Pentecost IV - When I felt secure

Supreme Court Madness!

This week, Psalm 30 has it:

'When I felt secure, I said, "I shall never be disturbed:
you make me as strong as a mountain, O Lord."
Then you hid your face and I was filled with fear.'

Jesus says: be at peace, and be that peace as you proclaim it: for the kingdom of God (the reality of God) comes near us constantly. So, shake the dust (of inhospitableness to this proclamation of ultimate reality) from your sandals and continue on your way and in your own proclamation of this ultimate reality, secure in being held in the hand of God. Always.

It's not complex. We hear a fascinating old story tomorrow (Elisha healing Naaman, for those of you who want to read up) of a powerful man needing healing, and assuming that his powerful status required a complex solution. Nope. Just go bathe. And, perhaps wash off some of that arrogance, and the arrogance of those who are seeking to manipulate you (and all of us) in their own distrust and paranoia, says the prophet.

Surely, to 'save the Earth' -- to have peace with our neighbors, to protect the Colorado and Po rivers, to respect the dignity of every creature... -- must require incredibly complex thinking and solutioning. Hmm.

As I said last week, prophets in the Biblical tradition do not foretell the future. They interpret the present. And, specifically, they interpret the present to the powerful, who are often in the position of imagining that they bend The Present to their own ends and desires. Surely my ultimate healing requires a week at a spa in Davos and the latest in cryo-therapy? Surely solving various planetary food crises requires incredibly complex treaties and the heavy lift of those in the know?

There are heavy lifts, and a lot of work, and we are exhausted. Yes.

And, angry. And vulnerable. And, deeply, existentially sad. And frightened.

Then you hid your face, O Lord, and I was terrified.

'It' is simple, though. The kingdom of God and its righteousness constantly comes near you. Be aligned with its reality, rather than think we may exploit 'reality' (or materiality) to our own ends and short-term 'profitability.' The work -- existential, physical, emotional, contractual... -- comes as we seek to align with this basic, simple proclamation. It can be complex, and feel frightening.

Yet, let us place our faith where it may be safely received and proclaimed. Techno-utopias and policy lists of social engineering, as first steps or panaceas -- neither modality will entirely lift our species out of the mess we make constantly of the lives of others on this planet.

Be aligned first with the ultimate reality of divine, creating presence in and for the material things of this world; then all the work that needs to be done will become all the more clear, and the burdens a bit lighter -- for we do not will this existence into being solely on our own.

We all inherit the mantle of the prophets. Find that voice, and use it to proclaim truth, and healing. Sometimes, in the proclamation begins the healing. Interpret the present -- honestly, and to ourselves first. Then, go and proclaim. We shall see all the satans of this world fall like lightning, where this 'kingdom of God' and its righteousness/alignment is proclaimed. Daily.

It's pretty simple, in form: go bathe in the river. Go, heal the sick, and in these works of reconciliation proclaim the kingdom of God in our midst. This proclamation is real, and reorienting, and revealing. The list of 'the sick' may be extensive, but the strength comes in proclaiming the kingdom of God first - in your own consciousness, and in your body and words to those in your world(s).

Life in the Spirit is not the result of enacted lists of historically received righteous behaviors (from the last century or the previous millennium). Life in awareness of -- in communion, in alignment with -- the reality of God (the life of the Spirit, as Paul writes) is always a 'new creation'.

It is incredibly simple, this proclamation and realization. And, incredibly complex in its implications, lived out within the systems and devices and desires of our hearts, and our constant creating, we humans.

We inherit complexities. We are complexities. Yet, always we begin again, anew.

Come back, again, always, to the simplicity of the reality of divine presence in and for the making-new of all things, always. Our bodies, our relationships; the body of the Earth, and our relationships with all that pulse and pursue, live and die.

Take a deep breath. Receive a deep breath. And another. What a gift that proclamation is! Daily.

Seen from the perspective of this embodied realization (your body, my body, Earth's body) of the presence of God in all things (as the psalmist has it), we can not but see where our acts have led us astray in our arrogance and blindness, and where our acts may align with divine healing (making all things new, always) in this very life and on this very planet we share. They are unavoidable, obvious.

Neither the 'sin' nor the 'healing' is elsewhere or in another time, but are here - among us and within us and for us.

Go, bathe in the river. Be united with all that lives.
Go, heal and be healed. Align word and action with this renewal.
Go, speak truth and be truth. Maintain a certain innocence, even, as Jesus suggests -- it will help to re-orient you among the wolves.
And, don't worry if it feels lost, this 'innocence' -- there is always more of this presence. Come back to that well, draw living water, be refreshed.

Within the terms of the metaphor of the psalm, God's face is never hidden by God.

Our collective ability to perceive is clouded, intrinsically linked to our collective amorphous, constantly shifting desire to control our environment (psychological, emotional, ecological, economic...).

Healing takes many forms in our day, in our lives and relationships, in our collective human cultures and Earth's ecologies.

Yet, they all heal best when they are aligned first with the reorientation (collective, personal, species-wide) toward the still-radical proclamation that the kingdom of God is always coming near.

Look for it in word and story and neighbor.
Listen for it in silence. It continues. It is not absent.
And in speech and song of bird and beast and mountain and sea.
Be refreshed by and in it. Within you yet not contained or limited.
Learn to proclaim it with heart and voice and action and vote and bodies-in-the-street.

It is always a new creation, for the life of all that lives.