so many different types of vans, but they only drove in one. I could describe some details more, but words like hearts fail.
Most things fail and not all failure is bad. How something can be flawed and yet be the best thing we know in this large universe. The depravity and the sublime.
Thing about refugees even if you manage to return home like Jesus did, you always a refugee.
Lot of people angry about migrants and refugees and we seem to forget what it mostly says about us. When a stranger arrives we have reason to be fearful and reason to be compassionate. I've been given refuge in a war zone, but I was there for a job. That's not a place to seek refuge, but I found it there so I believe it must be everywhere. We been at peace at home a long time here. The one thing i rarely told any refugee was how much harder the program is in America. Every single country that takes in refugees gives better resettlement services than we do. Maybe it is our luxury. In a sense the other countries must because is so hard to survive. I don't really think so, but that's a point i wouldn't argue. I do know that one person can succeed here.
We got a lot of people that go to church on Sunday. We say many similar things. Some thing we do find disagreement. Many people don't find the story of Jesus as a refugee informative of the current political context. Funny how other small pieces of the bible the same people cling to. This isn't about other or them, this is about our soon to be two hundred year class. It is easy to romanticize two hundred years. If it helps we are talking about seven generations.
I find Isaiah in chapter 46 verse 10:
0 Declaring the end and the result from the beginning,
And from ancient times the things which have not [yet] been done,
Saying, ‘My purpose will be established,
And I will do all that pleases Me and fulfills My purpose,’
Isaiah was talking about us too. It is a glorious purpose 200 years here 2000 years there, but we might rightly ask what future we see here. What vision do you see?
We need to look better than 20/20 and really ask ourselves what is it that we see here in our own Vision 21. Entering the 21st year of the 21st century I find I see more sevens. Maybe that is just the football fan in me. Maybe seven things we can focus upon in the next year these last seven generations.
When we look closely at things we tend to see the dark side of them, Often we get discouraged and wish not to know. Even this most amazing creation the human heart has a dark side. We have to look at things clearly and make better what we can. We don't need to dread or fear the difficulties. We can be assured difficulties will be ahead. We can know that we will see aspects of things we don't want to see.
The trick here is to let the good surprise you. I often talk about how people wonder why God allows evil while dismissing the miracle that anything good endures. The most people may be working for the kingdom of God, but most people are wrong about their idea of how to make it be. More is done wrong through ignorance than malice. Sometime the simplest of truth sound harsh.
Just because every institution in the world lacks memory doesn't mean we must. I often am guilty of imagining all the jobs that once filled the neighborhood. When I hear the names of the fortune 500 companies that left not so long ago. All those men that supported entire families with one income. All those men no one seems to need here anymore, but that is only a small part of Nottingham.
We have been through greater struggles. We have been a Church at war. Real people who we have a real connection to sent their sons to die in far off lands and our own land.
We did come out of the Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Ecumenical Church. Six years from the end of the war of 1812. Did they have a vision 21? Well God sure seems to have as we ramble towards 2021 and 200 years mostly on inertia.
We need to tell the story of one of the oldest churches in Cleveland. We need to make a new story for us now. If we can look back into our past with better clarity we can understand better that things have never been and never will be easy.
We could see that change is the only constant force in our congregation. We would not be so amazed by peoples lives that come and go here. I know of numerous people who have lived miraculous lives on this corner or in relationship to this corner. There are more of these lives we don't remember and even more yet to come.
People show up here. You showed up here. People will continue to show up here. We are at a unique point in our history a solstice of sorts. Seven generations and ready to go back around again. Sustainability is planning for the next seven generations now.
We plan for years that become decades that become centuries. Moments add up to more than they were. Today is more than what is to come, but we owe something here as the seventh generation. My heart can only hold a sliver of what would be possible, but I believe that it is outdoors. More green space opened up around our church. More seeds planted. Vineyards that grow like the days of old teaching a new generation to live not only survive.
We need a new openness of heart and mind to take ownership as the seventh generation in this church as we now call it. All churches are more interesting in their beginnings. Their reason for being is that they were not. Our reason for being is that we are. Are we flawed? certainly. Can we make it another two hundred years with Gods help? Undoubtedly.
Let Us Pray
Heavenly Father,
Help us here today hear the lessons of the last two hundred years here at Nottingham. Help us each to catch a sliver of a vision we can bring together. Bring us help. Enter the hearts of people you are planning to bring us right now. Those who don't know if they should stay show them clearly they should. Allow us to see each new and old face that enters our sanctuary for the miracle that it is. Let us begin today to understand better who we have been, who we are and what we can become. We ask in the name of your son Jesus Christ Amen.
Dec 29th, 2019 Nottingham
This time of the year the sun stops moving across the sky and stops a bit and returns back the other way. I often think of a time when the heavens were a very entertaining place to look. When there were no lights and so many fewer distractions.
In my life I mostly notice the sun set move down the horizon and then comes back out from the shore. Six months one way six months the other. This was certainly one of the first things we came to understand about the heavens. It took long term thinking to see the pattern. We used to be better at finding patterns because they were so new.
We have found patterns everywhere we have looked. We found meaning or we gave meaning. The winter solstice in the north feels like the high water mark of the season even though it marks the beginning. The other side feels down hill to spring to me.
I think there was good reason for festival and celebration at this difficult time of year. The long nights getting shorter finally. Almost a rebirth before the birth. Inevitable feeling.
We are also coming closer to 2021 and the two hundredth anniversary of the founding of our first class. They didn't call it church then who knows maybe that's how they got people to come. Sometimes people think they know what church is about. Feel like they don't need it. Superstition and wishful thinking, but when you come into a church you find mostly broken people in need of healing.
The human heart doesn't work without God. In many places it is described as flawed, but that doesn't seem right. A design feature of a creator so in love with each of us that what was created was created dependent. How would you create? The best proxy we have is our children and there is more their than logic. If people who care could stop caring they would. Sometime the simplest of truth sound harsh, but you need to remember the context of the conversation I want to have today.
By objective measure our economy has not been better in twenty years. And also objectively as a world community we are doing less planning for the future than we have done in twenty years. To quote a young woman from Sweden.
"You say you hear us and that you understand the urgency. But no matter how sad and angry I am, I do not want to believe that. Because if you really understood the situation and still kept on failing to act, then you would be evil. And that I refuse to believe.
"You are failing us. But the young people are starting to understand your betrayal. The eyes of all future generations are upon you. And if you choose to fail us, I say: We will never forgive you.
"We will not let you get away with this. Right here, right now is where we draw the line. The world is waking up. And change is coming, whether you like it or not.
"Thank you."
By one estimation the Local Agenda 21 campaign has had more people involved on one project in the history of humanity. I like to think that the kingdom of God has involved more people, but the priorities don't always match. Instead of looking to bring people together we often focus on finding ways to divide us.
There are those Christians who will tell you that Jesus coming back kind of is our get out of jail free card. Surely at this point in history Jesus must be well on his way back. So we say it doesn't really matter what we do, We expect the thief in the night to do our dishes. Well there certainly were those among the first twelve disciples that agreed. Course they already 2000 years off. What is it to you if he should tarry?
It is our faith that gives us strength. We seem like those dejected followers of Jesus who thought he would destroy Rome in one fell swoop. We still try to understand that he was the one destroyed. He went one way: death. Then he came back the other way: life. Those stones surely would celebrate as the heavens do these basic truths. Those things that can only be built upon.
The latest meeting, the COP 25 climate change talks, had to be moved from one continent to another due to civil unrest in the host nations. Chile first backed out of hosting then a return to Brazil was not seen as possible. The conference in Madrid was the longest in the twenty-five year process and produced the least. We are failing them. The reason is the same one that lead Jesus to sit with the sinners. The short term all so much smoke and mirrors.
People can be labeled or people can be saved, they can't be both. In the process we need a new beginning Doesn't really make any sense. Grace and love. Easy answers and easy burden. The heart not so much fixed as home and loved unconditionally.
We are focused on finding agreement between states that have little agreement within them. It is the local community that is the foundation of our world. Think global act local we just need to act more local. Nothing wrong with that plan. In a long-term approach it is easy to see the sinner at your table or in your heart can be redeemed.
The natural world is where our faith came from. We were seasonal before we were spiritual. As a species we have taken more wrong roads than right in my estimation. If I didn't have faith in God I don't think I would have faith in man. People say how can you have faith in God, but I would turn the question around ans ask what can you have faith in?
I do love math and telling my students that numbers are one thing you can always count on. There isn't much in this life. I usually find more than one way to tell them. Funny thing about working with children you often hear more about God than in Church.
I don't think evolving intelligent life in this universe is hard, but most I think would destroy itself. There is no way to know for certain that we haven't already polluted this world too much
SO we listen to the prophets :
In Isaiah 63:7-9 Amplified Bible (AMP)
we hear of
God’s Ancient Mercies Recalled
7
I will tell of the lovingkindnesses of the Lord, and the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord,
According to all that the Lord has done for us,
And His great goodness toward the house of Israel,
Which He has shown them according to His compassion
And according to the abundance of His lovingkindnesses.
8
For He said, “Be assured, they are My people,
Sons who will not be faithless.”
So He became their Savior [in all their distresses].
9
In all their distress He was distressed,
And the [a]angel of His presence saved them,
In His love and in His compassion He redeemed them;
And He lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.
I will tell of the lovingkindnesses of the Lord, and the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord,
According to all that the Lord has done for us,
And His great goodness toward the house of Israel,
Which He has shown them according to His compassion
And according to the abundance of His lovingkindnesses.
8
For He said, “Be assured, they are My people,
Sons who will not be faithless.”
So He became their Savior [in all their distresses].
9
In all their distress He was distressed,
And the [a]angel of His presence saved them,
In His love and in His compassion He redeemed them;
And He lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.
In our Mathew reading today we find our Christ a refugee. The be silent night if you will. One thing i will tell you about refugees they gather on the best corners of the world. I've worked with refugees and displaced people for twenty years finding jobs for them here in Cleveland half that time.
You ever wonder how a city like Cleveland can accommodate so many refugees. One thing I have found is there are always jobs around. People here always have drama. Like a clock work universe. Keep winding and you get there.
Drove groups of up to fifteen around town. As the van cleared out to go to work new arrivals from other continents. I drove so many different types of vans, but they only drove in one. I could describe some details more, but words like hearts fail.
Most things fail and not all failure is bad. How something can be flawed and yet be the best thing we know in this large universe. The depravity and the sublime.
Thing about refugees even if you manage to return home like Jesus did, you always a refugee.
Lot of people angry about migrants and refugees and we seem to forget what it mostly says about us. When a stranger arrives we have reason to be fearful and reason to be compassionate. I've been given refuge in a war zone, but I was there for a job. That's not a place to seek refuge, but I found it there so I believe it must be everywhere. We been at peace at home a long time here. The one thing i rarely told any refugee was how much harder the program is in America. Every single country that takes in refugees gives better resettlement services than we do. Maybe it is our luxury. In a sense the other countries must because is so hard to survive. I don't really think so, but that's a point i wouldn't argue. I do know that one person can succeed here.
We got a lot of people that go to church on Sunday. We say many similar things. Some thing we do find disagreement. Many people don't find the story of Jesus as a refugee informative of the current political context. Funny how other small pieces of the bible the same people cling to. This isn't about other or them, this is about our soon to be two hundred year class. It is easy to romanticize two hundred years. If it helps we are talking about seven generations.
I find Isaiah in chapter 46 verse 10:
0 Declaring the end and the result from the beginning,
And from ancient times the things which have not [yet] been done,
Saying, ‘My purpose will be established,
And I will do all that pleases Me and fulfills My purpose,’
Isaiah was talking about us too. It is a glorious purpose 200 years here 2000 years there, but we might rightly ask what future we see here. What vision do you see?
We need to look better than 20/20 and really ask ourselves what is it that we see here in our own Vision 21. Entering the 21st year of the 21st century I find I see more sevens. Maybe that is just the football fan in me. Maybe seven things we can focus upon in the next year these last seven generations.
When we look closely at things we tend to see the dark side of them, Often we get discouraged and wish not to know. Even this most amazing creation the human heart has a dark side. We have to look at things clearly and make better what we can. We don't need to dread or fear the difficulties. We can be assured difficulties will be ahead. We can know that we will see aspects of things we don't want to see.
The trick here is to let the good surprise you. I often talk about how people wonder why God allows evil while dismissing the miracle that anything good endures. The most people may be working for the kingdom of God, but most people are wrong about their idea of how to make it be. More is done wrong through ignorance than malice. Sometime the simplest of truth sound harsh.
Just because every institution in the world lacks memory doesn't mean we must. I often am guilty of imagining all the jobs that once filled the neighborhood. When I hear the names of the fortune 500 companies that left not so long ago. All those men that supported entire families with one income. All those men no one seems to need here anymore, but that is only a small part of Nottingham.
We have been through greater struggles. We have been a Church at war. Real people who we have a real connection to sent their sons to die in far off lands and our own land.
We did come out of the Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Ecumenical Church. Six years from the end of the war of 1812. Did they have a vision 21? Well God sure seems to have as we ramble towards 2021 and 200 years mostly on inertia.
We need to tell the story of one of the oldest churches in Cleveland. We need to make a new story for us now. If we can look back into our past with better clarity we can understand better that things have never been and never will be easy.
We could see that change is the only constant force in our congregation. We would not be so amazed by peoples lives that come and go here. I know of numerous people who have lived miraculous lives on this corner or in relationship to this corner. There are more of these lives we don't remember and even more yet to come.
People show up here. You showed up here. People will continue to show up here. We are at a unique point in our history a solstice of sorts. Seven generations and ready to go back around again. Sustainability is planning for the next seven generations now.
We plan for years that become decades that become centuries. Moments add up to more than they were. Today is more than what is to come, but we owe something here as the seventh generation. My heart can only hold a sliver of what would be possible, but I believe that it is outdoors. More green space opened up around our church. More seeds planted. Vineyards that grow like the days of old teaching a new generation to live not only survive.
We need a new openness of heart and mind to take ownership as the seventh generation in this church as we now call it. All churches are more interesting in their beginnings. Their reason for being is that they were not. Our reason for being is that we are. Are we flawed? certainly. Can we make it another two hundred years with Gods help? Undoubtedly.
Let Us Pray
Heavenly Father,
Help us here today hear the lessons of the last two hundred years here at Nottingham. Help us each to catch a sliver of a vision we can bring together. Bring us help. Enter the hearts of people you are planning to bring us right now. Those who don't know if they should stay show them clearly they should. Allow us to see each new and old face that enters our sanctuary for the miracle that it is. Let us begin today to understand better who we have been, who we are and what we can become. We ask in the name of your son Jesus Christ Amen.
Dec 29th, 2019 Nottingham
Subaghraj
If your going to sub your going to need a good bag
Extra h never bothered anyone ever
Rules in the Sanskrit raj
Ever present in moments
Children will seldom be
Seven years in a wonder
Ever patient for infinity
Children never are
Everyday a practice
Some better than others
But we get better at it
Break our most basic rules
Don't repeat words or place them close
Extra h never bothered anyone ever
Rules in the Sanskrit raj
Ever present in moments
Children will seldom be
Seven years in a wonder
Ever patient for infinity
Children never are
Everyday a practice
Some better than others
But we get better at it
Break our most basic rules
Don't repeat words or place them close
Saturday, December 7, 2019
Celebration
I knew this guy and he lived this remarkable way
First he had this smile for everyone
Hmm, huh? He lived his life a celebration
Objectively people would say what did it get him
He knew pain he knew suffering he knew oppression
He somehow learned to love all I ever knew him to do
Bad things happened to my friend that were not his fault
Bad or just people who didn't know life was a celebration took advantage
They signed his name to words he never said
Most people would have been bothered by that
Most people know when people are owed even babies
I don't know for sure but I suspect he had learned to celebrate
I know he had many battles before I knew him
He had battles the whole time I knew him
I know what it feels like when people you give your heart to lie
We all cry out for justice
Our vision of what that is is where we part
He would tell you his
I saw what it got him
He had the faith the ages were made
He preached a good sermon now but lived a better one
First he had this smile for everyone
Hmm, huh? He lived his life a celebration
Objectively people would say what did it get him
He knew pain he knew suffering he knew oppression
He somehow learned to love all I ever knew him to do
Bad things happened to my friend that were not his fault
Bad or just people who didn't know life was a celebration took advantage
They signed his name to words he never said
Most people would have been bothered by that
Most people know when people are owed even babies
I don't know for sure but I suspect he had learned to celebrate
I know he had many battles before I knew him
He had battles the whole time I knew him
I know what it feels like when people you give your heart to lie
We all cry out for justice
Our vision of what that is is where we part
He would tell you his
I saw what it got him
He had the faith the ages were made
He preached a good sermon now but lived a better one
Friday, December 6, 2019
Daisy
The green light girl
Black and red and blue
Quite a presence
In some dreams we find things we love
In some moments we find them too
I don't really argue which
I see things that I see
Words find themself a nice approximation
Flowery and agenda laced
Like the Daisy in the field
What Grows
Certain thing were sown before we were here
We find all kinds of different things around
In the field here we all grew
Why is no longer of concern unless you want to know
We failed in our diligence to start right
Good seed good soil bad seed good soil
Interchangeable titles of opposite utility
What are you for what are they for
Immeasurable and forever measured approximated
Harvest time comes resolution mostly
More live than die
Asymmetry is what we are most
There is a shortage of anti matter
No shortage of negativity
More love than hate
Their anti matter-matter asymmetry problem
Fifty fifty is a death sentence annihilation
We are here the little left over it seems
The remainder
No really good explanation why
As if the universe doesn't know math that well
Tuesday, October 29, 2019
New Life
When you get life to calm down and manage
It should take you much to change
I don't want to be a part of your life
I don't want you to be a part of my life
I want to build together new
The best thing I can do for my children is have healthy relationships
Monday, October 14, 2019
X marks
I remember the talk of it
I dialed into the first world wide web
In school I learned on a computer to make my name repeat basically
There was so much talk of it
This generation that would be born with the internet
A unique thing no more
If we do well there are many ways to tell
The internet off at this point seems doom
if it was it would be a bad sign it seems to me
So accepting perhaps we don't do well
Intelligent seems best at exploitation
Strength mostly for destruction
The predator eats the sick and weak
Intelligence likes the big horns some how
But if we do well:
There will be my unique generation
Where x marks the spot between
What will be understood and talked about more
Our so I hope
In our generation we will have our answer
Something will give
The new generation coming to power
The old rune x
Crossroads
People found x because they couldn't decide who we were
It was a place holder
There intelligence of the crowd
We give the gift
Something emergent that will stay
Not the passing fancy
Two road meeting
We can work together
Or we can destroy our own biome
In the lifetime of a generation
There have been many times
Hopefully many more
Never like these
We are on our own and we shall see
Much worse already than it should be
No answer for Greta, but time still
This of all times and places
I would be in none other
To have a fight to win or lose in a human timescale
I appreciate two hundred million year old beaches
The treasure
Wednesday, September 25, 2019
The Methodist
Let us pray
Heavenly Father we have asked in the past not to be called. We have sought to confuse your clear words. We have hidden in shadows we felt you would not see us in. We have responded that there are better people to fulfill your will. We have not seen our parts both large and small as together in your will. Help us to see something new today. We thank you for another day here together. Amen
We worship in many ways like all people have through most of time to the calendar. We have our way around the year. The liturgical calendar. We find ourselves this week continuing in Luke .
In many ways we have lost our connection with the season. We mark them well here especially in church almost to remind us of something we don't know we have lost. Something like a holy ghost.
I don't really grieve anything or try not too much lately. Truth is we have lost two powerful voices in our church recently, Linda and Kathy. Both now joining us on the other side here. They were similar in some ways as we all are. To me they both spoke the most without words. Linda mostly I remember her smile. Kathy I will always remember lighting the candles and singing.
What is best about our church is we don't sit around asking God questions about the past. We might could rightly blame God just a bit for taking two of our beloved again over there if it weren't that we knew where they are.
People always talking about why God allows evil. I praise God because with all that the human heart would want and do that there is any good to see. This is the miracle we all have in front of us. I would mention the funeral in Texas that people just kept coming to. Greta I would mention is my hero because it isn't about her. If you missed what this swedish wonder did you can just Google Greta now and she is first. Short time ago last. Maybe that is what modern sermons should be highlighting the good in the world. No one else seems to be doing it.
We mark our way around the sun well in our church so I will join a shattered voice and read our gospel message once more.
Luke 16:19-31 Amplified Bible (AMP)
The Rich Man and Lazarus
19 “Now there was a certain rich man who was habitually dressed in expensive purple and fine linen, and celebrated and lived joyously in splendor every day. 20 And a poor man named Lazarus, was laid at his gate, covered with sores. 21 He [eagerly] longed to eat the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table. Besides, even the dogs were coming and licking his sores. 22 Now it happened that the poor man died and his spirit was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s [a]bosom (paradise); and the rich man also died and was buried. 23 In Hades (the realm of the dead), being in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom (paradise). 24 And he cried out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in severe agony in this flame.’ 25 But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things [all the comforts and delights], and Lazarus likewise bad things [all the discomforts and distresses]; but now he is comforted here [in paradise], while you are in severe agony. 26 And besides all this, between us and you [people] a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to come over from here to you will not be able, and none may cross over from there to us.’ 27 So the rich man said, ‘Then, father [Abraham], I beg you to send Lazarus to my father’s house— 28 for I have five brothers—in order that he may solemnly warn them and witness to them, so that they too will not come to this place of torment.’ 29 But Abraham said, ‘They have [the Scriptures given by] Moses and the [writings of the] Prophets; let them listen to them.’ 30 He replied, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent [they will change their old way of thinking and seek God and His righteousness].’ 31 And he said to him, ‘If they do not listen to [the messages of] Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.’”
Me and your are rich. Someone did come back from the dead and some people repent and see a new renewal of life. Some still don't so Jesus send us to them.
We have much to unpack each week. We sit in churches across the world and try to synchronize our voice. I hear as I read this passage how different people fold things. How easy it is to believe different things.
It sounds like we are reading the old testament but this is still Jesus taking to his disciples and there Pharisees attempting to ridicule him.
John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, commented on this passage, “it is no more sinful to be rich than to be poor. But it is dangerous beyond expression. Therefore, I remind all of you that are of this number, that have the conveniences of life, and something over that you walk upon slippery ground. You continually tread on snares and deaths. You are every moment on the verge of hell!” (Sermon 112: “The Rich Man and Lazarus.” Quoted in the Wesley Study Bible p. 1268.)
To be rich is dangerous. This sounds something right to me.
Imagine that moment in the life of Jesus when he says, "even if someone rose from the dead." There is something real funny here. We see it is him that is the bridge across the great chasm.
Jesus has more for both the disciples and the Pharisees in chapter 17.
I like the amplified translation myself because I'm looking for nuance in the meaning of words that have traveled across millennia. Everyone has their favorite versions and I realize no one version is best. Like all things I have experience with there is good and bad involved.
I don't myself always believe any words are the final say of anything. What I hear in this passage is a clear definition of hell: to be far from God. Some people hear suffering and fire and things they like to imagine. Heaven and hell at different times are in the same places is my best understanding.
There is something about who is raised up to Paradise in this story. It is hard for us to understand the visceral shock of those listening.
These words are attributed to Jesus as he responds to the Pharisees. He is responding to scoffs. Responding to these people who believed that reform was necessary but not that everyone could be reformed.
There is much about class and associated expectations here that Jesus is always dispelling violently at times. We in the United Methodist Church are attempting to create more categories of people who are allowed to do certain things. As if they have found some new rules written in the good news. Not doing unto others as they would have done.
I remember once walking on a former front line in Bosnia.
Traveling around the country with people from that place I watched as people found out where they came from: they would look down and away. They say a picture worth a 1000 words. This picture had no words, but I saw it clearly. People would just help them any way they could.
But on that day walking I imagined or I saw blood still stained on the road and I was startled by the idea that even here Jesus would have time to renew.
As Jeremiah must have cried out, "Houses, fields and vineyards will again be bought in this land!" Jeremiah 32: 15b
We seem to find an end in Luke or perhaps just and end to the circular logic the Pharisees loved. In our current world there is a belief that that people are rich and powerful because people are chosen to fulfill the will of Jesus. The Jesus I know brings peace. I don't see any rich peaceful people in this world.
We find in 1 Timothy 16
1 Timothy 6:6-19 Amplified Bible (AMP)
6 But godliness actually is a source of great gain when accompanied by contentment [that contentment which comes from a sense of inner confidence based on the sufficiency of God]. 7 For we have brought nothing into the world, so [it is clear that] we cannot take anything out of it, either. 8 But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. 9 But those who [are not financially ethical and] crave to get rich [with a compulsive, greedy longing for wealth] fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction [leading to personal misery]. 10 For the love of money [that is, the greedy desire for it and the willingness to gain it unethically] is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves [through and through] with many sorrows.
11 But as for you, [a]O man of God, flee from these things; aim at and pursue righteousness [true goodness, moral conformity to the character of God], godliness [the fear of God], faith, love, steadfastness, and gentleness. 12 Fight the good fight of the faith [in the conflict with evil]; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and [for which] you made the good confession [of faith] in the presence of many witnesses. 13 I solemnly charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and [in the presence] of Christ Jesus, who made the good confession [in His testimony] before Pontius Pilate, 14 to keep all His precepts without stain or reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 which He will bring about in His own time—He who is the blessed and only Sovereign [the absolute Ruler], the King of those who reign as kings and Lord of those who rule as lords, 16 He alone possesses immortality [absolute exemption from death] and lives in unapproachable light, whom no man has ever seen or can see. To Him be honor and eternal power and dominion! Amen.
17 As for the rich in this present world, instruct them not to be conceited and arrogant, nor to set their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly and ceaselessly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. 18 Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous, willing to share [with others]. 19 In this way storing up for themselves the enduring riches of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.
Those last verses so many people seem to miss. It is not easy to turn your life over to God and trust, but when you have dogs licking your sores perhaps it might incline one to give up their life. The rich man not to set their hope in riches. That sounds hard.
That first verse the word contentment is almost impossible to truly translate, but the sufficiency of God sounds something right.
Humor just doesn't translate really in my experience. That is a big part of life. Nuances are lived. In eastern Europe we ate different things at different times of the year.
With 24 hour big box stores they are trying to live more like us. Still today there is a time when every one is cooking peppers outside preparing cannned goods for the winter. A very unique smell when everyone is doing it. Here we see the seasons with less resolution. Our connections crossed.
Not very long ago it was that way here. People ate with the seasons and always knew the time of year. Now is a time of renewal. Those big new barns we have built are full. It is at harvest time that we most like to think of the long term. Those soggy springs and hot Summers gave us anxiety for the short term. When the plants are tall our talk turns to renewal. We gain this confidence. This is not by accident.
"Take hold of that which is truly life"
The people moved with the seasons so the church moved with the seasons. Now people don't move with the seasons as much the church moves people with the seasons. Makes what we do here all the more important.
Our rituals replace these things we have lost as people. Most we can hardly imagine. Raised in the high water mark for capitalism I could eat a banana or green onions any day of the year. I couldn't imagine that was different in other places. I imagine there are many more things I can't imagine.
We find truly people will believe what ever they want. Most things are actually plausible.
Who are the poor?
As with many things I like to consult my grandfather:
if you come with nothing, not expecting or seeking, you go away as you came with nothing. If we were to come with real old Methodist zeal we would be found often in the house of the Lord seeking his will and serving as he calls us.
One of the best known and most often quoted sayings of John Wesley, was that in which he describes the Methodist as "the friend of all and the enemies of none". It seems to me we have gone far--far afield from the spirit of this quote in our modern world. At every point of life we are faced with conflicts of interest and motive. Men are grouped together in opposing camps, nations against nations, class against class, neighbor against neighbor. It seems at times that we forget that no man can unto himself, everybody influences us and we influence everybody we meet. We are the only Bible that many people ever read.
Again I ask who is a Methodist, a Methodist is a Christian who believes in regeneration, the new birth, through which one becomes a child of God. In the witness of the Holy Spirit that seals him as a Child of God. He believes in the possibility of final perfection, that he can be "made perfect in love" in this life. He believes in the doctrine of repentance, that he has a Godly sorrow for sin committed coupled with a will to sin no more. He believes in the universality of redemption--that Christ died for all, not simply a chosen few.
He believes in Justification by Faith, that it is by God's grace that we are saved. Faith is the lever here. Being justified by faith, we have peace with God. (EPH 2:8) First God offers, then we believe, then we accept. "By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God."
Nottingham Methodist Church 1961, Nottingham Village, Cleveland, Ohio
I love to preach even though it may not be the best use of time. I like to write my sermons out because most research says people don't really hear sermons. We all see sermons. These are the ones that really teach but we go around telling the same story, the good news, because it is the best news. News so good that many of us jump for joy on Sundays. News that never gets old, but we still forget.
It is also something like a salon of old. The best ones had few members.
We often criticize the ancients for their foolish choices to not listen or forget about God as we often do the same.
We often criticize the younger generation as being worse or something that hasn't ever been as bad. In truth the ancients thought this as well. They also had ancients they learned from as we do today. They also found it difficult to understand their folly.
We think of the life of Jesus as something ancient, but much was already ancient in his time. Jesus didn't come to save the Earth He did come to save us with the expectation we would take better care of all our blessings. We also destroy expectations.
In my life I find myself in a common refrain to all life's blessings, "thank you Lord, may I have another.". If it is dangerous to be rich I wonder is there safety in poverty. Is this an armour. A fruit? I find myself back where I began seeing good and bad and all.
So I like to preach. I hear a type of calling to follow. In this pulpit people are often called to many things. For me it is to remind people that we study and we learn. To me I find the ultimate question of who is welcome to formally preach in this Methodist Church more about who is excluded.
The Pharisees were about exclusion. Jesus showed them clearly where their logic would lead them. It is my hope to show people that exclusion can never be the answer. People have such wide elbows.
I will preach here as long as I am welcome but for my own peace of mind I will say I am not called to be a preacher with this United Methodist Church. As long as one person is excluded I will never be a full member. It is dangerous to be a Methodist.
I find myself lost at times. I know well many of the frailties of the human heart. I also know many of the blessings of the Lord, may I have another.
Let us pray
Father we ask today that wounds heal and hearts open. Give us opportunities to find ourselves of service. Thank you for speaking with your children. Continue to give us joy to speak your word. Help us to maintain our spirit and determination to plant seeds and help then grow. Thank you for the saints of Nottingham you hold now in your bosom. Be with those who have loved and lost them glorious wonderous Abba Amen
Saturday, August 3, 2019
Man, who appointed Me
As someone who speaks a different language I have good experience with translation. I have spent several years speaking little or no English. In Serbia I would often find an old movie new transfixed by the sub titles telling an entirely different movie. I felt really accomplished when I was able to do this in the Cyrillic alphabet.
Learning Cyrillic wasn't that difficult as I had spent a number of years in Bosnia where people spoke the same language and wrote mostly in the Latin alphabet. When I arrived in Serbia I quickly saw that the signs through out the City were the same with just a different alphabet. People still had cameras and needed to develop film. It was the f from from the word foto that got me started. It is a capitol I with a circle. Was funny to me not a ph, but a f. Reminiscent of a Celtic cross.
It helped that the language was phonetic, by which I mean you didn't need to learn how to pronounce anything because the letters always said the same thing. English is one of the hardest languages to learn because of that layer of learning needed. Writing and talking like too different skills.
They called it our language. My father made an attempt to learn the language till he saw there were no pronunciation guide for each word in the Serbian side of his Serbian English dictionary. He didn't want to hear why. To be fair there were many other foreign elements. The words had gender which many languages do.
It was very funny to watch my friends translate. Often four or five very bright people would not agree on how best to translate something. There was something of the Balkan. People would have what seemed to be limitlessness suggestions. This was a language I wanted to learn.
It was a slow process and I came to realize there was a new body language involved. Not everything just enough to confound. I remember people most who told me their secrets. Things I wasn't by right supposed to know. There where many people. It is easy for me to idealize my experiences, but I would be hard pressed to tell you the worst thing that has happened to me.
Oh sure many times I thought things were the worst only to see they were fine. I've been in more than one war. First thing you realize how big it is. So translation becomes this life and death thing your attention is what teaches you. You understand there isn't one translation. As there isn't one movie. Culture is context and context is where a story starts. It is what it ultimately tells.
Where ever you look you see what you want to see. Well this word want.
We are our stories and everything is processed from a point of view. There isn't any pure art. To me it is very gritty, involved, connected, and most of all human. Like us alive. A good story works in more than one context. It is with this idea that I approach our scripture in Luke today chapter 12 verses 13 through 21.
Luke 12:13-21 Amplified Bible (AMP)
Covetousness Denounced
13 Someone from the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” 14 But He said to him, “Man, who appointed Me a judge or an arbitrator over [the two of] you?” 15 Then He said to them, “Watch out and guard yourselves against every form of greed; for not even when one has an overflowing abundance does his life consist of nor is it derived from his possessions.”
16 Then He told them a parable, saying, “There was a rich man whose land was very fertile and productive. 17 And he began thinking to himself, ‘What shall I do, since I have no place [large enough in which] to store my crops?’ 18 Then he said, ‘This is what I will do: I will tear down my storehouses and build larger ones, and I will store all my grain and my goods there. 19 And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many good things stored up, [enough] for many years; rest and relax, eat, drink and be merry (celebrate continually).”’ 20 But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own all the things you have prepared?’ 21 So it is for the one who continues to store up and hoard possessions for himself, and is not rich [in his relationship] toward God.”
to quote my grandfather:
"The gospel writers show us Jesus, the Son of God, as preacher, teacher and healer. In every story or incident that we see Him in the Bible we find Him teaching a Lesson. He came to proclaim God's love for us, He provided a way of salvation for us, He died that we might live, he overcame the grave to show forth God's sovereignty, because He lives we live."
We must be students to understand the message. Jesus says in so many words, friend who appointed me to judge. This is not something we generally think of Jesus saying. We seek in the church order, power, comfort and so many other things. We find in Jesus a man with a very simple message that no one wants to hear.
Certainly in the context of the holy land and that biblical time there are nuances in the use of language and people of different times and places might not understand every detail. I think to answer the question Jesus asks with the simplest answer there is: me.
This for me puts me there. I have my reaction and context to this scripture. I think as well, I will say to my soul. There was a rich man who did not see the connection of the fertile and productive land to God. Hoarding made his relationship to God not rich. Here we find the futility of greed in the end. The man said to his soul, "Soul, you have many good things stored."
Regardless of the context the truth is that most people do not want to hear the message. All the things we prepare. Always be prepared was one of the first things I was taught. Life always brought conflicting messages. These words we must put meaning to. Before you have read them they could say anything. Faith isn't about what people tell you but what they show you.
I often quote my grandfather here in the pulpit. I have preached a number of his sermons, but I have never said much about him. The sermons he wrote which I have mostly from the 1960s capture a time and place I am glad to find him.
When I think of Bill Morgan leads me to think of the Road Runner. Leads me to think of that coyote chasing that road runner. You remember if your my age and probably seen if your younger those cartoons. All those packages from ACME. See back then when they made those cartoons there was a company National ACME who were the miracle workers of those days and they were based right here in Cleveland.
Those packages came from them because it resonated. Back in those cartoons there wasn't much reality. When we run off a cliff it doesn't really matter if we notice; we fall anyways. But everything has some reality involved. And in those cartoons there was just a touch of reality in the name stamped on all those packages.
When Wiley Coyote called in his order; it was to the experimental department at ACME if you ever saw the cartoon you will agree. Who would answer the phone when he called in those crazy contraptions? It was my grandfather he would talk to; he was the manager of the experimental division and the lead engineer. He was one of a kind: everyone else was one or the other; you had management, engineers and Bill Morgan. There was only one mistake coyote made: he should have just told him he wanted to catch a roadrunner. But he never did.
He called and asked for the rocket propelled skates and they were dutifully delivered. Most people know the rest; it never worked to catch a roadrunner. But they always worked as designed.
This Bill Morgan had his greatest impact on turning compressed air into functional work. There hasn't been a factory on the planet in the last fifty years not impacted by his work. He never made billions, because to him it was just his work. He took his pension and twenty years spent his golden years in the bosom of his family and his church.
Some people make and some people take. My family has great riches so vast as to be uncountable. Everything he did he did on his terms which were God's terms. The innovations he brought into the world continue to pay rich dividends.
Sometime History and the world bring everything to your door step. Sometimes you simply make the world a better place and move on. Not because your better, but because you value thing differently. You don't need to crush the competition to do good. You just go home at the end of the day and do good.
It takes all kinds I am sure, but some are more replaceable then others. I see these billionaires smiling as they swim through my history. I smile because they are only people and it is only money. I value things differently; that is my wealth.
Is Warren Buffet the smartest man alive; if he failed tomorrow you wouldn't think so. Yet we are at a point were most believe this to be true. Whatever he does is perceived to be ahead of others. Why is this? Because that is what is perceived.
At the end of the day we need to count and be counted for our own reasons. The world doesn't need saving we do. There is only one truth and no man has a patent on it. What does anyone need a billion dollar for? It not a question; they don't need it.
You say they create wealth, OK but don't they stifle something? Doesn't really matter because there is only one truth. Can you hear the air compressors across this planet? Shh, bshht, drshh, gooosh. What you gonna replace them with? I'm sure they'll figure something out and it will probably be created by a man like Bill Morgan.
My grandfather made a billion positive impacts on the world around him. He was on the cover of trade magazines. National ACME in the end was too slow to remain the miracle workers they once certainly were. It is a great loss, but we have not seen the end of their impact.
the next part of Luke continues:
22 Jesus said to His disciples, “For this reason I tell you, do not worry about your life, as to what you will eat; or about your body, as to what you will wear. 23 For life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. 24 Consider the ravens, for they neither sow [seed] nor reap [the crop]; they have no storehouse or barn, and yet God feeds them. How much more valuable are you than the birds! 25 And which of you by worrying can add one hour to his life’s span? 26 So if you are not even able to do a very little thing [such as that], why are you worried about the rest? 27 Consider the lilies and wildflowers, how they grow [in the open field]. They neither labor nor spin [wool to make clothing]; yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his glory and splendor dressed himself like one of these. 28 But if this is how God clothes the grass which is in the field today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, how much more will He clothe you? You of little faith! 29 So as for you, do not seek what you will eat and what you will drink; nor have an anxious and unsettled mind. 30 For all the [pagan] nations of the world greedily seek these things; and your [heavenly] Father [already] knows that you need them.31 But [strive for and actively] seek His kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well. 32 Do not be afraid and anxious, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
As we step back from the scripture new things appear. We find even the rich man who hoards and tears down his small barns to hoard even more, God speaks to him, You Fool! Now who will own all the things you have prepared.
Jesus is teaching us. Jesus asks who appointed me over you. And tells a story of God asking a man who will own all the things he has prepared. We learn quite clearly it is your fathers good pleasure.
What should people do who have so much that they need to build new storehouses?
Commentary, Luke 12:13-21, Elisabeth Johnson, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2013.
"The rich farmer is a fool not because he is wealthy or because he saves for the future, but because he appears to live only for himself, and because he believes that he can secure his life with his abundant possessions."
I wouldn't argue against that, but at the same time it isn't the movie I see.
Trapped by Trappings," Christopher Burkett, Preacher Rhetorica, 2013.
"The rich farmer made the mistake of believing that he really possessed his great wealth – stuff love – although Jesus said that the reality was that it possessed him."
Here I find something closer to my heart. The diversity of opinion like the biodiversity of the rain forest.
Celebrate continually we can all point a finger at. This is the amplified translation "be merry (celebrate continually)." If nothing else we know it is impossible to celebrate continually. This fool spent so much time gathering things so he would not have to gather. We find him alone in the parable with God. And his ambition to celebrate what he has done continually. Would it matter if his soul was required in seven years or seven days or seven hours. Do all people who hoard and are greedy are their souls always required of them so fast. Clearly this doesn't seem to be the case in our context.
We gather and plan and wonder why we find difficulty. We are in contradiction most of our waking hours.
So it is for the one who continues to store up and hoard possessions for himself, and is not rich [in his relationship] toward God.”
If you are able to trust you will find no reason to worry.
We find it hard to trust and even harder not to worry. We must plan right? Not according to God. God plans who will own all that we prepare. Will you appoint Jesus today? Tomorrow? Everyday?
Let us pray......
Our dear Heavenly Father--- Father of all creation, whose being is from the beginning of time, speak to us. Raise us above the storms of our generation and above the barriers with which we seek to surround ourselves. Fill us with the love and understanding that embraces all people and is not bound by nation, race, or creed. Forgive us our little goals and narrow visions. Lead us to dedicate ourselves to the work of thy kingdom. Make us willing to be disciples of Jesus Christ. Though our minds cannot fully grasp His Call to us give us the will to follow Him, accepting Him as the Savior of man and the hope of the world.
Amen......
Nottingham 8/4/2019
Friday, August 2, 2019
I am not my brain
The brain is a funny organ
Not the only one that thinks it is not
The most complex thing we have found in the universe
So often it does things for the simplest of reasons
A contrast contentious categorical
Not the only one that thinks it is not
The most complex thing we have found in the universe
So often it does things for the simplest of reasons
A contrast contentious categorical
Monday, July 29, 2019
Four
Some things are away written
I never had a lucky number
This one the first I remember being given
Eight or nine I played second base
I like four
Outward
We appear to each other with little mystery
What does quiet time mean when your neighbors are deaf
Most of what we do and self evident only because we did it
We don't seek reasons to act
A bright light to me and rather loud
They can not talk any other way
Perhaps flashlight but not so really
You need to get each other's attention randomly
Around a camp not so quiet time
One group an old country road please go to West Virginia
Another of sweet home Alabama 5000 campers or just him
Friday, June 7, 2019
America and the Methodist
As we celebrated the birthday of our country we find many reasons to be proud. Our outsized impact on the last century is no better remembered them the 75 anniversary of D day recently celebrated. We find ourselves entangled when we study the history of our country. Intertwined is the history of our denomination.
The first thing we need to understand that methodism is not a church. Methodism is a movement. The founders would not recognize the top down oriented United Methodist Church. This movement was a flame across the entire British empire. Burning bright at times it traveled at the speed of people. In our connected modern world we find it hard to imagine news traveling at such a liesurly pace.
The flame reached Euclid, Ohio by 1821 we had formed our class. Gathered as always by the Methodist movement the people the church of England left behind. The people no one thought of gathered themselves and started thinking for themselves.
Here we are where I often find myself watching a movement become an institution. We almost envy Sisyphus his clear task. What gave Nottingham it's greatest strength was the spirit brought from people outside of every institution. The people left behind.
Unlike the wealthy and powerful Sadducees, the Pharisees rejected the luxuries of Greco-Roman culture and refused to swear loyalty to Herod the great and the Romans. They sought to protect Israel's identity. They were waiting for a messiah just not one that welcomed the unclean and sinner. In being so proud of what they didn't do. They failed to do the one thing that would set them free. The institution crumbled and is remembered for being too rigid and by most as evil. They didn't have a good memory and lost their way. They didn't recognize those people left behind. They saw only fault in them.
We will always have the poor is not actually an order. It is a reminder I think now. When things are at their worst there are still people with you. Never too late and in so many ways easier to call on the power of our Lord. Oppression creates community and struggle new faith.
When things are going well sometimes no news is good news with the Lord. Often when things go well we forget the poor are there. They become a distant thing. First we must discuss what is a class.
What we know of as Nottingham began with a small number of people. They were most likely not involved in the formal church. This was a provence that an old movement had arrived begun back in days of empire. Looking back one hundred years we see the development of methodism.
The class meeting made sure that every Methodist was connected to every other methodists so no one was over looked, left out, or ignored. Rev Kevin Watson notes, "they relentlessly focused every Methodist on the current state of their relationship with God. And they connected people to others who were at different stages of Christian Life."
John Wesley believed we should do no harm and avoid evil of every kind. Do go to all the people and attend the ordinances of God like participating in worship, taking communion, reading the Bible and more.
People saw that their formal church of England wasn't working for everybody. They rightly reasoned that if they didn't do something no one would. They first came to this continent with a zeal to convert the native inhabitants. So much success rippled out that eventually it would trickle down Euclid Creek and our family founded by outsiders left behind by every institution.
As the new country grew so did the church finally building buildings and embracing institution. With institution comes compromise. We had a one church plan then too. The movement clearly saw the the unique evil of American slavery but compromised and let each conference go their own way.
If the United Methodist institution had any institutional memory it would have marketed the one church plan as the traditional plan. It is with lack of institutional memory that we had the traditional plan proposed to deal with same sex marriage fighting against the really traditional one church plan.
That house divided could not stand either. Our civil war was as much in our denomination as our country.
The real traditional plan of institutional methodists. The answer to growth compromise. What institutions do till they can't no more. We tried everything we could to not deal with reality till we had a civil war. It solved fewer problems than it created but it answered that one.
It is weakness that created great strength. The times the church was strongest the community was strongest. Jobs and money to be made where ever you looked. A strong institution sent help and money out of the community. The cups were full and the saucers as well.
There was an empire stage of our church history. We this benevolent institution. There are still people around who remember and long for this period. The funny thing is this was the least Methodist our church ever was in my mind. We were the grand institution full pews with no more room at the inn. And strangers new that.
People are people so many things were the same. People studied the Bible. There is always cake. Good times breed complacency. We lived off those good times for many years. A whole generation of people in nursing homes sent tithes to our church. Every year a few less. Times got harder. Fortune 500 companies left this neighborhood don't forget. The freeway ripped the heart out of the neighborhood. Those companies leaving marking the end of empire.
Well as Jesus noted we always have the poor. This other parallel with America.
"Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore, Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
I remember my grandfather's words:
Our experience of life may seem to us to be of a personal and private character. But they are more than that, they are a passkey into the lives of others... Life has not been easy for any of us. Yet we are here alive, in securtiy, and as the world goes, in great comfort. Our happy circumstances might prompt us to be content with pitying the rest of the world. But that temper that thought will never get us far. There is in our humanity some proper pride, some deep-rooted self-respect which prompts the comeback, "I don't want your pity. I prefer to do without it."
These words of my grandfather's from 1965 echo many things to me. Surely you can hear the whispers of institution. There is no great evil in them, but there is no where to go. Don't be surprised my friends when they start to crumble. They are easy to create. We just speak them in to existence, Space Force for example.
There is a cosmic cycle it is clear. Why do you suppose God made the universe so large? Even the Earth is itself a big enough universe for me, but out there being what you would expect there are resources and energies we have not truly come to understand.
We are creatures of experience. We build great things. From the tower at Babel to the machines leaving our solar system. We destroy great things. We have filled every inch of this planet with plastic.
I wonder in such a universe as ours why intelligent life doesn't blossom all around. Perhaps every time these really smart creature discover plastic and love it so much they poison their only home. I do not know that we have poisoned our planet to the point of no return but we sure seem to be trying.
What is evil in this world is short term. This my faith brings me. There isn't really any debate about the new covenant as I like to say, in some cases it is just being written. In the long run Jesus reminds us we will always have the poor. There will always be work. There will always be institutions that need destroyed and built.
What I would like to ask here now is that we need to have long term memories in our institutions. This is transparency at its very nature. We certainly are not to blame. There has never been a human institution with a memory. So I work where I am able and know why we seek the kingdom of God and the book of Life.
Methodism was created with the understanding that institutions would never be the answer, as John Wesley Prophesied, "I am not afraid that the people called methodists should ever cease to exist... But I am afraid lest they should only exist as a dead sect, having the form of religion without the power. And this undoubtedly will be the case unless they hold fast both the doctrine, spirit, and discipline with which they first set out.
In closing, I would argue this real worry would only be possible in an institution build by guess who. Humans. This may be the fatal flaw in our hearts. I have encountered no greater problems in my half century.
And here we are with Jesus as our institutions crumble because that is what they do. We have the poor, all those left behind. We can keep them up and we will be caught up. We will build great institutions to crumble and be replaced until that day our dear Lord takes us home.
I would like to offer a prayer that umcor asked us to share last week in solidarity with migrant children. Since I was commissioned in this church many years ago to work with them, and while they have little memory they have good people. Let us remember we are all God's children.
Let us pray,
God of All Children Everywhere,
Our hearts are bruised when we see children suffering alone.
Our hearts are torn when we are unable to help.
Our hearts are broken when we have some complicity in the matter.
For all the times we were too busy and shooed a curious child away,
forgive us, oh God.
For all the times we failed to get down on their level and look eye to eye with a child,
forgive us, oh God.
For all the times we did not share when we saw a hungry child somewhere in the world,
forgive us, oh God.
For all the times we thought about calling elected officials to demand change, but did not,
forgive us, oh God.
For all the times we thought that caring for the children of this world was someone else’s
responsibility, forgive us, oh God.
With Your grace, heal our hearts.
With Your grace, unite us in action.
With Your grace, repair our government.
With Your grace, help us to find a way to welcome all children everywhere,
That they may know that Jesus loves them,
Not just because “the Bible tells them so,”
But because they have known Your love in real and tangible ways,
And they know that nothing, absolutely nothing, can separate them from Your love.
Amen.
Nottingham 7/7/2019
Thursday, May 30, 2019
Four
I divide my time in many ways
Some are vital to me or so they appear
There are some that have nothing
They are mostly me
What I am off no importance
Four this month
Seems now a worthy goal complete
Friday, May 24, 2019
The Best Thing
There is more than we can do
There are things before
Long ago something changed
There is more the same about us than different
Being alive is the best thing longer the better
When you fulfill your primary function life gets easier
Nice way to say old
Nothing imperative your own
Everything you were to become
Younger you would not believe where you are going
Everything seems so important but you have this need
This need to do
We come to our mortality once
Or morality comes to us
We arrive and observe
Then we must do
You only really have one relationship
You know who it is with
When we love specific people hard enough
New ones arrive
We come to our friends
Or family comes to us
They arrive and teach
They seemed to know
You can feel your biology
Our number of senses has none
They can't be counted
As we look closer we find more
We can imagine looking closer than we can
Part of you knows the alignment of the Earth's magnetic core
I didn't like everyone at school
Some people seemed strange
I liked all my cousins
My kind of strange
Not so unusual
If we were architecture there would be one school
Wednesday, May 22, 2019
Two Things
With our world full of miracles
We teach that love is the best thing
We do this to sell things
The second thing we teach is you are not worth love
They are not evil
They seem to think we will not buy
Love is measured
Most things are not
Friday, May 3, 2019
Solar System Super Predator
Meteorology isn't a science. We have this idea that we will understand the weather here better. We will have more processing capacity. This idea that societies would try to control the weather. These whispers of a future in stages.
The more I learn of our world the more I wonder if we have not abandoned the call of the wild. A nasty super predator. Your typical hunt in nature fails. Your typical hunt targets the easy. Ours never fail and we target the hard.
We seem to be in a clumsy phase with this nature that seems so unnatural. Why did the super predator take to space travel? There seems a road forward with this nature. Why would we control the weather on Earth?
The super rich seem to already know and are headed off planet. If we could leave our home to that natural balance we know can be so much more productive. Let's go pollute Venus. Dig new homes in Mars. Chart the seas of Europa and IO. Ski Pluto. Target the hard. Our hunts always succeed. We should do it together.
Leave our Earth to those species that dream of the easy. We won't need automation there. Those regular old predators will create abundance we only have evidence of in the past. Imagine the ecological value a Earth with a limited amount of human tourists.
There are many solar systems and planets. In a sense the universe still revolving around Earth; the best place we know. Long term vision doesn't solve many problems today. I feel better. A super predator on one planet is confounding. A solar system super predator would be something to see. About productivity. About time.
Wednesday, April 24, 2019
Twenty Years Ago
If you have a daughter you learn many things
You learn first how they really want to live
You can sing whenever you want
People with daughters can sing to them
Things got broken in new ways
Life found clear meaning
No one was sleeping if someone wasn't sleeping
Couldn't just leave a mess anymore
Things got created in new ways
My love started walking around
Something more than me
Becoming something new everyday
Twenty years ago
Sunday, April 21, 2019
What I Sea
No one looks at this process
All around we see them
Water cycles to the sea
We mostly wet
We are these processes
We have end results
All would seem with reason
No one finds an end
God knows evolution easy
We will know more and less
Would rather balloon in Venus than farm on Mars
Words make good music and turn sounds
Poetry will lie
Will make things seem simple
Like they can be separated
Sunday, March 31, 2019
The Rainbow and the Methodist
There was only ever one rule I ever learned in church. Do all the good you can. By all the means you can. In all the ways you can. In all the places you can. At all the times you can. To all the people you can. As long as you can.
I first worked for the global board in Bosnia in 1995. The Methodist Church was a global creation. We didn't really have an agenda. We did what we got money for. In many ways we were implementing United States foreign policy initiatives. You would think that would be something consistent. You would be wrong. I've seen funding priorities change faster than the wind. Real successful initiatives and useless ones would both be abandoned.
International development is a good gig, but the truth is a program that helps 10,000 people and one that helps 10 people looks pretty much the same on paper. They will cost about the same. Things are hard to change because of inertia.
Things just happen. We call the Magary Hungarians, because they were fierce warriors and reminded people of the Huns. Inertia, we call the country Hungary due to inertia. Large operations we described now as too big to fail. They have inertia really. Big companies and big non profit. In each people go home with their pay.
Good things can be problems too. Our families and friends; our loved ones we want to help. We get wide elbows. When I was working for the global board I learned about upscaling. Taking a small good idea and making it a large good idea. It is what we can't do. What no one has done. Why our institutions lose their connection with our humanity.
I came to Bosnia as the eleventh employee. We were a family and we did remarkable work. We got more money. We hired 100 more people and we were a mess.
We got the first million dollar grant for the global board. We were given outsized responsibility. What attracted increased funding is exactly what we could not reproduce in our upscaling. I was young at the time. I was surprised it was such an intractable problem. I thought once you identified the problem you were on the road to fixing things.
I've always been optimistic. In fifth grade in Euclid schools they told me about mistakes of the past and how they would be fixed by bussing kids to our school the next year. It made sense. But it took me a long time to learn that is not how things work.
We know women make less then men. You ask me that is a problem. Nobody has the first idea to address the issue. People are better at identifying than fixing. So people talk of a crisis in the Methodist Church.
People talk about the growth of the church. People talk as if upscaling is easy. I'm not really surprised it took me so long to learn this lesson. We had a little good thing and it seemed growth is the point of little good things. Babies become parents. Seeds become trees. We want to share.
We take it as a point of pride that the Methodist Church has grown into a global body. We see quantity before quality. Quantity is easy to see and be proud. In Bosnia we gave people cement mix without sand and gravel just because one of the new 100 hires didn't know you needed sand and gravel to make cement. A friend of mine asked a question and he was fired. No one cared about that error. There were no consequences beyond our beneficiaries somehow managing to get sand and gravel on their own. We gave them a big bunch of help. We would have given them sand and gravel if it wasn't for that one human error. I mean a plane didn't crash so no one except those of us who did it will ever know. It was also the kind of mistakes that the earlier smaller organization would not have made. Or at the least we would have fixed easily working on a smaller scale. We had ordered and delivered on a whole new scale. There was no fixing this error or recognition even.
I start to wonder if methodism has not also reached this point where classical economics calls diminishing returns.
I don't really wish to debate the issues of this crisis of methodism. The decision was wrong. If you don't agree I would be happy to show you your error.
What I really want to point out is that the current situation is a symptom of the old problem of upscaling. How do you take a small good idea and make it a large good idea? We don't have the answer but we can quantify diminishing returns.
Again I interchange terms. If you are not familiar with diminishing returns it is easy enough to image. So say you have a nice factory with four machines and you manufacture widgets. It would seem reasonable to think that if you had eight machines you would make twice as much money. For a short time this may hold true, but things get more complicated and involve more people and things get messy and we see as we add more capacity we might actually start to decrease profits. This is diminishing returns. In many instances adding capacity to our institutions can actually reduce their impact
Inertia is also easy enough to describe. I worked ten years with another larger organization Catholic charities. They do some good work. They get large grants. When they have problems every once in awhile funders have second thoughts about giving them money, but the question becomes who will they give the money to. Funders see that Catholic charities is flawed, but it is up and running. The funders almost need Catholic charities more. Inertia. Things in motion tend to stay in motion. Things at rest, like new innovative projects, tend to stay at rest.
So I wonder here why we don't think about these things in our connectional church. Why does everyone assume it would be better if there are more methodists. This is contrary to everything we know.
We seem to agree to blame the church outside America. I find it a bit strange that methodists would say they don't want to be lectured by Americans. In my experience the Methodist Church had used it's connection to America to inspire people around the world to be Methodist. If there is a country our global board has more of a presence in then America I am unaware of it. In the Balkans I've seen the connection with America inspire Methodist Churches to form. In our own district we have a project in Liberia because we have a Liberian pastor working here. Things come down to people. I'm not aware of any out reach by the methodists from other countries into ours.
To say methodism doesn't have a special relationship with America is strange. We need a market place for ideas. Why would backward ideas not be fought.
My grandfather's words come to me,
"How often too we write false thinking into custom, what a tyrant habit can become. When people do the same thing long enough it becomes tradition, and we pass it on from father to son as an accepted rule of life. Behind us are generations in which men held certain notions and followed certain behavior patterns, and walked so long in the same crooked paths that they inspired us to walk in those crooked paths, too, until now we have not only our own sin to conquer, but the sins of our ancestors as well. Call it heredity, call it race memory, call it original sin, call it anything you like it is there. Some one has said that every man is an omnibus in which all his ancestors are riding. This is why so many of our notions are false out dated and wrong."
The first time I read those words I loved the idea of an omnibus in which all my ancestors are riding. Reminds me of our church and the completed circle here behind me. But it wasn't meant to be so nice. Our ancestors are why we are here and they are amazing, but they are also why we are wrong. Why bussing didn't solve anything in Euclid. Why women will make less money next week still.
He also wrote:
"What we have in Christianity is not a new philosophy about human suffering, nor an explanation for its mystery, but rather a way of facing it to make it productive and to turn it's tyranny into a ministry. Jesus was not spared pain---neither did he avoid it, instead He spoke through His pain to tell us that God suffered too--that he enters into our lives when it is darkest. He is telling us not merely to endure pain, but to use it, to make it an instrument of redemption."
What did you expect Dad? I guess I didn't think they would turn a ministry into a tyranny. I spoke to my daughter about this new crisis in methodism. She said, "what did you expect Dad!" I've always been optimistic I guess. But her words rung true to me. Given inertia. Given dimishing returns. Giving everyone's belief in growth. Crisis is what I expect.
Growth at all costs seems to be the goal. It seems strange for your church to share a goal with cancer.
The rainbow we find in Genesis 9
8 Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying, 9 “Now behold, I am establishing My covenant with you and with your descendants after you 10 and with every living creature that is with you—the birds, the livestock, and the wild animals of the earth along with you, of everything that comes out of the ark—every living creature of the earth. 11 I will establish My covenant with you: Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the water of a flood, nor shall there ever again be a flood to destroy and ruin the earth.” 12 And God said, “This is the token of the [solemn] covenant which I am making between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations; 13 I set My rainbow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth. 14 It shall come about, when I bring clouds over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the clouds, 15 and I will [compassionately] remember My covenant, which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and never again will the water become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16 When the rainbow is in the clouds and I look at it, I will [solemnly] remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” 17 And God said to Noah, “This [rainbow] is the sign of the covenant (solemn pledge, binding agreement) which I have established between Me and all flesh upon the Earth."
And we find the rainbow in this crisis of the Methodist Church. Love is love. Never have I ever cared what a pastor of Nottingham did in their bedroom. Never occurred to wonder let alone call a world gathering. Well, a parts of the world gathering.
What did I expect? I used to think things got better. I learned everything could be worse. There is no easy way to learn that. You know what I cared about? People who cared about me. There is no secret to us. We are social. It does take all kinds. Life is a package deal.
Why do you suppose God made this covenant with Noah? We each have to find our own reasons.
We find in Genesis 6
5 The Lord saw that the wickedness (depravity) of man was great on the earth, and that every imagination or intent of the thoughts of his heart were only evil continually. 6 The Lord [c]regretted that He had made mankind on the earth, and He was [deeply] grieved in His heart. 7 So the Lord said, “I will destroy (annihilate) mankind whom I have created from the surface of the earth—not only man, but the animals and the crawling things and the birds of the air—because it [deeply] grieves Me [to see mankind’s sin] and I regret that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favor and grace in the eyes of the Lord.
God almost gave up on us. This rainbow symbolism is what I want to finish talking about here with you. I might have to debate the points of the crisis. For me this sanctuary is for all with no qualifications. There are no tests here beyond what God gives you. May not be the best way to run an organization but that is not for today. It's why we aren't an organization. We been a church for two hundred years. I'm not a big fan of organized religion, why I love my church.
It is the connections the rainbow brings. Bringing different groups together. Why we are a connectional church. You need everybody in a revolution. It is what makes them work. When the coal miners stop digging regimes change. The new covenant was never voted on. There were no committees or expense reports.
In Hebrews we find it quoted
I will imprint My laws upon their minds [even upon their innermost thoughts and understanding],
And engrave them upon their hearts [effecting their regeneration].
And I will be their God,
And they shall be My people.
11
“And it will not be [necessary] for each one to teach his fellow citizen,
Or each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’
For all will know [Me by experience and have knowledge of] Me,
From the least to the greatest of them.
12
“For I will be merciful and gracious toward their wickedness,
And I will remember their sins no more.”
When I tried to explain methodism to a friend in Bosnia it was difficult. He kept asking what the rules were and what happened if you broke them. I told him as far as I could tell there really weren't many rules. And anyways if you did break them people would forgive you and pray for you. We went in circles like that.
I was asked by an American once if I was prostalytyzing, I said I didn't think I was. I certainly didn't want to make methodists. I was a witness and I tried to behave and be helpful. I could have started a Methodist church while I was there I guess. Didn't seem like the thing to do.
The point to me is we don't need global growth in the Methodist Church for any real reason. If a majority of methodists in the country with the most methodists think one way then a lecture it should be.
We need to worry about people who worry about us. We find ourselves along spectrums. In many ways too many people are spoiled and too many are neglected We need to do what we can for those with less. We need to build community not denomination.
Let us pray:
WondrousGod
By Rev. Ann B. Day
Originally published in Shaping Sanctuary
Wondrous God, lover of lion and lizard, cedar and cactus, raindrop and river, we praise You for the splendor of the world! We thank You, that woven throughout the tapestry of earth are the varied threads of human diversity. Created in Your image, we are of many colors and cultures, ages and classes, gender and sexual identities. Different and alike, we are Your beloved people. Free us, we pray, from fears of difference that divide and wound us. Move us to dismantle our attitudes and systems of prejudice. Renew our commitment to make this a household of faith for all people - gay, bisexual, lesbian, transgender, and straight - that all who worship and minister here may know the grace and challenge of faith. In our life together, grant us minds and hearts eager to learn, reluctant to judge, and responsive to the leading of Your loving Spirit. We ask in Christ's name, Amen.
Nottingham 4.7.2019