Tuesday in Lent 1
I am not feeling very superior but a little off kilter. I was fine with the Pope's resignation though I did not envy the nuns he is moving out of the Vatican. The care of a former power broker seems seldom easy. Yesterday I read a posting I do so hope is incorrect about allegations of sexual misconduct with a minor from his past. I grew sad. I later did discover the post i read was filled with erronious information.
Then I read Deuteronomy 9:4 this morning: "...When the LORD your God thrusts them (those who occupy the Promise Land) out before you, do not say to yourself, "It is because of my righteousness that the LORD has brought me in to occupy this land"; it is rather because of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD is dispossessing them before you."
It reminded me that where there is little I can do to effect another's past, I do well to pay attention to my past and present. As Moses prepares the people to enter into the land of promise, he does so by having them recall God's ethical guides, retrace their history, collect a correct memory, and adjust their judgement of the future.
My correct memory is that I have never been without sin. Some of my past struggles with moral integrity were an absolute flop. Yet when I look over my shoulder I am ever grateful to God and to those who seek God who have guided me. There were even times I was so close to the new energy of God's love that I could have mistaken a holy person's care who guided me for personal affection and he or she held the boundaries that kept me safe. I have looked back and blessed them largely because in those early raw moments I had no idea I was close to this delicate crossover. I have offered the same safety to others. God's grace was really what helped me be wise and I suspect others to be wise as well in these moments. I suspect we first know God's love, name the care of God which reaches deep into our being because it is designed into us.
In John chapter 2 Jesus clears or cleanses the Temple. No one gets it really. The selling and buying was the ordinary life of the Temple. He draws an illusion to rebuilding the Temple in 3 days if it is torn down. While we are told he is referring to his body, they think building. Only later after his resurrection do his followers remember back and make the connection to his rising from the dead (correct memory?).
Just the same Temples often need cleansing, be they structures, or method of organizing religious life, or our bodies. Maybe this Lent as the issues of Rome play out, God will breath grace into that very protected male club of authority and shake them into more than cover up, into reform and renewal. As their laundry is aired in the world court, perhaps humility and right reflection will over power them and God's ever creative energy will bring repentance and reform. Let us hope so. The sad history of how they and we have dealt with sexual abuse in chuches and in families are often the same. Thank God we are now in a time where we get past shame to action, where we name abuse rather than feel we have the right to hide it.
But truth be told what is most important for me is that I too live in right memory, correct my ego when it thinks I have got me the blessings of my life. Perhaps what I need to remember is that whatever prosperity or blessings I have are not just mine, are not merely of my own creation, but collected gifts meant for some greater good, God's good. It is how I use them to the benefit of self and others that is the arena of my moral life. This is the promise land of hope and prosperity. This is a small temple called my/our lives and the question is how do I want God to choose to dwell here. Oh and also how God wants me to dwell there.
I am not feeling very superior but a little off kilter. I was fine with the Pope's resignation though I did not envy the nuns he is moving out of the Vatican. The care of a former power broker seems seldom easy. Yesterday I read a posting I do so hope is incorrect about allegations of sexual misconduct with a minor from his past. I grew sad. I later did discover the post i read was filled with erronious information.
Then I read Deuteronomy 9:4 this morning: "...When the LORD your God thrusts them (those who occupy the Promise Land) out before you, do not say to yourself, "It is because of my righteousness that the LORD has brought me in to occupy this land"; it is rather because of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD is dispossessing them before you."
It reminded me that where there is little I can do to effect another's past, I do well to pay attention to my past and present. As Moses prepares the people to enter into the land of promise, he does so by having them recall God's ethical guides, retrace their history, collect a correct memory, and adjust their judgement of the future.
My correct memory is that I have never been without sin. Some of my past struggles with moral integrity were an absolute flop. Yet when I look over my shoulder I am ever grateful to God and to those who seek God who have guided me. There were even times I was so close to the new energy of God's love that I could have mistaken a holy person's care who guided me for personal affection and he or she held the boundaries that kept me safe. I have looked back and blessed them largely because in those early raw moments I had no idea I was close to this delicate crossover. I have offered the same safety to others. God's grace was really what helped me be wise and I suspect others to be wise as well in these moments. I suspect we first know God's love, name the care of God which reaches deep into our being because it is designed into us.
In John chapter 2 Jesus clears or cleanses the Temple. No one gets it really. The selling and buying was the ordinary life of the Temple. He draws an illusion to rebuilding the Temple in 3 days if it is torn down. While we are told he is referring to his body, they think building. Only later after his resurrection do his followers remember back and make the connection to his rising from the dead (correct memory?).
Just the same Temples often need cleansing, be they structures, or method of organizing religious life, or our bodies. Maybe this Lent as the issues of Rome play out, God will breath grace into that very protected male club of authority and shake them into more than cover up, into reform and renewal. As their laundry is aired in the world court, perhaps humility and right reflection will over power them and God's ever creative energy will bring repentance and reform. Let us hope so. The sad history of how they and we have dealt with sexual abuse in chuches and in families are often the same. Thank God we are now in a time where we get past shame to action, where we name abuse rather than feel we have the right to hide it.
But truth be told what is most important for me is that I too live in right memory, correct my ego when it thinks I have got me the blessings of my life. Perhaps what I need to remember is that whatever prosperity or blessings I have are not just mine, are not merely of my own creation, but collected gifts meant for some greater good, God's good. It is how I use them to the benefit of self and others that is the arena of my moral life. This is the promise land of hope and prosperity. This is a small temple called my/our lives and the question is how do I want God to choose to dwell here. Oh and also how God wants me to dwell there.
