Reflections – Page 360 – Unfolding Light

I am a man

In the Sanitation Workers’ Strike of 1968 in Memphis, the African American demonstrators carried placards that read simply, “I am a man.” It seems obvious— but it was news to the city: that they were human beings worthy of respect. Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream that we celebrate today is the heart of both social justice and contemplative presence: the commitment to see others as people rather than as symbols or roles or projections of our own feelings.

Today you will encounter people who may be far away, or very different from you, your political opposite, or someone with a history of annoying or offending you. You will be temped to judge, categorize, or dehumanize them. Resist the temptation. Stay present. See them. Allow them to be real, whole people. Beneath their strangeness, politics, or annoying behavior, there is a heart with hurts and hopes, equal to yours and close to you. You are one in the Beloved. Love them. Even if they are your enemy, love them. More than all the political and economic reform in the world, seeing people as people and loving your enemies is the one thing that will actually change everything.

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Outsiders

Dearly Beloved,

Grace and Peace to you.

Jesus said, “There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.” When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way. — Luke 4. 27-30

When Jesus preached his message of the universal inclusiveness of God’s love—that God would heal a pagan foreigner—those who wanted “insiders” and “outsiders” were threatened. So those who moments before had approved of Jesus as one of their own quickly made him into an outsider.

We all need to feel that we Belong and that the Universe approves of us. And it’s natural (original, actually: original sin) to believe that there’s a reason for that, not just God’s grace. It’s hard not to suppose there’s something about us that makes us more worthy than others. Of course someone who seems less worthy messes up our system and threatens our security. So we compare. We don’t just judge and oppose those who threaten our sense of belonging and approval, we also want to get them out of our way: to eliminate them. Slamming the door on someone, cutting off a relationship, executing someone, genocide—they all come from the same spirit.

We all have a different set of people that we want to drive out of town: gays or gay-bashers, terrorists or corrupt CEOs, the people who annoy or offend us. But the impulse is the same. As we resist evil and injustice the real challenge is to stay in relationship with the people we want to eliminate. To bless those who curse us, and pray for those who abuse us. This doesn’t mean staying in an abusive relationship. But it does mean staying in the human family, and letting others, even the demon-possessed, stay here, too. There is always Christ in the ones we want to reject. And he always slips through the midst of us and goes on his way.

As Jesus points out, it’s the outsiders God blesses first.

Deep Blessings, Pastor Steve

Baptism

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.

When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”
— Luke 3.21-22

Out of the desert, the chapped land, the scrub and scumble,
you come to a calm river, deep and green,
where the Beloved invites you in. You enter the water,
and you are immersed in this Presence
that holds every inch of your body.
You and the Beloved are inside each other.
A voice says, “I love you. I am with you. You are mine.”

You rise from the water, but it clings to you.
You drip with it all day long, soaked in the presence,
immersed in the promise: “I love you. I am with you.
You are mine.”

This is all you need to know, all you need to believe.
When you are in danger, or alone,
when another is in danger, or alone, let this guide you.
All doctrine, all goodness, all justice, all righteousness
flow from this fountain, flow to this sea.

When you drink, or bathe, when you cross the river,
when you weep or walk through rain, remember.
Even now as you read this, you are suspended
in deep, green, life-giving water. Held. Blessed.
A dove lights on your shoulder.

Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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Copyright (c) 2010
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
unfoldinglight (at)hotmail.com