Ralph Milton's Rumors

Ralph Milton's E-zine for people of faith with a sense of humor

March 11, 2007

TO DREAM THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAM

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Motto:
"A merry heart doeth good, like a medicine, but a broken spirit drieth the bones." (Proverbs 17:22 KJV)
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We are in the season of Lent. Popular, on-the-street theology says that during Lent you have to do something that will make you feel miserable. What could give you a better, full-blown case of the guilts than subscribing your friends to Rumors?
Misery loves company.

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Next Week's Readings - identifying with God
Rumors - ministry of reconciliation
Soft Edges - between sleeping and waking
Good Stuff - spring morning
We Get Letters - dharmaceuticals
Mirabile Dictu! - no place to go
Bottom of the Barrel - meals on wheels
Stuff - (read this only if you would like to subscribe, unsubscribe or are wondering about permissions. That sort of boring stuff.)

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Rib Tickler - This from Stephani Keer: A friend of mine, a pastor, had to go down to the place where we met on Sundays to pick up some equipment. Unfortunately, the area was not the most, ummm, salubrious.
A young woman, wearing rather little clothing, asked my friend if he would give her a ride to a bus stop because it was so cold. He opened the door and she got in.
Trying to make a bit of conversation, he asked, "Are you going to work?"
"No," said the young woman. "I'm just getting off work."
"And where do you work?" asked the pastor.
"I'm a hooker," she said. "Do you want me to get out?"
"I'm a pastor," my friend replied. "Do you want to get out?"
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Next Week's Readings - These are the readings you will probably hear in church this coming Sunday, March 18th, which is the fourth Sunday of Lent, Laetare Sunday, and in the UK, Mothering Sunday.
Laetare Sunday? I didn't know what that meant either. "Seasons of the Spirit" curriculum says it "takes its name from the Latin word for rejoice, the opening word in the ancient introit for the fourth Sunday of Lent. (By the way, Seasons of the Spirit has a batch of really great liturgical and preaching material for every Sunday in the year. This is in the "Congregational Life" packet. Check it out.)

Joshua 5:9-12 - Manna, an occasional quail, and water may have been a life-saving diet in the desert, but the Israelites were a bit sick of that limited menu.
Winners get to write history. European adventurers came to North America and displaced the aboriginal peoples. The Israelites came to Canaan and displaced the tribes already there. Both the Europeans and the Israelites shaped the story to validate their own actions.
For the Israelites, entry into Canaan was a release from the emergency rations of the desert, from homelessness, from the shame of slavery. They saw their past as punishment for sin, for having turned away from God. Coming into Canaan was a sign that God had forgiven them.
The Canaanite tribes might have wondered what sin they were being punished for.

Psalm 32 - paraphrased by Jim Taylor
1 Happy are those who have nothing to hide;
2 Even happier are those whose slate has been wiped clean.
3 I used to lie awake worrying about what I had done.
4 My conscience tormented me. I couldn't concentrate.
I was terrified of being exposed.
5 So I went to God, and confessed.
I made no excuses for myself; I didn't hide anything.
6 And God forgave me.
What a relief it is to share a gnawing secret!
7 Forgiveness is like a cool drink on a hot day,
like a warm fire in a blizzard.
God's grace renews my strength;
it gives me a second chance.
8 God says, "I will teach you how to take charge of your behavior.
9 You are not like horses and camels;
they need bridles and bits to control them.
10 You have a mind; you can think.
You can anticipate consequences before you act."
11 Experience isn't always the best teacher.
Let God coach you through life.
From: Everyday Psalms
Wood Lake Books.
For details, go to www.woodlakebooks.com

2 Corinthians 5:16-21 - Reconciliation. I think it was Abe Lincoln who said he got rid of his enemies by turning them into friends. So much of our social reality and almost all our legal systems are based on the adversarial models. We defeat those with whom we disagree.
On the TV last night an ad for Ford trucks said the vehicle made it possible for you to "kick butt." That's only a symptom of a fundamental value that runs through our social fabric.
Yes, I know there are times and occasions when the only solution is defeat of the enemy. But that solution is often a cop-out - the easy and quick way to confront a problem. Beating up on an enemy is an admission of defeat.
Reconciliation takes time and patience, but in the long run, it's the only solution. My Mennonite forebears knew that when they proclaimed a doctrine of radical non-violence. Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. lived that.

Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32 - And this is Jesus' story about reconciliation. To my mind, there no better treatment of this parable than Henri Nouwen's "The Return of the Prodigal Son," (Doubleday). Nouwen suggests that in our spiritual journey, we must all see ourselves as the youngest son, the eldest son and the father.
Reading this book for about the third or fourth time, I had the same response. I had no trouble seeing myself as each of the two sons - the elder brother more than the younger - but I rebelled at the idea of identifying myself with the God figure in the father. That's way too heavy for me.
And yet! And yet! The older I get the more I realize that the reconciling ministry Paul talks about is nothing less than "playing God," even though every instinct and all our reason tells us to avoid that at all costs.
But, God help me, now I can't read this story any other way.

A great preaching resource is "Spirit's Sightings and Spirit Screenings," which is available to those who have purchased the "Congregational Life" packet of the "Seasons of the Spirit" curriculum. The password can be found in each biblical background page. It's a great worship resource for worship and CE leaders, especially if you use the lectionary. Also, Spirit Sightings are offered about eight times a year, helping to make connections between current films and the lectionary readings."

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Rumors - A couple of unsettling events this past week. On Tuesday, I fired off the text for "The Spirituality of Grandparenting" to Mike Swartzentruber, the editor at Wood Lake Books.
Yesterday, Margaret Kyle dropped off the page proofs for the first book in a three-volume series called "The Lectionary Story Bible." This will provide at least one, usually two and sometimes three stories based on the readings for each Sunday in the lectionary cycle.
Such events are always a battle between my sense of call and my insecurities. The idea that thousands of children will hear my interpretation of the scriptures has me almost traumatized when I read through those proofs, looking for errors, and a voice tells me over and over the best thing to do is to recycle the paper.
And what suddenly made me an expert on grandparenting, much less spirituality?
Some of my clergy friends tell me they have this kind of internal struggle every week. It's not a little self-serving exercise in false modesty. The struggle is genuine.
When I retired, I said I wasn't going to do any more books. "Been there. Done that." But here I go. Is it self serving compulsion? Is it God's call?
The answer of course, is "yes."
We dream the impossible dream. We reach for the unreachable star. (Man of La Mancha)
On top of my computer, I have a wonderful little metal sculpture of Don Quixote, with his silly little beard, his tin hat, his dented shield and his crooked spear. If I am going to be the father in the prodigal story, that will be my costume.
In that musical as in the book, Don Quixote is totally humiliated when he tries to use those weapons to fight windmills and real knights. But he sees the beautiful, the holy, the made-in-the-image-of-God person in the dirty rabble of a stinking prison. He sees a woman of virtue, beauty and power in a dirt-encrusted scullery maid.
And so the adventure continues. The call is loud and clear. Christ has given us this ministry of reconciliation - this call to the impossibility of acting, speaking, writing on behalf of a parent God whom we read about in an ancient story.
The thing is, I really wouldn't want it any other way.

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