Mark 3:20-35

Proper 5 (10)- Year B

 


Who is in and who is outside of family? This question continues in the political realm. We are determined to have a leader over us who will lead us into war unending and more taxes for the poor. Patriotism is the measure of family.

This question continues in the relational realm. We are determined to have internal secrets that heighten our fear to the point of one lie leading to a next. Your lie justifies my lie and mine, yours. Co-conspiracy is the measure of family.

This question continues in the relgious realm. We are determined to have it both ways - G*D's love is steadfast (enduring forever) and doubtful (do not forsake me). We cry to be heard even if all we have to say is confession, appealing for forgiveness with a claim it is for G*D's glory rather than our benefit. Justification is the measure of family.

This question continues in the realm of identity. We will continue to be who and what we are. If not in this world, we will claim it in eternity - never letting go. Pride and greed are measures of family.

This question continues in the realm of biology. We will choose to protect our own, blood being thicker than water. When one is in danger we will gather to rescue them from themselves. Genetics is the measure of family.

And then the questions get deeper. Who is my family beyond all our usual measures? Those who do not give up on hope of better than we have! This cuts across all political, religious, personal, and racial/cultural lines. Here we find common cause in families trying to hold on to the purity of appearances or the openness of new learning.

- - -

I give thanks with all my hearts
strung out with commitments
to you and you and you

voluntarily enslaved to you
my heart knows liberation
because of other commitments

so many families I already have
rubbing each other the wrong way
dividing and falling

so many families I dream of holding
creating dancing imagining
fertilizing each other as well

pray may our frictions
not bring burning heretics
but pentecost wonder sharing

my village of families
invites your village
to an easy evening

kings and slaves dissolve
creator and creation resolve
division questions salved

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_06_01_archive.html

 


 

When both friend and foe accuse you of being crazy, of having reached the point of “having made your point and now you are just hurting your cause”, you know you are on to something. A point has been reached where you are being unreasonable or that you have your finger on a very important transformational issue.

It is not easy to tell the difference between delusion and prophecy. Both fall prey to a need for internal consistency and defining oneself against others. Both are vulnerable to temptations to choose peer pressure over personal gift.

I hope you have had to make a choice as to whether you are crazy or if society or institution or family is the crazy one. This will mean that you have experience with the joy and frustration of living out being in the image of G*D. Every time there is shift in religious authority, decisions are being made that it is just crazy to continue to believe in some “god” and not crazy to believe in a different “god”. Now we can get down to something more important — what makes a “god” a “god”.

In Wisconsin tomorrow we have a state-wide vote on “god”. Whichever way it goes there has come a realization that we are in the midst of another opportunity to choose more of the same or to make a quantum, evolutionary leap, to a different “god”. Are the rich (“gods” in our culture) a motivating force for everyone to try to get rich, everyone being for themselves? Are the rich responsible for all that has allowed them to reach that state (the un-rich) and called to reintroduce potlatch? Is the financial economy the most important economy we have?

A divided state or nation or person won’t last (though they can cause plenty of pain). The pain they cause can be forgiven; the decision to break community goes beyond pain to an unbalancing of creation that will not be undone in their time.

And so a time of choice for Wisconsin voters and for you and for me. Who is birthing me and shaping me most? Who is my family? Which “god” or social construct will I commit to? Am I a creature of my past or my future and which is riskier?

Blessings on finding your family, your issue, your “wild-and-crazy-guy”ness.

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2012/06/mark-320-35.html